By Lukas Lauener (University of Lausanne / Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences-FORS) On 20 October, 5.3 million voters were called to the urns to elect the new Swiss Parliament for its 51th legislative period. The left-wing Green Party and the centrist Green Liberal Party got out as clear winners of the federal [...]
By Aleksandra Sojka (University Carlos III) On October 13th the domination of Polish politics by the ruling party of Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość - PiS) was put to the electoral test as Poles were casting a deciding vote on the desired future path for the country. The main choice was whether the right-wing [...]
By Kaltrina Beqiri (Independent scholar, graduated at the University of Prishtina) During last Sunday’s snap elections, 43, 20% of Kosovo’s citizens came out and voted to form the 7th legislature of the Republic Kosovo. Snap elections came as a result of the resignation of Prime Minister Haradinaj, who in July of this year, resigned from [...]
By Pedro Lourenço (University of Aveiro) The results Last week, The Guardian portrayed Portugal as “Europe’s beacon of social democracy”. According to the newspaper, “while populist parties have erupted at both ends of the political spectrum elsewhere across the continent, Portugal has proved an enduring, if improbable, beacon of social democracy”. The results of yesterday’s [...]
By Marcelo Jenny (University of Innsbruck) For months polls predicted first place in the Austrian parliamentary elections on 29 September for the christian-democratic People's Party (ÖVP). The polls were right in that regard, but the ÖVP victory was bigger than expected and results of other parties so drastically altered that the country's political landscape transformed. [...]
By Daphne Halikiopoulou (University of Reading) Last Sunday’s Greek elections made international headlines as the ‘good news story in Europe’, generating much interest in a so-called ‘end of populism’. The most discussed outcome of this election is the victory of the centre-right New Democracy party with 39.85 of the vote, which translated into a comfortable [...]
By David M. Willumsen (University of Innsbruck) Since (at least) 2001, the question of immigration has been a key issue in Danish politics, with the Danish People’s Party (DPP) being successful in shifting public policy on this topic significantly to the right, and helping keep the center-right in power for all but four years in [...]
By Régis Dandoy (Ghent University) On 26 May 2019, more than eight million Belgians went to the polling stations to elect their representatives for the European, federal, regional and community parliaments. These elections were designated by the media as ‘the mother of all elections’ and are not only crucial for the management of the country [...]
By José Rama Caamaño and Andrés Santana Leitner (Autonomous University of Madrid) 2015 and 2016 general elections The 2015 and 2016 Spanish general elections turned the Spanish party system upside down. The first one was considered as an enormous earthquake that hit many of the well-established attributes of the national party system, such as the [...]
By Antti Kaihovaara (University of Helsinki) As the last votes were counted on Sunday evening, the progressive parties had most reasons to celebrate. After four years in opposition, the support for the Social Democrats, the Left Alliance and the Greens increased by over five percentage points in total. The Social Democrats came up top by [...]