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Posted by: Silas 30th October 2022, 11:14 PM

Couldn’t find anywhere more appropriate to celebrate the loss of the wannabe dictator in Brazil!!! Bit closer than you’d like but fash be gone!

Posted by: Rizhi Sunak 30th October 2022, 11:20 PM

Fantastic news to wake up to! A great victory for Lula, though a little closer than I'd have liked.

Every news outlet seems fairly confident Bolsonaro won't try anything but that's a huge number of people who voted for him, let's hope he goes quietly.

Posted by: Smint 30th October 2022, 11:50 PM

Knew this topic would be about Bolsanoro losing - excellent news as there was talk of voter suppression! This is a victory for young people, the environment and LGBT rights.

I just wish and hope the UK can have a day like this after our disappointments.

Posted by: WaspBrë 31st October 2022, 12:14 AM

Oh hooray - I had been loosely following this and was quite alarmed at how close the first round was and the polls seeming to show it tightening even further since then so I was really worried Bolsonaro might end up squeaking by. (And sheesh I see it was less than a 2 point gap which is even closer than it was the last time I checked so that was a really narrowly averted disaster)

As I understand it the legislative elections were pretty overwhelmingly won by Bolsonaro-aligned types though so Lula is going to struggle to work with them but Bolsonaro himself being gone is still to be celebrated. Assuming he doesn't do his own 6th January.

Posted by: ta-ra*el~la 31st October 2022, 08:34 AM

Truly happy that Bolsonaro is gone! Right-wing authoritarianism must be defeated wherever it pops up.

Posted by: Smint 31st October 2022, 04:42 PM

Well it looks like Bolsanoro hasn't conceded yet. Hmmm, remind me of some other President who lost a General Election and refused to go....

Posted by: lettuhsting 31st October 2022, 05:29 PM

An L for Neymar too. Bye!

Posted by: Silence of the Wombats 31st October 2022, 06:22 PM

Great news! I was really scared when I saw Bolsonaro had overperformed in the first round. That's still far too close for comfort though, especially shocking after what happened there with the pandemic, that's a painfully divided country there.

Less great to see a lot of Bolsonaro's loyalists now make up congress so it could be really hard for Lula to get his policies through, I don't know a lot about Brazillian politics so maybe there's another way for him but the change will be for nothing if he can't actually make a substantial difference there. I just want the Amazon rainforest safe tbh

Oh and yay, another right-wing leader who won't accept defeat, anyone noticing a pattern here? :/

Posted by: Envoirment 31st October 2022, 06:59 PM

Good news! Hopefully we'll see more shifts to the left in countries around the world in the coming years.

Posted by: Iz 💀 1st November 2022, 04:24 AM

Brazil's president is fairly powerful and the congress is pretty fragmented between conservatives who hate Bolsonaro, Bolsonaro loyalists as well as a swathe of the leftists, as well as centrists that Lula brought onside with his VP pick - I think I saw a projection of 90% less Amazon deforestation under Lula in comparison to Bolsonaro. It won't be as progressive as Lula's first adminstration, because of the interest groups he had to appeal to to kick out the fash (this is what a smart Bernie or Corbyn run would have done also btw), which was wildly successful and only tarnished because of the alleged corruption scandal that came after, but it should be a damn sight better than Bolsonaro.



I enjoy this (rather ridiculous) map that at least shows the majority of the Americas is now under a left or centre-left government as it should be:



though yes, the Democrats are exactly the same as the Cuban Communist Party and the Peronism of Argentina, clearly. And Trudeau as left is laughable.

Below is a better one:

Posted by: Silas 1st November 2022, 05:11 AM

Calling the yanks left is also hilarious. At best, they’re centre-right by European/ROTW/Normal standards. Even AOC and Sanders are barely Center-left

Posted by: ta-ra*el~la 1st November 2022, 12:22 PM

Don't be so harsh on the Democrats. They are doing a good job considering the situation America is in.

Posted by: Iz 💀 2nd November 2022, 04:26 AM

Good news from Denmark, the inverse of what happened in Sweden in September seems to have happened, the ruling Social Democrats have just about kept their majority, are still the largest party, and the main conservative party crumbled. Some 'moderates' are looking to deny both left and right blocs a majority but it seems like the left have just squeaked it to continue ruling.

