If 2024 was the year of global elections, 2025 is the year voters want experimentation in politics and government – and they’re willing to elect risky people to deliver it.

Last year set a clear pattern: incumbent governments were punished and either chronically weakened or kicked out. Those that held on did so either with radically reduced majorities or, more often, through shaky deals between parties with little in common except keeping political insurgents out of power.