SciencePo ULB

[Média]
"Quand l’intimité des femmes politiques devient un enjeu public"
Une interview de Clémence Deswert, Chercheuse à SciencePo ULB (Centre d'étude de la vie politique de l'ULB - Cevipol), au journal Le Soir.

Quand l’intimité des femmes politiques devient un enjeu public PMA, maternité, fausses couches… de plus en plus, les femmes politiques contribuent à faire entrer des sujets longtemps cantonnés au privé. Se heurtant ainsi au risque de « backlash », soupçons d’opportunisme et difficulté à faire reconnaître ces enjeux comme des questions politiques e...

[Out]
"Conspiratorial Communication Among Political Elites: Evidence from Belgian Politicians on Social Media";
New chapter by Nathalie Brack & Piotr Marczynski, Professor and PhD Researcher at SciencePo ULB(Centre d'étude de la vie politique de l'ULB - Cevipol) in the book Conspiracism and Political Conflict (Palgrave, 2026)

Nathalie Brack, together with Piotr Marczynski examine how Belgian politicians used conspiratorial discourse on Facebook and X in the seven months preceding the 2024 federal elections in Belgium.
Conspiracy theories are often associated with fringe online communities, yet political elites can also introduce, amplify and legitimise conspiratorial narratives.
📊 Based on 10,609 posts from Belgian MPs and party leaders on X and Facebook, they find that conspiratorial discourse (understood as communication that attributes events to hidden plots by malevolent actors, claims that important truths are being concealed, and/or frames powerful out-groups as secretly working against the public interest) remains relatively rare: only 139 posts (1.3% of the studied posts) contained at least one conspiratorial dimension.
But the distribution is far from even:

🟤 Vlaams Belang shared conspiratorial content in 4.6% of its posts, followed by PTB-Pvda (2.1%) and N-VA (1.6%). Nearly half (43.2%) of all conspiratorial posts came from Vlaams Belang.

🔎 The themes also differ across the ideological spectrum. On the far right, the Great Replacement (omvolking) and migration feature prominently. On the far left, conspiratorial narratives more often target economic elites, corporations and political corruption.

🎯 Across the ideological spectrum, however, political elites are the most frequently targeted out-group, appearing in 48.6% of posts containing an enemy dimension, followed by migrants (14.9%) and and foreign-power (12.8%) (see graph below).

And perhaps most surprisingly, conspiratorial communication declines as elections approach: from 1.9% of posts during non-electoral periods to 0.7% during the electoral period. Rather than intensifying their use of conspiratorial rhetoric when electoral stakes are highest, politicians appear to exercise greater strategic restraint.

Overall, the findings suggest that conspiratorial discourse is not a generalized feature of Belgian political elites' communication on X and Facebook, but a selective and strategically deployed tool, concentrated particularly among radical parties.

📖 Check the full chapter here:

Conspiratorial Communication Among Political Elites: Evidence from Belgian Politicians on Social Media What if post-truth dynamics are driven not by citizens but by political elites? This chapter examines the extent to which political elites disseminate conspiratorial content on their social media in Belgium. Using a newly developed coding framework, we systematically...

[Media] 'Voici le vrai coût d'une saison de Jupiler Pro League pour un supporter : "Tout combiné, c'est un petit salaire mais quand on aime, on ne compte pas"', une interview de Jean-Michel De Waele, professeur à SciencePo ULB (Centre d'étude de la vie politique de l'ULB - Cevipol), pour la DH
https://www.dhnet.be/actu/belgique/2026/08/08/voici-le-vrai-cout-dune-saison-de-jupiler-pro-league-pour-un-supporter-tout-combine-cest-un-petit-salaire-mais-quand-on-aime-on-ne-compte-pas-GNBLJPEI3JBZRDQOCITXLNAGXY/

[Média]
"Abelardo de la Espriella, le nouveau chef d'Etat de la Colombie "
Une interview d' Hugo Corten, Chercheur à SciencePo ULB (Centre d'étude de la vie politique de l'ULB - Cevipol), à FRANCE 24.

Abelardo de la Espriella, le nouveau chef d'Etat de la Colombie • FRANCE 24 Hugo Corten, doctorant en Science Politique à l'Université Libre de...

[Job]
Jaarlijkse Cuba-reis van PVDA-jongeren is niet zonder controverse: ‘Model loopt tegen zijn grenzen aan’
Une interview de Pascal Delwit, Professeur à SciencePo ULB (Centre d'étude de la vie politique de l'ULB - Cevipol), à De Morgen.

Jaarlijkse Cuba-reis van PVDA-jongeren is niet zonder controverse: ‘Model loopt tegen zijn grenzen aan’ Comac, de studentenvereniging van PVDA, zette dit jaar opnieuw koers naar Cuba voor haar jaarlijkse solidariteitsreis. Wat hopen de radicaal-linkse jongeren te vinden op een eiland waar politieke vrijheid haast onbestaande is?

[Job] Facilitation Assistants for European Citizens’ Panels on Democratic Resilience
Deadline for applications: 21st August 2026

[OUT] 'Too burdensome to be acknowledged? How sexism is rendered invisible to women candidates through seven mechanisms', new paper by Clemence Deswert and Emilie van Haute, researchers at SciencePo ULB (Centre d'étude de la vie politique de l'ULB - Cevipol), with Robin Devroe and Elise Storme, in Political Studies
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00323217261470570?_gl=1*18b51zq*_up*MQ..*_ga*NTQwNzA1MDMuMTc4NjAyNDU5OQ..*_ga_60R758KFDG*czE3ODYwMjQ1OTgkbzEkZzAkdDE3ODYwMjQ1OTgkajYwJGwxJGgzMzAxODk2OTI.

[Média]
"Colombie : qui a soutenu le nouveau président d’extrême-droite ?"
Une interview d' Hugo Corten, Chercheur à SciencePo ULB (Centre d'étude de la vie politique de l'ULB - Cevipol), à France Culture.

Colombie : qui a soutenu le nouveau président d’extrême-droite ? Ce vendredi 7 août, Abelardo de la Espriella, avocat d'extrême droite surnommé "le Tigre", prend ses fonctions à Cali, dans un climat tendu. Soutenu par Trump, il rompt avec la "paix totale" de Petro.

[Out]
"The EU’s democracy support pendulum: democracy promotion, democracy protection, and geostrategic pragmatism in the EU neighbourhood"
New paper out by Claudia Bădulescu & Luca Tomini, Postdoctoral fellow and FNRS Chercheur qualifié at SciencePo ULB (Centre d'étude de la vie politique de l'ULB - Cevipol), in European Politics and Society.

The EU’s democracy support pendulum: democracy promotion, democracy protection, and geostrategic pragmatism in the EU neighbourhood In recent years, the European Union (EU) has faced mounting challenges in promoting and safeguarding democracy in its neighbourhood, as autocratisation trends, entangled with intensifying geopoliti...

[OUT] 'Far-righting the mainstream: endogenous drivers of reactionary shifts in western party politics', new paper by Alvaro Oleart, postdoc at SciencePo ULB (Centre d'étude de la vie politique de l'ULB - Cevipol), with Juan Roch, in Comparative European Politics
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41295-026-00494-3