Now that the year is coming to an end, I’m thrilled to share that I’ll be officially joining @dec-gr.bsky.social at @politiquesuab.bsky.social as a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral fellow starting January 2026. I'm looking forward to this new chapter!

Last week, I presented our latest paper, coauthored with @tonirodon.bsky.social, on the electoral effects of the NextGenerationEU funds on local governments in Spain, at the final workshop of the #COVIDEUProject. It was a great pleasure to work with such a fantastic group of researchers!

Good morning from Berlin. Starting the final workshop of the COVIDEU project, a wonderful close to an inspiring journey. Grateful to have collaborated with such brilliant colleagues @heikekluever.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @theresakuhn.bsky.social (1/2)

🚨 Interested in public opinion, political psychology, democratic backsliding, conspiracies?🛸 ➡️You have until this Thursday to apply for the postdoctoral position in the @tact-forsed.bsky.social. 📍 @uab.cat 🕗 Full-time (37.5h/week), flexible schedule 💶 36.000€ 🗓️ 27 months contract 👇

The Spanish centre-right is taking a tumble and the far-right is on the rise. I was lucky enough to present some new causal work on Friday at LSE showing that the PP does better when it signals distinctiveness from VOX. ~1.5K tests, same result. Rejecting far-right benefits centre-right

Scholars & pundits have focussed a lot on the electoral demise of center left, but in doing so we paid to little attention to the electoral problems of the center right. Case-in-points here not only British conservatives or center right in France, but increasingly also the center right in Spain.

Short-term rentals can disrupt urban life & influence the ballot box - @tonirodon.bsky.social, Raya & Llaneza link high Airbnb density in Barcelona to increased support for parties targeting home-sharing regulation: buff.ly/gPwEQxf @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @uoypolitics.bsky.social @sagepub.com

A highlight today was having my political behavior students replicate (in part) the “Heroes and Villains” paper by @turnbulldugarte.com and @markuswagner.bsky.social but with Spanish characters/influencers 😅

We are hiring! We are looking for a prospective PhD student to work at the Department of Political Science of the University of Barcelona and the Institutions, Politics and Economics Research Center in connection to a research project on Backlash. More details here: sites.google.com/view/jordi-m...

La pregunta es si las mayorías trabajadoras tienen derecho a vivir en las ciudades que ellas mismas sostienen.

1. We do not know the motive of the shooter. The man who shot at Trump was after attention. 2. The man who murdered MN legislators WAS motivated by politics, and I didn’t hear any Dems calling for reprisals against all Repubs. 3. It’s easy to start a cycle of violence. Not easy to end one.

📢 Call for Papers for EPSS 2026 conference in Belfast is out: epssnet.org/belfast-2026... Starting today, we'll feature two sections each week to provide more information about the conference. 🔝 This week: Comparative Politics & International Relations

Last day in beautiful Thessaloniki after 3 papers presentations, 2 discussions and one great conference #ecprgc2025

This is also a great new study on gendered labour market competition and (young) men's opposition to gender equality policies. Must-read for anyone interested in the emerging 'gender divide' among young people. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The European Political Science Society is now accepting paper & panel proposals for its annual conference! 📢 Call for Papers: EPSS 2026 – Belfast
 🗓️ June 18–20, 2026
 📍 ICC Belfast
 📬 Deadline: Nov 7, 2025 🧵

One sign of democratic backsliding that sometimes goes unnoticed is the decline in statistical transparency. Autocratic regimes degrade the state's ability and willingness to produce and disseminate reliable public data.

🧪How did COVID-19 affect citizens’ democratic preferences? ➡️ @cescamat.bsky.social A.Arenas A.Falcó & @jordimunoz.bsky.social find a lasting rise in technocratic preferences and a temporary bump in the willingness to sacrifice civil rights and freedoms www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

Voice is one of the most talked-about, and least explained, aspects of academic writing. We’re told to “find it,” but rarely taught how to build it. I wrote up some reflections here: 👉 open.substack.com/pub/catherin... A 🧵 about why so much academic writing feels voiceless & what to do about it.