Less good over in Israel, we get rid of Bolsonaro and just days later it seems as if another one of the populist fash is back. Netanyahu and Likud might be able to build a coalition with a new party, the far-right Religious Zionists (what a name) to return him to power. Very much not good, but results aren't finalised yet and maybe the centrist-left-Arab nationalist coalition that's been governing since Bibi was ousted can win something back.

Posted by: Silas 2nd November 2022, 07:37 AM

Was howling earlier at Denmark being so heavily fragmented that parties are only shown on polling by a single letter because there’s no room for anything else


Some moderately good further news from Brasilia - their tinpot pol pot has said he will follow the constitutional process. Ie he has conceded and will engage in a peaceful transfer of power without explicitly conceding because he’s a baby

Posted by: Iz 💀 2nd November 2022, 08:19 AM

Ha, I was counting those earlier - how do people even think to choose between Denmark Democrats, Liberal Alliance, Conservatives Party, Venstre, New Right, People's Party - all, from what I can tell, slightly varying versions of 'classical liberatarian'/conservative/right populist bullshit. And they have a Green-Left and Red-Green Alliance to support the mainstream left.

Though as the governing party, I do know a bit more about Denmark's Social Democrats, they're far from the greatest socdems, at least that they're not great on immigration (which unfortunately is probably a big reason why they didn't suffer the same fate as Sweden's socdems).

Brazil's similar actually, except there nearly every single party is called some version of 'Socialist Democratic Party'. Makes my Wikipedia crawls and snap judgement of international parties based on how red their colour is and the political positions listed in their info-box take a lot longer than they would otherwise.

Posted by: Silas 7th December 2022, 09:14 PM

There’s been a “coup” in Peru


Far-left president who was about to be impeached disolved congress and decided to rule by decree. This apparently seems to have been ignored by basically everyone.





Also in ROTW politics today, seeing as we’re talking of failed Coup attempts, over in Germany 25 people were arrested in a series of dawn raids involving thousands of cops across 11 of Germanys 16 states in an investigation into part of the Reichsbürger movement (a movement that claims the current Federal Republic of Germany is illegitimate and illegal because some old constitution wasn’t repealed properly and blahblahbullshit) and an active and advancing plot to overthrow the federal government by force. This movement is far-right, deeeeeeeeeeeeeeep into QAnon and Querdenker shit and also entirely illegal in Germany. Displaying their symbols and being a member is the same as the equivalent of the literal Nazi party (ie you go to jail) because the Germans aren’t so tolerant of folks whose aim it is to overthrow a democratic government.

Posted by: Iz 💀 8th December 2022, 12:21 AM

Castillo was completely useless as a leader from what I could tell, went against everyone in his system from the moment he was elected and was rather conservative socially for a 'leftist', no big loss and probably entirely necessary to stop that country falling to someone like a Fujimori again.

Posted by: Iz 💀 19th January 2023, 02:43 AM

Jacinda Ardern resigning as New Zealand PM next month.

Damn, she was really good, but best to go out while you can still be remembered fondly (and whenever I see Kiwis online they're always ready to talk her down so I get the sense she was getting somewhat less popular domestically)

Posted by: Silas 19th January 2023, 04:19 AM

Shame. I have a lot of time for Ardern. She lead well through a lot of difficult moments

Posted by: Iz 💀 2nd April 2023, 07:10 AM

Finland's parliamentary election is today, just days after they got their NATO application approved to go through.

I'm a bit nervy about this one as it does look like Sanna Marin's Social Democrat party could be on track to get the same fate that their Swedish counterparts got last year: the mainstream conservative party and the centrists sell every principle to go into coalition with an ascendant far-right party (called 'Finns') after a vote share with all the many parties counted up ends up equalling as close to 50-50 as is possible.

or there's a wide coalition between SDP and KOK (conservatives), which would be at least not 'far-right gets into power again'.

Posted by: Smint 2nd April 2023, 11:36 AM

So another modern progressive young female leader getting deposed by the right wing - I remember all that fuss about her going out and enjoying a few drinks overegged smear.

Posted by: Iz 💀 3rd April 2023, 06:19 AM

almost certainly going to go down as one of the most beloved Finnish leaders internationally if not domestically, sometimes these people don't know when they have a good thing going for them, but of course they decide she's a 'globalist' (anyone who uses this term unironically is a Nazi) or 'embarassment' (get over yourself) or 'catgirl' (google Sanna Marin catgirl, she does rock it) or whatever.

