Vlad Marginas

Vlad is a Marie Skłodowska Curie Doctoral Fellow (MSCA) enrolled in a PhD double degree in Political Science at Babeş-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) and the Université libre de Bruxelles (Brussels, Belgium) within the Horizon Europe GEM-DIAMOND project (Globalisation, Europe, and Multilateralism: Democratic Institutions, the rise of Alternative Models and mounting Normative Dissensus). His doctoral project, jointly supervised by Sergiu Mişcoiu (UBB), Sandro Cattacin (UNIGE) & Ramona Coman (ULB), examines anti-gender movements of dissensus in Romania and Greece through the framework of illiberalism. His original research will argue that interpretations of so-called "gender ideology" and patriarchal right-wing populism are two sides of the same coin and plead for a more complex understanding of the way in which seemingly distinct political forces can converge in a specific setting, producing severe dissensus (understood here as a contestation of liberal democracy with heterogenous goals) as a general outcome.

Trained as a historian, Vlad is a graduate of two universities in a pre-Brexit United Kingdom. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts in History (with Honours and a First Class degree) at Canterbury Christ Church University in 2012. His individual study focused on Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu's state visit to the United Kingdom in 1978. Afterwards, based on solid advice from professors, he was accepted and subsequently obtained a Master of Arts degree in Modern History (with Merit Honours) in 2014 at the University of Kent, labelled 'The UK's European University.' His thesis narratively explored the political history of British Euroscepticism since 1945. During his studies, his main interests covered modern European issues, the Cold War, and transatlantic historical studies, with an inclination towards (but not exclusive to) diplomatic and political history.

After graduation, he considered pursuing an academic career. However, mainly due to the lack of viable funding opportunities in the UK, he relocated to London and worked as a copywriter and analyst in the technology sector. After becoming disillusioned with the fever of the incoming Brexit referendum, he decamped and moved to Brussels to be closer to the European institutions, the many other international companies, NGOs, and to be in the thick of it in the Eurobubble. He worked as an independent consultant, a technology data analyst, and most importantly to him, as a political advisor in the European Parliament (for an MEP in the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats political group) during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. There he contributed to committee meetings in our Brussels office, wrote reports, letters, and opinion pieces for MEPs, drafted briefs and speeches, and witnessed firsthand the highly complex European legislative process. He gained insider knowledge of the European institutions and focused on honing his political operative skills, which were crucial in obtaining compromises and consensus after informal, party, and technical negotiations.

Notably, he witnessed the strict enforcement of the cordon sanitaire established by the four mainstream political groups (EPP, S&D, Renew, and Greens-EFA) in dealing with what had been marked as 'troublemakers and extremists' found in the ECR and especially in ID. The mainstream political actors most often worked collegially and achieved their aims through consensus after hammering out their differences, while the invariably dissenting members from nationalistic, extremist, or anti-European political wings were forced into a legislative wilderness. Advisers were not allowed to take into account any amendments, recitals, or draft proposals from these 'actors of dissensus' and this directive was strictly enforced. And while there were frequent voicings about the lack of flexibility and pragmatism, the overall philosophy was that we (meaning pro-Europeans) could not be tolerant of intolerance, in the most obvious political display of the paradox of tolerance.

Conversely, during organised social events in or around European institutions, the political actors and their staff mingled indiscriminately. This he found fascinating: the ability to separate the issues from the person in a limited capacity, and the fact that they were all together in the same place truly made them all feel they were in it together, no matter which direction each of them tried to steer their own solo political vessels. He realised the dissensus actors were oftentimes adept at embracing different personas based on whether or not the national spotlight was shining on them at that very instance. The theatrics deployed in the plenary made many of them unrecognisable from their private selves. That personal political pressure, which is unique to the individual, could make the difference between dissent and consensus, or belligerence and amenability.

From a technical standpoint, Vlad has also participated in a Data Science bootcamp in Brussels at an organisation called DigitYser, which worked closely with start-ups and tech companies in and around Brussels. During his training, he learned numerous programming languages (Python, R, SQL, SAS), the concepts of data sorting, data analysis, data science, general artificial intelligence concepts, machine learning techniques, and deep learning principles. After completing the six-month bootcamp, he was offered the opportunity to stay on at the organisation and worked as a junior data scientist (Type II), participating in various projects with private companies that were data-nascent or data-curious.

Taking into account his experiences in London, Brussels, and Strasbourg, coupled with his experience in the data science commercial world, where the learning curve was steep and mistakes were strongly condemned, he is deeply stimulated by the opportunity to map and dissect the sociopolitical trends of these individual actors of dissensus in a thorough study that would analyse and clearly establish challenges to liberal democratic norms.