Can banning political ideologies protect democracy? 🛡️🆚🗣️ Our (w. @valentimvicente.bsky.social) paper finds: punishing individuals might backfire. We study a West German policy banning "extreme left" individuals from working for the state. #Democracy #PoliticalScience 🧵 url: osf.io/usqdb_v2

😒Do elections stir emotions? ➡Using Facebook data from 26 democracies, @dahjinkim.bsky.social T Muraoka, @christopher-lucas.bsky.social @jacobmontgomery.bsky.social & M Tavits find that ideological polarization intensifies emotional reactions www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

🚨🚨 New paper alert: Culture vs. Institutions @ainagallego.bsky.social‬, Ana Tur-Prats and I have a new paper out in the JOP that examines the impact of historical family types on modern-day female political representation.

❗The segmentation of the right field is eroding, especially among young voters❗ New article out by @simonbornschier.bsky.social @dpzollinger.bsky.social @mrsteenbergen.bsky.social and myself @ipz.bsky.social ‬ @wepsocial.bsky.social tinyurl.com/ycxfx2aj A short 🧵 1/7

New article out in World Politcs. We analyze how different groups react to varying programs of social democratic parties. We find less trade-offs than often assumed. Generally, more left-progressive programs increase support among social democratic potentials muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

A new 'public opinion analytics lab' has been launched: publicopinionanalyticslab.github.io/people/ Led by @miriamsorace.bsky.social, @sarahobolt.bsky.social , @drjennings.bsky.social and a thematic leadership team, POAL advances research & teaching of public opinion measurement and analysis.

📢 Publication alert: Our paper "Unpacking the rural–urban divide: Identities and stereotypes" - with @tonirodon.bsky.social, @griambau.bsky.social, ‬ and Andreu Rodilla - is now out in @electoralstudies.bsky.social.

Excited to kick off #EPSA2025 on Day 1, Panel 1! 🎉 I’ll present my co-authored research with @michaelimre.bsky.social on 50 years of gender representation in political science publications. We analyze nearly 100,000 articles across 72 journals to uncover long-term trends. 🔍 @epsanet.bsky.social

Yesterday EPSS was founded, today we answer members’ questions. A 🧵 1. Who formed EPSS? EPSS was founded by a supermajority vote of the EPSA Council, made up of 3 EPSAL shareholders & 9 elected, appointed, or ex officio members. 1/

Last day at #EPSA2025 and it's been an exciting (and fun) few days. I had the opportunity to share my work on affective polarization and democratic backsliding. Big thanks to @versteegenluca.bsky.social for the thoughtful comments!

Recs for #EPSA2025 schedule: THU, 1.10-2.50, in 0A.05: I’ll chair a panel on conceptual issues in affective polarization, feat. @luismremiro.bsky.social, @mascakir.bsky.social, Mickael Temporão, @fghjorth.bsky.social, plus present work w @katharinalawall.bsky.social + @mtsakiris.bsky.social

🚨 New Open Access! 🚨 Our article “Affective Polarization in the Face of Crisis” is now freely available! While polarization rose among some, it dropped after de-escalation—thanks to perceived elite consensus. 🔗 academic.oup.com/ijpor/articl... Galais & Balinhas 2025 #polsci

Tengo un mensaje para las 2.454.883 personas que siguen en desempleo.

Thinking about immigration from a cultural perspective heightens distrust of political opponents—with Adams, @rwillh11.bsky.social and @ttichelbaecker.bsky.social at @bjpols.bsky.social. Might interest scholars of polarization and ideology, and those analyzing open-ended questions. cup.org/3ZajcQ1

New paper out in IJPOR! We (w Ian McAllister) use @ess-survey.bsky.social and other survey data to examine East/West differences in the use and meaning of left-right. academic.oup.com/ijpor/articl...

