Editing Political realignment (section)

===Europe===

==== United Kingdom ====
* [[1918 United Kingdom general election in Ireland]] — [[Sinn Féin]] victory
** For the previous four decades, Irish politics had been dominated by the moderate [[nationalist]] [[Irish Parliamentary Party]], which sought [[Home Rule]] within the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]]. The 1918 general election was a landslide victory for the [[Irish Republicanism|republican]] [[Sinn Féin]] party, which won nearly 70% of the seats. The new Sinn Féin MPs refused to take their seats in the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]], and instead set up their own republican assembly called [[First Dáil|Dáil Éireann]]. This assembly issued a [[unilateral declaration of independence]], which led to the start of the [[Irish War of Independence|War of Independence]] and eventually led to Irish independence from the United Kingdom in 1922. The Irish Parliamentary Party never recovered from this defeat. The two largest parties in Ireland, [[Fianna Fáil]] and [[Fine Gael]], originated from splits in the Sinn Féin party which won the election of 1918.
* [[1922 United Kingdom general election]] – [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] forms Loyal Opposition
** For over 200 years, the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]]s and [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]s (and their antecedents) had been the UK's two major parties; however, the 1922 general election saw [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] overtake the Liberals in the political landscape. Labour and the Conservatives have been the UK's two major parties since then, and government has alternated only between the two parties ever since.
* [[1979 United Kingdom general election]] – [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] victory; [[Margaret Thatcher]] Prime Minister
** This election brought the Conservatives into government where they remained for eighteen uninterrupted years. Thatcher's policies of [[monetarism]] and [[privatisation]] represented a very different strand of Conservatism to that of previous governments and a bold shift from the [[post-war consensus]] that had existed since 1945. The shockwaves led to a new centrist party being formed by some disenchanted Labour MPs (the [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|SDP]]) in 1981, and a long period in opposition for [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]], during which they abandoned many socialist policies (notably [[Clause IV]] which advocated [[nationalisation|common ownership]]) and were transformed into "[[New Labour]]" before they returned to government in a landslide victory at the 1997 general election under the leadership of [[Tony Blair]]. At a more base level, it led to a shift in voting patterns as the traditional class-based voting started to break down and many of the working classes (in particular skilled workers, homeowners and those in southern England) voted Conservative, whilst at the same time many public sector professionals shifted their support to Labour.
* [[2015 United Kingdom general election]]
**The election saw [[Euroscepticism]] and [[Scottish Nationalism]] emerge as major forces in the UK political discourse, with the [[UK Independence Party]] and [[Scottish National Party]] finishing third in the popular vote and seat count respectively, and the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]], the country's traditional third-party, losing 49 of the 57 seats it had won at the previous general election. The SNP's victories, largely at the expense of the Scottish Labour and Liberal Democrat parties, established them as the dominant party in Scotland's electoral politics, a position they have since maintained. UKIP did not continue to enjoy electoral success (in part because they only won a single seat despite finishing third in the popular vote) and rapidly declined thereafter, but many of their policies were subsequently adopted by the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]], who formed a majority government for the first time since 1992.
* [[2019 United Kingdom general election]] – Conservative victory; [[Boris Johnson]] Prime Minister
** The [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] won a [[landslide victory]] over the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]], winning many seats in the [[Red wall (British politics)|red wall]], including seats that have never voted Conservative for over a century.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Results of the 2019 General Election |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2019/results |access-date=2021-01-02 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> This was repeated again in 2021 local elections for mayoral and council elections, where the Conservatives made large gains in red wall areas but Labour (along with the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]] and the [[Green Party of England and Wales|Green Party]]) made gains in the south of England, with more educated voters.

==== Ireland ====
* [[1932 Irish general election]] – [[Fianna Fáil]] victory; [[Éamon de Valera]] [[President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State|President of the Executive Council]]
** This election resulted in Fianna Fáil, led by Éamon de Valera, becoming the largest party in [[Dáil Éireann]] for the first time. Fianna Fáil remained in power for the next sixteen years and remained the largest party in the Dáil for the next 79 years, serving as the government more than 58 of those years.
* [[2011 Irish general election]]
** [[Fianna Fáil]], who had governed Ireland for most of the post-independence era, were heavily defeated at the election following anger over the Irish financial crisis. For the first time, [[Fine Gael]] overtook Fianna Fáil to win the most votes and seats, while Fianna Fáil fell from first place to third place, in terms of both votes and seats. Fine Gael and the second largest party in the [[Dáil Éireann|Dáil]], the [[Labour Party (Ireland)|Labour Party]] formed a coalition government.
* [[2020 Irish general election]]
**This election resulted in the three largest parties each winning a share of the vote between 20% and 25%, along with the best result for [[Sinn Féin]] since 1923 (37 of the 160 seats) (before the formation of [[Fianna Fáil]]). Along with the two dominant parties [[Fine Gael]] and [[Fianna Fáil]] not having enough seats between them (38 and 35 respectively) to have a majority (at least 80 seats needed out of 160 seats), this election resulted in a break from a two-party dominant legislature, with something closer to a three party result.

