European media and politicians savaged Boris Johnson after his Commons defeat to opponents of a no-deal Brexit, saying the prime minister’s tactics had backfired disastrously, his bluster was no longer working, and – after barely six weeks in office – he was already fighting for survival.

The former Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, denounced Johnson as a populist and compared him to Matteo Salvini, the bombastic far-right leader whose bid last month to become prime minister last month backfired spectacularly, instead pushing his anti-immigrant League party out of power.

“The UK and Italy have shown in the past few hours that our institutions are a serious thing, stronger than both Boris Johnson and Salvini,” Renzi, whose Democratic party has now returned to government in Rome, tweeted in English. “Parliaments 2 - Populists 0.”

France’s newspaper of record, Le Monde, recounted “another mad day in Brexitland” which “turned out particularly badly for Boris Johnson. In the space of a few hours, Britain’s new prime minister lost what remained of his majority in the Commons, failed to prevent a major rebellion in his own camp, and lost a crucial battle to no-deal opponents.”

Libération turned to the history books, observing that the last British prime minister to have lost the first vote he had faced in parliament was the Earl of Rosebery, in 1894. “And he did not leave a very lasting impression,” the paper noted, ominously. “He survived barely a year in Downing Street.”

But at the end of an “extraordinary day stuffed with surprises, Boris Johnson matched Rosebery’s feat”, Libération added. “In a wholly unprecedented move, the legislature – members of parliament – took control from the executive: the government.”

Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament had infuriated MPs and misfired catastrophically, the paper said. “For the first time in ages, the Commons showed coherence and cohesion. The ‘rebel alliance’ worked perfectly. At last, the opposition spoke with one voice, and Boris Johnson was hoist by his own petard. It’s hard to see how he gets out of it.”

Germany’s Die Zeit succinctly summed up Johnson’s problem. “Last night showed, convincingly, that the prime minister no longer has a majority,” it said. “His problem is that after this defeat, he had no choice but to announce a vote for new elections – for which he needs the backing of two-thirds of MPs.”

And so little trust do the rebels and the opposition have in the prime minister that they are highly unlikely to grant him his wish “unless and until the law designed to prevent a no deal is passed by parliament and has become law”, it said. “So: Johnson has a problem.”

The German financial newspaper Handelsblatt, said bluntly that just weeks into his premiership, Johnson was “already fighting for his political survival” as Britain “slipped deeper and deeper into political chaos”.

The prime minister’s attempt to call fresh elections represented “an attempt to regain the initiative” after the rebels’ crushing victory, the paper said, but “Johnson no longer has control of events” and, in the short term at least, is unlikely to get the election he now wants.

Since, however, it is “difficult to see how the government can continue without a majority”, it will have to happen sooner or later, Handelsblatt said. But unfortunately for the prime minister, “nothing is guaranteed. A new poll could also end in stalemate: a repeat of 2017, when Theresa May called an election hoping to get a larger majority. We all know what happened then.”

In the Netherlands, NRC Handelsblad said it had been an embarrassing and highly damaging day for Johnson. “Different premier, different style, different rhetoric – but the same outcome,” it said. “Just as happened so often to Theresa May, Boris Johnson has lost a vital vote in the lower house”.

When and whether Johnson gets his wish for early elections now depends entirely on “the political calculations being made in the headquarters of the opposition parties”, NRC said. “Johnson has not yet been prime minister for six weeks, but already he has lost his political credit and survives at the whim of the Commons.”

The Irish Times said Johnson’s decision to prorogue parliament for five weeks had been fatal, galvanising the opposition. The prime minister’s tricks – “babbling elegant hyperbole and taking low swipes” – no longer worked, because his controversial move “has been a gift to Jeremy Corbyn, allowing [the Labour leader] to take a leading role in cross-party efforts to block a no-deal Brexit and present himself as a champion of parliamentary democracy against an overweening executive”.

Spain’s El Pais agreed. “The British parliament was not impressed with the popularity of Boris Johnson, nor intimidated by his bravado,” the paper said. The prime minister “began the day with the energy and swagger that delight his supporters, but ended it dodging questions and babbling – after learning just how fiercely a parliamentary system react when its powers are threatened”.

Johnson had used “all the legal and parliamentary stratagems at his disposal”, the paper said. “And the only thing he has achieved is to embolden his adversaries and reaffirm the conviction of many Tory opponents that they must now put the interests of the country ahead of those of their own party.”

Spain’s Socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez, who himself faces a return to the polls after failing to form a new government since winning elections in April, called an urgent meeting of his ministerial Brexit committee to be held on Thursday morning.

• This article was amended on 6 September 2019. Matteo Renzi leads Italy’s Democratic party, not the Socialist party as an earlier version said.