As we all know, MyPillow entrepreneur Mike Lindell doesn’t really believe in elections — especially when his side doesn’t win them. When we checked in with Lindell last month, he was busy questioning his own loss in Minnesota’s gubernatorial primary. And on Friday, Lindell emailed his fellow true believers to express his doubts on the general election.

“AND YOU AND BOTH KNOW WHAT WE WITNESSED ON NOVEMBER 3rd WAS FAR FROM ORGANIC!” Lindell wrote, ungrammatically and in a bold, all-caps font. 

Lindell, who had a similar crashout over the off-cycle elections in 2023, questioned the surge of people who voted against President Donald Trump and the Republican Party more generally amid the president’s record-low approval rating.

“One claim circulating is that Democrats gained 19 MILLION NEW VOTERS who weren’t there in 2024,” he wrote, adding, “WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE!”

In his email, which was sent to supporters of his “Lindell Offense Fund,” the entrepreneur solicited donations and indicated he wants to demand “answers backed by actual election records!” Lindell also encouraged grassroots efforts to question and challenge the results of the type election conspiracists have engaged in throughout the Trump era. 

“Contact your county clerk or election administrator. Ask how to obtain the legally available voter registration rolls, voter participation history, and election reconciliation reports,” wrote Lindell. “These reports ARE available to the public and although it will be challenging for some states and counties to get this information- we encourage you to stay the course and do not give up!”

Lindell has previously raised funds and spent his own pillow proceeds to mount various outlandish schemes to challenge elections. Back in 2023, he debuted a grand plan that involved drones, a device he called the “W.M.D.,” and supposed command centers. At the time, Lindell insisted his system would expose the fact that America would really be an almost fully red nation if it wasn’t for the “computers” and a shadowy cabal he dubbed “The Evil.”

“We are now the police of our own elections,” Lindell said.

Over the many years of his various allegations questioning voting in this country, Lindell has consistently been debunked. In the past two years and change, he’s settled multiple defamation suits filed by the targets of his claims. Through it all, Lindell hasn’t explained why his elaborate drone system never uncovered proof of the mass fraud he continually insists exists. 

Who are these people indeed? 

PARIS — A group of European ambassadors posted in Paris questioned Marine Le Pen about her plans for France and the EU over a lunch on Wednesday, four officials with direct knowledge of the meeting told POLITICO.

The lunch at the lavish neoclassical Hôtel de Beauharnais — once home to Napoleon’s stepson, and now the residence of the German ambassador in the capital — mainly covered Le Pen’s future EU agenda, officials said.

Le Pen, who is comfortably leading the polls in the 2027 election race, has pledged to fight in Brussels to downsize EU institutions, turn the European Commission into a secretariat that would no longer have any competence on foreign policy, internal security or health, and to drastically cut France’s contribution to the EU budget.  

The group of ambassadors from the eight countries that share a border with metropolitan France —  Germany, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Monaco and Andorra —  already met with conservative presidential candidate Bruno Retailleau in September. They are planning to host meetings with the other presidential hopefuls, including far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, at their respective embassies in the coming months. 

“I don’t know if it reassured or worried them,” said an adviser to Marine Le Pen who accompanied her to the lunch. “What is sure is that they can now report back to their capitals what the National Rally wants to do,” the adviser added. 

Le Pen was mainly questioned about her plans to downsize the EU and on bilateral issues, as well as U.S. President Donald Trump after his seismic defeat in the midterm elections.

While in the past, the National Rally has been supportive of Trump, the party has progressively distanced itself from the U.S. president. The National Rally’s Jordan Bardella on Wednesday said his party was not affected by the result and suggested that Trump’s popularity was undermined by the war in the Middle East and its economic consequences.

Le Pen has also been campaigning for a harsher approach on migration, which would involve stricter checks at the borders, potentially impacting countries whose envoys she met on Wednesday. All of them, apart from Andorra and Monaco, are part of the Schengen free-movement area. 

“There is a general interest on what would her stance be on the key issues of mutual interest and cooperation on which we are working with France,” said one diplomat from a participating country.

“It was a very frank exchange. She told them what she says everywhere and she was able to elaborate on a number of topics a little more at length than she would do on TV,” the same adviser said, adding that Le Pen regularly meets ambassadors.

Back in December, Le Pen and her No. 2 Jordan Bardella also met with U.S. ambassador Charles Kushner. The far-right leaders are also preparing the ground for a possible election win by meeting top French business executives.

Le Pen’s team announced Friday evening that she will meet with the Ukrainian ambassador to France, Vadym Omelchenko, in Paris on Monday, Nov. 16.

Marcelo Wesfreid and Nicolas Camut contributed to this report. 

This article was updated.

PARIS — Far-left presidential hopeful Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party set out leaving NATO and nationalizing defense companies in its official platform released Friday.

“Immediately withdraw from NATO’s integrated command and then, in stages, from the organization itself. Reject the tribute demanded by the United States of 5% of GDP devoted to defense spending,” read France Unbowed’s 222-page program.

However, France under Mélenchon would still provide assistance to European Union countries under EU treaties, the document added, echoing what the far-left leader previously told POLITICO.

An increasing number of polls place Mélenchon in second place in next year’s high-stakes election to replace President Emmanuel Macron. The top two vote-getters go on to a second round, which could see Mélenchon facing off against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who also pledges to take France out of NATO’s integrated command.

Unlike Le Pen’s far-right party, France Unbowed does not explicitly say it would stop providing assistance to Ukraine — but it does insist on the need for a diplomatic solution. Any peace agreement would need to lean on “collective security guarantees, between the belligerents and with the rest of Europe.”

France Unbowed wants more arms regulation, including of lethal autonomous weapons systems and nuclear weapons.

