Yesterday's saviour became today's burden. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has resigned, just over a year after he got the keys to Downing Street with a promise to calm the country after years of chaos. The chaos, it seems, didn't go anywhere - it just changed address.

The resignation comes after a string of catastrophic election defeats for Labour in local and by-elections through 2025 and 2026, in which Reform UK took significant ground. Dozens of MPs publicly demanded that Starmer go, or at least announce a date for his departure. When your own party starts counting the days out loud, the end is usually a matter of time.

"We opened a new page in the history of our country after years of disappointment," Starmer said on his way out, adding that he would do everything for an "orderly transfer of power". Nominations for a new leader open on 9 July, and the process is meant to wrap up before parliament's summer recess. Until then, Starmer stays on as a caretaker prime minister.

The favourite to succeed him is Andy Burnham, who recently won a by-election, while Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner are signalling they might enter the race. But a change of face is rarely a change of the problem. Britain went through a Conservative whirlwind of prime ministers, and now the Labour saviour too has fallen in a year and change.

For a Balkan viewer, used to governments falling faster than they form, this is a familiar film with British subtitles. When not even Europe's most stable democracy can keep a prime minister longer than a single season, the question isn't who is to blame - it's whether anyone today can govern at all, in an age when the patience of voters is shorter than the mandate.