Dr Simona Guerra
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drspguerra.bsky.social
Dr Simona Guerra
@drspguerra.bsky.social
Political scientist | SEI, Sussex PhD | MA in 🇮🇹 🇫🇷 🇵🇱 | Euroscepticism, Poland, CEE, Italy, EU early women | @repjournal.bsky.social co-editor & founding co-editor of @PRXjournal.bsky.social | Montalcini scholar 2014 | #EUsky 🇪🇺 | #Firstgen
Pinned
📚 It’s with me 🥳 The Oxford Handbook of Polish Politics is available as hard copy and I will leave a flier for discount and EBook, details available online global.oup.com/academic/pro... with 56 chapters and 1168 Pages, thanks to all authors and Kasia and Fernando 💫
Reposted by Dr Simona Guerra
Reposted by Dr Simona Guerra
In @theguardian.com today: my analysis of 🇭🇺Hungary’s 2026 election.

Opposition challenger Péter Magyar is ahead in the polls on a promise of hope. Viktor Orbán is betting on fear of war to stay in power.

✅ Read the article here: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
February 15, 2026 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Dr Simona Guerra
Happy Valentine’s Day 🖤🖤🖤
February 14, 2026 at 7:15 AM
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The reason I *can* live my life as if Brexit never happened is precisely because I am a dual national and a citizen of both the UK and the EU. If I had to give up one of those citizenships, I could no longer ignore the hideous mess Brexit makes of real lives. So, yeah, I sympathise.
February 14, 2026 at 7:14 AM
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Sometimes the smartest move is jumping before the fire spreads. I fled an overheated, polarised Britain. Six years later, I have gained a future that once felt stolen.
Exiting the UK to re-join the European Union
Brexit – was it the last straw? Not for this UK citizen, who was prompted to bale out in search of something better
eastangliabylines.co.uk
February 13, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Dr Simona Guerra
Estimates of the economic costs of Brexit continue to grow. Now showing UK economy between 6 and 8 percent smaller than it would have been. That in turn means £60bn lost tax revenue every year. Think what a difference that would have made to tax & spend decisions …
February 13, 2026 at 5:01 PM
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Find the article here:

👉 doi.org/10.1075/jlp.25151.dia
February 13, 2026 at 1:06 PM
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The UK government's decision to ban Palestine Action as a terrorist group has been ruled unlawful by the High Court

I'm still in Japan, but had a feeling this ruling would come while I was away and so a story will be coming shortly...
February 13, 2026 at 10:12 AM
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🇵🇱⚖️I promised a banger on the rule-of-law crisis in Poland, so... here it is. A group of PiS MPs have lodged a case with the Constitutional Tribunal, asking it to find the rules of electing the judges of the same Tribunal, introduced in 2016 by a PiS majority, to be unconstitutional. 1/
February 11, 2026 at 2:56 PM
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When a neo-Fascist is Prime Minister, it's easier to associate state forces who terrorize citizens with Nazis rather than Italians
"ICE=Gestapo": Tracking the Memory of Fascism at the Olympics in Italy
When a neo-Fascist is Prime Minister, it's easier to associate state forces who terrorize citizens with Nazis rather than Italians
open.substack.com
February 12, 2026 at 7:10 AM
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The Epstein files show that Brexit was never a “plucky British revolt”. In reality, Brexit was fed, and empowered, by an entire class of oligarchs and autocrats, who thrive on chaos, weak regulation and brittle institutions.
The will of the rich and powerful: Brexit and the Epstein files
The Epstein files reveal the role of Brexit in a global network which stands to gain from undermining democracy itself
eastangliabylines.co.uk
February 11, 2026 at 10:00 AM
Reposted by Dr Simona Guerra
Further working on my analytical tool for EU-Analytics. If you look at the (just 11) main votes in the European Parliament on migration in this legislature, the EPP now votes more often together with the ECR, PfE and ESN than with its 'von der Leyen' platform partners:
February 10, 2026 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by Dr Simona Guerra
Hungary.
Fidesz.
Smear campaign.
State propaganda.
Lies.
Fear.
Hate.
Dehumanization.
Scapegoating.
Manipulation.
Brainwashing.
#ENOUGH
February 10, 2026 at 8:31 AM
Reposted by Dr Simona Guerra
States are increasingly restricting freedoms of expression, association and assembly.

