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Robert Misik

Robert Misik is a writer and essayist living in Vienna.  His Das Große Beginnergefühl: Moderne, Zeitgeist, Revolution (Suhrkamp-Verlag) will appear in May. He publishes in many newspapers and magazines, including Die Zeit and Die Tageszeitung. Awards include the prize for economic journalism of the John Maynard Keynes Society.

Robert Misik

A new era of containment?

Robert Misik 18th April 2022

The security architecture of the past 50 years is in ruins. Robert Misik maps a policy for the new cold war.

Beyond dystopia

Robert Misik 14th February 2022

To change the pessimistic Zeitgeist, left-wing politics and radical art must renew their alliance, Robert Misik writes.

The revolt against reason

Robert Misik 6th December 2021

Many have lost all trust in politics, Robert Misik writes. The protests against vaccination and anti-virus rules however turn this into madness.

The improbable victory: lessons of the SPD’s election win

Robert Misik 11th October 2021

In his first Social Europe column, Robert Misik explains how the SPD prevailed in the Bundestag elections—and what follows.

Austrian Democrats Must Unite To Stop The Far Right

Robert Misik 28th April 2016

The resistible rise of the Far Right in Austria. The presidential election is on a knife-edge before the deciding round of at the end of May. It did indeed come as a shock that moment when the blue bar on the TV screen last Sunday at 5 pm shot upwards: 35 per cent of the […]

Caputalism: Will Capitalism Die?

Robert Misik 12th January 2016

The fact that western capitalism is in a severe crisis is now so commonplace that it’s become almost a cliché. In 2008 the global financial system stood on the brink of collapse and the rescue measures undertaken by panic-stricken governments will burden their economies for years to come. Economists and analysts of a neo-conservative, economically […]

A Nail-biting Exercise For Alexis Tsipras

Robert Misik 18th September 2015

We’re sitting on the roof terrace of a restaurant at the foot of the Acropolis, with the brightly lit temple above us. But the mood among the company this evening is far from good. “I’ll never forgive those Syriza guys to the point that, thanks to them, I almost want the Conservatives to win the […]

The Unsettled Greek Revolution

Robert Misik 12th August 2015 3 Comments

While Syriza slowly recovers from the shock of the last few weeks, prime minister Alexis Tsipras is searching for a role. Greece after the referendum, closure of banks and the Brussels diktat. An investigation. It’s already past eight in the evening and my feet feel like they’re slowly being cooked in my heavy, leather boots. Admittedly […]

My Greece. The Journey Inside Syriza

Robert Misik 7th July 2015 2 Comments

Days of Decision. While the Greek drama moved towards a decision, I travelled into the interior of the new Greece. Meetings with Alexis Tsipras, his closest aids, local activists, young businessmen, working-class militants and people, who just manage to survive. “To our government,” Nikos shouts, slightly sarcastically. While we are lifting our beers, Katerina adds with […]

Show Solidarity And Stop Bashing Greece!

Robert Misik 19th February 2015 3 Comments

It was a paragraph hidden away in a Der Spiegel story about European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker. During the European election campaign, one read, “the word ‘solidarity’ stood out on Juncker’s posters.” And further down: “Merkel’s CDU was so incensed about Juncker’s slogan that they almost thought about banning him from appearing in Berlin.” So, […]

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