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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.

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.

The Relative Rise of Europe’s Poor

Michael Dauderstädt

Europe's poorer nations and citizens are climbing the income ladder — and the data show the Union is more cohesive than its critics claim.

Four Decades of Data Reveal a European Workforce Transformed Beyond Recognition

Barbara Gerstenberger

Eurofound's 2024 working conditions survey charts how digitalisation, demography, and climate change have reshaped European labour over 35 years.

Europe Absorbs Orbán’s Playbook Even as Hungary May Reject It

Tibor Dessewffy

As Hungary nears a pivotal vote, Russian operatives and an entrenched power network cloud the path to democratic change.

Behind the Benchmarks: How EU Social Policy Fails Its Own Beneficiaries

Silvia Naydenova

EU social policy measures outputs efficiently — but the lived experience of its supposed beneficiaries tells a very different story.

Abandoning International Law Means Choosing the Road to Great Barbarism

Frank Hoffer

The normalisation of war demands not the burial of international law, but its urgent reinvention — and Europe must lead the charge.

The Male Norm in Occupational Health Costs Women Their Wellbeing

Dimitra Theodori

Workplace health and safety policies built around a male default leave millions of women exposed to risks that better regulation could prevent.

Growth Without Resilience: Europe’s Hidden Social Fracture

Eszter Sandor

A recent EU survey exposes the chasm between headline economic data and the financial reality confronting households across Europe.

The Vulnerability of Trump’s Personality Cult

Jan-Werner Müller

Trump's personality cult follows a well-worn historical playbook — but his pathological narcissism ensures he cannot deploy it effectively.

Social Rights: The Idea Whose Time Has Come?

Robin Wilson

A remarkable consensus on social rights is emerging as Europe's answer to inequality, democratic backsliding and geopolitical upheaval.

Proportional Representation Is Breaking Dutch Democracy

Tarunabh Khaitan and Mike Winterwerp

As coalition formation grows ever more tortuous, the Netherlands must confront whether proportional representation itself is the problem.

Europe’s Duty-Free Access Bankrolls Myanmar’s Military Repression

Khaing Zar Aung and Atle Høie

Five years after the coup, foreign brands and the EU's trade preferences continue to generate hard currency for a military regime waging war on its own people.

Armed Conflict or Mutual Survival?

Richard Wilkinson, Roberto De Vogli and Kate Pickett

Militarism and ecological collapse are not separate emergencies — they are the same emergency, feeding each other in a spiral humanity cannot afford to ignore.

Washington’s Russia U-Turn Exposes the Real Logic of Sanctions

Ilan Kapoor

The easing of Russian oil restrictions amid the Iran crisis reveals sanctions as tools of power, not justice.

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ETUI Advertisement

A more strategic Europe? Risks and opportunities for the world of work

Europe’s ambition to achieve strategic autonomy is at risk of being undermined from within, according to the annual flagship report by the ETUI and the ETUC. Despite signs of macroeconomic resilience, weakening investment, stalled decarbonisation and growing labour market fragilities are eroding the very foundations on which Europe’s power depends. Once again, the Benchmarking Working Europe 2026 report stands out as an invaluable resource, providing a comprehensive set of indicators illustrated through more than 60 graphs and tables, with analysis from ETUI researchers.

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Eurofound Advertisement

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.

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The Spring issue of The Progressive Post is out!

In geopolitics, 2026 is challenging our certainties: from the abduction of the Venezuelan president, over the open US threats to 'take' Greenland, to the US-Israeli war on Iran. This issue tries to determine what comes next, debating power politics in the 21st century. We also examine the European Commission's first Anti-Poverty Strategy as well as the EU's need for proactive adaptation measures, exploring the legislation, resources and mechanisms to climate-proof our future.

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Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

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.

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S&D Group in the European Parliament Advertisement

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 PAPER

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