National elections in Italy - the European Union's third-largest economy - resulted in a hung parliament with no outright winner. Populist parties, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and a conservative, centre-right bloc of the anti-migrant Northern League and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia collectively, won more than half the overall vote. The ruling Democratic Party of Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, on the other hand, took less than 20 per cent of the vote". In Germany, the Social Democrats voted to continue their ruling coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, thereby guaranteeing the chancellor her fourth and likely final term. This conclusion to the September elections in 2017 is fraught with challenges in the future. Continue reading →