The Icelandic Alþingi Elections of 30 November 2024. Programmes, Candidates, Election Results and Implications for the Political System

The Canberra Bubble

Battered by Geopolitical Winds, Bulgaria Struggles to Restart Much Needed Reforms

The article examines the results of the Portuguese parliamentary elections held on January 30, 2022. It compares the results of the leading political parties in the elections of 2015, 2019 and 2022, and characterizes all the leading Portuguese political parties represented in parliament from 2015 to 2021. The results of the government led by the leader of the Socialist Party, A. Costa, are presented. The results of the government headed by the leader of the Socialist Party, A. Costa, formed by the results of the 2015 elections are presented. The reasons for maintaining the rating of this government and its impact on the election campaign are revealed. The article examines how the coronavirus pandemic and the government's actions to overcome its consequences influenced the course and results of the election campaign. The activities of the main opposition parties in this country are assessed: the liberal-conservative Social Democratic Party, the right-wing radical populist Chega Party and the Liberal Initiative Party. The course of the election campaign and its main topics are examined, as well as other political parties that were elected to the parliament as a result of these elections: the Liberal Initiative, the Left Bloc and the Unionist Democratic Coalition. The positions of the leading political parties of the country regarding their attitude to the new government coalition are presented. The state of Russian-Portuguese relations is analyzed. It forecasts how the results of the elections will affect the formation of the new government of this country and the relations between Russia and Portugal.

The highest representative body of the country is the Parliament, which exercises legislative power and determines the main directions of foreign and domestic policy of the country. Within the framework established by the Constitution, it controls the activity of the Government and exercises other powers. The procedure of the Parliament's work is determined by a decree having the force of law. Parliament ratifies, denounces and cancels international agreements by a majority of its full members. Today the role of parliament increased in Georgia. This was mainly manifested in the fact that the rights of the Parliament were expanded and the rights of the President were sharply restricted. As for the government, as the supreme executive body, it is accountable and responsible to the Parliament. Because it acquires authority once it is trusted by Parliament. The president of Georgia is the leader of the state.  Supreme Commander of the Defense Forces.  It is indicative that the president exercises representative powers in foreign relations only with the approval of the government and by the procedure established by the constitution and organic law, appoints elections of parliament and local self-government bodies, and carries out other actions. powers defined by the Constitution. The Government of Georgia is the supreme body of executive power that implements the internal and foreign policy of the country. It is accountable and responsible to the Parliament. The Government consists of the Prime Minister and Ministers. The structure of the Government and its action procedure is defined by law. The leader of the Government is the prime minister, who defines the main directions of the Government's occupations, in internal and also in foreign relationships. Parliament expresses confidence in the government in the person of the prime ministerial candidate nominated by the political party with the best results in the parliamentary elections.  Together with the structure of the government, the program of the government will be submitted to the Parliament.  The support of a majority of the full Parliament is required to gain confidence. (Constitution pg. 44). At present, Georgia is a parliamentary republic in terms of the form of political governance, type of state and nature of political regime. A parliamentary republic is a form of state government in which the leading role in the mechanism of state power belongs to an elected legislative body - parliament.

The 2024 Alþingi election resulted in substantial losses for the coalition government that had ruled Iceland since 2017. The three governing parties (the Left-Green Movement, Independence Party, and Progressive Party) secured a combined 29.5% of the vote, down from 54.3% three years earlier. We present an analysis of the 2024 election, informed by preliminary results from the Icelandic National Election Study. We examine the 2024 election through the theoretical lenses of economic voting and the cost of ruling, and place our findings in the context of post-crisis Icelandic electoral politics. Our analysis indicates that the 2024 election campaign was dominated by economic considerations, adversely affecting the governing parties. Economic concerns likely contributed to high levels of electoral volatility, as nearly half (49%) of all voters switched parties between 2021 and 2024. Governing parties lost badly and opposition parties (aside from parties furthest to the left) gained votes. The election results are also explored in terms of issue salience, post-crisis trends in political attitudes and behaviour, and voters’ media use. Our findings align with the established trend of a high cost of ruling in post-crisis Icelandic politics. In 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, an ideologically incongruent coalition was able to maintain power due to perceptions of competence. By contrast, in 2024, as economic concerns took centre stage, ideological incongruence became a liability for coalition survival. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for our understanding of post-crisis Icelandic politics and their potential influence on future elections.

Icelandic politics in 2021 were strongly dominated by two features: the ongoing struggle with Covid‐19 and the parliamentary election which took place on 25 September. Covid‐19 was in many ways the primary task of government throughout the year and, while criticism of various restrictions of personal freedoms grew louder as the year wore on, the situation remained relatively calm compared to most other countries. The parliamentary election was to a certain extent overshadowed by the pandemic crisis and the opposition parties in particular had a difficult time of finding a clear voice in a situation where expert rule was the norm and by far the most prominent part of the government agenda. After four years in power, the three‐way coalition of the Left‐Greens, Independence Party and Progressive Party was re‐elected in September, signalling a continuation of the partial return to stability which its formation in 2017 had signalled.

