Can financial markets put pressure on a powerful country like France, the world’s eighth-largest economy? It is better not to test it. The UK has found that out several times. An analysis by Institut Montaigne found that promises made before the election by the leftist New Popular Front would increase France’s annual budget spending by €95 billion and the state finance deficit by 3.6 percent of GDP.
In this episode, we talk about Turkey on the eve of the elections in the context of the earthquake and reconstruction, hyperinflation and its impact on the economy and society, and political and institutional instability.
In this episode, we talk about the Turkish political context and the possible outcome of the presidential and general elections in 2023.
At the NATO summit in Madrid, the decision was finally made to agree to the accession of new members: Sweden and Finland. In recent weeks, the presidents of Croatia, Zoran Milanović, and Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have emerged as the biggest opponents of expanding the alliance to include the Nordic countries.
No one could say that 2019 was a boring year when it comes to politics. An impeachment was started against Donald Trump, House of Commons failed to vote the Brexit (twice), and many more. After such an exciting year like 2019, what could we expect from 2020?
PM Orbán has already met the Russian head of state seven times since the Ukrainian crisis began. The more Orbán foments the conflict with the EU, the greater the chance for Russia under Vladimir Putin to influence the diplomatic balance within the EU in his favor.
Paradoxically, the army that is considered to be the founder of democracy has always been a great dilemma for the EU during the admission procedure, which is the reason behind the union’s support for Erdogan’s attempts to significantly reduce the political influence of the armed forces
It’s delightful in spirit, neutral in foreign affairs, and has one of the most stable political systems in all of Europe. But if one is to receive their news from the Anglo-American establishment, it would seem that Austria is just one step away from its horrid past of the 1930s and 40s.
This story of bilateral cooperation between Turkey and Georgia gives an interesting example of how good will and understanding each others needs, despite of several historic and political differences in past, can create a high level of cooperation from which both sides can benefit politically and economically.
We are witnessing the EU’s declining normative influence in three levels: inner circle of membership, middle circle of prospective members and outer circle of neighbourhood, and is expressed in the primacy of hard core economics, the weaker promotion of democracy, the inefficient political conditionality and the gradual realisation that illiberalism is becoming a threatening part of several national competitive politics.
