How Europe’s far right used unlabelled AI to win votes — and now writes the rules

📣 New article 🌟 👥 Atle Haugsgjerd, Jonas Linde @jonaslinde.bsky.social &Ruben B. Mathisen @rubenmathisen.bsky.social 👉 Populist radical right party representation and satisfaction with democracy in Europe 📗 Open Access in Journal of European Public Policy 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1350...

@ecprtheloop.bsky.social invites pitches for the Future of Populism blog series, co-edited by @petraguasti.bsky.social and myself. Nearly 100 blogs have been published so far. 🔍 Any country, method, approach. 🎓 PhD students & ECRs especially encouraged. ✍️ Submit via The Loop 👉 lnkd.in/ghAy6s96

#OpenAccess from @psrm.bsky.social - The distribution of hate speech and its implications for content moderation - https://cup.org/4sgFqNl - Gennaro, Bronner, Derksen, @maelkubli.bsky.social, Kotarcic, Kurer, Grech, @karstendonnay.bsky.social, @fgilardi.bsky.social#OpenAccess& Hangartner #FirstView

💪 Through strongman toughness or maternal guardianship, populists model idealised versions of a nation’s citizens + they naturalise exclusion. ♀️♂️ Selina Mabrouki of @ecprgender.bsky.social shows how #populist leaders exploit gendered role models as tools of emotional persuasion. 👉 bit.ly/44HLcNH

Which factors affect how Americans react to political violence? Our paper in @polbehavior.bsky.social addressing this question just got a volume and issue number! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Who are the “People” and what does “Home” mean? A case of frame transformation and counter-framing of the “People’s Home” in the Sweden Democrat Rhetoric 1989–2022 New paper with @elgenius.bsky.social in Social Semiotics www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

🗳️ AUTHLIB Publication What happens when far-right parties govern? 👉 @franziskawagner.bsky.social & @yavuzmehmet.bsky.social @weareceu.bsky.social & @schaferd.bsky.social @msstate.bsky.social @ceudeminst.bsky.social show they pull mainstream parties rightward w/out lasting moderation 📖 t.ly/W2N9N

New Publication out! 🔥 Italy’s right-wing politics has changed dramatically over the past two decades. With @gippone.bsky.social and @leonardo-puleo.bsky.social we started from a basic question: Why has the radical right surged inside Italy’s right coalition? Radicalisation or something different?

"De coming out van de fascistische knokploegen in Nederland." Zo benoemt @folkertjensma.bsky.social de "Malieveldslag" van september. Ik waardeer t enorm dat hij aandacht vraagt voor dat kantelpunt in de Nederlandse politiek. audio.nrc.nl/episode/1574...

I did an interview with Faculti about my three decades of research in the far right.

Clear evidence that at universities conservatives don't face higher obstacles than liberals to establish student groups + invite outside speakers. "These results fail to offer support for the view that conservative students encounter more difficulty in efforts to access campus resources."

Read this @universiteitennl.bsky.social @d66.nl @vvdonline.bsky.social But also @aob.nl and @fnvuniversiteiten.bsky.social Our international colleagues and students deserve a much stronger defense if we don’t want to catapult the Netherlands back to the academic backwaters we have come from.

Échange avec @lemonde.fr (merci!) sur l’extrême droite et l’érosion de la démocratie en #Italie. Non, cela n’arrive pas qu’en Europe de l’Est et aux US. @sciencespo-cee.bsky.social @scpo-research.bsky.social www.lemonde.fr/idees/articl...

Truth be told: na het gesprek vorige maand was ik best een paar dagen onder de indruk en een beetje van de leg van Cas' verhaal.

Het Leidsch Dagblad vroeg mij terug te blikken op een bewogen politiek jaar www.leidschdagblad.nl/regio/leiden...

📣 Call for #ecprgc26 Panels and Papers 📈 Prospects and Problems of Political Culture in the Face of Democratic Challenge 🪑 Stephen Welch & Martin Neumann ✅ @ecprpolculture.bsky.social endorsed ⌛ Deadline: 9 Jan buff.ly/v2UkSNy #Polisky #Populism #Academicsky

Het Leidsch Dagblad vroeg mij terug te blikken op een bewogen politiek jaar www.leidschdagblad.nl/regio/leiden...

Ik sprak met @guusvalk.bsky.social over @d66.nl “Je weet nooit wat typisch D66 is. Het is meer een mentaliteit dan een set standpunten” www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

Post-doc positions: "Academic freedom is under pressure today. This requires rescue havens of free research. ... [we] invite early career researchers, whose work is restricted due to political pressure in the USA..." uni-freiburg.de/frias/call-f...

Fear, anger, and populism on Twitter/X 😡 Using machine learning on 1M UK tweets, @giulianoformisano.bsky.social, Jörg Friedrichs, Florian S. Schaffner & Niklas Stoehr seperate #Populist from #Governmentalist rhetoric and track how emotions drive #PoliticalCommunication

New publication with @turnbulldugarte.com in @psrm.bsky.social! 🧵 We study whether citizens’ liberal values are selective: do people support policies based on who promotes them? Short answer: Yes, and it's driven by ethnic out-group disidentification. (1/11) 👇 doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

Somber stemmend maar lezenswaardig interview met @casmudde.bsky.social over de snelle normalisering van radicaal-rechts en autoritarisme, en de gelatenheid waarmee dit op universiteiten wordt ontvangen. In dat opzicht merk ik dat het ook in Europa/NL héél snel kan gaan... www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

Je must read voor het weekend

Vote shares are often used to compare social democratic party success and to decide who to learn from. However, SD parties operate in very different socio-structural contexts. If we e.g. compare today's vote shares with those in the 90s, the Swiss SP stands out as having lost the least votes.

