Welcome to ICYMI – a weekly snapshot of European news stories that have given me pause for thought. ICYMI is a chance for you to go beyond the front-page headlines and find out what other stories may be worthy of your attention.
At the start of the year, Tyto’s Relevance Index™ revealed that geopolitical issues and instability across the region were a key concern for many of Europe’s tech leaders. That certainly seems to have been the case, with great political upheaval across the region.
In the last week, François Bayrou has become France’s fourth prime minister this year, replacing Michael Barnier who was ousted from the role after only three months following a vote of no confidence.
The French parliament has been deeply divided since President Macron called a snap election in June, which resulted in no single party holding an absolute majority.
It is hoped that Bayrou, who is the leader of the centrist MoDem party will be able to unite the country, but first he has the unenviable task of having to convince parliament to pass a full budget for 2025.
Meanwhile in Germany, Olaf Scholz faces a confidence vote in parliament today after the so-called “traffic light” coalition collapsed. If he loses today’s historic vote, which appears quite likely, Germans could head to the polls in February.
A year of political change and a shift to the right
Ongoing disagreements between the Social Democrats, Greens, and Free Democrats have mired Germany’s government for the past three years, with things coming to a head in November when Scholz fired finance minister Christian Lindner, the leader of the Free Democrats, after he refused to approve a proposed budget.
Elsewhere in Germany, the country was shocked when far-right party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), won a plurality in the Thuringian state election, marking the first time such a party has won a state election in Germany since World War II.
Similarly, many Austrian voters were left in shock in September when the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), became the first far-right party to secure a national parliamentary election victory in Austria since the second world war, after tapping into public concerns relating to immigration, inflation, and Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Political turbulence has coincided with a shift to the right across Europe. Far-right parties made historic gains in Austria and Germany, while in the UK, Keir Starmer’s Labour Party won a landslide victory, ending 14 years of Conservative rule.
However, Starmer faces a delicate balancing act as the right-wing Reform Party picked up a large share of votes in the election, Starmer faces the daunting challenge of having to appease voters on the right while clearing up the economic mess left by the Tories and attempting to untangle the barriers to trade created by leaving the EU.
Innovation with limits: European firms face barriers to growth at home
Europe’s tech sector continued to grow in 2024 but faced considerable challenges around productivity, funding, and competition with the US, especially in fields like AI and quantum computing.
Despite thriving hubs in cities like London, Berlin, and Paris, European startups often struggle with a fragmented market and limited access to capital which hampers their ability to grow and keep up with the pace of innovation elsewhere.
Raising money remains a key hurdle across the region. While European scale-ups are set to secure $45 billion in new funding this year, this is not nearly enough and is not evenly distributed, with female-led teams securing less than 5% of all funding.
Many European scale-ups turn to the US to raise funds and pursue public listings, as American markets offer deeper capital pools and more favourable conditions for growth. This reliance on US investment has raised concerns across the continent about a “brain drain,” where Europe’s most promising companies, talent, and innovation are shifting across the Atlantic.
Now with Trump returning to power, there are fears that Europe’s tech ecosystem could find itself outside in the cold, as the US adopts more “America-first” policies.
Business leaders flock to LinkedIn and Bluesky, as the X-odus continues
With ethical concerns prompting a growing number of publications, organisations, and people to turn their back on the social network formerly known as Twitter, LinkedIn and Bluesky have been among the big winners to benefit from the so-called X-odus.
Last month, more than 100,000 people closed their X accounts in a single day, with many making the move over to Bluesky, the social network started by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. While it is slowly growing, it remains to be seen whether it can compete with X, Threads and other social media heavyweights. Perhaps we’ll find out in 2025?
LinkedIn has also continued to garner attention, as a top platform for business leaders. Just recently, the Tyto Tech 500 revealed an 26% increase in influential business leaders harnessing the power of online platforms like LinkedIn to reach audiences online.
This is a trend that we are seeing across Europe, with new figures this week showing that the number of senior executives actively using LinkedIn in the Netherlands has grown by 39% over the past five years, outpacing many other countries. Likewise, earlier this year, the FT reported that there has been a 30% rise in the presence of C-suite executives on the platform, with business leaders using it to build trust and showcase authenticity.
Interestingly, the research also shows that their content gets four times more engagement than other content from LinkedIn members. While Social Insider data shows that posts published on personal profiles receive up to 561% more interaction than company page posts.
These trends highlight the growing importance of personal branding for industry leaders. As we head into 2025, PR and marketing teams cannot afford to ignore the opportunity to harness the power of executives’ voices to build audiences and influence customers and stakeholders on social media and across other channels and mediums.
This is the final ICYMI of the year but fear not – we’ll continue to keep our finger on the pulse of European news stories and will be back in January with more insights and analysis on the stories that matter most to tech firms and communication teams.
