The Aesthetics of Populism (Brill, 2025), edited by Leszek Koczanowicz, Michał Stambulski, Wojciech Ufel, and Rafał Włodarczyk, explores not only what populism says and does, but what it looks like in post-1989 Poland. @jackddean.bsky.social reviews the volume. ceureviewofbooks.com/review/what-...

What does populism look like? - CEU Review of Books

The Aesthetics of Populism (Brill, 2025), edited by Leszek Koczanowicz, Michał Stambulski, Wojciech Ufel, and Rafał Włodarczyk, explores not only what populism says and does, but what it looks like in...

ceureviewofbooks.com

The infighting in PiS has been an admittedly entertaining subplot of Polish politics for the last few weeks, but today's news has really blown the issue up into a major news story. After years of Kaczynski dominating the party through a selection of loyalist candidates, change is happening.

This will also have repercussions on the European level - Morawiecki, who has just been expelled, is the head of the European Conservative and Reformer (ECR) party, the party that brings together PiS, Meloni's FdI and other national conversatives across the EU.

It has been a very poor week for news regarding health in Romania. From high profile figures promoting vaccine conspiracies, to strikes, to anticorruption investigations, there are few signs that health has improved since Dan's presidency began. Below, I outline several of these news stories.

Duda appears alongside a cast of the European radical right, including Romania's George Simion and former British PM Liz Truss. For an event supposedly focused on the 'future' of the European sovereigntist right, there's a lot of faces from the past.

Jakub Jaraczewski@jakubjaraczewski.bsky.social · 3w ago

🇵🇱🇬🇧 If you're wondering what's going on with former Polish President Andrzej Duda, who had high ambitions to be the new leader of the Polish right-wing scene, well, he's going to speak at CPAC Great Britain, with a slight error next to his name on the event's website.

Former Hungarian FM Szijjártó getting a job at BYD and leaving politics. It's almost too on the nose: it's the type of post-politics position you'd jokingly suggest for him, but I didn't expect him to actually do it.

Le Pen, Farage, and yet another day where the news cycle won't let me do any actual work

'Polish Studies: Today and Tomorrow' - 8th Annual Conference of the BASEES Polish Studies Group and SSEES Polish Studies Research Group (3-4 September, Zoom) Please send your title and an abstract of up to 250 words to anne.white@ucl.ac.uk by 10 July. basees.org/study-group-...

Latest Romania update: 47 days and counting without a functioning government. The vote for the Veștea government has unsurprisingly failed. After days of the PSD courting the far-right AUR, Simion brought an ultimatum: they will vote for Veștea if Dan withdraws calling AUR extremists.

If anyone is curious as to how Veștea's candidacy is being received, his latest Facebook post in which he announces he's planning to run for PNL leader might give some indication. Every second comment is suggesting he goes to the PSD, and a few people are comparing him to Dragnea and Ponta.

Jack Dean@jackddean.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Up comes the next choice, Adrian Veștea. PNL politician, ex-mayor of Rașnov, the former development minister. Controversial not in name but in process - Dan had selected from the PNL without consulting the PNL. Unsurprisingly, Bolojan and the party aren't happy about this step either.

I've been largely offline for a couple of days, but Romania's political developments warrant discussion and what can only be described as an attempt at explanation given how much has gone on.

My 2nd PhD publication is out today in @pop-jrnl.bsky.social ! 🎉 We know the far right largely claims to be "anti"-antisemitic, but this paper looks at how a party's online community responds when it encounters these narratives. Do individuals agree? www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

.atlatszo.hu obtained contracts from the Danube Institute, a key node in Orbán's network linking European right-wing populists with MAGA. Just before the election, it signed record-value deals, using public funds to court Anglo-American right-wingers. VSquare.org

Orbán's Foreign Payroll: How Hungary Spent a Fortune to Buy Influence on the Western Right - VSquare.org

Átlátszó has been granted access to contracts signed by the Danube Institute, a key component of the Orbán government’s attempt to build a network between European right-wing populists and the MAGA world just before the election.

vsquare.org

Turns out, Lowe (was).

🔮 Who is Reform UK's most populist voice?

Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, dominates headlines as the face of the party’s populism. However, Tutku Zengin's analysis of 1,108 statements from all five Reform UK parliamentarians elected in...

theloop.ecpr.eu

That sound you can hear is the furious googling of the name "James Murray", from all the correspondents and pundits trying to work out who he is.

