12/03/2014. Adrián Ibáñez. Last Sunday legislative elections were held in Colombia, just three months after a presidential election in which President Juan Manuel Santos opts for a second term of four years. The candidate coming out of these elections will have to discuss the results of the negotiations with the FARC, which still continue in Cuba. That's why the new composition of Congress is so important to identify the different actors and their importance with regard to upcoming events. 

26/02/2014. José Ruiz Vicioso. A tres meses de las elecciones europeas y a poco más de un año para las elecciones generales al Parlamento de Westminster, los dos grandes partidos políticos británicos –Conservador y Laborista– se encuentran inmersos en una batalla para ganarse al electorado que resulta cuanto menos paradójica respecto a los postulados tradicionalmente defendidos por cada una de estas formaciones.

25/02/2014. Pablo Guerrero. On the 25th of February 1956, fifty-eight years ago now, Nikita Khruschev, the then first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), delivered his historic ‘”secret speech” on the occasion of the 20th Congress of the Party. One thousand four hundred and thirty-six shocked soviet delegates, who were forbidden to take notes, witnessed how Khruschev denounced Stalin’s personality cult and the mistakes the soviet dictator made during the early phase of the Great Patriotic War, Russia’s bloody struggle with Hitler’s Germany.

21/02/2014. Ángel Rivero. En febrero de 1848 se publicó uno los panfletos más famosos y reproducidos de la historia: “El manifiesto del partido comunista” o, como se le conoce desde finales del siglo XIX, “El manifiesto comunista”. Sin duda, el tiempo de su publicación, mediado el siglo XIX queda ya muy lejos en la historia europea y habrá quien piense que es un texto que invita más al olvido que a la memoria.

19/02/2014. Jorge del Palacio Martín. The way Matteo Renzi’s name has burst onto the Italian political scene has created a certain degree of confusion in both the national and international public opinion about him and his project. Until a few months ago, Matteo Renzi was just the young mayor of Florence who competed for the General Secretariat of the Partito Democratico with Pier Luigi Bersani at the end of 2012, and was heavily defeated.

18/02/2014. Roberto Inclán. Not having had contact with your son for forty years or having disinherited him cannot be considered as misconduct. This is what a recent judgement delivered by the German Federal Supreme Court (BGH in German) on February 12 stated, forcing a child to pay EUR 9,022.75 as part of the expenses incurred by the City of Bremen on his father’s health care.

17/02/2014. Guillermo Hirschfeld. The episodes of violence which have occurred in Venezuela and which have claimed the lives of several students these days have highlighted the collapse of a model which is unable to manage any of the essential functions of government, and which besides imposes terror on the streets in order to stop the social protests generated by its impotence.

14/02/2014. Juan Tovar Ruiz. It is interesting to see how French President François Hollande’s first state visit to the United States has become the subject of gossip and protocol headaches due to his recent separation from France’s first lady. However, news on couché paper conceal a deeper debate on an alliance which has had its ups and downs over time and has not always maintained such a good health, which has led the President of the United States to treat the French President with such deference, including a gala dinner at the White House and a visit to President Jefferson’s home.