Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Some European governments are arguing Commission President Ursula von der Leyen overstepped her mandate in her response to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. On today’s episode, host Zoya Sheftalovich and Nick Vinocur, POLITICO’s chief foreign affairs correspondent, unpack the frustration they’re hearing from national diplomats who argue the latest Middle East crisis has seen von der Leyen wading onto their turf — and not for the first time. Meanwhile, ministers will meet in Brussels today for an informal debate on the continent’s housing crisis. We break down how dire the situation is and why tackling this issue is a priority for governments looking to stave off the far right. Finally, a slew of public transport hiccups in Brussels could make life harder for commuters … what else is new? Send any questions or comments to us on our WhatsApp: +32 491 05 06 29.  **A message from Amazon: Across Europe, businesses are growing with the AWS Cloud to build innovative, scalable products. From Europe’s largest enterprises and government agencies to the continent’s fastest growing startups, learn more about how AWS Cloud is helping businesses across Europe grow at AWS.eu.**

The biggest loser of this weekend’s presidential election in Portugal was European Council President António Costa. Not only was Costa’s former rival in the Socialist Party, António José Seguro, elected the new head of state, the results also cemented the far-right Chega party as the country’s second-largest political force. Seguro — a moderate, center-left former member of the European Parliament and minister who was ousted as Socialist Party leader by Costa in 2014 — originally said his decision to launch a long-shot run for the presidency was motivated by his “perplexion” with the direction the country had taken during Costa’s eight-year stint as prime minister. Based on Sunday’s results, voters appear to share Seguro’s concern that the country is on the wrong course.  When Costa became prime minister in 2015, Portugal prided itself on being the only country in Europe with no far-right political presence. But this weekend, Chega leader André Ventura took in a third of the vote thanks to the support of a substantial chunk of the electorate exasperated by the affordability crisis, rising immigration rates and political corruption — issues many link to Costa’s time in office. “It’s completely legitimate to tie this phenomenon to the economic and social model implemented here during the past 10 years — an economy based on low-skilled labor and low wages in a context when prices were increasing dramatically,” said Riccardo Marchi, an expert on right-wing radicalism at Lisbon’s ISCTE-IUL Center of International Studies. “And Costa is the face of that model.” Antonio Jose Seguro after his victory in the second round of the Portuguese presidential election. Seguro originally said his decision to run was motivated by his “perplexion” with the direction the country had taken during Costa’s stint as prime minister. | Jose Coelho/EPA TROUBLE IN PARADISE When Ventura first appeared on the political scene in 2017, Portugal was enjoying a renaissance of sorts.  Just five years prior, the country was on the brink of declaring bankruptcy and was obliged to seek a €78 billion bailout package. In exchange for the cash, citizens faced brutal tax hikes and the severe curtailment of public services. But in 2015, Costa — then the charismatic mayor of Lisbon — cobbled together a parliamentary alliance of left-wing parties, unseating center-right Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho and forming a minority government that promised to “turn the page on austerity.” While maintaining fiscal discipline, Costa unveiled progressive policies to improve conditions for the lowest-income citizens and rolled back some of the most severe cost-cutting measures. The economy steadily improved as existing golden tourism schemes and new digital nomad visas attracted foreign investment, and new jobs were created thanks to a successful rebrand that saw the impoverished Atlantic country recast as a trendy new travel destination. After years of pessimism, the future looked bright for Portugal, and many saw Costa as a leader worth emulating. In that context, Ventura launched a campaign for local office on behalf of the center-right Social Democratic Party, and garnered national attention by running on a platform focused on the alleged threat posed by the Roma community. Condemned by his own party, Ventura lost the race. But he noted his rhetoric received more notice — and popular support — than a standard conservative politician would receive. Despite the popularly held belief that far-right sentiment had vanished from Portugal after the Estado Novo dictatorship ended in 1974, António Costa