PSD has for a long time not fit within the PES. For them to post this yesterday, the same day PSD collaborated with the far right AUR to bring down a pro-EU government, pushes them from parody into farce.

🔊 One week until Prof. @allansikk.bsky.social's Inaugural Lecture 'All Tomorrow’s Parties: What Central and Eastern Europe Teaches Us About Party Politics'. Free and open to all! 🗓️ 13 May at 6pm BST 📍 Gustave Tuck LT ➡️ www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit...

🌊 #Illiberal Wave No.46 💪 @plutscher.bsky.social, @draege.bsky.social, @karstendonnay.bsky.social & @chknutsen.bsky.social draw on 3 experiments across Venezuela, Türkiye + the US to show that visual strongman #Propaganda can deter opposition movements + mobilise supporters. 👉️ bit.ly/48vkRV3

🌊 The dark logic of visual strongman propaganda

Philipp Lutscher, Jonas Bergan Dræge, Carl Henrik Knutsen and Karsten Donnay draw on three survey experiments across Venezuela, Turkey and the United States to show that visual strongman propaganda ca...

bit.ly

I have linked here to a very good article on the dangers a measles outbreak would (again) pose in Romania. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

‘It’s a powder keg’: Romania leads EU measles cases as vaccination rates collapse

Bottlenecks in the system and parents’ suspicions mean doctors expect another serious outbreak soon

theguardian.com

Look out for our upcoming @uclssees round table on Hungary’s elections and their consequences: turning point or false dawn? www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit... Monday 20 April, 6pm (UK time). In-person and online.

A turning point for Hungary?

A SSEESing roundtable on the results and implications of the parliamentary elections

ucl.ac.uk

✍️ Hungarian PM Orbán’s defeat in last Sunday’s election rings in a new era for the country, but also for its partners to the East and West. Still, some challenges will remain, @gabrielagreilinger.com argues in her op-ed. 🇭🇺🗳️ 🧑‍💻 Read it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/8av6bdmv

Romanian media continues to disappoint on coverage of Hungary's election. The amount of places referring to exit polls is infuriating.

Thoroughly enjoyed a trip to sunny Oxford for the @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social conference presenting my working paper on media framing of militant democracy in Romania and Moldova. A very strong range of panels and keynotes, would highly recommend!

This is an important point. There has been so much of a focus on the youth and social media influence that it is easy to think it is limited to the young - but when you look at the role of Facebook etc and how its user base skews, this has likely obscured a worrying trend in older age groups.

Stephan Lewandowsky@lewan.uk · 4mo ago

Key stat: misinformation exposure hovers around 1–10% of civic content online, rising to 10–30% for contentious topics (climate, health, Russia/Ukraine). And 47% of older adults hold misinformed beliefs about health issues. Scale matters. 4/10

Great thread on the upcoming elections in Hungary. In short, apprehension is necessary.

Gabriela Greilinger@gabrielagreilinger.com · 5mo ago

I've been asked over the last few days/weeks what I think will happen on April 12th in Orbán's 🇭🇺 (and the aftermath), so here's my assessment, looking at everything as it stands now 🧵 tldr: It's complicated, and no one really knows (and those who say they do are either lying or overly confident) 1/

An important contribution addressing how the Representation of the People Bill doesn't meet the needs of contemporary British democracy:

UCL Constitution Unit@conunitucl.bsky.social · 5mo ago

NEW BLOG: The Representation of the People Bill: contours of the debates to come Ahead of the bill's second reading on Monday, @alanrenwick.bsky.social covers 'astonishing weaknesses', an idea that is 'indefensible in a democracy' and another 'breach of such a basic democratic principle'.

This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone looking for a comparative politics PhD:

Diane Bolet@dianebolet.bsky.social · 5mo ago

📢 JOB ALERT! Fully funded 3-year PhD in Climate & Comparative Politics at @sciencespo-cee.bsky.social. Starting in September. The project is on the political consequences of climate policies in carbon-intensive communities across Europe. 🗓 Deadline: May 17 www.sciencespo.fr/centre-etude...

Tell me you never read the academic literature on populism without telling me you never read the academic literature on populism (and still write a column on the topic with the self-confidence of someone who is well read in the academic literature on populism).

I remember meeting Dr Duncan in my MA, and him casually mentioning a conversation he'd had with Gorbachev, and being absolutely enthralled, realising that SSEES was the place for me. An incredible loss.

UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies@uclssees.bsky.social · 6mo ago

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our dear colleague and friend, Dr Peter Duncan. Professor Simon Dixon pays tribute to him here: www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit...