Immigrants who have become naturalized Americans in recent decades are numerous enough – and now organized enough! -- to be a potential political factor in American voting, including in next week’s Congressional election. As always these days, immigration itself will be an issue and in the U.S. the “immigrant vote” could matter as recent immigrants chose sides in light of their own experience. In some hard-fought Congressional constituencies, the outcome might turn on the votes of New Americans – immigrants or immigrants’ children who have become politically conscious during the recent decades when massive and sometimes disruptive immigration has become a high-profile issue.
On October 7, 2010, Dr. Franc Križanic, Minister of Finance for the Republic of Slovenia offered his perspective on the implications of the economic crisis for his country as well as for the European Union. The first former eastern bloc country to adopt the euro in 2007, Slovenia has been hard hit by the current economic downturn. Following a decade of robust growth, Slovenia’s export driven economy contracted by 7.8 % in 2009 -- the largest drop in the euro area and the first recession since independence. But a combination of bold stimulus measures and financial sector support appears to have stemmed the downturn and GDP is expected to show a modest gain of .6% by year’s end. Minister Križanic asserted that sustainable economic growth will depend largely on increased investment in the development of new technologies. With key economic indicators showing that both Slovenia and Europe are already beginning to emerge from the crises, he concluded that prospects for even further recovery, growth and prosperity are good, as long as a focused and consolidated effort to achieve key goals remains intact.
The prospect of more cooperative relations between Poland and the rest of the EU is a widely-noted highlight of the election of the country’s new president, Bronislaw Komorowski.
His victory creates a tandem at the top of Poland’s leadership since he and Prime Minister Donald Tusk are political allies. Both are leaders of the Civic Platform, a party that stands for center-right free-market economics and warmer relations with its EU partners, particularly neighboring Germany.
Often at odds with the previous president, Tusk shares much with Komorowski: “They are pragmatists rather than ideologues, reserved not blustering, and open to the world,’’ commented Spiegel, the magazine in Germany, which welcomes the outcome. Komorowski, 58, was an anti-communist dissident, imprisoned in the crackdown on Solidarity and subsequently a prominent member of parliament.
As widely anticipated, the British General Elections resulted in a hung parliament for the first time since 1974 – no party with an absolute majority. Negotiations between the three main parties will be needed to form a government with a parliamentary majority, and avoid a vulnerable minority government.
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