The News
Croatia’s incumbent head of state, a critic of NATO and the European Union, won the first round of his country’s presidential election.
Zoran Milanović narrowly missed out on the 50% threshold required to win outright, but is widely expected to take the final round in two weeks.
His success is the latest sign of Europe’s eroding support for Ukraine ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office: European voters’ willingness to countenance peace negotiations has risen markedly, and the numbers who say they care about Kyiv has dropped, according to YouGov.
“Europe has promised to stand by Ukraine,” a Le Monde correspondent wrote. “In reality, it is more than ever caught” between the whims of Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.