The far-left party is also pushing back against the “space arms race,” including by pledging to close NATO’s space center in Toulouse, but says France should have the means to guarantee its sovereignty. Unlike most other political parties, France Unbowed has strong interest in space policy, and argues in its presidential platform that France should acquire a space shuttle.

France Unbowed lawmakers have previously pushed for France to procure Dassault Aviation’s Vortex, a European reusable orbital spaceplane program spearheaded by the French aerospace manufacturer.

Overall, France should invest more in so-called critical enablers, meaning military equipment in areas such as communications, intelligence and logistics that are currently mostly provided by the U.S. via NATO. “They must be produced as a matter of priority,” the party wrote.

It also wants to nationalize some of the country’s main defense companies including ArianeGroup.

A more detailed platform specifically on defense will be released later, a France Unbowed lawmaker told POLITICO.

LONDON — Donald Trump is badly bruised after this week’s U.S. midterm elections trouncing — but Britain’s diplomatic corps needs to avoid looking like it’s going all-in on the jubilant Democrats.

That’s the advice of Ed Roman, the former director of communications at the British Embassy in Washington. He spent five years on the embassy’s senior leadership team, serving during the Biden and second Trump administrations. It gave him a front row seat as diplomats adjusted to a radical change in U.S. political direction — a task they now face again.

In his first podcast interview since leaving the civil service a month ago, Roman tells POLITICO’s Westminster Insider that British diplomats need to show they can cultivate sophisticated ties with Trump’s possible successors — without provoking the ire of the current White House incumbent. Here are his top tips.

1) Don’t be late to the party

“If you’re doing it now, you’re kind of too late,” Roman says of efforts to schmooze key Democrats who have made it into both the Senate and House this week. The British Embassy has, he says, already been doing its homework, tracking potential Democratic Party contenders throughout the year in anticipation of a wave.

But there’s stiff global competition to build those links first. “The French competitors, the German competitors, the Korean competitors — each embassy is trying to build a network that allows them a level of access,” he says.

In addition to the embassy in D.C., Britain uses its eight U.S. consulates — strategically placed across the country — to help it identify rising politicians outside Washington.

As Roman puts it: “Real politics in America happens in America, out in the states, out in the districts. Knowing those Senate hopefuls ahead of time is always the name of the game.”

2) Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

Roman worked under former British Ambassador Karen Pierce, whose team invested considerable effort in cultivating relationships with Trump’s circle during the Biden administration.

Roman believes that work paid “dividends” for Britain in the years that followed, including in landing a U.K.-U.S. trade deal as Trump slapped tariffs on a host of allies.

But he cautions that the next president might not seem as obvious as Trump — who has had an iron grip on his party for years — did back then. “It’s a complete surprise that you always need to watch [out] for,” Roman notes.

It’s vital to build diplomatic relationships with a broad field — including other presidential hopefuls and figures who might end up in a future Cabinet, White House or national security team.

“Yes, you’re looking to identify the front runner, but you’re also looking to get to know the people around them. And very often they’re the people that are useful to you as an embassy,” he says.

3) Hold your ground — but don’t show off

It’s important not to provoke Trump’s ire by making him feel British diplomacy is already moving on. But Roman argues that embassies must also be prepared to defend their right to engage opposition politicians.

“This is perfectly legitimate business, there’s nothing nefarious about this,” he says.

He points to Trump officials openly engaging with British politicians across party lines.

“That is legitimate diplomatic business and there’s a bit of pushback that you sometimes have to do with administrations to be upfront about that,” he says.

There is, however, a big difference between quietly cultivating a future president and publicly advertising the fact.

Roman warns against the temptation to “grandstand a little bit that you’ve just had this brilliant session with [Gavin] Newsom [the Democratic governor of California] or whoever” on social media after meeting a potential successor. “That stuff does irritate the presidency,” he adds.

“Doing it in a discreet way, focusing on the interpersonal rather than the comms bounce that you might get out of it back in London is really key,” he advises.

4) Always big up Britain 

Simply getting a meeting with a rising Democrat isn’t enough. British diplomats need to convince prospective presidents that a strong relationship with Britain will actually be useful to them.

He warns that the next generation of American leaders may have fewer historic connections to Britain, meaning the U.K. cannot assume its traditional “special relationship” status will automatically open doors.

“For each generation politically, you’ve always got to, in effect, restate your offer,” he says.

Roman tells the podcast: “You can’t just tip up and say, you know: Hi, I’m John or James or Karen from the British Embassy, let’s have a chat.

“You’ve really got to dig into what their campaign is about, how are we useful to them? What do they understand about Britain? What do they know about Britain? What is Britain’s offer to them if they are successful and they come into power?”

5) Never assume a return to “normal”

Even if Democrats win the White House in 2028, Roman cautions British diplomats not to assume cultivating ties will automatically produce an easier relationship than it has with Trump.

Each country has its own blunt interests, and Roman recalls that the Biden administration was not an uncomplicated partner for Britain.

“There’s a bit of amnesia going on in the sense that the Biden administration were very challenging to deal with,” he says. “They were not particularly sentimental about Britain.”

And he argues that this week’s midterm results should not be mistaken for a wholesale rejection of Trump’s “America First” worldview.

“It wasn’t an embrace of America as a global policeman,” he says. “It wasn’t an embrace of America’s traditional role presiding over the rules-based international order.”

Economic nationalism and skepticism about America’s global responsibilities could survive Trump, Roman believes — including under a Democratic successor. “We would be, I think, ill-advised to draw the conclusion that any form of normalcy will return,” he says.

Ed Roman was speaking to the Westminster Insider podcast. Listen here.

The Democrats scored a resounding victory in this week’s U.S. midterm elections. But will their triumph actually change anything for Europe?

With the balance of power shifting in Congress, could the incoming lawmakers move the needle on issues Europe cares about, from tariffs to support for Ukraine? And what do MAGA’s bruising losses mean for Europe’s own nationalist and populist parties? Are they a warning for Europe’s far right? Or could the very issues that battered Republicans — affordability and the cost of living — end up propelling Europe’s far right into power?