Pinto, a political scientist at the University of Lisbon’s Institute of Social Sciences, said “there’s plenty of data that shows that around 18 percent of the electorate embraces authoritarian values, but in the past, they either voted for mainstream conservative parties or didn’t vote at all.” Focusing on that dormant electorate’s potential, Ventura left the mainstream center-right to create Chega — or Enough — ahead of the 2019 European Parliament elections. He ran on an anti-establishment message, taking on the persona of a straight-talking common man taking on the country’s out-of-touch political elites. The tactic failed to win him a seat in Brussels, but when legislative elections were held later that year, he secured a single seat in the national parliament — and proved Portugal wasn’t immune to right-wing populism. THE RISE OF CHEGA One seat in parliament is hardly the harbinger of future political dominance, yet Ventura went from being Chega’s sole elected representative to running the country’s leading opposition party — and making it to the second round of the presidential election — in just seven years.  Pedro Magalhães, an electoral behavior specialist at the University of Lisbon’s Institute of Social Sciences, links Chega’s growth to the perception that Portugal’s establishment parties are part of a “failed party system that’s seen as being frozen and unable to respond to the crises the country faces.” The crises that Chega has thrived on developed during Costa’s years in office. One major issue is the soaring cost of living in major cities like Lisbon and Porto, which is directly tied to Portugal’s consolidation as an international destination. Costa’s government took pains to grant residency permits to foreign celebrities like Madonna in a bid to spur tourism and create service-sector jobs. The tourism economy flourished, but it came at the cost of local residents, who were ejected from apartments hastily converted into short-term rentals and priced out of their local tascas. Home prices across the country jumped more than 124 percent between 2015 and 2025, and the median price-per-square meter in Lisbon now hovers around €5,914. “There are pluses and minuses to tourism, and it’s helped rehabilitate many of our cities,” said Sérgio Sousa Pinto, a Socialist Party lawmaker who served in the national parliament from 2011 to 2025. “But that’s not top of mind for a family that can no longer afford to pay rent.” As European Council president, Costa has urged leaders to tackle Europe’s housing crisis. But during his time as prime minister, he failed to adopt major policies to expand supply or curb rising costs. For years he denied short-term rentals were having an impact on home prices, and he only moved to end the controversial golden visa scheme in 2023. Chega leader André Ventura speaks after his defeat in the presidential runoff. He took in a third of the vote thanks to the support of a substantial chunk of the electorate exasperated by issues many link to Costa’s time in office. | Tiago Petinga/EPA Frustration over cost of living has overlapped with anger regarding the state of public services. As Costa’s government ramped down many austerity measures, it ensured fiscal stability by keeping public spending in check. But that lack of public investment has drawn more scrutiny as migration has skyrocketed, with the number of foreign residents in Portugal jumped from 388,700 in 2015 to 1.5 million in 2024. Chega has gained supporters by blaming immigrants for the lackluster public services, accusing them of overwhelming hospitals and enriching themselves with public subsidies. “It’s the same stuff he used against the Roma community,” said Magalhães. “It’s an economically irrational line, but one that plays well with electors who are frustrated about higher costs and taxes.” The party has also made strides by harnessing resentment grounded in the widespread perception that the country’s political elites are corrupt. Magalhães said Portugal’s citizens are among the most skeptical in Europe when it comes to the integrity of its ruling classes. “We once did a survey in which we asked participants to think of 100 politicians and tell us how many they thought were corrupt,” he recalled. “On average, respondents said 90 of them were.” Ventura has spent years crusading against this alleged rot. And the far-right leader was finally vindicated in 2023, when police raided the prime minister’s residence in Lisbon as part of a wide-ranging influence-peddling probe and arrested Costa’s chief of staff, Vítor Escária, who was found to have €75,800 in undeclared cash stashed in his office. Costa himself was named as a subject in the investigation, prompting his resignation. Both Costa and Escária have always maintained their innocence, and no evidence linking the former prime minister to any wrongdoing has