In this week’s issue of the Monday Briefing we take a look at some electoral surprises around the world: Argentina and the Netherlands surprise the polls, while Cameroon descends into protests. In Brazil a massive police operation leaves tens of victims, while Donald Trump visits Asia in search of trade deals.
Spotlight: Freedom advances (for now) as Milei wins midterm elections.
by Pietro Ferrari
On October 27th, last Monday, South America and the World were shocked by the unexpected electoral triumph of Javier Milei. The die-hard libertarian president of Argentina came up victorious in the midterm parliamentary elections, getting 40.8% of the votes and winning even in the city of Buenos Aires, where he had recently badly lost administrative elections. Notwithstanding the mixed results of the last months, this renewed popular mandate for the President political agenda paves the way for the next months of reforms.
After winning the 2023 presidential election, Javier Milei implemented an extreme shock therapy to the Argentinian economy, which has been for decades plagued by structural inefficiencies and devastating inflation. The results of such drastic policies have been widely debated, but certain successes are certainly to be given to the president: inflation was cut to only 3% in the month of September, projecting for 2025 as a whole a total of 35%, which is outstanding compared to the 200% of 2024 and the 120% of 2023. Argentina has been in fiscal surplus since last year’s spending cuts and the population in poverty status has been reduced compared to when Milei took office. The major setback has been monetary policy, as the objective of stabilization of the Peso has not been achieved yet, and only thanks to American support Argentina has been able to swap its currency on the market.
Such vast support coming from Donald Trump has left many commentators and critics of the President to describe the government as a Washington’s Puppet on the Rio de la Plata. In particular, many have lamented foreign interference in Argentinian domestic affairs when the White House launched a 40 billion dollars lifeline conditional on the survival of Milei’s economic plan. Nonetheless, many before the election were expecting a defeat for the Libertad Avanza party, as it is common for midterm elections and as poll suggested. Insiders have even revealed that the government itself was aiming for a result between 30 and 35%. The decisive victory achieved on Sunday 26th shows a renewed popular mandate, one which was not expected at all.
Argentinian politics thus enters in a new phase, with Milei much more strongly in control of the legislative process and thus of the parliament, which up until now was where the opposition scored its major victories. The President has pledged to continue with its reform process, announcing that he intends to collaborate with more centrist forces like PRO of the former president Macri in order to pass laws. Later this week the President has announced a government reshuffle and has met with most of Argentina’s governors, in order to coordinate for the next steps. The future of Argentinian economy is still uncertain, but what is clear is that a vast share of the electorate still backs Javier’s Milei libertarian approach. The world pays close attention, as Argentina’s El Loco continues his chainsaw work.
World News
Flights, Flags, and Foreign Policy
By Veronika Nadzieja Lizier-Zmudzinski
President Trump traveled to Asia this past week. He met with the leaders of Malaysia, Japan, and South Korea all who welcomed him with warmth and celebrations. On the 30th of October he sat down in a meeting with Xi Jinping, the president of China. This was their first face-to-face encounter since President Trump’s first term in office in 2019.
The meeting’s essential discussion point was the ongoing trade war between the two countries. Trump left the meeting proclaiming progress and a clear, effective outcome, but no trade deal was officially agreed upon.
President Trump has continued to threaten higher tariffs on Chinese exports, and China has not sulked away from the threats, but instead responded by retaliating against the U.S. economy with its own tariffs. This constant, escalating tension has proved to be too much for either country to control and both leaders seemed to have agreed, during the meeting, that tariffs so high would be unsustainable for both countries.
Although, no trade deal was finalized, President Trump’s good mood after the meeting may not be completely unjustified. The U.S. did in fact lower the tariffs it had placed on China, while the Chinese government agreed on releasing the limitations placed on minerals, and to resume its many imports of U.S. agricultural products, oil, and gas.
This important meeting may be a step toward easing tensions and stabilizing the fragile relationships between the two global powers.
