European politics has entered a period of political fragmentation. Across the Continent, mainstream political parties are losing ground to new competitors, parliaments are becoming more atomized, negotiations to form governments are taking longer and the overall policy direction of countries is getting harder to predict. This development is increasing political risk across the Continent, as companies, institutions and households are forced to operate in a political atmosphere that is becoming harder and harder to read. A Decade of Increasing Divisions Election results in Europe's largest economies over the past decade show increasing divisions in the political landscape. This fragmentation has manifested in different forms. In some cases, the number of political parties represented in parliament has increased.