News

New publication: "Party Competition and Voter Attitudes in German Border Regions: Evidence From Local VAAs"

by Daniela Braun, Elisa Deiss-Helbig, Theresa Gessler, Jochen Müller, Julia Wagner & Georg Wenzelburger

When studying questions of European democracy, research is still very much focused on national political actors. This can be partly explained by the fact that data on political parties’ positions toward Europe and citizens’ attitudes have been mainly collected at the national level, and because sample sizes at the regional or local levels are too small. However, political parties compete about issues related to Europe on different levels—and especially so in European border regions where the local level coincides even more strongly with the EU level. For the particular case of such inner-EU border regions, home to around one third of EU citizens, little is known about patterns of party competition and citizens’ specific demands and preferences. This study addresses this gap, using innovative data from the voting advice application VOTO, specifically designed for local elections held in Germany in 2024. Focusing on four German border regions—two on the Eastern and two on the Western border—it provides new insights into how European democracy works at the local level by examining political parties’ positions and citizens’ political preferences. In particular, the study investigates the extent to which border-specific features and party cues shape voters’ perspectives on cross-border cooperation and European integration. Our findings speak not only to insights from qualitative case studies, which tell us that citizens living in such border regions have specific preferences in terms of saliency and positions, but also to quantitative research studying Euroscepticism in European border regions.

To the publication

18th Early Career Conference on International Relations

The Early Career Group of the International Relations Section of the German Political Science Association (DVPW) is hosting the 18th Early Career Conference on International Relations at the Academy for Political Education in Tutzing from 25 to 27 February 2026 under the motto "Theories and Problem Areas of International Politics". Djamila Jabra, as part of the Early Career Team, helped organise the conference and will chair two panels.

To the programme

From seats to sentiments: What Austria teaches us about trust and representation in a multi-level Europe

Austria offers a revealing paradox that resonates well beyond its borders. The country’s parliament has become more inclusive, with growing diversity among its members and increased attention to equality issues in parliamentary work. Still, some citizens feel under-represented and express only moderate levels of trust in core political institutions.

In this short article, we discuss citizens’ objective representation (descriptive and substantive) along with their subjective experience of representation and their levels of trust in representative institutions. While it might be expected that these three aspects are all closely linked together, our actual findings are more complex. Understanding how citizens’ experience of being represented connects (or fails to connect) to their trust in democratic institutions can shed light on the links between inclusion, responsiveness, and perceived fairness across levels of governance.

Read more

How does ActEU collect data on public trust? An animated explanatory video

How can we measure political trust and legitimacy beyond the usual survey question “how much trust do you have in the parliament?”. Measuring political trust is no easy task, and answers based on surveys do not show us the complete picture. If we further consider that political trust is multilayered – at the local, national, and EU level – making a clear investigation becomes even more complicated.

This Animated Video, created in collaboration with the ActEU project, explores how researchers have explored political trust and legitimacy in Europe, creating one of the largest ever collections of European political communications through web-scraping. The video is based on the “Codebook and datasets on the ActEU web-scraped data”, written by Daniel Gayo-Avello, Alex Hartland, Daniela Braun, Cristian Gonzalez Garcia, Benjamin Lopez Perez, Laura Morales, Max-Valentin Robert, Giulia Sandri, Camille Kelbel, Felix-Christopher von Nostitz, Emanuele Massetti, Oscar Barbera Areste, Ramon Villaplana Jimenez, and Carles Pamies.

To the video

Job advertisement: Research assistant and outreach and third mission officer with a focus on science communication at SOUNDS (m/f/d)

The Outreach and Third Mission Officer for Science Communication supports both the scientific project management and the executive management with regard to communication and visibility for SOUNDS. Specifically, he or she is responsible for the target group-oriented preparation and processing of scientific content and results, thereby contributing significantly to the dissemination of SOUNDS and the initiation of collaborations. The advisor also works together with the Outreach and Third Mission Advisor for stakeholder and partner management. The Science Communication Advisor also conducts their own scientific research as a research assistant in the field of Computational Social Sciences/Societal Computing in coordination with the scientific project management.

To the job advertisement

Report on SOUNDS in Die Zeit

To mark the journal's 80th anniversary, ‘Die ZEIT’ is publishing a special science issue. ‘Do we need a weather report for our society?’. The answer is provided by the SOUNDS project, initiated by Prof Dr Daniela Braun and Prof Dr Ingmar Weber at Saarland University, and funded by the Saarland Ministry of Finance and Science from the Transformation Fund. It is intended to help develop a kind of early warning system - a democracy barometer - to monitor the mood within our society. To achieve this, it combines interdisciplinary social and computer science approaches. It analyses social transformation processes using innovative data sources such as satellite images, social media and barcode scanners. The aim is to link computer and social sciences and strengthen the use of data-intensive methods. In the long term, the aim is to create an institute based on the structures that have been established.

To the article (German)

Panel discussion: „Wie politisch sind Genderfragen wirklich?“

The University's Equal Opportunities Office and researchers from the UNTWIST project invite you to a socio-political soirée – on the occasion of International Women's Day, we ask: How political are gender issues really?

The UNTWIST research group led by Prof. Dr. Daniela Braun is dedicated to investigating the connection between gender and changing voting preferences in favour of right-wing populist parties. The results and recommendations for action for political parties in Germany will be presented during a panel discussion and discussed with input from the audience: Who feels politically represented – and who does not?    

When? 5 March, doors open at 6:30 p.m., start at 7:00 p.m.

Where? Nauwieser Straße 19, Room N.N., 66111 Saarbrücken 

Sign up now

New job offer: Postdoc Researcher positions (f/m/x) for Societal Computing

This position is a joint appointment between SOUNDS and the Societal Computing Group, reflecting the close scientific and strategic collaboration between both initiatives. The successful candidate will contribute to and shape research across both environments, benefiting from their complementary strengths in data-intensive, interdisciplinary research and international engagement. The joint nature of the position offers a unique opportunity to work at the interface of computer science and the social sciences, contribute to long-term institution-building efforts, and translate scientific insights into real-world societal and policy impact.

To the job offer

Democracy Cracks: A podcast about trust, polarisation and the future of democracy

Democracy Cracks is a six-episode podcast mini-series exploring the cracks in our democratic systems, from weakening trust to widening social divides, through storytelling, research, and thoughtful conversations.

Produced as part of ActEU, a Horizon Europe research project looking at trust, participation, and how democracy is changing in Europe, the series brings in science and stories to help answer a central question: is democracy breaking or breaking through?

To the podcast

New project: "Total Annotation Variation: An Integrative Framework for the Analysis and Evaluation of Human Annotation"

Dr Giuseppe Carteny's research proposal was convincing. His project, “Total Annotation Variation: An integrative framework for the analysis and evaluation of human annotation”, is being funded by the ME Saar Foundation and the Research Committee of Saarland University. The project will run until 2026.

This project will examine human annotation as a central component of systems operating at the intersection of natural language processing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. It will be designed as a focused, foundational investigation and as the starting point for a larger, externally funded research programme. The core objective will be to synthesise existing conceptual and empirical work on human annotation and to integrate these insights into a coherent theoretical and analytical framework.

To this end, the project will develop a framework for “Total Annotation Variation”, drawing on Groves’ tradition of “Total Survey Error” and insights from survey methodology. The framework will explicitly capture both sides of the annotation process. On the one hand, it will account for variation and error arising from the annotation task and the characteristics of the text (e.g. topic identification, coding of positions or implications, sentiment analysis; language, textual complexity, genre, topic, and unit of analysis). On the other hand, it will address variation originating from annotating individuals, including socio-demographic characteristics, educational background, ideological orientation, and related attributes.

