By Peter Egge Langsæther (University of Oslo) For the last eight years, Norway has been governed by various right-wing coalitions led by the Conservative party and their leader, Prime Minister Erna Solberg. As in many other countries, the main governing party received a decisive boost to its support as the corona pandemic threw Norway into [...]
By Victoria Olari (Institute for Strategic Initiatives) While the whole of Europe was watching the EURO 2020 final on Sunday night, somewhere in Eastern Europe there was a no less spectacular fight. Early parliamentary elections took place in the Republic of Moldova on July 11th. The vote was called by President Maia Sandu, thus fulfilling [...]
By Mila Moshelova (Sofia University) While Europeans were holding their breath for the Euro finals on 11 July Bulgaria was playing its second electoral match for 2021. Will there be more? The nine days wonder The regular parliamentary elections on 4 April gave life to the shortest and perhaps the rowdiest parliament but one that [...]
By Harout Manougian (Staff Writter, EVN Report) On Sunday, June 20, 2021, Armenian citizens went back to the polls for the third time in five years to elect its eighth parliament. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had come to an agreement with parliamentary opposition parties to hold this early election in the wake of the 2020 [...]
By Direnç Kanol (Near East University, Cyprus) The Republic of Cyprus is the only state with a presidential system in the EU. The House of Representatives is constituted by 56 Greek Cypriots and three observer members of the Latin, Armenian, and Maronite communities. In theory, 24 seats are reserved for the Turkish Cypriots which reflects [...]
By Arunas Grazulis (Political consultant) and Tamuna Bagratia (Independent expert) The political turmoil that marked the this winter in Georgia, starting from the questionable elections, peaking in detention of prominent opposition figure, resignation of Prime Minister, and did not ending with the international attempts to mitigate the domestic crisis, naturally raises multiple questions, the common [...]
By Alba Brojka (Independent expert) Expectations were high for the general elections in Albania on 25th of April, as were the stakes. Albanian citizens were to decide who would fill the 140 seats in their Parliament while in the existing term 75 were held by the Socialist Party, a comfortable majority. The country’s politics have [...]
By Teodora Yovcheva (University of Sofia) Yesterday’s parliamentary election in Bulgaria was the first regular one since 2009. The results surprised everyone. GERB won the elections but it looks like the anti-establishment and protest parties and coalitions won more than it was predicted for them by the polls. The biggest oppositional party in the parliament [...]
By Ingrid van Biezen (University of Leiden) Liberal parties on the rise After a tame and uninspiring campaign, Prime Minister Mark Rutte led his party (VVD) to win the Dutch elections for the fourth time in a row. With over 88 per cent of the vote counted,* the liberal-conservatives look to obtain 36 seats (out [...]
By Peter Učeň (independent researcher, policy analyst, consultant and evaluator) and Oľga Gyárfášová (Comenius University in Bratislava) Previous general election in Slovakia took place on February 29, 2020. While there is no formal reason to celebrate the recent anniversary, the glance on how the party scene changes during that one year of the “Corona governance” [...]