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Anthony Zacharzewski

@anthonyzach.be
7.6K followers 5.9K following 11K posts

Working to make European democracy work. "Refreshingly free of the usual platitudes". Belge par choix, Brits door opvoeding, Polish roots. President of Demsoc.org

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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 1h
Dutch MP: "The [EU] migration pact is THE key to getting a grip on migration, but while UK & EU work to different rules, there is space for people smugglers and crossings. That's why I made a point in the [Parliamentary] debate today: the UK should sign up to the migration pact as soon as possible"
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POP @populismblog.bsky.social · 9h
Nostalgia isn't only for those who lived it. The oldest, who remember the dictatorships, tend to be the least nostalgic in both countries. Younger cohorts tend to idealise a past they never lived. Memory evolves, stigma fades. How we transmit the past matters.
Bar chart showing average authoritarian nostalgia across age groups.

- Combines three dimensions: regime evaluation, mythical past, and democratic attitudes
- Displays variation across age cohorts
- Indicates how nostalgia is distributed generationallyBar chart showing average authoritarian nostalgia by age.

- Based on same composite indicators as Figure 15
- Shows generational variation in Spain
- Allows comparison with Portuguese case
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 2h
I'm just streaming Prokoviev's 1st symphony, which is his 1917 attempt to reinterpret the style of Mozart, and which he imagined classically-trained musicians calling "a new example of Prokofiev's insolence, look how he will not let Mozart lie quiet in his grave". But sure, machine-driven pop.
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Isaac Chotiner @ichotiner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I profiled the writer Neal Ascherson for The New Yorker, and talked with him about his career reporting on so many of the great events of the 20th century. www.newyorker.com/culture/life...
newyorker.com
Reporting the Big World
Neal Ascherson found himself at the center of the great crises of Cold War Europe. Do careers like his exist anymore?
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 7h
This deserves an honourary knighthood
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EU Court of Justice @eucourtofjustice.bsky.social · 8h
🌍On #InternationalTranslationDay, we celebrate our lawyer-linguists! As cases can be brought before the #CJEU in any official #EU language, lawyer-linguists ensure the Court can work across all of them, translating case documents, judgments and Opinions. Why does the Court work in 24 languages?
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Jakub Jaraczewski @jakubjaraczewski.bsky.social · 9h
🇵🇱⚖️🦤What do the European independence of the judiciary and a sexual assault on an ostrich have in common? Polish rule of law crisis. No, it's not a joke; the Appeals Court in my hometown of Poznań struck down a lower-court judgment because a neo-judge sat on the panel in a, erm, curious case.
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Jacob Öberg @profjacob.bsky.social · 10h
🚨🚨 @coe.int of Europe said yesterday that the #US formally notified it that it would leave the Group of States against Corruption, or #GRECO. Only two other countries have left GRECO before — #Russia and #Belarus. The fall of the #US on the world scene is striking. apnews.com/article/trum...
apnews.com
US withdraws from European anti-corruption panel in latest shift away from global groups
The Trump administration has withdrawn the United States from a top European anti-corruption watchdog.
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 10h
The interesting part about Burnham's announcement on the EU (and his confirmation this morning that rejoin was an option) is the silence of the Brexiters. Keeping their powder dry, perhaps, but not leaping to the defence of their dream. www.bbc.com/news/live/c6...
bbc.com
Adjusting triple lock to fund social care 'is about helping pensioners', Burnham says, as Tories criticise plan
