EN 
NL In Ukraine, daily life is dominated by certainties and uncertainties
Photo above: Kido Koenig (FMS) speaking at SD Platform event in Kyiv (July 2024) Earlier this month, the Max van der Stoel Foundation visited Ukraine, in cooperation with other political parties and foundations from Europe. The five-day visit was dedicated to visiting political actors and exploring social [...]
What does the future hold for Armenia?
Last week, the first of a series of trainings took place in Armenia, with the Max van der Stoel Foundation partnering with the SD Platform Armenia. The SD Platform has been doing important work for several years to motivate young people across the country to bring about political change from the bottom up. With its 'Future Factory' programme [...]
The fate of dissident Mikhail Krieger
Mikhail Krieger during an interrogation (Source: Antonina Favorskaya / Sota / Moscow Times) A Russian-Ukrainian anti-war activist recounts his life behind bars in his correspondence. For two posts on social media, he was sentenced to seven years in a penal camp. Miсhail Krieger was born in 1960 in Dniepropetrovsk - now Dnipro - in Ukraine's Soviet republic. [...]
Watch back now: debate with MEP candidates on the Western Balkans
Photo: Flags of EU Member States - Flickr On 26 May in Leiden, the FMS together with PAX, Free Press Unlimited, NHC, Dutch-Albanian Friendship Foundation and Humanitarian Intervention Committee organised a debate on EU integration of the Western Balkans! Teun Janssen (Volt), Ingeborg ter Laak (CDA), Reinout van Malenstein (NSC), Alisha Muller (VVD), Thijs Reuten (GL-PvdA) & [...]
All Eyes on Sudan
In Khartoum, Sudan's capital, heavy fighting broke out in April last year between the government army the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary army Rapid Support Forces (RSF). A bloody war has been raging in Sudan ever since. But even before this escalation in 2023, the country was experiencing major problems. The population of [...]
'A mood of hope and anger' in Georgia as 'foreign agent law' passed by parliament
Photo: Graffiti in Tbilisi in April-May 2024 (source: Jelger Groeneveld, Flickr) On 3 June, the infamous law on foreign agents was officially passed by the Georgian parliament. A final attempt to stop the law by Saloma Zourabichvili, Georgia's EU-friendly president, was rejected by the Georgian Dream parliamentary majority. The [...]
Western Sahara: British MPs embrace Moroccan plan, but at what price?
Photo: A Sahrawi with the flag of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic - Wikimedia Commons On 25 May, 30 British MPs, mostly from the ruling Conservative Party, called on the British government to support Morocco's proposal for Western Sahara governance. This so-called Moroccan autonomy plan, proposed in 2006, offers Rabat control over [...]
"Outline agreement" on solidarity with the past
On 16 May, PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB presented the long-awaited outline agreement "Hope, Guts and Pride". The unambitious and financially unstable agreement mainly seems to be a throwback to the past and a passing of responsibilities to Brussels. Actual investments in democratic citizenship are crucial to make the Netherlands ready for a hopeful future. On [...]
Kuwait in political fray: emir dissolves parliament and grabs authority
Photo: First session of the Kuwaiti parliament after elections on 2 February, 2012 - Flickr In an unprecedented move, the emir of Kuwait, Mishal al-Ahmed Al Sabah, dissolved the country's parliament for a period of no less than four years. He also invalidated several articles of the Constitution. As a result, [...]
The West and Russia after the war
Statues in Moscow's Red Square of former Soviet leaders (Source: Pixabay) What on earth should we do with Russia when the war in Ukraine is over? Whatever the outcome of that war (Ukraine wins, an unsatisfactory peace deal or Russia still wins), we will have to relate to a country in Europe that has been a [...]
