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Populism

World Congress of Families XI meeting, Budapest Congress Center, May 27, 2017, Budapest, Hungary.

Home front: Part II

Critical State, a foreign policy newsletter by Inkstick Media, takes a deep dive this week into the World Congress of Families, an organization that has helped shape and share a reactionary agenda among conservatives across the globe.

VOX party leader Santiago Abascal applauds supporters before making a speech during a rally by the extreme right wing party VOX in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, March 19, 2022. 

Democracy, interrupted: Part I

Critical State
Protesters hold a banner with a message that reads in Spanish: "Duque, stop the massacres," directed at Colombia's President Ivan Duque, as they march to Bolivar Square in Bogotá, Colombia, Wednesday, May 12, 2021.

Discourse of justice: Part I

Critical State
Three white men stand together outside. One wears a hat with German flag colors. One's blue shirt back reads "Dissident."

Europe’s far-right stands behind Trump in US 2020 election

Politics
A woman and a man sit in chairs in front of the New Zealand and Australian flags

Women leaders eschew ‘macho-man’ politics in COVID-19 response

Leaders
A man speaks in front of a crowd of journalists with microphones.

‘Downward spiral’ of press freedom echoes in ABC police raid in Australia

Conflict & Justice

Australian police conducted a raid on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC, and has caused worry on the state of global press freedom. A new Freedom House report titled “Downward Spiral” goes into detail on the erosion of press freedoms.

voting in holland

In upset, Dutch Labor party trumps populists in European vote

Global Politics

The Dutch vote was a first test of the appeal of populist and Eurosceptic parties contesting elections across the bloc through Sunday, and the outcome may offer some relief to established pro-EU parties.

Marion Maréchal stands behind a podium and speaks in front of a backdrop of a photo of the US capitol

Le Pen’s niece opens grad school to train new generation of French far-right leaders

Marion Maréchal — previously known as Marion Maréchal Le Pen — quit politics last year and dropped her famous last name, but she hasn’t dropped her focus on giving the far-right a boost. Maréchal’s latest endeavor has been to start a school aimed at training the ultra-conservative elite in France.

Francis Fukuyama standing outside with his arms crossed.

Francis Fukuyama on 2018, a year in identity politics

Global Politics

2018 saw populist political movements drive leadership crises in France, Germany and the UK. The World asks Francis Fukuyama, author of “The End of History,” to focus on identity politics and ginned up divisions in those countries and here in the US.

The Place de la République in Paris is shown in the background with thousands encircling a monument in the middle of the square.

What French populists from the ‘50s can teach us about the ‘yellow vests’ roiling Paris today

Global Politics

A populist movement that threatened to topple a French government more than 60 years ago has important lessons for today’s protests and why they represent a reckoning.