Joining host Sarah Wheaton to discuss this is POLITICO Europe’s Executive Editor Carrie Budoff Brown, who also led our U.S. newsroom during Donald Trump’s first term. We’ll also speak with Gregor Schwung, a reporter at WELT currently on the ground in Washington, D.C., and POLITICO’s Foreign Affairs columnist Jamie Dettmer. 

Questions? Comments? Let us know on WhatsApp here or at +32 491 05 06 29.

With Hungary’s Viktor Orbán gone, Spain’s nationalist Vox party is set to play an increasingly central role as a bridge linking Europe’s far right to political allies worldwide — from South America to MAGA in Washington.

Unlike Orbán’s Fidesz or Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France, which have spent decades shaping national and European politics, Vox is a relative newcomer, having only entered Spain’s parliament in 2019.

But it is a force on the march. Pollsters expect Vox to double its parliamentary representation in Spain’s upcoming Nov. 29 election, potentially making it an indispensable partner in a coalition government led by conservative People’s Party chief Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

If the polls hold true, Vox would then arrive in government with an outsized global influence relative to its domestic footprint — all thanks to an international network it has quietly cultivated over the past few years.

Through its Madrid-based Disenso Foundation, the party has established ties with Latin American leaders such as Argentina’s Javier Milei and Chile’s José Antonio Kast, while forging relationships with influential figures in the MAGA movement in Washington.

Though distinct, the movements are bound by a common rejection of the political establishment. “This isn’t about occupying more space. This is a movement,” Jorge Martín Frías, a Vox member of the European Parliament and director of the Disenso Foundation, told POLITICO in Madrid. Vox’s allies, the lawmaker said, “face the same obstacles, the same labels, the same desire to annihilate them … And that’s how a sense of brotherhood develops.”

That same spirit of cooperation has helped Vox establish itself as a trusted partner to Europe’s right. Its leader, Santiago Abascal, now heads Patriots.eu, the pan-European political group that brings together Fidesz and the National Rally, as well as other far-right parties like Italy’s Lega, Belgium’s Vlaams Belang and Portugal’s Chega.

Frank Furedi, president of the Brussels-based Freedom & Sovereignty Initiative Europe, a conservative think tank formed by the core team behind MCC Brussels, said Vox had “been remarkably effective in carving out a niche for themselves as a movement that’s open to other political forces.”

Guillermo Fernández Vázquez, a political scientist at Madrid’s Carlos III University, said Vox’s strategy had allowed it to amass international influence well beyond what its electoral strength would suggest.

“Vox is an electorally modest party in the European context of the far right,” he said. “But it’s nonetheless become a communications node, a bridge, a hinge between the new Latin American right, the European far right and the Trumpist right.”

Across the Atlantic

Vox has been vocal about its interest in Ibero-America, which comprises Spain, Portugal and the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries of the Americas.

The “continent of hope,” Martín Frías says, is “already ahead of Europe, including in economic terms,” pointing to Milei’s chainsaw approach to deregulation in Argentina and Kast’s efforts to attract foreign investment in Chile through tax incentives and regulatory changes.

Right-wing leaders on the continent “are showing that it is possible to challenge the politics of resignation that have prevailed here — the status quo of the People’s Party and the Socialists,” he added.

Through the Disenso Foundation, created in 2020, the party has built an institutional network of conferences, political contacts and training programs. One of its main initiatives, Foro Madrid, brings together right-wing parties, politicians and organizations from across Latin America.

Vox has funneled millions of euros into Disenso over the last six years, giving it substantial resources to nurture its relationships across the pond.

According to political scientist Fernández Vázquez, Vox identified and reached out to figures like Milei and Kast when their respective movements were still relatively small. Those early contacts have since developed into relationships with leaders who now hold power or occupy prominent positions in their countries.

The network has also given Abascal direct access to some of the region’s most prominent political figures, such as Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. During an April visit to Madrid, she met with the Vox leader while notably declining an offer to meet Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Martín Frías attributed Vox’s success in building an international network to its refusal to simply export a Spanish political model and its ability not to get caught up in disagreements over national interests.

He pointed to Argentina’s support for the EU-Mercosur trade deal, which Vox opposes. “Each country, and each leader, applies its own rules to defend its national interests, which in some cases will be contrary to ours,” he said. “That’s only logical … That’s the game we’re all playing.”

For Vox, Latin America is part of a wider network that includes Washington. Indeed, Martín Frías has taken the party’s message directly to the American conservative establishment, attending the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington in 2024 alongside Abascal and speaking at events organized by the right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation, including the 2026 Miami Security Forum.

Furedi said Vox’s most prominent members have displayed a level of interest in Latin America rarely found among their European far-right counterparts. The party, he argued, was interested not just in building political alliances but in fostering “a more dynamic contemporary Hispanic culture.”

Balázs Orbán, Viktor Orbán’s former political director and a senior figure in Hungary’s MCC, told POLITICO that Vox had been able to forge a transatlantic “connection” through the party’s “sophisticated” approach and its members’ ability to speak both English and Spanish.

Back to Brussels

Vox’s approach to language and identity has undoubtedly given it an edge in Brussels.

The party has taken note of others’ mistakes, including those of Le Pen’s National Rally, whose failure to build strong ties with the wider far right has been partly attributed to its members’ refusal to engage in languages other than French.

“[The National Rally] may speak English, but they refuse to speak English … With Vox, there isn’t this desire to speak Spanish and make a big deal out of the fact that they’re very proud of their language. They’re much more relaxed about it,” Furedi said.

Fernández Vázquez said this had helped Vox position itself as a broker in Europe and led other far-right figures to view Abascal as a safe choice to lead Patriots, capable of balancing Le Pen and Orbán’s rival ambitions.

