A scholarly journal from the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) Södertörn University, Stockholm.
Issue 2024, 3: Download.
Baltic Worlds Election Coverage online is commenting on the elections taking place in the region.. The comments and analyses present the parties, the candidates and the main issues of the election, as well as analyze the implications of the results.
The Estonian electorate rewarded the incumbents granting the Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas' Estonian Reform Party approximately the same amount of support as in the latest election 2011. The foreign affairs certainly played a role in the electoral campaign, but we should not forget about the government’s economic record.
The referendum on family initiated by a group of Conservative NGOs has divided the Slovak citizenry into two opposing camps. Despite the conflictual nature of the campaign, the referendum has demonstrated that Slovakia is ready to handle civil-society deliberations on a large scale, which could be a sign indicating the gradual maturing of Slovak civil society.
The electoral campaign was marked by the emergence of several rather peculiar issues in a contemporary electoral context: appeals to religion and ethnic belonging, and to family status.
On 4 October 2014, Latvia held the parliamentary elections that brought a hope of stability as the ruling coalition government won a comfortable majority. It is likely that the coalition negotiations, also this time, will lead to formation of the so-called minimal wining coalition. However, the parliamentary situation is complicated due to the arrival of two smaller parties on the Latvian political scene.
Clearly, even in this extraordinary election, as so often happens, the voters assessed alternatives rationally rather than emotionally. Peace and prosperity come first. Yet this election was more a test of personal confidence than of specific issues.
In 2004, eight Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) and two Mediterranean countries entered the European Union (EU). Hailed by some as the “New Europe”, the CEECs seemed to have finally affirmed their European identity. Ten years later, one is naturally tempted to examine whether the CEECs’ EU membership has indeed made them more “European”.
The European Parliament elections in Lithuania this year were held jointly with the second round of the presidential elections which were won by a landslide majority (57.9%) by the incumbent president Dalia Grybauskaitė supported by the conservative and liberal parties in opposition. The dual-track election campaign have been used by the opposition parties to leverage the popularity of President Grybauskaitė and make gains at the EP elections.
Despite the modest albeit important economic recovery in the past 2–3 years Hungary has a number of challenges that can harm its development already in the short and medium term, and these have hardly been addressed in the campaign. The Orbán-regime mostly plans to carry on with its earlier policies.
The final run-off, between the country’s prime minister, Robert Fico, and an independent candidate, Andrej Kiska, has ended with a spectacular victory for the latter. As a result, Slovakia shall, for the first time in modern history, have a president who hadn’t been a member of not just the communist, but any political party in his life.
The presidential elections of October 27th changed the political landscape of Georgia and showed signs of a mature democracy. The elections marked the end of Mikheil Saakashvilli’s ten year presidency. Giorgi Margvelashvili of the Georgian Dream (GD) won the presidential elections. It was a well administrated election, and the transition of power were peaceful.
Baltic Worlds covers; the Baltic Sea Region, Eastern Europe, Russia, Caucasus and the Balkan area.