Fernando González Urbaneja | Irish unification is likely to be on the horizon later this decade. Demographics and politics are transformative. And both are on the side of unification. Last week’s elections in the six northern counties point to changing majorities. Unification has not occupied the campaign debates, but it looms large as it is part of the permanent and structural agenda. Republican parties are now dominant against those who…
Fernando González Urbaneja | Until the French electoral cycle concludes with the June legislative elections, which will define the composition of the new government, it is premature to conclude on the ideological-social-moral map of the French. The right-left axis is of little use when the winning candidate, Enmanuel Macron, flees from this taxonomy, and the losing candidate accumulates 13 million votes (425) that are incompatible with the category of “extreme”….
After a crisis-plagued mandate, centrist Emmanuel Macron on Sunday became the first president to win re-election in France since 2002. With 58.54% of the vote, the candidate of La République en Marche, once again defeated Marine Le Pen, standard-bearer of Rassemblement Nationale, who would have won 41.46% of the vote in Sunday’s election. “From now on, I am no longer the candidate of one camp, but the president of all,”…
Nick Ottens (Atlantic Sentinel) | Supporters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon who are thinking of sitting out the second round of the French presidential election ought to take a lesson from Bernie Sanders’ supporters in the United States. When they abstained from the 2016 presidential election, or voted for Green party candidate Jill Stein, they made it possible for Donald Trump to win. Just 1.5 out of 136 million Americans voted for…
Fernando González Urbaneja | Russian journalist Masha Gessen wrote a biography of Putin ten years ago (“The Man Without a Face” Debate) which was recommended reading then and even more so now. In chapter 3 (Autobiography of a Thug) she sketches the character that Putin’s unofficial biographers did not hesitate to highlight when praising his character. During his youth in Leningrad (now and formerly St. Petersburg) he behaved like a…
Nick Ottens (Atlantic Sentinel) | António Costa no longer needs them for a majority. Portugal’s far left put purity before power and lost power. Until 2015, neither the Communists nor Left Bloc had ever been in government. That year, the Socialists fell short of a majority and António Costa made a deal with the smaller parties. In return for policies like free textbooks in schools and a higher minimum wage,…
*This article was originally published by Fair Observer Alissa Claire Collavo | Italy’s parliament gathered in a joint session of both houses on January 24 to elect the country’s next president who will succeed Sergio Mattarella, whose term will end on February 3. A total of 1,009 voters, including 58 delegates chosen by regional councils and known as “great electors,” took part in the first stage of voting, which will be repeated every…
Cases of domestic violence in London rose sharply during the coronavirus lockdown of March 2020. This is suggested by an index, newly calculated by the ifo Institute, based on searches for certain terms on the internet. “This index shows an increase in cases of domestic violence that is seven times higher than that recorded by police statistics,” says Helmut Rainer, Director of the ifo Center for Labor and Demographic Economics….
Nick Ottens (Atlantic Sentinel) | A deal between two of the four parties negotiating to form a government in the Netherlands has leaked. Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s liberal VVD (of which I am a member) and the Christian democratic CDA wrote the outlines of a coalition agreement for review by the social-liberal D66 and the smaller Christian Union. Christian Union leader Gert-Jan Segers forgot a copy of the document on…
Last night the Italian authorities arrested in Sardinia the former president of the Catalan Government Carles Puigdemont, a fugitive from justice since 2017. The Catalan leader, who as soon as he was arrested was taken to the police station at the city’s airport, was wanted on the basis of a warrant issued by the Supreme Court. Puigdemont had travelled from Brussels to take part in the Aplec Internacional Adifolk, an…