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NL Bosnia & Herzegovina at a tipping point: Why Europe must act now
Photo: Dodik and Putin in 2024 (WikiMedia Commons) The FMS is publishing this piece from a collaboration of organisations from the Netherlands that want to put EU integration of the Western Balkans on the map. We are doing this together with PAX, NHC, Free Press Unlimited, Dutch-Albanian Friendship Foundation and Humanitarian Intervention Committee. Follow our calendar for future events [...]
Statement by PD (Italy), Socialdemokraterna (Sweden) and Labour Party on the situation in Georgia
The FMS was part of this visit and therefore publishes this statement on this website. The statement has also been shared (in English) on the pages of the above parties. We, the Italian Partito Democratico, Swedish Socialdemokraterna and Dutch Partij van de Arbeid, express our deep and growing concern over the accelerating erosion of democracy [...]
Opinion: Georgia drifts towards autocracy, and towards Putin
This piece was originally published in the Trouw and was written by Ties Huis in 't Veld, international secretary of the Labour Party. The FMS was part of this trip to Georgia, and is therefore also sharing Ties' experiences on our website. 'Are you going to report?' During my recent visit to Georgia [...]
Belarus Stamps Social Democratic Party as 'Extremist' in Unprecedented Step
In a historic and worrying escalation of political repression, the Belarusian Interior Ministry on 7 May 2025 officially classified the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada), or BSDP, as an "extremist formation". It is the first time since the country's independence that a legally registered democratic opposition party has been classified in this way. [...]
Our Statement on Serbia during 'Friends of the Western Balkans'
Amid growing concerns about the deterioration of democracy in Serbia, the Friends of the Western Balkans (FoWB) gathered in Ljubljana for their seventh meeting. This network of progressive politicians, civil society leaders and social democrats from across Europe had one clear goal: to express their support for the region's European future. This [...]
Myanmar in the shadows: the democratic struggle behind the humanitarian disaster
Photo: Protests in Myanmar against Military Coup in February 2021 - Wikimedia Commons Myanmar was briefly in the news after a massive earthquake on 28 March 2025. Since then, media coverage of the situation has largely disappeared. Although the devastation is similar to the earthquake in Morocco in 2023, Myanmar gets three times [...]
"The Belarusian revolution is not over - we are still in the middle"
Organisers and members of the liquidated party BSDP-Hramada in The Hague, March 2025 Last Thursday and Friday, March 27 and 28, FMS had the pleasure of hosting the chairman and vice-chairman of the liquidated social democratic party BSDP-Hramada. The liquidated BSDP-Hramada (from here on 'Hramada') was founded in 1991 and has been operating from exile since 2023, when [...]
The reconstruction of Mosul through the eyes of Omar Mohammed
Source: Anadolu Agency, Getty Images In 2014, the northern Iraqi city of Mosul fell into the hands of terror group Islamic State (IS). What followed was a period of extreme repression, destruction and violence. IS destroyed religious and cultural heritage, murdered thousands of residents and drove entire communities to flee. Mosul was liberated in 2017, but the consequences of [...]
The social democratic perspective on the growing protest movement in Serbia
Photo: FMT The FMS, in collaboration with International Foundation GroenLinks, has started a series on the Serbian anti-corruption protests. During this series, we highlight different sides of the protests, and this time we cover the social democratic perspective. Last Saturday, 15 March, the largest (student) protests in Serbia to date took place, with more than 300,000 people in attendance. [...]
'EU must stop applying double standards' - Interview with Marit Maij on DRC crisis
Source: Daniel Buuma - Getty Images On 21 March, the Max van der Stoel Foundation is organising a political café on the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The situation in the DRC is rapidly deteriorating: violence is escalating in the east of the country, with widespread human rights violations and the systematic use of sexual violence as [...]