Wall Street Journal: “Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen led her party to its worst election in more than 120 years on Tuesday, a vote that forces one of Europe’s most prominent leaders into difficult negotiations to secure a third term. ”

“The Social Democrats received roughly 22% of the vote, down from 27.5% in 2022, their worst result since 1903. The party is still Denmark’s largest, and Frederiksen may retain power, but she falls short of being able to form a center-left coalition.”

“Frederiksen said seven years in government had worn on her party’s popularity.”

Bloomberg: “Italy’s prime minister is something of a model for far-right contenders in Europe, where she serves as an example of how a rabble-rousing provocateur can successfully transition to the mainstream.”

“Now she’s suffered defeat — in a referendum of her own making on a judicial overhaul few Italians understood. It became a plebiscite on her, exposing her over-confidence a year ahead of a general election she was looking to win to lay down her legacy.”

Isaac Stanley-Becker: “A decade ago, Trump’s election seemed to open a trapdoor in democracy and reveal a realistic path to power for populist movements all over the world. Globalization was showing its ugly side, and voters were noticing. International institutions were creaking under the weight of mass migration; in their place, nationalism seemed poised for a comeback. People like Messerschmidt, but also Marine Le Pen in France and Alice Weidel in Germany, looked at America and thought, It can happen here. To speed the process, they even adopted Trump’s language: woke, witch hunt, fake news.”

“These same politicians are now distancing themselves from Trump.”

Bloomberg: “Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is on track to narrowly lose a national referendum to overhaul Italy’s judicial system, which has become a vote on the leader herself.”

“About 54.4% of Italians voted ‘No,’ rejecting Meloni’s reform, according the Italian interior ministry, with 20% of the ballots counted. About 45.6% voted ‘Yes.'”

President Trump reiterated his “complete and total endorsement” of Viktor Orbán in the Hungarian elections, Politico reports.

Trump praised Hungary’s “strong borders” and said the country will continue to “work very hard on immigration,” and said Europe has to “work very hard” to solve “a lot of problems” around immigration.

“For more than three years, Giorgia Meloni, the first female prime minister of Italy, has led one of the nation’s most stable governments, keeping her coalition intact for longer than all but two of her postwar predecessors,” the New York Times reports.

“Yet this week, she faces a rare threat to her authority in the form of a tightly fought referendum being held on Sunday and Monday that polls suggest Ms. Meloni may struggle to win. The prime minister is seeking support for proposed changes to Italy’s Constitution that are so complicated, hardly anyone completely understands them.”

“Instead, voters may end up treating the polls as a referendum on the prime minister herself.”

“France’s municipal elections, which began last week and end on Sunday, are being scrutinized for what they may presage for the country’s presidential elections next year,” the New York Times reports.

“Among the big questions is whether France is on the cusp of a populist, far-right wave like those that swept Argentina, Italy and the United States in recent years. The answer, pending a second round of votes, is a definite maybe.”

“In the run-up to Hungary’s pivotal election in April, a unit of Russia’s foreign intelligence service last month began sounding the alarm over plummeting public support for Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose friendly ties to Moscow have long given the Kremlin a strategic foothold inside NATO and the European Union,” the Washington Post reports.

“Officers from the intelligence service, or SVR, suggested that drastic action might be necessary — a strategy they called ‘the Gamechanger.’ In an internal report for the SVR… the operatives proposed a way to ‘fundamentally alter the entire paradigm of the election campaign’ — ‘the staging of an assassination attempt on Viktor Orban.’”

The Statesman: “North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has secured an overwhelming victory in the country’s latest Parliamentary Elections, with state-backed candidates winning virtually every vote and seat.”

“The polls saw an official turnout of 99.99 per cent, with the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea and its allies claiming 99.93 per cent of the vote in elections to the 15th Supreme People’s Assembly.”

“The French far right’s steady ascent cleared another milestone yesterday as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally posted its best-ever results in the first round of municipal elections seen as a test of its presidential ambitions,” France24 reports.

“A surpise guest appeared at a recent campaign rally for Viktor Orban’s party in eastern Hungary: a Ukrainian prisoner of war freed from Moscow’s captivity,” Bloomberg reports.

“How he got there illustrates the way in which Russian President Vladimir Putin has tried to help the Hungarian prime minister survive next month’s election.”

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro is narrowing his gap with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil’s looming election, with a new poll showing both effectively tied in a potential runoff vote, Bloomberg reports.

“In a resounding affirmation of Gen Z’s power to overthrow the political old guard, Nepali voters have handed a commanding majority to a party headlined by a 35-year-old ex-rapper,” the New York Times reports.

“Partial results of the election released on Sunday gave the party of Balendra Shah, the onetime rap artist and former mayor of the country’s capital, Kathmandu, 100 out of 165 directly elected parliamentary seats. It is shaping up to be the biggest landslide in Nepal’s modern electoral history.”

“Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is facing the toughest election of his 16-year rule, and U.S. President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement are mobilizing to help him,” Politico reports.

“Polls suggest the Hungarian leader is currently trailing his former ally-turned-challenger Péter Magyar, who has capitalized on voter frustration over record inflation, economic malaise and a string of political scandals. With Orbán’s dominance suddenly in question, Trump’s administration and leading MAGA figures have moved to bolster the man they regard as their most dependable ideological ally in Europe.”

“Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called an early election for March 24, betting a popularity boost from a standoff with Donald Trump over Greenland will help secure her another term in office,” Bloomberg reports.

“Peru’s congress on Tuesday voted to oust the nation’s president, José Jerí, extending years of political upheaval in one of the world’s most important exporters of essential minerals,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“President Donald Trump would provide assistance if Hungary ever ran into financial trouble under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, giving an extraordinary endorsement to the long-time leader ahead of an election in April,” Bloomberg reports.

Financial Times: Marco Rubio says Viktor Orbán’s leadership is “essential” to U.S. interests.

“Last summer, Japan’s long-dominant political force, the Liberal Democratic Party, faced an existential crisis. Plagued by scandal, it had suffered a series of electoral defeats so devastating that its leader, Japan’s prime minister, was forced to resign,” the New York Times reports.

“Then, just as the political obituaries were being written, the Liberal Democrats found a savior: Sanae Takaichi, a veteran conservative lawmaker who in October became the first woman to serve as Japan’s prime minister.”

“Ms. Takaichi, 64, spoke plainly and energetically — sometimes with Trumpian flourishes — about immigration, taxes and the high cost of living. She had a knack for connecting with young people: quoting lines from manga, raving about the Hanshin Tigers baseball team and the hard rock band B’z, and speaking candidly about the stresses of choosing her wardrobe when she took her place on the global stage.”

“On Sunday, only 110 days into her tenure, Ms. Takaichi achieved what had seemed impossible only a few months ago: the biggest electoral victory in the L.D.P.’s 71-year history.”