Politics

Bloomberg A record number of Britons took German citizenship in 2016 as the UK voted to leave the European Union, according to the German Federal Statistics Office. German authorities granted citizenship to 2,865 UK nationals last year, compared with about 600 in 2015, the agency said in a statement Tuesday. Only 3.9 percent of Britons who have lived in Germany ...

Bloomberg German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that the UK would be welcomed back to the European Union if the British decided they no longer wanted to quit the bloc. In his first public comments on the matter since the U.K. election, Schaeuble said that “it’s up the British government to take their own decisions” on Brexit. He said he ...

Bloomberg Helen Zille, the former leader of South Africa’s main opposition Democratic Alliance, will remain as premier of the Western Cape province after giving a public apology for tweets that appeared to defend colonialism. Zille will be excluded from all party structures and the DA will control her communications, including her use of social media, DA leader Mmusi Maimane told ...

Bloomberg Panama is opening diplomatic relations with China, the latest blow to Taiwan as Beijing’s leaders seek to isolate the self-governed island. Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela announced the move in a national address. China is the second-biggest user of the Panama Canal and has played a key role in sectors from banking to telecommunications, he said, adding that Taiwan ...

Bloomberg Most of the hundreds detained at Monday’s anti-Kremlin protests in Moscow were released overnight, while opposition leader Alexey Navalny was sentenced to 30 days for his role in organizing the unsanctioned rally. Of the more than 800 people detained in Moscow, at least 32 were still being held at 4 a.m. local time, according to OVD-Info, a group that ...

Bloomberg Finland’s Prime Minister Juha Sipila could face a tight squeeze to avoid a snap election after the biggest opposition parties quickly ruled out giving him any help in the current political impasse. Sipila put a new election into play on Monday after he and the National Coalition dumped their junior coalition partner, The Finns, in a bid to find ...

Bloomberg President Emmanuel Macron expanded his control of French politics as voters put his party on track to a sweeping majority in the National Assembly in the first round of legislative elections, ousting establishment stalwarts in the process. The new president’s year-old party, Republic on the Move, won 32.3 percent of the vote alongside its centrist ally MoDem, more than ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Juha Sipila moved to dissolve the three-party ruling coalition after junior partner The Finns was taken over by its anti-immigrant wing, throwing into doubt the next steps in a process that has helped Finland battle back from an economic slump. The Finns’ shift to the right over the weekend was too much to stomach for Sipila’s Center ...

Bloomberg Italy’s opposition Five Star Movement suffered heavy setbacks in local elections on Sunday, dimming the party’s prospects of leading the national government after parliamentary elections next year. Five Star, led by former comedian Beppe Grillo, failed to make it to the second round of voting in Genoa, Palermo, Parma and Verona, according to projections. Centrist-oriented parties fared better in ...

Bloomberg Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was detained by police outside his apartment in southern Moscow after calling on supporters to mount an unsanctioned protest near the Kremlin, his supporters said. Presidential hopeful Navalny had announced rallies against official corruption on Monday, the Russia Day holiday, and protesters gathered in numerous other cities. In Moscow, Navalny called on supporters to ...