Building on this framework, the project will design a series of annotation experiments inspired by survey experimentation to measure concrete forms of variation and annotation error. A pilot study will be conducted to assess feasibility and to generate initial empirical evidence.

The project will build on prior experience in the development of coding procedures for political texts and their empirical analysis, and it will be situated within Computational Social Science, with a particular focus on political science applications. While developed in this context, the framework and findings will be intended to inform a broad range of computational research settings.

New book: "Activating European Citizens’ Trust in Times of Crisis and Polarization"

In April, Springer Nature will publish a book summarising the results of the ActEU project as part of its “The Future of Europe” series:

This open access book explains why representative democracies need political trust and legitimacy: Political trust is a crucial yet underestimated element in Europe’s representative democracies. A trusting relationship between citizens and the institutions of the state ensures the functioning of democratic systems, reduces transaction costs and facilitates the justification of political decisions. Without the commitment of a critical mass, democratic governments cannot gain legitimacy among the populace. While a stable relationship of trust between citizens and the state through political parties is a prerequisite for representative democracies in normal times, it is even more important in times of significant democratic change and turmoil, i.e., when democracies are in flux. Accordingly, the contributions gathered here examine political trust and legitimacy in Europe using a new conceptual framework – the ActEU conceptual triangle, which draws on citizens’ political attitudes, their political participation, and the representation of their political preferences to map and assess the decline of political trust and legitimacy in Europe.

More information

Job offer: Project lead assistant (m/w/d)

The Societal Observatory Using Novel Data Sources (SOUNDS) is an interdisciplinary research project at Saarland University (UdS), funded by the state's transformation fund. It investigates social transformation processes using innovative data sources such as satellite images, social media and barcode scanners. The aim is to link computer science and social sciences and to strengthen the use of data-intensive methods. In the long term, the aim is to establish an institute based on the structures that have been developed.

SOUNDS works closely with partners such as the I2SC (Interdisciplinary Institute for Societal Computing) and the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems. The project addresses disciplines such as political science, sociology and macroeconomics and offers strategic interfaces with regional politics and business. Cooperation with administrations should help to integrate scientific findings directly into decision-making processes.

The project management assistant provides central support to the scientific project management in operational, conceptual and planning tasks, in the organisational, administrative and, in some cases, content-related implementation of the scientific project, and acts as the interface between the management and the rest of the project team.

To the job offer

ActEU Final Conference on 5. February

Is political trust eroding under the pressure of crises and growing polarisation? Across Europe, citizens are confronted with intensifying divides over issues such as immigration, climate change, and gender equality. These divides increasingly shape political attitudes and behaviours, challenging the legitimacy of democratic institutions and weakening the foundations of representative democracy.

The Horizon Europe-funded project “ActEU – Activating European Citizens’ Trust in Times of Crises and Polarization” has been at the forefront of understanding how trust and legitimacy can be rebuilt in Europe’s multi-level democracies. By pioneering innovative methods to conceptualise and measure political trust – ranging from focus groups and experimental surveys to web scraping – ActEU has brought fresh insight into how polarization affects citizens’ perceptions of democracy, and what can be done to strengthen democratic resilience.

As this vital project enters its final phase, TEPSA warmly invites you to join its final conference: “Detached, distrustful, disengaged? Rethinking democracy in today’s Europe”. A forum to exchange narratives, spotlight innovative tools and methodologies, and advance actionable solutions to support the future of representative democracy in Europe.

We will bring together experts and practitioners to discuss these issues through a variety of panel discussions on 5 February 2026, at the Press Club Brussels Europe, Rue Froissart 95, 1040 Brussels.

Register now and join us for lively discussions with our diversified and interactive panels!

Untwist Work Package 2: Which are RWPP switcher voters gender-based needs?

We present the results of the second Work Package of the UNTWIST project:

There is little empirical evidence regarding how and why voters of traditional parties move to emerging right wing populist parties with discourses clearly opposed to gender equality. We explore the relation between gender and changing voting preferences. We carried on 18 Focus Groups in Spain, UK, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and Hungary with voters of RWPP who has previously voted for traditional parties. 

View the results

New publication: "Convergence, radicalisation, or ideological sorting? Exploring alignment patterns between radical and centre-right voters in Italy"

by Gianluca Piccolino, Giuseppe Carteny & Leonardo Puleo

Alliances between centre-right and radical right parties in Western Europe have elicited varied responses and strategic adaptations depending on the national context. In this respect, Italy presents a particularly distinctive case. Since the mid-1990s, a coalition between these parties has remained a stable feature of the Italian party system, winning the popular vote in five elections and forming a government on four occasions. Over time, the internal balance of power within the alliance has shifted significantly, with radical right parties now occupying a dominant position. This article examines the factors influencing electoral support for – and within – this coalition since 2001, with a specific focus on the role of anti-immigration attitudes and right-wing self-identification. Our findings reveal a growing explanatory power of anti-immigration sentiment in predicting support for the coalition. Unexpectedly, this trend first emerged in the mid-2000s and intensified markedly in 2022, when immigration-related concerns became a central driver of voting behaviour. Importantly, centre-right voters have not exhibited a corresponding rise in anti-immigration attitudes over time, suggesting that no ideological contagion from radical right parties has occurred within this segment. Instead, our results indicate that Italian populist right-wing voters have undergone a process of radicalisation, building upon a pre-existing reservoir of anti-immigration sentiment.

To the publication

Blog post on the ActEU project: "Out of step? The EU's difficult election dance"

A blog post on the ActEU project has been published on the blog “The (European) Federalist”. The blog post reports on the results of the Horizon Europe project ActEU, which examines how well European parties reflect actual voter priorities in their election programmes. The analysis reveals clear discrepancies: parties often devote more space to issues such as defence or EU policy than the public wants, while many voters feel that more pressing issues such as migration or the economy are not given enough attention. The environment is the only area where party programmes and voter interests are reasonably aligned. These discrepancies can undermine trust and create space for more extreme actors who are more responsive to issues that matter to some voters.

To the blog post

Talk by Dr Anne Jadot: "What drives French voters to the polls?"

Date: 13.01.2026
Time: 16:30-18:00
Place: Bld. B3 1, lecture hall I

Anne Jadot is a lecturer in political science at the University of Lorraine at the Institut de préparation à l'administration générale Nancy. Her lecture examines how different individual voter turnout – analysed using quantitative and qualitative data – explains key political dynamics and mobilisation patterns in France.

Event information

Job advertisement: Additional student assistant sought

The Chair of Political Science with a focus on European Integration and International Relations is seeking 1 research assistant for 10 hours per week starting on 15 February 2026 to support the research project “Total Annotation Variation”.

