Bloomberg: “On Sunday, Switzerland will vote on whether to limit the number of residents to 10 million people in 2050, from 9.1 million currently. Polls predict a close outcome on the measure, which right-wing campaigners initiated to force the government to rein in immigration.”

Bloomberg: “President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva widened his lead over Senator Flávio Bolsonaro after the challenger was embroiled in a corruption scandal and the US increased pressure on Brazil ahead of October’s election, a new poll showed.”

“Lula would win 44% of the vote in a runoff against Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, compared with 38% for the senator, according to a Genial/Quaest survey published Wednesday.”

New York Times: “It would have seemed hard to imagine a few months ago that residents of Ashton-in-Makerfield, a former coal mining town in the north of England, might play a central role in toppling Britain’s prime minister.”

“Yet that possibility was on just about everyone’s mind last week at the town’s main coffee shop, down the road from a sports club where Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, had set up campaign headquarters for his shot at a seat in Parliament.”

“If he wins a June 18 special election, Mr. Burnham is expected to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the leadership of the governing Labour Party and the country. Mr. Starmer is so unpopular that many of the town’s residents believe Mr. Burnham would have little trouble defeating him in an intraparty contest, which would also transfer control of Downing Street.”

Jonathan Martin: “Donald Trump and Keir Starmer will never be linked in the same fashion as political tandems Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher or Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. But the two beleaguered leaders may be remembered for leaving the same legacy — demonstrating that their countries are both in desperate need of a cleansing.”

“Starmer is facing a revolt in his own party — he may be ousted by a man who’s not even in Parliament yet — and were Trump to submit to a secret confidence vote from his party’s senators, he’d likely confront a similar fate.”

New York Times: “For eight decades since World War II, members of neo-Nazi parties have never been directly elected mayor of any town in Germany, amid a postwar effort to shape its national identity around a rejection of the Nazi era.”

“On Sunday in a small town in eastern Germany, local residents came closer than ever to breaking with that consensus.”

“The runner-up in the mayoral election in the town, Aue-Bad Schlema, represents a fringe far-right party that Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has deemed an extremist group that poses a threat to the Constitution. The candidate, Stefan Hartung, says he is not a neo-Nazi, but acknowledges that he is also still a member of a larger party that Germany’s highest court has ruled is “similar in nature to National Socialism,” a formal term for Nazism.”

“A far-right lawyer who pledged to smash the cocaine-fueled armed groups that have expanded in this country took the most votes in Sunday’s first round of the presidential election, a blow to both the ruling leftist party and establishment conservatives,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro are neck and neck ahead of Brazil’s October election, with a new poll giving the incumbent a slight edge, 42% to 41%, Bloomberg reports.

Bloomberg: “The head of Denmark’s Liberal party said he has a two-week deadline to form the country’s new government, after record-long talks were thrown off track last week.”

“Troels Lund Poulsen took over coalition formation from caretaker Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen late Friday and is meeting all parties in parliament on Monday and Tuesday in an initial round before narrowing the negotiations. Frederiksen may still emerge as premier.”

Bloomberg: “Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he intends to lead the UK for 10 years even as calls for his departure grow from within the governing Labour Party and rivals threatened to launch a leadership challenge in the coming days.”

“However, that prospect looks increasingly implausible as rebel Members of Parliament consider ousting him following heavy losses at a set of local elections last week in which the governing party shed almost three in every five seats it was defending, while populists on the right and left, Reform UK and the Greens, made big advances.”

Bloomberg: “The map of English councils was lighting up in a murky gray on Friday morning, as more and more town halls returned a divided composition that spells future budget paralysis.”

“Of the 46 councils already declared, half had no overall control — up six on the last time these areas were fought, and more than the number that declared for any single party.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he took responsibility for large Labour Party losses in early results from Thursday’s elections, saying that he would “not sugarcoat” voters’ scathing verdict on his 22 months in office, the New York Times reports.

Bloomberg: “Britons will head to the polls on Thursday for one of the most consequential rounds of local elections in memory, with control of the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and more than half of England’s councils at stake.”

“The unusually broad elections will provide a verdict on Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s performance after less than two years in the job. With the governing Labour Party’s popularity tanking after policy missteps, repeated tax hikes and questions about Starmer’s judgment in appointing Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US, the ballot carries unusually high stakes.”

“Throughout modern British history, politics has been a battle between two parties,” the Financial Times reports.

“This fundamental scenario has only been questioned sporadically — such as when the Social Democratic Party briefly threatened to become a force in the 1980s.”

“Now, however, British politics seems to be on the verge of an enduring shift. Five parties are polling between 12 and 26 per cent. Labour and the Conservatives, blamed for years of poor governance, together command just over a third of voters. Despite voting for Brexit a decade ago, the UK electorate is increasingly continental.”

“The centrist leader of Israel’s opposition, Yair Lapid, and a right-wing former prime minister, Naftali Bennett, announced on Sunday that they would combine forces in elections later this year. The merger is an apparent bid to reconstitute a partnership that temporarily unseated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu five years ago,” the New York Times reports.

They described the move as “the first step in the process of uniting and repairing the state of Israel.”

A new Telegraph poll finds the Scottish National Party on track for a majority – and fresh referendum on breaking up the UK.

Vice President Vance said he was “sad” about Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s reelection loss, but he defended his last-minute visit to the nation to show support for the key ally of President Trump, NewsNation reports.

Said Vance: “We didn’t go because we expected Viktor Orbán to cruise to an election victory. We went because it was the right thing to do to stand behind a person who had stood by us for a very long time.”