Constitution

Civil society pressure, upcoming elections, and a lack of consensus within the Popular Party led to plans for the restriction of abortion to be abandoned – and caused the resignation of the Spanish Justice Minister last week.

One of the most interesting consequences of the Scottish independence referendum is likely to be revision of how the UK ensures the economic welfare of its most vulnerable citizens through its currently highly centralised social security system.

Scotland has voted No in the referendum on independence, but the outcome was close, relative to expectations at the start of the campaign. The closeness of the vote, as well as the reasons cited by so many in Scotland for voting ‘Yes’, show that the ‘United Kingdom compact’ is no longer fit for purpose.

Agora Voting is an innovative project using free software to establish social citizen networks for the development of a system for secure electronic voting. Spanish Green party Equo collaborated on this project to carry out Spain’s first real experiment with direct democracy.

Modern representative democracy is not conducive to handling environmental challenges. Ecology requires new political institutions capable of tackling long-term concerns.

Old Europe is disaggregating. The new Europe, which has long been a reality in the mind of many European citizens, is waiting for its constitution, one that will effectively take us into the future.

Using the symbolic politics of ‘government of the people for the people’, Orban secured a comfortable re-election. He skillfully captured shifting political moods, and helped fracture the left. However his future plans remain unclear, and Hungary may now witness a battle between right and far-right.

Romania’s transition from Communist-era dictatorship to western democracy has not been an easy one.

As the Hungarian government continues to receive criticism for its undemocratic ‘reforms’, LMP co-founder Kristóf Szombati discusses whether they mark a return of nationalist ideology to Europe.