With Orbán’s fall, many are now competing for the influence he once wielded.

“Fidesz obviously wants to maintain its relevance and authority,” Furedi said. “The Italians — [Brothers of Italy] in particular — are also quite keen, with Meloni wanting to be seen as the equivalent of what Orbán was at a certain point.” But Vox stands out due to its consolidated role as both an “honest broker” and global interlocutor, he added.

Vox’s Martín Frías rejected the suggestion that his group was simply waiting to inherit Fidesz’s mantle. Instead, he said, the goal was to unite like-minded parties against institutions such as the European Commission, which he accused of undermining the European Union — a political project which he described as “a good invention.”

The National Rally’s Jordan Bardella similarly said earlier this year his party would not seek to leave the EU, but instead transform it from within and “change everything without destroying anything.”

Like Martín Frías, Balázs Orbán rejected the notion of a far-right handover and referred to the beginnings of a broader alliance, including Hungary’s former prime minister and his party.

“Viktor Orbán always played a very important role in the patriotic movement. He is the founding father and one of its intellectual leading figures,” he said, adding that now that Fidesz is “no longer in government, we have more time to spend in Brussels and speed things up.”

Martín Frías expressed optimism for what Spain’s upcoming election would mean for Vox’s broader mission in Europe.

“Changes of government in European countries can lead to changes in the European Council,” he said, outlining a vision of an EU made up of sovereign nations that pursue their own interests while cooperating where their goals align. “There is an opportunity there to correct everything that is wrong, and to even regain citizens’ trust in the institutions.”

That shift, he argued, is already visible in the European Parliament, where the center-right European People’s Party increasingly “has no choice” but to work with the Patriots.

“They don’t do it out of principle,” Martín Frías said. “They do it because they’re afraid of the electorate.”

TALLINN — Europe shouldn’t open a diplomatic channel to Russian President Vladimir Putin, warned the leader of one of the continent’s most exposed nations.

“Europe should not be in a mediator’s position,” Estonia’s Prime Minister Kristen Michal told POLITICO in an interview this week. “You should not take the role of trying to please the dictator.”

European leaders have long feared the U.S. administration under President Donald Trump may pursue a Russia–Ukraine peace deal on terms that sideline Europe and disadvantage Kyiv. The most recent talks between Washington and Moscow have reignited debate in Brussels and national capitals about the need for Europe to have its own direct line to the Kremlin. Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre held a 90-minute call with Putin in late October.

The Estonian premier — whose country of 1.3 million people borders Russia and has been subject to Moscow’s persistent attempts to stoke internal unrest — warned against the idea of direct talks, saying it would weaken Europe’s position with Putin.

“For once, Europe has a plan which is actually working” by suffocating Russia economically with sanctions, Michal said. Being a mediator means “you are willing to lower the standards, for example, for Russia,” including when it comes to imposing and enforcing punitive sanctions, he said.

“You cannot [have] two roles. One role is backing up Ukraine and pressuring Russia. A second one is trying to have a form of mediation,” the Estonian leader said.

“Putin should understand that Europe is strong, keeping together and we have one voice,” he added.

U.S. officials will sit down with Ukrainian and Russian representatives next week. The talks, which will be the first face-to-face negotiations since February, will be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said Monday.

The Estonian leader said Europeans “appreciate” the Trump administration’s attempts to broker a peace deal, “but the pressure should be very much on Russia,” he said. “The problem [is] sitting in [the] Kremlin. Nowhere else.”

With Trump’s Republican Party in crisis after a major loss in the U.S. midterm elections Tuesday, Europe is closely watching how the shift of power in the U.S. Congress will influence the president’s position on Ukraine.

“Elections have consequence. So this is a good thing in democracy, that you have checks and balances,” Michal said about the election outcome.

He added the electoral shift could move Washington further “to the better side, more value-based side. And when [the] U.S. is more value-based … that probably is a good message to Ukraine and to Europe.”

To heap pressure on Russia, Estonia has spearheaded a push — together with Poland and Sweden — to toughen up visa rules for Russians, including former fighters who fought on the battlefields in Ukraine. Tallinn has proposed an outright ban on allowing ex-soldiers from Russia’s armed forces access to the EU at large.

Officials believe the tourist visas allow Russian operatives easy access into the bloc to conduct so-called hybrid warfare campaigns — from flying drones over sensitive security sites to sabotage of infrastructure.

EU officials told POLITICO last month the European Commission is planning to put forward proposals in the new year.

Michal said Europe had no time to waste as hybrid attacks keep disrupting services. “You should not have these kind of people running around Europe. So limit the visas,” he said.

LONDON — Nigel Farage insisted on Thursday he will meet Marine Le Pen “at some point in time” as the French presidential hopeful keeps the Reform UK leader waiting for a Paris visit.

The leader of the British right-wing insurgency had been hoping for a jaunt to France before the end of October — but has been kept waiting for now.

Reform had insisted he would meet the president of the far-right National Party before the end of the year — but four of her officials told POLITICO this is not on Le Pen’s schedule.

After a defense speech on Thursday, the Reform leader told reporters: “I haven’t met Le Pen for some years actually. But she’s going to win the next election.

“I will go meet her at some point in time.”

One Le Pen adviser, who like the others was speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive party relations, said earlier that “the costs and benefits” of a Farage meeting still needed weighing up.

Le Pen is the favorite to win the first round of France’s 2027 presidential elections — but the Reform leader has suffered a dip in the polls after a series of damaging allegations about his party.

A migration agreement that Farage unveiled early September with the National Rally’s second in command, Jordan Bardella, also created a backlash in France. 

On Tuesday night, Democrats made history as they took control of the House and the Senate, and a blue wave swept through traditionally red and swing states - with the nation's first Black woman governor elected in Georgia, the country's first Native American woman governor elected in New Mexico, and a Maine Senator ceding to a Democrat after 30 years in office. In these and other campaigns, one theme kept coming up: holding AI companies accountable to the American people. Now, the AI industry is left considering the prospect of regulation, data center construction slowdowns, and more.