Largest police operation in city history leaves 130 dead in Rio de Janeiro
By Diego Chaparro de Carvalho
A massive police operation happened on Tuesday afternoon in Rio de Janeiro, in the Alemão and Penha favela complexes. The raid was undertaken as an action against the criminal organization Comando Vermelho (Red Command), which is the second largest organized crime group in Brazil and the largest in Rio de Janeiro. The death toll has surpassed 130 people, including 4 police officers, making the operation the bloodiest in the city’s history.
The event sparked political tensions in Brazil among the country’s President Lula and Rio de Janeiro governor Cláudio Castro Mr. Castro is an ally of Brazil’s far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro and criticized Mr. Lula’s supposed leniency against crime and lack of support for the operation. The Brazilian government, meanwhile, claimed it received no formal requests or warnings that the action would occur. While President Lula has avoided direct commentary on the operation, it has generated much criticism from left-wing advocates and politicians in Brazil, who say it was ultimately inefficient and unnecessarily violent. Human rights organizations from around the world, including the United Nations, also denounced the operation.
Rio de Janeiro has been plagued with criminality for decades, with the issue intensifying this century with the expansion of the drug trade. Notably, criminal organizations such as the Comando Vermelho occupy favela neighborhoods as headquarters for drug trafficking. These organizations also undertake typical governmental services such as the provision of energy and gas, to both remove governmental presence in the area and reduce tension from its population. Police action has consistently fought against them, including in other large operations such as the 2010 invasion of the Alemão Complex and the 2018 military intervention in the city, but violence has only expanded, especially in poorer neighborhoods; 70% of Rio residents say crime in the city is very high. While the operation has generated much discussion in Brazil, it is still unclear if it will manage to permanently and effectively curb Rio de Janeiro’s crime problem.
Violent protest in Cameroon after elections results
By Riccardo De Ambroggi
On Sunday 26th, Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Douala following the call of the opposition leader Issa Tchiroma Bakary, blocked violently by the police, causing 4 deaths and many arrests. In the following days, unrests blew up in many other cities in Cameroon. This tense situation between the government and the opposition was caused by the results of the elections that took place on October 12th. These elections confirmed the reelection for the 8th mandate of the President Paul Biya, in charge since 1982. Bakary called the Cameroonian people to revolt against what is considered to be a confirm of the autocratic shift suffered by the country during Biya’s presidency. The fear of the international observers for the situation is high, also because in the next few days the electoral commission is preparing to announce the official results of the disputed elections, probably causing further protests. Meanwhile Issa Tchiroma Bakary’s supporters continue to insist that their demands for transparency and justice must be heard, but recalling keeping calm to avoid the situation to become too unstable.
European News
The decadence of democratic rules: Europe’s (alarming) regression
By Alice Di Terlizzi
Democracy can be deemed as a people-forged mechanism that allows for the free and righteous expression of humans’ inner tendency to behave – borrowing from Aristoteles’s definition – as political animals. The political instinct inhabiting the individual intellectual fabric, and more preciously corroborated by the light of emotional cognition, has over the years developed into the necessity to preserve the integrity of the single being, through the socially recognized means of human rights enforcement aligned with the acknowledgement of the term ‘respect’. Still, humans aren’t born rational, although they may be simplifying their surrounding reality through an objectivity-oriented thinking that could never fully pertain to their conscious selves; indeed, parallel to the intuition of building human society, is the need to advocate for the right and avenge the wrong, although the definition of the latter are subject to the personal reinterpretation of that, allegedly not-to-be-touched, mutually reciprocated ‘respect’.
