MCC Votes & Seats Podcast – Election insight Mathias Corvinus Collegium

In mid-March 2024, the MPs unanimously voted for the dissolution of the Sabor, the Croatian parliament upon the initiative of the governing parties. Following the decision welcomed and widely supported by the left-wing opposition, president Zoran Milanović called for an early election on 17 April 2024, well ahead of the EP election in June and the legislative election scheduled later this year. In our new Votes & Seats podcast episode, Szabolcs Janik (Centre for Political Science, MCC) had the chance to discuss the political background and results of the early election with professor Višeslav Raos from the University of Zagreb.
In our newest election podcast, you can get a genuine insight into the logic of party competition, key campaign issues (such as economic challenges, European issues or emigration) and party positions, voter attitudes, all these embedded in the context of the coming European voting. Moreover, we also had the opportunity to discuss the future chances of the new HDZ-Homeland Movement coalition, announced on 8 May 2024.
With the help of guest experts and politicians, in the podcast series of MCC’s Centre for Political Science we endeavor to analyze which actors are the real winners of the parliamentary and municipal elections taking place this year in different European countries and what exactly can be considered a real victory after the ballot counts.

In this episode, we are analyzing the background of and the lessons learnt from the presidential election that was held in Slovakia in 2024. Dr. Jaroslav Ušiak from the Matej Bel University helps us understand the factors that might explain the somewhat unpredicted victory of the social democratic Peter Pellegrini over the centrist Ivan Korčok, with special regards to the main campaign messages of the candidates. Based on the endorsements behind the 2nd round candidates, we discuss whether there is a quasi bipolarizing party system evolving in front of our eyes in Slovakia in which the nationalist, NATO/EU skeptic parties and the Hungarian Alliance support the sovereigntist Pellegrini and the anti-establishment as well as right-wing liberal formations endorse the pro-West Korčok. Dr. Ušiak shares his views with us about the future of Pellegrini’s Hlas party after the departure of its founding president. We also talk about the possible career plans of outgoing president Zuzana Čaputová after her moving from the Grassalkovich palace. Last but not least, our guest expert elaborates a bit on the possible repercussions of the presidential election on the upcoming European Parliament election in Slovakia.


Jaroslav UšiakProfessor, Vice-Dean for International and Public Relations, Matej Bel University
Bálint L. TóthPodcast editor, Researcher, MCC Center for Political Science


With the help of guest experts and politicians, in the podcast series of MCC’s Centre for Political Science we endeavor to analyze which actors are the real winners of the parliamentary and municipal elections taking place this year in different European countries and what exactly can be considered a real victory after the ballot counts.

With the most appreciated contribution of Mr. Alexandre de Sousa Carvalho from the University of Coimbra, the Votes&Seats podcast series gladly issues its episode on the March 2024 Portuguese early legislative election. With our guest expert, we reflect on the background and the process of the election, with special regards to the factors that resulted in the victory of the center-right Democratic Alliance. In our analysis, we dive into the main campaign topics, the scandalous issues, and the social/demographic/economic background of the Portuguese party politics’ current tendencies.
With the help of guest experts and politicians, in the podcast series of MCC’s Centre for Political Science we endeavor to analyze which actors are the real winners of the parliamentary and municipal elections taking place this year in different European countries and what exactly can be considered a real victory after the ballot counts.

This time, we discuss the background, the outcome and the possible repercussions of the legislative, regional, and local elections that took place in Serbia on the 17th of December, 2023. Dr. Miša Đurković guides us through the deep forest of Serbian party politics. The principal research fellow of the Institute of European Studies Belgrade stressed that SNS, the Serbian Progressive Party of head-of-state Aleksandar Vucic won resoundingly, securing twice as many votes and seats in the National Assembly as their nearest rival. All this provides SNS a clear majority (49%). Additionally, the center-right party triumphed in 165 municipalities, including Belgrade, by sweeping the regional and municipal elections. In our podcast, Dr. Đurković explains the possible reasons for bringing the elections forward, assesses the performance of the political formations running in the ballot, while shading a light on certain geopolitical constrains among which the December 2023 elections were held in Serbia.
With the help of guest experts and politicians, in the podcast series of MCC’s Centre for Political Science we endeavor to analyze which actors are the real winners of the parliamentary and municipal elections taking place this year in different European countries and what exactly can be considered a real victory after the ballot counts.

This time, we talked about the November 2023 Dutch early general elections with Mr. Dave van Ginhoven from the Hague University of Applied Sciences. The 150 members of the Netherlands' House of Representatives were up for election. Defying all expectations, Geert Wilders' right-wing conservative Freedom Party finished first, securing 37 mandates – far more than Frans Timmermans’ Labor/Green alliance or Mark Rutte's People's Party for Freedom and Democracy. The Freedom Party’s performance was more than double the number it secured in the 2021 election, while Wilderers' victory surely serves as a signal to mainstream parties around Europe. However, as our guest expert pointed out, Wilders found himself in a rather difficult situation when it comes to coalition talks. Elections in the Netherlands are getting every time more exciting with a lot of drama, action, and comedy going on. Nonetheless, the big question is how and when the parties would be open to shaping an alliance to form a government – and on what conditions.
With the help of guest experts and politicians, in the podcast series of MCC’s Centre for Political Science we endeavor to analyze which actors are the real winners of the parliamentary and municipal elections taking place this year in different European countries and what exactly can be considered a real victory after the ballot counts.

Leading EU and member state politicians and political commentators closely observed the election campaign in Poland in recent months. Indeed, the stake of the October election was high and centred around the question whether Law and Justice (PiS) would stay in power, or the opposition would finally succeed in gaining power after eight years. And this question also had EU relevance seeing recent years’ political debates between the EU institutions and the PiS government over issues of rule of law. As a novelty in this election, the Civic Platform (PO) was joined by other minor parties in the alliance called Civic Coalition, while other parties followed suit by organising themselves in similar formations (Third Way and the Left). 
The Sejm election held on 15 October 2023 brought several surprises. In the first place, an all-time-high turnout which seemingly benefitted the opposition powers, in particular Third Way and Civic Coalition. And while PiS managed to win the election as a separate party, its only imaginable prospective coalition partner, Confederation received way less votes than foreseen by public opinion polls. Looking at the final allocation of mandates, Civic Coalition, Third Way and the Left will have a comfortable majority in the Sejm with 248 seats ensured if they reach a coalition agreement in the next months. What happened at the polls? What is the most likely scenario now? What will president Andrzej Duda do next? If a new Tusk cabinet is formed, what will its relations with the Orbán cabinet be like in the future, and how will it affect the Visegrad Group? Researcher of the Centre for Political Science at MCC, Szabolcs Janik had the honour of discussing these and similar questions in the Centre’s latest Votes & Seats podcast episode with Tomasz Grosse, professor of the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Warsaw. 
With the help of guest experts and politicians, in the podcast series of MCC’s Centre for Political Science we endeavor to analyze which actors are the real winners of the parliamentary and municipal elections taking place this year in different European countries and what exactly can be considered a real victory after the ballot counts.