Europe

Spain’s national football team celebrated their World Cup victory with an open-top bus parade through Madrid, drawing over one million supporters. Celebrations featured jubilant fans chanting and displaying mobile phones, as players raised the trophy, marking Spain’s return home after 16 years since their last win.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz indicated a possible government reshuffle following the resignation of CDU parliamentary leader Jens Spahn. Merz aims to announce Spahn’s successor by month-end, amid growing pressure from key state elections. Chancellery Minister Thorsten Frei is a leading candidate for the role.

“Perhaps, if one is permitted to draw a lesson at such a dramatic moment, his excess of programmatic Europeanism, coupled with a lack of pragmatic Europeanism, has ultimately turned against him. If he had succeeded in realising at least some of the projects he announced, if he had really dared to share with his allies the military and nuclear supremacy he wields in Europe, France and Europe themselves would not be reduced to this pitiful state today.”

“Interest rates would rise. The financial markets are worried about France. They don’t know which way our country is headed. … France’s attractiveness would decline. In recent years, since 2015, France has become more attractive to foreign investors. … But since the dissolution of parliament, investors have been asking themselves: should they invest elsewhere? Should they wait and see if France remains hospitable? Some projects have already been cancelled, others have been scaled back or postponed. The fall of the Barnier government would only fuel this spiral of mistrust.”

“The appointment of a new prime minister and a new government would significantly curb Marine Le Pen’s party’s influence. Right now, everyone realises that the future of the government lies in her hands, since it can only stay in power thanks to her goodwill. She is playing this card well by raising the stakes. If a new government is appointed in the near future, whether on a joint (undoubtedly more left-wing) basis or as a ‘technical’ government, her influence would be severely limited, if not reduced to zero.”

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