MCC Votes & Seats Podcast – Election insight

This time, Mr. Alexandre de Sousa Carvalho* from the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra helps us understand the background of the early legislative election that was held in Portugal, on 30 January 2022. Our guest expert gave us a comprehensive analysis about the Portuguese party system and the current hot topics in his country. The snap election was called for due to the rejec...

This time, the Votes & Seats podcast analysis of the MCC Center for Political Science endeavors to give an insight into Bulgaria’s third attempt in 2021 to elect a parliament as no party or alliance was able to form a government after the April and July ballots. Bulgarian international relations analyst and OSCE elections expert, Neli Kirilova* helped us analyze the results and the background...

PhDr. Ladislav Cabada, vice-rector of the Metropolitan University Prague explained us the results of the Czech election to the House of Representatives held on 8 and 9 October. He gave us an overview of the most important campaign issues, described the main parties, elaborated the hardships of government formation, and discussed what the change in government could mean on the Czech EU policies and...

This episode of the MCC Votes&Seats podcast provides an analysis of the results of the 2021 German Federal Elections. Prof. Dr. Oliver Lembcke (Ruhr University Bochum) highlights the causes of the fragmentation and levelling of the German party system, explains why the CDU and the Left party (Die Linke) underperformed, and considers the key controversial issues of the coalition negotiations. F...

This time, in the MCC Votes & Seats analysis we investigate the background of the September 2021 legislative election in the Russian Federation. President Vladimir Putin's United Russia won nearly 50% of the vote, which provides the party a clear majority in the lower house, the State Duma. However, our guest analyst, Mr. Anton Bendarjevskiy* claims that pre-election opinion polls have sh...

Christer Daatland, a political scientist from Stavanger, Norway, gave as an insight into the Norwegian parliamentary elections held on 13 September. He outlined the main campaign issues, analysed the developments of the party system, and revealed what we should expect from the new government. After the unexceptional 8 years in government, the centre right parties were defeated, and the earlier coa...

The latest edition of the MCC Votes & Seats podcast investigates the background and the possible outcomes of the July 2021 snap parliamentary election in the Republic of Moldova. Our guest analyst, Dr. Natalia Putină* helps us explore the major fault lines of the current Moldovan party politics by providing an impressive professional insight into the country’s European integration process, geo...

This time, we discuss the background and the outcome of Bulgaria’s July 2021 snap parliamentary election that were held after no party was able or willing to form a government following the April election. Musician and TV host Slavi Trifonov ’s populist ITN party narrowly won the most seats performing well predominantly among younger generations and in bigger cities. It was the first time since 20...

This time, we discuss the background and the outcome of Armenia’s June 2021 early parliamentary election. Our guest expert Mikayel Zolyan * considers the debates on the political processes leading to the defeat of Armenians in the 2020 Karabakh-Artsakh war to be the most divisive topic in the campaign. Mr. Zolyan sees this election as a clash of the old and the new political elite that governed th...

This time the Votes & Seats podcast gives a review about the changing landscape of Dutch politics after the parliamentary election in 2021. Our guest, Thierry Baudet has an academic background, and he is a relevant actor of the Dutch politics. Thierry Baudet was born in 1983, he graduated at Leiden University as a Doctor of Philosophy with a thesis on national and European identity, and multic...

This time, the Votes & Seats podcast seeks to understand whether the new formations that gained momentum in the May 2021 local elections can change the balance of power in the Croatian party politics. Our guest analyst, Višeslav Raos* points out that the three largest Croatian cities were acquired by the leftist-liberal camp, while the ballot saw a considerable loss of support for the traditio...

Our guest expert, Mr. Piotr Pietrzak from Sofia University points out that the election might have led to the end of what he calls “Borisovcracy”. The governmental term of outgoing prime minister Boyko Borisov was accompanied by protests and allegations of nepotism, and corruption. Our guest analyst specializes in International Relations, Geopolitics, Conflict Resolution Strategies, and Internatio...