EXPERT: Professor Radu Cinpoes
Radu Cinpoes is an Associate Professor of Politics, Human Rights and International Relations, Kingston University. He specialises in research areas such as the politics of nationalism, ethnicity, identity, and post-communism politics in Central and Eastern Europe.
Radu Cinpoes, Associate Professor in Politics, Human Rights and International Relations, describes the issues of right-wing nationalism and populism in Eastern Europe. He discusses the use of historical narratives by the Romanian far-right, often projections which do not reflect the reality of their past – and the penetration of these ideas into the political mainstream, as well as the role that religious discourse plays in constructing exclusionary nationalist identities. He also describes the challenges that ultra-nationalism poses to Rurope, including the rejection of human rights, isolationism, and impacts upon vulnerable minorities such as refugees, Roma and sexual minorities. He identifies a crisis in solidarity which threatens European pluralism, and identifies the need for a strong response from civil society actors to push back against illiberal and reactionary politics in the region.