It's not a big loss either, the top 3, KOK (centre-right) have 48 seats, the Finns Party have 46, and her party has 43 seats. Her party also increased compared to the last election, it's just her coalition partners, the greens and the left fell away (sad).

PR government formations are interesting to me and as it's a 200 seat parliament with 100 seat majority needed, lots of different ways it could go. Thankfully the third-biggest right-wing party, the 'didn't everyone who votes for them die in the 70s' standard issue Christian Democrat party only got 5 so a complete right-wing coalition looks somewhat unlikely because the Finns are so toxic I doubt even centrists would go with them, though the Centre Party haven't ruled out working with the Finns like most other parties have yet.

I bet a KOK-SDP-Centre coalition to get a majority government could be done. It would right-wing ghouls to shut up if Marin still plays a part in the next government and they'll be disappointed if they think it means a change in Finland's foreign policy, all major parties in Finland are very anti-Russia and pro-Ukraine, as they would naturally be.

Posted by: Silas 3rd April 2023, 06:22 AM

She even increased her vote share and number of seats vs 2019. it’s a shame because she has been a victim of a relentless and highly sexist hate campaign that is entirely unwarranted. From the outside it appears that she’s done a great job, and from what I can see she’s been great at the EU level

Posted by: Smint 14th May 2023, 10:52 PM

Meanwhile in Turkey, the counting for the General Election shows that ultra right wing homophobe President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AK party (AKP) are neck and neck with nore progressive opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and could well enter a runoff if neither get over 50% of the vote when counted. There are already calls of foul play as Erdogan's mob are demanding several recounts of key votes which have been called in Kemal's favour.

It would be nice if just once a right wing tyrant went down without cheating their ass off but looks like that's too much to hope for nowadays.

Posted by: Iz 💀 15th May 2023, 03:35 AM

Seems to be settling down at 49% for Erdoğan and 45% for Kılıçdaroğlu, with the remaining 5% seemingly going to a minor right-wing f***nut. Doesn't bode well for the runoff.

Though that might not be the full count, there's a lot of uncertainty around results reporting and you got the usual reports of voter intimidation etc. Messed up country.

Posted by: Smint 15th May 2023, 02:14 PM

Yep the earlier hopeful buzz tended to be a false dawn. Not good looking good for the more progressive choice - tbh not too surprised since it's Turkey but thoroughly depressing.

Posted by: Iz 💀 29th May 2023, 08:13 AM

Erdoğan won 52-48

enjoying the commentary about how democracy has spoken, he's won an overwhelming victory and Türkiye is entering a new decade and those 48% have disappeared into the ether once again.

More like Türkiye is continuing to align against the West and towards authoritarianism of course, with heavy religious undertones.

Posted by: Doctor Blind 29th May 2023, 09:04 AM

Makes sense for them to re-elect someone who has crashed the lira and allowed inflation to rise to over eighty percent!!

Posted by: Smint 29th May 2023, 12:47 PM

And moving on to Spain and it's not good news there either as the Conservatives and the Far Right Vox party did extremely well in the local elections. The Prime Minister has decided to call a snap General election to see if Spain wants to go fully fash.

Really sad as Spain is a beautiful tolerant country.

That said, wish Sunak called for a General Election after tanking in the local elections here but that would require honesty and character which are nowhere to be seen in these current times.

Posted by: Big Fat Sue 29th May 2023, 12:59 PM

Ha! The Tories are authoritarian. They wiuld NEVER do that. They will never willingly give up power. Look at their propaganda about a council in deep debt. The papwrs claim it is a Lib Dem council. Lib Dems only took it a few weeks ago!! The debt is due to the evil TORIES!!

Look at them also weaponising the readitional humorous note left between treasuries. That propaganda was shouted and screamed so much, and just after the great recession started - which Gordon was bloody fixing, with the world following UK!!! - that people still believe it today. They can't be convinced otherwise.

In Spain, uff. Vox is fash

Posted by: Doctor Blind 29th May 2023, 01:00 PM

It was a dictatorship until 1975!

Racism is rife in their football league, holding a mirror to society.

Posted by: Big Fat Sue 29th May 2023, 01:04 PM

Yup. You can get some very right wing people there.

Posted by: Smint 29th May 2023, 01:13 PM

I know about Franco but the change since then appeared to be incredible but guess haters gonna hate.

