SUMMARY By Marcus How Surveys indicate that local populations in EU-CEE remain broadly positive about EU membership. Apathy is high, however, and trust in national institutions remains low. Combined with ‘convergence fatigue’, these factors have created favourable conditions for populist forces, which have degraded the quality of institutions in numerous states. These forces are qualified […]
THE VIEW FROM MITTELEUROPA: Reconfiguring Chinese economic strategies in CESEE
SUMMARY Changing geopolitical realities are changing the ways in which CESEE states in the EU and Western Balkans are dealing with Chinese investments. As ever, nothing is simple: states are variegated in their approaches. Broadly speaking, there are three approaches: 1. Proactive alignment with US policy priorities (e.g. Lithuania, Czechia, Romania) 2. The (opportunistic?) balancing […]
THE VIEW FROM MITTELEUROPA: Turkish result shows that ‘all for one and one for all’ is rarely the best tactic to bring down a strongman
LESSONS FROM THE TURKISH ELECTIONS REGARDING THE TRACK RECORD OF UNITED OPPOSITION ALLIANCES. Last year, a similar campaign by the Hungarian opposition started with promise but was swiftly derailed by internal dysfunction and external shocks (i.e. the Russian invasion of Ukraine). In Turkey, conditions were different. Kemal Kilicdaroglu was likely not the best candidate but […]
THE VIEW FROM MITTELEUROPA: Austria and Russia – ending the ‘special relationship’?
Back last April, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. It was an impromptu visit. Nehammer had been in Kyiv with Volodymyr Zelenskiy when two of his closest advisors – namely, his wife Kathi and former Bild editor Kai Diekmann – encouraged him to play the archetypal Austrian role of […]
