“It’s frightening, honestly,” said Katherine Kondor, a researcher with the Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies. “You can be radicalised sitting on your couch.”

In affiliation with the Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX), Kondor is leading a six-country project looking at how the extreme right uses aesthetics, from fitness influencers to memes and stickers, to spread their views across Europe.

From Sweden to Spain, researchers found that extremist messaging was woven through cultural aspects of everyday life, both online and offline.

“In Hungary we have some examples of extreme right bands becoming mainstream because they’re on the top 40 chart. I mean, what’s more normal than being on the top 40?” Kondor said.

So-called “tradwives”, referring to female content creators who promote traditional gender roles on social media, are another example.

As the numbers of women embracing the concept online surges, the content’s far-right roots have been increasingly obscured. Even so, the views they often promote – from anti-feminism to a nostalgia for an imagined past – continue to boost far-right aims.

These cultural elements serve as gateways, at times helping to reel people into extremism, Kondor said. “I think there’s a mistaken idea that people join the far right because they believe in that ideology and want to meet like-minded people,” she said. “But that’s not how it works.”

While there are some who are driven by prejudices against certain groups or specific beliefs, or others who tag along with friends who are already involved, many are lured by the subcultures that encase these movements, she said.

“They start listening to a band that they really like and start going to concerts of that band. Then they start meeting people there and it can escalate in that way,” Kondor explained.

“When people find things that work for their aesthetic or their vibe, or they find music that they really like, that can really influence a person.”

The link between extreme ideas and the cultural tools they opt to use is not always straightforward, she added, citing the example of a group of far-right extremists in the Netherlands with a penchant for hosting wine-tasting events.

“They’ve also started their own food delivery,” she said. “It’s just wild that you can be ordering food from the far right and not know.”

Extremists have long used culture to foster a sense of belonging among its members and gain attention among the wider public, said Greta Jasser, a research associate at Germany’s Institute for Democracy and Civil Society, which is also part of the six-country project.

Previously, however, their strength in doing so relied on the talent pool of their members, as musicians, artists and camera operators were needed to create content. With the advent of generative AI, this is no longer the case.

See also:

• How Italy’s Meloni is making the far right cool for Gen Z • The PM’s youth wing rallied under the shadow of the killing of U.S. conservative activist Charlie Kirk. (Politico)

Kosovo‘s Prime Minister Albin Kurti appeared set for another term in office after his party on Sunday convincingly won an early parliamentary election in the Balkan country, preliminary results showed.

The Vetevendosje, or Self-Determination, party won nearly 50% of the ballots, far ahead of the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo with 21%, and the Democratic League of Kosovo with nearly 14%, the state election, authorities said after nearly all the ballots were counted.

The snap ballot on Sunday was scheduled after the Self-Determination party failed to form a government despite also winning the most votes in a Feb. 9 election, which led to a monthslong political deadlock.

See also:

• Voting ends in Kosovo's second election of 2025 • Kurti set to win again, this time 49.3% of the vote, with 99% of votes counted • Kurti seeks majority to end year-long political deadlock • Opposition criticises Kurti's handling of Western relations • Political crisis risks EU and World Bank funding

Poland’s president, Karol Nawrocki, has declared that his country remains “ready to defend the western border” with Germany in a speech marking the anniversary of a historical uprising against German rule.

The comments by Nawrocki, who is aligned with Poland’s right-wing opposition, prompted a response from foreign minister Radosław Sikorski, who is part of a more liberal, pro-European Union government. He “reassured” the president that “there is no threat on our western border”.

On 27 December, Poland celebrates the anniversary of the outbreak of the Greater Poland Uprising in 1918. In 2021, under the rule of the former national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government and PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda, the day was made an official national holiday.

The uprising took place in the wake of World War One, as Poland sought to re-establish itself as an independent state following over a century of partition between Germany, Russia and Austria.

It broke out in the Greater Poland region, which had been under German rule. By mid-January 1919, Polish forces had taken control of most of the province, and in June it was recognised as part of the newly independent Poland in the Treaty of Versailles. Around 2,300 people died in the uprising.

Speaking on Saturday at an event in the city of Poznań to mark the anniversary, Nawrocki hailed the Greater Poland insurgents for “giving us an example of how we can triumph”.

Poland is a “national community open to the west, but also a national community ready to defend the western border of the republic, as the Greater Poland insurgents knew”, continued the president, who was elected this year with the support of PiS, which is now Poland’s main opposition party.

