This event will include interventions by Rafael Bustos, a professor of International Relations at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid and scientific director of the Political and Electoral Observatory of the Arab and Muslim World (UCM-OPEMAM); Miguel Hernando de Larramendi, a professor of Contemporary Arab World History and the director of the Study Group on Arab and Muslim Societies at the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM-GRESAM); and Carmen Rodríguez, a professor of Turkish Politics and Society at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and a member researcher of the Workshop of International Studies of the Mediterranean (UAM-TEIM). This round table discussion will be moderated by Carla Fibla, a journalist who specializes in the Arab world and the founder of the web portal Aish. It will be introduced by Karim Hauser, who is responsible for Casa Árabe’s Governance Area.

On October 26, 2014, legislative elections were held in Tunisia,. They turned out to be an exercise in participation and pluralism that went off without incident. On November 29, the first round of the presidential elections took place, as well, all in accordance with the Law. According to analysts, these processes constitute a good benchmark that can be used to measure the slow but steady steps in the Tunisian transition. Meanwhile, in the Eastern Mediterranean, Turkey held municipal elections in the month of March, which were nearly a plebiscite election about the AKP party’s running of affairs. In August, the presidential elections were held, in which the Prime Minister at the time was elected with 51% of the votes, and therefore no second round of voting was required, after an election campaign in which there was little media coverage for the other parties and very low participation levels.