By Daniel Oross (ELTE Centre for Social Sciences of the Hungarian Academy) and Bálint Mikola (CEU Democracy Institute) Since 2010, Hungary has been controlled by the illiberal politics of Viktor Orbán and his party to such an extent that the main issue leading up to the 2026 elections was whether Hungary can still be seen [...]

By Mylen Lyubenov (Sofia University) The eighth parliamentary elections in five years in Bulgaria have led to a political earthquake. The Progressive Bulgaria coalition, led by former President Rumen Radev, won a landslide victory. The new formation received 44.5% of the vote and an absolute majority of 131 deputies in the 240-seat National Assembly. How [...]

By Alenka Krašovec (University of Ljubljana) and Tim Haughton (University of Birmingham) This time it was different. For almost two decades Slovenia has provided plenty of material for scholars of new political parties. The country’s elections always seemed to follow a familiar script. A new party formed a few weeks or months before an election [...]

By Jørgen Elklit (Aarhus University) It was a little surprising that Danish Prime Minister, Ms Mette Frederiksen, in late February called a snap election to the parliament (Folketinget) to be held on March 24th. The four year parliamentary term would only end in late October, and her slim majority coalition government was not doing too [...]