By Mary Brennan (University College Dublin) Ireland has a bicameral parliamentary system, with the lower house of parliament, Dáil Eireann comprising of 160 TDs (Teachta Dála or members of parliament) including that of the normally non-voting Ceann Comhairle (Chair of Dail / similar to the position of Speaker in the UK parliament), thereby the formation [...]

By Alenka Krašovec (University of Ljubljana) At the start of 2020 Slovenia seemed to face a new period of unstable government, an ongoing feature of the last decade. After the parliamentary elections in 2018, in September a coalition government of five parties was formed by Marjan Šarec, yet another political newcomer (after Zoran Janković, Alenka [...]

By Marina Gorbatiuc (Institute of Legal, Political and Sociological Research, Chisinau) In spite of the “Red Code” declaration and 23 infected persons on March 16th, 2020 a new Coalition government was created in Moldova. We can highlight three reasons of its forming: 1. The Coalition was established responding to President Igor Dodon’ interests, especially in [...]

By Peter Spac (Masaryk University) The 2020 general election in Slovakia was a massive victory of the opposition. The leftist party SMER that dominated Slovak politics for almost two decades failed to win its first general elections since 2006. The election showed two outcomes. First, it indicates a substantial change in the course of the [...]

By Brigit Laffan (European University Institute) The Irish General Election 2020 was not an earthquake election but represents a major shift in Irish party politics. Fianna Fáil (FF) for long the dominant party in Irish politics lost its cartel status in 2011 following the financial crash and the arrival of the Troika. The outcome of [...]