Center-right Party Wins Most Seats in Austrian Elections

The conservative OVP (Austrian People’s Party), led by  former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, won the most seats in this past Sunday’s legislative election. While falling short of a majority, the task falls to Kurz to form a government with one or more of the smaller parties.

One of those parties, the FPO (Freedom Party), was the OVP’s coalition partners in his previous government. A scandal involving the party’s leadership in which some of them were recorded discussing deceptive practices and malintents led to its dissolution. The FPO, a right wing populist to far-right party, could conceivably become a partner again, with the center- left SPO (Social Democratic Party) and Greens and the centrist NEOS parties also possible participants.

Britain Continues Its Messy Separation from the EU

UK Prime Minster Boris Johnson’s attempts to remove Britain from the European Union over four years after the country voted to leave the political bloc has continued to hit obstacles. The British Supreme Court, a relatively new institutional body, ruled against Johnson’s suspension of Parliament, itself an attempt to negotiate a deal with the EU without immediate domestic political opposition.

Johnson, a staunch supporter of Brexit who took over from Theresa May a few months ago, is tasked with delivering a Brexit process that has the support of Parliament and preferably that of the European Union. The EU’s support of a Brexit deal will ensure the country has access to the trade bloc following its separation. A “no-deal” Brexit would lead to higher tariffs and obstacles, which will negatively affect the economy. This would leave the UK in need of seeking free trade agreements elsewhere, with one with the US the most cited example.

Some of Johnson’s political opponents have called for his resignation, while Johnson seems inclined to push for a new general election. Polls currently have his Conservative Party in the lead.

House Launches Impeachment Inquiry

fter months of resistance to pleas from vocal members of her caucus, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced last week that she would open an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s conduct. While many Democrats have called for impeachment proceedings in the past (soon after his inauguration), the event that sparked the latest round of calls relates to Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his plea for him to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s business and political actions in the country, a request that is politically salient given Joe Biden’s candidacy for president, in which he hopes to face Trump in November 2020.

The story broke earlier this month when a whistleblower released information about the contents of Trump’s call, which led to sharp criticism, mostly form Democrats but with a few Republicans joining in condemning the president’s action. After Pelosi initiated the impeachment inquiry on September 24th, the White House released a transcript of the call (which was not a verbatim copy, but rather a series of notes and recollections from other listeners) with Zelensky, which confirmed Trump cited Biden as an example of corruption in Ukraine.

In addition, Trump withheld $400 million in military aid to Ukraine prior to the call. Democrats have said the aide was withheld to be used as a bargaining chip to force Zelensky’s hand to investigate Biden; the White House says interagency disagreements led to its delay in disbursement.

Going forward, House Democrats will hold hearings on Trump over his conduct, with many Democrats hoping that it will lead to an impeachment vote. If successful, the Senate will decide whether to remove the president.

Democratic Field Narrows, Republican’s Grows by One

The 2020 Presidential field continues to change as several Democrats drop out of the race, while one Republican joins in an attempt to deny President Donald Trump the GOP nomination.

This month, four major candidates have dropped out of the Democratic race: former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton, and New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. None of the candidates managed to gain major support during any of the campaign, with Moulton never making the debate stage and Gillibrand (the highest-polling one of the group) only scoring 3% in one poll and usually averaging only 1%.

This still leaves well over a dozen candidates in the mix, though only three, former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warrant, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, poll in the double digits. The rest, including relatively high polling candidates California Senator Kamala Harris and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, are in the single digits.

However, recent polls have indicated that any of those candidates has a polling advantage over Trump in the general, though the election is still over a year away, and the political environment can easily shift more in favor (or even less in favor) of Trump’s reelection prospects.

Meanwhile, former Congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois announced a longshot bid to challenge Trump for the GOP primary this week. Walsh, once a strong Trump supporter and a conservative firebrand, has come under fire for controversial and racially tinged statements made in his past.

Democrats Debate Again, 10 Yesterday and 10 Today

The race for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020 continues after ten Democratic candidates met in Detroit last night for the second primary debate, with ten more to go tonight.

Last night’s debate featured the two highest-polling progressive candidates, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Other relatively high-polling candidates (though still in the single digits) were South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke.

The debate demonstrated sharp differences between the progressive wing, led by Sanders and Warren, and the relatively more moderate wing, including Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, former Maryland Rep. John Delaney, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. Some of these differences included whether to abolish private health insurance in favor of government-run insurance, providing free health care to those residing in the US illegally, and decriminalizing illegal border crossings. Places of agreement between both camps included providing a government-run insurance program (regardless of whether private insurance would still be allowed), instituting more gun control, and placing higher taxes on wealthy Americans.

Ten more candidates will debate tonight, including two other high-polling candidates, the frontrunner former Vice President Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris. Biden is considered relatively more moderate than many of the other candidates (though still liberal by national standards), and will likely face progressive criticisms from Harris and other candidates.