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The President of Croatia is elected to a five-year term by a direct vote of all citizens, with a majority vote required to win. Since Croatia's independence the country has got three elected presidents. The first presidential election was held on 2 August 1992 and resulted in victory for Franjo Tuđman of the HDZ, who received 57.8 percent of the vote in the first round of the election. Tuđman introduced a semi-presidential system and won the second term in 1997. The next two presidential elections took place in 2000 and in 2005 and Stjepan Mesić, the candidate of the Croatian People's Party won the office. In 2010 Ivo Josipović became the 3rd President of Croatia, becoming the first social democratic president since the independence of the country. On 11th January 2015, in the second round Croatians people elected Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović a member of the center-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) as the new President of the Republic of Croatia. Her main opponent in the runoff was the outgoing president Ivo Josipović nominated by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SDP) and supported by the government's parties. This election gathers a lot of records: for the first time a woman has been elected President, for the first time the outgoing President is not confirmed for a second mandate and Grabar-Kitarović is the first HDZ 's President after Tuđman. In addition the presidential election regarded as the foreplay to the more pressing and important upcoming November parliamentary election and there could be lots of changes at political level.

The prior aim of the paper is to present the next station of the enlargement process of the European Union, the chances and challenges of the Croatian accession after the democratic transformation. The study is about to investigate how an old-and-new state is searching for its identity, and what a bumpy road does it have to cope with in order to get to be part of the European space. Two phases of the whole integration process could be separated. The first term is from the declaration of independence (26 June 1991) till the death of president Franjo Tudjman (10 Dec 1999), when beyond building a democratic country and state, Croatia also tried to identify and manage the priorities of its independent foreign policy. The next phase is mainly characterised by the development and deepening of relations between the EU and Croatia from the death of the president on, when the substantial investigations started between Croatia and the European Union, and are still in progress.

The aim of the study is to present the European Parliamentary elections taking place on 22 May 2014. The first part of the study focuses on the results, the Europeans and the Hungarian as well. The turnout was almost the same as last elections in 2009, but the balance of power has been shifted slightly. The political groups have remained almost the same like before. The European People's Party lost several mandates, the Socialists and the Greens managed to maintain almost the same size of group with a small loss, while the liberals lost the biggest. The European Conservatives became the third biggest political group in the newly elected European Parliament. The left wing parties are also the winners of this election: the GUE/NGL succeeded to gain several new seats. The study also shows how the newly elected European Parliament (EP) held its inauguration session. The first step was the formation of the different political groups. Then, during its inauguration session held in Strasbourg, the new members of the parliament elected the President, the 14 Vice-Presidents, and the quaestors. In addition, the essay gives a short outlook to the ongoing institutional changes, mainly concentrating on the new European Commission.

During the Cold War, the Philippines was an indispensable US ally, and this was still basically the case at the turn of the 21st century. However, the inauguration of President Rodrigo Duterte in June 2016 heralded great changes for the international position of the Philippines: a shift towards China and Russia occurred, followed by the emergence of a more balanced foreign policy. The partnership with the US has changed, too: during the Obama administration, the relationship between the two countries became cooler, although the foundations of the alliance were never contested. In the wake of Donald Trump's assumption of office in January 2017, the alliance seems to have become as strong as before, and economic as well as security-military cooperation has continued. The author's aim is to analyze the Philippines' position in the US-led world order from 1945 to the present, as well as the foundations of the United States–Philippines special relationship. After that the main components of Duterte's "independent" foreign policy and the fundamental changes in the Philippines' foreign relations are presented. The analysis focuses on the causes of the conflict at the end of Barack Obama's presidency, followed by the improving partnership during the Trump era and the main geopolitical challenges the alliance has had to face. According to its conclusion the US–Philippines security cooperation will remain strong under Presidents Duterte and Trump due to strategic considerations, which indicate the military alliance is in the interests of both nations.

The case of Simek Kitty garnered a lot of interest in the media between 2002 and 2005. The fourteen-year-old girl, who endured her stepfather's physical, verbal, and sexual abuse for ten years, one day shot the aggressive man with his own weapon. Although the court sentenced the young girl for her deed, the President of the Republic gave her amnesty, so she did not have to go to jail after all. However, her life turned even worse after the incident. In my study, I examine why the events turned out the way they did and how the tragedy could have been avoided.

This contribution offers a reminder of the state of political forces in France and the course of the health crisis, which initially took place in a context of strong political tensions, particularly as a result of the controversial pension reform decided by Macron. The COVID crisis allowed populist parties to develop 'naming' and 'blaming' strategies, initially mobilized in different proportions, to attack the President of the Republic Macron. The analysis shows that the decision to introduce a lockdown led the two leaders of the parties described as populist to harden their criticism to similar proportions but also to 'claim' rapid responses to the crisis. These speeches are also part of the medical polemics that will have been omnipresent throughout the pandemic. Finally, we observe that these strategies have not been beneficial to the populist parties, since during the municipal elections the two parties did not manage to take advantage on this health and political sequence.

After Germany introduced the unrestricted submarine warfare at the beginning of February 1917, the United States declared war on 6th April 1917 on Berlin and joined the First World War beside the Allied countries. In response to the declaration of war the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy broke off its diplomatic relations with Washington on the 9th April 1917. The martial law between the two states came into force on the 7th December 1917 with the US's declaration of war. The First World War ended with the victory of the Entente and the peace was dictated by the victors. US President Woodrow Wilson achieved that the victorious powers adopted the League of Nations Covenant in April 1919, which became part of the Paris peace treaties. The US domestic politics was divided over the League of Nations, and as a result of that the US Senate has not ratified neither Germany's nor Austria's and Hungary's peace treaties. The US concluded a separate peace treaty with the losing countries on the basis of the Knox-Porter-resolution. In the history of diplomacy the Knox-Porter-resolution became known as a peace resolution that abolished the state of war between the parties, but the United States has assured all the rights guaranteed by the ceasefire agreement and the peace treaty. The study deals with the preliminaries, the parliamentary debate, details of the ratification, and also describes the most important points of the peace treaty between the United States and Hungary signed on 29th August 1921.