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Government in Southern Europe

  • Spain: Coalition conundrum

    SPAIN, 2016/01/04 The results of general elections on 20 December appear to suggest the end of a bipartisan political environment. Mariano Rajoy’s PP (Partido Popular) won 123 seats in the Congress but failed by 53 seats to achieve an absolute majority. As a result, and in order to form a government, the PP needs to form alliances with other parties with congressional seats. The socialist party (PSOE), the other major traditional party, won only 90 seats, the worst electoral result in its history. Part the new political players, the leftist Podemos won 69 seats and the centrist Ciudadanos 40 seats.

  • Spain’s Left-Wing Parties Reject New Rajoy Government

    SPAIN, 2016/01/03 Spain’s two biggest left-wing parties ruled out supporting a government led by the ruling People’s Party (PP) on Monday, complicating Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s efforts to build a coalition to remain in power next a tight general election. Parties began staking out positions for what are expected to be weeks of complex talks on forming a government next Rajoy’s centre-right PP won most votes in Sunday’s election but fell well short of the 176 seats needed for a parliamentary majority. Two newcomers – leftist anti-austerity Podemos (“We can”) and the liberal Ciudadanos (“Citizens”) – entered the mainstream for the initial time, ending domination by the PP and Socialists stretching back to any minute at this time next dictator Francisco Franco’s death in 1975. The two parties won scores of seats in parliament, tapping widespread anger over a recently-ended economic slump and high-level corruption in the European Union’s fifth-major economy.

  • Croatia's Tihomir Orešković

    CROATIA, 2016/01/03 Croatia’s president this week designated pharmaceutical executive Tihomir Orešković to become prime minister, nominating a technocrat put forward by conservatives and a reformist party next weeks of talks following an inconclusive election. The November 8 elections were the country’s initial since it joined the European Union in 2013. No party gained the 76 seats needed for a majority, and the result was a hung parliament. “He convinced me that he has support of 78 parliamentary deputies,” President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said. Parliament has 151 seats.

  • Portugal’s outgoing PM Coelho asked to form minority government

    PORTUGAL, 2015/10/23 Portugal’s president invited the center-right coalition government of the completed four years to return to power Thursday next it won a general election, even though it will be outnumbered in Parliament by opponents who vow to force it out within days. The coalition won the Oct. 4 ballot with 38.4 % of votes and will policy as a minority government, with Pedro Passos Coelho expected to continue as prime minister. But an unprecedented alliance of left-of-center parties, led by the moderate Socialists and inclunding the Communist Party and radical Left Bloc, has 122 seats in the 230-seat Parliament. The alliance says it will use that majority to quickly bring down the government and take power itself. The political environment in Portugal has introduced a note of uncertainty into the 19-country eurozone that could rattle investors only recently settled next Greece’s radical Syriza rang alarm bells. The issue is whether governments in the bloc are in a position to enact deficit-reduction policies analysts say are needed to replace their financial health.

  • Catalan results don't give right to move towards independence

    SPAIN, 2015/09/29 Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Monday said the results of Sunday's elections for the Catalan Regional Assembly (Generalitat) would not lead to any move towards Catalan independence, which he continued to insist was against the law. The elections had been presented almost as a plebiscite with the leader of the Generalitat, Artur Mas insisting that if the pro-independence bloc won a majority, they would begin taking steps towards obtaining the independence of the region. Sunday's vote saw 'Junts Pel Si' (Together for Yes), along with fellow pro-independence bloc, CUP, obtain a majority of 72 seats in the 135 seat assembly, however they did this with 47.75 % of the votes, with parties who had positioned themselves against independence or who were ambiguous on the issue gaining 52.25 %.

  • Croatia Parliament Confirms New Culture Minister

    CROATIA, 2015/04/26 Croatia's parliament has named Berislav Sipus, former deputy minister of culture, as the country's new culture minister. Sipus was acting culture minister since late March at the same time as Andrea Zlatar Violic resigned next financial irregularities in the ministry’s financial transactions were revealed. Although he was confirmed on Thursday by parliament's education, science and culture committee and approved by parliament with a strong majority of 78 votes for and 23 against, the process has not proceeded without controversy.

  • Spain's King Juan Carlos

    SPAIN, 2014/06/03 Spain's King Juan Carlos has decided to abdicate and pave the way for his son, Crown Prince Felipe, to become the country's next king. The announce was made this morning by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. "King is stepping down for personal reasons" , Pm said. However Juan Carlos has lost popular support in recent years following royal scandals, inclunding an elephant-shooting trip he took among Spain's financial crisis that tarnished the monarch's image. He as well suffered from health problems.

  • Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders resumed talks on Feb. 11,

    CYPRUS, 2014/02/14 Diplomats and analysts indicate that given current developments in the Middle East, a settlement on Cyprus will as well contribute to stability in the Eastern Mediterranean, and argue this is one of the reasons behind the current US intervention. There as well exists a much better atmosphere between Turkey and Greece today, with the two nations appearing to have put knee-jerk nationalism aside, which increases the prospect for a settlement to the Cyprus problem. Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders resumed talks on Feb. 11, in a fresh effort to try and resolve the Cyprus problem of over 50 years' standing. These talks follow a hiatus of a year and a half, and are the result of a forceful intervention by Washington, which has taken the lead again in efforts to reunite the divided island.

  • Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy

    SPAIN, 2013/12/01 The development came as Times columnist Ben Macintyre claimed in an article that Spain’s ambassador to London, Federico Trillo, had been summoned by the Foreign Office over the bag incident. If correct, that would mean that Ambassador Trillo was called in by the British Government twice within the space of a week, the initial time over a 22-hour incursion into British waters by the Spanish research ship Ramón Margalef. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy drew a line under the diplomatic bag incident at the Gibraltar border following a conversation with his British counterpart, David Cameron. The two men spoke on the side lines of an EU summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, although their conversation centered mostly on Scotland and Catalonia, according to Spanish reports. “This (incident) has been resolved” said the Spanish president.

  • Greek Parliament in summer session

    GREECE, 2013/07/28 With the Greek Parliament in summer session, and only 100 of 300 members needed to be present, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has quietly sent the body a bill that would allow public sector reform to be imposed by presidential decree rather than bringing legislation to lawmakers. Samaras before used a ministerial decree to shut down the public broadcaster ERT and fire all its 2,656 workers.
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