Subterms
Sweden is recovering after a very tense election night. The centre-right and the centre-left blocs have effectively secured very similar shares of the vote, but neither have come away with quite enough leverage to form a strong government alone. The far-right Sweden Democrats, a niche party campaigning on a nationalist agenda, registered its highest electoral […] More
For a while, it seemed as though the long running dispute over the island Cyprus was nearing an end. But the latest summit between political leaders failed to produce a result. Now, citizens find themselves once again in limbo. But as close as the process appeared then to be to a mutually agreed settlement, the […] More
Around the world it seems far-right groups can infiltrate the mainstream regardless of a given country’s political present or past. The question is, then, how do they do it? The far-right movement Golden Dawn, based in Greece, is a prime example of how fringe groups can become major political forces. Since it first emerged in […] More
Italy’s controversial new deputy prime minister has wasted no time in causing trouble since taking office. Matteo Salvini, leader of the extreme right Lega party, is anti-immigration, anti-EU and pro-Russia. But who is he and how did he enter the mainstream? In its previous incarnation as the Lega Nord, Salvini’s party experienced uneven electoral fortunes. […] More
The conflict in Ukraine effectively began between 6.30pm and 8.30pm on November 28 2013. This is when Ukraine’s then president, Viktor Yanukovych, confirmed that he was not going to sign an association agreement with the EU – a deal that the Russian government held in contempt. The result is well-known: mass pro-European protests in Ukraine, […] More
Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, has been forced to resign by his national parliament, which voted by 180 seats to 169 in favour of a motion of no-confidence in his leadership. The vote indicates that the Spanish electorate’s patience with corruption is at an end – and puts the country on an uncertain path […] More
Around the world, populism is on the march. The election of Donald Trump and the UK’s vote for Brexit triggered a crisis of faith in democratic institutions. And populists have been victorious in other countries including Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Andrej Babiš in the Czech Republic, and Recep Tayyib Erdoğan in Turkey. Italy has […] More
Young women across Western Europe and Canada are more left wing than their male counterparts, according to new research I carried out that also shows among older voters women more likely to be right wing than men. We already know that younger people are often more likely to vote for left-wing parties than their older […] More
