weekly? update!

I've been thinking that a weekly update on politics around the world might be worthwhile. Such updates would generally NOT update the following: US politics (which I rarely cover), Canadian politics (which get their own posts), or politics in any other country with 'active' "events", for example, the UK with Brexit (as I frequently tweet on these, and, make posts on these). I do, however, reserve the right to lump these in with the updates when I see fit to do so (as I will be doing today) Ideally I'll be doing one of these every week from here on in, which will serve as the foundation/backbone of the blog, upon which other posts may be built.




German states of Saxony and Brandenburg. Coalition negotiations are underway. In Saxony a Black-Red-Green coalition seems to be forming, while in Brandenburg, a Red-Red-Green coalition now faces competition from a Red-Green-Black coalition, with the CDU and even the Greens implying they may find such a coalition more palatable. There is, however, a danger in making a Green-Red-Black coalition common, one I'll address in a future post.


Russia held local elections in some areas recently; Moscow has only narrowly been held by the governing party. This comes with the caveats standard in semi-democratic states like Russia.


Norway, too, held local elections, across the country. The Centre party has done very well, and the leftists have also seen a vote boost.


In Israel it is looking more likely that Otzma may cross the threshold; if this happens, it offers Netanyahu a much better chance of forming a majority, yet even then, he is not polling in majority territory, and no such combination has hit the 61 mark all election.


Italy is seeing the 'new normal' continue; and as such, the government is polling at around 45% in the polls; while the main opposition coalition has a combined 45% as well.


Germany has the CDU in the lead by 5 solid points, but the Greens are still the clear second choice; given recent trends, this may be a 'permanent' change for the medium term.


Lastly, Manitoba, holds its elections today. The Tories are likely to win a majority.