Seven days is a long time in politics. The last seven months have been cataclysmic.

David Cameron was the first to fall, quitting as Prime Minister in June, the day after he was routed by the electorate in the Brexit vote.
Barack Obama will leave the White House as planned next month, but instead of his hoped for successor Hillary Clinton replacing him, it will be the man he described as ‘woefully unprepared’ for the US Presidency, right wing populist Donald Trump.

And Francois Hollande last week became the first French president in recent history to declare that he will not seek a second term of office.

The 62-year-old Socialist, by far the most unpopular French head of state since the Second World War, made his surprise announcement after a poll predicted he would win only seven per cent of votes if he stood in the first round of May’s presidential election.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi quit yesterday following a crushing defeat in his back-me-or-sack-me referendum on constitutional reform.

It was fuelled by anti-establishment movement surrounding his handling of the migrant crisis and the country’s economic meltdown.
There is a last woman standing, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but she faces a tough challenge to hold her position in elections next September and October.

A populist opposition against her is growing amid opposition to her open doors policy which led to the arrival of more than one million migrants.