Worldcrunch“Kaczynski Takes Poland,” writes Polish daily Fakt on Monday’s front page, one day after the Conservative and eurosceptic Law and Justice party (PiS) swept to victory in Poland, ousting the ruling center-left and pro-EU Civic Platform. PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski — the twin brother of Poland’s late President Lech Kaczynski, who died in a plane […]
CANADA’S LIBERALS SWEEP TO POWER Justin Trudeau, son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, led his Liberal Party to an unexpectedly sweeping victory in general elections yesterday, ending nearly a decade of Conservative rule, the daily National Post reports. Outgoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper conceded defeat and the Conservative party announced his resignation. The […]
“New Trudeau Mania,” writes French-language Canadian daily Le Journal de Montréal on the front page of its Tuesday edition, after Justin Trudeau — son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau — led his Liberal Party to an unexpectedly sweeping victory in general elections. Outgoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper conceded defeat late Monday, ending nearly […]
“Confidence in the coalition,” reads Monday’s front page of Portuguese daily Jornal de Noticias, following the governing center-right coalition’s victory in the country’s general election. This was the first nationwide parliamentary election since 2011, when the government followed Greece and Ireland in requesting an international bailout to avoid default. Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho insisted […]
From local politics to the the battle against polio to a banned prostitution film, here’s a quick tour of what has been happening in Morocco in recent days.
This week, we shine the spotlight on Portugal: DOES RECOVERY SPELL REELECTION? After years in the doldrums, the Portuguese economy is showing signs of picking up, with the country’s GDP growing — albeit slowly — and unemployment figures reaching five-year lows, Diário Económico reports. According to official data from Portugal’s National Statistical Institute INE, private […]
Belarus will hold presidential elections in October, and President Alexander Lukashenko will face Tatiana Karatkevich, the first-ever female candidate. That is, of course, unless the all-powerful ruler changes his mind.
Photo: Thierry Roge/Zuma LAST CHANCE FOR GREECE? Greeted by a mix of cheers and boos, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday as the fate of his country’s membership in the Eurozone — and perhaps the ultimate destiny of the single currency itself — hangs in the balance. TALIBAN […]
ANKARA —Last Sunday’s general elections in Turkey represented nothing less than a cultural and political revolution: Not only did President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lose his parliamentary majority, but Kurdish politicians also succeeded for the first time in winning enough votes to enter parliament. The Turkish electorate’s disenchantment with its egomaniacal leader deals a blow to […]
ERDOGAN’S PARTY LOSES MAJORITY Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered a major setback in yesterday’s general election, losing their parliamentary majority, Hürriyet reports. While it still received more votes than any other party, losing the single-party majority bodes poorly for Erdogan’s wish to introduce a strong presidential system. […]
TURIN — Italian politicians from very different backgrounds have been trying to capitalize on last week’s victory of Spain’s anti-austerity party Podemos in regional elections: from centrist Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and the populist Northern League leader Matteo Salvini, to the banker-turned-cabinet minister Corrado Passera and leftist LGBT activist and governor of the Puglia region […]
The return to office of Chile’s first woman President has been a veritable disaster. It is only partly her own making.
Ultra-Orthodox parties in coalition with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have obtained bonus welfare benefits for their religious schools and families. How the government is undermining the country’s future generations.
TEL AVIV — After the final breakdown of the election results were confirmed, it was clear who sent Benjamin Netanyahu back for another term as prime minister: the people of the so-called “periphery” of Israel, far away from the urban centers in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa. Support from small towns and distant suburbs had […]
YEMEN AIRSTRIKES MOVE INTO DAY FIVEWarplanes from the Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen destroyed arms depots overnight in day five of its offensive, Saudi website Al Arabiya reports. This comes after the weekend’s Arab summit in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, where Sunni nations agreed to form what The Washington Times describes as a […]
ISRAEL VOTESPhoto: Omer Messinger/ZUMAMillions of Israelis are voting today to elect a new parliament and potentially a new prime minister in a tightly fought election that has become a referendum on incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu, who is running for a fourth term. Late polls show center-left opponent Isaac Herzog, leader of the Zionist Union, with a […]
Scandals and stagnation, crime and curbs on democracy are spreading across the region. Are things about to take a sharp turn back to the bad old days?
