Skip to content

Social Europe

  • eBooks
  • Newsletter
  • Membership
  • Advertisements

AUTHOR PROFILE

Eszter Kováts Photo credit

Eszter Kováts

Eszter Kováts (eszter.kovats@univie.ac.at) is Marie Skodłowska-Curie postdoctoral research fellow in the Institute of Political Science at the University of Vienna and a research affiliate of the Central European University. She was formerly responsible for the East-Central-European gender programme of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Budapest.

Socialeurope.eu — logo on red background, Social Europe.

What Austria’s election teaches us about the far right’s rise and migration fears

Eszter Kováts

Austria’s election results highlight key lessons on the far right’s enduring appeal.

Socialeurope.eu — logo on red background, Social Europe.

Ostrich politics and its alternatives

Eszter Kováts

In lieu of comforting, self-righteous myths, Eszter Kováts argues, progressives should take the 'anti-woke' challenge seriously.

Socialeurope.eu — logo on red background, Social Europe.

Hungary’s unedifying political wordplays

Eszter Kováts

The opposition, Eszter Kováts writes, should not succumb to Orbán’s friend versus foe politics in the European elections.

Socialeurope.eu — logo on red background, Social Europe.

Identity politics: in defence of ‘old white men’

Eszter Kováts

Arguments over who has a right to speak, Eszter Kováts writes, should give way to discussing what they say.

Socialeurope.eu — logo on red background, Social Europe.

‘Trigger points’ and the polarisation entrepreneurs

Eszter Kováts

Progressives, Eszter Kováts writes, need to avoid the trap of a politics which only knows friends and foes.

Socialeurope.eu — logo on red background, Social Europe.

Seeing through Orbán’s anti-‘woke’ smokescreen

Eszter Kováts

Western liberals, Eszter Kováts writes, should avoid being seduced by Hungary’s authoritarian mouthpieces.

Socialeurope.eu — logo on red background, Social Europe.

Delegitimising social critique and dissent on the left

Eszter Kováts

Eszter Kováts writes that censoriousness is not the way to deal with legitimate concerns about social-justice claims.

Socialeurope.eu — logo on red background, Social Europe.

When radical zealotry meets the polarising populists

Eszter Kováts

Some activist-scholars, Eszter Kováts writes, have turned social justice into a latter-day religion, with perverse effects.

S&D Group in the European Parliament Advertisement

S&D conference The Middle East at crossroads: A progressive vision, 9 September 2026, European Parliament, Brussels

S&D conference “The Middle East at crossroads: A progressive vision”

In case you missed it, you can watch the replay of the S&D Group’s conference “The Middle East at crossroads: A progressive vision” by clicking the button below, and read the press release and opinion piece.

MORE INFO

Political Advertisement

ETUI Advertisement

Cover of the ETUI report Climate change and workers’ health: protecting workers against heat and other climate-related hazards, by Marouane Laabbas-el-Guennouni and Andreas D. Flouris.

New Report - Climate change and workers’ health

After a summer marked by repeated heatwaves across Europe, this publication tackles an increasingly urgent issue: workplace heat exposure, now one of the leading climate-related threats to workers' health. The report identifies the sectors and workers most at risk, and calls for a dedicated EU directive to strengthen and harmonise their protection.

READ HERE

Eurofound Advertisement

EurofoundTalks podcast with Mary McCaughey and Eszter Sandor: Is financial resilience and trust in Europe faltering?

Is financial resilience and trust in Europe faltering?

In this episode of Eurofound Talks, host Mary McCaughey and senior researcher Eszter Sandor unpack the results of the 2025 Living and Working in the EU e-survey. While headline inflation has stabilised at 2.1%, the data reveals a continent gripped by chronic precariousness, with 57% of respondents now at risk of depression. Mary and Eszter explore how this economic insecurity is impacting institutional trust and democratic engagement.

LISTEN HERE

FEPS Advertisement

Cover of The Progressive Post issue 31, Summer 2026: The Mediterranean, a crowded sea.

The Summer issue of The Progressive Post is out! 

The EU is belatedly awakening to a changing Mediterranean sea, where more assertive regional powers are reclaiming a role.

The new issue of the magazine also reflects on how we struggle to keep pace with AI innovations, examines the uncertainties surrounding the execution of the Pact on Migration and Asylum and the risk to human rights posed by the Return Regulation, and focuses on the EU Commission's newly proposed Industrial Accelerator Act.

READ THE MAGAZINE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI blog series “Climate Transition: Socially Just and Fair”: Equality in the labour market – the challenges of the socio-ecological transformation, by Silke Bothfeld and Peter Bleses

Equality in the labour market: the challenges of the socio-ecological transformation

In order to ensure that the socio-ecological transformation is gender-equitable, a strategy for expanding services must be combined with better working conditions.

READ HERE

FES Advertisement

Cover of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung analysis The Capability State: A Progressive Vision for the 21st Century by Henning Meyer.

“What is the actual purpose of the state?” – this central question is the focus of the analysis. At a time when bureaucratic processes are making life difficult for citizens, the paper proposes a three-part model. It aims at a conception of the state as a platform that helps society build the capabilities it needs to address its problems effectively.

MORE INFO

Our Mission

People

Article Submission

Advertisements

Membership

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Transparency Notice

Photo Credits

RSS Feed

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Copyright Social Europe Publishing & Consulting GmbH 2026
  • eBooks
  • Newsletter
  • Membership
  • Advertisements