From here, current news may sound bewildering: over the past decade, starting in 2016 until recent times, a discomforting deterioration of the rule of law has affected two-thirds of EU member states, the World Justice Project (WJP) reports. A similar decline may be born from the brain catching rhetoric of seemingly cherished individuals, who make their own individuality the center for further acceptance of dictatorial enforcement. The embracement of single-handedly led governments restricts, very non-subtly, civic space, namely the safe zone for exercising individual freedom and participating in the community as single cives making up a properly structured civitas. The meaning of that same democracy, established as the universal solution to the particularism of the each, is being increasingly undermined by a lack of legal authority, as testified by the WJP Rule of Law Index. The latter reports diminishing relevance of the executive power, further fostered by the almost ubiquitous presence of stark corruption, with governments being less open than ever before, and proving alarmingly unable to enforce civil and penal justice within their borders. The most impressive decline in such indicators belongs to Russia, whose overall levels – measured on a 0 to 1 scale – have declined by 0.028 solely in the past year. Similarly, the Hungarian political framework lacks fundamental freedoms which should be solidified within the democratic framework the country is being, very much formally rather than factually, recognized at the EU level.
On a finale note, the Italian picture doesn’t vividly stand out for its remarkable democratic nuances. Italy suffers, indeed, from a noxious wave that has brought about undermined legal rights at the EU level, and that is being elicited through breaks within the integrity of judicial systems. Similar fractures within national governments may serve as disturbing indicators of democratic failures, possibly revealing the popular urge to find guidance in the one in order to solve the crisis of the many. In this sense, authoritarian proposals are succeeding at manipulating ideas and hampering critical thinking, planting a seed of evilness within countries which, despite on-paper differences, find their similarity in an equally frightening political destiny. If democracy was born as a synonym of freedom to be, idiosyncratically yet respectfully, then current dynamics are jeopardizing such parallelism, in favor of an intellectual dictatorship masked as sociopolitical well-being.
A new chapter in Dutch Politics: Rob Jetten’s Path to Progress
By Teodora Stefan
Following the PVV’s withdrawal from government in June 2025, fueled by disagreements over asylum policies, the Netherlands held snap elections last Wednesday. The race was tight, and the outcome has sparked debate about the future direction of Dutch politics.
The main opponents in the elections were Geert Wilders’ established right-wing PVV party and the newly revitalized D66 party, led by Rob Jetten. D66, founded in 1966, is a centrist and progressive party known for its strong commitment to education, climate action, and European cooperation. It has long advocated for social liberalism and democratic renewal, promoting an open and forward-looking vision for the Netherlands. During the previous parliamentary elections in 2023, the party recorded one of its worst results ever, in stark contrast to its recent impressive comeback. Their strong performance this time is largely attributed to a media-savvy campaign that resonated with young, highly educated voters, as well as widespread frustration over the repeated failures of the former coalition.
After the many shortcomings of the coalition formed in 2023 by PVV, VVD, and two other right-leaning parties, all members suffered heavy losses. PVV lost about a third of its representation, VVD saw a modest decline of 2 seats, and NSC, one of the two smaller partners, went from having 20 seats to being voted out of parliament altogether. Meanwhile, the CDA, a centrist party led by Henri Bontenbal, who has been described as the most charismatic party leader in Dutch politics, and the GreenLeft-Labour alliance both gained significant ground. It is now expected that D66, CDA, and GreenLeft-Labour will attempt to form the next coalition government, although they will still need the support of the VVD to achieve a parliamentary majority.
Rob Jetten, the Netherlands’ first openly gay party leader, is set to become the next prime minister. He now faces the challenge of governing a deeply divided nation and restoring public trust in its political institutions. His success will depend on his ability to unite a fragmented parliament and deliver the stability and progress Dutch voters have been calling for.
Every week, your TiL Monday Briefing 🗞: you better read it with a cup of coffee! ☕️
Head of the Monday Briefing column: Pietro Ferrari. Current writing staff: Vatsal Aggarwal, Cristiana Murè. Cartoons by Polina Mednikova. The Monday Briefing column was established in its current form in 2021 by Bojan Zeric.
I’m Veronika. I grew up in the US but am half-Italian, half-Polish. I’m a first-year BIEM student and am interested in not only economics, but fashion, politics, books, and getting to know the community around me.
Hello everyone! My name is Teodora and I’m a 3rd year BIEM student from Bucharest, Romania. I spend my free time reading up on political issues from around the world and I’m particularly keen on topics concerning the European Union. On a more personal note, I’m passionate about art history, music and writing about the world around me.