The PM tells the BBC pensioners are "at risk of paying ruinous care costs". But Tory chair Kevin Hollinrake accuses him of "taking money out of" pensioners' pockets.
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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 12h
Remarkable that the Telegraph is not screaming this morning about Burnham's pledge of a closer/rejoining EU relationship because Brexit has failed.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It probably won't make the headlines in tomorrow's papers, but a national commission on replacing first past the post with a presumably proportional system is a *seismic* change. If it happened, a lot of how UK politics happens would be done differently.
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Labour4PR 🌹🗳️ @labour4pr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
💥 BREAKING: @andyburnham.bsky.social just announced that the Government will launch a National Commission on Electoral Reform 📰 Press release: www.labourforanewdemocracy.org.uk/news/burnham... 🌹 #Labour4PR #Lab26
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 29/09/2026
Sometimes I see one of these and marvel at the ingenuity of idiots.
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Dave Sinardet @davesinardet.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
De Wever en Diependaele zetten een lange Belgische traditie voort: een staatshervorming vragen om te verhullen dat ze nalaten wat ze vandaag al perfect kunnen. De begroting op orde zetten kan best zonder staatshervorming: www.demorgen.be/meningen/de-...
demorgen.be
De socialisten wilden de Vlaamse fiscale autonomie als eersten écht gebruiken, maar Vlaams-nationalisten blokten af
Dave Sinardet is professor politieke wetenschappen (VUB/UCLouvain). Hij vindt dat Vlaanderen meer kan doen met zijn fiscale autonomie.
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 29/09/2026
"Look how great austerity has been for our political systems ... yes Friedrich and also for your railway system ... I mean, who *wouldn't* want some of that?"
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Agathe Demarais @agathedemarais.com · 29/09/2026
Mainstream narrative of China shock decimating EU industry may be overblown • Over past decade, China accounted for just one quarter of growth in bloc's extra-EU imports • China's share of EU’s imports has barely moved over past decade, rising from 20.5% to 22.3% www.economist.com/business/202...
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The tweet that immediately came to mind:
We're a modest company with modest goals:
1: sell a quality product at a fair price
2: drain the world's oceans so we can find and kill god
6:19 PM • Oct 21, 2014 • Twitter for iPhone
9.8K Retweets
32.7K Likes
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Reto Mitteregger @indubioproreto.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Well, as nice as this might sound, this is only partly true. More importantly, it mixes up many myths surrounding Swiss direct democracy. 👇
theguardian.com
Switzerland’s love of referendums keeps the far right at bay | Joseph de Weck
Brexit gave direct democracy a bad name. But the Swiss approach could be what Europe needs now, says Guardian Europe contributor Joseph de Weck
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 29/09/2026
The president has told voters to “pretend I am on the ballot”. Republican candidates:
static.klipy.com
Man Rubbing Eyes, Feeling Stressed
ALT: Man Rubbing Eyes, Feeling Stressed
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Canadian History Ehx @cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
In 1885, Montreal was ravaged by smallpox. To stem the spread of the disease, public health officials enforced vaccinations. Those that mistrusted the vaccine rioted in the streets. This is the story of the Montreal Smallpox Riots. 📸 McGill University 🧵 1/10
An old-fashioned illustration depicting a group of people in a train compartment. A man in a suit is assisting a woman who appears to be unwell, adjusting her clothing or providing aid. Other passengers, including a woman seated and a child standing nearby, observe the scene. The setting includes detailed period clothing and interior design, with luggage and fabric draped around.
