Neither the left- nor right-wing bloc won a majority in Spain’s Congress of Deputies on Sunday. Regional parties will hold the balance of power.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of the Socialist Workers’ Party was reduced to second place despite gaining seats. Alberto Núñez Feijóo propelled the conservative People’s Party into first place with 33 percent support, but he doesn’t have a majority even with Santiago Abascal’s far-right Vox (Voice) and the center-right Navarrese People’s Union.
For Sánchez to stay in power, he would need the support of Yolanda Díaz’ far-left Sumar (Unite) and almost all regional parties, including the separatist Together for Catalonia. (more…)
Right-wing parties won the election in Italy on Sunday.
Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the largest right-wing party, Brothers of Italy, would become the country’s first woman prime minister.
She would lead the first right-wing government since Silvio Berlusconi stepped down in 2011, and the most right-wing government since the end of World War II.
The elections were called when Prime Minister Mario Draghi lost the confidence of parliament in July. He did not run for reelection.
All 400 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 200 elected seats in the Senate were contested.
Turnout, at 64 percent, was the lowest since Benito Mussolini rigged the election of 1924. (more…)
Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen have won the first voting round in the French presidential election.
With 95.5 percent of the votes counted, Macron, the incumbent, is at 28 percent support and Le Pen, the leader of the far right, at 23 percent. Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon places third with 22 percent.
The April 24 runoff will be a rematch of the 2017 election, when Macron defeated Le Pen with 66 to her 34 percent. Polls predict a narrower margin this year. (more…)
Harbor of La Rochelle, France, June 23, 2020 (Unsplash/Simon Pallard)
France’s traditional left- and right-wing parties won the first round of regional elections on Sunday.
They were eclipsed in the 2017 national and 2019 European elections by Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche! and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally.
Neither Macron nor Le Pen is likely to win one of France’s eighteen regional presidencies, but they are still polling in first and second place for the 2022 presidential election.
The second round of the regional elections will be held next week. (more…)
Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s liberal VVD placed first in parliamentary elections in the Netherlands on Wednesday but fell short of a majority.
Three or four parties will be needed to form a coalition government.
The social-liberal and pro-European D66, which has governed with Rutte since 2017, placed second, pushing Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) into third place.
The PVV lost seats to the more radical Forum for Democracy (FvD).
The combined populist right, including newcomer JA21, is projected to win more seats than the Labor Party, Greens and far-left Socialists combined. (more…)
Early morning in Plaça de Sant Jaume, Barcelona, seat of the Catalan regional government (iStock)
The Catalan branch of Spain’s ruling Socialist Party (PSOE) shared first place with the separatist Republican Left (ERC) in regional elections on Sunday.
Pro-independence parties won 74 out of 135 seats, up four. The parties have governed since 2012.
The Republican Left and Socialists would also have a majority with the left-wing Catalonia in Common-Podem.
The far-right Vox entered Catalonia’s parliament for the first time, but the right as a whole lost twenty seats.
Turnout was 54 percent, the lowest since the restoration of democracy. (more…)
Donald Trump supporters demonstrate outside the United States Capitol in Washington DC, January 6 (Tyler Merbler)
Donald Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol on Wednesday as Congress was debating the outcome of November’s presidential election.
Lawmakers were evacuated from their chambers. Shots were fired inside the House of Representatives. Four people died.
Police used teargas and pepper spray to disperse the mob.
Lawmakers had been debating a challenge to Arizona’s Electoral College votes for Joe Biden.
President Trump encouraged the riot in a speech outside the White House, saying, “Our country has had enough and we will not take it any more.” He later called on supporters to leave the Capitol grounds. (more…)
Former vice president Joe Biden won ten of the fourteen states that held Democratic presidential primaries on “Super Tuesday”, including Elizabeth Warren’s home state Massachusetts and delegate-rich Virginia and Texas.
His socialist rival, Bernie Sanders, won in California, Colorado, Utah and Vermont.
Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg ended his presidential campaign after failing to win any contest except the caucuses on American Samoa.
1,344 pledged delegates were at stake, a third of the total (3,979) and two-thirds of the delegates needed to win the nomination on the first ballot (1,991). (more…)
