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Politics

Social Europe is an award-winning digital media publisher driven by the core values of freedom, sustainability, and equality. These principles guide our exploration of society’s most pressing challenges. This archive page curates Social Europe articles focused on political issues, offering a rich resource for innovative thinking and informed debate.

May 8 Belongs in the Calendar of Every European Democracy

Ellen de Soete and Ludovic Voet

As eyewitnesses fade and the far right reframes liberation as defeat, EU institutions must answer with policy.

Madrid Has the Cure for Trump-Era Energy Shocks

Peter Bofinger

Spain's heretical VAT cut tames inflation—a model for Europe as Trump's tariffs and Middle East shocks bite.

AI Productivity Growth Won’t Match the Computer Revolution

Carl Benedikt Frey

AI Productivity growth will underwhelm, not because the technology is weak, but because it creates a bottleneck that earlier digital tools largely avoided.

MAGA Forges Christianity Into a Weapon of War

Robert Misik

From Hegseth's crusader tattoos to Thiel's apocalyptic sermons, MAGA is fusing Christianity with raw political power.

Hungary After Orbán: Why Tisza’s “New Hungary” May Leave Workers Behind

Erdost Akin

Hungary's new government promises to restore rule of law — but not labour rights.

Europe’s Migration Promises Are Building A Dangerous Expectation Trap

Arjen Leerkes, Maurizio Ambrosini and Sandra Lavenex

Stricter return rules and border procedures sell reassurance to voters, but the evidence suggests Europe cannot deliver what politicians promise.

Europe Chose Greek Deficits Over Hungarian Democracy

Angelos Chryssogelos

In April 2010, the EU betrayed Greece and enabled Orbán — and has yet to reckon with either.

Hungary’s Long Road From Electoral Autocracy to Plural Democracy

Stephen Pogány

Péter Magyar's election victory gives Hungary its best chance in a generation to break with a centuries-long pattern of authoritarian rule.

Silicon Valley’s Anti-Democratic Turn Begins at Work

Valerio De Stefano

Silicon Valley's quarrel with democracy is not abstract — it begins in the workplace, where unilateral authority is normalised.

Deregulation Demands Threaten the EU’s Best Chance to Close the Gender Pay Gap

Marie-Hélène Ska, Selena Carbonera Fernandez and Olivier Valentin

Employer lobbying to weaken the EU Pay Transparency Directive risks condemning European women to decades more of unequal pay.

What Hungary Can Learn From Poland

Sławomir Sierakowski

Following Tisza’s victory over Viktor Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party in Sunday’s election, the opposition faces an uphill battle in trying to restore Hungary’s democracy.

EU Inc. Trades Worker Rights for Silicon Valley Fantasy

Niall O'Shaughnessy and Marc Steiert

The European Commission's proposed EU Inc. corporate form promises startup-friendly simplicity but threatens worker participation, collective power, and Europe's social model.

From Hitler’s Industrialists to Trump’s Tech Bros: The Case for Democracy at Work

Stan De Spiegelaere

The alignment of America's tech billionaires with authoritarian politics echoes 1930s industrial collaboration — but Germany and Spain offer a democratic remedy.

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.

The United States Faces a Crisis It Once Diagnosed in Others

Carlo Bordoni

Historians and political scientists now identify the United States as exhibiting the very warning signs it once monitored in fragile states abroad.

Empire Resurgent: How Ultra-Nationalism Is Dismantling the World Order

Erwin van Veen

The Israeli-US strike on Iran is not an isolated event, but the latest lurch in a systemic breakdown of international order — and the world must respond.

America’s Middle East War Exposes the Collapse of Its Own Strategy

James K Galbraith

The attack on Iran has shattered the very non-interventionist vision Trump's own national security document enshrined just weeks earlier.

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New Edition - Social policy in the European Union: state of play 2025

Can Europe preserve its distinctive social model while simultaneously rearming, reindustrialising, and reorganising its economy in a more conflictual and competitive world? This is the central question raised in this new edition of the Bilan social, a reference publication released every spring for more than 25 years by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) and the European Social Observatory (OSE).

READ HERE
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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
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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.

READ THE BOOK
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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
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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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