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 28/09/2026
It’s good that even at St Pancras, at the platform, Eurostar is preparing you for the fact that you’re going to be almost but not quite totally offline for a couple of hours.
A clip of a phone screen showing E (which does not stand for Excellent, ask your parents kids)
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 28/09/2026
Nothing in this excellent @alphaville.ft.com piece makes me think that hyperscalers have a path to sustained profitability since they lack the network effect of social media and are already facing competition at the low end from open models. www.ft.com/content/f83b...
ft.com
What is the AI capex breakeven rate?
Heroic ROIC
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Jelger Groeneveld @jelgerg.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Sad news has reached me the Friedrich Naumann Foundation South Caucaus office in Tbilisi will close after 30 years of democracy promotion. Not because the democracy job is finished, but because the civic space for such work has been radically restricted by the Georgian Dream government.
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Pieterjan Huyghebaert (VRT NWS) @pjhuyghebaert.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Septemberverklaring uitgesteld nadat 2 mensen onwel werden bij Vlaamse begrotingsonderhandelingen: kabinetschef Vooruit en CD&V-minister Crevits. Volgens politicoloog Sinardet illustreert het heel pijnlijk dat onderhandelen met "chronisch uitstelgedrag en nachtelijke uitputtingsslagen" niet werkt.
vrtnws.be
LIVE Septemberverklaring uitgesteld: minister Crevits en kabinetschef Vooruit onwel geworden | VRT NWS Nieuws
LIVE Volg hier het meest recente nieuws uit de Wetstraat.
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David Bent @davidbent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"As an...economic historian...I know that “anything that can be mass-produced will fall in price dramatically when it is mass produced”....And yet I forgot it." @timleunig.bsky.social on battery prices & path to Net Zero. So. Many. People. Make. This. Mistake. timleunig.substack.com/p/i-was-wrong
timleunig.substack.com
I was wrong
And what I learned from it.
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 28/09/2026
Waterloo Sunset was *right there*
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 28/09/2026
No-one could have predicted this.
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 28/09/2026
For those who stay off Bluesky over the weekend
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Isa Yusibov @isayusibov.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Kremlins staatspersbureau heeft een euforisch artikel geschreven over de demonstratie van hun useful idiots vandaag in Amsterdam. Lekker gewerkt, folks
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Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 27/09/2026
Serbian President Vučić has resigned, handing over the duties to Ana Brnabić. Serbia is set to hold parliamentary elections on October 25, the first round of a presidential election must be held by the end of December.
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 27/09/2026
BROKE: Tourists who think tube door buttons serve a purpose WOKE: Londoners who know they are for decoration BESPOKE: 90s Northern Line commuters who still have muscle memory to press them.
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Frédéric Moreau @goodclimate.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
1902 house in Brussels NE by Gustave Strauven. Owners are seeking permission for a CV restoration plus roof terrace with a new glazed pavilion and a railing based on a document from the city archive.
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 27/09/2026
Interesting interview with not-yet-candidate François Hollande, and I did enjoy his very presidential grammar in this answer. (Trs in ALT) www.lesoir.be/773357/artic...
A ce stade, vous voulez être utile dans le débat, mais personne ne s'est emparé de vos propositions... Votre nom n'a pas été cité lors du débat entre les cinq candidats de cette primaire...

