Lefteast
How do the upcoming Duma elections threaten the regime?
Today, it would seem that the upcoming September elections to the State Duma are a cause of growing concern only in the Kremlin. While polls continue to record a low level of public interest in the event, and the tiny number of parties allowed to run in the election wanly prepares to fulfill their usual roles, the president and his entourage are increasingly talking about possible threats.
Serbia held early parliamentary elections on 24 April 2016, the second set of early elections in just over two years. Serbian premier and leader of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), Aleksandar Vučić, appears to have believed that, with the opposition in disarray, and his own popularity still sky high, he could win an even more resounding victory than on 16 March 2014.
The election result, with 98.56% of votes counted, has dashed Vučić’s hopes. Percentage-wise, he almost succeeded, with the coalition around his SNS winning 48.23% of the vote, just short of the 48.35% two years ago.
Note from the LeftEast editors: This is an interview with Jock Palfreeman, an Australian citizen and prisoner in Blugaria, who is the founder of the Bulgarian Prisoners’ Association. In 2007 Jock was convicted for the murder of Bulgarian Andrei Monov although claimed that he was trying to help two Roma people that were attacked by a group of fifteen football hooligans. Many details about this night remained unclear to this day. The main witnesses–the two Roma–have disappeared.
There is nothing quite like it in contemporary European politics. Perhaps there never was. The story of the current Romanian president seems more of a farce, a figment of imagination, than a real story. As with everything Romanian, it would be deeply funny and amusing if it weren’t tragic.
President Klaus Iohannis came to power in November 2014 in very contested circumstances. Trailing by 10% his main competitor after the first round –the then Prime Minister Victor Ponta – and pretty much unconvincing during the TV debates before the run-off, Iohannis was all but defeated.
Note from LeftEast editors: As Macedonian protestors gather for another night of protest, we re-publish here a public statement by Leftist Movement Solidarnost, following this morning’s arrest of Zdravko Saveski, one of the most vocal, brave and tireless fighters for equality and social justice in the country. Numerous other arrests have been announced, in the midst of protests which broke out following the shameful blanket amnesty of the corrupt political elites by Macedonia’s president!
“Fellow freedom fighters, VICTORY IS COMING!
“In a neoliberal universe, where markets are the gauge of value, money becomes, more straightforwardly than ever before, the measure of all things. If hospitals, schools and prisons can be privatised as enterprises for profit, why not political office too?”
Perry Anderson in London Review of Books, 2014, 36:10, pp. 5
Mass protests have vigorously and consistently spread across Macedonia for over ten days now. The spark of citizen revolt was caused by a Presidential blanket amnesty acquitting 56 officials from charges ranging from election rigging, embezzlement of public money and property, to corruption and party capture of state institutions.
Note from LeftEast Editors: This report on the Brazilian political crisis is written by the movement of landless workers, which has a long history of squatting land and making it productive in the hands of collectives of landless workers. It was originally published on The Real News Network.
1.The nature of the crisis we are going through… The Brazilian political crisis gained momentum and speed in recent weeks. Every day we see complaints, accusations, threats and assumptions about the outcome of this crisis.
Ismael Cortes interviews MEP Soraya Post, on behalf of LeftEast.
On the occasion of the International Romani Day, 8th April, the European Parliament hosted the Roma Week in collaboration with different civic organizations. A year has passed since 15th April 2015, when the European Parliament adopted the resolution on anti-Gypsyism and established the European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day (2nd August). In this framework, the chairs of the political groups in the European Parliament gathered to discuss the need to combat anti-gypsyism and how to take forward the resolution into practice: “words into actions”.
Kees van der Pijl is a Dutch political scientist who is emeritus professor of international relations at the University of Sussex. He is known for his critical approach to global political economy and has published, amongst others, a trilogy on Modes of Foreign Relations and Political Economy (2007, 2010, 2014); Global Rivalries from the Cold War to Iraq (2006); Transnational Classes and International Relations (1998); and The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class.
Kees van der Pijl was interviewed by George Souvlis and Yulia Yurchenko.
Reflexions on the debates on the Dutch referendum on the EU-Ukraine Agreement
On the 6th of April in the Netherlands just over 30% of potential voters took part in a referendum on the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement. This Agreement is one of the numerous Free Trade Area Agreements established between the EU and countries all around the world, from Mexico to Mozambique. The Agreement with Ukraine was signed by president Poroshenko less than two years ago and since that time has been partially implemented.