In 2024, 50 years after Portugal’s revolution, I happened to hear an interview with a Belgian citizen who, during his career as a United Nations official, had worked in a hundred countries on a Brussels radio station. When asked which experience had impressed him the most, he replied: Portugal in 1974. This answer – perhaps surprising to many – confirmed the impression that has accompanied me throughout my life. I too, after talking to many people in a wide variety of countries, can state that in 1974, I lived through an extraordinary experience. I was only a teenager, like my brothers, but I ..read more

The key player in Croatia’s most uncertain parliamentary elections is the far-right party ‘Homeland Movement’, whose participation in a governing coalition over the next four years could determine whether Croatia will take a sharp turn to the right. With the largest voter turnout since 2000, last week’s parliamentary elections in Croatia still remain with an uncertain outcome as no political party has a clear majority. The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), a conservative, centre-right political party that has been in power for the last eight years, is a relative winner with 61 seats in the Croa ..read more

Recognition and representation that is what the centre-left in Croatia should have learned about elections: centre-left president Zoran Milanović, widely considered the strongest opponent of the current centre-right prime minister Andrej Plenković, has mastered that discipline in the last couple of years. So, yes, there’s potential for making the centre-left more appealing to those voters who, traditionally, did not vote SDP. But, do we want to pay the price necessary for that? ‘It ain’t over till the fat lady sings’, might be the most precise description of the outcome of the parliamentary el ..read more

On Tuesday 16 April 2024, member states, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee, European social partners and civil society signed a declaration on the future of the European Pillar of Social Rights. This was a very important day. I hesitate to say that it was a historic day, because this would be such a cliché. Rather, it was a day of high ambition, of necessary ambition. The Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU was bound to be ambitious at this critical juncture, at the end of the current legislative cycle and at the beginning of a ..read more

In Belfast, 26 years ago, leaders of political parties and the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom reached a historic agreement to end 30 years of bloody conflict in Northern Ireland. It was 10 April 1998: Good Friday. On Good Fridays since then, a simple commemoration has been hosted in the unitarian church on St. Stephen’s Green Dublin to remember all the victims of ‘the Troubles’. Members of the congregation, and guests, including myself occasionally, read out the names of the 3,600 people who were killed, most of them long forgotten, except by their families and friends. This yea ..read more

In this critical electoral year, the development of generative AI could present a growing threat to democratic processes. With disinformation, deep fakes, and social media manipulation on the rise, it is urgent to develop effective countermeasures. New technologies, such as AI, could also be used for this purpose. We call for the rise of a ‘Democratic Shield’ to safeguard the integrity of elections and defend democratic principles.  In the wake of incidents like during the campaign for the Slovakian national election in September 2023, where a deep fake surfaced just days before the polls ..read more

How to mobilise all parts of society and foster cooperation to defend from disinformation threatening democracy? By applying experiences and tools from cybersecurity to information threats, we have a chance to foster cooperation, build resilience and eventually transform the online sphere. The threat of disinformation to our democracies and way of life has been increasingly visible and hotly debated. In leaps and bounds, we have seen floods of so-called ‘fake news’ overwhelm our media ecosystems, and overtake reasonable decision-making. As the digital world and the tangible ‘real’ world merge ..read more

In the wake of the 2016 US elections, Western democracies awoke to a stark reality: the age-old practice of disinformation had evolved into a sophisticated, technology-driven shadow war, with liberal democracies squarely in the crosshairs. As we already stepped into the 2024 super-election year, this battleground has only expanded, with the stakes heightened by the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the relentless pace of digital innovation. The recent elections in Russia, far from being evidence of a democratic process, offer a crucial, if counterintuitive, lesson about the geopolitic ..read more

As Socialists and Social Democrats, we are the political force that can better contribute to building on Europe’s commitment to social justice, equality and cohesion. It is in our DNA and will remain our core mission. The track record of policies that European progressives have put forward during the 2019-2024 legislature, spearheaded by EU Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit as well as other progressive commissioners and MEPs, is testament to this claim. From the Platform Workers Directive to the EU Child Guarantee, from the Social Economy Action Plan to the EU Care Strateg ..read more

In the Portuguese elections, the Socialists lost power but received the same number of parliamentary seats as the biggest party in the centre-right alliance. With this very close result, there will be a new political cycle in Portugal. While the Socialists will lead a strong and determined opposition, we see the possibility of old problems resurfacing in our country. The rise of the extreme right, populism and threats to fundamental rights must be fought. In the Portuguese parliamentary elections, which took place last Sunday, the centre-right alliance won with a very narrow margin of votes. T ..read more