*blinkblinkblink* so.. we’re just going to ignore the impact Republicans have on US politics? Lol. I mean, for real. Move the goal posts more. Just admit you lost and move on.
@Ceres : I'm unilaterally moving our discussion of your uninformed bigotry here. May I ask you what the Liberal Alliance -- a party in Denmark with seats in parliament -- believe on the issue of Islamic immigrants? Now be warned: I already know the answer and I'm merely wondering if you do know anything you claim to know.
The AfD didn't win this state, but they are now the main opposition. 1837885191978664262 is not a valid tweet id
What do you think you are missing? On social matters, like immigration, BSW leans more conservative, on economic matters its more far leftist. Those things aren't too bad, if you can stomach the authoritarian streak with Wagenknecht deciding everything by herself. In that combination it also fills a void in the German party system. The thing that really puts them into no go area for me, is the slavish devotion to Putin and Russia. It is utterly baffling, but as it would remove Germany from the Ukraine war, it is a big draw among "peace-minded" voters, especially in the east. It is also a poison pill for democratic parties, especially the CDU, because Wagenknecht would extract concessions on foreign policy for any help she would provide in the Länders. Her first "offer/demand" was the removal of US missiles from German territory.
Isnot she sort of SPD heavy in this stance? I'm not very informed about inner workings of the German system, but how would she be able to do that?
Yes, the socially conservative/economically leftist position was part of the SPD but I don't think it has been a big part of their platform for a long time. They are quite clearly progressive on social issue nowadays. As for the influence on foreign policy: It is part of the negotiations for forming governments which are happening at the moment in the aftermath of the elections. The Lander have influence on the national stage via the Bundesrat, the second chamber of the national legislative. The Bundesrat doesn't consists of elected officials like the US senate, instead it represents the governments of the Länder. That's why you could probably compare a German minister president, f.e. Söder in Bayern, as a combination of a US governor and the two federal senators (although there are obviously differences). Now the Bundesrat mainly acts on national issues, I don't think it is directly involved in any foreign issues. But even then it is a way to exert influence on the national government. More importantly it is a poison pill from BSW and Sarah Wagenknecht for the old parties, especially the CDU.
Moldova had a referendum on whether they should add joining the European Union to the country's constitution and there was an absolute ton of Russian interference. Russia's disinformation farms were operating in high gear and there was even evidence that Russia was paying people to vote against the referendum. Below is a video of a woman that approached an election monitor and, allegedly, asked her where she gets paid. 1848306963647451616 is not a valid tweet id However, Moldova has a large population of people living outside the country (largely in Romania) and it seems that population outside of Moldova broke heavily for EU membership and it resulted in a narrow 50.4%-49.6% victory. The ruling party of Moldova was hoping that the vote would be a blowout, but it scraped by instead due to the Russian interference. https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...after-sandu-decries-vote-meddling-2024-10-21/
And because all of the accounts I follow were only reporting on the Referendum total, I totally missed that Moldova's pro-EU President also won the first round with 42% of the vote. Here nearest rival got 26% of the vote. Since Sandu did not get 50% of the vote, it moves to a second round on November 3. I would expect another attempt by the Russians to influence this round as well. Her opponent is a Pro-Russian former Prosecutor General (equivalent of the US's Attorney General) that has been accused of corruption. https://apnews.com/article/moldova-...russia-sandu-9411ab04ffb3230a83a4f8751c4e2414
Welp, it looks like Georgia has gone the direction of Belarus. Georgia had its election over the weekend and to say it was corrupt is an understatement. Exit polling from organizations independent of the ruling party gave the opposition coalition a pretty good lead, but exit polling from the pro-ruling party organization gave the ruling part a pretty good lead. There were also multiple videos of people blatantly stuffing ballot boxes, paying people to vote for the ruling part, groups preventing access to polling stations in areas where the opposition had strong support, etc, etc. https://www.politico.eu/article/geo...intimidation-and-interference-observers-warn/ In response, the opposition has called for protests and a general strike and, on the first day since the results were announced, turnout was quite large. 1850955236875374833 is not a valid tweet id
Moldova had the 2nd round of the Presidential election and after counting the votes from people within Moldova, the pro-Russian candidate, Alexander Stoianoglo, was ahead by a small amount. However, the Moldovan abroad vote went hard for pro-Western candidate, Maia Sandu. As a result, Sandu won 55-45. Russia reported dumped 10s of millions of dollars in vote buying and misinformation in both the previous referendum and this 2nd round and lost on both cases. https://www.npr.org/2024/11/04/g-s1-31967/moldova-president-wins-election
One of my former students is Moldavian and gay. He's long been working as an LGBT+ activist there (I've previously helped him with resources). This election was extremely important for him and other LGBT+ people.
Germany to hold an election next March or so. I am not sure why it takes so long to set one up. https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/11/07/germanys-fractious-coalition-falls-apart-and-how
It is not clear when the election will be. After the experiences with Weimar, the German constitution includes some barriers to dissolving the parliament. Just blowing up your ruling coalition isn't enough to trigger an election. Scholz has to lose a vote of confidence on his chancellorship before he can ask the president for an new election. Scholz wants to wait until January to do that, and the opposition parties are so far not cooperating enough to force one earlier. It is a phase of political gamesmanship, we have to see how it plays out.
I guess that will spell the end of Marine LePen run in the 2027 elections in France....Good riddance. Far-right fake jobs trial: French prosecutors request Marine Le Pen be banned from running for public office In a trial for charges of embezzling EU Parliament funds in a fake jobs scheme, the prosecution requested that far-right leader Marine Le Pen be banned from being elected to public office, which would bar her from running for the presidency in 2027. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/ar...banned-from-election-to-office_6732729_7.html
We know what happens if you let these kind of people use your institutions for their own benefit. The last time it costed about a hundred million dead people. Maybe it needs that kind of numbers within the USA to open eyes.
Neck-and-neck race in Ireland elections, no clear winner yet in exit poll The exit poll of the Irish elections has not yet produced a clear winner. According to broadcaster RTE, the left-wing Sinn Féin party and the center-right Fine Gael of Prime Minister Simon Harris are "practically equal," with 21.1 and 21 percent of the votes, respectively. The margin of error would be 1.4 percent, so both parties can still become the largest. The polls beforehand predicted that it would be a neck-and-neck race. The center-right party Fianna Fail is in third place with 19.5 percent. That party is currently in government together with Fine Gael of Prime Minister Harris. As in the 2020 elections, the two center-right parties have now announced that they do not want to work with Sinn Féin under any circumstances. If Sinn Féin does indeed become the largest, the other two parties can probably succeed in forming a center-right coalition again. They may then need the help of another small party for a majority. The counting of the votes will start on Saturday morning, there may not be a final election result until early next week.
As with my previous post about Romanian elections, I'd appreciate if our Romanian friends would provide any correction to what I'm about to say. The Romanian parliamentary elections just took place and, yet again, the anti-EU/NATO parties largely ran on the grounds that Romania is spending too much money on supporting Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees, while not spending enough on supporting Romania's poor. Most of the votes have been counted already and the current ruling party, Social Democrats, is currently ahead with 22% of the vote, down 6.5% from the last election. Fellow ruling Coalition party member, National Liberal, placed third with 14.3%, down by 11%. Placing second was the far right Alliance for the Union of Romanians with 18.28%, which gained about 9%. There area lot of minor parties that are likely to join with the Social Democrats and National Liberal to form a pro-EU/NATO parliament, but the Far Right will have a larger voice than before https://www.reuters.com/world/roman...gent-far-right-election-exit-poll-2024-12-01/