Atypical July

July usually coincides with the beginning of the holiday season, when people focus more on rest and leisure than on serious discussions. Sometimes atypical years occur, and the summer is filled with noteworthy events. 2024 is one of them.

The focus is on the US election on November 5. This year, the process was already disrupted by signs of physical fragility from Joe Biden. But attacks on Donald Trump and Biden’s withdrawal from the race as he was set to be formally nominated as the Democratic nominee have disrupted what little normalcy remains.

Paradoxically, this withdrawal is clearly desired by the party, but out of respect for the party’s traditions Establish I’m not sure if this is really expected given the devotion of American politicians to the incumbent candidate. If it were, we would see other figures emerge as alternatives.

But if I remember correctly, the last time someone from the incumbent party saw themselves as a minimally viable alternative was in 1980, when Robert Kennedy tried to replace Jimmy Carter, whose approval ratings were on the painful edge due to inflation and the Iranian Revolution causing oil prices to rise. Despite this, Carter received the nomination at the Democratic National Convention and was defeated in the polls by Ronald Reagan, who kicked off the conservative trend in the United States.

In fact, the Democratic Party has no time and conditions to find and promote alternative candidates other than Kamala Harris, except that Harris’s rejection rate is comparable to Trump’s. We will have two candidates who are negatively viewed by voters.

I believe that a large portion of the Democratic Party will feel the same way and their efforts will be focused on maintaining the Senate majority and regaining control of the House of Representatives. This will be the only way to prevent Trump from imposing his ideological agenda full of nationalist and isolationist principles and ideals, which he calls “Make America Great Again”.

But this July was atypical for other reasons. European elections allowed the far right to increase its representation (although not to the extent expected) and triggered legislative elections in France whose results could make France virtually ungovernable in the medium term. Britain produced a single-party supermajority, something not seen since 1835.

During Hungary’s presidency of the European Council, Viktor Orban began visiting Zelensky, Putin and Xi Jinping to confirm Hungary’s autonomy from the European Union. The European Commission responded by saying it would not attend the meeting of foreign ministers called by Hungary. Antonio Costa will certainly have many opportunities to demonstrate his ability to build dialogue and bridges.

Here we have an interview with the Attorney General of the Republic, an interview that should have been carried out at least five years ago and which confirms the need for a profound reform of the judiciary, including the Public Ministry; the conversation about the budget begins (again without any debate about the State); the first “cases and cases” appear (currently the case of the twins and the compensation paid by CP to the Minister of Transport), let alone anything different.

Come on August!

The author wrote according to the old spelling.