How Eastern European Populism is Different

Sławomir Siera­kowski, a founder of the liberal leftist pan-european online magazine Krytyka Polityczna in Poland, is Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Warsaw. He has written about the pheno­menon that the rightwing populist’s influence is mainly concen­trated to Eastern European countries. Exerpt:

“… It is worth asking if populism will come to define the true cultural – and, in turn, political – boundaries of the European Union. If Polish or Hungarian politics proves more similar to the politics of Russia than of France or Austria, does that mean the EU’s borders are overex­tended? Could it be that their place is with Russia, rather than with Western Europe? Are the EU’s borders therefore impos­sible to maintain in the long run?

I hope not, but these are troubling questions. And only Eastern Europeans themselves can settle them.”

Full text: How Eastern European Populism is Different