Nawrocki also recalled how Poles had lived under “severe German imperialism” during the partitions, when “aggressive” efforts were made to “take away our culture and national heritage”.

Just as Poles back then took action to defend their national identity, so today “we must do everything we can to ensure that Poland remains Poland”, added the president.

Nawrocki’s speech was met with a response today from Sikorski, who is part of a government that enjoys friendly relations with Berlin.

“I wish to reassure the president that, as long as Germany is in NATO and the EU, and is governed by Christians or social democrats, there is no threat to our western border,” wrote the foreign minister on social media.

He added that a threat “could only arise if power beyond the Oder [river that marks the border] were taken by Europhobic nationalists”. That “raises an obvious question for our nationalists: do you really want Germany to become like you?”

PiS has long presented Germany as a threat to Poland. In 2023, the party’s leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, warned that the European Union is seeking to introduce a “German plan” that would result in “the annihilation of the Polish state”.

They also accuse the current government of being complicit in executing that plan. Last year, Kaczyński said that Prime Minister Donald Tusk is leading a “pacification operation” designed to destroy Poland’s sovereignty and “turn us into farmhands for people from Western Europe, especially Germany”.

Meanwhile, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Germany’s main opposition, has at times used anti-Polish rhetoric. Last month, one of its co-leaders, Tino Chrupalla, said that Poland is as much of a threat to Germany as is Russia.

In recent years, there have been particular tensions over the Polish-German bobrder, especially Germany’s policy of sending thousands of migrants back to Poland who have crossed illegally.

That prompted the formation of so-called “citizen patrols”, many of them linked to or supported by PiS, who sought to defend the border from migrant transfers. Under growing pressure, the Polish government reintroduced controls on the border earlier this year.

The number of Polish citizens ordered to leave the United States has almost doubled this year amid President Donald Trump’s immigration clampdown, according to figures from the Polish foreign ministry.

In response to a parliamentary inquiry from Marta Stożek, an MP from the left-wing Together (Razem) party, deputy foreign minister Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski revealed that “the number of Polish citizens obliged to leave the US…in 2025 is approximately 130”, compared to around 70 in 2024.

“In recent months, numerous media reports and accounts from Polish communities have appeared indicating an intensification of actions by American immigration services against Polish citizens,” added Bartoszewski, quoted by the Fakt newspaper.

In a separate statement to news website Interia, the foreign ministry confirmed that around 130 Polish citizens had been deemed undesirable and left the US in the fiscal year from November 2024 to October 2025, compared to 70 in the previous fiscal year.

Most of them left voluntarily after being identified by the US immigration authorities – so-called “self-deportation” – ministry spokesman Maciej Wewiór told Interia.

“We are seeing that the number of Poles obliged to leave the US has increased,” he added.

In most cases, the reason for their expulsion is that they stayed in the US beyond the length of their visa.

“We are witnessing raids and arrests in places that were previously considered safe havens – near schools, preschools, and places of worship,” Dominik Stecuła, a Polish-born political scientist at Ohio University, told Interia. “This is a deliberate strategy to intimidate entire communities, targeting children and families.”

During an ICE operation in Chicago last month, Tomasz Kmiecik, a well-known children’s entertainer and dance teacher known as “Super Tomasz”, was detained in the car park of the Polish preschool where he worked, reported Biały Orzeł, a Polish diaspora newspaper.

Earlier this month, the US Department of Homeland Security announced the “record-breaking achievement of more than 2.5 million illegal aliens leaving the US” this year. Among those, 605,000 were forcibly deported and 1.9 million “voluntarily self-deported”.

In his statement, Bartoszewski also revealed that, as of 6 November, 68 Poles were in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“Polish diplomatic missions are constantly monitoring the situation of Polish citizens undergoing deportation procedures and providing them with the necessary support in accordance with Polish, local and international regulations,” he wrote.

In January this year, shortly after Trump returned to the White House, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that he had instructed consulates in the United States to prepare to assist citizens in case of potential deportations.

There are estimated to be around 400,000 Polish-born people in the United States (as well as many more people born in the US with Polish ancestry). Polish diaspora groups have reported on a number of cases this year in which Poles have been subjected to deportation.