Tasks and activities:

• Systematic literature research: Identification, review and summarisation of scientific studies on: annotation, reliability and variation between annotators
• Support in the development of an annotation platform: assistance with simple programming tasks, interface checks and usability tests
• Data management and preparation: organising data sets, maintaining documentation, performing version control and creating descriptive summaries
• Supporting test runs: preparing annotation tasks, testing procedures, assisting with data quality monitoring
• General support for research in the fields of computer science and political text analysis

Requirements for applicants:

• Enrolled student at the University of Saarland
• Very good knowledge of English and German
• Good computer skills; experience with Python and/or R
• Experience in data processing
• Good knowledge of MS applications (including Word, Excel and Teams)
• Basic knowledge of and interest in topics such as annotation, natural language processing, text analysis
• Organisational skills, attention to detail and reliability
• Ability to work both independently and in a team
• Good communication skills
• Commitment and willingness to learn

Please send your CV and a letter of motivation in English (in one file) by email with the subject line “Application: Annotation Project” to Mr Giuseppe Carteny by 31 December 2025: Giuseppe.Carteny@uni.saarland.de

Job advertisement: Four new student assistants wanted

Tasks and activities:

• Supporting project management and procurement processes in the public sector
• Supporting political science research activities in the field of opinion polling
• Supporting data management and statistical analysis

Requirements for applicants:

• Enrolled student at the University of Saarland
• Very good written and spoken German
• Very good knowledge of English
• Knowledge of Turkish, Russian, Polish or Arabic is also advantageous
• Excellent organisational skills, focus on administrative tasks
• Good knowledge of MS applications (including Word, Excel and Teams)
• Good knowledge of data management and basic computer skills
• Knowledge of or interest in literature on experimental research design, political attitudes and political behaviour
• Good ability to work and communicate independently and in a team
• Reliability, commitment and willingness to learn

What we offer:

• Interesting insights into the field of political science research
• Teaching of research and investigation skills
• A friendly and motivated working environment

Please send your CV and a letter of motivation (in one file) by email to Mr Alexander Hartland: Alexander.Hartland(at)uni-saarland.de by 11 December 2025.

Job advertisement: Teamlead Data Development Pool SOUNDS (m/w/d)

The Societal Observatory Using Novel Data Sources (SOUNDS) is an interdisciplinary research project at Saarland University (UdS), funded by the state's transformation fund. It investigates societal transformation processes using innovative data sources such as satellite images, social media, and barcode scanners. The aim is to link computer science and social sciences and to strengthen the use of data-intensive methods. In the long term, the goal is to establish an institute based on the structures that have been developed. SOUNDS works closely with partners such as the I2SC (Interdisciplinary Institute for Societal Computing) and the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems. The project addresses disciplines such as political science, sociology, and macroeconomics and offers strategic interfaces to regional politics and economics. Cooperation with administrations should help to integrate scientific findings directly into decision-making processes. Many research projects are based on common data types such as social media data, mobility data, or satellite images. To promote efficiency, quality, and an open scientific culture, we are establishing a central technology and data pool, for which we are looking for a team lead as soon as possible who will supervise at least three data engineers.

To the job advertisement

TEDx Talk by Prof Dr Daniela Braun: "How can we get more people involved in politics?"

In her talk at TEDx Saarbrigge, Prof Dr Daniela Braun highlights the current challenges facing democracies: declining voter turnout, growing polarisation and a loss of trust in political parties. She presents traditional approaches and innovative digital solutions – from citizens' assemblies to new communication formats – and calls for a collective rethinking of democracy. The recording of the talk is now available on the YouTube channel "TEDx Talks".

To the recording

Lecture at the annual conference "Ten Years of Critical Security Studies" at Dresden Technical University

The annual conference of the Critical Security Studies thematic group took place on 6 and 7 November 2025 at TU Dresden, marking the group's tenth anniversary. Around 70 researchers discussed developments, perspectives and challenges in the field. The focus was on reflections on security discourses in the context of the war in Ukraine, the climate crisis and social polarisation. Several contributions emphasised the importance of power-critical, intersectional and interdisciplinary approaches. A roundtable with founding members took stock and outlined ways to strengthen institutional and international networking. The participants agreed to further expand the exchange between theory and practice.

Our chair also participated: Djamila Jabra gave a presentation in the panel “Climate security and speculative governance” entitled “Beyond Soft Power: Assessing the Salience of Climate Security in Political Parties in Europe”.

New publication: „Citizen’s trust and societal polarization in times of transformation“

The 2025 conference of the research section “Comparative Politics” of the German Political Science Association (DVPW) was dedicated to the topic: “Citizen’s Trust and Societal Polarization in Times of Transformation: Comparative Perspectives from Different World Regions.” Around 100 scholars from across Europe gathered from March 27 to 28 at Saarland University in Saarbrücken for the largest political science event to date hosted by the two political science chairs of the university’s still young department for European Social Research.

The conference is the result of two international research projects that are part of the Horizon Europe program: “Activating European Citizens Trust in Times of Crises and Polarization” (ActEU, led by the University of Duisburg-Essen and Saarland University) and PROTEMO (“Emotional dynamics of protective policies in an age of insecurity”, led by Saarland University). The aim of the conference was to address and discuss the most pressing challenges facing representative democracy across 20 panels: citizens’ trust—or distrust—in “their” political system, institutions, political representatives, and the EU as well as the interrelationships between trust, emotions and societal polarization. These overall topics are linked to long-term transformations related to migration and integration, climate change, technological change, gender inequalities, Europeanisation or region-specific challenges. 

To the publication

Bachelor's degree in European Studies – over 60 students begin their studies

66 new students began their Bachelor's degree in European Studies at Saarland University in the winter semester 2025/26 and were welcomed on 10 October 2025 with a Welcome Day organised by the study coordinators and the European Studies student council.

The first-year students are distributed across the four specialisations offered as follows: 19 students in Geographies of Europe, 15 students in Modern History, 27 students in Politics, Law and Society, and five students in Comparative Literature. In addition, five junior students are getting a taste of university life during the winter semester while still at school, attending lectures and seminars. A total of 168 students are currently enrolled in the Bachelor's programme in European Studies. In addition, there are 23 students from the German-French programme in European and International Politics who began their second year of study in Saarbrücken in the winter semester 25/26 and who also took part in the European Studies Welcome Day.

Gender Politics in Germany: Evidence and Recommendations from the UNTWIST EU Horizon Project

As part of the UNTWIST project, Prof. Dr. Daniela Braun, Chair of Political Science with a focus on European Integration and International Relations at Saarland University (UdS), and Dr. Giuseppe Carteny, research assistant specialising in political behaviour, party politics and quantitative methods at UdS, will present their key findings and results at the online event ‘Gender Politics in Germany: Evidence and Recommendations from the UNTWIST EU Horizon Project’ on 9 November.

The contents at a glance:

• Gender politics in Germany
• Polarisation between parties
• Citizens' perspectives on equality and care
• Policy recommendations

Please register – with specific questions if you wish – by 21 November 2025 at: Vinciane.Pilz@uni-saarland.de 
After registering, you will be sent a link to participate.

ActEU video competition offers trip to Brussels as prize

What does democracy look like to you? Is it electing your representatives and trusting them to make decisions that benefit the general interests? Is it feeling part of a society and of the decisions that affect you? Or is it about fighting for your struggles: for change, for being heard, having your voice matter?

In a time of political division, polarised debates and declining trust, democracy can feel distant, though it remains deeply personal. Because behind every headline, statistic or political statement, there are real human stories. With this video contest TEPSA invites you to share your perspectives and have your voice amplified across Europe.

Video entries of up to three minutes in length that creatively address this question can be submitted until 9 November. The winning video will be rewarded with a trip to Brussels to attend the ActEU final conference.

Further information

French President Emmanuel Macron awarded honorary doctorate by Saarland University

French President Emmanuel Macron has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Human and Business Sciences at Saarland University in recognition of his exceptional contributions to European higher education and to scientific and academic cooperation. The award ceremony took place in Saarbrücken on 3 October as part of the German Unity Day celebrations.

In its official statement, the university describes the French head of state as a 'political trailblazer whose ideas and initiatives have laid the groundwork for a new generation of European universities'. French President Emmanuel Macron has played a pivotal role in shaping European science and higher education policies. His landmark speech at the Sorbonne on 26 September 2017 stands out as a defining moment, in which he set out a bold agenda for a new European education area.

