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Analyses

Europe

On the weekend of April 6-7, the citizens of both Poland and Slovakia went back to the polls, only six months after elections that resulted in important shifts in their respective governments. These more recent elections constituted a first test for the new executives. The elections in Poland were for local administration, while those in Slovakia were presidential.

International Affairs
Turkey’s Elections a Defeat for Erdogan not a Victory for the Opposition
Alessandra Tommasi 5 April 2024

Turkey’s local elections on March 31 produced a historic result: the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, won 37.7 percent of the vote, beating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party (35.5 percent) for the first time in more than two decades in power. If the CHP’s result is not surprising in Turkey’s big cities, the AKP also lost regions such as Anatolia, once considered strongholds of the majority party. It was “a turning point,” as Erdogan stressed after the results of the elections. But the CHP’s “victory” was more of an AKP’s resounding defeat, according to Cengiz Aktar, professor of Turkish and Modern Asian Studies at the University of Athens.
Migrations, Society
“Tolerated but not Accepted”: Gastarbeiters amid Germany’s Far-Right Surge
Arghawan Farsi 22 March 2024

“I’m drinking chai and eating köfte, while we still don’t feel at home here,” rapper Apsilon sings on the stage at one of Berlin’s largest demonstrations against the rise of right-wing parties. The right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AFD) in particular has been gaining votes, especially since the influx of migrants and refugees in 2015. The demonstration drew more than 150,000 people, as diverse as Berlin itself. Rainbow flags, socialist parties, grassroots groups, social workers, and activists all stand together in front of the Bundestag to take a stand against right-wing extremism.
Religion
Moscow Patriarchate Returns to Era of Excommunications
Riccardo Cristiano 7 March 2024

Some may remember that when Vladimir Putin initiated his “special military operation” against Ukraine, one of his earliest supporters was Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian Orthodox Church. What was his perspective? In his first public address following the commencement of what Moscow terms the “special military operation,” he provided a clear answer: he saw it as a “metaphysical war.” In other words, for the Patriarch, it was evident that this conflict represented a battle between Russia defending the fundamental values of its Christian essence, and Western de-Christianization, which sought to spread, through Ukraine, even to this part of Europe, concepts like gay pride, seen as the epitome of evil.
International Affairs
Polls Foreshadow the Decline of Catalan Independence Movements
Andrea Walton 31 January 2024

The constitutional crisis and the repression by the Spanish authorities following the 2017 independence referendum have left their mark on Catalonia, and separatist parties have been reduced in a region that some believe was ready to transform itself into an independent state.
Arts
When the Music is Stopped: the Disappearance of Festivals
and the Strangulation of Public Space in Turkey
T. Deniz Erkmen 21 December 2023

In the summer of 2023, an ominous phenomenon spread like wildfire from province to province in Turkey: the cancellation of music festivals and concerts. Just days before they were supposed to take place and generally at the request of public authorities such as mayors or governors, concerts and entire festivals were cancelled one by one. These repeated and continuous acts of cancellation, which started in the summer of 2022 and continued in 2023, generally do not make it to the international news.
International Affairs
Mainstreaming and Normalization of the Far-Right:
Wind of Change Before the 2024 European Elections?
Selcen Öner 19 December 2023

Although the far-right parties mostly hold Eurosceptic positions, especially before the 2019 European elections, most of them changed their rhetoric and began to emphasize that they would seek more influence within the EU institutions, aiming to transform the EU into a “Europe of nations.” These parties use the European level to increase their visibility and legitimacy by being part of a political group in the European Parliament (EP). In addition to these, we have seen the normalization of far-right-center-right coalitions. Meanwhile, there has been a radicalization of the mainstream, particularly center-right parties. These political trends at the national level may also have implications at the European level, which could be reflected in the upcoming European elections in 2024.
Human Rights, International Affairs
Erdogan’s “New Normal” Against Turkish Political Opponents
Mariano Giustino 11 December 2023

Turkey’s major human rights organizations, such as İnsan Hakları Derneği (İHD), claim that courts observe the rule of obedience to the President of the Republic. This appears to be the norm in the Turkish judiciary system, in the context of a regime where a single man rules.
Migrations
Ireland and the Dilemma of Right-Wing Violence in a Liberal Democracy
Seán Golden 6 December 2023

In the 1920s, the incipient democratic government of the newly independent Irish state managed to disarm the guerrilla forces that had fought the War of Independence by offering them the chance to become members of the new Irish police force in return for surrendering their weapons, thereby guaranteeing the state’s monopoly on violence. This means that Ireland is now faced with the dilemma of how to respond to right-wing violence while respecting the values of liberty.
Migrations
The Implications of the UK’s Asylum Policy Defeat
Thomas Phillips 24 November 2023

Last week, the UK Supreme Court delivered its judgment on the legality of the government’s plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda. The ill-conceived scheme, which is based in large part on a Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda, was unanimously held to be unlawful.