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 [...]

By Gabriela Borz (University of Strathclyde) On Tuesday the 17th of November, a new technocratic government led by Dacian Cioloş was approved by the Romanian Parliament with 389 votes in favour and 115 against. Invested with a short mandate of one year, it is the third technocratic government Romania has had in the last 25 [...]

By Dimitris Sourvanos (London School of Economics) and Kyriaki Nanou (University of Nottingham) Last week Euclid Tsakalotos gave a talk at the LSE discussing from his own experiences – as (the current) finance minister in Greece and as a lifelong Marxist – the difficulties that left-wing parties are faced with when governing under severe constraints. [...]

By Ilke Toygur (Autonomous University of Madrid) The November elections were a huge gamble for Turkey: A gamble wagered and won. President Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) put all their cards on the table and in turn got what they wanted: a single party rule. After failing to form a coalition in [...]

By Ömer Faruk Gençkaya (Marmara University) The Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a landslide victory at the “renewed” elections of November 1st. This is a big surprise for the AKP itself. All scenarios predicted a coalition or minority government options. Therefore, the AKP announced that another election was also possible. However, shortly before the [...]