By Nemanja Batrićević (University of Montenegro) On 30th of August 2020, Montenegro held its fifth and the most polarizing election since the Referendum in May of 2006. With pre-election polling data showing the predominant Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) at the ‘historical minimum’ (ranging from 35% to 40%), the opposition, organized around three ideologically congruent [...]

By Liljana Pecova Ilieska (IMPETUS: Center for Internet, Development and Good Governance) In North Macedonia parliamentary elections took place between 13th and 15th July: voting of the Covid-19 patients and those in self-isolation starting on Monday, the sick, weak and convicted people voted on Tuesday, while Wednesday, for all other citizens, 15th of April was [...]

By Antonio Karlović (University of Zagreb) The governing center-right HDZ, led by incumbent PM Andrej Plenković, achieved a landslide victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Croatia which will enable them to almost single-handedly form a stable government. A rush to the polls While most countries were postponing or even canceling elections because of the COVID-19 [...]

By Irena Djordjević (Universities of Aveiro and Beira Interior) On Sunday night, 21st of June, there was no unexpected news: Ruling center-right Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) party won the parliamentary, provincial and local elections in Serbia. What should be surprising is that in “parliamentary democracy with competitive multiparty elections” such as Serbia according to Freedom [...]

By Kaltrina Beqiri (Independent scholar, graduated at the University of Prishtina) The Pandemic of Covid-19 changed a lot for a lot of people around the world, for Kosovo it changed its government! The wind of change which was felt after the last elections in October 2019, did not last long. On 3rd February 2020, roughly [...]

By Mary Brennan (University College Dublin) Ireland has a bicameral parliamentary system, with the lower house of parliament, Dáil Eireann comprising of 160 TDs (Teachta Dála or members of parliament) including that of the normally non-voting Ceann Comhairle (Chair of Dail / similar to the position of Speaker in the UK parliament), thereby the formation [...]

By Alenka Krašovec (University of Ljubljana) At the start of 2020 Slovenia seemed to face a new period of unstable government, an ongoing feature of the last decade. After the parliamentary elections in 2018, in September a coalition government of five parties was formed by Marjan Šarec, yet another political newcomer (after Zoran Janković, Alenka [...]

By Marina Gorbatiuc (Institute of Legal, Political and Sociological Research, Chisinau) In spite of the “Red Code” declaration and 23 infected persons on March 16th, 2020 a new Coalition government was created in Moldova. We can highlight three reasons of its forming: 1. The Coalition was established responding to President Igor Dodon’ interests, especially in [...]

By Peter Spac (Masaryk University) The 2020 general election in Slovakia was a massive victory of the opposition. The leftist party SMER that dominated Slovak politics for almost two decades failed to win its first general elections since 2006. The election showed two outcomes. First, it indicates a substantial change in the course of the [...]

By Brigit Laffan (European University Institute) The Irish General Election 2020 was not an earthquake election but represents a major shift in Irish party politics. Fianna Fáil (FF) for long the dominant party in Irish politics lost its cartel status in 2011 following the financial crash and the arrival of the Troika. The outcome of [...]