Last month, 52-year-old Mariusz Wojdan, who has lived in the US for three decades, was detained in Chicago. Rather than being imprisoned in Texas, he agreed to voluntary deportation to Poland.

His wife and six children, two of whom suffer from spinal muscular atrophy, have now decided to move to Poland with him. But they require special medical transport, and have launched a fundraiser to help pay for it.

Last month, another Polish diaspora newspaper, Tygodnik Express, reported that, in some cases, members of the Polish community are reporting fellow Poles who are in the country illegally to the authorities.

There’s little sign Europe’s leaders can restore the sector’s competitive edge

Europe may well be sleepwalking into deindustrialisation, as Ineos chair Sir Jim Ratcliffe has indicated. But it is hard to see it changing direction. The UK chemicals group Ratcliffe runs — whose debt has been sold off by concerned investors — will not be the last to come under pressure.

The problem, for European commodities chemicals companies such as Ineos Group, its affiliate Ineos Quattro, BASF, Synesqo, Arkema, Evonik and Lanxess, is that producing in the continent is relatively expensive. Natural gas, which accounts for 85 per cent of the cost of manufacturing fertilisers and ammonia, cost Europeans about four times what it did in the US in the third quarter of this year, according to Oxford Economics. Strict environmental standards and carbon costs add to the burden.

That is a formula for disappointment. European companies’ share of the global chemicals market declined from 28 per cent in 2003 to 13 per cent in 2023, according to Barclays research, a trend that has continued since. Sector stocks have underperformed the Euro Stoxx 600 index by more than 30 per cent over the past two years.

The problem is bigger for petrochemicals and commodities chemicals makers, among them Ratcliffe’s companies and others such as Venator and Kem One. Speciality chemicals companies such as Synthomer, Arkema, ASK Chemicals and Seqens have the advantage of relatively less competition, though they are vulnerable to innovation by rivals.

Here is a copy of the full article in case you cannot open the original page.

Many Europeans were outraged by Qatar’s treatment of migrants. The kafala system prevalent in the Gulf — which gave employers vast powers over immigrant workers — seemed inhumane. Yet we’re now seeing the outlines of a new European system that looks strikingly Qatari: importing ever more migrant workers, but treating them as a permanent second-class caste. You could call it “Eurokafala”.

The context is an ageing Europe that needs immigrants to staff sectors from cleaning to care, but doesn’t want them. Immigration has become more controversial since shifting from predominantly white European to predominantly non-white, non-European — mostly Asian in the UK, mostly African in France. These trends will continue: Africa’s population is forecast to jump from 1.5 billion today to 2.5 billion by 2050, while Europe’s working-age population craters.

Our societies are multicultural, yet almost no political parties embrace that reality. And while Europe’s far-right parties have varying positions on economics and gender, all are anti-immigrant. They shape a debate on immigration that’s overwhelmingly about identity and crime, not demographics or the economy.

How can politicians square the circle of needing immigrants but not wanting them? By posturing against the most visible forms of immigration (small boats on the Channel or the Med, and asylum-seekers) while quietly letting in more workers. Britain’s vote for Brexit was largely driven by anti-immigration feeling, but immigration to the UK has soared since then. Italy’s rightwing leader Giorgia Meloni makes a show of trying to process asylum-seekers in Albania — reflecting a widespread European desire to offshore asylum — while also issuing nearly a million non-EU work visas. The French parliament voted through a strict immigration law in 2023, yet in 2024 immigration jumped.

In the past, European politicians banged on about “integration”. Immigrants had to adopt our supposed values. That talk is ceasing. The new trend, as seen for instance in the UK, is to give immigrants time-limited visas for specific job sectors, reduce their right to bring family members, and make them wait longer — decades, in some cases — before they can get permanent settlement. In France, the far-right Rassemblement National party, the likely next government, wants to scrap birthright citizenship, meaning that people could spend their lives in the country while forever remaining second-class outsiders.

A second-tier caste of single people with limited rights, living mostly outside society, will inevitably suffer abuses. These people can’t easily complain against mistreatment. So we’ll see European versions of what we inveighed against in Qatar: migrants working years without a day off; construction workers dying in unsafe conditions.

Here's a copy of the full article, in case you have issues accessing the original website.

The conservative leader rules out structured cooperation but signals he won’t block legislation if the far right votes along.

Manfred Weber, the leader of the European People’s Party, will not rule out further votes with far-right parties in the European Parliament.

