Will update if anything relevant happens, and I'll post polls every now and then, but I don't think they'll be all that reliable due to the uncertainty a low turnout might generate. When elections were repeated in 2016, the polls were a massive failure.

This post was edited by zarkadon on Sep 18 2019 03:04pm

We have something hilarious which happen from time to time

The cohabitation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohabitation_(government)

Oh ok, it's hilarious....

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-49810261

I can read this in my french paper "A constitutional council in a country without constitution ?"

This post was edited by Saucisson6000 on Sep 24 2019 11:11am

Spanish alt-left party UP's co-founder and former number 2, Iñigo Errejón, has officially announced today that he contest the upcoming repeat elections under a new party, Más País (More Country).

Errejón had a very long and dramatic feud with UP's leader Pablo Iglesias over the past few years, which eventually resulted in Errejón leaving the party ahead of the regional elections (held this May) in order to contest them independently from UP. The result was that his electoral platform, Más Madrid (More Madrid), almost tripled the results UP got... almost shoving his former party out of the regional parliament due to the 5% minimum threshold the Madrid Regional Parliament requires in order to enter (Más Madrid got around 15%, while Unidas Podemos got around 5.5%).

Now he has decided to run on a national level. It's unlikely he will perform as well as he performed in the Madrid regional elections, due to the nature of the party being heavily urban-centric, him having few allies outside of Madrid, and the fact that the rushed structure of this new party is limited (they will only contest in constituencies where at least 7 seats are contested), etc.... but he could take a significant bite from UP and PSOE's voter base.

There is some debate on whether this is good or bad news for the Spanish left. On one side, it's bad because it causes division, which might result in lost votes that cost the left several seats in some constituencies... but on the other side, it broadens the options for the leftist voter base, which seems pretty angry at how UP and PSOE failed at negotiations and might have been planning on not voting at all on the repeat elections.

By the way, about the party... it aims to be a "progressive and pragmatic" party according to Errejón. Basically, a less populist and more moderate alt-left party... probably on the left side of Social Democracy, but probably not as far left to be considered Democratic Socialism. We will see how things develop, but the party has so far today preferred to use the word "progressive" over "leftist", and has talked a lot about climate change. It will likely be a left-wing, progressive, pro-EU, Spanish federalist party.

In any case, the goal is clearly to form a government with PSOE... which is something Errejón always wanted, and the main reason he clashed with Pablo Iglesias when they were both leading UP. Iglesias wanted to destroy PSOE and impose his agenda on the left side of Spanish politics, while Errejón wanted a pragmatic approach with the goal of influencing (and not destroying) PSOE to get them to concede part of their agenda.

So, basically things could get really interesting in Spain with 6 nation-wide parties, that are aiming to get at least 10% of the votes, contesting the elections.

This post was edited by zarkadon on Sep 25 2019 04:31pm

My girlfriend is from Bulgaria, and talks to her mother at least once a week (who is living there), so we do get to hear how some of the things are going there, unbiased.

We plan on going there next year for 2 weeks duration.

Austrian elections were held today:



Great result for ÖVP and especially the Greens, which could now play a decisive role. Alt-right FPÖ had a pretty big meltdown, as well as the social democrat SPÖ. NEOS got good results too, but they won't be enough to form a majority alone with ÖVP.

Over all, this is a huge victory for Kurz, and he has many different options to try to form a government... he can go with Greens, go for something broader like Greens+NEOS, repeat an alliance with FPÖ, or form a grand coalition with SPÖ.

"freedom party" seriously...
==>
Sebastian Kurz, 33, won the Austrian legislative elections o. He thus signs his probable return to Chancery in a political landscape turned upside down by the debacle of the extreme right and the shattering return of the Greens.

Our king showing our PM a dank meme during the UN General Assembly

Brexit & B.J new "proposal"; found some interesting statements:

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Northern Ireland will therefore become a huge smuggling place with two systems, a battle between different standards, many will seek to profit of it and first the Brits with loose controls.
This solution is not acceptable as it stands for the EU, which will still have higher regulatory requirements as Britain seeks to take advantage of the new system.
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BloJo proposes a colander plan that challenges the integrity of the single market; a plan that should be rejected but that will allow the PM to get out without agreement by putting failure on the backs of Europeans.
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===> I think EU could wait before taking a clear stance, letting UK running out of time, and UK's politics tearing each other apart. This is just a supposition.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7533375/Knifeman-attacks-police-officers-Paris-police-station.html

4 police in france are dead after an attack by an islamist terrorist in a mass stabbing attack
He had worked for the department for 20 years and had a security clearance, but recently converted to islam and had gotten into a workspace dispute over his new fundamentalist islamic values, not wanting women to be allowed to work near him, motivating him to try to stab his female before going after men and women nearby, killing 4 and injuring 1 more.