Far-right movements are capturing European culture, but “artivists” are fighting back. From Planète Boum Boum’s techno-activism in Paris to El Sistema’s music education in Greek refugee camps, they’re reclaiming culture as a space for democratic resistance. ✍️Sedera Ranaivoarinosy

🎨Creative Europe funding supports thousands of artists, but stricter greening requirements raise a question: are environmental priorities helping the cultural sector or adding another burden? ✍️Ena Hodžić

Democracy and autocracy cannot coexist. As Orwell warned: “The two creeds cannot even, for any length of time, live side by side.” The EU faces a choice: lead an alliance of democracies or watch the world order slip towards autocracy. ✍️Sam van der Staak

In 2025, Lithuanian artists forced a culture minister’s resignation through nationwide protest and a shared musical performance. This echoed a Baltic tradition where song, art, and ritual defended freedom under occupation. ✍️Agnese Logina

For 35 years, culture has been primarily valued as a driver of economic growth. But the promise that the “creative industries” would replace factory jobs has collapsed. Today, six large corporations dominate cultural production.

In the Netherlands, the disappointing result in October’s elections is casting doubts on the GreenLeft-Labour merger before it has even been completed. But all is not lost, says political scientist Simon Otjes

🛡️ The new European Democracy Shield acknowledges engagement-based algorithms pose a systemic risk to democracy – yet the Commission chooses to do nothing about it. Green MEP Alexandra Geese explains why this matters and what Europe should do instead👇

Central bank independence is under attack from the populist right, but defending it can’t mean ignoring policy failures. Better coordination between monetary and fiscal policy is needed to pursue democratic objectives. Full analysis👇

Since 2014 the Hungarian government has installed more than 2000 memorials across the country. This state funded campaign seeks to recast national memory and present the ruling Fidesz party in a favourable light. 🪡

Acting Out: Arts and Culture Under Pressure, is here!✨ Our winter edition examines how culture shapes democracy, delves into the far right’s attacks on artistic freedom, and presents new visions for cultural policy that prioritise public value over profit.

In Russia’s war on Ukraine, destruction and reconstruction happen simultaneously. Cultural heritage, once erased by Russia’s imperialism, is being recovered. Recovery requires “constant witnessing and addressing destruction on multiple levels.” Resistance is also epistemic.

Join us in Lisbon on 4 December for the launch of our Winter edition. Arts and culture help us imagine alternative futures, yet they face defunding, political pressure, and AI extraction. We will explore these challenges and ways to fight back. All info👇

Gold mining in the Ecuadorian Amazon is poisoning rivers, uprooting trees, and menacing Indigenous lives. But Kichwa women from the community of Serena have chosen to organise and resist. They created Yuturi Warmi, Ecuador’s first women-led Indigenous guard, to block miners from entering their land👇

Extreme weather is hitting harder every year, and the cost of damage is pushing governments to shift responsibility onto private insurers. In Italy and Greece, soaring premiums and shrinking coverage leave households and businesses exposed. Read the full investigation 👇

Today, Spain marks fifty years since Francisco Franco’s death. With polls showing that more than 21 per cent of Spaniards still view his era positively, a deep divide remains unresolved. Read Bianca Carrera on the incomplete transition from dictatorship👇

Europe once imagined culture as a driver of economic growth, yet this vision has narrowed our understanding of what the arts are for. The “creative industries” emerged under very different social conditions, but today’s policy agendas treat them as engine of GDP rather than as civic foundations.🪡

Hungary has erected over 2,000 monuments in a decade, costing public coffers over 150 million euros. With Fidesz aiming to reshape the past and control the future, the opposition tries to keep up with its own memorials. From Acting Out: Arts and Culture Under Pressure - out on 1st December👇

COP30 launches in Brazil’s Amazon as climate disasters rip “double digits off GDP”. Can China and the Global South fill the leadership vacuum left by Trump’s US? Full analysis by @pablocastano.bsky.social👇

Can Europe bridge its North-South divide on defence? Latvian MEP Mārtiņš Staķis and Spanish theorist Carlos Pérez explore how progressives can move beyond the “realist iron cage” and find common ground on security. Full interview by @richardwouters.bsky.social👇

Sofia’s residents have watched their city suffer under corrupt management and pollution for decades. However, Bulgaria’s “transition generation” refuses to wait for change. They are taking matters into their own hands, transforming neglected spaces into ecological havens.🪡

🔄 Our best hope for effective climate action lies in a new approach to communication that temporarily breaks the boundaries of liberalism. As @climatechr1s.bsky.social argues, we should stop making promises about 2050 and start rebuilding social infrastructure now. Full story👇

Europe’s race for critical minerals in Norway and Sweden’s Sámi lands has put the green transition on a collision course with Indigenous rights. In response, reindeer herders are blocking mines that threaten their millennia-old way of life. How can the EU find a balance?

Fifty years after Franco's death, his brutal legacy still haunts Spanish society. With far-right parties refusing to condemn the dictatorship, experts believe educating society is crucial to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

The Czech Ore Mountains are finally recovering from decades of coal mining and heavy industry. Former quarries have transformed into recreational lakes, and tourism is developing. Yet a new extractive project threatens this fragile revival: lithium mining in the Cínovec area.

