Articles
What is the European Media Freedom Act?
The European Media Freedom Act, in force since August 8, 2025, is the EU’s first binding regulation to protect media independence and pluralism. It guarantees access to independent content, safeguards journalistic sources, increases ownership transparency, restricts surveillance, and strengthens the EU’s ability to act against media concentration.
The asylum amendment and institutional regression in Greece
The Greek asylum amendment of July 2025 suspends protection rights for arrivals from Libya, igniting strong institutional and legal backlash.
The Game of Thrones at Mount Sinai: confiscations, courtrooms, and clerical chaos
The world’s oldest active Christian monastery faces simultaneous legal expropriation and internal revolt. A May 2025 Egyptian court ruling reclassified the Monastery’s property as state-owned, sparking diplomatic tensions with Greece. Meanwhile, a faction of monks attempted to oust Archbishop Damianos, exposing a deep rift within the cloistered community.
Energy poverty: the thermostat of inequality in Greece
Amid a relentless heatwave, Greece in 2025 confronts a silent crisis: energy poverty. Cool air has become a privilege, and the most vulnerable pay the highest price. As temperatures soar past 44°C, inequality doesn’t sweat — it burns.
The European confrontation with Palestine
In late July, Europe showed rare signs of breaking from the inertia that has long defined its stance on the Palestinian question. The recognition of a Palestinian state by G7 leaders, the first pressures on Israel, mark a rare window for political realignment. Whether this turn becomes a coherent strategy or fades into symbolism remains to be seen.
The Aegean marine parks or the cartography of sovereignty
Marine parks emerge as geopolitical instruments, where Greece and Turkey cloak territorial claims in the language of environmental protection, turning conservation into cartography.
Blooded minerals of the green transition
Cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo powers the global green transition, yet its path runs through Chinese refineries, locking Europe into dependence. Behind every battery lies displacement, pollution, and human rights abuses. Without fair local investment and ethical supply chains, the “green” transition risks becoming a new form of colonial exploitation.
The rationality of far-right irrationalism: how the AfD is reinventing the far-right
Germany’s far-right AfD is undergoing a strategic makeover — not by renouncing its ideology, but by repackaging it in parliamentary politeness. Inspired by Trump-style polarization, it reframes the battle as one between “common sense” conservatism and a radical left elite. Behind the façade lies a deeper threat: the erosion of postwar democratic consensus.
Europe at a crossroads: navigating the shift in EU-Israel relations amid the Gaza conflict
As Gaza’s rubble grows, so does Europe’s moral burden. Once a champion of human rights, the EU now faces a critical test: remain complicit in silence or act on its founding values. With public anger rising and diplomatic ties fraying, the pressure is mounting. Will it reclaim its moral voice—or lose it for good?
A Mediterranean on fire, a politics of silence
The Mediterranean is burning—again. From Greece to Turkey and Syria, wildfires now reshape landscapes and lives. As climate extremes intensify, political systems remain reactive, fragmented, and dangerously unprepared.
Overtourism as a phenomenon or what it means to live in a glass case
As mass tourism reshapes the Mediterranean, locals push back against rising rents, erasure of community, and cities turned into theme parks. This piece explores overtourism’s impact and calls for a new balance between visiting and belonging.
Drafted by deception: African migrants in Russia’s war
Lured by promises of work, visas, or safety, African migrants in Russia are coerced into war. Through contracts they can’t read and threats of deportation, they’re funneled to the front lines in Ukraine—stripped of identity, abandoned by nations, and used as disposable soldiers in a conflict they never chose.
Europe’s gates close: Greece as a testing ground for a new migration policy
A decade after the refugee crisis of 2015, Greece has become Europe’s laboratory for a new migration model—one marked by detention, criminalisation, and exclusion. From the barbed-wire camps of Lesbos to the courtrooms of Crete, the human cost of Fortress Europe is no longer an exception, but the rule.
Who owns the voice of Europe?
Who Owns the Voice of Europe? As algorithms shape what we see, hear, and believe, the EU stands at a crossroads: regulate Big Tech from the outside — or build a civic digital space from within.
Love without permit: Budapest Pride and the struggle for visibility
Hungary’s new constitutional amendment banning LGBTQ+ public events signals a deeper authoritarian shift. As Pride becomes a target, protesters, activists, and EU institutions face a critical test of democratic resilience.
Seneca at the gym: stoicism and toxic masculinity
Today’s Stoicism isn’t in the Agora, it’s at the gym. Repackaged through TikTok reels and “alpha” podcasts, the ancient philosophy has been stripped of ethics and turned into a lifestyle brand of emotional repression and individual supremacy. Discipline replaces compassion, silence replaces civic duty. This isn’t about inner virtue, it’s about selling strength. But Seneca wasn’t training for dominance. He was training for justice.
From risk to resilience: an international meeting on the safety of journalists in Thessaloniki by the ICSJ
The From Risk to Resilience conference in Thessaloniki, organized by the ICSJ, brought together global experts to tackle threats to journalist safety. With input from UNESCO, OSCE, and regional leaders, the event highlighted the need for institutional accountability and trauma-informed support.
Gamifying nationalism: the AfD and the politics of emotional belonging
Welcome to TikTok Nationalism: a flawless face, a beat drop, and the caption “Germany for the Germans.” Alice Weidel’s speech remixed with synthwave, AI avatars, and shadowy migrant clips. Politics has left parliament for the infinite scroll, where propaganda wears lip gloss and vibes. The AfD doesn’t campaign—it performs. Ultrantionalism becomes aesthetic, identity over ideology. As Marcus Bösch calls it: slopaganda—low-res, emotional, made to go viral. In this gamified nationalism, belief is optional. Just hit share.
Italy at the ballot: the quiet referendum of 2025
In the shadow of silence, Italy held a referendum that dared to ask who counts as a citizen and how far employers’ power can reach. With Giorgia Meloni’s government opting for institutional disengagement and public indifference, turnout plummeted, rendering invisible one of the most significant democratic consultations in recent memory.
