Is Spain on the right track?
If Spaniards vote for the right next month, Spain would be yet another country in its growing European bulwark.
Politics
Analysis and debate on European and national politics, democracy, the rule of law, parties and elections, and Europe’s place in the world.
Exploiting every crisis: why the FPÖ is topping the polls
At the heart of the scandal that broke the right-wing coalition government in 2019, the Freedom Party is now riding high.
EU enlargement: prospects and challenges
The geopolitical impetus behind further EU enlargement meets formidable forces of inertia.
Politically disengaged youth in the former eastern bloc
Michael Jennewein and Elena Avramovska
Young people across the eastern-EU member states believe in Europe and universal norms—but their governments turn them off.
Big Toxics and their lobby firepower
The chemical giants outspend even Big Tech and Big Energy on lobbying the EU—and it’s working.
SPÖ: how not to run a leadership contest
The messy struggle for leadership of Austria’s social democrats, Robert Misik writes, nevertheless has echoes for others.
Turkey: does Kılıçdaroğlu have a path to victory?
The xenophobia from the social-democratic leader since his first-round defeat is unlikely to win him the second.
On the wrong side of Britain’s history
‘National Conservatism’, Paul Mason writes, fails to chime with British national-popular culture.
Russia, homophobia and the battle for ‘traditional values’
On International Day Against Homophobia, official Russia now demarcates itself very firmly on the other global side.
Reconstruction: time for transformative ideas
Kalina Arabadjieva, Nicola Countouris, Bianca Luna Fabris and Wouter Zwysen
As the world inches back to normality, the Covid-19 crisis highlights deep structural inequalities and the urgent need for bold, systemic solutions to tackle climate change, social injustice, and economic precarity.
Oh, Europe!?—a vision is still needed
Why it remains worthwhile to listen to the embattled French president, Emmanuel Macron—and why not.
How Russians fight
Ordinary Russians are unable to protest against the Ukraine war. But evidence of covert resistance is everywhere.
Delegitimising social critique and dissent on the left
Eszter Kováts writes that censoriousness is not the way to deal with legitimate concerns about social-justice claims.
Corporate taxation: financing state and welfare
Simon Vinge and Séverine Picard
Trade unions in Sweden want a more equitable tax system, where companies compete on quality, not tax minimisation.
Myanmar: trade unionists in the firing line
The EU should suspend trade preferences for Myanmar and end support for projects under the military regime.
Belarus: support jailed trade unionists
On the anniversary of the imprisonment of Belarus’ union leadership, Europe must renew efforts for the release of political prisoners.