The second round of the 1/3 Senate elections was dominated by the centrist and right-wing parties that form the opposition to the central government – the Mayors and Independents, Civic Democrats and Cristian Democrats – who won 18 out of the 27 seats available. The government coalition parties (the ANO and Social Democrats), on the other hand, failed miserably, winning just one seat. The Social Democrats even lost their own senatorial club after the election.

Historically the regional elections have always been a testing ground for the upcoming general election, which is key to the central government and determines the country’s leadership for the next few years. As with everything nowadays, even this element of public life has been affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. Even so, the overall voter turnout was almost 38%, which is one of the better results for this type of election. As such, the results will give us a greater insight into the ever-closing big election event of 2021.

As Trump and Joe Biden go head to head for their first presidential TV debate tonight, we outline the key issues, the factors that could still swing the outcome and three possible scenarios. Despite leading in the polls, the risk of a weak performance by Biden as sometimes seen during the Democrat primaries means his victory isn't assured either