This weekend Brazilians will go to the polls to elect a new president. #Brazil is fifth biggest country in the world, in terms of population, and symptomatic of a remarkable authoritarian turn in the world's biggest states. #thread 1. China is the biggest country and only non-democracy in top-5. But even here General Secretary Xi Jinping has taken the country in a (even) more authoritarian and nationalist direction.

I have been arguing for a long time that the EU, and particularly the EPP, should stand up to Viktor Orbán, but I feel nevertheless conflicted on triggering #Article7 - let me explain. #Thread theguardian.com/commentisfree/… 1. Although triggering Article 7 does not mean kicking Hungary out of EU (more below), it is starting with the "nuclear option".

NEW! @pewglobal has just published an interesting and important report on ideology vs populism in Western Europe (full disclosure: I was consulted on it). Here are some of my quick takes. #Thread
You can find the full study here --> pewglobal.org/2018/07/12/in-… 1. The main takeaway for politicians and pundits should be that populist parties are NOT the voice of the people! In fact, in almost all countries they are BY FAR the least favored party!

Good piece on EPP and Orbán by ⁦⁦@PoliticoRyan⁩ although he is too forgiving on EPP’s incredible hypocrisy. A few comments. #Thread politico.eu/article/viktor… 1. I honestly don’t see how EPP comes out of EP2019 weaker, except if Macron joins ALDE (big if).

This is supposed to be defense of one of too many uncritical “human interest” @nytimes pieces on neo-Nazis and other far right people. It shows depth of ignorance among journalists. nyti.ms/2i621hr 1. First and foremost, it shows media’s tendency to think in clichés - the purely evil bad person and the purely good victim.

I think this piece, while more nuanced than "60.000 Neo-Nazis march in Warsaw", still misses many points. #thread wapo.st/2hpCV92?tid=ss… 1. Poland always has had a very strong far right subculture, which is quite diverse, from neo-Nazis, to neo-fascist (Dmowski) to orthodox-Christian nationalists.

In past months I’ve criticized high-profile initiatives on populism at Harvard & Stanford. Let me clarify why. #thread 1. I am happy that populism is (finally) taken serious by US mainstream political and social science.

These “Safaris in Trumpland” are no infuriating and borderline racist. #Thread theatlantic.com/politics/archi… 1. They are not a way to overcome the gap with “the internal other” but to explain them (away).

With more than 99% of votes counted, this seems to be final result of quite surprising #czechelection -- some reflections #Thread 1. Fragmentation is name of game, even in already fragmented party systems like Czech Republic.

First responses to #nrw17 in #Austria on basis of exit poll results. #thread 1. Just like in first round 2016 presidential elections, FPÖ as only one largely underpolled.

Excellent backgrounder to this Sunday’s Austrian elections. Some of my thoughts. #thread washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-ca… 1. Whatever exact outcome, FPÖ coming second or third, “populism” is back st the center of debates on European Politics.

I don't understand why the replacement of #DieLinke by #AfD as the new "Ostpartei" is not one of the major stories of #BTW17 🤔 #Thread 1. Sure, many media have noted that #AfD won almost twice as many votes in East than West and some great articles were written about "revenge of East" theguardian.com/world/2017/sep…

As my @guardian piece is only on #AfD here some general thoughts on #BTW17 results in a #Thread 1. There is no doubt that this is Germany's #SchwarzeSonntag (Black Sunday). It was long in coming but it came much harder than expected.

ALL articles that @EJPRjournal has published on #populism in past 10 years are now temporarily Open Access. #thread onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.111… 1. To my surprise and shock, ALL 19 (!) of the 9 articles are male. Every single one of them.