It’s the bombshell announcement that’s left Spain bewildered and raised eyebrows across Europe. Citing exasperation with right-wing attacks on his family, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said he is taking time off to decide whether he wants to keep running the country. “Should I continue to lead this government or renounce this highest of honors?” Sánchez wrote in a four-page letter posted on his X account. “I urgently need to answer a question that I keep asking myself: Is it worth it for me to remain [in office] in spite of the right and far-right’s mudslinging?” Sánchez’s announcement cam ..read more

BRUSSELS — The Bruxellois are living healthier lives — at least some of them. The latest Health Dashboard released by Vivalis. Brussels, the entity responsible for implementing health and assistance policies in the capital region, found that health in the Belgian capital has improved significantly over the years. The report noted that life expectancy increased by nearly five years for men and roughly three years for women since the early 2000s. Mortality rates from cancer are also on the decline. According to Vivalis, changes in health behaviors, like the decline in smoking, and advancements i ..read more

KYIV — Domestic criticism of Ukraine’s government is mounting over a controversial temporary ban on issuing new passports and delivering nonemergency consular services for Ukrainian men of fighting age abroad.  “It is a blatantly illegal and [an] extremely harmful step,” said Volodymyr Viatrovych, an lawmaker from the opposition European Solidarity Party. “Obviously, the government wants to force Ukrainians to return to Ukraine as soon as possible. However, the result will be exactly the opposite.” New mobilization requirements which force all men of fighting age to register or renew thei ..read more

PARIS— What happens when a firebrand burns out? Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the outspoken leader of the French far left, may soon discover the answer to that question. The 72-year-old has racked up controversies while trying to remain in the spotlight ahead of June’s European election and France’s 2027 presidential vote, but signs of exasperation are emerging in his camp, especially as Mélenchon campaigns on Israel’s war against Gaza rather than on European issues. Mélenchon’s strong showing in the 2022 presidential election and construction of the left-wing Nupes coalition had previously put him in p ..read more

The candidate of North Macedonia’s largest opposition party, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, scored a dominant victory in the first round of the country’s presidential election on Wednesday. The center-right opposition candidate took 40.1 percent of the vote, while incumbent Stevo Pendarovski of the ruling socialist party got 19.9 percent. Since no candidate won a majority, Siljanovska-Davkova and Pendarovski — the top two vote-getters — will compete in a runoff on May 8, the same day as the higher-stakes parliamentary election. If elected, she would be the first female president in the country’s ..read more

LONDON — Here we go again. Top political scientist John Curtice predicted another referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU could take place in the next 16 years. “I think the 2016 referendum is going to be as unsuccessful as the 1975 one,” Curtice told the U.K. in a Changing Europe research organization Wednesday night, in reference to the vote that took Britain into the then-European Communities in the first place. The timescale of another referendum “depends very much on uncertain politics,” he said. But he added: “I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens before 2040.” Curtice — profes ..read more

LONDON — The governing coalition between the Scottish National Party and Scottish Greens at Holyrood ended after a bitter row about abandoned climate targets. Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf pulled the plug Thursday on the SNP’s coalition deal with the Scottish Greens, formally known as the Bute House Agreement. The SNP is now expected to forge ahead as a minority administration. The agreement, authorized in August 2021, allowed the Scottish Greens to have two junior ministers. Co-Leaders Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie fulfilled that role and were videoed leaving Bute House earlier Thurs ..read more

STRASBOURG — Britain reacted with fury after European lawmakers accused Gibraltar of making it easy for Russia to exploit sanctions loopholes and branded the territory a “colony.” The spat, just the latest chapter in the centuries-old saga of the tiny Mediterranean outcrop’s disputed ownership, came as the European Parliament vetoed the European Commission’s attempt to remove it from its money-laundering naughty step. The move comes at a particularly sensitive time, as the EU and U.K. close in on a deal on how to manage issues related to border control and movement of people between Spain ― an ..read more

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić tepidly apologized Wednesday for calling Slovenians “disgusting,” clarifying that he was only referring to their politicians. “If I have offended anyone, I want to apologize to the entire Slovenian public, and at the same time, I want to say that I will not apologize to Slovenian politicians because they pursue a disgusting policy toward Serbia,” Vučić said in New York, where he is attending a United Nations Security Council session on Kosovo. He hit out at Slovenia, a non-permanent member of the Security Council, on the sidelines of the meeting by accusing t ..read more

STRASBOURG — The U.K. government said it was “extremely disappointed” after the European Parliament accused Gibraltar of undermining sanctions against Russia in a vote to keep the territory on the EU’s money-laundering watchlist. A strong majority of 490 MEPs voted to block the removal of Gibraltar — a British overseas territory — from the list, along with the UAE, Barbados, Panama and Uganda. The text approved by the European Parliament said there was “important and recent evidence suggesting” the countries “lack efforts in addressing, or even facilitate the evasion of, sanctions imposed on R ..read more