been revealed. Despite that, the case that brought down his government remains active, and has inevitably contributed to Chega’s growth. In the 2024 elections held in the aftermath of his resignation, the party jumped from 12 to 50 seats. Chega then grew to 60 seats in 2025’s repeat elections, held after Costa’s successor — center-right Prime Minister Luís Montenegro — was embroiled in a separate corruption scandal. Costa declined POLITICO’s requests for comment through a spokesperson, who said the president of the Council has a policy of not discussing national politics. LEADING THE RIGHT When Costa stood down in 2024, his Socialist Party enjoyed an absolute majority in parliament. Lawmaker Sousa Pinto believes the government failed to use that power to carry out the structural reforms that could have addressed the grievances fueling Chega’s growth.  “Costa’s tenure leading the Socialist Party is characterized by a lack of imagination,” he said, adding his last government was composed of “mediocre” figures that match “a general degradation in the quality of our politicians.” He also lamented that as Chega emerged on the scene, the Socialists cast themselves as the left’s sole legitimate representatives, facing off against an allegedly uniform right. “They pushed the idea that democratic center-right parties were the same thing as one that’s illiberal,” he said. “That gained traction among many people, and ultimately helped normalize Chega as an option that’s just as acceptable as any establishment party.” Magalhães expressed doubts that Chega’s assent could be blamed on Costa, arguing the party’s growth was due to a “mummified” national political landscape. “What we have today is a better reflection of the diversity of the public’s opinions than it was in the past — whether we like it or not.” While Chega’s electoral base was originally overwhelmingly composed of young men with little formal education, the ultranationalist group is now becoming “a catch-all for right-wing voters,” political scientist Costa Pinto explained. That’s significant in a political landscape that’s been dominated by the right since Costa’s resignation — something Ventura himself underscored on Sunday. “We lead the right-wing space in Portugal,” the far-right leader told supporters. “And we will soon govern this country.

BRUSSELS — Ursula von der Leyen has summoned her team of European commissioners to a meeting to try to defuse mounting tensions and improve the way they work. The meeting is set for Feb. 4 in Leuven and is open to all members of the College, though attendance is not mandatory, according to a Commission official involved in organizing the event. The idea for such a meeting was conceived after tense exchanges between commissioners and frustration at the repeated late arrival of files on the desks of top officials, Commission officials said. POLITICO spoke to eight officials from different commissioners’ cabinets, all of whom were granted anonymity to speak candidly about the internal dynamics. While the meeting will focus on competitiveness and will feature a special guest — IMF Managing Director and former Commission Vice President Kristalina Georgieva — also on the agenda are discussions on “geopolitics in the current context and the working methods of the European Commission,” Commission deputy chief spokesperson Arianna Podestà told POLITICO. The latter element was prompted by what staffers inside the Berlaymont, the Commission’s HQ, describe as an unusually tense atmosphere. The spark for the idea of the meeting, according to four of the Commission officials, was a tense exchange in early December in which Dan Jørgensen, the energy commissioner, confronted Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera during a meeting of the College of Commissioners — as first reported in Brussels Playbook. Jørgensen will be attending the Feb. 4 meeting, his team said. Ribera’s team did not respond. | Thierry Monasse/Getty Images Both commissioners declined to comment on the incident but one official said Jørgensen had raised his voice when confronting Ribera, while another said the Danish commissioner “made a point toward Ribera that was unusually forceful by College standards” as they discussed a key environmental file. Jørgensen will be attending the Feb. 4 meeting, his team said. Ribera’s team did not respond. Meetings of the full College in the new year are not unusual, and in fact have been a regular practice since 2010, Podestà told POLITICO. However, this one features a session explicitly dedicated to finding better working methods and preventing differences of opinion between commissioners from getting out of hand. Descriptions of the meeting varied, with one official calling it “talks” rather than a formal team-building exercise, and another describing it as “a working group on working methods.” Several