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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.

EU’s values should dictate an ethos of hospitality

Mary Lawlor 20th June 2023

Violations of the rights of migrants and the silencing of human-rights defenders stem from a mindset of security and control.

Europe’s moral compass, lost at sea

Gemma Bird 20th June 2023

The Greek migrant shipwreck was another preventable tragedy at the borders of Europe.

Greek election outcome: towards a new disorder

Susannah Verney 16th June 2023

Last month’s election produced an unexpected destabilisation of the party system and triggered a repeat contest on June 25th.

Berlusconi: populist pioneer who rode Italy into the sand

Philipp Ther 15th June 2023

Since Berlusconi’s death, the media have focused on his persona—not Berlusconism and its legacy.

ILO condemns Belarus’ violation of union rights

Frank Hoffer 13th June 2023

The International Labour Conference has taken an unprecedented step to challenge Lukashenka’s denial of freedom of association.

Where is Poland heading, with elections looming?

Maria Skóra 12th June 2023

Amid huge demonstrations against the populist government, buffeted by legal challenges, the stakes could not be higher.

New SPÖ leader: can he stem the far-right surge?

Gabriela Greilinger 12th June 2023

After months of strife among Austria’s social democrats—and an election screw-up—they have a new leader.

Barcelona: a feminist municipalism now at risk

Laura Pérez Castaño 9th June 2023

Barcelona has shown the transformative role urban municipalities can play in conjunction with local civil society.

Is Spain on the right track?

Bettina Luise Rürup 9th June 2023

If Spaniards vote for the right next month, Spain would be yet another country in its growing European bulwark.

Exploiting every crisis: why the FPÖ is topping the polls

Gabriela Greilinger 5th June 2023

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

Emilija Tudzarovska 5th June 2023

The geopolitical impetus behind further EU enlargement meets formidable forces of inertia.

Erdoğan, ultranationalists and ‘family values’

Balki Begumhan Bayhan 1st June 2023

The victorious Turkish president is likely to pursue a hardline conservative agenda with his ultranationalist allies.

Politically disengaged youth in the former eastern bloc

Michael Jennewein and Elena Avramovska 1st June 2023

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

Vicky Cann 30th May 2023

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

Robert Misik 29th May 2023

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?

Halil Karaveli 24th May 2023

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

Paul Mason 22nd May 2023

‘National Conservatism’, Paul Mason writes, fails to chime with British national-popular culture.

Russia, homophobia and the battle for ‘traditional values’

Graeme Reid 17th May 2023

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 11th May 2023

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. The Covid-19 pandemic may not be over but a feeling of normality has settled and a return to prior times—if ‘seasonally adjusted’—seems to inch […]

Russia’s appeal to ‘warrior masculinity’

Marina Yusupova 10th May 2023

Putin’s Victory Day pitch for more military recruits is unlikely to encourage men to enlist in the army.

Oh, Europe!?—a vision is still needed

Günther Schmid 4th May 2023

Why it remains worthwhile to listen to the embattled French president, Emmanuel Macron—and why not.

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