Expanding the Legacy
Tag: Politics
16 Posts
Dangerous Stirrings in a Silent Majority
Scenes of wild water bursting the doors of a shop somewhere in Austria. The message/tweet posted on X: “expect more of this, watch climate change in action.” Social media is awash with alarmists, attributing all the world’s weather phenomena to global warming, often accompanied by a rallying cry for immediate remedial action. Don’t eat meat; don’t use fossil fuel; shun airplanes; shower less; install solar panels; turn down the heating or cooling - an apparently endless stream of commandments assail the average citizen.
European Hard Right Stopped in France and Britain
The forward march of the hard right in Europe, deemed unstoppable, has bumped into a roadblock set up by British and French voters. In a surprise outcome of the early parliamentary election, France swung to the left and kept Marine Le Pen’s National Rally well short of the expected majority.
Dutch Parliament Rips into Prime Minister Schoof
It was only his third day in office, however, parliament showed no mercy for Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof. In a tumultuous session, the opposition let it rip, leaving Mr Schoof gasping for air amid a veritable assault on his cabinet. The leaders of the opposition, acting in concert, demanded to know what the prime minister thinks of two of his cabinet members who have expressed concerns over ‘population replacement’ (‘omvolking), a supposedly deliberate policy to replace the native Dutch with immigrants.
Extremists Lose but Nobody Wins
Voters in Spain shied away from the extremes and handed a pyrrhic win of sorts to the opposition conservatives whilst also rewarding Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’ socialist party with a few extra seats in a hung parliament. Markets reacted with dismay at the inconclusive result of the vote which precludes...
Seldom Down, Never Out
Echoes of the Franco Era still haunt Spain in subtle and often divisive ways. Now, a vibrant democracy, the country has taken decades to shed its past and rid society of the last vestiges and symbols of authoritarianism. A watershed moment was reached when Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez ordered the...
The Taciturn German to Watch
Germany and the Germans struggle to get comfortable donning the mantle of leadership circumstance has thrust upon the country. The nation and its leaders are visibly shocked by the rapid demise of the old world order and the unfolding ‘Zeitenwende’: the epochal tectonic shift that began with a global geopolitical rebasing and reached a disconcerting apex with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Mired in Multiple Crises, Lebanon Votes for Continuity
In a scathing indictment of the country’s political elite, Lebanon tumbled some 25 places on the annual United Nations World Happiness Index and now ranks only above Afghanistan as the most depressed (and depressing) country in the world. Severely dysfunctional states such as Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Somalia all trump the country formerly known as The Pearl of the East.
Misguided Republican Anger
She called it a ‘beautiful sight to behold’ when student protesters stormed the building that houses the Hong Kong Legislative Council. Now Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi is at a loss to explain why the spectacle of a mob assaulting the Capitol did not meet her approval....
A Year to Forget
The year now drawing to a close, began rather inauspiciously when, on 6 January, an unruly mob assaulted and ransacked the Capitol in Washington, shaking the world’s (arguably) most revered democracy to its very foundations and laying bare the fault lines of a political environment turned toxic. President Donald Trump...
Small Earthquake in Chile
A land of geographical and political extremes, Chile seems to have rejected moderation as the nation elevated a former student protest leader to the presidency. However, the electorate did so reluctantly. It faced an almost impossible choice between a right-wing apologist for authoritarian rule and a left-wing radical. Leading the...
