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Prague historian warns populism threatens EU cohesion, urges civic defenses
Summary
Dr. Martin Nicola, speaking at the Mansfield Center in Missoula, warned that economic strain, migration debates and social media-driven disinformation are strengthening populist parties across Europe and outlined four scenarios for the EU’s near-term future.
Dr. Martin Nicola, a Prague-based historian and political scientist, told a Missoula audience that rising populism — powered by economic anxieties, migration debates and social media — is straining the European Union and could reshape the bloc’s decision-making.
Speaking at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at the University of Montana, Nicola framed the Czech Republic as a “small laboratory” where trends visible across Europe have intensified: increasing Euroscepticism, charismatic leaders who use direct marketing and media ownership, and widespread distrust of elites.
Nicola recounted how crises from Greece’s 2009 debt collapse to the 2015 refugee surge and Brexit exposed fault lines in the EU. He described Andrej Babiš’s ANO movement as a case study in modern populism: a…
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