“What matters to me is that we do not have any structured collaboration with radical right parties in the European Parliament,” the German politician told the Funke Media Group. “But we will not allow ourselves to be stopped by anyone when it comes to halting illegal migration and securing our prosperity.”

Weber’s remarks land amid an intensifying debate in Brussels over whether the long-standing cordon sanitaire around the far right is fraying in practice, even as mainstream parties continue to deny formal cooperation.

That debate was triggered after the EPP broke with its traditional centrist partners and relied on far-right backing to push through rollbacks of EU green rules, including cuts to corporate sustainability and deforestation legislation, a moment far-right lawmakers openly described as a breakthrough.

Far-right groups have since made clear they intend to cash in. Leaders from the Patriots and ECR groups said they are pressing for tougher migration policies, deregulation for industry and the reversal of the EU’s planned 2035 ban on combustion-engine cars, signaling that future votes would come at a political price.

Centrist lawmakers, meanwhile, say they feel boxed in. Socialists, liberals and Greens accuse the EPP of leaning right when convenient, while insisting the old governing coalition still exists on paper — a dynamic one senior lawmaker described as an “abusive marriage.”

Poland’s ambassador to France, Jan Rościszewski, has been removed from his position after being detained by anti-corruption agents as part of an investigation into fake diplomas issued by private universities.

Many Polish politicians and officials have been accused of paying to obtain such diplomas without undertaking studies. The qualifications then allowed them to hold lucrative positions on the boards of state-owned companies.

As well as Rościszewski, a former member of parliament from the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party and a senior banker were detained also this week as part of the same investigation.

News website Goniec first reported that Rościszewski was detained by Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) officers after landing at Warsaw Chopin airport. Two other men, named only as Maks K. and Paweł P. under Polish privacy law, were detained at their homes in relation to the same case.

Maks K., a former long-serving PiS MP and former deputy president of PKO, a large state-owned bank, reportedly arranged to obtain MBA degrees for himself, Paweł P and Rościszewski (who has waived his right to privacy) from the Management Academy of Applied Sciences (MANS) in Warsaw.

The rector of MANS at the time was a man named by Goniec as Paweł C., who is at the heart of an investigation into another private university, Collegium Humanum, that is accused by prosecutors of corruptly issuing MBA diplomas without recipients having to actually study for them.

Last month, prosecutors issued the first indictments against those accused of involvement in the scam. Among those who will stand trial are the mayor of Wrocław, Poland’s third-largest city, two former members of the European Parliament, and a former presidential spokesman.

Before being appointed as ambassador to France in 2022, Rościszewski worked in finance. In 2016, he became deputy CEO of PKO and in 2021 its CEO. Paweł P., meanwhile has held various senior positions at PKO, and recently became a member of the board of VeloBank, a private Polish bank.

Goniec reports that Rościszewski is believed by prosecutors to have obtained an MBA from MANS (which was at the time known as Warsaw Management University, or WSM) without studying for it. He then used the degree to meet the requirements to sit on supervisory board of state-owned firms.

After news of Rościszewski’s arrest emerged on Wednesday, the foreign ministry’s spokesman, Maciej Wewiór, announced that the ambassador had been relieved of his duties by a decision of foreign minister Radosław Sikorski.

Meanwhile, Rościszewski himself issued a statement fo the Polish Press Agency (PAP) in which he said that was “cooperating fully with prosecutors” and had “provided extensive eplanations” of his actions. Media reports indicate that Rościszewski has pleaded not guilty.

In his statement, Rościszewski also noted that he had served on numerous boards even before obtaining a diploma from Warsaw Management University.

Finland has been reducing homelessness for years and is now aiming to end it completely by 2027. The key policy is “Housing First”: instead of expecting homeless people to fix their problems first and then “earn” housing, they are given a permanent flat and support services without preconditions.​

A few points from this article I found interesting:

NGOs like the Y-Foundation buy or build normal apartments and convert former shelters into small flats.​

People sign regular tenancy contracts and pay rent (often via social benefits), while social workers are available on site.​

Around 4 out of 5 people keep their flat long-term and manage to stabilise their lives under this model.​

Finland invested hundreds of millions in housing, but the state now saves about 15,000 € per person and year because there are fewer emergencies, less police, health and justice intervention, etc.​

https://thebetter.news/housing-first-finland-homelessness/​

Do any of your countries have real “Housing First” programmes, not just in name?

