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2020 in politics

These are some of the notable events relating to politics in 2020.

January

February

March

  • March 1 – The prime-minister-designate of Iraq, Mohammed Allawi withdrew from his run for the post, accusing political parties of obstructing him, creating a domestic crisis and also a possible power vacuum. This decision occurred hours after the Iraqi parliament declined for the second time in a week to approve his cabinet.
  • March 2
  • The U.N. envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salamé, 69, steps down because of health concerns. Peace efforts seem further off than ever.
  • 2020 Israeli legislative election.
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin submits changes to enshrine God and heterosexuality in the constitution.
  • March 6 – Thousands march in Brussels for the European Climate Strike as the warmest winter on record comes to a close.
  • March 7 – The Saudi government arrests three members of the royal family in a move to consolidate Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's power.
  • March 8 – Women's marches
  • Pakistan – Aurat March ("Women's March") in Pakistan.
  • Mexico – 100,000 women march in Mexico City, Monterrey, and other cities in Mexico.
  • Chile – Between 190,000 and 300,000 people march in Santiago, Chile and 800,000 across the country.
  • Other countries – Three masked men attack demonstrators in Kyrgyzstan. Hundreds protest in the Philippines. Marches in several countries are canceled or have lower attendance than in 2019 due to COVID-19.
  • March 9 – Women strike across the country, demanding an end to violence against women in Mexico. The Chamber of Deputies and banks are forced to close.
  • March 11 – Lawmakers in Russia approve legal changes that will allow President Vladimir Putin to remain in office until 2036. The changes still have to be approved the Constitutional Court and in a nation-wide referendum scheduled for April.
  • March 15
  • Voters in France participate in local elections despite concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. A second round will be held on March 22.
  • Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz is asked by Israel's president to form a government.
  • Pro-government protesters march across Brazil, ignoring social distancing recommendations.
  • Saudi authorities detain 298 government employees, including members of the military, accusing them of abuse of power, bribery, money laundering, and corruption. 379 million riyals ($101 million) are involved.
  • Anti-immigrant protests turn violent in Chios and Lesbos, Greece.
  • King Felipe VI of Spain renounces the inheritance from his father, King Emerit Juan Carlos I, who is accused of receiving €88 million ($100 million) in Saudi Arabian kickbacks. King Felipe will also take away Juan Carlos's pension.
  • March 16 – Governments across Latin America impose strict measures to control the coronavirus.
  • Peru puts military personnel on the streets, blocking major roads and suspending freedom of assembly.
  • Costa Rica closes its borders.
  • Colombia closes its maritime, river, and land borders but shares information with Venezuela, where there are 33 cases of coronavirus.
  • In Chile, at least six passengers from the cruise ship are treated in hospitals in Patagonia after they tested positive for coronavirus.
  • Paraguay restricts crowds and enforces an 8 p.m. curfew.
  • President Lenin Moreno of Ecuador plans to begin a curfew on March 17.
  • Panama reports 69 cases of coronavirus.
  • March 16
  • U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tells his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in a phone call to request Chinese officials to stop using official media channels to blame the United States for the coronavirus while Yang tells Pompeo to request American officials to stop slandering China and its anti-epidemic efforts. The call comes on the day that the World Health Organization says more coronavirus cases and deaths have been reported in the rest of the world than in China.
  • French President Emmanuel Macron announces the banning of social gatherings and the postponement of the second round of the 2020 French municipal elections.
  • March 17
  • Heavy fighting kills 38 in central Yemen.
  • The Niger Armed Forces say they have killed 50 members of Boko Haram in Toumour.
  • March 20
  • India hangs four men convicted of a violent gang rape in 2012.
  • Luis Almagro is reelected Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS).
  • The United States continues its high-pressure sanctions against Iran despite the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran; the sanctions do not prohibit humanitarian aid.
  • March 21 – North Korea test-fires two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.
  • March 24 – A diplomatic dispute between China and Brazil ends when the former offers to help Brazil cope with the coronavirus pandemic. Brazil reports 1,891 cases and 34 deaths; São Paulo is on lockdown.
  • March 25 – The Group of Seven cannot agree on a joint statement about the coronavirus pandemic because the United States Secretary of State insists on referring to it as the “Wuhan virus”. At a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, France proposes "general and immediate cessation of hostilities in all countries," including a 30-day pause in conflicts, to allow coronavirus-related supplies to flow. The United States insists that the resolution include a reference to the Wuhan, China, origin of the coronavirus. Russia insists that ambassadors vote in person.
  • March 27
  • Prime Minister Boris Johnson tests positive for COVID-19, and will self-isolate in 10 Downing Street.
  • Health Secretary for the United Kingdom, Matt Hancock tests positive for COVID-19 and reports that he is remote working and self-isolating.
  • Seven ships from the Russian Navy are monitored by the British Royal Navy in the English Channel and the North Sea.
  • Saudi Arabia says it intercepted two ballistic missiles in an attack that Yemen's Houthi launched towards Riyadh and areas near the Yemeni border. The attacks came days after Yemen's warring parties welcomed a U.N. call for a truce to fight the COVID-19 outbreak.
  • Monuments across the world turn off their lights at 8:30 p.m. in honor of Earth Hour.
  • March 30 – The National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels in Colombia have declared a unilateral ceasefire for a month starting April 1. There are 700 infections and 10 deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia.

