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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.

The World Needs an Oil Buyers’ Club

Isabella Weber and Gregor Semieniuk

As the world is plunged into another energy crisis, market allocation is leading to grossly unjust outcomes, as the rich outbid the poor.

Europe Is Losing Its Industry To China’s Second Shock

Franz Nauschnigg

Surging Chinese exports, a sliding renminbi and a depleted European industrial base are colliding — and Brussels has run out of time to respond.

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.

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.

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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.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
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
ETUI Advertisement

Growth and employment monitor

Based on recent research – notably from the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), this Special Brief outlines key evidence on the economic, employment and social situation in the EU and actions needed to reinforce the EU by ensuring “Investment for a vibrant European economy and quality jobs”

READ HERE
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.

LISTEN HERE
FEPS Advertisement

Read the book "The Great Unravelling"

The book "The Great Unravelling", edited by Patrick Diamond and Ania Skrzypek, delves into the impact of growing economic interdependence, free trade and technological change, which has led to new forms of political polarisation that seek to capitalise on and exploit the resentments fuelled by the rise of globalisation.
Featuring a stellar line-up of policymakers, experts and academics, the book assesses whether a viable compromise between globalisation and social progress remains achievable.

READ HERE

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