Tag: general elections

Incumbent Chancellor Angela Merkel is in pole position to win next month’s German election, having seen her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) top polls for the third consecutive week, while the popularity of her main Social Democrat rivals has plummeted to one of its lowest pre-election levels since the Second World War.

The upcoming parliamentary and local elections in Serbia on 11 May 2008 will be crucial in deciding the country's future path - whether that is closer integration with the EU or recent political flirtations with Russia open up an alternative route, says a 23 April briefing paper from the International Crisis Group (ICG).

The 21 October election in Poland was of historical significance as it was the first in which the 18-year-old first-time voters were born after the end of communist rule in 1989, writes Krzysztof Bobinski for Open Democracy.

The only presidential candidate, moderate Islamist Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül, has pulled out of the Turkish elections, after the second round of votes failed in the parliament due to a boycott of the secularist opposition. The move comes as another blow to Erdogan's crisis-shaken government.

To participate in upcoming Belgian general elections on 10 June, Development Commissioner Louis Michel is being temporarily replaced by Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn.

Foreign ministers would like to see the future Serbian government committed to a European course and urge further co-operation with the international community on Kosovo.