April

  • April 4
  • Vietnam protests after a Chinese maritime surveillance vessel rammed a fishing boat near the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea (East Sea).
  • Sir Keir Starmer is confirmed as the new leader of the Labour Party, succeeding Jeremy Corbyn.
  • April 5
  • Queen Elizabeth II makes a rare broadcast to the UK and the wider Commonwealth, something she has done on only four previous occasions. In the address she thanks people for following the government's social distancing rules and pays tribute to key workers, and says the UK "will succeed" in its fight against coronavirus but may have "more still to endure".
  • Prime Minister Boris Johnson is admitted to hospital for tests after testing positive for coronavirus ten days earlier.
  • April 6 – Prime Minister Boris Johnson is taken into intensive care after being admitted to hospital for coronavirus the day before. It is announced that First Secretary of State Dominic Raab will deputise for him.
  • April 9 – Prime Minister Boris Johnson is moved out of intensive care, but remains in hospital.
  • April 12
  • Bangladhesh executes Abdul Majed for the murder of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founder of the country.
  • 2020 North Macedonian parliamentary election.
  • Three civilians are killed in India after fighting between India and Pakistan along the border of Kashmir.
  • COVID-19 pandemic – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan turns down an offer from Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu to resign after a stay-at-home order led to panic buying.
  • Prime Minister Boris Johnson is discharged from the hospital after being treated for coronavirus and will continue his recovery at Chequers.
  • April 15 – 2020 South Korean legislative election is held despite the pandemic. President Moon Jae-in's Democratic Party wins 163 of 300 seats in parliament. Its satellite party, the Platform Party, is expected to win 17 seats for a combined total of 180. The main conservative party of the United Future Party and its satellite party, the Future Korea Party, are expected to take 103 seats.
  • April 18 – Denmark and Poland announce they will not give stimulus money to businesses registered in tax havens.
  • April 19 – Vietnam protests China's establishment of administrative units in the South China Sea. Malaysia also contests China's more aggressive moves.
  • April 20
  • Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) and Benny Gantz (Blue and White) agree to the formation of a national emergency government in Israel.
  • For the second time in four days, a Russian Sukhoi Su-35 intercepts a U.S. Navy aircraft in the eastern Mediterranean. A similar incident happened on June 8.
  • April 22
  • United Nations secretary-general António Guterres says the impact of COVID-19 is "immediate and dreadful" but there is "another, even deeper emergency: the planet's unfolding environmental crisis."
  • After U.S. President Trump threatened to shoot Iranian patrol boats that get close to U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf, Tehran says it will destroy "any American terrorist force" if its security is threatened.
  • The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launches its first satellite.
  • April 24
  • COVID-19 pandemic: France and Holland pledge almost $10 billion to bail out their national airlines (€7 billion for Air France between €2 and €4 billion for KLM).
  • China closes its border with Myanmar after fighting in Jiegao, Yunnan. Artillery fire and bullets destroy a gas station in China, but there are no reports of injuries in either country.
  • April 26
  • The Southern Transitional Council (SCT) in Yemen declares self-governance. The government said local and security authorities in the provinces of Hadramawt, Abyan, Shabwa, al-Mahra, and the island of Socotra dismissed the move as a “clear and definite coup."
  • Saudi Arabia abolishes capital punishment for minors, except for terrorism cases. Floggings are also banned.
  • Referendum on new constitution in Chile.
  • April 27 – Boris Johnson returns to work after three weeks of illness. In his first speech outside 10 Downing Street since recovering from coronavirus, he urges the public not to lose patience with the lockdown, warning that the UK is at the moment of "maximum risk".
  • April 28
  • A bombing believed to have been carried out by Kurdish fighters in Turkish-controlled Afrin, Syria kills at least 20 civilians.
  • Libyan General Khalifa Haftar is accused of carrying out a coup d'état as he puts the eastern part of the country under direct military rule.
  • Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro appoints key allies to head the Justice Ministry and Federal Police after the Supreme Federal Court authorized an investigation into allegations that Bolsonaro had tried to interfere illegally with the police agency.

