The Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness (Sinn Fein) has resigned. Under power-sharing procedures developed under the Good Friday agreement in 1997, First Minister Arlene Foster (Democratic Unionist Party) can no longer continue in her role with Mr McGuinness. This mean the government in the Northern Irish Assembly has effectively collapsed, bringing elections in the next few months. The elections will be fought on the backdrop of a scandal that has reportedly cost taxpayers £400 million, which has been blamed on Ms Foster.

Macedonian's nationalist VMRO-DPMNE led by ex-Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has won 51 of 120 seats in parliament in Sunday's election. The opposition Social Democrats won 49 seats in a tightly fought affair. The State Election Commission said the conservative coalition led by Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE (photo) won 38.06 percent of the vote, slightly ahead of the left-leaning coalition, headed by opposition leader Zoran Zaev's Social Democrats, which took 36.69 percent.

The constitutional referendum to reform the composition and power for the Parliament of Italy was defeated, with the No camp collecting 59.1% of the votes cast. This is alongside a relatively high turnout of 65.5%. The Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi (of the centre-left Democratic Party) campaigned on a promise to resign if the country rejected his constitutional amendment. Italy’s largest ceremonial head of state, President Sergio Mattarella, told the prime minister to stay on until parliament had approved the 2017 budget. This could be achieved within the next week, after which, the president said, Renzi would be free to tender his resignation.

The candidate for the far right, Norbert hofer of the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPO), has lost a fierce battle to become president of Austria to the former leader of the Greens and now independent candidate Alexander Van der Bellen. The first Presidential elections were held in April, with second round run off in May. The results of the second vote were annulled and a re-vote took place in early December.

In the second round, Igor Dodan has won the first direct presidential elections with 52.1% of the vote, defeating Maria Sandu of the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS). Dodon was the leader of the Socialist Party (PSRM), but due to the structure of Moldovan constitutional law has had to resign the position upon becoming President-elect. He is the first President in 20 years to be directly elected rather than being chosen by parliament, leading some observers to speculate that the office is going to gain authority under his tenure.

A memo about the Brexit was leaked to the BBC and The Times, which confirms that ``No common strategy has emerged´´ between the departments, despite intensive discussions. The internal memo titled ``Brexit update´´ from the cabinet has been dated 7 November 2016 and was written by a not-known government adviser in a private initiative. Throughout the leaked document it becomes evident that every department has its own plan for the Brexit and there is no common approach.