Cabinets are growing frustrated with files arriving on their desk just hours before College meetings, or late at night, on the weekend, or on the eve of the presentation of legal proposals. “This prevents us from working professionally,” one official said. “Of course emergencies happen but this can’t be the norm.” The frustration peaked during the presentation of the EU’s long-term budget plan last July, when official figures were reportedly shared with commissioners only hours before the presentation. According to officials close to von der Leyen’s Cabinet, the late arrival of the budget figures was justified as a tactic to prevent leaks. But the approach has only deepened irritation inside the College. According to one official, the “altercation” between Jørgensen and Ribera also concerned fast-tracking files. To get a file presented to the College, an executive vice president must “push the button” (Berlaymont jargon for putting something on the agenda). Faced with a tight deadline to examine the details of a file — the environmental omnibus, designed to simplify green rules — Ribera decided to wait before pushing the button, as she is entitled to do, according to her team. This led to tensions with Jørgensen, a fellow member of the socialist family. One Commission official noted that both center-left commissioners lead teams “with strong views,” making friction likely. “There’s a lot more infighting in [the] College than one might think,” a Commission official said. Some of these frictions reflect genuine differences of opinion but are magnified by a highly centralized system, in which many decisions must get approval on the 13th floor of the Berlaymont — home to von der Leyen’s Cabinet. “The way it works now creates situations that are avoidable and some problems where there aren’t any,” another official said. Jørgensen and Ribera are not the only pair under strain. Tensions have surfaced between Executive Vice President Stéphane Séjourné and Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi, for example, particularly over the Biotech Act. Várhelyi has long objected to the package’s non-health elements, and insiders say his resistance has only hardened as Séjourné pushes a broader industrial strategy. Two officials also said Várhelyi’s behavior is sometimes interpreted as provocative — keeping his phone ringtone on or sprawling in his chair. According to the same officials, Várhelyi has even insisted that only von der Leyen, not fellow commissioners, may substitute for him at events. Neither Séjourné nor Várhelyi responded to requests for comment. Séjourné will not be present at the seminar, as he is taking part in ministerial discussions in Washington on critical raw materials, but will submit written contributions, according to his team. Várhelyi did not confirm if he would be attending the Feb. 4 meeting. Commission officials say that friction between EVPs and other commissioners is almost built into the system. EVPs are meant to coordinate and oversee the work of others, whereas under EU law all commissioners are supposed to be equal. That ambiguity, one official said, is manageable on good days, but doesn’t help when tempers flare. Von der Leyen did not respond to requests for comment. The meeting comes ahead of an EU leaders’ retreat on competitiveness scheduled for Feb. 12.

The leaders of three Dutch political parties said Tuesday they had agreed in principle to form a minority coalition government after months of negotiations.   The centrist D66 party, which took first place in last October’s election, the center-right Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) will join forces in a coalition that will only hold 66 seats in the Netherlands’ lower house of parliament, 10 seats short of a majority. Minority governments are rare in the Netherlands. D66’s leader, 38-year-old Rob Jetten, will be the youngest Dutch prime minister in history. He appeared alongside CDA and VVD’s leaders Tuesday night and said the three “still have a few final details” to iron out before their coalition agreement is formally presented Friday, but sounded an optimistic note.   “We’re really looking forward to getting started,” said Jetten. He added the new government’s priorities would be affordable housing, controlling migration and investing in defense. The Cabinet could be sworn in by the Dutch king by the end of February.  VVD’s leader, Dilan Yeşilgöz, who has previously served as a justice minister, said she hadn’t decided whether she will take a post in the new government.  October’s election saw D66 surge to victory, narrowly overtaking Geert Wilders’ far-right Party for Freedom (PVV), which previously was the largest party in a coalition government marked by infighting. That coalition eventually collapsed after a dispute over asylum policy saw Wilders withdraw his party’s support. 

