"In our gloomy autumn of 2025, western democracies could play quite a convincing version of this game. There is the depressed United Kingdom, where Keir Starmer's approval ratings have fallen to record lows and Reform leads in the polls. There is the deeply broken United States, where a supine opposition seems incapable of preventing Donald Trump from chopping away one guardrail after another of our constitutional order."
"But as winter approaches, it might seem as if France deserves the brownie. Its government has limped along in a state of paralytic ineptitude since a disastrous snap election in July 2024 produced the mother of all hung parliaments. Since then, Emmanuel Macron has gone through five prime ministers (counting poor Sebastien Lecornu's second go-round), while his own popularity hovers around a disastrously low 20%, and dropping."
"Meanwhile, the public deficit is expected to rise to a dangerous 5.4%, leading to the downgrading of France's credit rating. The French public is still reeling from the trial of Dominique Pelicot and the more than 50 men whom he allowed to rape his drugged and unconscious wife, which was widely seen as symbolising a dire national failure to address the abuse of women."
Western democracies show widespread political malaise in late 2025, with the United Kingdom suffering record low approval for its leader and Reform leading in polls. The United States faces institutional erosion as an ineffective opposition allows constitutional guardrails to be removed. France endures acute dysfunction after a snap election produced a hung parliament, prompting five prime ministers and collapsing presidential popularity near 20%. Corruption perceptions intensified as a former president began a prison sentence, public deficit projections rose toward 5.4% and social outrage followed a high-profile sexual-violence trial.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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