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” [...]
By Kaltrina Beqiri (Independent scholar, graduated at the University of Prishtina) Only sixteen months after his last electoral success, former Prime Minister Albin Kurti has managed to lead his party, Self-determination Movement (LVV), to an even greater success. The context After the fall of Kurti’s government in March 2020, his junior coalition partner was able [...]
By Gianluca Piccolino (University of Trieste) and Leonardo Puleo (Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies) It is still unclear whether Mario Draghi will lead the next Italian government. The attempts to form another government led by Giuseppe Conte failed for the same reasons which led to the collapse of his second cabinet, namely the resoluteness of [...]
By Martin Mölder (University of Tartu) The new year in Estonian politics began with a political shock that came as a surprise to all and as a relief to many. Even though the 2019 parliamentary elections were won by the Reform Party, it did not get a chance to form a government back then. The [...]
By Mihail Chiru (University of Oxford) The elections held this weekend produced the lowest turnout in Romania’s history: 33.3% and a number of outcomes which were not predicted by the opinion polls. This was supposed to be an election which would swiftly confirm the rule of the National Liberal Party (PNL, member of EPP) and [...]
By Joseph Alexander Smith (Independent researcher and former political candidate) Georgia’s fractious parliamentary elections will be hailed as a milestone by some, but they also reveal a deeply troubled society that is struggling to stay on the narrow path of peaceful democratic transition. Preliminary results are in Preliminary results in Georgia’s parliamentary elections give the [...]
By Rokas Stabingis (Independent Scholar) The voter turnout seems not to be affected by the COVID-19 In the face of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lithuania has elected its new parliament Seimas of 141 MPs. The voter turnout in the I round on 11 of October was 47 %, i.e insignificantly lower than [...]