Blogging will be less regular than usual for the next few weeks because I’m going to Canada for my annual holiday. I’ll report interesting things I see or hear, but I won’t be monitoring the media as much as usual or posting at length. I’ll be back in the first week of June.
As this unprecedented year of big elections continues, there’s plenty to watch out for. Here are just a few of the stories that will be worth keeping an eye on over the next month:
The European parliament election is to be held on 9 June (with a small number of countries voting a day or two earlier). Media coverage is again focusing on the role of the far right, perhaps this time with more justification – here’s a good preview from a month ago. A Guardian editorial last week was particularly strong on the implications for the French left.
India continues voting over the course of May, with the last phase scheduled for 1 June. We previewed this last week. Doubts continue to be expressed as to whether Indian democracy would survive another term of BJP government; here’s a thoughtful piece from Soutik Biswas at the BBC on the plight of the country’s Muslims.
Another big election happens in Mexico on 2 June. There too there are concerns about democratic backsliding: here’s a report from Xanthe Murrell on president Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s attempts to nobble the electoral commission.
Donald Trump is still running for the presidency while simultaneously standing trial in New York on charges tangentially related to electoral fraud – in contrast to the much more serious charges that are still pending federally and in Georgia. Anti-vaxer Robert Kennedy Jr is also still in the race; the BBC’s Mike Wendling has a very good story on the effect that he might have.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez is due to make an announcement tonight after having flagged some interest in retiring, following an inquiry into corruption allegations against his wife brought by a far-right pressure group. Sánchez is only 52, but the last few years of his career have been tumultuous; if he does decide to call it quits it could mean big changes in Spanish politics.
There’s not so much happening in Australia, but the Northern Territory (August) and Queensland (October) are both holding elections later in the year, and prior to that control of the Tasmanian Legislative Council will be at issue when three of its seats go to the polls next Saturday. Kevin Bonham has the details.
Then there are local elections in Britain, the South African election at the end of the month, yet another election in Catalonia, and much more!
The World is Not Enough 
Pedro Sánchez is not retiring.
The results of the local elections in Britain were bad for the Conservative Party.
The results of the election in Catalonia were bad for the supporters of Catalan independence.
And, in the Netherlands, the four-party post-election negotiations have finally produced an agreement on the basis for forming a new government.
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The problem with Pakistan is that for there to be democracy, the military would have to abandon the control it has held over the country, either openly or behind-the-scenes, since Partition in 1947. But, the moment they *do* abandon control, the territory would rapidly collapse into an alphabet soup of warring factions with lots of guns and bombs – with one or two of Pakistan’s nukes likely to be half-inched, as well…
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As expected, Claudia Sheinbaum won the Mexican Presidency by a wide margin.
Not as expected, the BJP did not retain a majority in its own right in the Lok Sabha, although the alliance of parties it leads did.
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