It’s a tough life being on a business trip on a Sachsens Tagesgeld (i.e. allowance)

Missed the 🇨🇿 team qualifying for a world cup after 20 years for a boring friendly, which has seen Japan beating the home side England 1-0 in front of 80 000 people (a lot of them Japanese). So what…Last day of PSA and the last night in my beloved Oxford tomorrow :)

T-14 days until the Hungarian election. 🇭🇺🗳️ In this thread, I discuss Magyar's prospects of success in restoring (liberal) democracy (if he wins) and will tell you he's not the saviour you might think he is (but that he’s still good enough for now). 🧵 1/

1. Frederiksen did NOT profit from a rally-around-the-flag effect. 2. There is NO evidence Trump played a role in the Italian referendum. 3. A PRO-Trump politician won in Slovenia.

Incidentally, a lot of atheists 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 think that he may end the world, yet for entirely different reasons

Wanker.

This is pretty much what evil looks like.

Terrorists terrorize…

I have been studying the far right for decades but have never come across the insanity of these Christian nationalists In the U.S. 🤯

Counterpoint: sports are also geopolitics

📚 Am Samstag, 21. März stellen die Herausgeber von "Die AfD im Osten. Analysen anlässlich der Wahlen 2024/25", Uwe Backes (hait-tud.bsky.social) und @michanattke.bsky.social (@kbsachsen.bsky.social) das Buch im Rahmen einer Podiumsdiskussion auf der #LeipzigerBuchmesse vor.

Oscar well deserved

Gentle reminder that the #AfD guy who wanted to be minister-president of the Länd but wasn't actually on the ballot and spent the final phase of the campaign across the pond kissing MAGA backsides is 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 one of the most pro-Russian voices in the party (and never sued the BBC over the 'asset' claim)

This godforsaken idiot piece of shit.

Yes, Iran is run by “religious fanatic lunatics” but there’s no need to pretend the US isn’t…

🎉Neue Publikation🎉 Zum neuen Portal von #ZZF und #MMZ habe ich einen Beitrag zu den "Böhsen #Onkelz" & ihrem Einfluss auf den (frühen) #Rechtsrock in Deutschland beigesteuert: radikale-rechte.de/comment/018-... #BöhseOnkelz

Poor Matt Goodwin. All he ever wanted was to be a hard working MP/academic/tv presenter/commentator/writer/pollster/wealth adviser/women’s health guru and you all ripped that away from him. A shame

It's ten years to the day since Gianni Infantino was elected FIFA President. He has turned FIFA from merely a bad actor into a profoundly dangerous one. A rogue President of a dysfunctional organisation.

My second just-published paper in our special issue compares Pirate 🏴‍☠️ and Green 🍃 parties (against other party types) across first- and second-order elections (EP). Using updated data from my dissertation, I find no comparative advantage in EPE for 🏴‍☠️, but some for 🍃 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

My second just-published paper in our special issue compares Pirate 🏴‍☠️ and Green 🍃 parties (against other party types) across first- and second-order elections (EP). Using updated data from my dissertation, I find no comparative advantage in EPE for 🏴‍☠️, but some for 🍃 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🚨Excited to see my two new publications in a special issue on 🏴‍☠️ parties, co-edited with Vladimír Naxera, now out in Comparative European Politics. The first is the SI introduction (with Vladimír) and a reflection on two decades of 🏴‍☠️ politics in Europe. This was fun! link.springer.com/content/pdf/...

🚨Excited to see my two new publications in a special issue on 🏴‍☠️ parties, co-edited with Vladimír Naxera, now out in Comparative European Politics. The first is the SI introduction (with Vladimír) and a reflection on two decades of 🏴‍☠️ politics in Europe. This was fun! link.springer.com/content/pdf/...

The worst thing of all? Having to check every couple of hours whatever this insufferable fool is up to this time. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

New research with Lawrence Ezrow and Werner Krause in @wepsocial.bsky.social We show that more extreme governments are more likely to deliver policy solely to their supporters

For the first time ever I cancelled a trip (visited almost 60 countries in the last 20+ years) for moral and safety reasons. You can guess which country. It hurts (a close friend’s wedding and a place always close to my heart), but no one should travel there recreationally and normalize that regime.

