The Times of London has an excellent preview of the U.K.’s Super Thursday elections, where more than 5,000 seats are up for grabs.
Reuters: “The Scottish National Party’s bid to win a clear mandate for having another independence referendum was balanced on a knife edge on the eve of Thursday’s parliamentary election, with polls showing the expected result was too close to call.”
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a government for the third time in two years, the Jerusalem Post reports.
Politico: “His failure to reach an agreement late Tuesday raises the possibility that Netanyahu’s Likud party could be pushed into the opposition for the first time in 12 years.”
“Marine Le Pen set the stage for a bruising presidential election campaign by accusing Emmanuel Macron of driving France towards chaos, violence and economic decline,” the Times of London reports.
“The leader of the far-right National Rally attacked Macron in an online speech after her annual wreath-laying at Joan of Arc’s statue in Paris on May Day. With opinion polls putting Le Pen in striking distance of Macron in next year’s election, she portrayed herself as a president in waiting.”
Said Le Pen: “I want to restore the national unity and the civil peace which are so cruelly lacking.”
“Britain goes to the polls on Thursday in a set of local and regional elections that will take the political temperature in Britain and include a number of dramatic showdowns,” Politico reports.
“From a Scottish parliament election that could make or break the drive for Scottish independence, to a by-election in northern England that could compound the woes of the opposition Labour Party, there will be a number of flashpoints that define the political narrative ahead of the next general election in 2023 or 2024.”
“The number of seats up for grabs, at more than 5,000, is unprecedented.”
“Justin Trudeau’s government survived a confidence vote, avoiding an election for now, as its first budget in two years passed in Canada’s legislature with the support of a left-leaning opposition party,” Bloomberg reports.
“In a Monday evening vote, lawmakers from the New Democratic Party backed Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s plan to help the Canadian economy recover from its pandemic-induced losses. The vote in the House of Commons was 178 to 157 in favor.”
“Marine Le Pen could defeat President Macron at next year’s elections if she capitalizes on contempt for him among left-wing voters, a leading think tank has suggested,” the Times of London reports.
“There is a growing consensus in the political world that a far-right victory is no longer unthinkable if the contest moves to a run-off between the pair, as it did in 2017.”
“With his mandate to form a government due to expire in two weeks, and his rivals’ efforts to form an alternative coalition gaining momentum, Netanyahu has a new strategy: changing the election rules,” Axios reports.
“In an attempt to prevent the mandate from passing to his rivals, Netanyahu floated an initiative to change the entire Israeli electoral system.”
“His new bill calls for direct elections only for the prime minister’s post, to be held in 30 days.”
“Angela Merkel’s conservative alliance fell behind the Greens to its lowest poll rating on record yesterday, hours after naming its candidate to succeed her as chancellor of Germany,” the Times of London reports.
“The Greens seized a seven-point lead as voters appeared to recoil from the centre right’s new figurehead, Armin Laschet.”
“The swing away from Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian affiliate, which are jointly known as the Union, is one of the sharpest in modern German history.”
“Germany’s Greens drew a sharp contrast to their bickering conservative rivals in the contest to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor, proposing Annalena Baerbock as their lead candidate for September’s national election,” Bloomberg reports.
“The party, which is nipping at the heels of Merkel’s Christian Democrat-led bloc, picked the 40-year-old political scientist and foreign-policy expert to run their campaign.”
Daily Telegraph: “The Greens are currently second in the polls on 23%. Mrs Merkel’s CDU is still ahead on 27% — but its support has dropped a shocking 10 points since January. A rival coalition of the Greens and left-leaning parties might have the votes to unseat the CDU in September — and the Greens could be the biggest party in the bloc.”
“Israeli President Reuven Rivlin gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the mandate to form a coalition on Tuesday morning, after the Likud leader received the most recommendations from his fellow members of Knesset,” the Jerusalem Post reports.
“French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who is almost level with incumbent Emmanuel Macron in the opinion polls ahead of next year’s presidential election, has said she would form a government of national unity if elected and would draw support from voters of left and right, just as the UK’s Boris Johnson has done,” the Financial Times reports.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not be able to form a government for the seventh time in his three-decade political career, according to preliminary results from 97% of the regular polling stations reported by the Central Elections Committee,” the Jerusalem Post reports.
Haaretz: “Netanyahu still does not have a clear path to a 61-seat majority needed to form a coalition. The vote count is expected to continue through Friday.”
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be able to form a government for the seventh time in his three-decade political career, according to exit polls on the three television networks Tuesday night,” the Jerusalem Post reports.
“All three polls indicated that his bloc of Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism and the Religious Zionist Party received enough support together with the Yamina Party of Naftali Bennett, who said during the campaign that he was ready to join a coalition with either political bloc.”
Final polls ahead of Tuesday’s election in Israel showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “on the cusp of clinching a ruling majority as the race draws to a close, though he is still not guaranteed one,” the Times of Israel reports.
“The upcoming elections — the fourth in two years — were called after the power-sharing government of Likud and Blue and White failed to agree on a budget by a December 23 deadline.”
“In under one week, Mario Draghi has managed to bring together warring parties from across the political spectrum in Italy, boosting financial markets and projecting a new image for the country. In many ways, that’s more than his predecessor managed in over two years,” Bloomberg reports.
“Draghi’s track record as a policy maker and skills as a mediator are helping to forge a rare consensus in Italy, with potential opponents reasoning that it’s now politically risky not to back him.”
“A Namibian politician named after Adolf Hitler says he has no plans for world domination after winning a sweeping victory in local elections,” the BBC reports.
Israeli Blue and White party leader and Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that he can no longer support the government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his party will vote Wednesday in support of a preliminary reading of a bill to dissolve the Knesset and call early elections, the Times of Israel reports.
Gantry described Netanyahu as “a serial breaker of promises” in a prime-time televised address.
Centrist mayors won in Brazil’s two biggest cities — Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro — defeating President Jair Bolsonaro’s candidates in nationwide municipal elections, consolidating the return of more moderate political actors following a conservative wave that swept the country two years ago, Bloomberg reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.