Come and join us at the CEE - Centre d'études européennes et de politique comparée: we are looking for a new assistant professor in political science working on ecological transitions. www.sciencespo.fr/centre-etude...

Our neighbours at @tcdpoliticalsci.bsky.social are hiring 3 (!) tenure-track faculty members: – Assistant Professor in Political Economy – Assistant Professor in International Politics – Assistant Professor in Political Science Deadline: 15 Jan 2026 More details: jobs.tcd.ie @tcddublin.bsky.social

Out of 102 episodes globally in which a trend toward autocracy was reversed over the past century, the vast majority led to restored or even increased levels of democracy. doi.org/10.1080/1351...

Why do citizens who say they support democracy tolerate leaders who dismantle it? Delighted to share my paper “Framing Democracy: How Elite Discourse Shapes Citizens' Understandings of Democracy and Enables Backsliding” is forthcoming in World Politics...(1/5, link at the end)

Je must read voor het weekend

🏛️ AUTHLIB Special Issue Highlight @larboe.bsky.social @sldelange.bsky.social @nathaliebrack.bsky.social & @mrooduijn.bsky.social @ulbruxelles.bsky.social / UniAmsterdam show how populism, nativism & authoritarianism merge into an illiberal agenda in the European Parliament 📖Open access: t.ly/ByvOy

🚀Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Happy to announce the 5th @ecpr.bsky.social E&D Summer School on Concepts and Methods for Research on Far-Right Politics, co-organized with 💘 @andreapirro.it. 🍝 @unibo.it , 6–10 July 2026 🔗Application, info, instructors: ecpr.eu/Events/353

Rosie Collington is one of the most compelling new voices in political economy, not just for what she studies, but for how she writes. New Etched in Marble conversation just out. 👇 catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/rosie-coll... 🧵

📣 Call for #ecprgc26 Panels & Papers 💥 Extremism in Extreme Times: Moving Beyond the Mainstream 🪑 @drkondor.bsky.social & Greta Sophie Jasser ✔️ @ecpr-ead.bsky.social endorsed ⌛ New deadline: 9 Jan buff.ly/EQHVXHN #Polisky

In Germany, charges have been filed against 8 suspects allegedly part of neo-Nazi group Letzte Verteidigungswelle, including membership in a terrorist organization. 6 also face attempted murder charges from 2 arson attacks including on an asylum accommodation centre www.tagesschau.de/investigativ...

New paper out w/ @tomwgvdmeer.bsky.social & @hakhverdian.bsky.social in @epsrjournal.bsky.social. We show that political trust dynamics matter for electoral behavior. While stable and variable distrusters behave similarly, declining trust boosts both abstention and anti-establishment voting. 🧵

Trust me, as a PhD researcher working on the far right you dont want to miss this amazing opportunity

New paper, with @johnkenny.bsky.social, shows politicisation of climate change attitudes in Europe from 2016 to 2022 increased mostly because of greater climate consciousness among those on the left rather than less among those on the right: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

CfP for COMPTEXT is now out. If you work on computational text/images/video, this conference is for you! It is a great opportunity, especially for early career scholars. We look forward to welcoming you in Birmingham ☺️

🚨 Postdoc in Comparative Politics/Public Opinion (2 years) We’re hiring a 100% Postdoc at the University of Greifswald. ✨ What makes this job special: Two full years to focus on research (no teaching, no admin overload) embedded into an International Research Training Group

This is a really interesting paper about the role of knowledge claims in rural resentment and urban-rural divides more broadly. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... cc: @svenhegewald.bsky.social @juliusk.bsky.social @twanhuijsmans.bsky.social @pauruh.bsky.social @rgarciadelhorno.bsky.social

we have 5 positions open at @goetheuni.bsky.social in Frankfurt - a 4,5 year postdoc in my @erc.europa.eu project on the educational cleavage - 2 postdoc & 2 PhD positions, 4 years, in a research group on Reconfiguration & Internalization of Social Structure www.uni-frankfurt.de/48794784/FB0...

🎧 New on Politically In/Sane: Ep.1 - Do campaigns actually change minds? With Dr. Florian Foos (NYC & Dutch elections). @florianfoos.bsky.social (LSE) Ep.2 -Political games inside bureaucracy, with Dr. Elisa Wirsching (LSE). @lsegovernment.bsky.social Listen 👉 linktr.ee/Politically....

New post-doc position working with me in a new lab at @snfagora.bsky.social ! It's one year appointment, renewable for up to 5 years. The position includes data analysis and independent research, mentorship of lab members, and participation in SNF Agora Institute life. apply.interfolio.com/178796

Yes. This is important. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Why do rural dwellers show lower support for green policies? Is it because they prioritise the environment less over material goals, or because they perceive higher costs of green policies? Check out our new article! @environmentalpol.bsky.social @evaanduiza.bsky.social tuit.cat/OP6Ph

Once again, I spoke with @tomnuttall.bsky.social about the #AfD, which continues to #normalise even as it #radicalises - a dynamic we both observed at the founding event of the party's new #youthwing in Gießen. An excellent portrait, with comments by @kai-arzheimer.com and yours truly. 👇

Radical right parties in Europe have not moderated. Their positions and rhetoric have entered the mainstream. They have become normalized and legitimized. Unless we understand this, we have little chance of countering their success.

How did gender & attitudes towards gender and sexuality shape votes in the 2024 European Parliament elections in 🇫🇷? The results of our research with Nonna Mayer & @anjadurovic.bsky.social have just been published here: shs.cairn.info/revue-europe... 🧵(1/15)

A new PNAS paper finds that polarization increased immediately after the invention of smartphones and the advent of social media, which both appeared around the same year, 2008. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...