Continue reading

Date: 04.11.2025
Time: 16:30-18:00 Uhr
Place: Geb. B3 1, Hörsaal I

Pascal König is an assistant professor of public administration at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In his lecture as part of the lecture series Politics in Europe, he explains how cultural values and political ideologies are embedded in AI systems, creating new tensions between society, politics and technology.

Event information

Interdisciplinary lecture series "European Transformations" in the winter semester

The winter semester 2025/26 will see the launch of the “European Transformations” lecture series, organised by junior professor Dr Carole Fricke as part of the Master's programme Spaces, Politics and Societies of Europe. The interdisciplinary lectures will be given by lecturers from the Department of European Social Studies. The European Transformation lecture series deals with the dynamic and multifaceted transformation processes that are shaping contemporary European society, spatial planning and politics. It offers a comprehensive overview of current changes and addresses critical issues such as polarisation, populism, digitalisation, questions of (in)security, urbanisation and conflicts over space and resources. The lecture series not only addresses changes in European politics and society in general, but also offers detailed insights into spatial changes within European cities and border regions. Each lecture focuses on a selected topic or concept, drawing on both subject-specific debates and interdisciplinary discourses in/about Europe.

As part of the lecture series, Dr Giuseppe Carteny will give a lecture entitled „The politicisation of gender in contemporary European politics“. This lecture examines the contemporary politicisation of gender in European politics, highlighting the significant increase in the prominence of gender-related issues in public discourse, electoral competition, and policy debates. Drawing principally on empirical contributions, the seminar will survey recent findings from studies of public opinion, voting and party politics. We will pay particular attention to the mechanisms linking changing attitudes to political behaviour, including turnout and vote choice, and to the ways in which political parties shape, respond to and strategically frame gender claims. The contemporary features of this politicisation will be emphasised, including multidimensionality, salience and polarisation, while considering intersectionality and transnational diffusion — or lack thereof. The lecture aims to provide students with the analytical tools necessary to assess the circumstances in which gender becomes politicised, the parties that benefit or lose out in this process, and its consequences for democratic representation and public policy in Europe.

The lecture series at LSF

Now six volumes long: Saarbrücken Contributions to European Studies

The Saarbrücker Beiträge zur Europaforschung (Saarbrücken Contributions to European Studies) bring together current academic findings from European studies historically anchored at Saarland University. The publication series of the Cluster for European Studies at Saarland University CEUS, in which the internationally renowned European expertise of Saarland University works together on an interdisciplinary basis, offers perspectives on current topics in European studies from the fields of humanities, literature, cultural studies, linguistics, social sciences, spatial studies and law in the form of anthologies and monographs. In this way, it is also a reflection of the CEUS's powerful formats and the excellent promotion of young researchers. 

Individuals volumes

Job advertisement: Student assistant wanted

We are looking for a student/research assistant for the large-scale SOUNDS project!

• The tasks involve supporting project management in various organisational and administrative processes. For example:
• Supporting internal and external communication (e.g. website content, social media).
• Assisting with the creation of texts.
• Proofreading texts and presentations.
• Supporting the preparation, organisation and supervision of events, appointments, meetings and workshops.
• Conducting research.
• Supporting data management and analysis (no prior knowledge required).

To the job advertisement

Job advertisement: Project manager wanted

As part of the newly established interdisciplinary competence centre SOUNDS (Societal Observatory Using Novel Data Sources) at Saarland University, the following position is advertised with an application deadline of 10 October 2025:

Management of the large-scale SOUNDS project

In addition, further complementary positions as consultants and in the field of data engineering are planned in the near future, as well as a graduate college and the advertisement of new professorships in the field of computational social sciences.

We would be delighted if you could forward this advertisement to anyone who might be interested.

New publication: "Party competition on European issues in the 2024 EP elections"

by Giuseppe Carteny, Daniela Braun, Alex Hartland & Ann-Kathrin Reinl

Recent developments have turned European integration from a “sleeping giant” into an active political issue. The Maastricht Treaty politicized Europe in national and European Parliament elections. Cross-border crises, like migration and environmental challenges, have further increased the importance of coordinated EU responses. Moreover, an entirely new family of Eurosceptic parties has emerged and consolidated over the past decade. Given that one of their main aims is to challenge and criticise the European Union (EU), Eurosceptic parties have a particular interest in European issues - the European polity as well as major European policies. Against this background, this paper examines whether and how political parties have emphasised these issues during the 2024 EP elections, compared to 2019, and contrasting Eurosceptic and mainstream parties. Drawing on annotated data from the 2019 Euromanifesto project, we fine-tune transformer-based deep learning multilingual models to detect parties' salience and positions on European polity and policy issues in nine countries during the 2024 EP elections. Our analyses show that the salience of European issues has increased on average, in particular for the EU polity. In terms of positions, we detect a pattern of increasing negativity of mainstream parties on European policy issues, such as migration and the environment, whereas Eurosceptic parties (in particular of the far-right) appear to have become less negative on the EU. In sum, our results suggest an increasing relevance of EU-wide issues, with different patterns of polarisation.

To the publication

Enrolment in the Bachelor's programme in European Studies still possible

Prospective students can still enrol for the Bachelor's degree programme in European Studies until 30 September. This applies to the following specialisations: Geographies of Europe, Modern History and Comparative Literature. Enrolment takes place via the Saarland University online application portal for admission-free degree programmes.

In the 2025/26 winter semester, two block seminars in English and French will also be held for international students. The seminars are aimed at Erasmus incoming students and focus on European culture, intercultural communication and multilingualism. The courses will take place before the start of lectures, from 2 to 10 October 2025. Registration is possible via an online form and is open until the beginning of October.

Further information on the European Studies programme
Further information on the block seminar

New publication: "Political parties’ policy preferences on environmental issues in German border regions"

by Daniela Braun, Giuseppe Carteny, Alex Hartland, Djamila Jabra & Rosa Navarrete

Cross-border cooperation is an increasingly important issue in the EU, but little is known about its influence on domestic politics in EU member states. Previous studies suggest that border regions can influence political attitudes and party positions, but systematic analysis of these variations is lacking. We use Local Manifestos Project texts to measure the environ‐mental policy positions of political parties by location in Germany. By comparing the distance from the border of each locally-based party with the position expressed in their manifesto, we could identify any systemat‐ic variation in position relative to border proximity. We found minimal variation within parties regarding salience and position on environmental issues, suggesting that local branches of major parties tend to adopt similar strategies, possibly not adjusting the content of their electoral proposals to meet the specific demands of their constituents.

To the publication

Saarbrücker Zeitung reports on SOUNDS

Data has long since become the new currency: every day, we hand it over to tech giants such as Amazon, Google, Meta & Co, thereby cementing their market power and influence. Year after year, data trading generates revenues in the trillions. And as if that weren't enough, the hoarded data is used to create highly intimate user profiles, which algorithms then use to provide us with tailor-made advertising and news. The closed loop is complete – in other words, the bubbles in which we live.

A new centre of excellence is now being established at Saarland University, which aims to become Germany's leading point of contact for social science analyses of digital data in the medium term. The project is called "SOUNDS" (Societal Observatory Using Novel Data Sources) and will be funded with 29 million euros over seven years from the state government's transformation fund. It was presented on Friday in the presence of Science Minister Jakob von Weizsäcker (SPD). He sees ‘enormous potential for the economy and the public sector’.

