Discussion Are the Populists in Europe retreating? took place on July 7, 2017 at Pohoda 2017 festival in Trenčín. The event was held in the format Café Europa in EUrope Stage, co-organized by the Representation of the European Commission in the Slovak Republic. Participants in the discussion included Grigorij Mesežnikov, IVO president,  Katarína Mathernová, deputy director general of the EC Directorate for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement, member of the IVO  board of trustees and Michal Vašečka, associate professor at the Department of Sociology of the Faculty of Social Sciences at  Masaryk University in Brno. The discussion was moderated by Peter Bárdy, the editor-in-chief of the Aktuality.sk portal.

The speakers touched upon a wide range of issues related to the growing influence of populist and radical political forces in Europe, to internal factors acting in favor of the activities of authoritarian and non-liberal parties in Western and Central Europe, to the external support of these parties. They also pointed out the possibility of neutralization of populist, nationalist and Eurosceptic policies, the shifts that are currently taking place in the EU member states.

The more detailed information on the content of the debate can be found in the article publicized on the website aktuality.sk.

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From the left: Michal Vašečka, Peter Bárdy, Katarína Mathernová, Grigorij Mesežnikov.


Participants of discussion on populism at Pohoda 2017 festival with the head of the Representation of the European Commission in Slovakia Dušan Chrenek.