This entry chronicles a national change of government. It includes election results for Australia's national elections and two subnational elections. It supplies data on the new Cabinet, notes changes in parliamentary composition (sex and party) and party leadership changes. It notes changes to Australia's head of state and significant changes to Australia's institutional culture (viz., the ongoing implementation of measures to make Parliament a safer and more family-friendly workplace and the establishment of a new anti-corruption commission). The entry discusses the decline of the Coalition and the changing balance of power within the Australian Parliament. Policy issues discussed include Labor's pledge to hold a referendum on an Indigenous Voice, the inflation and energy crises, COVID-19, changes to workplace safety laws and Australia's relationship with the Pacific and China.

Austrian politics in 2022 was affected by high levels of public dissatisfaction. The year was dominated by pandemic fatigue, rising inflation and the reconditioning of the so-called Austrian People's Party/Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP) corruption-affaire. Consequently, the national government parties of the Christian-Democratic ÖVP and the Greens/Die Grünen–Die Grüne Alternative (GRÜNE) further lost at the polls, while the main opposition parties—especially the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party/Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs—gained public support. The presidential election in October confirmed a second term for the sitting President, Alexander Van der Bellen. The regional election in Tyrol brought severe losses for the regional (and national) governing parties, ÖVP and Greens. Despite its losses, the ÖVP secured its position in regional government and formed a coalition with the Austrian Social Democratic Party/Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs after the election in Tyrol.

The De Croo I Cabinet had to deal in 2022 with major issues related to international (war in Ukraine), European (energy supply) and national (inflation, social crisis and community problems) issues events. Given the coalition of parties that support the government, the policies developed by the government have sometimes taken a long time to be negotiated, decided, and implemented. In addition, the composition of the government had to be changed for various reasons, among others the vigorous opposition of the two main parties in Parliament (VB—Vlaams Belang—and N-VA—Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie).

The data entry reviews the major political developments in Bulgaria in 2022, including the governmental crisis of May–June 2022, the early elections in October 2022, the failure to form a new Cabinet in the last months of 2022, and the continuing de facto rule of President Radev. It also discusses the main issues in Bulgarian politics, including the position of GERB (i.e., Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) in the political process, the Bulgarian ambivalent position on the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the impact of the war on energy prices and general economic development in the country.

There was no federal election in Canada in 2022, but the official opposition Conservatives ousted their leader and elected a new one. Additionally, the Liberals and New Democrats signed a Supply and Confidence Agreement that would protect the minority Liberal government from parliamentary defeat until 2025. Despite these significant developments, the major event was a convoy that descended on Ottawa to protest policies related to the COVID-19 pandemic and was only removed after substantial police action and the declaration of the Emergencies Act.

In 2022, Croatia experienced stability despite further parliamentary fragmentation. The centre-right minority Cabinet endured, albeit with several Cabinet reshuffles. Main opposition parliamentary parties on the left and the right experienced splits, with new parties emerging. There were no elections in 2022 and no referenda. Opposition initiatives in the Parliament were not successful. The government finalized its preparations for the adoption of the Euro and country's accession to the Schengen area.

In 2022, attempts to overcome the division of the island remained dormant. Domestically, in the Greek Cypriot-dominated Republic of Cyprus, the year was marked by the electoral campaign for the presidential elections scheduled for February 2023. In the northern part of the island, the de-facto state Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus experienced multiple government formations and breakdowns in the wake of increasing interventions in domestic affairs by the Turkish government.

The war in Ukraine dominated Czech politics in 2022. The Cabinet of Petr Fiala militarily and politically supported the Ukrainian defence efforts against the Russian adversary. Fiala visited Ukraine twice in 2022 (being the first Western leader, along with the Slovenian and Polish prime ministers, to meet with Zelensky in Kyiv on 15 March). Senate and local elections occurred in the autumn. Fiala's party (Civic Democratic Party, ODS) had the strongest showing in the Senate election, while the ANO party of the previous Prime Minister Andrej Babiš suffered a defeat. Babiš was acquitted in a long-lasting subsidy fraud case and began campaigning for the January 2023 presidential election. Domestically, the double-digit inflation, increasing public debt and energy supply routes were the crucial issues that led to several big anti-government protests. The Czech Republic presided over the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2022.

COVID-19 restrictions were lifted on 1 February but new challenges arose with the Russian invasion of Ukraine later that month, which resulted in a referendum on 1 June on the abolition of Denmark's EU defence opt-out. The report from the Mink Commission resulted in a general election on 1 November. Two new parties, created by former prominent Liberals, made it into the top 5 at the 2022 election. One of these, the Moderates, even made it into government together with the Social Democrats and Liberals, forming a truly new type of coalition government in Denmark.

The Russian-Ukrainian war, which started in February 2022, changed Estonian domestic politics considerably. The Reform Party, which had failed to manage domestic crises at the end of 2021, was able to prove itself in foreign politics, and its support skyrocketed. Its coalition partner at the start of the war, the Centre Party, however, lost support, which eventually led to the break-up of the government coalition in the middle of the year. A new government was formed by the Reform Party, Fatherland and the Social Democratic Party, which was limited in its ambitions and cautious of its political choices as elections were approaching in March 2023.

In 2022, Finland applied for NATO membership as a reaction to Russia's attack on Ukraine with full parliamentary support. The Marin government pushed through reforms, which in the autumn got contested. Frictions emerged within the government in anticipation of the general election in 2023. In January 2022, the first regional elections were held, with victory to the opposition party National Coalition. One of the traditional ruling parties, Centre, demonstrated its appeal, despite falling support nationwide. PM Sanna Marin's Social Democrats became second. Finland received much attention abroad due to the war and NATO membership application, but PM Marin's party videos also made headlines worldwide. In Finnish politics and society, attention was shifted overnight from the COVID-19 pandemic to the war in Ukraine and what the effects of the drastically changing relations to the neighbouring Russia would be.