In the #CPI2025, 36 of the 50 countries with significant score declines since 2012 have also seen reduced civic space. Learn more. ⬇️
CPI 2025: Findings and insights - News
The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public-sector corruption. How does your country measure…
www.transparency.org
February 10, 2026 at 7:51 AM
📚 It’s with me 🥳 The Oxford Handbook of Polish Politics is available as hard copy and I will leave a flier for discount and EBook, details available online global.oup.com/academic/pro... with 56 chapters and 1168 Pages, thanks to all authors and Kasia and Fernando 💫
February 9, 2026 at 9:54 AM
Reposted by Dr Simona Guerra
Dalla retorica RAI al referendum forzato, resta solo un autoritarismo debole.

Il voto del 22/23 marzo è un tornante storico: difendere la Costituzione, dire NO alla deforma.

www.articolo21.org/2026/02/gove...
Governo, nazionalismo arrogante e richiamo democratico - Articolo21
In questi ultimi giorni sono emersi questi due punti: 1) L’ondata di nazionalismo di bassa lega con la quale i telecronisti RAI hanno inondato i telespettatori nel corso della cronaca della cerimonia ...
www.articolo21.org
February 8, 2026 at 11:20 AM
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see also:
February 7, 2026 at 3:17 PM
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The moral panic about young men is the new version of “UKIP is winning over former Labour voters” (also a Goodwin argument). Both rely on anecdote more than data, and do significant damage to public understanding of the radical right. Young men are the second *least* pro-Reform group in the UK.
February 7, 2026 at 12:35 PM
Reposted by Dr Simona Guerra
Published as part of a special issue of Social Semiotics co-edited by @mkrzyzanowski.bsky.social @jensrydgren.bsky.social and Natalia Krzyżanowska - on the far right's "conceptual flipsiding" of liberal democratic signifiers www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Conceptual flipsiding and reversal of liberal-democratic notions: discursive-political strategies in/and the normalisation of illiberal public imagination
The process of strategically redefining key liberal-democratic and other widely accepted social and political concepts by the far-right and other illiberal actors has recently become a widespread, ...
www.tandfonline.com
February 6, 2026 at 8:29 PM
Thanks to you Dr @philippkoeker.bsky.social, your chapter is already a favourite in my final year module, a pleasure to work together 🇵🇱 🇪🇺
Beyond excited to finally hold the print copy of the 🇵🇱 Oxford Handbook of Polish Politics 🇵🇱 in my hands! Many thanks to Katarzyna Grzybowska-Walecka, @drspguerra.bsky.social & Fernando Casal Bértoa for inviting me to contribute a chapter on presidential politics 👉 academic.oup.com/edited-volum...
February 6, 2026 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Dr Simona Guerra
The CIA just stopped publishing their World Factbook and took every page, including the archived copies of previous versions!

This sucks. It was public domain, so I recovered the 2020 edition (the last one published as a zip file) and shared it to GitHub simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/t...
Spotlighting The World Factbook as We Bid a Fond Farewell
Somewhat devastating news today from the CIA: One of CIA’s oldest and most recognizable intelligence publications, The World Factbook, has sunset. There's not even a hint as to why they …
simonwillison.net
February 5, 2026 at 12:25 AM
Reposted by Dr Simona Guerra
Why has the populist radical right failed in Scotland? @davidevampa.bsky.social, Alan Convery & @frasmcm.bsky.social examine how symbiotic polarization between SNP and Conservatives blocked PRRPs, until recently. Read OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/WeHXRFw

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky #PartyPolitics
February 4, 2026 at 6:00 PM
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🤯 Lost in the literature on European identity?

🙌 Juan J. Fernández, Olena Bedasheva & Maria Durbán offer a remedy: they conduct a meta-analysis and show that European identification has many predictors 👇

🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
February 3, 2026 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Dr Simona Guerra
V-Dem Institute director Lindberg (4.9.2025):

"It seems blatantly obvious that the US is now an electoral autocracy."

The US, until recently the oldest constitutional democracy, is no longer a democracy at all.

May this be a temporary development, soon to be reversed.
By all facts on the ground I have observed, unfortunately my prediction has come true. It seems blatantly obvious that the US is now an electoral autocracy.
V-Dem Institute director Lindberg @silindberg.bsky.social (already in March, 2025):

""If it continues like this, the United States will not score as a democracy" in the 2026 report.

"If it continues like this, democracy [there] will not last another six months.""

1/6
September 10, 2025 at 12:13 PM