Democracy

Following the German federal election of 26 September 2021, the German Greens achieved the biggest, most female, younger and diverse parliamentary group in their history. Let’s explore some fact and figures about the Alliance 90/The Greens fraction in the 20th Bundestag!

After a long period during which the media landscape has been mirroring the prevailing clientelism, Greece is now experiencing a rapid downslide towards dangerous pathways regarding media pluralism that bring the quality of democracy in the country into question. A look at the events and political developments that have accumulated over the last months.

Memorial is one of the best-known and most internationally renowned Russian non-government organisations and it has won the Sakharov Prize, the Right Livelihood Award and many other accolades. We object in the strongest possible terms to the politically motivated, manifestly unfounded proceedings against Memorial. The threat of the liquidation of Memorial deals a further, possibly final blow to independent civil society in Russia.

More than a year after the European Commission tabled the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, negotiations are at a standstill, while the number of asylum seekers arriving in the Union is sharply increasing. The Afghan crisis has made apparent the absence of uniform and coordinated responses by EU Member States.

Big communication platforms like Facebook, YouTube and others do little to create safe spaces for users. On the contrary, the platforms make money with hateful and divisive content, which they use to capture their user’s attention and will keep them on the platforms for as long as possible. There is no doubt about this since the latest revelations of whistleblower Frances Haugen. Women and girls - like all people affected by digital hate - are defenceless on the platforms.

Panel discussion at the "Visions for a Digital Europe 2025" conference, with: Ellen Judson, Senior researcher at CASM, the digital research hub at Demos, London, Felix Kartte, Senior Advisor Reset.Tech, Berlin, Torben Klausa, Journalist at Tagesspiegel and PhD researcher on platform regulation, University of Bielefeld, Jaana Müller-Brehm, Policy Advisor iRights.Lab, Berlin. Moderation: Zora Siebert, Head of EU Policy Programme, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Brussels

Panel discussion at the "Visions for a Digital Europe 2025" conference. Intro statement by Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem, Professor University of Hamburg, former Judge of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. Discussion with: Ania Helseth, Strategic Policy Manager - EU Affairs, Facebook, Jeanette Hofmann, Professor Free University of Berlin and Principal Investigator WZB Berlin, Andreas Schwab, Member of the European Parliament. Moderation: Geraldine de Bastion

In France, government disinformation is a rare phenomenon and the truth is swiftly revealed, thanks in particular to the work of certain media sources published information. Although it is not widespread, all manipulation has its consequences, gradually increasing the people’s distrust of institutions.

Following the recent parliamentary elections, many Czechs celebrated the opposition parties’ victory over the business magnate and incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. However, the new center-right governing coalition must be careful not to return to the previous status quo that helped Babiš to power eight years ago.