Publicly, most major AI company CEOs have remained silen …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Tech CEO hearings. Tougher AI and data center guardrails. Investigations of Elon Musk's DOGE cuts. The gates are open for Democrats once they regain control of committee gavels come January after a historic win of majorities in both the House and Senate on Tuesday.

"LAWYER UP," the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee wrote on X in a message aimed at the Trump administration as well as "corporate corruption" shortly after networks like NBC News projected Democratic control of the House. "Subpoenas," Senate Finance Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) posted. It's clear tech executives will also be caught in Democrats' crosshairs. "They …

Read the full story at The Verge.

PARIS — Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s campaign has a plan for winning over older French voters: get his young supporters to sign up for Facebook to talk to their parents.

Mélenchon, 75, may be the oldest candidate in next spring’s race to replace Emmanuel Macron. But his progressive platform and call for a civic revolution have made him a hit with younger voters, who are more likely to scroll through TikTok and Snapchat than through the old-school social network.

“We’re strong [on every other social media platform],” said Antoine Léaument, who handles the Mélenchon campaign’s communication operations. “Facebook is one of the places where the digital battle could be decisive.”

More than 40% of voters younger than 35 plan to vote for Mélenchon, according to a recent Cluster17 poll commissioned by POLITICO. That figure drops to 14% or less across the age brackets over 50 — groups that, if they use social media at all, tend to favor Facebook over its newer rivals.

According to Médiamétrie, France’s leading audience measurement company, platforms like Instagram and Snapchat have 35% more daily users than Facebook among 15-to-24-year-olds.

On TikTok, which skews younger, Mélenchon has about twice the following of any other presidential candidate.

“Their digital campaign is paying off very quickly,” said a strategist from a competing campaign, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. The strategist also underlined that the share of comments on social media posts describing Mélenchon in a positive light was rapidly rising despite how he’s been vilified by his opponents.

But on Facebook, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally reigns.

Since June, National Rally posts have drawn more than 2 million reactions, more than those of any other French political party, according to data from social monitoring platform Visibrain shared with POLITICO. The page of the National Rally’s local branch in the small region of Vienne alone generated more reactions than the pages of Macron’s Renaissance party.

“Engagement on Facebook is very concentrated,” around the National Rally, Visibrain said.

Listen to the kids

Recent polls show that Mélenchon’s core base of young voters puts him in a strong position to secure a second-place finish in the first round of the presidential election. That would earn him a spot in a runoff against Le Pen, who has held a double-digit lead for first place in surveys for months. (French presidential elections advance to a two-candidate second round if no one wins 50% of the vote on the first try.)

Beating Le Pen, however, will require winning over larger swaths of the electorate. Though pollsters and political scientists urge caution about polling a runoff so early in a campaign, the second-round surveys pitting Le Pen against Mélenchon show the far-left candidate on track for a crushing defeat.

Many older voters remain undecided about what they would do when faced with that match-up, so the answer could lie in whether they decide to listen to their children.

Léaument has been rallying activists from Mélenchon’s France Unbowed to share content en masse on the platform via an open WhatsApp channel, which currently counts over 170,000 members, posting calls to action or campaign clips to share on their social media accounts.

“WE MUST RE-ENGAGE WITH FACEBOOK AT ALL COSTS! WE MUST NOT LEAVE ANY GROUND TO THE FAR RIGHT,” he urged activists in a message posted to the channel.

That playbook is partly borrowed from André Janones, the Brazilian lawmaker who used the messaging app to mobilize supporters of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ahead of his surprise reelection last month.

It has at least one obvious limitation: Political parties have no control over social media algorithms. In Brazil, Lula’s campaign alleged that Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, was boosting Bolsonaro and suppressing its content — an allegation Meta denied.

Hadrien Clouet, a France Unbowed MP who closely tracks South American politics, said lessons would need to be drawn on how the Mélenchon campaign can “protect [itself] from the influence of U.S. social networks.”

But the underlying idea of having the young convince — if not pressure — their elders has been pushed by the movement’s leadership for several months already.

At a party event over the summer, Mathilde Panot, France Unbowed’s top lawmaker in parliament, invoked the work of French political scientist Vincent Tiberj, who has studied “inverse socialization,” or how children challenge and sometimes change their parents’ views and politics.

She pointed to the 2024 vote to make abortion a constitutional right in France, saying that several lawmakers were pressured into voting in favor of the proposal by their daughters — a point French media also reported at the time.

“The children need to convince their parents,” Panot said. “We need to do some grassroots work, to go out and convince people one by one, and that starts with our inner circle: parents, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts.”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s midterm election losses haven’t helped the U.K. economy — yet.

The Bank of England’s nine-member Monetary Policy Committee announced on Thursday it has overwhelmingly voted to increase interest rates to 4% from 3.75%, the first time since August 2023 to combat rising prices driven by the war in Iran.

Unlike the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank, the Bank of England has been reluctant to raise rates for fear of denting the British economy.

Until now, Governor Andrew Bailey and other MPC members have preferred to wait and see whether higher energy prices spilled over more broadly.

But the Bank was forced to increase rates after U.K. inflation came in at 3.5% in September, while the economy posted better-than-expected growth figures — raising the risk prices could take off.

The MPC on Wednesday voted 8-to-1 to raise rates, arguing the energy shock since the war began has built “sufficient” inflation pressures to justify a hike.

The dissenting vote from Catherine Mann was for a larger increase of 0.5 percentage points.

But Bailey made no secret of the fact that the future health of the U.K.’s economy depends on what the U.S. does in Iran.

“Today’s increase shouldn’t be seen as the first in an inevitable long sequence of hikes,” Bailey said.

