Interview with Prof. Catherine E. De Vries
19 August 2025
Ahead of the lecture, ACES Programme Manager Agnė Piepaliūtė sat down with Prof. De Vries to discuss her research and its implications.
It refers to situations where communities experience reduced or declining access to essential public services, such as healthcare, schools, or public transport, because of long-term state disinvestment.
When people feel abandoned by the state, they become more receptive to political narratives that blame outsiders or unresponsive elites. Far-right parties tap into this discontent by framing service decline as evidence of unfair treatment, resource competition with immigrants, or simply neglect.
Public Service Deprivation and the Rise of Populism in Europe
Services that structure everyday life - local schools, healthcare facilities, public transport, and infrastructure - matter most. Their absence or decline is immediately visible and deeply felt in daily routines.
It is especially visible in deindustrialized regions, rural areas, and small towns across Western and Southern Europe, where population decline and disinvestment have made state retreat most pronounced.
That the rise of far-right parties is not only about cultural conflict or immigration, it's also about geography and state presence. Where the state retreats, resentment grows, and this creates fertile ground for far-right mobilization.