On 9 May 2016, the Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann announced he would step down. The move follows the earlier victory of Norbert Hofer of the nationalist right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) in the first round of presidential Elections on 24 April 2016, in which the latter secured 36% of the vote, while the candidate of the Chancellor's Social Democrats (SPÖ) won merely about 11% of the vote, finishing 4th as its coalition partner finished 5th. Earlier during the traditional May Day Parade, the Chancellor was booed by his own party members. Faymann had come under increased pressure in his own party ranks, prompting his departure. The Chancellor had been criticized for shifting policies all the time, as he favoured the open approach to refugees before by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, while opposing it and enforcing Austria's borders in recent times, and putting a cap on the amount of refugees it would take in.

After surviving one of the largest national debt crises that Europe had seen since before the second world war, it had seemed that Greece’s economy was once again on its feet. The country that last year came close to exiting the Eurozone has however once again approached this brink. In advance of tortuous bailout negotiations on the 9th of May during a Eurozone finance Ministers meeting, Prime Minister Tsipras has forced tough and controversial reform bills, worth of €5.4bn in budget savings, through Parliament with the backing of 153 (Syriza party) members of the 300 seat house. Tsipras convinced his party Syriza that the shrinking of Greece’s pension system would be crucial for preventing "the system collapsing in a few years".

The 32nd Dáil was elected at the 2016 general election. The first time it met on 10 March 2016, the Dáil failed to elect a Taoiseach, and Enda Kenny formally resigned, although he continued his duties in a caretaker capacity waiting for the appointment of the 30th Government of Ireland. After two further failed attempts to choose a Taoiseach, Enda Kenny was eventually elected at the fourth time on the Friday, 6 May 2016 and his cabinet was announced later that day. This is the first case Ireland saw of an outgoing Fine Gael Taoiseach being re-elected. Mr Kenny immediatly proceeded to a reshuffle of his ministerial team and appointed a number of TDs as Ministers for the first time in his Fine Gael-Independent minority government Cabinet. He rewarded the support received from Independent TDs in securing him a second term as Taoiseach, the first time a Fine Gael leader has done so, by appointing three of his independent supporters to senior roles and one junior ministry. 

On the 5th of May, Labour’s candidate Sadiq Khan was elected mayor of London. After what can be described as one of the most resentful and agressive electoral contests from recent years in Britain, Khan decisively won against his Conservative opponent Zac Goldsmith. Even before Khan’s formal victory was announced,  many people criticised Goldsmith for his campaign. Indeed, his tactics involved trying to associate Khan with extremism by creating an amalgam with the Islamists he had worked with in the past. Khan, Muslim son of an immigrant bus driver has denounced Islamist extremism many times, and he praised London in his victory speech for resisting Goldsmith’s pessimism and alarmism. 

On Tuesday 26 April, it has become clear new parliamentary elections will be held, following the decision of King Felipe VI to not nominate a potential Prime Minister. The move comes after several failed attempts to form a coalition by Spain's political parties. The formation of a coalition government has been attempted since the historical parliamentary elections of 20 December last year, during which the two-party system was broken, as new political parties such as the left-wing populist Podemos had entered the stage, as well as the liberal Ciudadanos. New elections will most likely be organized now on 26 June 2016.

Despite the fact the elections were scheduled originally to 2018, a general election took place on 24 April 2016. Though no suspicion was raised in regards to a crisis or instability of the Parliament, the Prime Minister Aleksander Vučić initiated elections. It was not the first time elections were held ahead of time; on average, Serbian citizens are asked to vote in the parliamentary elections once every 1.6 years. The incumbent pro-EU party maintained its dominant position and left pro-Russian party following it. Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party won 48% of the votes, the Socialist coalition SPS-JS-ZS-KP, including Tito’s grandson Josip Broz, ranked second with 11%, and the Serbian Radical Party gained 8% of the votes. Four other parties passed the threshold of 5%, and the new government is scheduled to be formed by early June this year.