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After Erdoğan’s Narrow Victory

Update: Since the time of writing of this article, over three weeks ago, the Turkish lirahas lost over 25% of its value against the US dollar and inflation is rapidly catching up on this figure. A significant factor in this devaluation has been the diplomatic crisis between Turkey and the United States over the former’s […]

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Tensions in the Balkans: is Serbia preparing to recognise Kosovo?

The Serbian President’s rhetoric since July 2017 has been suggestive of a compromise deal – but, argues Vladimir Unkovski-Korica, the future is still uncertain.   Last week, Kosovo’s authorities failed to publish their promised draft statute for the Community of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) i.e. for the several tens of thousands of Serbs concentrated in north […]

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Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Researchers on the Campaign Against a Project on Gender Equality

Note from the LeftEast editors: days after The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (a.k.a. The Istanbul Convention) was declared “unconstitutional” by the Bulgarian Constitutional Court, the witch-hunt against the so-called “gender ideology” took its first symbolic victim. A project on gender equality nominated in the first […]

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It was never about the Istanbul Convention

The debate over the ratification of the so called “Istanbul Convention” in Bulgaria, as in some other countries in the region, became a huge public scandal and probably the most important political matter of 2018. Originally intended to provide states with a framework for prevention and reduction of domestic violence against women, the document has […]

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When is OK to shut down a newspaper? “Economic” vs. “Political” Pressure on the Public Sphere

Note from the LeftEast editors: The Bulgarian media market is extremely concentrated and under immense pressure to contract still further. Several analytical outlets have recently shut down due to financial constraints. The lack of media pluralism and the severe ownership concentration have been reflected in the recent decision of Reporters Without Borders to downgrade the country’s […]

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„When is it time to act if not now?!” Participatory action research about housing movements in Hungary

Ilona Csécsei – Andrea Csengei – Mariann Dósa – Imre Kleiner – Magdolna Palotai – Ibolya Tünde Szakmáry – Zoltán Sziráki – Károly Szombathy – István Tompa – Éva Tessza Udvarhelyi – Nándor Wittmann (as known as “When is it time to act if not now?!” research group) “Something should be done, but I don’t […]

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Orbán in Jerusalem: The illiberal axis tightens

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s visit to Israel last week came at a moment in which the latter’s slide into legally-sanctioned racism has taken on particularly stark colors. In the final meeting of its summer session, the Israeli Knesset enacted the “Nation-State Law,” formally enshrining the ethnic exclusivity of the Jewish state and the degraded […]

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Decolonization and Semiperipheral Postcoloniality: Hungarian Experts in Nkrumah’s Ghana

Notes from the LeftEast editors: this piece was first published in the Hungarian journal Mezosfera, and was reprinted with kind permission of the author and the journal. It should be cited as: Zoltán Ginelli, “Hungarian Experts in Nkrumah’s Ghana. Decolonization and Semiperipheral Postcoloniality in Socialist Hungary,” Mezosfera Issue No 5, Refractions of Socialist Solidarity, ed. Eszter Szakács (Budapest: tranzit. […]

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Interview with the Emma Collective from Kaunas

The Emma Social Center is organizing a feminist gathering in Kaunas, Lithuania between 24-26 of August 2018. Their call for participants and activity proposals can be found here: https://feminismineasterneurope.wordpress.com/.  LeftEast Femineast editor Alexandra Ghit talked to them briefly about the Center, inter-sectional feminist political organizing, the worrisome situation in Eastern Europe and their hopes for this […]

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What the Left Needs is to Reinvent Itself – An Interview with Srećko Horvat

The following interview of Srećko Horvat by Magdaléna Hajdučková and Jaroslav Michl first appeared in Deník referendum, a Czech web-portal. Magdaléna Hajdučková and Jaroslav Michl: The Left in post-socialist Central and Eastern European countries is facing a deep crisis. Hungary and Poland are on their way to becoming authoritarian regimes. What is your explanation of developments in those […]