Welcome to the weekend issue of Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union. Join us on Saturdays for deeper dives from our bureaus across Europe.

BRATISLAVA — Slovakia’s prime minister has some advice for fellow EU leaders striving to navigate the current turmoil: Politics is overrated.

Since coming to power in 2023, Robert Fico and his coalition have been seeking to overhaul the country’s criminal justice system, public media, and civil society organizations in what opposition parties call attempts to amass power and exploit controls of key state institutions.

The premier isn’t backing down.

This week, during a visit to Uzbekistan, he praised its political system built around a “strong” president and called for a reduction of the number of political parties back home in Slovakia.

“You can’t compete when you have a hundred political parties,” Fico told reporters in Tashkent. “You can’t compete when your government is a coalition of four different factions. You can’t compete when you’re spending all your time and energy answering stupid questions.”

In the central Asian country, the five officially registered parties are widely seen as supporting the government and international election observers say fundamental freedoms remain limited.

Robert Fico Photographer: Atdhe Mulla/Bloomberg

Back home, Fico’s remarks triggered a backlash from the opposition, which warned against importing illiberal practices into the EU. Critics say that Fico, whose coalition lacks the constitutional supermajority to carry out major political reforms, is gradually testing how far he can go in undermining the pillars of liberal democracy.

The Slovak leader is taking a page out of his Hungarian counterpart’s playbook. Viktor Orban — who has become a nationalist icon in Europe and beyond for his tight grip on power since 2010 — has railroaded the opposition and muzzled critics. He has also led Hungary to increasingly align with China and Russia over the past 15 years, putting Budapest at odds with the EU and western allies in NATO.

Fico looked comfortable during his visit to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan this week, where he’s been received at the highest level and treated as a respected partner. That hasn’t been the case in Europe, where his push to preserve ties with Russia and contempt for EU values put him at odds with most member states.

— Daniel Hornak, Bratislava reporter

Weekend Reads

Homeowners Battle Insurers Over $2.9 Trillion Climate Risk

Presles-en-Brie homeowner Bernard Weisse looks at cracks in a bedroom wall. Photographer: Cyril Marcilhacy/Bloomberg

When Bernard Weisse first noticed a tiny crack in the outer wall of his house on the outskirts of Paris, he dismissed it as little more than a nuisance. But in the four years since, a spiderweb of fissures has spread from floor to ceiling and snaked into virtually every corner of his home. Like a growing number of people around the world, Weisse is grappling with subsidence, a slow-moving climate disaster that has already caused tens of billions in damage.

France’s Finance Minister Is the Calm Hand Macron Needs Now

Eric Lombard in Paris in February Photographer: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg

In the ministry where Emmanuel Macron began his imperious transformation of France’s economy and politics, Eric Lombard, as finance minister, is quietly refashioning the president’s project into a humbler, more careful enterprise. It’s a big shift away from Macron’s grandstanding approach to politics, one that promised big yet also alienated voters, political rivals and even partners.

Banks Want Staff Back at the Office. There Aren’t Enough Desks

Five years after the Covid pandemic fueled an unprecedented boom in remote work, bank executives have become ever more vocal in their insistence that workers should return to the office. In a growing number of cases, however, they don’t have enough desks. JPMorgan Chase has just signed up for thousands more in the UK and Paris and Spain’s BBVA is running short of office space in the UK. 

Europe’s IPO Drought Has Stock Exchanges Battling for Listings

As fewer large companies opt to go public in Europe, the region’s stock exchanges are fighting harder to win the biggest listings. Stockholm, Amsterdam, Zurich and London recently went head-to-head to vie for Hellman & Friedman’s initial public offering of Verisure. The Swedish exchange proved triumphant this time but competition for the next major IPO is already underway. 

Five Easy French Countryside Escapes That Pair Perfectly With Paris

Les Roches Rouges Photographer: Lucas Dutertry/Les Roches Rouges

In France, 2024 was a banner year for tourism. There are many reasons to visit the country’s capital this summer too—from the David Hockney retrospective at the Louis Vuitton Foundation to the Centre Pompidou’s final exhibitions before a five-year renovation begins in September. We have a list of five countryside and seaside properties that can be easily added to any Parisian sojourn, chosen either for their fresh appeal or for flying under the radar.

This Week in Europe

• Monday: EU energy ministers meet in Luxembourg
• Monday-Tuesday: G-7 leaders meet in Kananaskis, Alberta in Canada
• Tuesday: EU environment ministers meet in Luxembourg
• Thursday-Friday: EU finance ministers meet in Luxembourg