Migration dominates the Dutch political debate. What is the root of this obsession, given the country’s average asylum rates and its constant need for economic labour migrants?

Europe is scrambling to catch up in the global AI race. But in doing so, are we abandoning the very values that should define our approach?

Italy’s renewable energy boom is transforming the Po Valley into a battleground between climate goals and food production. As solar companies uproot farmland, farmers face an impossible choice: sell out or watch their way of life disappear.

Europe’s 2025 wildfire season broke all previous records, and Spain was the hardest-hit EU country. While citizens showed notable solidarity to fight the flames, political polarisation stalled desperately needed climate adaptation.

Europe’s hard-won pesticide bans risk a rollback as deregulation gets dressed up as “simplification”. When France attempted to reauthorise a banned neonicotinoid, two million citizens opposed it. But in the long run, the future of farming is still fragile.

Russia’s war on its neighbour has caused widespread damage and destruction, but it has also revealed that Ukraine needs to transform its energy systems. Building a greener, less centralised, and more efficient power grid is a matter of national defence, writes Martin Vrba.

With Czech elections days away, the Greens and Pirates are running together for the first time. Can this cooperation bring back a Green MP after more than 15 years?

Italy’s agricultural holdings have halved in twenty years. The Common Agricultural Policy has fostered a system in which many farmers “cultivate the subsidy rather than the field.” Small farms that care about sustainability barely survive.

With Czech elections days away, the Greens and Pirates are running together for the first time. Can this cooperation bring back a Green MP after more than 15 years?

Have you ever had to deal with the #ChillDude prototype? 🕶️ In our collaboration with @greeneujournal.bsky.social, we discuss the weaponised disconnect of those white guys who think that dealing with climate is too stressful, amirite? Read more 👉 thegreenfix.substack.com/p/white-guy-...

Once referred to as the “boiler room” of Europe, Moravia-Silesia is preparing to phase out coal production. But amidst political corruption, social exclusion, and the absence of a coherent vision, can the Czech region build a viable future for its inhabitants? Full article on our website:

Has a male partner, friend, or family member ever told you to “just chill” when you were angry over politics or climate change? You’re not alone. Cass Hebron breaks down how men resort to indifference to hide away from the many problems of our world.

A new political hybrid is emerging across Europe. Known as “conservative socialism”, it mixes socialist economics with anti-immigration views and opposition to minority rights. This unusual combination has blurred the traditional lines between Left and Right.🧵

On 28 September, Moldovans will head to the polls for parliamentary elections. Amidst well-documented Russian interference, a fragmented political landscape, and competing media narratives, will Moldova continue on its European course? Full article on our website:

Many Global South countries no longer feel bound to major powers and are prioritising their interests over strict alliances. How can Europe and Ukraine reach out to these nations without appealing to a supposed moral superiority?

Thirty years after his passing, Italian Green politician Alexander Langer’s vision of making peace desirable rather than merely necessary feels remarkably prescient.🧵

In 2005, the EU welcomed Israel’s “Gaza disengagement” plan, which froze rather than mitigated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Europe risks repeating the same mistake by offering symbolic recognition without concrete steps to transfer Palestinian sovereignty.

Climate change contributes to water scarcity, but like abundance, scarcity is often the result of unequal power relations rather than natural limits. Could post-growth approaches help us reimagine our failing water systems? An Interview with Lyla Mehta.

Compared to other European countries, Albania has the largest share of public forests. However, this may soon no longer be the case. 🧵

Conservation brought back Europe’s wolves and bears from the brink, but politics is threatening them once again. The EU has moved to weaken protections despite evidence that coexistence with large carnivores is possible. Read the investigation on our website⬇️

The far right projects unity across Europe, celebrating victories and sharing anti-elite rhetoric. Beneath the surface, however, this family is divided, driven by competing economic interests and serving different factions of capital.🪡

On Friday, President Aleksandar Vučić called two EU Green Party officials “scum” after they joined students in Novi Sad, the city where the collapse of a train station canopy last year sparked the biggest protests in Serbian history. But can the movement reshape Serbia’s democracy?

🛢️Norway has doubled down on oil and gas investments after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With elections looming, can smaller parties break the fossil consensus? Interview with @elinlb.bsky.social www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/norways-elec...

Greece has faced increasingly devastating wildfires in recent years as temperatures have soared to record highs. With over 9,000 wildfires in 2024 and seasonal firefighters stretched thin, an unlikely group of heroes has emerged from the shadows of the Exarcheia neighbourhood. 🪡

The advancements of our species would not have been possible without the universalisation of reading. The decline of deep engagement with books risks endangering democracy and science. As AI becomes prevalent, boosting the human capacity for abstract thinking is crucial.

“We must not be afraid to enter a world of war ecology,” the French Ecological Transition Minister told the media recently. But what does this concept mean, and why is it important today? Read Edouard Gaudot’s interview with @picharbonnier.bsky.social: www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/if-you-want-...