Brazilian politics have been polarized between Lula and Bolsonaro. The urgency to defeat the later has been evoked to close off critical thinking. However, Bolsonaro embodies social forces that will not go away with an electoral defeat while an eventual Lula comeback only in part responds to popular aspirations. In order to avoid illusions and […]
Tag: elections
One cannot understand the recent Italian elections without a minimal background on the recent Italian past. Though certainly we cannot be happy about Giorgia Meloni’s victory, she does not represent the “Fascistic” deviation some simplifying liberal media would have us believe. She is the leader of a political party which, though it has a convoluted […]
On April 24, 2022, Slovenians voted in a parliamentary election to remove their long-time Prime Minister Janez Janša. LeftEast presents this interview with the Slovenian Marxist Gal Kirn on the broader significance of the election and its results. Q: You compare the Slovenian elections with those in France. What are the similarities and what are […]
One Year On, Is Zagreb Ours?
A year after the left-green political platform Zagreb je Naš/Možemo! won the local elections in Zagreb, Paul Stubbs[1] reflects on the key achievements, constraints, and shortcomings of the new administration.
On April 3 2022 presidential, extraordinary parliamentary and elections for the assembly of Belgrade, Bor and 12 other cities and municipalities were held in Serbia. Note from LeftEast editors. This is an updated version of the article which was originally published on April 8, 2022, on Mašina . We publish it as part of our cooperation […]
Hungary’s political climate is increasingly dominated by the tensions related to the coming elections in Spring 2022. While all oppositional parties from far-right to the left had joined forces to fight the ruling party Fidesz, a new player entered the political arena in December 2021. György Gattyán, one of the richest people in Hungary, announced […]
On the night of 19 December 2021, in front of tens of thousands of supporters, Gabriel Boric, the presidential candidate of a left and centre-left parties’ coalition, gave his victory speech after defeating the far-right candidate José Antonio Kast in the run-off. In his address, he pledged to guard the country’s ongoing constituent process and […]
Note from LeftEast editors: The Italian version of the article was originally published on the Italian left-wing website Sinistra in Europa. On 17th and 31st October this year the first and second rounds of local elections were held in North Macedonia, a country which in recent times has seen the gradual growth of a left-wing party (Levica) […]
Czechia: A Lucky Break from Populism?
While the defeat of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš at the hands of a right-wing coalition surprised everyone, the electoral results can hardly be heralded as the end of populism. They do mark the demise of the billionaire oligarch Babiš, but they also show how far the political scene has shifted towards xenophobic and authoritarian tendencies, […]
The Magic Tricks of Russian Elections
Elections in Putin’s Russia are usually predictable and rarely bring out any surprises. Even when the ratings of the ever-incumbent president or his subservient ruling party are down, media propaganda and widespread systemic election fraud ensure they remain in power. As the common saying goes: “The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people […]