Ten political figures to summarize 2021 – Lanza Digital

The year 2021 is associated in the international arena with not a few figures who have marked the future of the planet’s news

Electoral successes, imprisonments, controversies or repression are interspersed in a list that includes –in alphabetical order– only a dozen of the many names and settings politically linked to the last twelve months:

ABIY AHMED

The Ethiopian Prime Minister, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, ordered in November 2020 an offensive against the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF) that has plunged the country into a conflict that threatens to destabilize the Horn region. from Africa, where Addis Ababa plays a key role.

In recent months, he has even moved to the war front to direct Army operations, after the advances of the TPLF threatened the capital. It has also promised to investigate the numerous complaints about war crimes and crimes against humanity in the country, plunged into a deep humanitarian crisis.

NAFTALI BENNETT AND YAIR LAPID

Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid became the visible face of the coalition forged in Israel in June after four legislative elections in about two years and that managed to end the ‘Netanyahu era’, after ‘Bibi’ led Israeli politics for the past twelve years. The former prime minister is also on trial for alleged corruption.

The coalition, made up of an amalgam of parties ranging from the leftist spectrum to the extreme right, revolves around an agreement between the two to share the position of prime minister during the four-year term, in a fragile balance supported by a majority of a seat in the Knesset.

JOE BIDEN

Joe Biden emerged as the winner of the United States elections in November 2020, but it was not until January 20, 2021 that he took office. In between, an assault on the Capitol rocked by then-White House tenant Donald Trump shook the foundations of the American political system like never before in recent history.

Biden has tried to present himself as stability after the chaos of ‘Trumpism’, retaking agreements and alliances destroyed during the previous four years -mainly with Europe-, but his political capital has suffered management and image blows that are not attributable to his predecessor: since its failure to carry out a massive spending plan on the chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, among others.

MARIO DRAGHI

The fall of the Giuseppe Conte government in January meant for Italy its umpteenth political crisis in recent years and, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, all efforts were focused on avoiding early elections. The only possible solution was to bring together parties of disparate ideology with the glue of a technocratic prime minister: Mario Draghi.

The former president of the European Central Bank (ECB) took up the challenge in February and, since then, has offered an image of stability at the head of a government with many public disagreements. His profile even places him as a potential candidate for the Presidency of Italy in 2022.

BORIS JOHNSON

The British Government’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic has been in question from the start. If the inaction of the prime minister, Boris Johnson, who was reconverted after passing through the UCI after contracting coronavirus was already initially questioned, in recent weeks the controversy has revolved around the disparity between the behavior of the authorities and the recommendations for the common of citizenship.

The publication of information and images about parties and gatherings in Downing Street during the lockdowns have called into question the government’s behavior behind closed doors. In addition, Johnson is immersed in an internal rebellion that revolves mainly around measures to contain the latest wave of infections.

KISHIDA FUMIO

The Japanese ‘premier’ surprised the Japanese political sphere by leading the Liberal Democratic Party to victory in the October legislative elections despite its lack of charisma and after the resignation of Yoshihide Suga largely due to the dissatisfaction of society about the management of the coronavirus pandemic.

Kishida, who was foreign minister between 2012 and 2017, promised after winning the elections to renew the image of the party, although his government has continued the policies of his predecessors in office. However, the 64-year-old politician is leading the fight against the health crisis and will have to face a growing security threat.

ANGELA MERKEL

Sixteen years after coming to power, 2021 has marked the end of the Angela Merkel era in Germany. In 2018, the veteran Chancellor announced a progressive political withdrawal that has had a pandemic in between and not a few internal crises in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

One of these earthquakes revolved around his succession and, in fact, with Armin Laschet at the helm of the CDU, the formation reaped poor results in the September elections that led to the opposition of the conservatives. Thus, Merkel this month passed the baton to Social Democrat Olaf Scholz.

ALEXEI NAVALNI

Alexei Navalni has for years been one of the most recognized figures in the Russian opposition. After suffering a poisoning in August 2020 that forced him to move to Germany, the dissident returned to Russia in January 2021, at which time he was arrested for violating the conditions of a previously issued fraud conviction.

The Justice determined in February that he should enter prison, from where Navalni has denounced the conditions in which he finds himself and even promoted a campaign of “useful vote” in the legislative elections of September. He has received the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for freedom of conscience.

DANIEL ORTEGA

Daniel Ortega is not a newcomer to Nicaraguan and world politics, given that his current presidential stage began at the beginning of 2007. However, the political opposition and organizations that defend Human Rights agree that he had never exercised repression before so frontal against dissent.

The environment prior to the general elections in November was marked by the imprisonment of opponents and the closure of parties and NGOs, which allowed Ortega to clearly prevail in the vote, although with little international recognition.

EBRAHIM RAISI

The ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisi, who has come to sound like a possible successor to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, managed to become Iran’s new president in June after winning an election marked by the elimination of the candidacies of the main moderates.

Raisi, defeated in 2017 by Hasan Rohani, had until then been head of the Iranian judicial apparatus and vice president of the Assembly of Experts, in a sign of the power accumulated in recent years. Now, he will have to face the economic and social crisis in the country and define the Iranian nuclear program in talks with the rest of the powers.