“But, unless the conflict in the Middle East is resolved, neither does it seem likely to be the last increase.”

The Bank projected inflation would pick up to nearly 5% by the second quarter of 2027, higher than its previous forecast, with greater spillover into wages and other prices.

Under an adverse scenario, in which prices stay higher for longer and the conflict in the Middle East continues to flare, inflation would hit 6.2% in the third quarter of 2027.

Thursday’s decision, which comes a week after Chancellor John Healey delivered his first budget under the specter of Brits paying the highest energy prices in three years, will further squeeze struggling U.K. households and businesses already hit with higher energy bills and mortgage rates.

The tougher financing backdrop could hurt the Burnham government’s promises to tackle the cost of living. Yet rampant inflation would also undercut that pledge.

Still, the Bank’s top brass also pushed back on market expectations that rates could by hiked to 4.75% or 5% in 2027 — which could help bring down decades-high government borrowing costs.

The Trump factor

The decision comes as the rout of Trump’s Republican Party at the U.S. midterm elections on Tuesday raised the prospect of a peace deal in the Middle East.

A thaw in the conflict could bring down fuel prices by easing pressure on oil supplies and improve the cost-of-living picture for U.K. households.

There were reports Trump could respond to his party’s losses by embarking on a bombing campaign in the Middle East, but the U.S. president appeared to accept on Wednesday that higher petrol prices affected his popularity and struck a more conciliatory tone on the prospect of peace negotiations. 

U.S. Vice-President JD Vance blamed the Iran war for the electoral losses. And U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Wednesday that the elections create an opportunity to focus on the cost of living.

Oil prices fell sharply on Wednesday, amid expectations Democrats could also limit Trump’s funding for the conflict. The possibility of a ceasefire could yet be subject to Trump’s whims.

Regardless, U.K. consumers will feel the pinch through a rise in the energy price cap in January. 

Even if falling oil prices persist over the next few weeks, the price cap is likely to rise substantially because of a lag in the way it is calculated. 

The Bank forecast the cap will hit £2,150 in the first quarter of 2027. Food price increases, which have so far been muted, could hit 4.75% by mid-2027 as companies pass through higher costs.

Healey’s budget will knock 0.25 percentage points off inflation by the second quarter of next year, the Bank said, while tighter fiscal policy to bring down the deficit would likely detract from growth in the medium term.

A senior Iranian official mocked JD Vance on Thursday for a lengthy social media post in which the U.S. vice president conceded that the American-Israeli war on Iran caused the Republican Party’s midterm election meltdown this week.

“Losing gambler energy, can’t walk away from the table. Boss is prepping the next war phase while America teeters on an Israel-First cliff. Skip the TED talk. Why not say this to your boss?” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, shot back at Vance.

In his screed on X, published less than 24 hours after the Republicans suffered an election wipeout, Vance pointed to four things that needed to happen for voters to return to the party in future ballots.

“1) End the war. 2) Focus on cost of living/inflation. 3) Put America First. 4) Change our relationship to Israel,” Vance argued, in a missive that he personally drafted and which marked his first post-election attempt to distance himself from a war that U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly defended.

The U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28 this year, decapitating much of its top leadership. But the Tehran regime retaliated by attacking U.S. targets in the Middle East and closing off the Strait of Hormuz — a vital maritime chokepoint for the supply of oil and gas — by threatening ships attempting to traverse the waterway.

The standoff drove up the price of fuels and fertilizer, which raised the cost-of-living in the U.S. and contributed to a brutal electoral environment for the Republicans, who suffered a generational defeat on Tuesday night.

While Vance stated that “the reason we lost is the war,” Trump has been insistent that the conflict is necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

In 2025, Texas Republicans, pushed by President Donald Trump, redrew the state’s congressional map before the midterms, converting five Democratic-held districts into ones Trump would have carried by at least 10 percentage points.

The move backfired: GOP candidates lost four of five seats their new congressional map was designed to flip and lost two of their own.

That means Texas Republicans will head to Washington in January with 24 U.S. House seats, one less than they had at the start of the current Congress. When the state Legislature in Austin pursued the controversial mid-decade gerrymander, Republicans had hoped for a 30-8 split in the delegation but will end up instead at 24-14. 

In South Texas, moderate Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar of Laredo and Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen both won reelection, surviving the redraw that put more Trump voters in their districts. Republicans also lost ground in the lone Rio Grande Valley district they already held, as Tejano musician Bobby Pulido ousted two-term Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg.

Democrats picked up another seat with Katy Padilla Stout’s win over YouTuber and gun-rights activist Brandon Herrera in the 23rd Congressional District, a sprawling seat covering San Antonio to the outskirts of El Paso. The district has been vacant since former GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales resigned in April over a sex scandal with a staffer. Despite the district’s 15-point lean for Trump, Padilla Stout, a San Antonio attorney and former teacher, made it onto the radar of national Democrats who saw opportunity in the district’s majority-Hispanic status and Herrera’s history of edgy, controversial comments.

Democrats held fast to districts elsewhere, despite their incumbents being displaced due to the redraw. In the San Antonio area, Bexar County sheriff’s deputy Johnny Garcia beat Republican Carlos De La Cruz, the brother of Monica De La Cruz, in the newly crafted 35th Congressional District, a GOP target that Trump carried by 10 points. 

In Houston, the grassroots campaign of Democrat Leticia Gutierrez topped Army veteran and former investment banker Alex Mealer, despite being vastly outspent in a district that Trump won by 20 percentage points two years ago. Gutierrez raised just a fraction of Mealer’s $2.8 million haul over the midterm cycle, as of mid-October, according to Federal Election Commission filings. 

Republicans had high hopes for the redraw, which Democrats fought by fleeing the state, keeping the map in limbo by temporarily denying Republicans the headcount to pass it. But the new lines could not withstand the blue wave that swept through much of the country Tuesday, driven in part by the leftward swing of Latino voters. Texas’ new map banked on the GOP holding most of Trump’s 2024 gains with Latino Texans, who made up a majority of the eligible voting population in four of the five targets.

