The resulting victory of Andrzej Duda is a harbinger for greater discord between Warsaw and Brussels, as the policy positions of the Law and Order Party under whose name he ran are likely to run afoul of Poland’s commitments to the respect for the rule of law, tolerance, and non-discrimination as enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union.
All in Elections & Referendums
As political leaders around the world address the COVID-19 crisis, many have seen their approval ratings increase, in some cases dramatically so. What is at the root of this shift in popular support, how long will it last, and what might it mean for the upcoming U.S. presidential election?
Zelenskiy’s victory came as a shock to many, but was not entirely unexpected. Although Zelenskiy’s fresh face might be a balm in domestic politics, where corruption is rampant and toxic, but will it be enough to face Russia in the East?
An historically high number of Conservative MPs have put their hats into the ring to succeed May so the party has decided to change its rules for the leadership contest attempting to quicken the process and avoid the impression of a drawn out vanity project at a time of national political crisis. The reality is that the new PM will face the same problems that May did alongside the added anger and distrust that has accumulated over the last two years. There appears to be three options for the new Prime Minister to pursue, however each has its difficulties.
The April 9th election will not only decide who will lead Israel as Prime Minister, but it also has the potential to make drastic changes to Israeli policies towards the Palestinian Territories. Netanyahu’s victory may strike the deathblow to the two-state solution. His defeat could herald the rebirth of the Palestinian peace process. Israeli voters must now decide: to gamble on Gantz’s promise of diplomacy under fresh leadership or to defend Netanyahu’s narrative of an Israel under siege.
The European response to recent developments of the crisis in Venezuela is a strong example of how European common foreign policy is made and implemented in practice. In areas of policy where EU governments can compellingly argue that they have a better understanding of the situation they can carry real authority. Fellow EU states who may not be invested in a situation at all will be willing to listen and follow their lead.
In the last decade, we witnessed many stable Western democracies degenerate into populist rancor and anti-establishment upheaval. Yet, it is the capacity of the people to learn and adapt that has always proven Democracy’s ace. Perhaps now more than ever, Democracy needs a course-correct.
As public and military support continue to mount, Guaidó is preparing to challenge Maduro and has called for a change of power. At Guaidó’s behest, the first public rally for Maduro to resign will take place today, January 23rd, with a massive protest against the Maduro government. The opposition must demonstrate to the Venezuelan people and the international community that they can — and will — bring about a peaceful democratic transition. The time is now, or never.
Many people feel that European unity and the European dream are under threat. Weary of politicians who refuse to advance the European project and the appeasement of populists and nationalists, Volt Europa and European Spring decided to launch their own political movements.
The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 left Spain scrambling to reassemble a broken economy and combat soaring unemployment. European austerity measures and Catalonian dreams of independence have since occupied all of Madrid’s bandwidth and effectively back-seated Spanish foreign policy for over a decade. With the rise of Pedro Sánchez and the wounds of the financial crisis healing, Madrid has turned its attention back to Brussels, and is ready to assume the role of a leading power in Europe.
Between the acronyms and the shorthand terms used in the Brexit debate, it’s easy to get lost. To help bring a sense of meaning back to some of this language, let’s lay out the main options for Brexit facing the UK government and their advantages and disadvantages.
The 2019 European Elections will be taking place in less than a year. Yet by and large, political parties do not seem particularly interested. There’s no campaigning. Parties aren’t talking to members. No plans are being drawn up. If the European Elections sometimes feel like an afterthought, it’s at least partly because parties seem to treat them as such.
Much has been made of Steve Bannon’s grand master plan to unify the radical right populist parties of Europe to seriously disrupt the 2019 European Elections. The only problem with this plan is that it’s almost certain to fail.
Populism. It's the big idea on people's lips currently and we're living through a surge in populist politics in Europe. Or are we? To what extent is this a European phenomenon and to what extent is it localised to some states in Europe?
On the 1st of June, the social democratic party PSOE passed a vote of no confidence against then-President Mariano Rajoy in Congress and successfully installed the party leader Pedro Sánchez as President of Spain, leading a minority government. Although Sánchez’s arrival in La Moncloa was well received in the wider European political community, he has little time to make change before calling for new elections.
Header for the Column on the Libyan Civil War
This thread is meant to periodically capture the complexities of this conflict, and to provide up-to-date information about the latest movements on the political front as the nation enters a key year, when it is scheduled to have a series of UN mandated elections to determine the actual government of this war-torn nation that has seen its highs and lows since 2011.
With all of the talk of Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, it’s easy to forget that Russia will hold its own elections just next spring. While the U.S. election excited and divided the nation for well over a year, the upcoming Russian election is leaving much to be desired across the country.