Ne participant pas moi-même à cette primaire, c'eut été assez paradoxal qu'ils reprennent mes propositions. Ou alors il n'aurait pas fallu qu'ils se présentent...

SOIR: At this stage, you want to be useful in the debate - your name wasn’t mentioned during the debate between the five candidates in this primary. 

HOLLANDE: Not being a candidate in this primary, it would have been quite paradoxical if they had taken up my propositions. If they had, they wouldn’t have needed to put themselves forward as candidates.
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 27/09/2026
This partnership between Banton and Brook - and Banton’s maiden century - are making this first innings at the Oval an absolute pleasure to watch. Not my recent experience of England cricket if I’m totally honest.
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Frans Osinga @osinga.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
dit hebben de demonstranten op de Dam vanmorgen vast ook wel gelezen
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UCL Constitution Unit @conunitucl.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
AI, elections and the limits of old campaign law Nicky Gillibrand and @marcusganley.bsky.social explain their recent research on how generative AI was regulated in the 2024 European Parliament elections, the contrasts to New Zealand's regulatory approach, and what it means for the UK. Read it 👇️
blogs.ucl.ac.uk
AI, elections and the limits of old campaign law
Generative AI is now part of election campaigns. Nicky Gillibrand and Marcus Ganley explain their recent research findings on how the EU’s regulatory frameworks dealt with the risks created by generative AI in the 2024 European Parliament elections, how this contrasts with New Zealand’s regulatory approach, and what it means for the UK.
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 27/09/2026
“Pink Pony Club” on the soundtrack at the Oval. I guess they have “Red Trouser Club” at Lord’s.
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 27/09/2026
For those of us who grew up listening to Test Match Special on the radio, the gasometers at the Oval being turned into “iconic” apartments and penthouses is a symbol of the times.
Oval Cricket Ground in Kennington. The gasometer is being converted into penthouses and flats.
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 26/09/2026
the Eliezer Yudkowsky superhero origin story is truly so intensely dorky as to defy all attempts at parody. you could not waterboard any of this out of me web.archive.org/web/20010309...
His autobiography even opens with a parable: as a small child he threw his favorite squirtgun off a third-floor balcony rather than accept that his mother could lend out what was his, and felt complete when he heard it hit the pavement. He goes on to describes himself as a specialist in the technological transformation of the human species, one of the few people alive with the standing to steer it. He identifies with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the one person who sees the danger clearly and has to act while everyone else gets on with ordinary life.
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 26/09/2026
This evening’s entertainment was Much Ado about Nothing at the Globe in London. Ten quid is easily the best price for two hours wit and fun inside the M25. Hell, you wouldn’t even be able to buy me two pints for that.
Stage at the Globe
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 26/09/2026
Two consecutive articles in today’s @demorgen.be are “alcohol is worse for you than you think” and “penetrative sex is great for sea cows but not for people” and I just wonder what sort of weekends they are having over in Antwerp.
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Jacob Aron @jjaron.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This is very good on how AI might impact GDP www.ft.com/content/fc52...
ft.com
Beyond the AI abundance delusion
Concerns about inequality are likely to increase rather than decline as the technology transforms our societies
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 26/09/2026
New post: Geoff Mulgan proposes sensible solutions to the problem of organised disinformation in his recent blog post, but the “collective stupidity” framing is self-sabotaging.
anthony.zacharzewski.eu
Don’t call me stupid!
Geoff Mulgan proposes sensible solutions to the problem of organised disinformation in his recent blog post, but the “collective stupidity” framing is self-sabotaging. Someone else who doesn't like being called stupid. (Kevin Kline and John Cleese in "A Fish Called Wanda" The article, “Collective Stupidity is a Security Threat” recommends taking greater action to build collective defences against “cognitive warfare” - a combination of epistemic risk and disinformation, both on technical and social fronts.
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 26/09/2026
Something that looks good on the surface but you shouldn’t examine too closely?
Lloyds bank advert claiming that Club Lloyds is “the gift horse of bank accounts”
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 26/09/2026
Little groundhop to Dagenham & Redbridge v Hampton & Richmond Borough, probably the longest fixture name in the league today.
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 26/09/2026
Reading this piece (content warning - it's a hard read) by @poisonivy.bsky.social, gives me strong echoes of the sexual abuse cover-ups in far-left particules that were in the press a decade or so ago. Cults gonna cult. theasterisk.substack.com/p/the-effect...
theasterisk.substack.com
The Effective Altruism Kids Aren’t Alright
On sexual violence, Slutcon, and what happens when children take on adult responsibilities.
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 26/09/2026
The England shirt: a study in contrasts. (Far-right demo assembling at Embankment, rugby fans getting on the tube at Vic on their way to Twickenham)
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 26/09/2026
In the National Gallery and unable to stop myself saying “it means it comes from Flanders” as a young man confidently asserts to his companion that “Flemish” (labelling a painting by an unknown artist) was the name of the artist. If looks could kill, I would be on a slab.
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 26/09/2026
Back in London and again enjoying the classic British pastime of resetting my TfL password, choosing something with a letter a symbol, an emotion, and a reference to the works of George Eliot, doing a text confirmation, setting up 2FA, and finding out the Oyster card is linked to an existing account
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Anthony Zacharzewski @anthonyzach.be · 26/09/2026
New post: Geoff Mulgan proposes sensible solutions to the problem of organised disinformation in his recent blog post, but the “collective stupidity” framing is self-sabotaging.
anthony.zacharzewski.eu
Don’t call me stupid!
Geoff Mulgan proposes sensible solutions to the problem of organised disinformation in his recent blog post, but the “collective stupidity” framing is self-sabotaging. Someone else who doesn't like being called stupid. (Kevin Kline and John Cleese in "A Fish Called Wanda" The article, “Collective Stupidity is a Security Threat” recommends taking greater action to build collective defences against “cognitive warfare” - a combination of epistemic risk and disinformation, both on technical and social fronts.
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