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Our latest political reviews.
Spain at the Helm of the European Union
Another country dealing with economic disaster takes over the EU presidency.
Gabriela Perdomo - With new rules commanding the leadership structure of the European Union (EU), the need for six-month rotating presidencies was supposed to have ended. Yet, on Jan. 1, Spain became the latest country to preside over the 27-member bloc, even as a new EU president, the Belgian Herman van Rompuy, and a new foreign policy chief, Britain’s Catherine Ashton, assumed their roles last Dec. 1 as part of the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty.
January 08, 2010
Despotic Evo Tarnishes Bolivian Campaign
By refusing to take part in a debate, the Bolivian president has behaved like the "oppressors" he once despised.
Mario Canseco - The outcome of next month’s presidential election in Bolivia appears certain. Every voting intention poll released in the past four weeks places incumbent Evo Morales with the support of more than 50 per cent of respondents, and that is before factoring out the undecided. It would appear that the candidate from the Movement to Socialism (MAS) will actually be closer to the 60 per cent mark, effectively earning a five-year term in office.
November 28, 2009
Venezuela: Where did the dream go?
Opinion polls show that Venezuelans are growing tired of Chavismo.
Gabriela Perdomo - You can still find people who defend the achievements of Hugo Chávez’s 10 years in office as Venezuela’s head of state. Literacy, education, food subsidies for the poor and access to health services, they say, are areas in which the Chávez administration has visibly improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. But those who still see a champion in the president are dwindling in number as well as in enthusiasm.
November 07, 2009
Sarkozy’s Fading Political Mandate
The French president reaches the halfway point, with a petite list of accomplishments.
Gabriela Perdomo - Nicolas Sarkozy has fallen prey to the 50 per cent curse. With one notable exception, the French president’s popularity has remained in the lower half throughout 2009. With two and a half years to go in his term, and the bulk of his proposals yet to be discussed in the legislature, Sarkozy faces a tough road ahead.
October 21, 2009
The Czech Year of Adjustments
An unstable European country will stay that way until an election is held next spring.
Gabriela Perdomo - Perhaps the best way to describe the Czech Republic’s political scene this past year is a pendulum. Back and forth, political parties and voters have constantly moved without finding a stable centre, and so the year has gone by with much movement but little to show for it.
October 02, 2009
Winds of Change in the Progressive South
Brace for tight elections in Chile and Uruguay
Gabriela Perdomo - Both located in what is known as the South Cone, Chile and Uruguay are two of the most stable democracies in South America. The two have emerged from a dark period of military dictatorships and oppressive regimes to become prosperous nations with strong democratic institutions and credentials.
August 30, 2009
My Health Care, Your Health Care
Health care reform in the United States brings Canada into the discussion.
Gabriela Perdomo - As American congressmen and women grapple with a mandate to reform the country’s problematic health care system, the public is being bombarded with information, true and false, about what they can expect from such changes.
August 13, 2009
Global Citizens More Cautious About Afghan War
Public opinion is drifting away from the conflict formerly known as the “global war on terrorism”.
Gabriela Perdomo - While the Obama administration has been steadfast in its decision to ban the term "war on terror", there is no such thing as a global sentiment regarding the military operations in Afghanistan. As its eight anniversary approaches, the multinational effort is becoming harder to understand and easier to reject in the countries that supply the soldiers for it.
August 07, 2009
Germany: Grand Coalition No More
Chancellor Merkel is emboldened to embark in a new type of government coalition.
Gabriela Perdomo - If the dozens of polls conducted this year in the run-up to Germany’s federal election are right, the conservative Christian-Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister Bavarian Christian-Social Party (CSU) will have once more the chance to form the government.
July 26, 2009
Ungovernable Japan Heads to Election
Opposition DPJ, calling for "change", has a good chance of winning.
Mario Canseco - When Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi prepared for his retirement from public life in 2006, support for his cabinet remained above the 50 per cent mark. He had just overseen the privatization of Japan Post—the cornerstone of his domestic policy portfolio—and had faced the harshest criticism not for his management capabilities, but for his decision to visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine. Koizumi left office as Japan’s third-longest serving post-war leader, and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is still struggling to rule without him almost three years later.
July 15, 2009