Publications

Hungary has been governed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party since 2010. The gaining of successive two-thirds majorities in the 2010, 2014 and 2018 parliamentary elections has given the government the necessary leeway to push through far-reaching changes and...

In 2020–2021, the Romanian government’s ability to effectively govern and advance meaningful legislation was hindered by political instability and a rotating door of different coalitions. In February 2020, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) initiated a no-confidence vote...

Somewhat paradoxically, the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have moderated the political instability that characterized the preceding 12 years, and served to undermine sound policy development and implementation underpinned by a long-term vision. However, the pandemic has also...

In the parliamentary election in September 2021, the cabinet coalition of the Left-Green Movement, the Independence Party and the Progressive Party, which has been in office since 2017, won a renewed mandate and remained in office, reshuffling some ministries among the...

The murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová in February 2018 continued to impact political developments in 2020 and 2021. The investigations and the trials that eventually started in 2020 revealed the unimaginable size of the corrupt...

With regard to some of the established indicators of political stability, Austrian politics has been marked by major turbulence recently. As in most other countries, this can be partially attributed to the complex and unprecedented challenges that arose due to the...

In 2019, the Irish economy again performed impressively on key macroeconomic indicators. GDP growth was close to 5% and GNP growth was over 4%. Unemployment fell to 5%, a remarkable achievement given that it had been as high as 16% in 2012. Inflation remained at a very low...

From March 2020 to the end of the review period in January 2022, Slovenia was governed by a minority coalition government led by Prime Minister Janez Janša, president of the center-right Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS). The other political parties of the governing coalition...

Belgium is a country of 31,000 km² located at the heart of northwestern Europe. It is densely populated (11.6 million inhabitants) and very open to the rest of the world. This is a strong asset that the country normally exploits very well, but which turned into a weakness...

Israel has experienced a year full of positive and negative developments. 2021 was characterized by the last of four elections in two years; confrontation with Gaza; the fragility of the education system, with teaching split between in person instruction and online learning;...