Mortgage: 35 years of debt + 35 years of paperwork compressed into a few months.

I feel seen

Very excited about this next @crexuio.bsky.social and CANSES webinar on the best way to apprehend the use of AI by extremist actors, with Stephane Baele and @lewysbrace.bsky.social on Feb 19 🤩

For an international audience: Forum for Democracy (FvD) is showing its true colors in many ways recently, amongst others by having candidates from extremist extraparliamentary organisations on its local lists

Call for papers for our workshop on electoral politics at the Poletmaal2026 in Ghent on June 11-12. Please join Amber Voets, Chloe de Grauwe, and myself for great discussions of our changing electoral landscape and explanations for voter behavior politicologenetmaal.eu/workshops-20...

Coming out in June. (when @casmudde.bsky.social & I will be presenting it at the @ces-europe.bsky.social conference in Dublin)

A tragedy. Two million casulties. A war now lasting almost as long as World War I. A Putin led war, enabled by too many other leaders. 🇺🇦 💪🏽 www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/u...

Top-notch research from top-notch researchers

📢 New publication! Luke March and I analyse how European radical left parties politicise the Israel–Palestine and Russia–Ukraine wars, comparing positions across 25 parties. Free access (for a limited time) with this link www.tandfonline.com/eprint/2KQ5C...

Meloni sticking to her usual strategy, which so far has worked just fine for her. Moderation in foreign affairs; a stable, predictable rapport with the EU Commission; throwing some bones to her electorate and party members on matters related to migration and asylum...

📢 New publication! Luke March and I analyse how European radical left parties politicise the Israel–Palestine and Russia–Ukraine wars, comparing positions across 25 parties. Free access (for a limited time) with this link www.tandfonline.com/eprint/2KQ5C...

Czech PM Andrej Babis just stressed he ordered a big Globus for about 600€ to find where Greenland is. No, this doesn’t appear to be a joke…

Here is only at first paradoxical reaction I believe we will see more of - AfD member of the Bundestag Kay Gottschalk argues the US tariffs over Greendland call for more European sovereignty, a European military alliance, a German nuke and ends his video with the slogan "Long live Europe".

⏰ Reminder: deadline tomorrow! Submit your abstract for the MIDEM workshop “Polarized Democracies: New Lines of Division in Europe” (11–12 June 2026, Dresden). Especially for Early Career Researchers including postdocs.

Roger Waters is sort of a Mearsheimer of rock music. Why would anyone still care about his idiotic opinions on…pretty much anything?

Grüße from the Beach 🇦🇹

Very happy to share this OPEN-ACCESS article on 'left populism in office', examining Podemos' policy impact while in a coalition government in Spain (2020-2023) 👇 Very short summary below (1/5): www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I’m organizing (late) a panel on gender and political parties in southern Europe for the upcoming ECPR general conference. Please contact me if you would like to be included. Deadline is Friday, so pls contact me asap. Thanks!

Don’t know what to make out of 🇨🇿 PM Babis’s statement that he doesn’t need to explain to vd Layen the 🇨🇿 far-right’s leader Okamura (currently the chair of the chamber of deputies) statements about her, as she doesn’t know who Okamura is. Is he suggesting that Okamura is a useless nobody? I hope so

Just imagine being an IR Realist this morning

Hot off the press: M. Weisskircher and S. Volk. “The People Against the Sun? Ideology and Strategy in Far-Right Parties' Climate Obstruction of Solar Energy”. In: Environmental Politics online first (2025), pp. 1-32. dx.doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2025.2458380.

I wrote my usual “looking-ahead-at-the-new-year” piece for my friends at @voxeurop.bsky.social — available in 🇬🇧🇫🇷🇩🇪🇮🇹🇪🇸

Donald Trump is unpopular in Europe, according to the new POLITICO Poll. Even among the supporters of right-wing populist parties he sees as allies.

"From Sweden to Spain, researchers found that extremist messaging was woven through cultural aspects of everyday life, both online and offline. (...) These cultural elements serve as gateways, at times helping to reel people into extremism, Kondor said."