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music “A little less conversation, a little more action.” That line from an old Elvis Presley song could double as a critique of Europe’s position right now — and as a prescription. On this episode of EU Confidential, host Sarah Wheaton speaks with former Spanish foreign minister, Arancha González-Laya, about how Europe should operate at a moment when power is exercised more bluntly and patience for rules is wearing thin. Her core argument echoes Presley’s advice: Europe isn’t powerless — it just needs to use the leverage it already has. González-Laya, an ex-EU trade negotiator and now dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po, explains what Europe’s leverage looks like in practice: deeper cooperation on energy and defense, and a more assertive use of the internal market. She describes these as Europe’s antidotes to Trump-era chaos — exemplified by his renewed claims over Greenland and the capture of Venezuela’s president — and discusses how Europe could respond to the situation in Iran. Later, in another installment of the Berlaymont Who’s Who series, POLITICO’s Aitor Hernández-Morales takes a closer look at Dan Jørgensen, the EU’s commissioner for energy and housing.

Pedro Sánchez is the prime minister of Spain. It’s no secret the world is going through a time of turbulence. The principles that held it together for decades are under threat; disinformation is spreading freely; and even the foundations of the welfare state — which brought us the longest period of prosperity in human history — are now being questioned by a far-right transnational movement challenging our democratic systems’ ability to deliver collective solutions and social justice. In the face of this attack, Europe stands as a wall of resistance. The EU has been  — and must remain — a shelter for the values that uphold our democracies, our cohesion and our freedom. But let’s be honest, values don’t put a roof over your head. And at any rate, these values are fading fast in the face of something as concrete and urgent as the lack of affordable housing. If we do not act, Europe risks becoming a shelter without homes. The figures are clear: The housing crisis is devastating the standard of living across Europe. Between 2010 and 2025, home prices rose by 60 percent, while rental prices went up by nearly 30 percent. In countries like Estonia or Hungary, prices have tripled. In densely populated or high-tourism cities, families can spend over 70 percent of their income on rent. And individuals with stable jobs in Madrid, Lisbon or Budapest can no longer afford to live where they work or where they grew up. Meanwhile, 93 million Europeans — that’s one in five — are living at risk of poverty or social exclusion. This isn’t just the perception of experts or institutions: Around half of Europeans consider housing to be an “urgent and immediate problem.” Housing, which should be a right, has become a trap that shapes peoples’ present, suffocates their future and endangers Europe’s cohesion, economic dynamism and prosperity. The roots of this problem may differ from country to country, but two facts are undeniable and shared throughout our continent: First, the need for more houses, which we’ve been falling behind on for years. For nearly two decades now, residential construction in the EU has fallen short of demand. After a period of strong growth in the 1990s and early 2000s, the 2008 financial crisis triggered a collapse in housing investment, and the sector never fully recovered. The pandemic only widened this gap, halting permits, delaying materials and worsening labor shortages that further stalled construction. Second, and just as urgent, is that we must ensure both new construction and existing housing stock serve their true purpose: upholding the fundamental right to decent and affordable housing. Because as we continue to fall short of guaranteeing this basic right, homes are increasingly being diverted to fuel speculation or serve secondary uses like tourist rentals. In fact, according to preliminary European Parliament data, there were around 4 million short-term rental listings on digital platforms across the EU in 2025. In my home country, cities like Madrid and València have witnessed the displacement of residents from their historic centers, which are transforming into theme parks for tourists. For nearly two decades now, residential construction in the EU has fallen short of demand. | David Zorrakino/Getty Images At the same time, housing is increasingly being treated as a financial asset instead of a social good. In Ireland, investment funds have acquired nearly half of all newly built homes since 2017, while in Sweden, institutional investors now control 24 percent of all private rental apartments. Just as no one would dare justify doubling the price of a bowl of rice for a starving child, we cannot accept turning the roofs meant to shelter people into a vehicle for speculation — and citizens overwhelmingly share in this view. Seventy-one percent of Europeans believe that the places they live would benefit from more controls on property speculation, like taxing vacant rentals or regulating short-term rentals. This is what the EU stands for: When it’s a choice between profit and people, we choose people. That choice can’t wait any longer. Thankfully, with yesterday’s Affordable Housing Plan, the European Commission is starting to move on housing, taking steps that Spain has long advocated. Brussels now increasingly recognizes the scale of this emergency and acknowledges that specific market conditions may require differentiated national and local responses. This will help consolidate a shared policy