Europe: ruin or renewal
IMAGO/Ritzau Scanpix
Tuesday’s election to the Inatsisartut – the parliament of Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat) – resulted in resounding defeat for the country’s left wing government parties and a landslide victory for liberal party Demokraatit. At the time of writing, many questions remain unanswered about who will form government and how the result will affect Greenland’s path to independence.
Enjoying a swing of over 21 percent, Demokraatit obtained 29.9 percent of all votes cast – more than three times their result in Greenland’s...
read more "Greenland: Parliamentary elections deal blow to left wing government"
read more "Greenland: Parliamentary elections deal blow to left wing government"
IMAGO/Ritzau Scanpix
Caught between a Danish colonial past and threats from Donald Trump’s US, Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat) will hold elections to its parliament, the Inartsiartut, today, on March 11. Greenland’s political status within the Kingdom of Denmark is difficult to explain, especially to those who are not from Denmark or its Northern Atlantic territories. Yet, understanding this dynamic is crucial to grasping what is at stake in Greenland’s elections.
“Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark,” states Wikipedia—a ...
read more "Greenland: “It’s the white man—send him home!”"
read more "Greenland: “It’s the white man—send him home!”"
Olaf Krostitz
Die Linke’s successful campaign in East Berlin epitomizes the changes sweeping through the party
By the weekend before the German federal election, it had become clear that something big was underway in Berlin’s Lichtenberg district. On Friday afternoon, hundreds of people — members and non-members alike, students and workers, ranging in age from 18 to 80 — assembled in the event hall of the VORWÄRTS housing cooperative in Friedrichsfelde for Die Linke’s final campaign rally with the district’s direct candidate, the newly appointed party chairwoman ...
read more "Another Way of Doing Politics"
read more "Another Way of Doing Politics"
Flicker / The Left
Li Andersson of the Finnish Left Alliance on the challenges posed by Russia’s war in Ukraine and Trump’s return
The Russian invasion of Ukraine impacted not only the states of Eastern Europe, but also the Scandinavian countries to a particular extent. This applies first and foremost to Finland, which had previously belonged to the Russian Empire and, after gaining its independence at the end of 1917, was attacked by the Soviet Union in 1939 as part of the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Today, the country shares a border of more than 1,300 ...
read more "“Europe Needs to Stand on Its Own Feet”"
read more "“Europe Needs to Stand on Its Own Feet”"
IMAGO/Europa Press
In his opening speech at the COP29 global climate summit, UN Secretary General António Guterres stated that 2024 was turning into “a masterclass in climate destruction”. A good example of this is the DANA, an acronym to describe the meteorological phenomenon of a high-altitude isolated depression that hit Spain, especially the province of Valencia, at the end of October. It turned into the twenty-first century’s deadliest climate-related catastrophe ever in Spain, and ...
read more "Climate Denial, Fake News and Anti-Politics – How the Flooding in Valencia was followed by a Torrent of Hate"
read more "Climate Denial, Fake News and Anti-Politics – How the Flooding in Valencia was followed by a Torrent of Hate"
The Left
Version française ci-dessous
The forward march of extremist forces in Europe continued apace in the 2024 super election year, with far-right parties watching their election results surge in country after country. Their recent instalment into leadership positions within the European Commission — a historic first for the continent — is now eating away at the foundations of the bloc’s traditional governing coalition, which has tended to span from the centre-right to the centre-left. Meanwhile, the stunning re-election of Donald Trump as President ...
read more "Europe Needs an Action-Oriented Left"
read more "Europe Needs an Action-Oriented Left"
IMAGO/Pacific Press Agency
Although European elections are traditionally considered as being second-order in nature, it is quite clear that at least those of 2024 have had a clear first-order impact in several European countries, with the snap national elections in France and the subsequent formation of the New Popular Front by the progressive parties being the most prominent example of this.
Greece is no exception here. Of course, it is not uncommon for European elections to have a clear national character, for example with respect to the electoral agenda and the ...
read more "Second-Order Elections with a First-Order Impact"
read more "Second-Order Elections with a First-Order Impact"
The political systems in Cyprus — both on a party level and as a whole — have undergone continuous changes over recent years. The most significant shifts include the declining electoral and political influence of traditional parties over the past 10–15 years and the rise in voter abstention.
These changes are better understood as part of a continuum rather than a sudden break from the past, characterized by both continuities and discontinuities as well as back-and-forth and zig-zag movements. Moreover, these developments should be viewed as ...
read more "Twists and Turns amidst Continuity"
read more "Twists and Turns amidst Continuity"
IMAGO/Kristian Tuxen Ladegaard Berg
Record results for (Centre-)Left parties in the Nordic countries, with far-right parties losing ground. Denmark, Finland and Sweden surprised during the European elections with results that seemed to contradict the political drift in much of the rest of Europe. While this is a ‘ray of hope’ to many on the progressive spectrum, do these results really signify the development of a countertrend? And what might be the implications in the mid-term? The Rosa-Luxemburg’s Foundation’s Ada Regelmann gives a sober...
read more "More than just an electoral upwind? Nordic left-wing parties after the EU elections"
read more "More than just an electoral upwind? Nordic left-wing parties after the EU elections"
IMAGO/Le Pictorium
When Emmanuel Macron was elected President of France in 2017, he vowed in his first public speech that the far right would be erased before of the end of his mandate. Seven years later, Marine Le Pen’ Rassemblement National (RN) is on the verge of power, set to walk through a door that was left wide open by Macron when he decided to dissolve the French legislative assembly and call for snap elections after the highest result ever registered for the far right in France in the European elections on 9 June.
The results of the EU elections seemed to...
read more "France between Fascism and the Popular Front"
read more "France between Fascism and the Popular Front"