Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp resigned late Friday amid political deadlock over what he saw as the need for tougher measures against Israel, weakening the country’s already fragile caretaker administration. Veldkamp’s colleagues from the centrist New Social Contract (NSC) party followed him out of the caretaker government in a blow to the stability of the EU’s fifth-biggest economy. The Netherlands’ next general election is set to take place on Oct. 29. The Dutch government collapsed on June 3 — and then went into caretaker mode — after Geert Wilders’ far-right Party For Freedom (PVV) left over a dispute on migration policy. After hours of fruitless debate in parliament on Friday on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Veldkamp — who had pushed for tougher sanctions against Israel over its renewed assault on Gaza City — said in the evening he had “insufficient confidence” he would have “the space in the coming weeks, months, or even a year to chart the course I deem necessary.” NSC leader Nicolien van Vroonhoven said the party had sent a message that “the situation has to improve.” “It didn’t,” she said simply. “So now steps are being taken.” That sentiment was echoed by Deputy Prime Minister Eddy van Hijum, also from the NSC. “In short, we’re done with it … Veldkamp felt the need for additional measures against the Israeli government very strongly, but the brakes were constantly applied,” he said. Prime Minister Dick Schoof voiced his “regret” about the withdrawal of NSC from the Cabinet in a late-night address to parliament. “We must respect these decisions, but we deeply regret them — especially in light of the responsibility the cabinet bears in this caretaker phase,” he said. The populist Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB) party, one of the coalition’s two remaining partners along with the liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), fumed over the NSC’s departure, saying it left the Netherlands “rudderless.” “While the talks were still ongoing, they walked away, leaving chaos in their wake,” the BBB party said in a statement. Veldkamp, a former ambassador to Israel, resigned the same day a United Nations-backed food security body declared that there is a famine in Gaza and amid Israel’s renewed military offensive in the besieged coastal strip. The health ministry in Gaza, which is under the Hamas-run government, estimates more than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its assault on Gaza immediately following Hamas’ attack on Israel Oct. 7, 2023. U.N. agencies and independent experts consider the ministry’s casualty records as generally reliable.

Never mind guns, knives and knuckle-dusters. To get tough on organized crime, Sweden is asking the European Union for help in cracking down on … fireworks. Two Swedish ministers have warned top EU officials of a rapid shift by criminals in Sweden toward the use of explosives like fireworks, in a recent letter sent to European Commission Industry Executive Vice President Stéphane Séjourné and Home Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner seen by POLITICO. Sweden is struggling with a wave of gang crime, leading it to push for ever-tougher law enforcement policies including letting police wiretap children and a social media crackdown.  “While illegal firearms have been most commonly used by criminal networks when carrying out violent attacks, there is a growing tendency toward using explosives,” Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer and Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin, said in the letter dated May 22.  One key source of explosives is “pyrotechnic articles,” Strömmer and Bohlin wrote — a technical term that often refers to fireworks. “The development in modus has changed rapidly, and there is considerable risk that this type of violence spreads rapidly to other member states,” the ministers warned. The Commission should “rapidly” update the EU’s Pyrotechnics Directive, a 2013 law that regulates the market for fireworks across Europe, Sweden is asking. Specifically, it wants to make the law tougher on the illicit trade of fireworks; bring in measures to make it easier to track their sale; get law enforcement and the industry to work together; and even use artificial intelligence to prevent the illicit trade, trafficking and transport of pyrotechnics. “While illegal firearms have been most commonly used by criminal networks when carrying out violent attacks, there is a growing tendency toward using explosives,” Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer (pictured) and Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin, said in the letter dated May 22. | Atila Altuntas/Anadolu via Getty Images The EU should also get tougher on blank weapons, which criminals often modify to use for real shootings, the Swedish ministers said. Updating the pyrotechnics legislation is one of the targets in the EU’s recent internal security strategy. The crime spree is causing concern with Sweden’s neighbors, too, with Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard drawing attention to organized criminals’ use of encrypted messaging services to recruit kids into crimes including “murders, attempted murders [and] explosions.”