Posted by: Silas 29th May 2023, 01:14 PM

What I will never understand is how the Germans with Turkish heritage and therefore voting rights can turn out in such numbers for an authoritarian piece of shit and *celebrate* his victory on the streets of Berlin. Like I’m talking 2nd and 3rd generation folks celebrating, the ones born and raised in Germany who at most visit Turkey once a year for a fortnight.

Yet in Germany they would never vote for a party that aligns with the values they vote for at home (Probably because the AfD would deport them all mind you)


I just don’t get how you can have access to non-state media, full access to the actual truth and full picture of what damage that man is doing and then go vote for him to drive Turkey further into the ground all while you and your Mercedes-Benz cruise around Berlin flying a Turkish flag safe in the knowledge you’ll never have to do more than spend a week in an all inclusive Anatolian resort while he’s in office.

The absolute worst kind of expat/migrant background. (See also: Braverman/Patel in the UK, Costa Del Brexiteers, LGBT Republicans/Tories, Putin supporting Russian expats etc etc etc. this isn’t just about Germans with Turkish roots, it’s a more general point about how all these eejits vote to f*** over a country they no longer live in - the German Turks are just the most recent example having spent the night celebrating through Berlin. At least migrant Hungarians vote against Orban)

Posted by: Iz 💀 29th May 2023, 01:18 PM

Not the worst electoral ploy to force your opponents to stay in campaign mode on the Spanish PM's part, he's only bringing the elections forward 6 months instead of 18, polls being very unlikely to move if he waited. Possible the same happens for the UK next year. Though the intricacies of the Spanish coalitions add a bit more spice to the setup. Sanchéz is being framed as a daring PM for doing it, I have to agree that he's at least daring, but likely didn't have much choice.

Spain having as much of a leftist government as it currently has is what seems like the outlier tbh.

Posted by: Iz 💀 29th May 2023, 01:24 PM

Is it that many of the Turks in Germany are quite insular? Mostly consuming Turkish-language media, even if they speak German, staying in their Turkish communities and likely, idolising the old traditional conservative way that they've been taught is the proper moral way to do things. That's Erdoğan's play and it's very effective.

Obviously about half (or it seems, under half of the expats) of the Turks aren't like that but I would imagine the ones that make a big deal of their heritage are absolutely the ones out there apparently honking car horns and shit. The man sells pride in your country and religion very well and yes it's a f***ing con but political education is so poor the world over.

Posted by: Big Fat Sue 29th May 2023, 01:39 PM

The Costa del Brexiters are the worst!!

The elite WANT poor politicak education.

Posted by: Ansel 29th May 2023, 03:14 PM

The Spanish results are really disappointing but unfortunately match the predictions - Madrid in particular is somehow even more blue than before (it already was surprisingly conservative for a big city), my neighbourhood voted 61% Conservative and there's areas that were nearly at 80% 🙃! Potentially good news is that some of the younger-skewing areas of the centre have flipped to Más Madrid which is a local left party - and as they don't compete in national elections, those votes that will hopefully shift to PSOE or Podemos.

The Spanish left suffers from the same sort of vote split problem as the UK with Labour/Lib Dems - the main left party PSOE has to compete with Podemos (further left) and a couple of other minor parties, which do a pretty good job at splitting the votes. Near me there's a few places with the conservatives on ~40% while PSOE and Podemos/Más Madrid have ~20% each, so there definitely needs to be more tactical voting going on. On the right, Vox is powerful but doesn't suck up the conservative vote from the PP in the same way.

I'll be back in the UK before the general election but I'm concerned if the PP gets into power, the Madrid branch has been very vocal about challenging (or attempting to) the more progressive laws brought in from above, especially with regards to trans rights.

Posted by: Iz 💀 23rd July 2023, 11:45 AM

Spanish election today, apparently exit polls out this evening.

I really hope it ends on the right side of the coin flip (good luck to Ansel and anyone else here who lives in/has connections in Spain) but polls seem to favour the right coalition, perhaps yet another European election where we get 49% left-coalition and good sense policies and 51% right 'traditional values' and conservative culture war nonsense.

Especially since it seems the Spanish economy has really recovered under the left government, certainly in comparison to where it was a decade ago, I'm not too up on recent movements though, the economy is still the most important issue for voters so there might be some improvements to be made.

