A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of populism, but also that of nationalism, communism, fascism, antisemitism, and fundamentalism. In the Netherlands, but also in the rest of Europe and in the entire Western world, phantoms we thought we had conquered when the twentieth century came to an end rear their heads once again. Why do these ghosts return, and why now? Has our democracy entered a crisis? Can we exorcise these ghosts, or are they bound up with the West inextricably? Will history repeat itself, or can we learn from the past? This autumn, the Nexus Institute presents an international syposium on ‘The Return of the Ghosts’.

Prominent thinkers, politicians, diplomats, and writers will discuss the old ghosts, their new incarnations, and their consequences for the Netherlands, Europe, America, and the rest of the world.

Speakers are, among others, Mario Vargas Llosa, Britta Böhler, Mitchell Cohen, Paolo Flores d’Arcais, Max Blumenthal, and Frits Bolkestein.