==== Denmark ====
*[[1973 Danish general election]] – [[Poul Hartling]] [[Prime Minister of Denmark|Prime Minister]]
** The 1973 Danish general election is referred to as the ''Landslide Election'' ({{langx|da|Jordskredsvalget}}), as five new or previously unrepresented parties won seats, and more than half the members of the parliament were replaced. The [[Social Democrats (Denmark)|Social Democratic Party]], which had led a minority government until this election, lost one-third of their seats. After the election, [[Poul Hartling]], the leader of the liberal [[Venstre (Denmark)|Venstre]], formed the smallest minority government in Danish history with only 22 seats, supported by the [[Progress Party (Denmark)|Progress Party]], the [[Conservative People's Party (Denmark)|Conservative People's Party]], the [[Social Liberal Party (Denmark)|Social Liberal Party]], the [[Centrum-Demokraterne|Centre Democrats]] and the [[Christian People's Party (Denmark)|Christian People's Party]].

==== Spain ====
* [[1982 Spanish general election]] – [[Spanish Socialist Workers' Party]] (PSOE) victory
** This election saw the ruling [[Union of the Democratic Centre (Spain)|Union of the Democratic Centre]] (UCD), the party that had shepherded the country through its [[Spanish transition to democracy|transition to democracy]], nearly wiped out. The UCD fell to only 11 seats, being replaced as the main non-socialist party by the [[People's Alliance (Spain)|People's Alliance]] (AP), and would dissolve itself as a party shortly after the election. The PSOE and AP – later transformed into the [[People's Party (Spain)|People's Party]] (PP) – would go on to dominate Spanish politics for the next three decades. At the same time, the PSOE would establish itself as the [[Dominant-party system|dominant party]] of Spanish politics until the [[1996 Spanish general election|1996 general election]].

==== Italy ====
*[[1994 Italian general election]] – [[Forza Italia]]/[[Pole of Freedoms]] victory
** This election resulted in the near-destruction of the [[Italian People's Party (1994)|Italian People's Party]] (the renamed [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democracy]]), which had been the largest party in the country since 1946. The [[Italian Socialist Party]], a major coalition partner for the last thirty years, was decimated as well. The other parties of the [[Pentapartito]] fell into obscurity.

==== Germany ====
*[[1998 German federal election]] – first federal level [[red-green coalition]] victory
** The election resulted in the first left of center majority in Germany on the federal level ever. The [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|SPD]] came in first place for the first time since 1972 and the second time overall since the war. The election unseated [[Helmut Kohl]] after 16 years in office and having presided over [[German reunification]] and with five factions achieving more than the five percent [[electoral threshold]] of votes, it gave a first indication of the more fractious political landscape of the [[Berlin Republic]]. The [[Free Democratic Party of Germany|FDP]] was removed from government after 29 consecutive years.

==== Lithuania ====
* [[2000 Lithuanian parliamentary election]]
** In these elections both electoral blocs (one led by the [[Communist Party of Lithuania]]/[[Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania]] and another led by the [[Sąjūdis]]/[[Homeland Union]]), which dominated political landscape since 1990, lost out to the populist [[New Union (Social Liberals)|New Union]] and the liberal [[Liberal Union of Lithuania]] parties. Those parties (and their successors, the [[Labour Party (Lithuania)|Labour Party]], [[Liberal Democratic Party (Lithuania)|Liberal Democratic Party]], [[Liberal and Centre Union]], [[Liberals' Movement (Lithuania)|Liberal Movement]]) would become vital players to coalitions' after that. Since then Lithuania saw the rise of many short-lived populist parties.

==== Poland ====
* [[2005 Polish parliamentary election]]
** The elections resulted in a widely expected heavy defeat for the post-Communist [[Democratic Left Alliance (Poland)|Democratic Left Alliance]] government, with conservative parties such as [[Law and Justice]] and [[Civic Platform]] emerging as the dominant parties (and coalitions led by them) in Poland.

