A state that protects—and a bulwark for democracy and modernity. Is this, Robert Misik asks, the new paradigm of the democratic left?

The messy struggle for leadership of Austria’s social democrats, Robert Misik writes, nevertheless has echoes for others.

The Austrian social democrats are heading into a leadership contest, Robert Misik writes. For the SPÖ it could get bumpy.

Robert Misik argues today’s extreme right is sponsoring a brutalisation comparable to historical fascism.

Amid burgeoning crises, Robert Misik writes, the left finds itself assuming the mantle of responsibility.

Now Austria’s SPÖ too has left its competitors far behind, Robert Misik asks: is the Zeitgeist moving to the left?

To change the pessimistic Zeitgeist, left-wing politics and radical art must renew their alliance, Robert Misik writes.

In his first Social Europe column, Robert Misik explains how the SPD prevailed in the Bundestag elections—and what follows.

The resistible rise of the Far Right in Austria. The presidential election is on a knife-edge before the deciding round of at the end of May. It did indeed come as a shock that moment when the blue bar on the TV screen last Sunday at 5 pm shot upwards: 35 per cent of the […]

The fact that western capitalism is in a severe crisis is now so commonplace that it’s become almost a cliché. In 2008 the global financial system stood on the brink of collapse and the rescue measures undertaken by panic-stricken governments will burden their economies for years to come. Economists and analysts of a neo-conservative, economically […]

We’re sitting on the roof terrace of a restaurant at the foot of the Acropolis, with the brightly lit temple above us. But the mood among the company this evening is far from good. “I’ll never forgive those Syriza guys to the point that, thanks to them, I almost want the Conservatives to win the […]

While Syriza slowly recovers from the shock of the last few weeks, prime minister Alexis Tsipras is searching for a role. Greece after the referendum, closure of banks and the Brussels diktat. An investigation. It’s already past eight in the evening and my feet feel like they’re slowly being cooked in my heavy, leather boots. Admittedly […]

Days of Decision. While the Greek drama moved towards a decision, I travelled into the interior of the new Greece. Meetings with Alexis Tsipras, his closest aids, local activists, young businessmen, working-class militants and people, who just manage to survive. “To our government,” Nikos shouts, slightly sarcastically. While we are lifting our beers, Katerina adds with […]

It was a paragraph hidden away in a Der Spiegel story about European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker. During the European election campaign, one read, “the word ‘solidarity’ stood out on Juncker’s posters.” And further down: “Merkel’s CDU was so incensed about Juncker’s slogan that they almost thought about banning him from appearing in Berlin.” So, […]