Cuardaigh

Türkiye holds presidential and parliamentary elections on 14 May 2023, which could mark a political turnaround after two decades of increasing autocratic rule of the conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan faces an unprecedented challenge from the main opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and presidential nominee for the six-party Nation Alliance bloc. The elections take place amid ...

On 25 February 2023, after an electoral campaign held amidst rising insecurity and economic turmoil, Nigerians will elect their new president and federal legislature. The way this very competitive election is conducted, and its outcome, will have a sizeable effect on sub-Saharan Africa's largest economy, African democracy and the future of Africa's relations with the European Union (EU) and the rest of the Western world.

On 7 February 2023, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, gave his State of the Union (SOTU) address to a joint session of the 118th US Congress (2023-2024). Unlike in 2022, when the US had a 'united' government, with the President's party, the Democrats, holding the majority in both chambers of Congress, Biden now faces a 'divided' government, with a Republican-led House of Representatives, and has to decide on a potential second-term bid in 2024. While in 2022, Russia's then newly launched ...

On 8 January 2023, far-right supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed the presidential palace, the Supreme Court and the Congress in Brasilia. The events, widely acknowledged as echoing the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, took place only a week after the inauguration of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as President of Brazil for the third time; Bolsonaro, who did not concede defeat in the October 2022 election, was notably absent from the inauguration. Brazil is one of the biggest ...

Ever since Alexis de Tocqueville's exploration of democracy in America during his travels in 1831 1832, Europe has followed the evolution of US democratic trends. Today, almost 200 years later, challenges to democracy in the USA offer important lessons for democracies across the world, including in Europe. The 2022 mid-term elections are widely seen as an inflection point at a time when the pressure on democracy worldwide is under mounting pressure. Simultaneously, geostrategic and systemic tension ...

The European Parliament is expected to vote in March on a report on external attempts to influence elections and other democratic processes in EU countries. The report, prepared by the Special Committee on Foreign Interference (INGE), summarises the EU's main vulnerabilities and recommends steps to address them.

Some five years after the conclusion of the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the political, economic, health and general situation in the country remains fragile, with a divided society, drugs-fuelled conflicts and weak governance. 2022 will be a key electoral year, while economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic remains a challenge. The President of Colombia, Iván Duque Márquez, is set to address the European Parliament ...

The media situation in Belarus has never been easy. With Aliaksandr Lukashenka being elected president of the country for the first time in 1994, the necessary reforms to provide media freedom have never materialised. Instead, over the years various laws have lessened the rights of independent journalists and imposed limits on both traditional and electronic media. Following the August 2020 presidential election, which ignited a brutal crackdown against the democratic opposition, the situation has ...

Since the overthrow of Muammar al-Qaddafi in a 2011 uprising, Libya has been mired in a civil war that has divided the international community and set several internal factions against one another. The ceasefire proclaimed on 23 October 2020 opened a path for a political process wherein an interim government led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah was able to lead the country to agreed presidential and parliamentary elections, to be held on 24 December 2021. These elections will be the first since ...

Respect for fundamental freedoms is a core value of the EU, which it promotes through its external policy. The European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize honours the work of human rights defenders. With human rights under attack in many parts of the world, the Prize remains as relevant as ever. This year it is awarded to Russian opposition activist Alexey Navalny, whose brave refusal to be silenced recalls the work of Soviet-era dissidents such as Andrey Sakharov. The Sakharov Prize will be presented at ...