It’s the consultants …
TIKRIT SIEGE TIGHTENS Iraqi armed forces and Shia militias were surrounding ISIS fighters inside the city of Tikrit yesterday with Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi confident that victory over the terrorist group was only a matter of time. “Time is on our side. We have the initiative,” AFP quoted him as saying. Since the operation started […]
Nigeria’s rescheduled March 28 presidential elections should be able to take place despite disruption threats made Tuesday by Boko Haram. But the country’s security services, such as the military, the Service Chiefs and the National Security Adviser, will have to “guarantee the sanctity of the rescheduled polls in view of the security challenges facing the […]
From Greece and Spain, to Brazil and beyond, people are no longer convinced that politics is working for the greater good.
SYRIZA WINS GREEK ELECTIONAs expected, Greece’s anti-austerity party Syriza secured a resounding victory in yesterday’s general election but came just two seats short of an absolute majority in the parliamentary assembly. But the far-left party has already struck a coalition agreement with the right-wing Greek Independents, which also rejects the austerity policies that have plunged […]
Japan has slipped into recession, the ultimate mark of failure of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ambitious but misguided efforts to turn around the nation’s economy.
The midterm elections were a stinging defeat for Barack Obama. But it was also a wholesale indictment of U.S. politics, which is both disturbing and confounding when viewed from abroad.
While elsewhere the ‘Obama factor’ may hurt Democrats, in South Dakota the Sioux tribe may tip the scales in the president’s favor as control of the U.S. Senate hangs in the balance.
HONG KONG — Pro-democracy protesters took to the streets over the weekend in Hong Kong, flooding downtown around Admiralty, the government complex. Occupy Central activits rallied against the government’s plan to limit electoral changes. The city’s authorities had promised Hong Kong residents they would be allowed to choose their own leader by 2017, but the […]
Will Divine Providence, or “Bible roulette,” play a role in the outcome of next month’s Brazilian elections?
Their economic philosophies may differ, but Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa and Colombia’s arch-conservative former president Alvaro Uribe, share a taste for the perpetuation of power.
The electoral horizon looks unsympathetic for disaffected Brazilian voters after the death of a charismatic presidential aspirant. Will Rousseff win again, despite politics-as-usual fatigue?
A Polish reporter checks out sentiment in the heart of UKIP country after the anti-immigration party’s success in recent European elections.
As Colombia prepares to elect a president, voters must choose between a candidate willing to make painful concessions with FARC guerrillas and a hawk keen on the status quo.
“The electoral campaign is like selling detergent,” reads this graffiti just one month after the first general election held in Spain since the death of longtime dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
Just three years after wave of democracy, Egyptians appear ready to trade in freedom in order to have more stability. Is Cairo set to usher in a new era of pure military rule?
Over the past three years, most Egyptians have failed to see beyond the most immediate aspects of its crisis. Meanwhile, in the outside world, the most basic formulas have changed.
Thursday, January 8, 2014 FRENCH MANHUNT CONTINUES AMID MORE VIOLENCEThe search continues in France for the two gunmen who killed 12 people in the course of attacking the offices of satirical paper Charlie Hebdo with Kalashnikovs yesterday, a terrorist attack that Le Monde describes on today’s front page as “France’s 9/11.” Here are 31 front […]
If the once popular Socialist become President a second time, as polls predict, Chile may be in for some major changes. What will it mean for the so-called ‘Chilean Model’?
Wednesday, November 5, 2014 REPUBLICANS TAKE CONTROL OF U.S. SENATE The Republican Party won control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since 2006, gaining at least 7 seats, 1 more than they needed to have a majority after scoring important victories in Tuesday’s midterm election in North Carolina, Colorado, Iowa, West Virginia, Arkansas, […]
Georgia’s outgoing President Mikhail Saakashvili has been a darling in the West. Now that his opponents are in power, his fate will tell us much about the nation’s young democracy.
ROME — Berlusconi’s world has never been at such odds with Berlusconi himself. Nobody could rightly agree with the decision to pull out of the coalition that was providing stability for the Italian government as the country attempts to pull out of a deep recession. You could count on one hand the number of loyalists […]