==== Estonia ====
* [[2007 Estonian parliamentary election]]
** The elections resulted the [[Estonian Reform Party]] becoming the largest party on national level, the position which is retained ever since.

==== Hungary ====
* [[2010 Hungarian parliamentary election]]
** The election resulted the landslide victory of the [[Fidesz]], gaining a two-thirds majority in parliament, while long-time rival, the [[Hungarian Socialist Party]] (MSZP) had drastically weakened, ending the ''de facto'' two-party system that existed since 1998. Two major parties of the "[[End of communism in Hungary (1989)|regime change]]", the [[Hungarian Democratic Forum|MDF]] and the [[Alliance of Free Democrats|SZDSZ]], lost their all parliamentary seats. Two new parties, [[Jobbik]] and [[Politics Can Be Different|LMP]], emerged. After 2010, under the Fidesz government led by [[Viktor Orbán]], Hungary was reclassified by [[Freedom House]] from a [[democracy]] to a transitional or [[hybrid regime]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hungary |url=https://freedomhouse.org/country/hungary/nations-transit/2020 |date=2020 |website=Freedom House |language=en |access-date=2020-05-06}}</ref>

==== Greece ====
* [[May 2012 Greek legislative election]]
** Greece's two main political parties since the restoration of democracy in 1974, [[New Democracy (Greece)|New Democracy]] and the [[Panhellenic Socialist Movement]] (PASOK), saw a combined fall in support from nearly 80% in 2009 to just one-third for their role in supporting austerity measures to alleviate the [[Greek government-debt crisis]]. At this election, PASOK fell dramatically from first place to third place. This election also saw the shift of left-leaning support to the Eurosceptic [[Coalition of the Radical Left]] (SYRIZA) which has been at the forefront of opposition to the austerity measures and to the neoliberal economic policies of the [[European Union]].

==== France ====
* [[2017 French presidential election]]
** Neither the mainstream left [[Socialist Party (France)|Socialist Party]] nor the mainstream right [[The Republicans (France)|Republicans]] made the second round of voting, the first time since the [[Second World War]] that both of the formerly dominant strands of French politics have not been represented. Instead, the two leading candidates – the eventual winner, [[centrism|centrist]] liberal [[pro-European]] [[Emmanuel Macron]] of [[En Marche]] and [[far-right]] [[Eurosceptic]] [[Marine Le Pen]] of the [[National Front (France)|National Front]] – were identified by many analysts as representing a new [[open–closed political spectrum]] between conservative protectionism and liberal globalism.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/what-pundits-are-saying-about-the-french-election.html|title=What Pundits Are Saying About the Next Phase of the French Election|first=Chas|last=Danner |newspaper=New York Magazine|date=23 April 2017|access-date=24 April 2017}}</ref> A similar realignment happened in the concurrent [[2017 French legislative election|2017 legislative election]].

==== Czech Republic ====
* [[2017 Czech parliamentary election]]
** Populist [[ANO (political party)|ANO]] saw massive gains at the expense of the traditional left-wing parties [[Czech Social Democratic Party|ČSSD]] and [[Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia|KSČM]], replacing the former as the main rival to the [[Civic Democratic Party (Czech Republic)|Civic Democratic Party]] (ODS) which had suffered massive loses in the election before. The election also saw the rise of the [[Czech Pirate Party]] and the right-wing populist [[Freedom and Direct Democracy]], both outperformed most traditional parties but ODS.

==== Slovakia ====
{{multiple images
|image1=2014 Slovak presidential election - Second Round Vote Strength.svg
|image2=2024 Slovak Presidential election 2nd round.svg
|footer=2014 (Left) with [[Andrej Kiska]] winning 80% in the south; 2024 (Right) with Pellegrini winning the south
}}
* [[2024 Slovak presidential election]]
** The [[Upper Hungary#Modern usage|Hungarian-majority communities in the South]] had been stronghold for the liberal-leaning candidates, who ran against the candidates endorsed by the nationalist [[People's Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia|HZDS]], [[Direction – Social Democracy|Smer]] and [[Slovak National Party|SNS]] parties, up to that election. In the run-off, the majority of the Hungarians supported [[Peter Pellegrini]] who was supported by Smer over [[Ivan Korčok]] who was backed by most liberal parties and by sitting president [[Zuzana Čaputová]] who won the Hungarian vote herself in [[2019 Slovak presidential election|2019]]. Pellegrini was also the first nationalist-backed candidate to win since [[2009 Slovak presidential election|2009]].