The new Prime Minister will now have to build on his successor’s (A) / predecessor’s (B) success and address his failures.
The country was steered (A) / stere (B) out of the financial collapse.
The focus on quick fixes has pushed aside the real structural issues behind the cringe (A) / crisis (B).
Successor means the one who will come after Predecessor means the one who was earlier in that position steer means to row, drive stere is a unit of volume meaning one cubic meter cringe means to pull back crisis means difficult times