11 11, 2019

Spanish 10 N Elections: was it worth it?

2019-11-11T11:41:16+00:00November 11th, 2019|

By Patricia Correa Vila (Aston University) Spanish citizens faced yesterday the fourth general election in the past four years yet again the chances of having a new government are still not fully clear. There is no clear majority at either side of the ideological spectrum, and although some parties have already established clear preferences for [...]

23 10, 2019

Switzerland: Expected green wave turned into tsunami

2019-10-23T11:43:20+01:00October 23rd, 2019|

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 [...]

15 10, 2019

Poland: Ruling party wins the Sejm but loses the Senat

2019-10-15T07:01:38+01:00October 15th, 2019|

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 [...]

9 10, 2019

Kosovo elections 2019: Predicting the unpredictable!

2019-10-09T21:02:54+01:00October 9th, 2019|

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 [...]

7 10, 2019

The 2019 Portuguese legislative election: A comfortable victory for the social democrats

2019-10-07T19:36:44+01:00October 7th, 2019|

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 [...]

30 09, 2019

Austria’s snap elections produced an expected winner and yet changed everything

2019-09-30T20:15:51+01:00September 30th, 2019|

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. [...]

12 07, 2019

2019 Greek elections: Hope or caution?

2019-07-12T10:20:48+01:00July 12th, 2019|

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 [...]

8 06, 2019

The Fall of the Far Right? The 2019 Danish general election

2019-06-08T07:03:31+01:00June 8th, 2019|

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 [...]

27 05, 2019

Bye bye Belgium ? The 2019 regional and federal elections in Belgium

2019-05-30T11:15:09+01:00May 27th, 2019|

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 [...]

29 04, 2019

The electoral fragmentation on the right side: 2019 Spanish general elections

2019-05-20T12:58:02+01:00April 29th, 2019|

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 [...]