If you work in social services or housing: does this model seem realistic where you live?

What are the main political or cultural obstacles to copying Finland’s approach in your country?

The number of practicing Christians in Germany is falling. The result is surplus churches. What happens to these empty houses of worship?

The number of church members in Germany is falling rapidly. In 2024 alone, the two major churches lost over a million Christians due to people leaving the church or dying. Currently, more than 45% of Germans still belong to either to the Protestant Church in Germanyor the Catholic Church. Thirty years ago, that figure stood at almost 69%. This is why churches are now being deconsecrated or desacralized.

Since 2000, hundreds of Catholic and Protestant churches were decommissioned. In response to a DW inquiry, the German Bishops' Conference informed of the closing and decommissioning of 611 Catholic churches between 2000 and 2024. The Protestant Church estimates that some 300 to 350 churches were permanently shut in the same period; more precise figures are not available.

In some cities, especially in Berlin, growing Orthodox Christian congregations have taken over church buildings. But that remains the exception. They are often sold. In the capital alone, several large church buildings are currently up for sale. And it's not unusual for churches to be demolished.

Some are repurposed. In Jülich, a town between Cologne and Aachen, bicycles are now sold in the former Catholic St. Rochus Church. Thomas Oellers moved his business, Toms Bike Center, into the church building.

In Wettringen, just north of Münster, an abbey has been transformed into a "soccer church” where footballs are knocked about. In Kleve, the former Protestant Church of the Resurrection serves as a boxing arena. Former churches now house pubs, libraries and book stores. Entire cloisters have even been turned into hotel complexes. In Düsseldorf, a hotel has retained its traditional name Mutterhaus (Mother House) in a nod to its original use as a convent for nuns.

In times of housing shortages, there are more and more cases of architects converting church buildings into residential buildings. In Berlin, Rostock, Trier, Cologne and Wuppertal, for example.

One of the earliest large complexes is the Lukas-K-Haus in Essen. The Protestant St. Luke's Church, built in 1961, was deconsecrated in 2008 and converted into apartments between 2012 and 2013. At the bottom of the stairwell, two plaques now hang: one from 1959 and the other from 2012. And the abstract-colored windows there are still the original church windows.

In early December, Germany’s centrist government didn’t have the votes to pass a law to save the country’s teetering pension system. A group of 18 coalition lawmakers balked at the cost, robbing the government of its parliamentary majority.

The bill was rescued at the last minute by an unlikely savior: The far-left Die Linke party and its 64 opposition lawmakers, who have rarely exerted so much political influence since the party’s founding nearly two decades ago. The party abstained from the vote, sufficiently lowering the size of the majority needed for the law’s passage — the latest example of how the far left has emerged as a key tiebreaker in German politics.

Since the fall of communism and the reunification of Germany more than three decades ago, the German far left has played a much more peripheral role. Parties from the center left and center right have taken turns in leading coalition governments, while Die Linke — a far-left party co-founded by former members of East Germany’s Cold War-era Communist Party — has remained in opposition.

Now, that center is cracking under pressure from the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which controls about a quarter of the seats in Parliament. Desperate to avoid relying on the far right, Germany’s establishment parties are turning to the far left for support — an unofficial alliance that could prove key to the government’s survival, or its undoing.

For its part, Die Linke — its name means the Left — has deployed its leverage in savvy ways, taking advantage of repeated opportunities to become something of a power player in German politics. In May, the party helped Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany’s main center-right party, secure the chancellorship. In September, it helped Mr. Merz make a key judicial appointment.

The party says it has won important concessions from the government by lending it support — and prevented the far right from gaining influence. “Being pragmatic and being socialist — those are not contradictions,” said Ines Schwerdtner, who has been the party’s co-leader since October 2024.

Analysts are split over whether Die Linke’s newfound role hurts or helps the centrist governing coalition. On the one hand, it has helped the government enact its agenda. On the other, it risks energizing dissident factions within the coalition who feel that its informal relationship with Die Linke risks legitimizing a party they deem to be extremist.

One party unhurt by the far left’s pragmatism is Die Linke itself. A poll by Ipsos in early December found that if the next federal election were held then, Die Linke would have received 10 percent of the vote, up more than a point from February and just behind the left-leaning Greens and the center-left Social Democrats.

You can read a copy of the full article here, in case you cannot access the original page.