Europe | Grand schemes

Donald Tusk mulls which of the previous government’s plans to axe

The Polish populists’ projects were often preposterous, but not always

Artists impression for the Solidarity Transport Hub.
Photograph: Solidarity Transport Hub
|Podoryszew

ELZBIETA ZIMMERMANN fears her barn will collapse. She has put off repairs since 2017, when she heard that the government would build a mega-airport on the site of her farm in Podoryszew, 50km west of Warsaw. The project has been put on ice since Poland’s populist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which championed it, was voted out in late 2023. PiS’s centre-right successors have promised more fiscal responsibility. But scrapping mega-projects means sunk costs and dashed hopes.

Explore more

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Grand schemes”

From the May 4th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition
Parents hold portrait of their son killed in Russian missile strike near a makeshift memorial on a playground.

Russia continues to rain down death on Ukrainian cities

Soldiers can hold the line, but drones and missiles are killing civilians

Illustration of the statue of liberty sailing off on a boat with the EU flag on it, her plinth is in the foreground with a notice pinned on it that says gone to Europe

The thing about Europe: it’s the actual land of the free now

Europe’s very real problems don’t look so bad by comparison


Two members of Salvamento Maritimo lift one of the corpses found in a dinghy

Spanish morgues are straining to identify migrants

For those who drown trying to reach Europe, the freezers are full


Turkey’s government is trying to repress its way out of a crisis

Protests against the arrest of an opposition leader continue to boil

Germany’s new centrist government is reassuring but bland

Friedrich Merz’s promises to transform the country have been scaled back

The EU’s response to Donald Trump’s tariffs seems to work

The world’s biggest trade bloc takes its time and uses its weight