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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"
Kristin Svorte, Dagbladet
“Pay up, or humanity will pay the price”. With the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House in January, that key message from UN General Secretary António Guterres was seen as even more urgent at this year’s Climate Summit, which ended in dismay at wealthy nations’ inability to commit sufficient funds to repay their climate debt. Oil-rich Norway, however, showed once again that it will gladly pay more than most countries to keep up appearances as a ‘climate leader.’ But will it ever bring a true gift to humanity, one that does ...
read more "Bad Santa? How Norway can provide real climate jobs"
read more "Bad Santa? How Norway can provide real climate jobs"
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"
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"
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"
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/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"
IMAGO/ZUMA Press Wire
The EU elections in Spain saw a narrow victory for the centrist People's Party, which beat the Socialist Party by two seats. The clear victory goes to the political tradition of the bipartitism, with the two major parties winning a total of 64.37% of the vote. The far-right party VOX received 9.62%, comparable to its Portuguese counterpart CHEGA, which achieved 9.79%, but a far cry from the 15.60% of the Alternative for Germany, the 28.59% of the Fratelli d'Italia and the 31.36% of the Rassemblement National.
read more "Yolanda Díaz steps down from leadership of Sumar and Izquierda Unida fails to enter the European Parliament"
read more "Yolanda Díaz steps down from leadership of Sumar and Izquierda Unida fails to enter the European Parliament"
Flicker / KPÖ
If you ask a random passer-by on the streets of Salzburg what sets the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) apart, they will probably have quite a bit to say — regardless of whether they vote for the KPÖ or not.
read more "Setting Ourselves Apart"
read more "Setting Ourselves Apart"