Posted by: Ansel 23rd July 2023, 03:34 PM

I'm back in the UK now for my last year of uni but following this one closely for my friends who are still there - not super optimistic though judging by the polls. Sánchez (the current prime minister, left-wing) has done a lot in recent weeks to appeal to young people (he went viral after appearing on a very popular Gen Z podcast talking about Hannah Montana) but I feel like that's preaching to the converted.

The town where I worked became a PP/Vox coalition in the local elections and they've already ended partnerships with a big LGBT support program, I think we'll see a lot of UK-style culture war stuff if PP get into power - even worse if they end up partnering with Vox. Lots of recent policies like removing barriers to abortion, making it easier for trans people to change their gender, increasing tenants' rights, environmental issues, will probably be the first targets.

Posted by: Doctor Blind 23rd July 2023, 07:08 PM

Some of the released polling (not an 'Exit Poll') is suggesting a small majority for the conservative/far right coalition but it looks v tight at the moment.

Posted by: Iz 💀 23rd July 2023, 09:30 PM

With the majority of the votes counted it looks like the conservatives don't have their majority - and Sanchez' PSOE have done better than expected by even gaining some seats.

Of course PP are the biggest gainers and seemingly Vox have lost the most but this was already pretty much priced in, PP + Vox is a little bit short of a majority, while PSOE + Sumar is a bit further behind but the smaller regional parties would probably work with them over the right-wing coalition. Looks like a lot of dealmaking to be done and very good that Vox themselves are not the kingmakers.

honestly given how the polls were this is a decent result.

Posted by: Smint 23rd July 2023, 09:37 PM

Yes that is a good but not great result. Aren't the left wing coalition on fewer seats than before? That makes the decision to call a General election a bit foolhardy even if democratic.

Posted by: Silas 23rd July 2023, 09:43 PM

Looks like if the result isn’t changed by the final couple of percent to be counted, then it’s gonna be a fairly unstable parli. Couple be looking at a second election this year

Posted by: Suedehead2 23rd July 2023, 09:49 PM

Latest figures I have seen give the Socialists and allies 172 seats against 171 for PP and allies. Catalan nationalists have the remaining seven seats. Vox lost just over one-third of their seats.

Posted by: Smint 23rd July 2023, 11:30 PM

I'm guessing if the left block does align with the separatists to get a paper thin majority that would be a poisoned chalice as Junta would demand too high a price.

In the same way that Labour would never coalition with the SNP

Posted by: Iz 💀 24th July 2023, 06:47 AM

The Spanish are probably getting another election soon, and there might even be momentum on Sanchez' side, despite the Conservatives claiming victory due to being in first, he can definitely claim his decision to catch the opposition off-guard with an early election was a good one.

If it stays as it is (as Suede posted above), left bloc beats the right bloc but it would be a razor-thin thing. No idea how Junts would play but they wouldn't in a way that benefits the right more than the left.

Posted by: Silas 24th July 2023, 09:31 AM

They are in theory a right-wing party as I understand it, but they’d never align with hyperunionists like PP or the actually fash Vox


But mixed, but the fall of Vox is welcome. However how much of that is because PP has been expanding into their airspace idk.




Talking of the mainstream right flirting with Nazis, the current head of the CDU said it was fine to work with the current iteration of the Nazis, the AfD, at the local level. He’s had to try to frantically row that back. It is concerning tho as the great firewall of German politics is the only thing that is preventing the Nazis from taking over the eastern half of the country, gaining entry to the upper house and starting to derail and dismantle German democracy. A town elected a Nazi mayor last month for the first time since the 30s. After 16 of stability under Merkel, it’s quite a concerning outlook ahead. The 2024 state elections in Brandenburg, Thuringia and most of all Saxony are going to be very tense

Posted by: Doctor Blind 24th July 2023, 01:51 PM

Looks like it was a gamble that ultimately paid off then to call a snap election to shock and test the momentum building after the local elections. In the end- an inconclusive result with no stable coalition possible, meaning further elections later in the year, which as Iz says could potentially be great for Sánchez in the longer run. The bigger story here, and it's great to see that fall in support for Vox, is that pandering to the far-right and the 'war on woke' (note: a word that can't ever be defined by those who use it most, apart from pointing towards a vague sense of 'things I don't like') only has limited mileage when it comes to crucial elections.
PP and Vox going in to coalition in towns seems to have scared a lot of people and posters like the one below seem to be mobilising the left/progressive alliance successfully more than generating support for the opposition.



