News
IMAGO/Seeliger
Note: This article uses Icelandic naming conventions. Most persons referenced do not have family names and are therefore primarily referred to by their given name.
On Saturday 30 November, Icelanders went to the polls to elect a new Althing (parliament). The second election to be held this year—following June’s presidential election—the vote came ten months earlier than expected: on Sunday 13 October, after months of significant tensions within the governing coalition, Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson ...
read more "Scratching the Seven-Year Itch: Iceland votes to change government"
read more "Scratching the Seven-Year Itch: Iceland votes to change government"
John Nielsen
Despite being one of the first countries to sign the UN Refugee Convention, Denmark has also been a frequent first-mover on harsh immigration policies in Europe. An increasing number of political parties – not all of them right-wing or nationalist – across Europe point to the “Danish model” as an example of successful migration and asylum policy. Even Sweden – once seen as a more humane counterpoint – is now copying Danish policies in detail. In reality, the “Danish model” would not work if copied by other ...
read more "Why Europe should avoid modelling its migration policy on Denmark"
read more "Why Europe should avoid modelling its migration policy on Denmark"
Reclaiming Europe’s Energy Future
In the midst of a crippling energy and cost-of-living crisis, Mapping a Public Pathway for Europe’s Energy Transition delivers a compelling critique of Europe’s failing energy system. This comprehensive study reveals how, despite public promises of reform, the EU’s reliance on a liberalized, profit-driven energy market continues to drive up prices and threatens its own climate goals. At a time when the European Commission promises competitiveness and a green industry, the data at hand presents...
read more "Mapping a Public Pathway for Europe’s Energy Transition"
read more "Mapping a Public Pathway for Europe’s Energy Transition"
IMAGO/TT
After winning over 11 percent of the vote, and two mandates, in June’s European Parliament elections, the Swedish Left Party Vänsterpartiet is celebrating its best election results in twenty years. The historic result brought the party a step closer to fulfilling large parts of its main strategy, something it has been working towards for more than a decade. How this outcome is to be interpreted – whether as a direct result of this strategy, or a widening of it – is now up for debate.
The European election also took place mere...
read more "Sweden’s Left Party celebrates its biggest win in 20 year"
read more "Sweden’s Left Party celebrates its biggest win in 20 year"
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"
Conor Healy / Picture It Photogr
****Version française ci-dessous**** Read her books and take her trainings, but not to deify her — nothing could be further from her mission. Take them so that you can put into practice the same methods that Jane McAlevey spent a lifetime practicing, modelling, and instilling in others. And then, as she would so often say at the end of a session: Go forth and win!
read more "Remembering Jane McAlevey (1964–2024)"
read more "Remembering Jane McAlevey (1964–2024)"
IMAGO/Starface
On the evening of Sunday, 7 July 2024, the Place de la République in Paris was once again filled with a compact crowd, but this time it was joy and shouts of victory that dominated the gathering immediately after the election results were announced.
read more "A Hopeful Surprise in France"
read more "A Hopeful Surprise in France"
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"