🚨NEW PAPER: Why are Members of Congress so extreme? We conducted a 4-wave panel of thousands of voters in 27 districts during last year’s primary AND general elections to trace polarization’s roots The results challenge conventional wisdom… and suggest lessons for parties🧵👇

🕯️🕯️*Conjuring a second reviewer to accept the editor's invitation for reviewing my paper*🕯️🕯️

This is a very interesting observational paper for those working on gendered dynamics of far-right, descriptive rep & femonationalism Does women's descriptive rep. lower anti-gender discourse among far-right? No, it *increases* it (according to parl speech data 2009-2023) doi.org/10.1177/1465...

🚨 working paper (w. @morganlcj.bsky.social @markuswagner.bsky.social): Protesters are not judged equally - even if tactics of groups are similar. We ran an experiment in 🇩🇪 testing how people react to farmers vs. climate activists blocking roads. What we find is disturbing: osf.io/preprints/os...

Some thoughts on the Portuguese election last Sunday. 1. The main story here is one of left versus right. The right as a whole scores a major win, getting 2/3 of the MPs (likely sufficient for a constitutional amendment, eg). The left as a whole was decimated.

A Tinder Test of Democratic Norms💋 New paper in @thejop.bsky.social with @bertous.bsky.social We rely on a visual conjoint experiment, cross-sectional data, & panel data to show that affective polarization drives the normalisation of the far right among the centre-right 🇬🇧🇪🇸 doi.org/10.1086/736698

🚨 “We just need to recognize that we’re all citizens of this country.” –– Politicians + citizens often stress a shared national identity when trying to bridge racial, partisan, or other group divides. @stysyropoulos.bsky.social & I show why such “shared” identities are doomed to fail. 🧵1/9

Autocrats always try to dismantle universities and other sites of free thought. But the current effort to destroy American institutions is also a reactionary backlash against real progress on racial justice in this country. Backlash only happens when movements are winning the argument.

I decided to start a #thread 🧵 of stories about legal residents and tourists being (illegally) arrested, detained and/or deported by the Trump regime. I'll only post stories from serious sources, as rumors and conspiracies are really not needed in this authoritarian moment.

We know that economic anxiety & conspiracy beliefs are related. Often this is used to argue that it is key to fix economic conditions to avoid widespread conspiracy beliefs. But a new study shows that causality runs the other way. The conspiracy beliefs drive the anxiety: doi.org/10.1111/pops...

I had a fantastic time at the Workshop on Comparative Politics in Latin America at @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social! Great discussions, insightful feedback, and an inspiring group of scholars. I have to admit presenting my work in Oxford was always on my political science bucket list 🤓

By 5-4 vote, #SCOTUS *denies* Trump’s emergency application in foreign aid funding cases, but in a way that sends things back to the district court *before* the payments will have to be made: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

Those with a strong national identity can still feel unseen in society. Versteegen’s new study argues that support for Trump may stem from individuals—particularly White, male, and Christian—who feel their background goes unrecognized. Read more: doi.org/10.1111/pops...

The most striking result from yesterday’s German election #btw2025 🇩🇪: 🔹 35 years after reunification: The GDR is redrawn on this map. 🔹 The AfD won 45 out of 48 electoral districts in the East. 🔹 In some parts of Saxony, they came close to 50%! Why is this happening? Here’s my take 👇

AfD overwhelmingly won votes from non-voters and the centre-right. This is a standard pattern. It is a myth that the radical right are mainly winning disaffected centre-left voters.

Just published on APSR First View: "Partisans of Color: Asian American and Latino Party ID in an Era of Racialization and Polarization" by Efrén Pérez, Jessica HyunJeong Lee, and Gustavo Mártir Luna. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Please do not frame this as an AI race. It is not a useful lens. Europe needs investment, innovation, and public value driven AI. The world does not need an AI arms race on the conditions of irresponsible companies or erratic political leadership.