The article examines the results of the parliamentary elections in Bulgaria held on 4 April and 11 July 2021. It compares the results of the leading political parties in the 2017 and 2021 elections, and describes all leading Bulgarian political parties represented in parliament from 2017 to 2021. The results of the government led by GERB party leader Boyko Borisov, formed as a result of the 2017 elections, are analyzed. The reasons for this government's falling rating and its impact on the election campaign are identified. How the coronavirus pandemic and the government's actions to deal with its consequences have affected the course and results of the election campaign. The activities of the country's main opposition parties, the centre-left Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Social Liberal Movement for Rights and Freedoms, are assessed. The course of the election campaign and its main topics are examined, as well as the new political parties that were elected to the parliament: the left-populist coalition "Rise Up! Mafia Get Out!", the right-populist party "There's Such a People!", and the liberal coalition "Democratic Bulgaria". The positions of the leading political parties of the country regarding their possible participation in the new government coalition are shown. The state of Russian-Bulgarian relations is analyzed and forecasts of how the results of the elections will affect the formation of the new government of that country and the relations between Russia and Bulgaria are given.

In 2022, Icelandic politics returned to normal. In the two previous years, Covid‐19 had dominated the political agenda—ideology and politics as normal were largely absent. In the 2021 parliamentary elections, the three‐way coalition of the Left Greens, Independence Party, and Progressive Party (PP) kept its majority in Althingi—the first majority government to do so since the bank crash of 2008. This victory was clearly the result of a successful fight against the epidemic, and the government parties decided to continue their coalition cooperation. In 2022, support for the government and for the government parties went down, just as had been the case for all governments since the financial crisis of 2008. One of the opposition parties, the Social Democratic Alliance, made huge gains in the opinion polls—under a new leadership. Increasing ideological tensions could be observed within the government coalition, which includes both the parliamentary party furthest to the left and furthest to the right.

Despite the rising electoral success of independent local parties in many European countries, empirical evidence about their members is still rare. Therefore, the study aims to answer three questions to reach new insights: Who are these members? Which incentives motivate them to join, and how is intra-party participation structured? Based on a cross-sectional postal survey in Germany, the results show that members of independent local parties and national parties have mostly the same socioeconomic background and thus differ from the average general population. Independent local party members join their organisations mainly to promote an apolitical style of local decision-making and facilitate local democracy. Within independent local parties, different types of participation are present; while some members are fully engaged, others are mainly involved as elected representatives in public office or interested in social exchange. The interplay of membership incentives, civic skills and individual resources explains the variation of intra-party participation, whereby membership incentives are the most powerful explanatory factor. This study shows that independent local parties represent an alternative for those who have joined national parties. Thus, they provide an essential linkage between citizens and the (local) political system.

Changing the political elite in Ukraine as a result of the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections raises interest in what will be the state's policy in various fields, including the environment. After all, the effectiveness of state environmental policy has not been achieved in previous years. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to determine the environmental trends of election (presidential, parliamentary) programs. In terms of research tasks, an attempt has been made to find out which of the types of environmental consciousness are the preferences of election programs; to trace the relationship between the environmental components of the programs of Presidential candidates and the political parties they represent; to find out whether the objectives of the state environmental policy of Ukraine for the period up to 2030 are taken into account in the election programs. The study was based on the environmental components of the election programs of the top 5 presidential candidates and the top 5 political parties that entered the parliament. The results of the analysis revealed that they were not filled enough: some did not contain such information or were formulated as a slogan of a single sentence. It is revealed that the content of election programs legitimizes the postmodern (harmonious) type of environmental consciousness. Only one program combines characteristics of all three types, including traditionalist and modernist (technocentric). It has been found that the environmental provisions of the programs of the presidential candidates and their political parties in the parliamentary elections are only partially correlated. The authors' special attention is focused on the consistency of election program provisions with the strategic goals of the state environmental policy. This aspect of the study shows that greening the worldview of the society as one of the five strategic goals of Ukraine's state environmental policy is not mentioned in the documents analyzed. Good environmental governance is only declared during a presidential campaign in one program regarding responsibility for environmental damage. The other two goals (sustainable development of natural resource potential, reduction of environmental risks and a safe environment) are fragmented. In both campaigns, greening of management decisions on socio-economic development is the most significant. The authors conclude about old trends of formal, ideologically unformed attitude of the political elite towards the environment in the election programs, the emergence of a business component as a relatively new trend in one of the election programs, and also express the opinion about the debate over the complex environmental policy and the new power of the new authorities management decisions in this area.

