Профиль

The infighting in PiS has been an admittedly entertaining subplot of Polish politics for the last few weeks, but today's news has really blown the issue up into a major news story. After years of Kaczynski dominating the party through a selection of loyalist candidates, change is happening.

It has been a very poor week for news regarding health in Romania. From high profile figures promoting vaccine conspiracies, to strikes, to anticorruption investigations, there are few signs that health has improved since Dan's presidency began. Below, I outline several of these news stories.

Duda appears alongside a cast of the European radical right, including Romania's George Simion and former British PM Liz Truss. For an event supposedly focused on the 'future' of the European sovereigntist right, there's a lot of faces from the past.

Former Hungarian FM Szijjártó getting a job at BYD and leaving politics. It's almost too on the nose: it's the type of post-politics position you'd jokingly suggest for him, but I didn't expect him to actually do it.

Latest Romania update: 47 days and counting without a functioning government. The vote for the Veștea government has unsurprisingly failed. After days of the PSD courting the far-right AUR, Simion brought an ultimatum: they will vote for Veștea if Dan withdraws calling AUR extremists.

If anyone is curious as to how Veștea's candidacy is being received, his latest Facebook post in which he announces he's planning to run for PNL leader might give some indication. Every second comment is suggesting he goes to the PSD, and a few people are comparing him to Dragnea and Ponta.

I've been largely offline for a couple of days, but Romania's political developments warrant discussion and what can only be described as an attempt at explanation given how much has gone on.

That sound you can hear is the furious googling of the name "James Murray", from all the correspondents and pundits trying to work out who he is.

PSD has for a long time not fit within the PES. For them to post this yesterday, the same day PSD collaborated with the far right AUR to bring down a pro-EU government, pushes them from parody into farce.

I have linked here to a very good article on the dangers a measles outbreak would (again) pose in Romania. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

‘It’s a powder keg’: Romania leads EU measles cases as vaccination rates collapseBottlenecks in the system and parents’ suspicions mean doctors expect another serious outbreak soonwww.theguardian.com

Romanian media continues to disappoint on coverage of Hungary's election. The amount of places referring to exit polls is infuriating.

Thoroughly enjoyed a trip to sunny Oxford for the @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social conference presenting my working paper on media framing of militant democracy in Romania and Moldova. A very strong range of panels and keynotes, would highly recommend!

This is an important point. There has been so much of a focus on the youth and social media influence that it is easy to think it is limited to the young - but when you look at the role of Facebook etc and how its user base skews, this has likely obscured a worrying trend in older age groups.

Great thread on the upcoming elections in Hungary. In short, apprehension is necessary.

An important contribution addressing how the Representation of the People Bill doesn't meet the needs of contemporary British democracy:

This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone looking for a comparative politics PhD: