Democracy

On 25 October, one year on from the mass demonstrations in the country, the Chilean electorate voted by an overwhelming majority of more than 78% in favour of a new constitution and of 79% for an assembly comprised solely of citizens to write this constitution.

Further arrests and acts of repression in Belarus: Lawyer Maxim Snak arrested; Nobel Prize for Literature winner Svetlana Alexievich harassed – Pressure on Minsk and Moscow must be raised and activists in danger allowed into Germany.

Transformative responses is a transnational network which aims to increase our systems' resilience by addressing the socio-economic and ecological challenges at the intersection of finance, ecology and inequality with concrete actions and policies to mitigate crisis and initiate structural reform.

Benjamin Netanyahu could not even win the third election held within one year. Now, he is using the coronavirus crisis to profile himself as an indispensable statesman and secure his power – to the detriment of Israeli democracy.

With only three day notice, South Africa went into full lockdown on the night from 26 to 27 March. What happened in the three days leading up the lockdown is highly impressive. Instead of everyone following the instinct of making provision for themselves, neighbourhood solidarity networks sprang up spontaneously.

All three countries of the South Caucasus have weak social systems. Many people work in precarious jobs in the service sector, tourism and agriculture. 

Not only has the new coronavirus catapulted us out of our everyday lives, but the way the EU is handling the Covid-19 pandemic has made its inability to take action in times of crisis painfully apparent. Just as people are stranded at airports and railway stations, any hope that Europe is capable of pulling together has also been stranded in the last few weeks.

The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 disease has brought about an extraordinary situation. Although the past decades have brought numerous challenges like terrorism or the climate change, the global spread of a disease for which there is neither a cure nor vaccination available is something that political leaders have no experience in tackling.

The Hungarian Parliament passed a new act on Monday, which gives an already authoritarian government extraordinary, dangerous powers. 

February 2020 will be written into the modern political history of Slovakia as a month with a great turning point which combined in a special way two dramatic themes in the internal political development of the country.