Week in review
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This week: The Dutch cast their votes but there’s still no government in sight; EU finance ministers agree to submit national budgets for peer review; a Hungarian junior civil servant causes financial chaos; and as the World Cup gets under way, Serbians take pride in their national team.
Coalition blues
The Dutch are facing a political deadlock after the Liberal Party won Wednesday's general election by only one seat.
VVD's leader Mark Rutte led his party to an historic moment by winning the election for the first time.
But he now faces the tough task of forming a government – either to the right, with anti-Islamist Geert Wilders, or with three centre-left parties.
Wilder’s success at the polls was the big surprise of the night. The politician who advocates banning mosque building and taxing headscarves saw his Party for Freedom more than double its seats in parliament, making it the third strongest party heading into coalition talks. Analysts, echoing Wilders’ own words, say he’s now a force to be reckoned with.
No more dodgy dealings
EU Finance Ministers have agreed to submit their national budgets to the EU before unveiling them in their respective national parliaments. This means that both the European Commission and fellow member states will have to approve the budgets before they announce them back home
But some countries don’t want to give up control of their national budgets. Poland is the only EU economy that actually grew last year, and many Poles feel they’ve played by the rules and shouldn’t have to pay for other EU members’ mistakes.
EU member state leaders have yet to agree to the measure, which they must before it comes into force.
Slip of the tongue
It’s not hard to spook the markets these days.
But this past week, the euro plummeted - in part because of a comment made by the spokesman for the Hungarian prime minister.
Yes - not the comments of the prime minister but of his spokesman, a junior civil servant, who said that "it wasn't an exaggeration to talk about [the country] defaulting" on its debt.
The EU and the International Monetary Fund have already bailed Hungary out once in 2008. Senior politicians had to spend last weekend playing down the risk of default.
Football renaissance
The World Cup has arrived and the continent is, predictably, going wild.
But not many people will be putting their money on Serbia to walk away with the top prize. Their last foray on the big stage saw the country receive a 6-0 hammering at the hands of Argentina.
That’s when the team was still playing as Serbia and Montenegro. But this time the boys from Belgrade plan on making amends, both on and off the pitch. Football often provided a platform for nationalism and violence in the former Yugoslavia, but now it looks like it could unite both fans and non-fans alike, as the hostile chants of the war years give way to a fresh face: the first Serbian national team.
