Governments Under the Pump

The victor claims the 51% of the vote gives them a  ‘mandate’ for their policies while the loser claims their 49% of the vote gives them a 'mandate' to oppose the government’s policies.

The sooner we accept that a mandate is when two gentlemen go out to dinner rather than some unquestionable political authority the better off we will be.

But poking through the entrails of elections can be very interesting. And September is shaping up to be a very, very interesting month when it comes to politics.

There are at least 5 significant elections to be held this month.

The first, in Norway was on September 13.

There, the left wing opposition ended eight-years of centre right rule.

The Labour Party are led by Jonas Store,  a millionaire mate of the NATO secretary-general ( and former Norwegian PM). He campaigned against social inequality and an embrace of the fossil fuel industry that underpins the Norwegian economy.

They are now trying to form a coalition with other parties which is the normal form of governance  in Norway.

Next off is the Russian election on September 19. The election slogan is “together we choose” but it doesn’t really work like that.

The authorities choose who can contest the ballot and that generally leads to a stacked candidature.

I’m predicting a landslide for the Putin forces. If not, I’m predicting a massive spate of arrests of all wayward voters.

Then we have the son of Fidel running for re-election in Canada on September 20.

Justin Trudeau, the woke tosser of world politics has led a scandal plagued govt. He’s faced ethics concerns, become a laughing stock for dress ups and face painting, had historical groping allegations aired with links to bribery and dodgy grants programs.

His best hope is that the peoples party, an outfit against vaccine mandates and passports is peeling votes away from the conservatives. This may give the hopeless Trudeau a shot at forming a minority government with as little as 31% of the vote.

On 25 September we have an election in what is considered the world’s oldest functioning parliament – Iceland.

It’s likely to throw up another coalition government but with a change from Left-green leadership to a centre right leadership under the Independence Party.

Lastly we have the big one of Europe – the German election on 26 September.

This will decide who will succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor after 16 years in the job.

Yet another coalition is likely with some suggesting a two way coalition between the Conservative Christian Democrats and the German Greens is most likely but with six main parties in the contest, there are myriad combinations of coalitions that could form.

Politics indeed makes for strange bedfellows.

So how much can we read into these expected results?

It’s clear that incumbents are under enormous pressure…except in Russia…which suggests that people are waking up to the garbage that they have been fed in recent times.

They realise that things are not right in the world and that politicians, rather than our saviours,  are to blame for most of the woes.

That seems to be the common thread almost everywhere and incumbent governments should be very worried that the voters will be coming for them next.