understanding regarding housing-stressed areas and strengthen the case for targeted measures — which may include, among others, restrictions on short-term rentals. Crucially, the plan also stresses the need for EU financing to boost housing supply. The time for words is over. We need urgent action. A growing outcry over housing is resonating across Europe, and our citizens need concrete solutions. Any failure to act with ambition and urgency risks turning the housing crisis into a new driver of Euroskepticism. After World War II, Europe was built on two founding promises: securing peace and delivering well-being. Honoring that legacy today means taking decisive action by massively increasing flexible funding to match the scale of the housing crisis, and guaranteeing member countries can swiftly implement the legal tools needed to adopt bold regulatory measures on short-term rentals and address the impact of nonresident buyers on housing access. The true measure of our union isn’t just written in treaties. It must be demonstrated by ensuring every person can live with dignity and have a place to call home. Let us rise to that promise — boldly, together and without delay.

The European Commission unveiled its first-ever Affordable Housing Plan on Tuesday, setting out a roadmap for tackling the bloc-wide housing crisis. The wide-ranging legislative package seeks to free up public cash for new homes, reining in short-term rentals and reducing administrative procedures for construction projects. “Europe must collectively take responsibility for the housing crisis affecting millions of our citizens, and act upon it,” said Housing Commissioner Dan Jørgensen, pointing out that home prices across the bloc have increased by more than 60 percent over the past decade. “Housing is not just a commodity: It is a fundamental right.” And if the EU fails to act, he warned, it risks “leaving a void that extremist political forces will take,” using voter discontent to secure power. In a bid to boost housing stocks, the Commission’s plan includes a  revision of state aid rules to expressly authorize the use of public funds for the construction of affordable housing. These new rules will allow national governments to pour cash into homes for the middle-class families increasingly priced out of the housing market. In collaboration with the European Investment Bank, national banks and other financial institutions, the Commission will also mobilize public and private cash for new social and affordable housing via a pan-European investment platform. The construction of these kinds of homes will be listed as a specific objective within the national partnership plans, which member countries will use to distribute the EU cash allocated to them in the bloc’s next seven-year budget. To further boost supply, the plan also includes a new European Strategy for Housing Construction to simplify and digitize permitting processes, which will be complemented by a housing simplification package in 2027. Brussels additionally proposes major investments to modernize the bloc’s construction sector, as well as measures to establish common standards for building materials. Similarly, it foresees the presentation of a Construction Services Act in late 2026, which will enable construction companies to ensure labor and working standards while offering services across borders. TACKLING SPECULATION AND SHORT-TERM RENTALS In a bid to ensure homes are sold at fair prices, the plan proposes tackling the broader issue of speculation through a careful analysis of the housing market. Over the course of the next year, the Commission will gather data on the scale of this phenomenon, which has led vital homes to be treated like “gold or Bitcoin and other investments made for the sole purpose of making money,” Jørgensen said. As part of its analysis, Brussels will also examine how speculative practices can be curbed, and help national governments design transparency mechanisms and taxation policies to reduce the market’s financialization. The package also takes on the housing shortage in Europe’s most popular cities by giving national, regional and local authorities the legal tools to rein in short-term rentals. Through a legislative act due out next year, Brussels will aim to help authorities identify the areas negatively impacted by tourist flats and lay out “justified and proportionate measures.” “We cannot sit back while local citizens are pushed out of the housing market in the places where they were born or where they want to build a life,” Jørgensen said. He added that authorities would now be able to curb the impact of short-term rentals by setting caps on the number of nights rented per year, limiting their operation to specific seasons or temporarily halting the approval of new licenses. The plan also seeks to address the needs of vulnerable groups like younger Europeans, who often have to delay starting their independent lives because they can’t afford to live outside their family home. To help them, Brussels proposes allocating public cash for new student housing, as well as launching an Erasmus+ scheme to offer affordable housing solutions for students with disadvantaged backgrounds. The Commission also calls for mobilizing funds to build social housing for homeless Europeans, and to promote the so-called housing first model that’s been a success in countries like Finland, which offers unconditional permanent housing to the unhoused. The plan additionally recovers Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s signature New European Bauhaus scheme, tapping it to provide guidance on how to make construction materials and the resulting new homes and neighborhoods more sustainable and efficient.

