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Avatar photoPiergiuseppe Fortunato

Piergiuseppe Fortunato is an economist at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, where he leads projects on global value chains and economic integration, and an external professor of political economics at the Université de Neuchâtel.

Big Tech and Populism Share a Common Enemy: Democratic Oversight

Piergiuseppe Fortunato

As artificial intelligence concentrates power among a handful of technology giants, the structural interests of those firms and of populist politics are quietly converging around a shared hostility to institutional constraints.

Amid anomie and rentier rule, a European left in crisis

Richard Kozul-Wright and Piergiuseppe Fortunato

The left has gone along with a shift of power to boardrooms and bureaucracies, undermining policy ambition and public confidence.

Rethinking globalisation in an age of crises

Piergiuseppe Fortunato

We need to find a path to peaceful coexistence and co-operation, fixing the social and economic damage of the last three decades

The life and death of Italian centrism

Piergiuseppe Fortunato

Former leaders from the Italian left have joined forces to form a centrist coalition.

The long shadow of market fundamentalism

Piergiuseppe Fortunato

In the dusk of neoliberalism a new narrative is needed to untangle the moral and political trade-offs of our times.

‘Social media’, market power and the health of democracy

Piergiuseppe Fortunato

With the whistle blown on Facebook, Congress must allocate ownership of personal data to the person—not the platform—to allow competitive providers to emerge.

Fighting Covid-19 requires fewer patents and more state

Piergiuseppe Fortunato

Big Pharma has not been the real innovator in the fight against the pandemic and intellectual property rights must be reshaped to restore fairness.

Inequalities and democratic corrosion

Piergiuseppe Fortunato

The right question to ask is not if inequality threatens democracy but which inequalities matter.

ETUI Advertisement

A more strategic Europe? Risks and opportunities for the world of work

Europe’s ambition to achieve strategic autonomy is at risk of being undermined from within, according to the annual flagship report by the ETUI and the ETUC. Despite signs of macroeconomic resilience, weakening investment, stalled decarbonisation and growing labour market fragilities are eroding the very foundations on which Europe’s power depends. Once again, the Benchmarking Working Europe 2026 report stands out as an invaluable resource, providing a comprehensive set of indicators illustrated through more than 60 graphs and tables, with analysis from ETUI researchers.

READ HERE
Eurofound Advertisement

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.

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FEPS Advertisement

Read the book "The open future and its enemies" 

A robust democracy must not leave the future in the hands of the alliance between Big Tech and the far right. AI must be politically reined in and democratically shaped so that humanity retains its sovereignty.

Artificial intelligence is regarded as the driving force of progress. Yet it has long since become a challenge to democracy. The book argues that uncontrolled AI will erode our freedom, self-determination and democracy.

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WSI Minimum Wage Report 2026

Minimum wage policy across Europe has shifted significantly, with many EU countries raising wages above average and anchoring them to adequate living standards. This trend is consolidating as countries increasingly adopt the reference values recommended in the European Minimum Wage Directive — recently upheld by the European Court of Justice.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
S&D Group in the European Parliament Advertisement

S&D Africa Days 2026

We are pleased to invite you to save the date for the S&D Africa Days 2026, taking place on 30 June and 1 July 2026, in Brussels. 

At a time when Africa is too often viewed through narrow and one-sided narratives, this initiative reflects a key political priority for the S&D Group: to advance a renewed, forward-looking partnership of equals between Europe and Africa based on equality, solidarity, social justice and shared progress. 

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“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.

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