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The recent local elections in France delivered a blow to the governing Socialist party and its president François Hollande, with the centre-right opposition obtaining 49% of the votes against the Socialists’ 42%.

A warning signal for both big parties is the success of the far-right National Front, or Front National Party (FN). Marine Le Pen, who heads the Party, triumphed in the French television: "The Front National has now become a major independent force − a political force both at national and local level". In several cities, partially former Socialist regions, the FN even won an outright victory. After the second round of local elections, the FN now will govern eight important French cities (more than 10,000 inhabitants).

Accepting of the responsibility for the loss, the Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault resigned on Monday 31 March; the President appointed the current Minister of Interior Manuel Valls as the future Prime Minister.

On 16 March, Serbia held its parliamentary elections that had originally been scheduled to take place in May 2016. The overwhelming victory of Aleksandar Vučić’s party (48%),  the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), marks a turning point in Serbian politics. This is the first time since 1990 that a political party has won an outright majority in an election. The victory was boosted by an equally impressive SNS triumph in municipal elections in the capital, Belgrade.

Having won 158 seats in the 250 seat national parliament, the victory is a personal triumph for Vučić, who has been First Deputy Prime Minister since July 2012.  With 48% of the popular vote, the SNS doesn’t need to assemble a coalition to form a governing majority by the deadline of 1 May.

The SNS has more than doubled its tally from the 2012 parliamentary elections, when it won 73 seats. Although the Party can now dispense with its coalition ally from the previous government, the Socialist Party of Serbia, the Socialists demonstrated impressive electoral resilience despite the huge SNS victory. They retained their 2012 share of the vote, 14%, entitling the Party to 44 seats in the new parliament and making it the second largest party.

Vučić says that no time will be wasted in forming a new government, and that he’s willing to form alliances with all parties. He is, however, expected to form an alliance with the New Democratic Party, a small new party that was rapidly put together in the past two months.

Political newcomer Andrej Kiska was the surprise winner of Slovakia’s presidential elections on 29 March. In the second balloting, the businessman-turned-philanthropist was elected with 59.4% of the vote.

Kiska will thus be the fourth president of the country since the split of Czechoslovakia. “In a little while, I will become the new president. I will be the president of all, I will stand behind every honest Slovak," Kiska announced after his victory. “This is a great commitment."

The election was a close run-off between Kiska and current Prime Minister Roberto Fico, who achieved 40.6% in the second round. In the first round of the elections on March 15, both of these politicians had beaten 12 other candidates.

With 28% for Fico, head of Slovakia's dominant left-wing SMER (Social Democratic) party, and 24% for Kiska, a final ballot had to be held as neither candidate gained the necessary 50%. Political experts attributed Kiska’s landslide victory to people’s fears that Fico and his left-wing Party could gain too much power.