Turkiye to hold a presidential runoff on May 28

Turkiye will hold a presidential runoff on Sunday, May 28. This is the first time Erdogan faces a second-round run-off vote as a presidential candidate. The presidential race pits incumbent head of state Recep Erdogan and opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Erdogan was less than half a percent short of winning the first round which was held on May 14. According to analysts, the outcome of the runoff election will be decided by voter turnout. The third-placed candidate Sinan Ogan, who earned 5.27% of the vote, urged people to vote for Erdogan. Kılıçdaroğlu is trying to secure the vote of nationalists who are unhappy with the migrant flow. 

Greece heads to new elections in June

Greece’s centre-right party New Democracy won the parliamentary elections with 40.79% of the vote. The left-wing Syriza party came second with 20% of the votes. Expectations that 440,000 young first-time voters would support Syriza did not become a reality. More than a third of them opted for New Democracy. Former Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis has 146 seats in the 300-member parliament which is not enough to form a government. Opposition leader Alexis Tsipras, whose party earned 71 seats in parliament, also refused a mandate to form a coalition government. Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou appointed senior judge Ioannis Sarmas as caretaker premier. Greece will hold new elections in June.

Romania’s Premier Nicolae Ciuca to keep his seat until a solution for the teacher’s strike is found

Romania’s Premier Nicolae Ciuca said on Friday that he would keep his seat until a solution for the teacher’s strike is found. Earlier this week, Nicolae Ciuca announced that he would resign on May 26, according to the previously approved calendar within the ruling coalition, Romania-insider.com said. "We will continue the dialogue with the unions. We have presented them with all the facts honestly and realistically and hope that we can reach a solution through dialogue", Nikolae Ciuka said on Friday, cited by Digi24. 

Slovenia improves in the 2023 Freedom in the World report

With a democracy percentage of 54 on a scale of 0-100, Croatia is a semi-consolidated democracy, according to Freedom House. For the sixth year in a row, Freedom House gave Croatia a democracy score of 4.25 out of a maximum 7, ranking it below Romania (4.36) and Bulgaria (4.5). Croatia received the highest score for civil society - 5.25/7, and the lowest regarding corruption and the judiciary - 3.5/7. As for Croatia’s neighbours, Bosnia and Herzegovina fared the worst in the region, with a democracy score of 3.21/7 and a democratic percentage of 37. Bosnia and Herzegovina has been falling in the report for years, N1 said. Serbia and Montenegro have a democracy score of 3.79/7 and a democracy percentage of 46. Serbia also shows a downward trend in the annual reports. Slovenia improved in the latest report, with a score of 5.75/7 and a percentage of 79.

56.1% of North Macedonia’s citizens are against amendments to the constitution

More than three-quarters of North Macedonia‘s citizens are well informed about the constitutional changes that Skopje needs to take in order to start accession negotiations with the EU, indicate data of a survey conducted by the Skopje Institute for Political Studies. The poll was conducted between May 2 and 6. 60.8% of the respondents  believe that the changes will have a negative impact on the country. 56.1% of North Macedonia’s citizens do not support any amendments to the constitution. According to the poll, 79.3% of ethnic Albanians support the constitutional changes and 72.4% of those identifying themselves as Macedonians are against the changes.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov