One of the sticking points in attempts to form another grand coalition government in Germany is the country’s mixed public-private health insurance system.
The Social Democrats campaigned on merging the two. Their argument is that the one in ten Germans with private insurance (mostly people with yearly incomes over €50,000) get better care: shorter waiting lists, more services. (more…)
Germany’s Christian Democrats and Social Democrats have agreed to form another “grand coalition” government.
Here is everything you need to know about the deal. (more…)
Center-right parties in Italy, led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, call for a flat tax of 15 to 20 percent.
The single rate would replace the current five income tax brackets and possibly the two business taxes (national and regional).
Renato Brunetta, leader of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia in the lower house of parliament, tells the Financial Times:
It’s the fiscal shock that will make Italy emerge from the trap it’s been in for the past decades.
Here are the pros and cons. (more…)
Separatist parties defended their majority in Catalonia’s regional parliament on Thursday, but only by a whisker. The parties that want to secede from Spain won seventy out of 135 seats against 57 for the unionists.
Catalonia in Common, a left-wing party that rejects both independence and Spain’s suspension of Catalan home rule, won the remaining eight seats. (more…)
Republicans in the United States have enacted the final version of their tax plan.
The reforms cut corporate and income tax by a magnitude of $1.5 trillion, with the biggest gains going to the highest incomes.
Included is a repeal of the individual mandate from Obamacare, which could throw millions of Americans off health insurance.
Here are the most important things you need to know about the changes. (more…)
13 percent of Americans switched parties in the last five years. Economic anxiety had little to do with Democrats changing sides to support Donald Trump.
Those are some of the more surprising findings of the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group. (more…)
Polls show that Americans under the age of 35 are more sympathetic to big government than their elders. Democrats have a 48-point advantage among millennial voters, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey.
That is not so surprising when you realize that their generation may be the first in a long time that is worse off than their parents’.
Michael Hobbes’ feature about millennials in The Huffington Post contains some sobering statistics.
On average, he writes, Americans under the age of 35:
The stereotype of the overqualified liberal arts graduate working as a barista is only half-correct. Many young Americans are struggling to find high-paying jobs despite having spent tens — sometimes hundreds — of thousands of dollars on their education. Less known is that one in five young adults live in poverty. (more…)
Catalans will elect a new regional parliament on December 21. Here is everything you need to know about the election. (more…)
Remi Adekoya explains in Foreign Affairs how Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party has been able to remain popular despite truncating democratic norms and institutions and antagonizing the EU:
Sixteen Democratic senators, led by the 2016 presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, have called for reforms that would make all Americans eligible for public health care.
Such a system — the Americans call it “single-payer” — would be uncontroversial in Europe, where most countries guarantee health care to their citizens.
But it seems impossible to get done in America. Why? (more…)
Catalans are due to vote on independence from Spain in a referendum next month, despite objections from Madrid.
Most of the arguments for independence are cultural or emotional. Opponents are more likely to point out concrete economic and security risks. (more…)
Federal elections will be held in Germany on September 24. This guide contains everything you need to know about them. (more…)
Germany’s Christian Democrats are so far ahead in the opinion polls that the only question seems to be who will govern with them after the election?
Support for Angela Merkel’s party has been just short of 40 percent since May. The Social Democrats, who briefly polled neck and neck with the conservatives earlier in the year, are down to 25 percent.
The Greens, liberal Free Democrats, far-left Die Linke and far-right Alternative für Deutschland would split the remainder of the vote.
Unless the numbers change dramatically between now and September, Merkel would have three ways to stay in power:
A right-wing pact with the Alternative can be ruled out. (more…)
Russia has suspended a military hotline it maintained with the United States to avoid clashes in Syria and warned that it may shoot down any “flying objects” west of the River Euphrates.
The escalation comes after an American fighter jet shot down a Syrian warplane on Sunday that was attacking rebel ground forces supported by the United States in the vicinity of the Tabqa Dam.
The Western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a secular and largely Kurdish opposition group, has wrestled control of the dam and the nearby town of Tabqa from the self-proclaimed Islamic State after a months-long battle. American special forces were reportedly involved in one assault in January.
It is unclear why the Syrians targeted the SDF. Bashar Assad’s regime has largely ignored rebels east of the Euphrates since the start of the uprising against him six years ago. (more…)
Britain’s ruling Conservatives are projected to lose control of Parliament. The exit poll for Thursday’s election shows them falling from 330 to 314 seats. Twelve more are needed for a majority.
Assuming the exit poll isn’t too far off, what does this mean for Britain’s next government, its major political parties and the process of divorcing the United Kingdom from the EU? (more…)
