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 [...]
By Kaltrina Beqiri (Independent scholar, graduated at the University of Prishtina) Four years ago, Kosovo appeared poised to enter a more mature phase of its democratic development. Free and competitive elections raised expectations that a new political chapter was unfolding. Today, however, the country finds itself in a state of democratic overdrive—moving restlessly from one [...]
By Marina Gorbatiuc (Moldova State University) For the first decade of post-Soviet independence, Moldova’s fledgling democracy faced challenging conditions. Obstacles include ethno-linguistic tensions especially it is speculated in election campaigns. Recent data on the census (April 8th, 2024) prove multilingual society in Moldova: Moldovan- 49.2%; Romanian- 31.3%; Russian- 11.1%; Gagauz- 3.8%; Ukrainian- 2.9%; Bulgarian- 1.2%; [...]
By Simon Otjes (Leiden University) and Léonie de Jonge (University of Tübingen) On October 29, the Netherlands held a snap election after the fall of the cabinet Schoof, an ill-fated experimental government between the mainstream and the radical right, spearheaded by a non-partisan MP. In the weeks leading up to the election, tensions around immigration [...]
By Vlastimil Havlík (Masaryk University and National Institute SYRI) and Jakub Wondreys (Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies at the TU Dresden and CEVRO University) The Czech general election held last week closed a turbulent four-year period marked by multiple crises. These years tested the surprising winner of the 2021 election - a government formed [...]
By Peter Egge Langsæther (University of Oslo) In the wake of the 2021 elections, the Labour Party, alongside the rural-agrarian Centre Party, formed a minority government, relying on the Socialist Left for parliamentary support. However, this government quickly fell out of favour, with both parties experiencing plummeting poll numbers that plunged Labour to historically low [...]
By José Santana Pereira (Iscte-University Institute of Lisbon) and Guya Accornero (Iscte-University Institute of Lisbon) On 18 May 2025, Portugal held snap legislative elections for the third time in just over three years. The results confirmed the governing centre-right coalition, Aliança Democrática (AD), as the most voted political force, although still far from securing an [...]
By Ines Stasa (University of Tirana) More than three decades since the fall of communism, Albanians continue to believe in the European dream. That vision remains alive, as shown by the re-election of Prime Minister Edi Rama to a fourth term in office since he first assumed power in 2013. In the most recent general [...]