Final result:

Posted by: Smint 14th October 2023, 11:29 AM

9 months later, New Zealand does a drastic swing to the right in their elections and Chris Hipkins, who took over from Jacinta Arden, after her surprise resignation in January, concedes defeat to Christopher Luxon of the centre right National party who may govern with the populist New Zealand first party.

Yet another country's progressiveness bites the dust....

Posted by: Danæ 14th October 2023, 12:55 PM

and nearby in Australia the general public have overwhelmingly voted no to a proposed consistutional change to give their indigenous peoples a voice in parliament.

Posted by: Iz 💀 14th October 2023, 02:39 PM

On the surface this does look a lot like the voters punishing the incumbent government for a few years of tough times (in particular the Covid response), in which case we could see a lot more governmental change around the world on the horizon, no matter the ideological leanings.

Jacinda had a bit of star power that Hipkins clearly has failed to muster though, and he seems to have been more centrist than her, making centrism completely unelectable... ahem. While the National government promises tax cuts etc.

Posted by: Iz 💀 17th October 2023, 07:25 AM

Looks like good news in Poland as Law & Justice is probably getting removed from power after 8 years of ruling Poland as a hard-right 'conservative family' party. They're still winning the most seats but are falling short of a majority and the coalition of liberal and left parties is quite likely going to be the only group in the Sejm capable of forming a majority.

also this is the projected vote of Poles who live in Britain:
KO 45,9% (liberal centrist opposition)
PiS 13,7% (Law & Justice, governing far right)
Lewica 13,3% (The Left, leftists)
Trzecia Droga 12,7% (Third Way)
Konfederacja 11,2% (far-right people fortunately won't work with the other far-right people)

that's a 75% vote of liberals and leftists among that specific group, very good going from them.

Posted by: Doctor Blind 18th November 2023, 12:02 PM

Congratulations to Pedro Sánchez who has seen off a challenge from the right and been confirmed as PM of Spain again. *.*

In doing so they had to grant an amnesty to people involved in the Catalan independence movement during the past decade.

https://www.politico.eu/article/pedro-sanchez-confirmed-spain-prime-minister/

Posted by: Smint 18th November 2023, 07:27 PM

Good he got in but in a weaker position than before he voluntarily called a GE right?

Posted by: Suedehead2 18th November 2023, 09:01 PM

The election was only a few months earlier than scheduled. He didn't do a Theresa May.

Posted by: Silas 19th November 2023, 09:00 AM

From what I understand the general consensus is that he pulled a bit of a blinder by calling the bluff of the right wing (as they had momentum off the locals) and they got some performance anxiety. The socialists were widely predicted to suffer badly and I remember on election night reading everywhere how much better they did than expected and how it was the right call to go a few months earlier

Posted by: Smint 20th November 2023, 11:24 PM

Argentina on the other hand have elected a Far right populist President Javier Milai Happy fash today - although maybe not so much in the UK as he wants the Falklands back.

Posted by: Smint 22nd November 2023, 08:22 PM

And not looking good in Netherlands either with Geert Wilders '(whose been around for aeons) getting most seats with the Far right Party for Freedom party. Which sounds fun but isn't...

Early hours mind

Posted by: *Tim 22nd November 2023, 10:02 PM

Well his closest competitor is 10 seats behind (out of 150, so quite a reach) so they'll never close that gap. The first polls are usually only off by 2 seats max.

A sad day indeed...

Posted by: Smint 23rd November 2023, 12:29 PM

Yes the Dutch always had the reputation of being super tolerant - although how much of that was due to Amsterdam. From what I'm reading there's a lot of disenchantment with the cost of living, rents and a housing crisis and the go to position is to blame the immigrant and the outsider rather than trying to tackle the excesses of capitalism.

Posted by: Smint 10th March 2024, 11:01 PM

Another Sunday, another European country veers far right - this time Portugal with the Chega party on 18% of the votes. The socialists will lose power and likely a centre right coalition will take hold with Chega potentially kingmakers.

Posted by: Doomsday Dong 23rd May 2024, 04:36 PM

ITV news having a SHITE HEADLINE about "expecting mothers ABORTING THEIR BABEIS due to cost of living pressures". Um, no. The term is, terminating pregancies, and also ... nobody is doing that. Ridiculous anti-abortion propaganda that has staryed just when the election season starts...

Posted by: Iz 🌟 4th June 2024, 04:22 PM

Looks like Modi is set to have his power and grip on India weakened considerably with his BJP underperforming in the Indian elections.