May

  • May 1
  • North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un inaugurates a fertilizer factory, dispelling rumors of his death after twenty days when he was not seen in public.
  • Fifty-seven people are arrested in a May Day demonstration in Santiago de Chile. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, gatherings of more than fifty people are prohibited. Police say one arrested man was supposed to be in quarantine until May 9.
  • Canada bans 1,500 kinds of assault weapons.
  • May 6 – Congressman Ken Buck (R-CO) is caught on tape allegedly pressuring a district GOP party chair to sign a false affidavit certifying the results of that district assembly's vote on the nomination of candidates for a Republican primary to replace its term-limited state senator.
  • May 10 – 2020 Polish presidential election. The president is expected to win in a landslide as the opposition calls for postponement. It was announced on May 6 that the election will be postponed indefinitely.
  • May 12 – A bomb explosion attributed to the Islamic State of Afghanistan kills 24 at a funeral in Nangarhar Province, eastern Afghanistan. Unknown attackers killed 24 and injured 16 others, including new-born babies, mothers, and nurses at a maternity hospital in Kabul.
  • May 16
  • Thousands in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, many wearing masks, demonstrate against a Roam Catholic Mass for Croatia's Nazi-allied soldiers and civilians killed by partisan forces at the end of World War II.
  • Protests against Stay-at-home orders result in arrests in Warsaw and London.
  • Satellite pictures show 200 buildings burning in a village in Let Kar, Myanmar. Villagers say the fires were set by government soldiers, but the government says guerrillas from the Arakan Army are responsible.
  • May 17 – Dominican Republic presidential election
  • May 20 – 2020 Burundian presidential election Evariste Ndayishimiye, 52, wins with 69% of the vote and will not face a second-round of voting. President Pierre Nkurunziza will step down and be granted the title ″Supreme Guide.″
  • May 22 – May 2020 New Zealand National Party leadership election. Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye won.
  • May 24 – China clamps down on dissidents in Hong Kong; authorities warn that U.S. backing of dissidents could set off a new Cold War.
  • May 26 – The U.S. (AFRICOM) says Russia has sent fighter jets to Tripoli to support the mercenaries trying to topple the government of Libya. Russia says this is ″disinformation.″
  • May 31
  • Opposition leader Mikola Statkevich is arrested in a protest in Minsk, Belarus. 50 opposition activists have been arrested in the last few days, including blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, who was arrested in Grodno.
  • People in cities around the world including London, Berlin, and Rio march against police brutality and the murder of George Floyd.
  • May – COVID-19 pandemic: Online criticism of Italy's handling of the pandemic is censored by World Health Organization (WHO) officials. Similar criticism of other large donars, including China and the United Kingdom, is similarly muted.

