September’s Czech Republic First! demonstrations combined legitimate concerns about the cost of living with pro-Kremlin propaganda. But the Czech PM’s wholesale dismissal of the protesters as Putin’s stooges could not …
Our weekly English-language bulletin featuring our pick from European print and one of our top articles from our weekly Přítomnost.
The falsem muse of empathy
The apparent clothed the conditional dented—demented—sovereign O—false muse of empathy The disease of elections Michael March
Why the West needs Central Europe to stay in its Eastern European place
To understand why the imitation of western-style liberal democracy failed post-communist Central Europe, one has to consider the agency of the lead partner, the West. Mimicry is a strategy of …
Women will shake and reverse public opinion about this war
Russian anti-war feminists are challenging Putin’s regime by specifically appealing to women over 45. This underrepresented group, they believe, are victims of propaganda. In quickly motivating a non-radical newspaper campaign, …
The war in Russia will decide
With his threat to use nuclear weapons, Putin is engaging the Western public in a psychological game designed to cloud their judgment. If we want to know how the war …
Demodernization by missiles
Infrastructure in eastern Ukraine has been decimated; business and manufacturing displaced; cultural artifacts destroyed; communities disrupted and families bereaved. In light of all this, the discussion about what Ukraine stands …
Should we be afraid of the new European right?
The specter of far-right nationalist populism sweeping through Europe and the United States has many faces and shades. Leaving aside the neo-Nazi and neo-fascist groups that remain on the fringes …
Europe, forever staggering
“The League of Nations … (assists) as a tribune, and then as an archive for signed documents: nothing more!”, the Paris correspondent Pavel Spiess bemoaned on 10 September 1930 in …
A double-edged eco sword
Climate change affects us all yet not equally. The plight of those forced to migrate as a result – often called ‘climate refugees’, though not officially – has become contested …
Decentralizing the Cold War
When Boris Yeltsin told George Bush in 1991 that the USSR couldn’t exist without Ukraine, he wasn’t referring to the economy: culturally, Russia would have been isolated. Today, the same …
British political supermarket
When the leaves start to wet the tracks in September/October, the season of delayed trains and annual conferences of the main political parties begins in England. The usual inner reticence …
When fascism is female
Giorgia Meloni could become Italy’s first female prime minister. Her political rise is no isolated case: ‘femonationalism’ is flourishing throughout Europe, disguising extremes as the next socially acceptable, mainstream choice. …
Russian Eurasianism or Why they don’t like the West
Although Valery Vilinsky, a native of Odessa and a lifelong exile, categorically rejected Eurasianism and was convinced that Russia belonged to the West, his study Eurasianism, which he wrote for …
Poland: a stable partner of China in Europe
The shrinking “16+1” group will not leave Poland anytime soon. At the end of July, Polish President Andrzej Duda had a phone call with Chinese President and General Secretary of …
Energy and existence
PEN Ukraine conversations With Russia closing its gas pipeline to Europe, predicted economic downturns have hit the markets. Skyrocketing energy bills mean production cuts and job losses, as well as …
Elizabeth II – Queen of the Television Age
In the flood of tributes to the late British monarch, it has been somewhat lost in the shuffle that the institution of the royal family and its associated outward image …
“Honey for the dead”
“Honey for the dead” “A period of enforced mourning” The bees at the checkpoints Honey for the dead Michael March
Death of the Queen
Queen Elizabeth has died. Through her demeanor, propriety, steadfastness and unwavering service — and simply by being there for so many years — Queen Elizabeth came to define the constitutional monarch …
America is not at war in Ukraine, it is fighting Russia
Half a year has passed since Vladimir Putin launched his war against Ukraine. It’s a European war, but the one who has been instrumental in helping the bravely fighting Ukrainians …