Honestly these elections haven't been on my radar because I assumed he was onto another landslide but this is promising that he and his Hindu nationalism will be ousted... eventually if not right now.

Posted by: TheSnake 4th June 2024, 07:29 PM

South Africa and India results are interesting yes

Posted by: uhsting 14th June 2024, 11:28 AM

Posted by: Iz 🌟 14th June 2024, 03:45 PM

French politics has been golden to watch in the wake of this parliamentary election announcement

from what I can tell, the left have firmly united and look set to dramatically reverse their fortunes in the EU election, Les Republicains have imploded about as hard as it is possible for an erstwhile major political party to implode, Le Pen's suddenly finding herself bereft of allies and Zemmour's publically had a row with most of his newly elected MEPS, one of whom is Le Pen's niece

far-right imploding under their own hubris *.*

Maybe Macron really was doing a 500IQ move huh

Posted by: Harve 14th June 2024, 05:10 PM

With the UK having the most numerical movement in terms of MPs, alongside France having an election with more significant political + policy consequences the first week of July is gonna be wild.

Posted by: Iz 🌟 30th June 2024, 09:09 PM

French far-right lead the first round of polls.

A week before France finds out their fate - interesting system getting it done in 2 rounds I've always thought, lots for people to consider in the upcoming week.

Posted by: Steve201 1st July 2024, 08:34 PM

Another way of ensuring a centrist winner in the real poll like always in France!

Posted by: Iz 🌟 1st July 2024, 08:40 PM

Well there does seem to be a decent amount of stepping aside to combat the far-right, but the left coalition were far ahead of Macron's centrist coalition, he'll have to ally with the left and I've literally seen Macron ministers quote LFI as a danger to the Republic when RN are right there. Nice bit of centrist blindness.

Posted by: Steve201 1st July 2024, 08:42 PM

France bores me, every Presidental election the far right are on the rise and do well in the first round and are squeezed in the main event. The system is set up to allow a centrist winner every time.

Posted by: Doctor Blind 7th July 2024, 06:16 PM

Looks like some excellent tactical voting has dumped RN into 3rd place in the French elections. *.*

Posted by: DoBelieveTheHype 7th July 2024, 06:22 PM

Like the UK election, a significant embarrassment for the opinion polling industry if the actual results bear out the early projections.

Posted by: Liam sota 7th July 2024, 06:26 PM

France do this same merry go round every election

Posted by: Iz 🌟 7th July 2024, 07:29 PM

Excellent work France *.*

RN haven't been this embarrassed in what feels like a long time. And to have the left leading in a way they haven't in France for at least a decade (since the demise of PS) if I remember correctly, incredible. Let's hope that holds for the outcome.

Posted by: Jade 7th July 2024, 07:46 PM

Love to see the far right flopping *.*

Posted by: Chez Wombat 7th July 2024, 07:52 PM

Seems like a nightmare scenario has changed into something that's really taken a positive step forward for France, great stuff and should hopefully lessen these fears of the far right taking over around Europe along with the other election news this weekend. Now hopefully this can prove that there IS a viable alternative to centrism and far-right, if only America could see that x

Posted by: Steve201 7th July 2024, 08:18 PM

This.

As I said above the big European nations are set up to allow only power sharing and so the far right rise every election but get chucked out in subsequent rounds as the system does its job. Been like that since the Second World War!

Posted by: uhsting 7th July 2024, 08:47 PM

omg the UK paving the way to kicking out the right wing parties from/going into government

Posted by: Brer 7th July 2024, 11:35 PM

I had been under the impression that the left/centrist candidates dropping out for the second round were really only trying to prevent an RN majority and that they were still almost sure to have the largest number of seats, them being pushed into third place is hilarious.

Posted by: uhsting 5th August 2024, 02:35 PM

Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina has resigned

Posted by: Iz 🌟 6th September 2024, 08:56 AM

So after the LEFT winning the elections in France, the LEFT putting forward their candidate for prime minister, including ones that might be a bit more center-left and acceptable to parts of Macron's coalition, Macron just goes ahead and appoints Michel Barnier, from the 4th-placed right-wing Republicans, as PM.

Acceptable to the center, and the right, and not censured by the extreme right is their strategy. Where's the left, idk, they're not important. God I hate Macron.

*gestures vaguely at the New Popular Front leading the election results, literally saving Macron from having a Le Pen led majority in his Parliament*