The eventful and unconventional campaign for the French presidential elections (partly) came to an end on Sunday night. Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron (24,0%) and radical right Marine Le Pen (21,3%) of the Front National have both qualified for the run-off of the presidential election. Even though polls had predicted this results in the months coming to the election, it still constitutes a surprise. The outcome is historically close, and 4 candidates have gathered around 20% of the electorate, and both mainstream parties have been eliminated. After Macron and Le Pen, right-wing candidate François Fillon (20,0%) and radical left Jean-Luc...

L'attesissimo primo turno delle elezioni presidenziali francesi è ormai in archivio. Il risultato ha visto Emmanuel Macron e Marine Le Pen conquistare il ballottaggio, confermando i sondaggi della vigilia. Fra due settimane gli elettori francesi saranno nuovamente chiamati alle urne per scegliere fra i due l'inquilino dell'Eliseo per i prossimi cinque anni. Come andrà a finire? Il caso francese è paradigmatico dei sistemi a doppio turno in cui decisive sono le seconde preferenze di quegli elettori che al primo turno hanno votato per candidati non ammessi al ballottaggio. In particolare, per via della consistenza numerica, cruciali saranno le scelte di quanti...

The recent presidential elections in Poland have seen the unexpected victory of Andrzej Duda, candidate of the conservative right. However, Mikołaj Cześnik from SWPS Warsaw (University of Social Sciences and Humanities) reveals how Duda and its PiS (Law and Justice) party, expected to win the parliamentary elections in the next fall, will likely keep Poland's pro-EU stances mostly unchanged, and perhaps even promote economic measures aimed at more equality. Watch the full interview.  

Dr. Alistair Clark, Newcastle University E: Alistair.clark@ncl.ac.uk T: @ClarkAlistairJ In my earlier blog for CISE on the UK’s 2015 general election, I noted how uncertain the polls were, with none of the two main British parties – Conservative or Labour - able to make a decisive break prior to polling day. I ended by suggesting that there was likely to be an investigation into the polling industry after election day. One of those predictions came true. Unfortunately for the reputation of political science predictions, it was that there will be an inquiry into the performance of the polling industry. Expectations were of a hung...