Nigel Farage’s insurgent anti-immigration party, Reform U.K., scored a significant, if narrow, victory Friday in a parliamentary special election in the northwest of England, serving notice that Mr. Farage, a populist fixture and close ally of President Trump, is again a rising force in British politics. Reform’s candidate, Sarah Pochin, won by a razor-thin margin…
Local elections taking place in England on Thursday are the first major test of the political climate since Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Labour Party swept to power in a landslide victory last year. A lot has changed since then. With the economy flatlining and the government slumping in opinion polls, Reform U.K., the…
The pulsing beat of a dance track grew to a thunderous pitch and the crowd rose to its feet. Beams of light flashed across the cavernous arena in Birmingham, central England. Then, at last, Nigel Farage, the right-wing populist leader who claims he can fix a “broken Britain,” arrived onstage, hitching a ride on a…
Though Canada’s election began in earnest only late last month, public opinion polls have captured a gripping political narrative that has been unfolding since the start of the year. Between President Trump’s trade war, his threats of annexation and the resignation of Canada’s last prime minister, a lot happened in the run-up to this race…
“FREE MARINE LE PEN!” With this blunt call, a strange one in that the French far-right leader is walking the streets of Paris, President Trump has waded into the politics of an ally, condemning her conviction this week on embezzlement charges and her disqualification from running for public office. The conviction was “another example of…
And I’m open for business on a fourth theory, or more. Douthat: First, I would stress that Trump is not terribly popular, and undoubtedly will become less so if the stock market trends down and recession fears mount. He has a commanding position within his party, but even at his apotheosis his approval ratings barely…
Americans are making too many solo dinner reservations. That was one takeaway from the annual World Happiness Report, which was released on Thursday and showed that the United States had dipped to its lowest slot in the country rankings — 24th — after being ranked as high as 11th in 2012, the first year of…
Germany’s centrist politicians are losing votes to the far right and the far left. They are losing faith in America, their longtime friend and protector. And they are rapidly losing what could be their best chance to address both those problems at once. The German government in waiting, led by the likely next chancellor, Friedrich…
In the weeks after President Emmanuel Macron called a snap election last summer that resulted in a deeply divided French Parliament, if his name came up it was often to call for his resignation. The unpopular president, long derided by critics as aloof, all-controlling and arrogant, looked certain to ride out the final three years…
Claudia Sheinbaum, the president of Mexico, stood underneath a giant Mexican flag and before troops at a military installation in Mexico City. It was Flag Day last month and she used her speech as an opportunity to, figuratively and literally, rally around it. “Mexico must be respected,” she said, adding later: “Its people are brave….