Read more (German)

New publication: "Who engages with environmental issues in a multi-level system? An exploratory analysis of German parties’ issue emphasis"

by Daniela Braun & Martin Gross

Environmental policies are central to contemporary politics. Consequently, parties are incentivized to shape public discourse on environmental issues – a tendency particularly pronounced for left-wing parties. Within the European Union’s (EU) multi-level political system, this is a complex undertaking, as environmental policies are frequently decided and implemented across various political tiers. Utilizing a newly developed dictionary focused on environmental issues, we examine German parties’ emphasis on these issues in EU, federal, regional, and local election manifestos from 1989 to 2021. Our findings indicate that parties’ strategic considerations are the primary factors correlating with variations in their environmental issue emphasis across political levels. Particularly non-left-wing parties place less emphasis on environmental issues when facing electoral competition from successful Green parties at the same political level. Moreover, left-wing parties have a stronger incentive to emphasize environmental policies, including explicit state interventions. Yet, this electoral challenge is significant only within the same political level and not across different levels. Furthermore, the economic context in which parties compete is crucial: they tend to place greater emphasis on environmental issues when economic conditions are more favorable.

To the publication

New publication: "Euroskeptizismus in der deutsch-französischen Grenzregion. Eine Tageszeitungsanalyse zu den Kommunalwahlkämpfen in Saarbrücken und Forbach"

by Daniela Braun & Friederike Hommel

This article examines the observation that approval ratings for the Eurosceptic party Rassemblement National are high in the German-French border region, especially on the French side. EU border regions are often seen as prime examples of European integration. However, this can manifest itself in two ways, as both the advantages and disadvantages of the border location are clearly felt here. A qualitative content analysis was used to examine whether and in what form Euroscepticism is expressed at the local political level in the reporting on the mayoral elections in the two border towns of Forbach and Saarbrücken. The results show that, at least in the two selected border towns, Euroscepticism did not play a decisive role in the local election campaign and that European and border region issues were generally not particularly visible. In this respect, the findings of the study offer many possible starting points for further research to better understand European border regions.

To the publication

SR reports on SOUNDS

In its latest report, Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR) covers the SOUNDS project at Saarland University, which is dedicated to evaluating unconventional data such as social media analyses, satellite images and web search trends. SR interviewed political scientist Prof. Dr. Daniela Braun and computer scientist Prof. Dr. Ingmar Weber about the project. By combining the expertise of Saarland University in the field of computer science with findings from social science research, SOUNDS aims to become a central hub for innovative, empirical studies addressing current social challenges. Ultimately, SOUNDS aims to inform decision-making processes, promote public engagement and support democratic resilience, thereby positioning itself both as a research centre and as a think-and-do tank dedicated to solving real social problems.

To the video (from 4:23)

Millions in state funding: analysing society and the economy with new data sources

Satellite images, social media and barcode scanners in shops offer a wealth of data that has so far been little used in the social sciences. New AI-supported methods are helping with the evaluation of this data, but they require a great deal of IT expertise and legal and ethical classification. This interdisciplinary expertise is now to be pooled in a competence centre called "Societal Observatory Using Novel Data Sources (SOUNDS)".

The state government is supporting this with 29 million euros from the Transformation Fund in order to generate not only scientific insights but also concrete economic impetus for the transformation of the Saarland economy.

Read more

New publication: "Is secular–religious party competition moving online? Digital religious profiles of candidates running for the European Parliament"

by Eva-Maria Euchner, David Schweizer & Daniela Braun

New digital technologies alter various societal spheres, including the landscape of religion and politics. “Christianity influencers,” faith tweets, digital chaplaincy and online Islamic hate speech are notable examples in place. The rapidly growing body of scholarship known as digital religion studies explores the extent to which traditional religious practices are being adapted to digital environments. However, while this nascent field profits from interdisciplinary perspectives, the political dimension of this transformation is still underdeveloped. Specifically, it is unclear how political actors refer to religion during online campaigning across Europe and whether the existing patterns reflect “classical offline divides” between secular and religious parties. This paper contributes to this gap by providing first-hand empirical evidence of online references to religion by candidates running for the European Parliament in 2019 in four countries (Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom). The study uses a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative analyses of European politicians’ X (formerly Twitter) profiles. Overall, religion plays a subordinate role in online political campaigning; however, there is substantial country variation, indicating a higher salience of religion in Swedish and Dutch campaigns in comparison to German or British online discourses. Furthermore, candidates from political parties with religious roots are more likely to refer to religion than those from more secular parties, reflecting traditional secular-religious divisions. The paper advances existing research on religion and party politics through its fresh perspective on religion outside classical arenas of political conflict and inside important alternative venues of political competition.

To the publication

New publication: "Climate Change and Political Parties: Higher Salience and More Diversification Over Climate Change in the 2024 EP Elections?"

by Daniela Braun, Djamila Jabra und Jan Pollex

The EU faced several crises during the Parliament’s last term, notably the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, advanced by the new Commission President von der Leyen and her European Green Deal, one of the major issues the Parliament was supposed to tackle was the climate crisis and the transition to climate neutrality. In line with the European Green Deal, the European Commission indeed prioritised mitigating climate change as part of the European agenda after the 2019 EP elections. However, in the later period of the legislature, farmers’ protests across Europe encouraged in particular conservative political parties to challenge this European Green Deal. Against this background, we expected that the issue of how best to combat climate change would be widely debated in campaigns for the 2024 EP elections. Therefore, based on manifesto data from the main transnational party federations, we empirically study (using a mixed-methods approach) both the salience and framing of policies covering climate change-related issues in the 2024 EP election campaign. Our findings suggest that in these elections there is some evidence for a “greening” of Europarties: climate policy is more salient and parties engage intensively with the issue. However, marked differences regarding the importance accorded to climate policy emerge along a left-right divide. This is in line with much of the current research on partisan politics.

To the publication

New publication: "Crises, Adaptation, and Resilience—Exploring Crises Responses of Regional Organizations from the Perspective of EU Studies and Comparative Regionalism"

by Alexander Libman, Lisa Anders & Daniela Braun

How do different types of regional organizations react to current challenges and crises? This special issue of the Politische Vierteljahresschrift explores this question by bringing together contributions from European Union studies and comparative regionalism. This introduction discusses the concepts of crisis, adaptation, and resilience as well as the value of the dialogue between the two subdisciplines, outlines the aims of the special issue, systematizes the main findings of the contributions, and reflects on their implications for future research.

To the publication

Science communication officer wanted at CEUS

The Cluster for European Studies CEUS is looking for a Science Communication Officer to start as soon as possible. Detailed online applications (in a single PDF file) can be sent to bewerbung@uni-saarland.de until 27 August 2025. Please include the reference number N2180 in the subject line of your email.

The Cluster for European Studies CEUS, newly established in 2020, is a central academic institution at Saarland University. As a platform and centre of excellence, it brings together initiatives and projects in interdisciplinary European studies and other activities in the university's historically established focus on Europe. Its task is to establish and provide scientific support for knowledge transfer, to communicate the results of local European research and the expertise of its members to the public, to facilitate knowledge transfer through public formats and publications, and to raise the university's profile as a beacon of (inter)national European research.

Learn more

Alex Hartland: Studying polarisation with social media data

At the end of last year, the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) organised the mid-term conference of the Horizon Europe project ActEU in Brussels. This academic conference, titled “Strengthening democracy: Building trust and tackling polarisation in Europe”, brought together researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners to assess the project’s key challenges and successes.

Dr Alex Hartland gave a lecture here on the study of polarisation based on data from social media and also discussed specific examples from Germany. TEPSA has now made a recording of the lecture available on YouTube.

