By Višeslav Raos (University of Zagreb) After the November elections for the Croatian Parliament produced no clear winner, a newcomer party Bridge of Independent Lists (MOST) became a pivot party. This party, actually a loose, ideologically heterogeneous coalition of independent mayors and local citizen initiatives with a joint mission of toppling down the existing political [...]
By Giorgos Charalambous (University of Cyprus and PRIO Cyprus Centre) It has been repeatedly observed how little Cypriot politics has changed since the onset of the post-2008 crisis in relation to the rest of southern Europe, in spite of a growing dissatisfaction with democracy and a rapidly decreasing sense of trust. But the parliamentary elections [...]
By Conor Little (University of Copenhagen) The elections Ten weeks after the general election of 26 February, after the longest government formation process in its history, Ireland has a minority coalition government of Fine Gael – which, under Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Enda Kenny, has been the main incumbent since 2011 – and several non-party (‘Independent’) [...]
By David Pupovac (Central European University Alumni) The background of the election On April 24th, 2016 yet another early parliamentary election took place in Serbia. The ruling coalition, led by Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić from the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), called for an early election in order address the social conflict which blocks the reforms [...]
By Daunis Auers (University of Latvia) The last few years have seen parts of East-Central Europe turn to the populist right. Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party won the 2010 and 2014 parliamentary elections with landslide majorities. Poland’s Law and Justice party has held the presidency and controlled both houses of parliament since October 2015. This has [...]
By Dario Nikić Čakar (University of Zagreb) The result of the 2015 parliamentary election, held on 8 November, has shaped a new political landscape in Croatia. A fierce electoral competition did not produce a clear-cut winner between the governing left-wing coalition Croatia is Growing led by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the broad right-wing [...]
By Peter Učeň (Policy Analyst) The recent parliamentary elections in Slovakia took place after the full term of the single-party government by the nominally social democratic Direction - Social Democracy (Smer-SD) party. The legacy of this government as well as the pre-election polls suggested that Smer-SD will defend their dominance with the score somewhere in [...]
By Vladislav Șaran (Institute of Legal and Political Research of Academy of Sciences of Moldova) The end of political year of 2015 has proven to be a play with sad ending for the Republic of Moldova. Valeriu Strelet’s government fell after less than 100 days in office. The motion was backed by 65 deputies (out [...]
By Dane Taleski (University of Graz) On January 15, EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn came to Macedonia to seal the deal on the agreement paving the way out of the crisis via early elections in April 2016. However, the main opposition party, SDSM, objected to the elections, expressing doubt that conditions are sufficient for them to [...]
By Michał Kotnarowski (Polish Academy of Sciences) In mid-2014, a year before presidential and parliamentary elections almost everything looked good for the ruling party PO (Civic Platform), which had been governing the country together with its junior coalition partner PSL (Polish Peasant Party) for seven years. Economic indicators were very good - a continuous increase [...]