The Economist Continental Europe Edition June 11, 2022

Politics Battling the fallout from parties held at Downing Street during covid-19 lockdowns, Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, won a snap no-confidence vote among Conservative MPs. But more than 40% of his own MPs voted against him, severely denting his authority. The party’s rules prevent another formal challenge to Mr Johnson’s leadership for a year. But Mr Johnson’s opponents note that his support was weaker than that accorded Theresa May in a similar vote in 2018, as her premiership floundered. Six months later, she quit. Sweden’s governing Social Democrats won what was in effect a no-confidence vote, but only by securing the co-operation of an independent MP of Kurdish descent by reaffirming their support for a Kurdish group in Syria. That further complicates relations with Turkey, which has said it will block…

Politics Battling the fallout from parties held at Downing Street during covid-19 lockdowns, Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, won a snap no-confidence vote among Conservative MPs. But more than 40% of his own MPs voted against him, severely denting his authority. The party’s rules prevent another formal challenge to Mr Johnson’s leadership for a year. But Mr Johnson’s opponents note that his support was weaker than that accorded Theresa May in a similar vote in 2018, as her premiership floundered. Six months later, she quit. Sweden’s governing Social Democrats won what was in effect a no-confidence vote, but only by securing the co-operation of an independent MP of Kurdish descent by reaffirming their support for a Kurdish group in Syria. That further complicates relations with Turkey, which has said it…

CONSERVATIVE MPS’ half-hearted vote to endorse Boris Johnson as prime minister, on June 6th, betrayed how deeply Britain’s ruling party fails to confront hard choices. A defeat for Mr Johnson would have ushered in a new government, with a chance to prove itself before the next election. A resounding victory would have given him a fresh mandate to show that he had put his transgressions behind him. The irresolute blow the rebels inflicted leaves Britain in the hands of a washed-up cabinet mouthing grandiloquent promises it cannot honour. This newspaper has long argued that Mr Johnson ought to have resigned for lying repeatedly to Parliament about whether he broke his own laws. But hypocrisy and deceit do not begin to capture the wider problem that he and his country face. Britain…

THE ESSENCE of what happened on January 6th 2021 is wellknown, if still shocking to recall. A mob stormed the Capitol in Washington, DC, in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory. Four people in the crowd died that day, and five police officers in its aftermath. Members of Congress had to be rushed to a secure location in a basement. Rioters erected a mock gallows and chanted “Hang Mike Pence”. And the man who inspired all this was the president himself, who had urged his followers to help overturn his election defeat. As the Republicans’ leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, told the Senate a few weeks later, Donald Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for these events: “The people who stormed this building believed…

CONSERVATIVE MPS’ half-hearted vote to endorse Boris Johnson as prime minister, on June 6th, betrayed how deeply Britain’s ruling party fails to confront hard choices. A defeat for Mr Johnson would have ushered in a new government, with a chance to prove itself before the next election. A resounding victory would have given him a fresh mandate to show that he had put his transgressions behind him. The irresolute blow the rebels inflicted leaves Britain in the hands of a washed-up cabinet mouthing grandiloquent promises it cannot honour. This newspaper has long argued that Mr Johnson ought to have resigned for lying repeatedly to Parliament about whether he broke his own laws. But hypocrisy and deceit do not begin to capture the wider problem that he and his country face.…

THE ESSENCE of what happened on January 6th 2021 is wellknown, if still shocking to recall. A mob stormed the Capitol in Washington, DC, in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory. Four people in the crowd died that day, and five police officers in its aftermath. Members of Congress had to be rushed to a secure location in a basement. Rioters erected a mock gallows and chanted “Hang Mike Pence”. And the man who inspired all this was the president himself, who had urged his followers to help overturn his election defeat. As the Republicans’ leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, told the Senate a few weeks later, Donald Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for these events: “The people who stormed this building believed…