Can science help us understand populism, from ‘malignant manicheism’ to Marine Le Pen?

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: John Letzing, Digital Editor, Strategic Intelligence, World Economic Forum Recent election results in Europe have been interpreted as a reversal for populism. Researchers are trying to gain a fuller understanding of what populism is and how it spreads. […]

European elections: A chance to repel both nationalism and no-deal Brexit

The results of the coming European Parliament elections of 23-26 May will have an unusually strong and long term impact on the wider political developments of the entire Old continent. There are two good reasons for that. The Europeans, including the Brits, will vote to definitely or not repel nationalism and a devastating no-deal Brexit. […]

EU elections 2019: Rise of nationalist trends and populism in Europe challenges the EU edifice

The European elections are going to be held in just two weeks’ time and far-right propaganda is gaining momentum creating concerns to everyone regarding the future of the EU, which is at stake. Populism and nationalism have dramatically risen in the EU during the last years menacing democratic institutions within a number of European member […]

Chauvinism and xenophobia will lead to global assertiveness and more wars

The immigration crisis of 2015 in Europe exposed the hollowness of the political system of the new millennium in the Old Continent, anguishing to cover the huge social cavities the economic neo-liberalism has created. Unfortunately, economic neo-liberalism didn’t lead to political liberalism, but instead to chauvinism, xenophobia and the insurgence of the extreme right wing […]

Macron has the deputies but not the people’s consent for his far reaching reforms

The French electoral system of ‘two Sundays’ has permitted Emmanuel Macron to become President, despite being the first choice of only 24.015% of the voters on the first electoral round of Sunday 23 April. Then, exactly for the same reason, his newly born party “La République en marche” (REM or LREM) is now estimated to […]

Macron plans for Europe, Brexit and banks but vague on France

Emmanuel Macron, after yesterday’s quasi formality of the second round of the election, is the new President of France, having defeated Marine Le Pen by 65% to 35%. He commands the military forces of his country, including the not at all small nuclear arsenal of France, he appoints and dismiss the prime minister and can […]

French election: Will France vote for a reformed or no EU?

The run-off presidential election approaches and the leader of “En Marche!” movement leads the race over his political opponent Marine Le Pen. Both attempt to influence the remaining undecided French people who are going to vote on Sunday. On the one hand, Emmanuelle Macron supports an EU reform in order for France to remain within […]

If Macron defies Britain about the banks, Paris and London to clash over ‘La Manche’

None of the two winners of yesterday’s first round in the French Presidential election, the pro EU banker Emmanuel Macron (23.9%) and the anti-EU and xenophobic Marine Le Pen (21.4%) is to make things easier for their country. However, the same is true for the British PM Theresa May. The latter’s decision to call an […]

Twenty days that may remold the future of Europe

The next few weeks may indelibly stain the future of Europe. There are three issues which can irreparably hurt the Old Continent. Starting from Britain in the extreme northwest, this week the country showed that she risks plummeting into a jingoistic abyss. A confrontation with Spain about the Gibraltar Rock has provoked a wave of […]

Elections in Europe: No risks for the EU, leaders readying to face Trump-Brexit

Some political analysts in mainland Europe but many more in Britain and on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in the US, have rushed to call 2017 the year that can make or break the European Union. They basically argue that the three crucial legislative elections due in Holland next month, in France in […]

Trump stumbles badly on his Russian openings; Europeans wary of Putin

In the fourth week of the Trump Presidency things have become more hectic. Those around the boss are now people of authority, and their actions directly affect America and the world. It’s not only that the chief himself changes his mind from one day to the next about crucial global issues, like the ‘one China’ […]

Davos: Why the global elites couldn’t find answers this year?

Last January, Donald Trump and Boris Johnson were not invited to Davos to present their populist, anti-systemic, anti-establishment, anti-globalization political platforms. Actually, their ‘ideology’ was exorcised from the Swiss Alps and instead, David Cameron was made the star of the three day 2016 meeting. The world’s super rich and powerful applauded his passionate speech about […]

Will France vote for more or less Europe in the next presidential elections?

Meeting on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty – From humiliation and exclusion to participation : eradicate all forms of poverty Copyright: © European Union 2016 Source : EP. Location: Brussels, Belgium. Date: 19/10/2016. Photo: Alexis Haulot. The citizens of three of the strongest European countries, having in their minds the recent terrorist […]

Trump and Brexit: After the social whys the political whereto

The economic, social and political gaps between the power hubs of New York and Washington on the one hand and the American Mid-West and Southern states on the other is equal to the space dividing London from the rest of Britain. These distances probably compare to the vacuity separating earth from the moon. This is […]

EU revengefully shows no mercy to Cameron by demanding a fast and sloppy Brexit now

One of the most historicals EU summits is taking place today in Brussels with 27 instead of 28 member states attending the meeting, leaving Britain and David Cameron out due to the recent decision of the British people to vote in favor of leaving the European Union. The EU referendum has caused severe consequences not only to […]

Brexit: when the hubris of one man can set the UK, the EU and the entire world on fire

This article was exclusively written for the Sting by Mr Panos Katsampanis, PhD candidate in European Studies at King’s College London University who focuses his political psychology research on voting behaviour at EU referendums.  What started as a long shot promise back in 2013, when David Cameron committed to an EU Referendum sometime before 2017, if elected at May […]

Has the treacherous theory about the ‘French patient’ finally prevailed?

The overwhelming labor reforms that the French government is currently finding very difficult to introduce, are also posing a crucial dilemma for the entire Eurozone. The ‘liberalization’ of the labor market has already traumatized Italy and the rest of the south European countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal. The northerners have already ‘solved’ this problem, […]

French elections: by the time the EU economy revives and the migration crisis is solved extremists could take over Europe

The National Front (FN) of Marine Le Pen won the first round of the regional elections in France while Nikolas Sarkozy’s party came second and the French President Francois Hollande was disappointingly at the third place. The entire Old Continent was shocked last Sunday when it was announced that the FN received 28% and won six out […]

Migration has set EU’s political clock ticking; the stagnating economy cannot help it and Turkey doesn’t cooperate

The more action clauses a document of a Western Balkans-EU agreement contains, meant to “improve cooperation and step up consultation between the countries along the migration route”, the less cooperation there will be. That was the case last Sunday 25 October when 11 leaders of Balkan and EU countries met in Brussels. They knew very […]

The scary EU elections result and the delayed Council’s repentance

The European elections on 25 May revealed the rise of extremist parties in Europe. 12 countries out of 28 will send ultranationalists deputies to the new European Parliament. France chose the radical Front National (French Nationalist Party) to represent its citizens at the European Parliament. Around 25% of the French votes were in favour of the Front National; […]

Hollande protects the euro from the attacks of extremists

On 8 May, on the anniversary of the Allied Forces victory against Nazi Germany marking the end of World War II, François Hollande, the French president, used the occasion to defend the European project. He wished that all the French citizens could listen to what he had to say. To this effect the French president […]