The United States Supreme Court struck down a decades-old limit on coordinated spending between political parties and candidates, a decision that, according to the court’s conservative majority, removes an unconstitutional restriction on free speech. The ruling in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission eliminates a cap that stood at $65,300 for most House races in 2026. Democratic Party leaders immediately condemned the outcome as a victory for billionaire donors, while some legal scholars, including Rick Pildes of New York University School of Law, argued the shift could strengthen party organisations relative to less regulated super PACs, potentially increasing accountability and transparency in campaign finance.

In Brazil, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) moved in the opposite direction, voting unanimously to maintain the 2022 campaign spending ceiling of R$4.9 billion for this year’s elections. The court’s president, Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, stated that the decision responded to requests from most political parties and that any adjustment would not reflect the current financial reality of the parties, risking the stability of the electoral contest and harming candidates benefiting from inclusion policies. The TSE noted that the special campaign financing fund (FEFC) remained at the same level and that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had vetoed a congressional attempt to increase the party fund, reinforcing the freeze.

Colombia, meanwhile, confronts a post-electoral landscape in which a leading daily, La República, has called for a “political truce” to allow the incoming government of president-elect Abelardo De La Espriella to stabilise public finances and rebuild international relations. The editorial, published after elections that saw record turnout of over 26 million voters, noted that the outgoing left-wing government has announced it will mount “fierce opposition” and even civil disobedience unless De La Espriella renounces his US citizenship and guarantees that former president Gustavo Petro will not be extradited to the United States. The newspaper argued that such personal disputes risk paralysing the country and urged a pact to focus on poverty reduction and ending decades of internal conflict.

Viewed from Rome, Italian commentators identify a broader pattern of party elites designing electoral rules to entrench their own power. Il Fatto Quotidiano observed that successive governments, regardless of ideology, have approved electoral laws that weaken parliamentary representation and discourage voter participation, while the current centre-right majority is pushing further changes to mayoral elections that would reduce run-offs and eliminate split-ticket voting. The critique links these manoeuvres to a steady decline in turnout and a system in which, according to the analysis, party leaders select all parliamentary candidates with near-absolute discretion. The US ruling takes immediate effect; Brazil’s spending caps are now fixed for the October vote; Colombia’s new Congress convenes on 20 July, when the truce proposal will face its first political test.