By Wilfried Marxer (Liechtenstein Institute) Parliamentary elections were held in Liechtenstein last Sunday, 9 February 2025. The election Sunday ended very differently for the two traditionally dominant parties, which have been in office in a joint governing coalition almost without interruption for decades: the Vaterländische Union (Patriotic Union; VU), as the majority party in government, [...]
By Jonathan Arlow (University of Liverpool) The General Election continued the trend for fragmentation in the Irish party system, with the three big beasts of Irish politics – Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Sinn Féin – all winning between 19 to 22 per cent of the vote share. The Irish electorate has also bucked the [...]
By Ólafur Th. Hardarson (University of Iceland) Parliamentary election took place in Iceland last Saturday, November 30th 2024. The government coalition – which had been in power since 2017, lost its majority with a big bang. In 2021, the governing parties, the left-socialist Left Greens, the conservative Independence Party and the centre-right Progressive Party obtained [...]
By Mila Mo (Sofia University) Twelve. That’s the number of ballots Bulgarians have cast since April 2021, including seven in National Elections. And while elections are a normal democratic mechanism, this frequency is highly unusual. One thing is certain - it may sound like many different elections, but the issues remain the same. Veni, Vidi, [...]
By Rokas Stabingis (Independent Scholar) The math did not add up after the 1st round The 13th of October, Lithuanians elected half of the parliament in the multi-member constituency (70 MPs) under the proportional electoral system and 8 out of 71 in the single-member constituencies under the majoritarian electoral system, as they received the support [...]
By Jan Rovny (Science Po, Paris) A strange mix of relief, apprehension, and disorientation permeates through Paris after the second round of the extraordinary legislative elections. Relief because, despite projections of a possible absolute majority for the radical right Rassemblement national (RN), the RN was held back from power by a historically high level of [...]
By William Horncastle (University of Bedfordshire) Last Thursday, the British electorate went to the polls in the first general election since 2019. As one of the most consequential events of the 21st Century, the election represented a victory for Kier Starmer, who won Labour their first election since 2005, ending 14 years of Conservative government [...]
By Teodora Yovcheva (University of Sofia) How many elections are needed to form a government? After the sixth parliamentary election in 4 years Bulgaria is trying to find the answer. The date 9th June is when most of the European countries held European elections. In Bulgaria except European election in the same date parliamentary election [...]
By Bjarn Eck (Université Libre de Bruxelles) Alongside the elections for the European Parliament, Belgium held federal and regional elections on the 9th of June for the first time in five years. The country shifted to the right, but the results were less of an extremist earthquake than many expected. In the northern Dutch-speaking region [...]
By Trajche Panov (Trinity College Dublin) The recent double elections in Macedonia unfolded as a resounding victory for the right-wing VMRO DPMNE party and a significant setback for the ruling Social Democrats (SDSM). In a landslide win, VMRO DPMNE, characterized by its right-wing nationalist stance, secured triumphs in both parliamentary and presidential elections. This electoral [...]