Thought

BIRN launched its latest project, Reporting Democracy, on Friday in Budapest with a conference that heard about the rise of populism in Central and Eastern Europe, the role of the media and about activism. 

Journalists work in front of the main stage as they cover election night results at the European Parliament in Brussels, Sunday.

,,I voted for a united, strong and stable Europe'', told reporters after exercising her right to vote in Kardzhali, National Assembly Chairman, Tsveta  Karayancheva reported BTA.

    In her words, she has voted for  Europe of common sense rather than populism and extreme left-wing and extreme right-wing parties.

Deputy Chairman of GERB Tsvetan Tsvetanov held a working meeting with the Belgian Ambassador to Bulgaria HE. François Bontemps.

The suspension of the membership of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's party in the European People's Party constitutes a resounding message to the political forces which do not respect the fundamental principles of the European family.

"The point is not to force [libertarianism] into Serbian culture but to recognise the elements that are compatible with it here … and then see how those ideas are best adapted to Serbia," Cekarevac, Libek's executive manager, says.

Europe's latest "renaissance" was supposed to have started with the collapse of the communist regimes in the East, right after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Despite the magnitude of this development as a political event, however, it did not have a major cultural impact for the simple reason that the experiment of "real socialism" had run its course and was already considered over.

Political theorist Albena Azmanova, who teaches at Kent University's Brussels School of International Studies, will deliver a lecture titled "Populism and the Transformation of Capitalism," at the Athens Concert Hall on Thursday, March 7.

In the pre-election period that Greece has entered, one hears plenty of grand declarations from politicians. Some, for instance, are about how to defeat neoliberalism, and others concern safeguarding the endangered European culture.

Alexis Tsipras has issued a call to arms "to all those who define themselves as belonging to the progressive wing and who recognize that the great issue of our age is to avert the rise of the extreme-right in Europe and also to deal with neoliberal choices and neoliberal policies." The prime minister's effort to give an ideological slant to the pre-election period is understandable, given that