Rui Tavares is a Portuguese writer, historian, and member of the parliament for the left-green-libertarian party LIVRE. He is the author of the documentary film Ulysses: Breaking the Spell of the Crisis to Save Europe. He was formerly an MEP for Greens/EFA.
Articles
13.12.2023
Objects of Political Desire X: Recognition over Resentment
The Right enjoys electoral success by exploiting resentment. Why shouldn't progressives do the same?
Read more12.10.2023
Objects of Political Desire IX: Should the Greens Embrace Obstructionism?
Faced with current challenges, some in the Green movement are urging strategic change.
Read more31.08.2023
Objects of Political Desire VIII: A European project that you can touch and be touched by
Europe has no shortage of libraries and yet there is no European Library. How can that be?
Read more03.08.2023
Objects of Political Desire VII – Libraries: Palaces For the People, By the People
As sociologist Eric Klinenberg reminds us in his eponymous book, libraries are “palaces for the people”.
Read more03.07.2023
Objects of Political Desire VI: Memory Over Time
Why memory matters: it makes us historical subjects capable of imagining the future.
Read more01.06.2023
Objects of Political Desire V: Is Memory Money?
A short story about your dearest memory and the money you did not know it was worth.
Read more25.04.2023
Objects of Political Desire IV: Democratise, Develop, Decolonise
49 years later, Portugal’s Carnation Revolution still teaches a vital lesson to today’s democratic politics.
Read more29.03.2023
Objects of Political Desire III: Everybody’s Right to Beautiful, Radiant Things
Emma Goldman's story exemplifies how desire can build a more just society.
Read more23.02.2023
Objects of Political Desire II: What’s Stronger Than Fear?
Rejecting emotional politics altogether won’t fight fearmongering but providing a vision of a desirable future can.
Read more25.01.2023
Object of Political Desire I: My Hypocrite Reader
Politics should be less about the form and more about our desire for change.
Read more04.03.2022
The Crossroads Before Us: Neoimperialism or European Unity
Will neoimperialism dominate the 21st century or will a free, democratic and united Europe emerge?
Read more13.03.2019
Transnational Democracy? A Piece of Cake
The story of how people won back individual democratic rights from illiberal governments and designed institutions that would protect them for good.
Read more10.07.2018
A New, Equal EU: The Future of Europe Seen From the ‘Peripheries’
What does the future of the EU look like from Southern and Eastern Europe?
Read more01.04.2017
The Categorical Mistake of “Looking for an Answer to National Populism”
In the face of rising national populism, rather than seeking to combat these forces on their own terms, Green and progressive politicians can instead turn to a far more effective rhetorical tool.
Read more10.02.2017
Defeating National Populism: Lessons from Austria and Portugal
Can Austria and Portugal provide clues as to which conditions are needed for progressive forces to flourish?
Read more23.01.2016
The Rule of Law Challenge in Europe: From Hungary to Poland
In 2013, Rui Tavares, then Portuguese Member of the European Parliament among the Greens-EFA group, put forward a report that investigated the threats to fundamental rights that Orban’s government had given rise to in Hungary since 2010, and proposed mechanisms for a common European response to such actions, both in Hungary and potential future similar cases.
Read more21.12.2015
Is Portugal Trendy? Some Thoughts on a New Eurozone Government
So, what are the implications for the EU of a new socialist-led, but communist-green and leftist-supported, and ostensibly anti-austerity government in Portugal? I keep hearing this question; less frequently, the interrogation is sometimes accompanied by ‘is Portugal a new Greece’? Will there be a new conflict within the European Council, a new battle with the ECB, a new Varoufakis, and renewed talk of a Eurozone exit?
Read more