As an election year for President Macron and his majority, 2022 proved itself a challenge. President Macron did win his run-off against Le Pen, once again, but the key result of the legislative elections was the formation of a minority government. LREM (La République En Marche!), relabeled since as Revival, did not secure a majority in the National Assembly and was unable to form a stable coalition with any significant partner in the context of continuing polarization of the party system. The year 2022 brought unexpected developments on the left, with a new coalition called Nupes (New Popular Green and Social Union, Nouvelle Union Populaire Ecologique et Sociale) and bringing together all major left-wing parties under the leadership of Mélenchon and LFI (La France Insoumise). Meanwhile, the two formerly dominant parties since the 1980s, the Socialist Party and the Republicans, have almost vanished from the scene.

Against the background of the Russian war on Ukraine, the new traffic light coalition of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens, and the Free Democrats (FDP) led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) called a new era (Zeitenwende) in German foreign and security policy. The discussions on military support for Ukraine significantly shaped public debate in Germany in 2022. While the Left Party and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) rejected arms deliveries, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) criticized the federal government for hesitating. In addition to the German presidential election that saw the re-election of Frank-Walter Steinmeier, there were four regional elections in Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Lower Saxony.

The year 2022 was marked by the onset of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In February, the Greek government was quick to respond in support of the Ukrainian people defending their homeland. The city of Mariupol, home to a significant Greek diasporic community, was at the epicenter of the public's attention. Energy prices skyrocketed because of the war. Inflation, which was already at 5 per cent—the highest point in a decade—by the end of 2021, continued to soar reaching 12 per cent in the summer and an overall 7.2 per cent by the end of the year. Gross domestic product per capita increased at a faster rate than expected, but the trade deficit of the country also increased dramatically. The government continued to deal with the devastating impact of the pandemic. In May, Prime Minister (PM) Mitsotakis became the first Greek head of government to address a joint session of the US Congress at a time when Greek–Turkish relations deteriorated. In July, a wiretapping scandal targeting one of the opposition leaders, but also journalists, shook the political system and unseated the head of the National Intelligence Service, as well as the PM's general secretary, who was overseeing the agency. In December, Member of the European Parliament Eva Kaili was arrested and jailed in a Belgian prison as part of the so-called Qatargate scandal. The ruling party, New Democracy, remained hegemonic. The main opposition party, the Coalition of the Radical Left, SYRIZA, continued to struggle. Finally, a staggering number of femicides occurred in 2022, 16 in total.

This report on Hungarian politics in 2022 aims at explaining how the incumbent Fidesz-KDNP (Fidesz-Keresztény Demokrata Néppárt) government managed to uphold its dominance in Hungarian politics. Through nominating and electing the new president of Hungary, winning the parliamentary elections along with presenting a referendum reflecting the Fidesz political agenda, the government successfully maintained its public support in 2022 despite external challenges such as the war on Ukraine or the ongoing fraud feud with the European Union (EU) and internal conflicts resulting from economic pressures.

In 2022, Icelandic politics returned to normal. In the two previous years, Covid-19 had dominated the political agenda—ideology and politics as normal were largely absent. In the 2021 parliamentary elections, the three-way coalition of the Left Greens, Independence Party, and Progressive Party (PP) kept its majority in Althingi—the first majority government to do so since the bank crash of 2008. This victory was clearly the result of a successful fight against the epidemic, and the government parties decided to continue their coalition cooperation. In 2022, support for the government and for the government parties went down, just as had been the case for all governments since the financial crisis of 2008. One of the opposition parties, the Social Democratic Alliance, made huge gains in the opinion polls—under a new leadership. Increasing ideological tensions could be observed within the government coalition, which includes both the parliamentary party furthest to the left and furthest to the right.

Ireland in 2022 saw the return of normal politics after two years of the pandemic. The ebbing of the health crisis saw the emergence or re-emergence of new crises. The invasion of Ukraine had an impact on Irish politics as there was a surge of refugees accommodated in Ireland and an increase in inflation. The government introduced measures to mitigate the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, but the growing population and a lag in construction activity caused the housing crisis to worsen. None of what the government sought to do was able to mitigate these problems in the short to medium term at least. By the end of the year, the pressure the number of refugees had put on housing services led to anti-refugee protests, hitherto unknown in Ireland. Ireland also saw a new Taoiseach (Prime Minister), though the government remained substantively the same following the planned rotation of the head of government.

The year 2022 marked the year of yet another parliamentary election, the fifth in three years, resulting, after just one and a half years, in the return of Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister and the formation of a right-wing government. All along 2022, the centre-left coalition government was struggling to hold its narrow majority in the Knesset, and in June, it had lost its majority completely, having only 59 members. This forced the Prime Minister, Bennet, together with Lapid, the alternate Prime Minister, to call for a new election, which was held on 1 November. The results of the election were decisive and an all-right-wing coalition was formed with a majority of 64 seats in the Knesset. The coalition members included the leading party, Likud, along with the orthodox religious parties and the ultra-right-wing religious parties. On the left wing, two of the parties, Meretz and Balad, did not pass the electoral threshold.

The year 2022 was (again) a year of intense political change in Italy. The President of the Republic was (re)elected in January, Prime Minister Mario Draghi resigned in July, and new elections were held in September, amidst energy and economic crises, growing inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The electoral victory of the centre-right coalition, and in particular the success of Brothers of Italy, not only marked the rise to power of a prominent European far-right party but also led to the nomination of the first female Prime Minister of the Italian Republic. The fall of Draghi's government and the formation of the first Meloni Cabinet raised questions about Italy's relationship with EU institutions, NATO and the transatlantic partnership.