For Washington, which has tried to oust President Assad since 2011, the development constitutes yet another foreign policy failure in the region.

Conservatives have long complained of the uselessness of the EPP. A potential break with the socialists would pose a massive hurdle for the European political centre ahead of the 2024 EU elections.

Moscow’s military parade will be less spectacular this year and some regions have even cancelled them.

“Only people who are not running in the next parliamentary elections have been selected” for serving in Slovakia’s upcoming technocratic government, led by an experienced economist free of party influence, President Čaputová announced.

To support entrepreneurship, policymakers should make business-friendly reforms, encourage integration of a common European market, and remove barriers to entrepreneurship in female-dominated fields.