Political Critique Archive

In the anti-immigrant narrative, immigration itself is not the key problem. Hungary is a good case in point.

After months of difficult coalition talks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel finally managed to establish a new government in early March, only to find that she has a spoiler in her own camp.

Earlier this week the Immigrant Council of Ireland announced the launch of the Bloody Foreigners campaign, a migrant driven blood donation programme conceived to give visibility to the contribution Polish nationals make to the country. We talked to Teresa Buczkowska, one of the organisers, and Integration and Anti-racism Coordinator at the Council, about the context surrounding […]

Three elements seem to have played a decisive role in this: voluntary servitude, the Polish brand of inferiority complex, and a deep-seated Polish anti-Semitism and more general exclusivism.

The European Parliament opened its doors to the French president Macron last week to hear his vision for the European Union: a more integrated Europe to safeguard freedom and democracy against the perils of nationalism, illiberalism and authoritarianism at home and abroad; a European sovereignty to complement the national ones. This plea came on the […]

Can I imagine a George Bush Fund? A Dan Quayle Fund? Even a Ted Kennedy or a Dan Rostenkowski Fund? How many Americans, old or young, would donate their wedding bands, or even their talents “for the good of the Republic”?

Abortion has long been criminalised in Brazil. It is an issue that many have all but given up on – except for feminist movements.

The Polish government’s wholesale refusal to admit any guilt or own up to mistakes speaks to a deep-seated immaturity. Recently, when the US secretary of state called President Andrzej Duda to oppose the government’s controversial historical memory law, Duda wouldn’t answer the phone, essentially sticking his fingers in his ears.

What are we to call the political project that emerges from the drama directed by Kaczyński? Maciej Gdula calls it “new authoritarianism”. It is “new” because, contrary to traditional dictatorships, it harnesses the democratic imaginary, and the practice of democracy.

„The East Germans are angry now with Poles. Poles come to East Berlin and buy up all the food, then sell it in West Berlin, where Easterners cannot go, at a big profit.”