From Lisbon to Tallinn, Europeans are overwhelmed by soaring home prices. This week, Brussels intends to do something about it. “This is a real crisis,” said European Commissioner for Housing Dan Jørgensen in an interview with POLITICO, ahead of the approval of the bloc’s first-ever Affordable Housing Plan. “And it’s not just enough to talk about it.” To that end, the package will seek to free up public cash for the construction of new homes, track speculation in the housing market, and give regional and local governments tools to rein in the short-term rentals contributing to the housing shortage. “The plan will be a mix of concrete actions at the EU level and recommendations that member states can apply,” Jørgensen said, adding that the European Commission wants to give national, regional and local governments ways to make real changes on the ground — while not overstepping its role in an area over which it has no official competence. “This is a real problem affecting millions of people, and the inaction is playing right into the playbook of right-wing populists,” Jørgensen noted, citing the ultranationalist parties that have stoked discontent over sky-high home prices to score major victories in countries like the Netherlands and Portugal. “Normally the EU has not played a big role here,” he added. “That needs to change.” CASH, TOOLS AND TRANSPARENCY The most concrete action set to be announced this week is a revision of state aid rules to make it easier for national governments to build affordable housing. Member countries have long complained they can only use public cash to provide homes for low-income families. Reflecting the fact that even middle-class earners are now struggling to pay for shelter, the new regulations will allow funds to be used for all groups priced out of the housing market. The package will also give national, regional and local authorities tools to target the tourist flats exacerbating the housing shortage in cities like Barcelona, Florence and Prague. “I’m not on the side of the people who call for banning short-term rentals,” Jørgensen clarified, adding that such platforms have offered travelers the ability to experience Europe differently, and provided some families with a needed source of income. But the model has grown at a rate “no one could have imagined, with short-term rentals accounting for 20 percent of homes in some very stressed areas,” he noted. It has turned into a “money machine instead of what it was intended to.” The commissioner stressed that national, regional and local leaders would ultimately be the ones deciding whether to use the tools to rein in short-term rentals. “We’re not going to force people to do anything,” he said. “If you think the status quo is fine, you can keep things as they are.” In another first, a more abstract section of the package will also aim to address speculation in the housing market. “This is a real crisis,” said European Commissioner for Housing Dan Jørgensen in an interview with POLITICO. | Lilli Förter/Getty Images While insisting he’s “not against people making money,” Jørgensen said Europe’s housing stock was being treated like “gold or Bitcoin and other investments made for the sole purpose of making money” — an approach that ignores the vital role of shelter for society at large. “Having a roof over your head, a decent house … is a human right,” he argued. As an initial step, this week’s package will propose the EU track speculation and determine the scope of the problem. However, Jørgensen acknowledged that using the resulting data for concrete action to tackle the market’s financialization might prove difficult. “While no one is really arguing this problem doesn’t exist, there’s a political conflict over whether it’s a good or a bad thing.” But regulation is essential for the proper functioning of the internal market, he added. THE COMPETENCE QUESTION The Commission’s housing package will also include a new construction strategy to cut red tape and create common standards, so that building materials manufactured at competitive prices in one member country can be easily used for housing projects in another. Additionally, there will be a bid to address the needs of the over a million homeless Europeans, many of whom aren’t citizens of the countries in which they are sleeping rough. “We want to look at what rights they have and how these are respected,” Jørgensen said. “We’re talking about humans with needs, people who deserve our help and compassion.” The commissioner