Alan's Green Thoughts

The Israeli general election of 23 March 2021, where results were not finalised for another 2 days due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, showed a significant partisan fragmentation that will make breaking the deadlock even harder than last year. This is also the fourth Israeli general election in less than 2 years, with the 23rd Knesset having lasted  one year, the longest of the past three Knessets. Likud, the main conservative party of Israel, lost 7 seats, bringing it down to 30, despite the collapse of the main opposition coalition of last year's Israeli election, the centrist Blue & White Alliance. It is clear that Benjamin Netanyahu's determination to continue despite pending corruption charges against him and widespread protests against his subpar handling of the coronavirus pandemic in May and August 2020 is tarnishing Likud's reputation amongst conservative Israeli voters, especially those of a more religious (as opposed to secular) outlook, since Lik

Despite the fact that Mark Rutte's VVD (People's Party For Freedom & Democracy)-led government resigned two months ago over a scandal involving extensive child welfare fraud, Dutch voters returned his coalition government to power and with an increased majority overall, after counting the seat totals of the component parties. The VVD in fact increased its seat total by 2 to 35, although much of its increase came in the commuter belts around the Randstad conurbation and in the central Netherlands. In progressively inclined municipalities, especially university cities, the VVD's vote actually decreased somewhat. Much of the VVD's vote increase came in municipalities where the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) used to be the "plural force" (the party achieving the most votes in that municipality; political dominance does not exist in the accepted sense of the term in Dutch politics), although as I explained in my analysis of the 2017 Dutch general election lo

The Baden-Wurttenberg and Rhineland-Palatine Landtag elections that took place yesterday in Germany were both marked by one common factor-the Green wave continuing to wash over the land. The Greens are already the senior coalition partner in Baden-Wurttenberg under Winfried Kretschmann, but there they set a new record by winning so many seats at single member constituency level that for the first time they did not win any list seats; furthermore an extra 11 overhang seats had to be added. They won 58 seats, easily enough to keep them in power, and on an increase of just 2.3%; their junior coalition partners, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) saw their vote share drop by 2.9% but their seat total remained the same as in 2016 (42 seats) due to the creation of those extra overhang seats. It is clear that Herr Kretschmann's moderate green stance warms over moderate CDU voters relatively easily, especially as climate change becomes such a critical issue in politics around the world. 

  Alongside the 2021 county council elections, numerous authorities whose elections were delayed from May 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, alongside the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster which holds its full council elections during the county council election cycle, will be up for election this year, making 6 May 2021 the busiest local election day in British history.  Of the unitary authority elections happening this year (outside unitarised counties), Bristol's will be the most competitive and most prominent, especially with the Bristol Region Mayoral election taking place alongside it (which also involves most of the former county of Avon) and the fact it is holding full council elections, alongside Halton, Hartlepool, Warrington, and the two new authorities of North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire which replace Northamptonshire County Council and all its districts. (15 other unitary authorities which do not normally hold elections in county council election yea