Closing summary
… and on that note, it’s a wrap!
French prime minister François Bayrou has been ousted in a confidence vote after only nine months in office (19:00), collapsing his minority government and plunging France into a political crisis (19:03, 19:12)
Bayrou will hand his resignation to Emmanuel Macron, his longterm centrist ally, on Tuesday morning (19:10), with the president expected to name his successor “in the coming days” (19:38, 19:51).
The decision comes after a turbulent parliament sitting, with opposition lawmakers blaming Macron’s political choices and Bayrou’s unwillingness to engage with their criticism for deepening the crisis, just days ahead of a “Block Everything” protest in France (14:06, 15:52, 16:12, 17:29, 17:38, 17:42, 18:01).
In his speech, Bayrou argued that France needed to face dramatic reforms on debt (15:15) and reinvent its social model (15:10) to reverse the trend of “getting poorer a little more” every year and renew the French social contract with future generations (15:24, 15:28).
Separately, Marine Le Pen’s appeal against a conviction of misappropriating EU funds will be heard in January next year, a Paris court decided (14:31).
Elsewhere,
The Norwegian Labour party looked likely to remain in government as polls closed on Monday night, as preliminary results showed the centre-left had a narrow lead after a polarised election that saw a surge of support for the populist right (21:03, 21:05, 21:14, 21:16, 21:18, 21:23, 21:32, 22:20).
The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has warned that Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “imperialist plan wouldn’t end with the conquest of Ukraine but would rather be just the start” (14:57).
EU diplomats have been briefing journalists that the European Commission is expected to propose a 19th package of sanctions against Russia by Friday (14:58).
And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at [email protected].
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
Norway’s Labour party holds narrow lead in early election results - first story
Nordic correspondent
The Norwegian Labour party looked likely to remain in government as polls closed on Monday night, as preliminary results showed the centre-left had a narrow lead after a polarised election that saw a surge of support for the populist right.
With 75% of the vote counted, state broadcaster NRK projected the centre left would win with 89 seats and that the centre right would take 80 seats. A minimum of 85 seats are needed for a majority.
“It’s very close, but the centre-left is in the lead,” Johannes Bergh, the research director and principal investigator at the Norwegian national election studies programme at the Institute for Social Research, said after polls closed at 9pm local time. But, he added: “The Progress party is doing very well.”
According to forecasts, Labour, led by the prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, had clearly emerged as the largest party, but they also showed a big swell in support for the populist Progress party, which was projected to have doubled in size in the last four years.
