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Historian Timothy Snyder teaching at Yale U., July 2017. Photo German Green Party. Licensed under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic licence. Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny, a short guide to 20 strategies for citizens to defend democracy, began as a Facebook post after Trump’s election. Many Americans were anxious when Trump’s ideology and style resembled those of 1930s fascists… Continue reading On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder: a book review

General election in a foreign country is a type of news only a few pays attention. But it shouldn’t be so, especially when Europe is frailer than ever – weakened by the pandemic, wounded by the war in Ukraine, confused in the middle of an energy crisis – and a drastic shift in the policy… Continue reading General election in Italy: what is at stake?

Update Thank you for your tremendous support, we will be leaving with 187 drones! For safety reasons we will not send live reports of our trip. As soon as we are back in Holland we will show you all the details of our trip. Meanwhile the preparations for sending the next load of drones will continue… Continue reading Eyes on Ukraine – Please donate to help us gather information about warcrimes happening in Ukraine

In ons land wordt – terecht – geklaagd over de lakse houding van de sociale media zoals Twitter om haatberichten, beledigingen en valse informatie aan te pakken De wetgever is te sloom om het probleem aan te pakken. Het kan wel. Zie Duitsland en Frankrijk Wat kunnen we doen? Duitsland kent het Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (NetzDG). De… Continue reading Twitter moet openheid over aanpak haatberichten geven

Hungary’s Progressive Alliance Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s official residence in the Castle District of Budapest. Photo by author Progressive Alliance to Challenge Orbán’s Government A very unusual progressive alliance in Hungary plans to fight FIDESZ (Hungarian Civic Union), the right wing ruling party of Orbán Viktor, in the next election on 3 April 2022. I… Continue reading Hungarys Progressive Alliance

Bulgaria’s election spiral: what does the future hold?– Radosveta Vassileva – In an earlier article for the FBPE Blog, I raised awareness of the mass protests against the corruption of Boyko Borissov’s government and General Prosecutor Ivan Geshev which marked the year 2020 in Bulgaria. For months citizens were demanding both the resignation of the… Continue reading Bulgaria’s election spiral: what does the future hold?

The Italian politics guide: the many tiles of a big mosaic If you find it hard to understand Italian politics, you should consider how composite this country is in every aspect. From North to South and even from region to region, accents, dialects, cuisine and lifestyle change dramatically. Italy is like a mosaic, from a… Continue reading The Italian politics guide

I have spent my working years as a Dutch newspaper journalist, mostly on the foreign desk. And I have been an anglophile the whole of my adult life. I was astonished by the result of the Brexit referendum in 2016 and started looking for answers to the big question: why? It didn’t take long to find… Continue reading The British media, a sad story

In the last 30 years we have seen a tremendous upheaval in the balance of power worldwide. What does this mean for our future? What will each of us do to make a positive difference that promotes peace, prosperity and equality? When I was a kid, my best friend’s dad worked in the defense industry.… Continue reading The United Resistance

De Britse media boden voor het referendum van 2016 al geen rooskleurige aanblik, maar in de tijd daarna is het helemaal de verkeerde kant opgegaan. De populaire tabloids zijn voor het overgrote deel in handen van biljonairs, die over de winsten van hun publicaties geen cent belasting betalen in het Verenigd Koninkrijk. Ze wonen zelf… Continue reading De Britse media, een treurig verhaal