The outcome of the 7 July legislative elections has brought a surprise, which the French media had not foreseen. Certainly, the right-wing New Democracy (ND) party has won a big victory - about 2,250,000 votes and 39.85 per cent (1,526,000 and 28.09 per cent in the September 2015 legislative elections; 1,873,000 and 33.12 per cent in the May 2019 European elections). With 158 seats and leading in most regions, it can form the new government on its own, that was its goal. It is a big success, based on strong support from the media linked to the big bosses, for the heir to the Mitsotakis dynasty.
The Politics of Climate Looting
5 July 2019, byOn October 8, 2018 twin disasters were announced on opposite sides of the world:
• In Brazil, as votes were counted from the first round of presidential elections, Jair Bolsonaro won 46% of the vote — enough to make it clear he would probably cruise to a second-round victory three weeks later.
• In Incheon, South Korea, the Intergovern¬mental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) revealed the findings of its special report: limiting global warming to 1.5° C “would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” within the current generation.
How many more wars?
4 July 2019, bySomewhere in the depths of his prodigious ignorance, it evidently dawned on Donald Trump that his national security advisor and the Secretary of State are pushing the United States toward war with Iran. That’s exactly the kind of ruinous conflict that Trump said he’d avoid when he became President — but on an even larger scale than his predecessors’ disastrous adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Algeria, Sudan...: The Seasons After the Arab Spring
3 July 2019, byRecent uprisings in Sudan and Algeria have avoided mistakes of 2011.
Indonesia’s Election and Polarization
2 July 2019, byThe Indonesian elections of April 2019 were a competition between a disappointment and a thug. Incumbent president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo defeated former army officer Prabowo Subianto, but there remains little of the enthusiasm of his 2014 victory. But compared to Prabowo, a political criminal campaigning on a combination of authoritarian leadership, chauvinism and political Islam, Jokowi appeared to many as the preferable option.