Tag Archive for: "Poland"
Europe bails out its populists

As expected, the European Parliament has torn into the European Council’s recently agreed budget and pandemic-response package. The €1.8 trillion price tag and proposed cuts to development funding, including science and research, have predictably met …

Lessons from the Polish opposition

Although Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski did not come out on top in Poland’s presidential election, the result represents a turning point in European politics. The nationalist–populist tide has peaked. To paraphrase Winston Churchill’s famous quip …

Pandemic plays into populists’ hands

Threats to national security invariably limit domestic political disputes. Now that governments have assumed a leading role in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, the political opposition in countries under populist rule is quickly being marginalised. In …

The age of cynical voters

We all know that politicians are cunning and cynical, but could the same now be said for the electorate? Many of those who voted for US President Donald Trump did so knowing that he is …

Teflon populism

Populist rule is invariably associated with corruption, nepotism and incompetence. Why, then, do populists appear immune to scandal? Revelations that would have shocked electorates just a few years ago leave nary a mark on populist …