Gunnlaugsson now unexpectedly in line to form Icelandic government

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Despite the fact that Iceland’s long-ruling Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn (Independence Party) won about 2% more in voter support in Saturday’s parliamentary elections, it looks like Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, the leader of the second-place Framsóknarflokkurinn (Progressive Party), will have the first shot at forming a government. That’s because both parties ultimately won 19 seats each in the Alþingi, Iceland’s parliament, and Iceland’s president, Ólafur Ragnar [...]

Filed under: Iceland | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Iceland’s election spells the end for its EU accession hopes

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Kevin Lees

With capital controls still in place, a massively devalued krónur and galloping inflation, Iceland’s economy is not back to normal.  But it’s enough back to normal so that the window for Iceland’s accession to the European Union — or even, as was assumed during the worst days of its 2008 banking crisis, accession to the [...]

Filed under: European Union, Iceland | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Scotland sets a referendum date: September 18, 2014

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Scotland’s first minister, Alex Salmond, has set September 18, 2014 as the date for the referendum on potential Scottish independence. Polls have been relatively consistent, with support for independence at around 30% to 35% and with support for continued union with England at around 50% to 55%. But the up-or-down vote will come in 18 [...]

Filed under: Scotland, United Kingdom | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Cypriot parliament overwhelmingly rejects EU bailout terms, turns to Plan B

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Kevin Lees

This was not surprising. After a couple of delays, Cyprus’s 56-member House of Representatives (Βουλή των Αντιπροσώπων) has rejected the European Union-led bailout of Cyprus’s banks by a vote of 0 to 36, with 19 abstaining and one not present. As I wrote yesterday, the parliamentary rejection became increasingly likely as the vote became delayed. [...]

Filed under: Cyprus, European Union | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Clarke’s pro-Europe tone highlights referendum risk to UK Tories from the center

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Longtime senior Conservative Party grandee — and former chancellor of the exchequer — Kenneth Clarke (pictured above) in no uncertain terms yesterday said that a British exit from the European Union would be a disaster. That Clarke is pro-Europe is certainly not a surprise. As former prime minister John Major’s chancellor from 1993 until the fall [...]

Filed under: European Union, United Kingdom | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Three lessons from the Calatan experience for Scottish separatists

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Artur Mas, the president of Catalunya, played the sovereignty card in calling early elections on November 25 and, thereupon, campaigned hard for Catalan sovereignty and against the federal Spanish government — it felt like, at times, he was running more against Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy than against any particular regional adversary. His reward? Mas’s center-right [...]

Filed under: Catalunya, Scotland, Spain, United Kingdom | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Greek government, troika reach agreement on Greek bailout

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Kevin Lees

It seems all but done — Greece’s government and the ‘troika’ of the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission have reached an agreement on the latest disbursement of funds that Greece needs to finance government operations, in exchange for a series of budget cuts and labor market reforms.  In an additional [...]

Filed under: Greece | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Montenegro election results (that other Sunday election)

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Kevin Lees

It’s far away from the Baltic States, but another peripheral European country — this one in the Balkans — also held parliamentary elections on Sunday. Milo Đukanović, the leader of the ‘Coalition for a European Montenegro’ (Koalicija za Evropsku Crnu Goru) looks likely to extend his coalition’s 23-year rule over the country, extending from before the time that [...]

Filed under: Montenegro | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Ireland votes ‘yes’ to fiscal compact in referendum

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Kevin Lees

The count is underway, but it looks certain that the fiscal compact will pass yesterday’s Irish referendum — by around a 60-40 margin: According to results received at the central count centre in Dublin Castle to date, 57.6 per cent voted Yes, while 42.4 per cent voted No, when spoiled or invalid votes are excluded. Turnout [...]

Filed under: Ireland | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Irish set to approve fiscal compact in Thursday referendum

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Kevin Lees

Ireland’s feisty voters, which have developed an art form out of defeating European Union treaties, still seem likely to support the fiscal compact treaty in Thursday’s referendum: Polls show the ‘yes’ vote in the lead — the latest Irish Times poll shows 39% in favor, 30% opposed, with 22% undecided and 9% not voting.  Other polls [...]

Filed under: Ireland | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

How will Nikolić presidency affect Serbian diplomacy with Kosovo? (and with Russia and the EU?)

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Kevin Lees

With recently defeated Serbian president Boris Tadić likely to become prime minister, and with his center-left Democratic Party (Демократска странка / DS) almost certain to control the government, as it has since 2000, Serbia’s domestic policy is unlikely to change much (somewhat curiously, as I discussed earlier), despite a very different president in Tomislav Nikolić.   But on foreign policy, Nikolić [...]

Filed under: Kosovo, Serbia | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Worries about Greece’s immediate eurozone exit are extremely overblown

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Kevin Lees

Earlier this week, as the chances of a pro-bailout Greek coalition fell apart, you would think that the failure to cobble together a coalition was tantamount to Greece withdrawing from the euro and reintroducing the drachma. Sure enough, signs of a “bank jog” emerged this week, as Greeks pulled out over €1.2 billion in deposits [...]

Filed under: European Union, Greece | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Pro-referendum forces maintain momentum in Ireland

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Kevin Lees

For me, one of the key questions about the recent French and Greek elections has been how those results would play in Ireland — would a firm anti-austerity wave across the continent make Irish voters more or less likely, in the upcoming May 31 referendum, to endorse the December fiscal compact agreed among all of the [...]

Filed under: Ireland | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Three elections — and three defeats — for EU-wide austerity

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Kevin Lees

The concept of a ‘democratic deficit’ has long plagued the European Union — the EU’s history is littered with grand, transformative schemes planned by EU leaders that voters have ultimately rejected as too sweeping.  As recently as 2005, French and Dutch voters rejected the proposed EU constitution, smacking the EU elite for getting out too far [...]

Filed under: European Union, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Irish referendum to be held May 31

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Kevin Lees

Mark your calendars: the Irish referendum on the European Union fiscal compact will take place on May 31. If the Merkel-led austerity doesn’t take any hits following the French presidential election or the Greek parliamentary elections, it will still face the gauntlet of a feisty Irish electorate that might not be too keen on institutionalizing [...]

Filed under: Ireland | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Next Page »