Over the past few weeks, I've noticed something remarkable.
Europeans can disagree on almost anything. Politics, economics, football, foreign policy, which country has the best food, and whether pineapple belongs on pizza.
Yet lately, from Lisbon to Warsaw, from Dublin to Athens, everyone seems to agree on one thing:
it's absolutely boiling.
Here in Malta, we're used to summer. We practically export sunshine as a national resource. But even by Mediterranean standards, this heatwave has been relentless.
Looking around Europe, it seems nobody has been spared. Italy appears to be conducting a scientific experiment to determine whether humans can survive inside a wood-fired oven. Spain is once again competing with the surface of the Sun. France is sweating elegantly. Germany is probably trying to organise the heat into a timetable. And somewhere in the Balkans, someone is insisting that this is "not even that hot."
For perhaps the first time in European history, the weather has achieved something diplomacy never could:
it has given all of us exactly the same conversation starter.
So I'm curious.
How are things where you are?
Has your country discovered some secret technique for surviving the heat? Have your citizens migrated en masse to beaches and lakes? Is everyone living in front of a fan? Or have you simply accepted that every movement now requires a five-minute recovery period?
Share your stories, your temperatures, your complaints, and most importantly, your survival tips.
Because if this heatwave continues much longer, Malta may be forced to open diplomatic relations with the nearest iceberg.