To the video recording

Special Issue Workshop at Saarland University

On 17 and 18 July 2025, an international and interdisciplinary workshop funded by the Internationalisation Fund took place at Saarland University. The aim of this joint workshop was to publish a special issue (SI) in the renowned political science journal European Political Science Review. The initiators of this project are Prof. Dr. Daniela Braun from the Chair of Political Science with a focus on European Integration and International Relations in the newly established Department of Social Sciences European Studies, and Luca Carrieri and Nicolò Conti from Unitelma Sapienza University Rome. The idea for this SI was inspired by various ongoing or already completed projects based at Saarland University. Firstly, the ProConEU project (funding code 01UG2104B), which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and led by Daniela Braun. Several researchers involved in this SI (Daniela Braun, Giuseppe Carteny, Leonardo Puleo, Hermann Schmitt) collaborated on this project. Secondly, ActEU, a currently ongoing Horizon Europe project led by Daniela Braun and Michael Kaeding (UDE). Here, too, a number of researchers involved in this SI are participating (Daniela Braun, Giuseppe Carteny, Matilde Ceron, Alex Hartland, Zoe Lefkofridi, Rosa Navarrete, Ann-Kathrin Reinl). Thirdly, the articles in this SI present the results of a project funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (PRIN 2022 ‘Whither Sovereignty?’).

The workshop offered the researchers involved in the publication an intensive opportunity for exchange and collaboration with various intra- and international research groups in the fields of political science, social science and European studies.
1. It enabled and promoted new networking between the University of Saarland and other institutions and researchers working on the same topics.
2. The central goal of the workshop was achieved and is expected to be published in the second half of 2026 in the renowned journal European Political Science Review as a joint, interdisciplinary and international contribution to the latest state of research.
3. As an additional result, this fruitful meeting gave rise to a new project idea, which is to be finalised in the near future.
The opportunity for this close exchange between Prof. Dr. Daniela Braun's political science chair and the visiting guests has thus proved conducive to laying the foundation for international cooperation between the University of Saarland and other institutes worldwide and can be regarded as a complete success.

Throwback: "Democracy in the digital age: ideas that shape our future"

At TEDx Saarbrigge, we turned things upside down and reimagined democracy in the digital age: On 14 June 2025, under the motto ‘Democracy in the digital age: Ideas that shape our future,’ committed voices from civil society, academia and activism came together at the CoHub on Saarbrücken's Neumarkt.

The event was organised by Prof. Dr. Ingmar Weber from the Interdisciplinary Institute for Societal Computing at Saarland University together with Dr. Kevin Baum from the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and other partners. Prof. Dr. Daniela Braun participated as a speaker.

We were delighted with the lively participation and the many ideas that were generated.

New publication: "Anti-feminism in the spotlight: Media coverage of German parties’ gender and sexuality policies in the 2024 European Parliament election campaign"

by Louise Luxton, Djamila Jabra and Daniela Braun

Abstract: Right-wing populist parties (RWPPs) across Europe are increasingly politicising anti-feminist positions on gender and sexuality issues. However, little is known about how this mobilisation translates into media coverage. We argue that RWPPs’ polarising positions appeal to news values like conflict and sensationalism, leading to greater visibility, particularly compared to traditional issue owners that promote gender equality. We conduct a quantitative content analysis of party manifestos and six months of newspaper coverage during the 2024 European Parliament elections in Germany to examine whether media attention on gender issues corresponds with parties’ manifesto emphasis and whether the RWPP Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is disproportionately visible. Our findings show that the AfD promoted distinctly negative gender positions and received more gender-related coverage than any other party. While mostly negative in tone, this coverage amplifies the party's anti-feminist discourse, with broader implications for gender equality and the role of news media in democratic societies.

To the publication

Digital information event on doctoral scholarships from the Heinrich Böll Foundation

14 July 2025
17:00 - 18:30

The Heinrich Böll Foundation awards scholarships for students and doctoral candidates. Scholarship holders receive both financial and non-material support in the form of events for political education and personal qualification as well as offers for networking and career entry. The foundation supports scholarship holders with particularly good academic or scientific achievements, who are socially committed and have an interest in politics. But what exactly does this mean and how do applicants present this convincingly in their application? Does your profile match the foundation, who exactly are we looking for?

At the information event, the foundation will provide information about the objectives of its doctoral funding programme, the selection criteria, the formal requirements for a doctoral scholarship, the expectations of applicants, the application documents to be submitted and the selection process, and will answer any open questions.

Regristration for the event
Info poster (German)

Publication: "Border regions as laboratories for European research"

by Daniela Braun, Ulla Connor & Kristina Höfer (eds.)

This interdisciplinary volume offers insights into the social challenges of European border regions. It centres on the question of what contribution the study of border regions makes to European research. The volume includes historical analyses as well as studies of current social, cultural, legal and political opportunities and challenges of European border regions. Case studies from different contexts analyse the political attitudes of political parties and the population, shed light on the consequences of deindustrialisation in border regions and examine cross-border cooperation in areas such as mobility, infrastructure, education and legal issues.

With contributions by Daniela Braun | Dominik Brodowski | Giuseppe Carteny | Julia Dittel | Stefan Ewert | Carola Fricke | Friederike Hommel | Ines Funk | Philip Hahn | Alex Hartland | Djamila Jabra | Alexander Kratz | Fabian Lemmes | Nikolaus Marsch | Birgit Metzger | Jochen Müller | Rosa M. Navarrete | Claudia Polzin-Haumann | Christina Reissner | Alexandra Schartner | Stefanie Thurm | Florian Weber | Georg Wenzelburger

To the publication

Vacancies for student assistants

The Chair of European Integration and International Relations is looking for two student assistants to help analyse multilingual social media content. Requirements are diverse language skills and an interest in polarisation and party competition. The closing date for applications is 11.07.2025.

More information

Observatory of Online Politics analyses the role of TikTok in the 2025 federal election

The Observatory of Online Politics, an interdisciplinary project of the I2SC (Interdisciplinary Institute for Societal Computing) led by Dr Rosa Navarrete, is dedicated to observing the evolving role of digital platforms in shaping political discourse and social outcomes. In a blog post, the Observatory analyses the influence of TikTok on the 2025 federal election:

While TikTok is becoming increasingly relevant among social media users, its role in elections remains understudied. The successful social media campaign targeting youth by the party Die Linke has drawn attention to new social media platforms that had previously received little focus, as they have only recently become politically relevant. While researchers in Germany have most commonly addressed the study of platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (now X) and their use in electoral campaigns, we know very little about how German politicians use TikTok, as the platform's success is relatively recent. In this respect, recent data show that the number of Twitter/X users in Germany in 2025 was around 21.63 million (DataReportal 2025).

Keep reading

Talk: „Dilemmas of EU criticism“

The Cluster for European Studies at Saarland University (CEUS) cordially invites you to a guest lecture by Prof Dr Timm Beichelt (European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder):

Prof Dr Timm Beichelt: “Dilemmata der EU-Kritik”
26 June 2025, 18:00-20:00, Campus B3 2, Lecture Hall 0.03

The electoral and discourse successes of European right-wing populism have also given a boost to political Euroscepticism. In many national arenas, but also in Brussels itself, the debate with EU-sceptical parties and actors represents an important part of the debate landscape. In this context, academic criticism of the EU takes on a new dimension, as it not only intervenes in competing conceptions of the world, but also potentially supports right-wing extremist and/or anti-democratic actors with arguments. The lecture and subsequent discussion will be dedicated to the emerging dilemmas of EU criticism.

The event is part of the CEUS lecture series "5th Europe Discourse(s). International European research as a guest at the UdS". The talk is given in German.