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Nor did the redraw deliver what the White House wanted from it: a buffer that would preserve Republicans’ slim U.S. House majority. Trump’s push for the Texas map kicked off a tit-for-tat redistricting war across the country, producing similarly skewed maps in a number of states. 

After Texas, Republicans were most hopeful to flip four Democratic seats they redrew in Florida. Three of them stayed blue, and the other was within a one-point margin. In California, where Democrats retaliated with new congressional maps of their own, they had picked up three of the five they targeted and were leading in the remaining two. 

With GOP-leaning congressional maps powerless in the face of the blue wave, Democrats won the U.S. House and are set to have a substantial majority.The party has also wrested control of the U.S. Senate, leaving Trump to reckon with a Congress under full Democratic control for his last two years in office. 

New faces

Under less dramatic circumstances, a number of new faces will join the ranks of Texas’ congressional delegation to replace ten U.S. representatives who are either retiring, gave up their seats to run for other offices or lost their primaries for reelection. Most of the races were in noncompetitive general election districts.

Two sitting representatives ran for U.S. Senate but lost in their respective primaries: Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, fell to James Talarico while GOP Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, finished behind Sen. John Cornyn and Ken Paxton. 

Reverend Frederick Haynes III won Crockett’s endorsement to succeed her in the heavily Democratic 30th District. A Dallas native, Haynes has been pastor of the city’s Friendship-West Baptist Church for more than 40 years. He sailed his way into Congress in the deep blue district Tuesday. 

Mortgage loan officer Jon Bonck will succeed Hunt in the safely red 38th District. Bonck received endorsements from Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz and other influential Republicans leading up to his victory in the general election. 

The tenure of Rep. Chip Roy will also come to an end in January after the congressman ran for Texas attorney general, a contest he lost in a primary runoff to Mayes Middleton. This election left the staunchly Republican 21st District in the hands of Mark Teixeira, a former professional baseball player who started his 14-season Major League career as the fifth overall draft pick for the Texas Rangers in 2001. 

And one incumbent, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, was forced into an early exit from his safe Republican seat by his primary rival, state Rep. Steve Toth of Conroe. The business owner defeated investment banker and Democratic nominee Shaun Finnie, and will be joining the U.S. House after five total terms, including the last eight years, as a state legislator.

Among the six soon-to-be retirees, two are Democrats. The seats of Reps. Lloyd Doggett and Marc Veasey will be filled, respectively, by Rep. Greg Casar, who ran for Doggett’s Austin seat after his own district was scrambled, and former Rep. Colin Allred. Both are returning to Congress — Allred after two years out of office — in new districts. 

A new cast of Republicans will take over in four other safe districts.

Five-term Rep. Jodey Arrington will leave his seat to Tom Sell, who worked in the office of former Rep. Larry Combest. Sell worked at a law firm he founded with Combest before running for the U.S. House. 

Rep. Michael McCaul will be succeeded by Chris Gober, who, before running for office, worked as the chief lawyer of Elon Musk’s America PAC that has channeled $216 million toward Republicans this cycle.

Rep. Morgan Luttrell also chose not to run for reelection after two terms. That opened the door for Jessica Steinmann, an attorney who previously worked in Cruz’s office as well as in the first Trump administration’s Department of Justice. 

And a deceptively familiar face will replace Rep. Troy Nehls – that of his identical twin brother, Trever Nehls, who served in the U.S. Army for more than three decades and retired from the military as a Colonel. He’ll represent the Houston-area 22nd Congressional District.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune. 

The post Texas Republicans’ gerrymander backfires as Democrats gain ground in U.S. House delegation appeared first on Salon.com.

Die blaue Welle lässt Donald Trump politisch stark geschwächt aus den Midterms hervorgehen. Während bei den Republikanern die Loyalitätsfront bröckelt, stehen die siegreichen Demokraten vor weiteren Diskussionen um ihre künftige Ausrichtung. Die Vize-Chefredakteurin von POLITICO Deutschland, Annett Meiritz, analysiert im Gespräch mit Maximilian Stascheit, warum der Richtungsstreit ein Kulturkampf ist und wie Trump seinen Fokus nun noch stärker auf die Geopolitik richten wird.

Außerdem im 200-Sekunden-Interview: Rixa Fürsen trifft Florian Hahn (CSU) auf der Berlin Security Conference. Im Gespräch ordnet er ein, was die deutsche Außenpolitik nach den US-Wahlen nun erwartet.

Der Weg zum Führerschein kostet mittlerweile ein kleines Vermögen. Obwohl die schwarz-rote Koalition Besserung versprach, fällt die geplante Reform nun kleiner aus als erhofft. Cedric Looks aus der POLITICO-Redaktion schlüsselt auf, wie SPD und Union die Transparenzregeln für Fahrschulen verwässern und warum begleitete Übungsfahrten mit den Eltern künftig womöglich neue Bürokratie bringen, obwohl man die doch abbauen will.

Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Rixa Fürsen, Maximilian Stascheit und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig.

Für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Der Berlin Playbook-Newsletter bietet jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. Jetzt kostenlos abonnieren.

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LONDON — Nigel Farage has been hyping up a visit to see Marine Le Pen in Paris. But the French presidential hopeful is keeping her embattled right-wing ally waiting.

The Reform UK leader’s jaunt to France had been billed for October, as a key part of a tour of leaders on the European right before the year is over.

But four officials in Le Pen’s National Rally with knowledge of her schedule, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive party relations, have told POLITICO that a visit to the party president is still not scheduled.

Several figures in the far-right party said there was no urgency in refocusing media attention on relations with Reform or on a migration deal signed in September. One of the people cited above said that “the costs and benefits” of a Farage visit needed weighing up.

