Left and right began as seats in a revolutionary assembly. They still shape politics, but today's decisive divide increasingly runs between pluralist democracy and concentrated power, and nowhere is that choice clearer than in Ukraine.
The Rule of Law is often mistaken for the background machinery of politics. In reality, it transforms the relationship between the person and power: rulers must give reasons, majorities must respect boundaries, and citizens can demand an answer from the state.
Europe needs stronger armed forces - but military spending alone cannot make it secure. A genuine strategy must connect Defence, Diplomacy, Development and Democracy, protecting Europe’s borders while preserving the society within them.
Vladimir Putin did not suddenly turn from liberal to imperialist. From Grozny and Dresden to Crimea and Ukraine, older instincts hardened into a closed historical system in which democracy became subversion, sovereignty conditional and conquest restoration.
The Soviet bloc disappeared more than three decades ago. Its mental map did not. Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and Belarus are still too often described through Moscow — as buffers, backyards or “post-Soviet space”. It is time to put these countries back at the centre of their own histories.
Mathieu Segers taught me to look at Europe from above and below: through institutions and treaties, but also through cafés, literature and everyday life. A personal tribute to the thinker who made my European blind spots less blind.
Mathieu Segers leerde mij Europa van boven én van onder te bekijken: via instellingen en verdragen, maar ook via cafés, literatuur en het dagelijkse leven. Een persoonlijk eerbetoon aan de denker die mijn Europese blinde vlekken minder blind maakte.
From Trump’s America to Europe’s technocratic drift, democracy is threatened not only by extremism, but by the slow loss of moral horizon. When politics becomes money, management and spectacle, Europe must rediscover itself as a political union.
Federalism is the political art of sharing power without erasing difference. From ancient leagues and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to Switzerland and the European Union, it asks one of democracy’s central questions: which decisions belong at which level - and how can we govern together?
Two Latin words tell two radically different stories of political unity. Foedus means covenant or pact; fasces evokes rods bound around an axe. One joins communities through consent, the other through submission. Europe has experienced both models. Its future depends on remembering the difference.
Achthonderdduizend euro voor publieke communicatie roept meer vragen op dan alleen die over de prijs. Wie beslist over dit belastinggeld, hoe worden zulke opdrachten verantwoord en wat gebeurt er wanneer transparantie en politieke verantwoordelijkheid verdwijnen?
Democracy depends not only on elections and institutions, but on trust. This essay explores how fear produces control - and how layered protections make freedom resilient.
Explainer
Ukraine’s European path did not begin in 2014. From the 1991 referendum and the Orange Revolution to Maidan, Crimea and the 2022 invasion, this explainer traces how democratic choice collided with Russian imperial power.
Essay
History is not behind us but beneath us. Every generation builds on layers left by those before it, carrying inherited struggles, freedoms and memories into an unfinished conversation about the future.
Opinie
Klimaatproblemen stoppen niet aan gewest- of taalgrenzen. Zonder gezamenlijke netten, infrastructuur en verantwoordelijkheid blijft Belgisch klimaatbeleid versnipperd en onvoldoende doeltreffend.
News
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