More information

Talk by Prof. Dr. Florence Metz: „Navigating the Climate Policy Paradox: Institutional Complexity and the Challenge of Policy Coherence in the EU“

The European Union has made climate action a central policy priority, committing 30% of its 2021–2027 budget—€557 billion—to climate-related spending (European Commission, 2022) and requiring all policy sectors to integrate climate objectives. Yet projections from the Climate Action Tracker (2022) indicate that the EU is unlikely to reach its 2050 net-zero emissions target.

This talk explores the paradox between political ambition and policy effectiveness. I argue that a key explanation lies in a flawed assumption: that as climate policies accumulate, their coherence remains stable. In practice, policies often contradict each other, while their interdependencies are poorly understood.

Building on the Theory of Institutional Complexity Traps, this research shows how expanding policy portfolios can become fragmented and counterproductive when not properly coordinated. Methodologically, I apply network analysis to identify and map the interactions among policy instruments and goals, highlighting areas of synergy and contradiction.

This systems-based approach provides new insights into the structural limits of climate policy integration and suggests why institutional complexity may be a hidden barrier to achieving climate goals. The research is part of the ERC Starting Grant project Climplexity: CLIMate Policy Integration—a ComPLEXITY Trap?

More information

Recording: "Triggers of political engagement"

Dr Alex Hartland gave a presentation at the ActEU Mid-Term Conference entitled “Triggers of political engagement”, in which he described when and how individuals in civil society become politically engaged. The Mid-Term Conference of the Horizon Europe project ActEU took place in Brussels in December 2024. This scientific conference entitled "Strengthening democracy: Building trust and tackling polarisation in Europe" brought together researchers and policy makers to assess the main challenges and achievements of the project. The recording of the presentation is now available online:

To the video

New publication: "Learn, Explore and Reflect by Chatting: Understanding the Value of an LLM-Based Voting Advice Application Chatbot"

by Jianlong Zhu, Manon Kempermann, Vikram Kamath Cannanure, Alexander Hartland, Rosa M. Navarrete, Giuseppe Carteny, Daniela Braun & Ingmar Weber

Abstract: Voting advice applications (VAAs), which have become increasingly prominent in European elections, are seen as a successful tool for boosting electorates' political knowledge and engagement. However, VAAs' complex language and rigid presentation constrain their utility to less-sophisticated voters. While previous work enhanced VAAs' click-based interaction with scripted explanations, a conversational chatbot's potential for tailored discussion and deliberate political decision-making remains untapped. Our exploratory mixed-method study investigates how LLM-based chatbots can support voting preparation. We deployed a VAA chatbot to 331 users before Germany's 2024 European Parliament election, gathering insights from surveys, conversation logs, and 10 follow-up interviews. Participants found the VAA chatbot intuitive and informative, citing its simple language and flexible interaction. We further uncovered VAA chatbots' role as a catalyst for reflection and rationalization. Expanding on participants' desire for transparency, we provide design recommendations for building interactive and trustworthy VAA chatbots.

To the publication

"Fact or Fake?" simulation game - students take a playful look at how the European Parliament works

How does the European Parliament work? What are the challenges of working in the Parliament? What significance does democracy have in the decision-making process? On 2 June 2025, students of Prof Dr Daniela Braun'sEuropean Integration and Political Instruments course were able to experience this in practice as part of a 4-hour panel game. During this event, organised in cooperation with Europe Direct Saarbrücken, the students had the opportunity to slip into the roles of politicians in the European Parliament and simulate everyday parliamentary life. Their task: to negotiate a new EU regulation on the regulation of disinformation and hate speech in social networks. The students were assigned fixed roles with political positions on the basis of which they were to work out a compromise that was acceptable to all sides. The result: despite long and tough negotiations, the students were unable to agree on a joint draft regulation. What does that mean? It certainly didn't mean that the simulation game was unsuccessful: the students reported that they found it very exciting, interesting and thrilling to put themselves in the shoes of different political positions and try to unite widely divergent positions in a compromise.

The simulation game is an integral part of the European Integration lecture in the Bachelor's degree programme in European Studiesand is met with great enthusiasm by the students. The department is looking forward to organising another simulation game with Europe Direct Saarbrücken next year.

Co-Creation Workshop: “How Should Democratic Parties Address the Issue of Gender Equality in the Future?”

On May 27, 2025, a two-hour gender co-creation workshop was held from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at the FrauenGenderBibliothek Saar, with a total of 13 participants from various age groups and social backgrounds. The aim of the workshop was to develop political recommendations that could serve as guidance for democratic parties in dealing with the issue of gender equality.

Following a brief introduction to the project and the workshop’s objectives, three small groups worked on key thematic areas such as sexualized violence, gender-sensitive language, and care work. Through brainstorming, personal stories, and moderated group phases, major challenges were identified and discussed. 

A key takeaway was the respectful and inspiring exchange between participants. Many found the workshop enriching as it opened up new perspectives beyond their previous experiences. In all groups, the topic of sexualized violence was discussed particularly intensively — a clear indication of its societal relevance. The workshop concluded with the development of political recommendations at both the local and national levels.

The results will directly inform the specification of the corresponding work package. A transcription of the group discussions is planned for June 2025.

Youth Democracy Lab

On 24 May, it was time again for the Open Campus Day at Saarland University. In addition to many lectures and participation in two information stands, Professor Braun's department also organised a Youth Democracy Lab as part of the Horizon-funded EU project ActEU under the title “Is trust in European politics at risk?”. Participants were able to get involved, address problems or suggest solutions.

The ActEU project aims to find answers to the following questions: How can we conceptualise and empirically measure political trust and legitimacy beyond the usual survey question ‘How much trust do you have in the Parliament?’? Does the multi-level nature of European representative democracies require an identical level of support from citizens at regional, national and EU level? To what extent does social polarisation on key political issues of our time - immigration, climate change and gender inequality - challenge political trust in democratic political systems and their legitimacy? And what can political decision-makers and civil society do to overcome these challenges?

More information

New publication: "The role of key European issues in the 2024 election campaign"

by Alex Hartland, Daniela Braun, Giuseppe Carteny, Rosa M. Navarrete & Ann-Kathrin Reinl

Abstract: International crises and Euroscepticism have made European issues prominent in citizens’ lives. This article studies the role of three key European issues – migration, the environment, and EU integration – for political parties and citizens. The analysis centres on nine EU member states, combining party manifestos from the 2024 European Parliament elections with survey data. It finds a gap between the concerns of citizens and the political parties, an important consideration for election campaigns in general. Moreover, the analysis suggests that the salience in party manifestos has a modest direct influence and a stronger indirect impact on their appeal to citizens in most countries studied. Specifically, citizens concerned with migration and the environment evaluate parties based on the prominence they give to these issues during the campaign. The findings offer important avenues for further research on party issue emphasis and the measurement of issue salience via large language models (LLMs).

To the publication

Invitation to the event "Democracy in digital times: Ideas that shape our future"

The TEDx Saarbrigge event aims to promote a vibrant democracy in digital times. All interested citizens are invited to the CoHub at Saarbrücker Neumarkt on Saturday, 14 June, from 1 pm to 6 pm to participate. TEDx Saarbrigge aims to bring voices from civil society, science and activism to the stage, which is why numerous international experts will also be guests. 

The organisers are Prof Dr Ingmar Weber from the  Interdisciplinary Institute for Societal Computing at Saarland University together with Dr Kevin Baum from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and other partners. Prof Dr Daniela Braun will take part as a speaker.