explained the complexity of the housing crisis had required a “holistic” approach that led him to work in tandem with Executive Vice Presidents Teresa Ribera and Roxana Mînzatu, as well as internal market boss Stéphane Séjourné and tech chief Henna Virkkunen, among others. He also stressed the package didn’t constitute a power grab on the Commission’s part, and that national, regional and local governments are still best positioned to address many aspects of the crisis. “But,” he said, “there are areas where we haven’t done anything in which we can do something.” While much of the plan will consist of recommendations member countries won’t be required to implement, Jørgensen warned against ignoring them. The Commission is providing solutions, he said, and “policymakers need to answer to their populations if they don’t do something that’s pretty obvious they could do.” “Normal citizens will use every opportunity to make their demands known, be it in local, national or European elections,” Jørgensen explained. “I’m respectfully telling decision-makers all over Europe that either they take this problem seriously, or they accept that they’ll have to hand over power to the populists.”

LONDON — The British government hit back Wednesday after Donald Trump launched his latest broadside at London Mayor Sadiq Khan. The U.S. president told POLITICO in an interview Monday that Khan was “a horrible mayor” who had made the British capital city a  “different place” to what it once was. Trump added of Khan: “He’s an incompetent mayor, but he’s a horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor. I think he’s done a terrible job. London’s a different place. I love London. I love London. And I hate to see it happen.” Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, a member of the U.K. cabinet, pushed backed at those remarks Wednesday, and heaped praise on her fellow Labour politician. “I strongly disagree with those comments,” she told Sky News. “I think Sadiq is doing a really good job and has been at the forefront of providing affordable housing [and] improvements to transport.” Nandy said Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, had offered a model for the U.K. government to follow nationally. “He’s been one of the people who has set up multi-agency approaches to help young people with knife crime, gang violence that we’re learning from in government,” she said. “So I strongly disagree.” Asked explicitly if Trump’s comments were wrong, Nandy replied: “Yes he is.” In his wide-ranging interview with POLITICO, the U.S. president also claimed Khan — who has won three consecutive terms as mayor of London and has no power to determine national migration policy — had been elected “because so many people have come in. They vote for him now.” Pushed on why Prime Minister Keir Starmer hadn’t explicitly defended Khan from Trump’s attack, Nandy said she knows “the prime minister would disagree with those comments.” She added: “I’m sure that if you asked the prime minister if he was sitting in this studio today, he would say what I’ve said, which is that Sadiq is doing an incredibly good job for London. We’re proud of our mayors.” Khan told POLITICO Tuesday the U.S. president was “obsessed” with him and claimed Americans were “flocking” to live in London, because its liberal values are the “antithesis” of Trump’s. It’s not the first beef between the two politicians.  Trump once called Khan a “stone cold loser” and “very dumb” — after Khan compared Trump to “the fascists of the 20th century.” In 2018, Khan allowed anti-Trump activists to fly a blimp over parliament showing Trump as a crying baby in a diaper during his first state visit.

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music When Europe’s biggest political family crosses the aisle to vote with the far right, something fundamental shifts in Brussels. In this episode, host Sarah Wheaton unpacks the vote that cracked the European Parliament’s cordon sanitaire — and what a newly disciplined, image-polished far right means for Ursula von der Leyen’s shaky centrist alliance. POLITICO’s Marianne Gros and Max Griera take us inside the omnibus showdown; Tim Ross demonstrates how the same forces are reshaping politics across Europe — from the English seaside town of Jaywick to Paris, Berlin and beyond. Plus — Aitor Hernández-Morales brings us a surprising counterpoint from Denmark, where voters pushed back against a left-wing government they felt had leaned too far toward the right.