Electoral surprises and predictable crises
Elections often mean change - but change is not necessarily change for the better
Javier Milei, a candidate whose proposals seem extreme even among the far right, has just won presidential elections in Argentina. Closing down the national bank, allowing free trade of absolutely everything (weapons and parts of the body included), banning abortion (in all cases), cutting taxes and social spending to zero – these are just some of his promises. After the first round of elections, we sketched Milei’s profile. After he actually won, we asked Romanian political scientist Sergiu Miscoiu how probable these moves are and why Argentinians decided to trust this man.
Earlier, the Bulgarians voted in local elections marked by a number of tight races and appearance of some candidates claiming to strive towards a social change. Mihail Mishev, Bulgarian political scientist, discussed with us the rivalry over Sofia mayoral post between left-wing and pro-Russian Vanya Grigorova and liberal and pro-European Vasil Terziev. He also explains why GERB, a party largely responsible for Bulgaria’s social stagnation, is still popular at least in some regions of the country.
The Middle East, the heart of civilisations, will not know a stable peace, unless this peace includes Palestinians, their hopes and perspectives for the future. Is the West taking that into consideration? Wojciech Albert Łobodziński writes after another week of Gaza bombing.
We publish further parts of the interview that Vladimir Mitev conducted with Codru Vrabie, civic activist, trainer and consultant on good governance - to ask about change and grassroots agency in states like Moldova or Bulgaria. Here comes part 3 of the interview, this is part 4.
Last week, Cross-Border Talks team was present on the 5th Marxist-Feminist Conference in Warsaw, where hundreds of women activists and researchers assembled to discuss current equality and dignity struggles, share experiences and work together on efficient strategies in building a better world. There was also a space for feminist theory and history. Keynote speech was given by world-renowned theoretician of postcolonial thought, Professor Gayatri Spivak.