London’s Heathrow Airport will be closed for the entirety of Friday after a fire at a nearby electrical substation cut power to the area. Heathrow, which is Europe’s busiest airport, advised passengers not to travel to the airport and to contact airlines for further instructions. “Due to a fire at an electrical substation supplying the airport, Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage. To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23h59 on 21 March,” the airport said in a post on social media. The London Fire Brigade said in a statement that around 70 firefighters were working to douse the fire at the substation in Hayes, which is less than 5 kilometers from Heathrow. Around 150 people have been evacuated from the surrounding area and a 200-meter cordon established. “This is a highly visible and significant incident,” said Assistant Commissioner Patrick Goulbourne in a statement. “This will be a prolonged incident, with crews remaining on scene throughout the night. As we head into the morning, disruption is expected to increase, and we urge people to avoid the area wherever possible.”

A person drove a car into a protest march in central Munich on Thursday morning, injuring multiple people. Munich police wrote on X that “several people” were hurt at the scene after a vehicle drove into a group of people. The driver was “secured on the spot and currently poses no further danger,” police added. The incident comes on the eve of the Munich Security Conference, a gathering of leaders that starts on Friday and includes U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy among its participants. According to German newspaper Bild, a person drove a Mini Cooper into a demonstration by service workers’ union Verdi. The BBC cited police saying the operation is under way in the Dachauer Strasse area, outside of the city’s historic center and a half hour’s walk from where the security conference is taking place.

Poland’s government reacted with rage Friday to a decision by Hungary’s government to grant political asylum to fugitive former Polish Deputy Justice Minister Marcin Romanowski. Budapest announced the asylum on Thursday night.  The move marks a further breakdown in relations between Poland and Hungary, with Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski calling it an “unfriendly step” by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s populist government. Sikorski’s ministry summoned the Hungarian ambassador on Friday morning. “We consider the decision to grant political asylum to Marcin Romanowski, who is wanted under a European arrest warrant, to be an act hostile to the Republic of Poland and contrary to the elementary principles binding the member states of the European Union,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “Justifying this decision with alleged political persecution is an insult to citizens and Polish authorities,” it added. Romanowski, an MP with the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, faces 11 charges in Poland for misuse of public funds when he was deputy justice minister from 2019 to 2023. Over the summer, the Polish parliament lifted his immunity, and on Thursday a Warsaw court issued a European arrest warrant for him. In a video message on X posted Thursday, Romanowski accused Polish Prime Donald Tusk and Justice Minister Adam Bodnar of “illegally usurping power” and of improperly prosecuting him. Tusk’s government has launched a campaign to prosecute officials from the previous government accused of wrongdoing. When PiS was in power from 2015 to 2023 it cultivated close relations with Orbán’s Fidesz party, as both ran into trouble with the European Commission over allegations they were backsliding on the bloc’s democratic principles. Relations between Poland and Hungary have become increasingly hostile after Tusk and his centrist coalition defeated PiS in late 2023. Tusk on Friday denounced the Hungarian decision, comparing the government in Budapest to Alexander Lukashenko’s dictatorship in Belarus. “I did not expect that corrupt officials fleeing justice could choose between Lukashenko and Orbán in seeking refuge from justice,” he told reporters. It wouldn’t be the first time that Hungary has granted political asylum to friendly politicians, as it did in 2018 to former Prime Minister of North Macedonia Nikola Gruevski when he was sentenced to two years in prison for corruption in his home country.  But according to the spokesperson for the Polish prosecutor general, there is no precedent for an EU country granting political asylum to politicians from another member country.  However, the minister heading Orbán’s office, Gergely Gulyás, insisted the decision is in line with Hungarian and EU regulations.  “In [Romanowski’s] case, there is concrete evidence of a lack of a fair trial, as he was arrested this summer despite having immunity as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,” Gulyás said in an interview with government-aligned newspaper Mandiner. According to Gulyás, the Hungarian state “cannot have access to the proceedings of an authority in another country, nor can we comment on the merits of the accusation,” but it can grant political asylum if the person’s case is not judged impartially and free from political influence.  “This risk exists today in Poland in general and in this specific case in particular, based on the procedure so far,” Gulyás added. But Tusk insisted that the asylum grant won’t protect Romanowski. “All those who think that they will be able to use these tricks and dodges and go unpunished are wrong. Here I can assure you that our state is strong and efficient enough to make sure that this type of situation has a good end,” he said.