Le Pen remains favorite to win the first round of France’s 2027 presidential election — but much has changed for both Reform and the National Rally since Farage’s officials first pitched the visit.

Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s second-in-command, was the star guest at the British right-wing party’s conference in Birmingham at the start of September. Bardella and Farage unveiled an agreement to deport back to France all migrants who make unauthorized crossings of the English Channel in small boats.

But the plan provoked a backlash in France, as politicians across the spectrum questioned quite why the country would accept asylum seekers back.

Further trouble struck Reform in Birmingham too. At that point polling still had Reform within touching distance of the governing Labour Party — despite the more popular Andy Burnham taking over as prime minister from Keir Starmer.

Then an undercover investigation broadcast on the eve of conference raised fresh questions about Reform’s finances and led to the resignations of two of Farage’s most senior aides. Labour’s polling numbers have since improved, while Reform is being challenged for second place by an uptick in support for the Conservative Party.

It was at that same conference in early September that Reform first told POLITICO Farage would be heading to France to meet Le Pen by the end of October. 

Farage also alluded to a trip to Paris after Bardella’s English-language speech, saying: “The only downside is I think they’re going to invite me to go to Paris and I’ll have to speak in French, but never mind, we’ll get there.”

Confirmation of the invite never materialized — and as October drew to a close and it became apparent Farage wouldn’t get treated to a reciprocal appearance at the National Rally’s conference in Orléans, a senior Reform official said: “It’s in [the] diary for this year.”

That timeline still isn’t recognized in Paris. The four anonymous National Rally officials with knowledge of Le Pen’s plans said they are not aware of any Farage visit scheduled before Christmas.

One of them, a Le Pen aide, suggested Farage may instead be offered a meeting with Bardella, whose stock in the party has suffered a series of blows in recent months.

Another adviser to Le Pen questioned the pros and cons of the party president associating herself with Farage.

“We’d need to spend a bit more time thinking through the costs and benefits,” they said.

Thibaut Francois, an official with the National Rally’s delegation to the European Parliament, said that there are “regular contacts” with Reform and that the two parties would meet “very soon.” But he would not say whether such a meeting would go ahead this year.

“Reform’s prime goal is getting battle-ready for the U.K. elections and swanning around internationally is not going to be any help right now to the message to the U.K.,” a senior official in Reform said.

Charles-Henri Gallois, Bardella’s economic adviser, also downplayed the need for any further meetings between the two parties — arguing their migration deal is “ready and set to be implemented” if both parties make it to power.

“There’s no need to discuss it further,” he told POLITICO. “Anyone who criticizes the agreement does not understand migration flows. The agreement is entirely beneficial to France.”

Bardella’s man?

Le Pen has spent years trying to distance herself from moves to pull France out of the European Union, wary that the suggestion of a Brexit-style split spooks French voters.

“Farage still supports Brexit, whereas she has abandoned [Frexit], as it’s too frightening for French voters,” said far-right expert Jean-Yves Camus, from the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, a think tank. “And the recent defeat of Donald Trump in the midterms will reinforce Le Pen’s mistrust of Trumpism and all his lookalikes in Europe.”

The migration deal was signed between Bardella and Farage, and at the time, there were already doubts about the level of backing inside the National Rally for the deal.

Since Reform’s party conference in September, Bardella’s star has further waned following antisemitism allegations, which he has vigorously rejected.

Ahead of the Farage-Bardella deal, Farage bullishly proposed launching the “largest military operation in the English Channel since World War II” to return small boats to French shores.

“Why [send them back] to France if they aren’t French?” one person close to Le Pen told POLITICO at the time.

Spokespeople for Reform and National Rally did not respond to requests for comment.

Sarah Paillou contributed to this report. Clea Caulcutt reported from Paris.

‘We Flipped New York 17!’

The two scenes could not have been more starkly different. 

Four years ago this week, I was in Rockland County, New York where former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) was holding an election night party. The event ended up being ground zero for a series of embarrassing election losses that forced Democrats to cede control of the U.S. House to the GOP. 

Last night, that same district was among the many that flipped for Democrats in a midterm election that many are calling a “blue tsunami” that has swept Democratic majorities into both houses of Congress and multiple statehouses. There were several major factors driving the change: President Donald Trump’s record low approval, a sharp swing among Latinos, a wave of Black voters in the South that seemed like a direct response to the Supreme Court’s Callais ruling that threatened to marginalize them, and a youth surge. 

Democrats had a big night on Election Day. The bluenami was also filled with tons of nationwide firsts, with many candidates breaking the so-called glass ceiling.

Here are some notable ones:

La France insoumise s’est réjouie de la défaite de Donald Trump lors des élections de mi-mandat aux Etats-Unis, y voyant la possibilité de “faire reculer l’extrême droite”. Toute coïncidence avec la situation française n’est pas fortuite, alors que le scénario d’un second tour opposant Marine Le Pen à Jean-Luc Mélenchon devient de plus en plus probable, sondage après sondage. Pourquoi les Insoumis se sentent-ils pousser des ailes ? Ont-ils raison d’y croire ? Cela oblige-t-il les candidats de la droite et du centre à redéfinir leur stratégie ? Anthony Lattier en discute avec Victor Goury-Laffont, journaliste à POLITICO, et Marcelo Wesfreid, directeur adjoint de la rédaction.
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Data center developers are poised to face a more restrictive building environment after voters across the country voted in candidates who favor moratoriums and ballot measures that put more obstacles on their expansion, delivering a stinging blow to a central pillar of the AI industry.

Of voters polled by NBC News on Election Day, 76 percent said they opposed data centers in their communities. Dozens of local communities voted directly to restrict development through ballot measures. And upset winners like Texas Democratic Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa and Michigan's Democratic Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed support moratoriums on development.

…

Read the full story at The Verge.