Women in Australian Politics: Maintaining the Rage against the Political Machine

The Constitutional Court Decision Number 97 / PUU-XI / 2013 is a constitutional affirmation of the Court to relinquish its authority to resolve disputes over the results of regional head and deputy regional head elections. Given that conceptually the elections for regional heads and deputy regional heads are not included in the general election regime. After the decision of the Constitutional Court was issued Law Number 1 of 2015 as amended several times, most recently by Law Number 6 of 2020 which explicitly regulates and mandates the establishment of a special judicial body to handle disputes over election results. Neither the Constitutional Court decisions nor the Laws explain in detail the design of a special court that deals with disputes over election results. Therefore, this paper intends to answer research questions about; first, if the Constitutional Court has put the authority to resolve the election result dispute, what is the direction of the Constitutional Court’s thought in designing the settlement of the election result dispute based on decision Number 97/PUU-XI/2013? Second, the Constitutional Court Decision has been enumerated into the Election Law, is it in line with the Constitutional Court’s thoughts in the decision Number 97/PUU-XI/2013 with the normalization in the Election Law regarding disputes over results? third, how is the design of a special judicial body in line with the decision Number 97/PUU-XI/2013 and the Election Law? The research method used in this research is normative research with a statutory approach, conceptual approach, and case approach, with sources of literature law and prescriptive analysis techniques. The findings of this study are; First, the Decidendi Ratio of the Constitutional Court decision Number 97/ PUU-XI/2013 seems to implicitly place the authority to resolve disputes over the results of the elections as part of the authority of the Supreme Court. Second, the normalization of the Pilkada Law related to the settlement of election result disputes is in line with the Constitutional Court’s decision. Third, the design of a special electoral judiciary body is formed under the Supreme Court.

Italy is famous for its complicate politics, and almost every government fails to pass their no-confidence vote in the parliament every year, which, in this circumstance, makes the cabinet reshuffle occur persistently. Since 21st century, the politics in Italy has become more different than before, so this study is aimed to figure out the reason why the cabinet reshuffle occurs so frequently, to confirm if the Duverger’s Law is suitable for the political reality in Italy and to provide a solution for the complex Italian party politics. To do so, we must focus on the Italian political development, its political culture, 2 different electoral systems and the results of the latest elections and therefore thesis is divided in 5 parts: 1. Starting from the Italian constitution, we will discuss the political system, the parliament and the current election law and its features, 2. By focusing on the political culture, the party politics, the perfect bicameralism and its background, we would like the find out the features from the political system and party politics in Italy, 3. Through the latest 2 electoral reforms in Italy, we will analyze the difference between the 1993 election law and the 2005 election law in this section, 4. Then with the calculate the quantities of the parties in the recent parliaments, we will observe the growth and decline between the parties to find which the current party system is in Italy and whether the Duverger’s Law is suitable for the political reality, 5. Finally we hope to predict the possibilities for the political development by analyzing the results from the latest elections after 2001 and conclude this thesis with some possible modifications for the election law.

Received 01.09.2020. In the early 21st century, many European countries saw an increased influence of political parties relying on localized communities. Many new regional parties (RPs) emerged, which put the scientific community in need of understanding the reasons behind their strengthening positions in Europe. The present research provides a critical review of the RPs’ definitions, examines their origins, place in the political spectrum, factors of electoral success and geographical distribution of their electorate. The study is based on the analysis of the parliamentary and regional elections results in 43 European countries in 2000–2019. A map of the RP support rate by region has been designed, showing areas of the strongest public support. Its correlation with ethnic and cultural composition, political structure, and uneven regional development of the countries of Western and Eastern Europe has been analyzed. Today, in parliamentary and regional elections, RPs receive more than 5% of votes in the area of around 600 sq. kms, or 40% of the European territory (overseas territories excluded). Particular attention is paid to party strategies in national and regional elections. Modern RPs diversify their programs going far beyond the interests of a particular sociocultural group. In parliamentary elections, they often make alliances with national parties. In turn, national parties sometimes speak in regional elections “under the local brand”. The satisfaction of the RPs’ demands to provide the regions with greater autonomy does not have a significant impact on their strategies, which request increasingly wider powers. Despite the fact that individual regional parties even get seats in national parliaments, they have practically no influence on the state policy shaping. Their rise is associated not with electoral results, but with trends in the European political process. One can speak not about the success of particular parties, but about the advancement of the idea of regionalism. Acknowledgements. The study was carried out at the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences as part of the work supported by a grant of the Russian Science Foundation (RSF). Project no. 19-17-00232 “Post-Soviet Non-Recognized States: Factors of Viability and Risks for Russia”. Collection of electoral data for drawing up a schematic map (Fig.) was supported by a grant of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) and Expert Institute of Social Research (EISR). Project no. 20-011-32284 “The Success of Regional Parties in Modern Europe: Causes and Characteristics”.

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