Gulay Icoz

Polish Presidential run-off will take place on the 12 of July, that is tomorrow,  between the incumbent President Andrzej Duda, who won the first round of the presidential election on the 28  of June, and Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, who is the Civic Platform (PO) candidate, finishing second.  The question is what will be the […]

In my last blog, I have introduced Gourevitch’s (1986) description of critical juncture to analyse the COVID-19 crisis as a critical juncture in breaking the routine and the normality, which the large part of the World was enjoying since the WWII.  While Gourevitch (1986) argues critical junctures are ‘open moments’ where political actors make ‘system […]

My original plan was to write about Polish Presidential elections today, expected to take place in May 2020, despite the calls for its cancellation after the outbreak of the pandemic: COVID-19. The acceleration of the spread of coronavirus, however, have succeeded in drifting my attention to the refugees and migrants.  Particularly their survival in the […]

On 20-21 February 2020, European Union heads of state met for a special European Council, dedicated to the EU long-term budget for 2021-2027.  It ended without a political agreement; soon, another summit will take place for further negotiations. Today I will not write about what why the EU’s long-term budget (2021-2027) did not go through; […]

On Monday, 10th Feb, I attended the UCL’s European Careers Event 2020. It was organised for graduates, particularly of the UCL and others. Since I am not an institutionalised academic, I do not have a piece of first-hand knowledge to what talks are taking places in the European Studies Departments across the country about the […]