June

July

  • July 1 – 2020 Russian constitutional referendum: President Vladimir Putin is allowed to extend his presidency to 2036.
  • July 5 – 2020 Croatian parliamentary election The conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) wins 66 of 151 seats in parliament.
  • July 9
  • Agnès Callamard, an independent U.N. human rights expert, issues a report insisting an American drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani in January was a “watershed” event in the use of drones and amounted to a violation of international law.
  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signs a decree handing over Hagia Sophia to Turkey's Religious Affairs Presidency, changing its status from a museum to a mosque.
  • July 10
  • 2020 Singaporean general election: The ruling People's Action Party (PAP) maintained its power, winning 83 of 93 seats in parliament.
  • The body of Seoul mayor Park Won-soon is found on a mountainside. Park was seen as a reformer but had recently been accused of sexual assault.
  • July 11
  • Thousands protest the arrest of Khabarovsk Governor Sergei Furgal on murder charges in eastern Russia.
  • Thousands protest against corruption by the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.
  • COVID-19 pandemic
  • Thousands protest Israel's economic response to the pandemic.
  • Thousands of protesters, many masked, march for the fifth night in a row to demand the resignation of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. The protests are mostly against the president's handling of the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia, where 18,073 cases and 382 deaths have been confirmed.
  • July 12
  • 500,000 voters participate in primary elections for pro-democracy candidates in Hong Kong, in what organizers say is a vote against the national security law.
  • Second round of Polish presidential election.
  • Thousands of protesters march in Kinshasa, Bukavu, and Kananga; Democratic Republic of the Congo, against the selection of a new election chief aligned with former president Joseph Kabila. Five people were killed in similar protests on July 8.

August

  • August 5 - The Lebanese government declares a two-week State of Emergency, following the Beirut explosion.
  • August 6
  • Canadian military magazine Kanwa Asian Defence publishes photos that show China sending hundreds of Type 05 amphibious fighting vehicles to Taiwan Strait as tensions rise.
  • Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry says that his country and Greece have signed an agreement designating an exclusive economic zone in the eastern Mediterranean between the two countries, effectively nullifying an accord between Turkey and the internationally recognized government of Libya.
  • The Indian Defence Ministry warns that its conflict with China is bound to be long.
  • Protesters in Beirut, Lebanon, ask visiting French President Emmanuel Macron to intervene to help eradicate the corruption that led to the August 4 explosion that killed 157 and injured at least 5,000.
  • August 7
  • Russia warns that any incoming ballistic missile will be treated as if it were nuclear and would spark a nuclear response.
  • The United States Department of the Treasury sanctions eleven top officials in Hong Kong and China, including chief executive Carrie Lam. The move comes only hours after Donald Trump banned social media platforms TikTok and WeChat.
  • August 8
  • Police in Beirut, Lebanon, reportedly react to protesters with tear gas and live ammunition after the August 4 explosion, sending 55 people to local hospitals as 117 others are treated at the scene.
  • 15,000 protesters march against corruption in downtown Jerusalem, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
  • August 9 – 2020 Belarusian presidential election. Violent protests and allegations of electoral fraud break out after incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko claims a landslide victory over former teacher Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
  • August 10
  • 2020 Trinidad and Tobago general election: Preliminary results give 22 seats to Prime Minister Keith Rowley's People's National Movement (PNM) and 19 seats to the opposition United National Congress (UNC).
  • Hong Kong billionaire activist and newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai is arrested under security law.
  • Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab and his cabinet resign.
  • August 12 – Mexico arrests Jesús Orta and eighteen other former top police officials in a crackdown on corruption.
  • August 13 – Donald Trump says the United Arab Emirates and Israel have agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations.
  • August 16
  • 2020 Belarusian protests: Despite week-long protests against vote fraud in Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko rejects calls for new elections.
  • Lebanese President Michel Aoun says it would be "Impossible" for him to resign following the explosion that killed 170 and left hundreds of thousands homeless.
  • August 18 – Russian media report that Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko says he will allow new elections after the country adopts a new constitution. He had previously said that he would have to be killed before there could be new elections.
  • August 20 – Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz resigns in the midst of the crisis in Belarus. This is the second cabinet resignation in a week, as Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski left amid increased COVID-19 infection rates.
  • August 21
  • 2020 Khabarovsk Krai protests: 1,500 people in Khabarovsk, Khabarovsk Krai, Russia conduct their seventh march against the Moscow government. They are protesting against the arrest of Governor Sergei Furgal and in support of Alexei Navalny and dissidents in Belarus. Navalny, a critic of the Kremlin, was taken to a German hospital after a suspected poisoning on August 19.
  • Iran agrees to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at nuclear sites in Marivan and Amand, Qazvin after the United States calls for reimposition of sanctions.
  • August 25 – The United Nations Security Council rejects an effort by the United States to “snap back” sanctions on Iran.
  • August 30 – 2020 Montenegrin parliamentary election and local elections.

