Closing summary
… and on that note, it’s a wrap!
Carlos Mazón, the embattled president of the eastern Spanish region of Valencia, has bowed to public fury and political pressure by resigning over his botched handling of the deadly floods that killed 229 people in the area just over a year ago (9:45).
Resigning his post, Mazón said “I can’t go on any more” as he lamented “brutal” criticism he faced, while “acknowledging” mistakes made in an “unprecedented” situation (9:50)
But campaigners for victims of the flood criticised his speech as “painful, indignant,” and accused him of making himself out to be the victim (11:35), and called for more protests tonight (12:24).
Separately,
Andrej Babiš, the billionaire populist whose party won last month’s Czech election, has presented his three-party, right-wing coalition today amid deepening controversy over a ministerial pick that could derail the government even before it even takes office (13:13).
Belgium’s defence minister says its military has spotted drones over a base for the third night in a row (15:21).
Germany’s foreign minister, Johann Wadephul of the co-ruling Christian Democrats (CDU), made waves with comments signalling a softer position on returns of Syrians who arrived during the 2015-16 influx than espoused by much of the government (13:06).
A centuries-old tower near the Colosseum in Rome has partially collapsed this morning, injuring workers working on its restoration (15:18).
Latvian president has sent back to parliament the draft law on withdrawing from the Council of Europe convention on violence against women (16:22).
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.
The Nord Stream riddle: echoes of mistrust ripple through Europe
Shaun Walker in Warsaw and Deborah Cole in Berlin
Chunky steel pipes run through one of the exhibition rooms at Warsaw’s Museum of Contemporary Art, part of an installation that purports to show “how gas flows, propaganda and conspiracy theories intertwine”.
The exhibit is an artistic nod to Nord Stream 2, the undersea gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, which was completed in 2021 but had not entered service when mysterious underwater explosions took it out of action in September 2022.
The pipeline has caused anger and anxiety in Poland ever since construction began in 2015, serving as a symbol of Germany’s close economic cooperation with Russia, a policy that was abandoned after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Now, three years after the blast that took Nord Stream 2 and its predecessor Nord Stream 1 out of commission, the ill-fated project is again causing sharp divisions among European allies after Poland refused to extradite a prime suspect in the explosion to Germany earlier this month.
In the aftermath of the ruling, the German government has sought to play down the affair and withheld public comment. “We have taken note of it,” said Stefan Kornelius, chancellor Friedrich Merz’s spokesperson.
Nevertheless, the rejection of the extradition request is highly unusual between EU member states, said Kai Ambos, a law professor at the University of Göttingen, who questioned the “non-legal reasoning and the almost political ingredients” of the judge’s decision.
