Billionaire Andrej Babis's ANO party cruised to victory in the Czech Republic's parliamentary election on Saturday, raising the prospect of a government that would boost Europe's populist, anti-immigration camp and reduce support for Ukraine.
An ebullient Babis told supporters that ANO would seek a one-party cabinet but would talk with two small parties -- including the far-right SPD -- for support as his party will lack an outright majority.
He again rejected accusations that his win would make the central European nation a less reliable European Union and NATO partner.
"We want to save Europe ... and we are clearly pro-European and pro-NATO," Babis told reporters.
With nearly all results in, ANO was set to replace the current center-right cabinet led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala. Fiala congratulated Babis and conceded defeat.
ANO promised faster growth, higher wages and pensions, and lower taxes and tax discounts for students and young families during the campaign.
In basket-case France, Emmanuel Macron persists as President despite not having a majority of support in the National Assembly (and not having that support for years).
He just appointed another hopeless PM to attempt to govern with minority support, and that idiot has been forced to resign after a reign of twenty-seven days.
Lecornu, France's fifth PM in less than two years, had been tasked with convincing the country -- and investors -- that he can get a 2026 budget over the line.
He was installed in early September against a backdrop of public unrest and dissatisfaction over the messy state of French affairs.
Several successive governments had failed to pass budgets detailing spending cuts and tax rises.
France's new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has resigned just weeks after his appointment, plunging the country into a fresh political crisis.
Lecornu, France's fifth PM in less than two years, quit just hours after naming a new cabinet on Sunday.
Speaking after the resignation, Lecornu said "each political party is behaving as if they have their own majority in parliament" and that the "conditions were not fulfilled" to stay in office, according to comments translated by France 24.
"I was ready to compromise, but each political party wanted the other political party to adopt its entire program," he said in a speech in the courtyard of Matignon Palace, the PM's headquarters, France 24 reported.
He now departs the role after just 27 days, making him the country's shortest-serving prime minister with little to show for his time in office.
...
The right-wing National Rally posted on social media platform X that "Macronism is dead on its feet," saying the president had to choose to "dissolve parliament or resign, and quickly!"
Jean-Luc Melanchon of the far-left France Unbowed party went further, calling for Macron to be impeached. "Following the resignation of Sebastien Lecornu, we call for the immediate consideration of the motion tabled by 104 MPs for the impeachment of Emmanuel Macron," Melenchon wrote on X.
I read that Macron, who pretends to not be a leftist (note CNBC's curious insistence that he's "center-right") will finally forge a full alliance with France's left, and note that in France, the "left" means "the communists." He'll appoint a communist as PM.
Anything to avoid making a deal with Marine LePen on the invasion of third-world barbarians.