September

  • September 4 – Serbia and Kosovo normalize economic relations. Kosovo also establishes diplomatic relations with Israel, and both countries open embassies in Jerusalem.
  • September 6
  • Hong Kong protests: Police arrest 290 people in protests.
  • Belarusian protests: A record 100,000 march on the Palace of Independence; 72 are arrested and students strike.
  • September 7 – Two deserters from the Myanmar Army testify on video that they were ordered to commit rape, murder, and other atrocities against Rohingya people, mostly Muslims.
  • September 9
  • Several thousand protest against proposed electrical power price increases in North Macedonia.
  • A fire at a refugee camp in Greece leaves 13,000 homeless.
  • Iraq War: The United States Army announces a reduction of 5,200 troops in Iraq.
  • September 11
  • The DoD cancels a Navy low-level flyover of New York City deemed "inappropriate."
  • Israel and Bahrain agree to establish diplomatic relations.
  • September 12
  • The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) calls for dialogue to prevent a conflict in the East China Sea.
  • Representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban meet in Qatar to begin peace talks.
  • MV Wakashio oil spill: Thousands march in Port Louis to protest the government's handling of the July oil spill in Mauritius.
  • Mauricio Claver-Carone becomes the first citizen of the U.S. to lead the Inter-American Development Bank.
  • September 13 – Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen: Fighting intensifies in Yemen after the COVID-19 truce.
  • September 21 – More than 160 world leaders ask the UK to release Julian Assange and not extradite him to the United States.
  • September 27 – Ethnic fighting breaks out into the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war between Azerbaijan and Armemia.

October

November

December

Scheduled events

History by world issue

Note: This section is provided for issue-based overviews in narrative format, if desired.

Climate change

In December 2019, the World Meteorological Organization released its annual climate report revealing that climate impacts are worsening. They found the global sea temperatures are rising as well as land temperatures worldwide. 2019 is the last year in a decade that is the warmest on record.

Global carbon emissions hit a record high in 2019, even though the rate of increase slowed somewhat, according to a report from Global Carbon Project. The economic slowdown and the closure of factories related to the coronavirus pandemic brought a 6% decrease in emissions in February and March 2020.

BlackRock global money management firm Chief Executive Larry Fink said in January 2020 that climate change "has become a defining factor in companies' long-term prospects... and I believe we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance."

Coronavirus pandemic

Legislatures close, cities, regions, and entire countries are locked down, and borders close across the world in response to the pandemic. Elections are postponed. Governments rush to find funding to combat the virus, provide medical supplies and services, and to mitigate the economic slowdown. The virus, which began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11. The epicenter of the pandemic shifted from East Asia at the beginning of the year to Europe in March and April, then to the United States and Latin America in May and June. As of June 7, there have been over 7,000,000 confirmed cases and 400,000 deaths worldwide, with about 30% of the cases in the United States.

After accusing the WHO of bias towards China, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to permanently cut off funding for the organization. Many blame Trump himself for the high number of cases in the United States.

Police brutality and racism

Hundreds of thousands of people protest in the United States and around the world against the May 26 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Many of the protests emphasize local cases of police brutality and racism.

See also

Specific situations

Countries and regions

Categories

—Wikiproject Politics

External links

Articles on specific world issues

US-Iran conflict

References