Articles about:
State of the Left
On Saturday, January 11th, we witnessed a March of a Thousand Robes’ in Warsaw. It was an unprecedented event because nobody remembers such a manifestation of legal circles in recent Polish history. Thousands of judges, attorneys, solicitors and prosecutors have taken part in a silent protest against the ongoing illiberal...
Thinking he could replay the scenario of his 2017 presidential campaign, during which he had presented himself as a bulwark against the far right, the French President Emmanuel Macron made the alternative between progressives and nationalists the central issue in the European elections. But is his authoritarian neoliberalism so far...
The German sociologist Wolfgang Engler examines the question what happened to (Eastern) Germany in the past three decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall from the inside. In his last book – together with the journalist and writer Jana Hensel – “Wer wir sind. Die Erfahrung, ostdeutsch zu sein”...
The French president Emmanuel Macron claims to embody today’s progressivism, as opposed to ‘nationalism’. The profound difficulty for his concept though is that he lacks both a rigorous analysis of capitalism, and a clear understanding of the enduring importance of nation-states. A new concept of progressivism in Europe has to...
Towards the end of the previous legislative period, the so-called V4 (Visegrád Group) countries came to a peak point of resentment in their relations with the European Union. To be clear, they would not always act together or conspire to arrive at Brussels summits with a consolidated agenda. But nonetheless...
Switzerland gets much greener, more feminist and is moving significantly to the left. These are the main results of the national elections, which took place on 20th October. The election reflects a huge mobilisation for gender equality (500.000 women went on strike on 14 June 2019) and for climate protection...
From today’s perspective, the 1990s may seem like ancient history. The images of the Polish Solidarność trade union rising and the fall of the Berlin Wall remind us of the transition, during which the populations of Central and Eastern Europe chose a democratic path and reunification with the West. Soon...
Conservatives and Greens scored well in the Austrian elections, while the Social Democrats fell to a historic low. The previously strong far-right finally stumbled over its numerous scandals. Until last Sunday, most political analysts agreed that events that occur less than ten days before an election don’t lead to significant...
The disadvantageous government coalition with the pragmatic-populist ANO party (Renew Europe) led by Andrej Babiš is a threat not only to ČSSD but to the left as such. An easy solution does not seem to be on the horizon. I wonder how many members of the Czech Social Democratic Party...
Today, the Iberian Peninsula is sending out a message of hope to the rest of the European continent. The Socialist parties that lead the Portuguese and the Spanish governments have both secured a remarkable 33 percent of electoral support in the recent European elections and are in a position to...