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Valerio Alfonso Bruno

Valerio Alfonso Bruno is a research fellow at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. He is co-author with James F Downes and Alessio Scopelliti  of The Rise of the Radical Right in Italy: A New Balance of Power in the Right-wing Camp (Ibidem and Columbia University Press, 2024).

Italy: a ‘post-fascist’ assault on democratic checks

Valerio Alfonso Bruno

The Meloni government in Italy is betting everything on radical and polarising constitutional reforms.

Italy’s election: a far-right high, on a low budget

Valerio Alfonso Bruno

The honeymoon for a Meloni-led, right-wing government may prove to be shortlived.

Draghi’s resignation: what next?

Valerio Alfonso Bruno and Vittorio Emanuele Parsi

Only one political figure will benefit from chaos in Italy. He is in Moscow, not Rome.

Ukraine and Europe’s defence spending

Valerio Alfonso Bruno and Adriano Cozzolino

Europe’s reaction to the Ukraine crisis will do much to define what kind of Europe it is to be.

Matteo Salvini’s League and the price of unbridled populism

Valerio Alfonso Bruno and Vittorio Emanuele Parsi

The strength of populism is its simple message that ‘the people’ are traduced by an ‘elite’ linked to ‘foreign’ interlopers. That’s also its weakness.

Science and politics: a new alliance?

Valerio Alfonso Bruno

The pandemic has brought science and expertise to the fore in the public sphere, as an anchor of trust—and put the populists on the back foot.

Lobbying In The EU: An Often Unholy Alliance

Valerio Alfonso Bruno

With movies such as Inside Job and Thank you for Smoking or TV series like House of Cards, the US model of influencing decisions and

Towards The Disappearance Of Politics?

Valerio Alfonso Bruno

The crisis of political debate within contemporary democracies Exactly sixty years ago, in 1958, Hannah Arendt published The Human Condition. In her philosophical masterpiece, Arendt

The Production Of Fear. European Democracies In The Age Of Populisms And Technocracies

Valerio Alfonso Bruno

Populisms and Technocracies: mastering the art of evoking fears In Europe, home to one of the most ambitious political and institutional experiments in recent history,

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Mental Health
Eurofound Talks: Europe's productivity paradox

This episode of the Eurofound Talks podcast looks at why Europe has experienced a more profound slowdown in growth compared to other developed regions, and why greater labour input and higher human capital has not translated into higher output per worker. Mary McCaughey and John Hurley also discuss whether Europe can, and should, look to compete with countries such as the United States and China in the race to harness artificial intelligence.
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Progressive Post Issues

The Autumn-Winter issue of The Progressive Post is out!”

Among this issue’s highlights, we debate war and defence, underlining the urgent necessity of peace. We look at the European Commission's budget proposal, particularly the fate of the cohesion funds, and at the EU's international partnerships and ask whether the EU can pursue its strategic interests while simultaneously promoting its partners' genuine development. Finally, we address COP30 and the issue of fossil fuels, which was intentionally ignored during the negotiations held in Brazil.

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WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the European Minimum Wage Directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50% of the average wage.

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Cohesion Policy

S&D Position Paper on Cohesion Policy post-2027: a resilient future for European territorial equity

Cohesion Policy seeks to foster balanced development and reduce economic, social, and territorial disparities, focusing on rural areas, regions in industrial transition, and those with severe or permanent natural or demographic disadvantages, including outermost, sparsely populated, island, cross-border, and mountain regions.

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🇪🇺 Building a Resilient, Equitable EU Health Union: The S&D Blueprint


From securing pharmaceutical autonomy and guaranteeing universal access to care (the European Health Guarantee) to combatting non-communicable diseases and closing the Gender Health Gap. Read the S&D Group in the European Parliament Position Paper demanding that health becomes a priority across all EU policies.

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HESA Magazine Cover

European productivity: the real constraint is not debt, but investment

The EU’s Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) has become a central tool for shaping national budgets under the new economic governance framework. According to a new ETUI paper, it is also systematically undervaluing the economic benefits of public investment—at the expense of productivity and long-term growth. “Rethinking the role of public investment does not mean abandoning fiscal discipline. It means recognising that certain investments strengthen long-term debt sustainability by generating higher growth and stronger public revenues,” explains Christos Pierros, the author.

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