Politics

Bloomberg Germany is ready to challenge any attempt by Italy’s populist government to flout European Union regulations or seek special treatment from the bloc. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was among the first to congratulate her Italian counterpart, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, but if necessary she is prepared to make clear to the new government in Rome that it must stick ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s nationalists are cementing their support at near 20 percent as the country heads for an election in September that is all but certain to end in gridlock. The anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats (SD) were backed by 18.5 percent of potential voters, up 5.6 percentage points from the election in 2014, a watched biannual poll from the country’s statistics office ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Germany ignited a fresh political furor after telling news website Breitbart he wants to “empower” conservative forces across Europe, compounding already tense trans-Atlantic relations. Germany’s Foreign Ministry said it will seek a clarification over the comments by US Ambassador Richard Grenell when he meets a deputy foreign minister on Wednesday. Grenell said in an ...

Bloomberg Special Counsel Robert Mueller accused Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, of attempting to tamper with witnesses in the federal case charging him with money laundering and acting as an unregistered foreign agent of Ukraine. Manafort and a longtime associate tried to contact two witnesses to secure false testimony about work that a group ...

Bloomberg Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is looking to defend himself against claims he’ll be too generous to Catalan separatists with his first appointments. Foreign Minister-Designate Josep Borrell was one of the most high-profile defenders of Spanish unity during last year’s crisis and as a Catalan has particular authority to tackle the separatists’ arguments. The 71-year-old will also be in ...

Bloomberg Three days after being sworn in, Italy’s new populist government is preparing for one final hurdle before it sets about trying to overhaul European Union rules and the established order: a confidence vote in both houses of parliament. Parliamentary approval will be sought this week for the 18-member cabinet of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, a 53-year-old law professor with ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump and Special Counsel Robert Mueller may be headed towards a Supreme Court battle that could test once and for all how much a president is above the law. Trump’s legal team and Mueller’s prosecutors have been jockeying over a presidential subpoena after months of negotiations have yet to bring them to an agreement over terms of an ...

Bloomberg A populist former prime minister won Slovenia’s elections, yet rivals who united against his anti-refugee rhetoric vowed to block him from government. Janez Jansa’s Slovenian Democratic Party, whose campaign echoed the one that lifted nationalists to power in neighboring Italy, won a quarter of the vote, the State Election Commission said. In second place was the List of Marjan ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Theresa May’s government is preparing to publish its plan to keep the UK under European Union customs rules for longer as it seeks to break the Brexit deadlock, people familiar with the matter said. British negotiators expect to send the EU a document this week setting out how May imagines a time-limited extension to existing customs arrangements ...

Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron’s chief of staff Alexis Kohler is under investigation for his dealings with MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co. when he was working for the previous government before being head-hunted to became the Geneva-based firm’s chief financial officer in 2016. France’s financial prosecutor, known as the Parquet National Financier, said it opened the probe following news reports alleging ...