More information

Lecture on the New Climate Divide

Date: 22.05.2025
Time: 16:30-18:00
Place: Bld. C1 7, room 0.08

Endre Borbáth is a junior professor for Empirical-Analytical Participation Research at the Institute for Political Science at Heidelberg University and a visiting researcher at the Centre for Civil Society Research at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB). In his lecture as part of the lecture series Politics in Europe, he will talk about the New Climate Divide - the emerging conflict over climate policy in Europe - and reflect on the process of securing an Emmy Noether fellowship.

More information

Call for Applications: ActEU Trans-National Youth Democracy Lab

Europe’s democracies are being tested. Trust is eroding. Facts are under fire. Institutions feel distant. And yet, young people across the continent still believe in building a better and more sustainable future.

The Trans-National Youth Democracy Lab, within the framework of the Horizon Europe “Activating European Citizens’ Trust in Times of Crises and Polarization (ActEU)” project, is a space for young people from across Europe to come together and take these issues seriously. Not through lectures. Not through panels. But through small-group conversations that aim to generate honest insights and practical, actionable recommendations. Your deliberations will inform a final recommendations paper which will be shared with a broad network of experts and policy-makers.

The event will take place online on 10 June, 11:00-12:30 CEST. Application Deadline: 27 May.

More information

Summer Institute in Computational Social Science

From September 8 to September 19, 2025, the Interdisciplinary Institute for Societal Computing (I2SC) will host the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science, to be held in Saarbrücken, Germany. The purpose of the Summer Institute is to bring together graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and junior faculty interested in computational social science. The Summer Institute is mainly focussed towards Computer Science students interested in interdisciplinary approaches to social sciences, focusing more on providing computer scientists with experience in social sciences rather than equipping social scientists with computational methods. Graduate social science students with basic knowledge of computer science approaches are also encouraged to join.

Participation is restricted to advanced Ph.D. students, postdoctoral researchers, and junior faculty (within 7 years of their Ph.D). We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, especially from neighboring institutions near Saarbrücken, Germany. About 20-25 participants will be invited. Participants are expected to fully attend and participate in the entire 10-day program. Application materials are due on April 25, 2025.

More information

New publication: Fading EUphoria: party system polarisation and EU attitudes in Greece, Portugal and Spain

Lea Heyne, Rosa Navarrete and Alexia Katsanidou published a new paper in the journal South European Society and Politics:

Greece, Portugal, and Spain transitioned to democracy in the 1970s and joined the EEC in the 1980s, fostering positive EU attitudes through economic growth. However, the Southern European financial crisis and subsequent austerity measures deeply strained EU support, especially in Greece. This study examines how party conflict and EU politicisation influence public attitudes, finding a negative link between EU polarisation and membership support. In Portugal and Greece, polarisation impacts opinions most when EU issues are salient. The study highlights country-specific patterns and the interplay of crises, political strategies, and public opinion on the EU in the Southern European third-wave democracies.

To the publication

Citizens' opinions sought: How can gender equality be anchored in politics?

What do voters expect from political parties in terms of gender equality? This question will be the focus of a workshop on 27 May from 6 to 8 pm at the FrauenGenderBibliothek Saar, to which all interested citizens are invited. The aim is to jointly develop recommendations for politicians - taking into account as many different opinions as possible. The results will feed into an EU-funded political science research project at Saarland University. Registration is required by 4 May to projekt-untwist(at)uni-saarland.de.

Interested citizens are cordially invited to actively participate in the co-creation workshop and contribute their perspective. As a thank you for taking part, all participants will receive a voucher that can be redeemed in Saarbrücken. As the event will be recorded (audio) for research purposes, all participants will receive further information on data usage in advance.

More about the UNTWIST project
Press release about the workshop
Saarbrücker Zeitung article about the workshop

Ulrich Commerçon, Member of the State Parliament, visits the Observatory of Online Politics

The Observatory of Online Politics, an interdisciplinary project of the I2SC (Interdisciplinary Institute for Societal Computing) led by Dr Rosa Navarrete, is dedicated to observing the evolving role of digital platforms in shaping political discourse and social outcomes. The sobering realisation: lying pays off for politicians. Dr Rosa Navarrete has now discussed this and the Observatory's work with Ulrich Commerçon, who is currently the leader of the SPD faction in the Saarland state parliament. "The work of the Observatory of Online Politics is so important because it looks closely at where boundaries are shifting, where quiet habituation becomes dangerous normality. And because it shows what we can do to counter these developments politically and socially," writes the former education minister on social media. Dr Rosa Navarrete was also pleased about the exchange: "It is important that we share the results of our work at the Observatory with the outside world and in politics in order to strengthen our democracy with facts and data."

Website of the Observatory
 

Looking back at the DVPW conference

The annual conference of the German Political Science Association (DVPW) has found a more than exciting venue this year in Saarland University: Political science was only recently revitalised here in the form of two chairs as part of the also very young faculty of European social science research. We were therefore all the more delighted to welcome political scientists from Germany and all over the world. The conference panels and the keynote speech with Bundesrat President Anke Rehlinger led to an exciting exchange on political trust in today's world, and the conference showed that the Saarland University is developing into a centre for political science: Saarland University is developing into an important part of the political science landscape in Germany that you better keep on your radar!

We would like to thank all participants for their active participation, Anke Rehlinger for taking the time for our keynote despite the ongoing coalition negotiations, and the Saarbrücker Zeitung for the two articles published as part of the conference:

“Heimspiel für Anke Rehlinger”
Interview with Prof Dr Daniela Braun and Prof Dr Georg Wenzelburger

“Citizen’s trust and societal polarization in times of transformation. Comparative Perspectives from different world regions”

The annual conference of the German Political Science Association (DVPW) has taken place at Saarland University on 27 and 28 March 2025. The main aim of this conference was to analyse one of the most pressing problems of representative democracies from different perspectives: Citizens' trust or mistrust in “their” political system, institutions and politicians. In order to place the study of trust and mistrust in a broader context, contributions are also welcome that deal with the connection between citizens and the state in general - a connection that can be expressed in different ways (e.g. public opinion/attitudes of citizens, political behaviour such as political participation, civic engagement, protest behaviour, but also feelings or emotions).

More information

Job advertisement: Research assistant (m/f/d)

Saarland University has a distinctive European profile and a strong European focus in research and teaching with high development potential due to its unique Franco-German founding history and its special geographical location in the border region with France, Luxembourg and Belgium. Cross-faculty and interdisciplinary European research has found a platform in the Cluster for European Studies (CEUS).

The Cluster for European Studies is a central academic institution of the University. As a platform and competence centre, it brings together initiatives and projects of interdisciplinary European research in the humanities, law and social sciences and other activities in the university's historically grown European focus. The Cluster for European Research supports doctoral students and postdocs with Europe-related dissertation and postdoctoral projects in an international working environment through the Junior Research Centre Europe.

View the full job advertisement

Pressemitteilung: Truth or Lie? Observatory analyses political action on the internet

It pays to lie: those who tell untruths on the internet are now often very successful in politics. Observers usually only look at the short-term consequences of political campaigns on the internet. The consequences of lies and false statements by politicians on the internet have not yet been scientifically observed over longer periods of time. A recently established "Observatory for Online Politics" at Saarland University now wants to change this.

To the full press release
To the website of the Observatory

Press release about the DVPW conference

Topics such as trust and distrust in politics as well as social polarisation are the focus of a political science conference on 27 and 28 March, which will bring together experts from Germany and abroad at Saarland University.

They will discuss their current research on one of the most pressing problems of representative democracy: the dwindling trust of citizens in “their” political system and institutions. The symposium of the “Comparative Politics” section of the German Political Science Association (DVPW) is being organised by Professor Daniela Braun and Professor Georg Wenzelburger in cooperation with the University of Duisburg-Essen.

To the press release