9.00-9.15 Welcome by Civitas-president Prof. Renato Moro (University of Rome III, Italy)

9.15 Keynote address prof. Michael Gehler (University of Hildesheim, Germany) “Populism as a Surface Phenomenon – Characteristics of Democracies in Crisis and the role of Christian Democratic Parties in Divided Societies”

10.00 Discussion 11.00 Coffee Break

11.30 Panel 1 National developments

Pedro Ponte e Sousa (New University of Lisbon, Portugal), The CDS – People’s Party and EU contestation: the emergence and fading of Euroscepticism

Peter Heyrman (KADOC Leuven, Belgium), Populist anti-taxation movements and Christian-democracy in Belgium, 1950s-1980s

12:15 Respondent prof. Lars Rensmann (University of Groningen, the Netherlands)

Discussion 13.00 lunch

14.00 Panel 2 European Trends

Ovidiu Vaida (Babes Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca Romania), Populism and EPP response in recent years

Maurits J. Meijers, Andrej Zaslove and Victor Ellenbroek (Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands), Christian Democratic Parties: In Search of an Ideological Core?

Marietta van der Tol (Cambridge University, UK), Christian democracy and the potential to anti-Neo-Babylonianist responses to Christian support for right-wing populism

15:15 Respondent prof. Lars Rensmann (University of Groningen, the Netherlands)

Discussion 16.00 break

16.30 Presentations on research projects on themes in the history of Christian Democracy

18.00 Book launch, new website and reception 19:00 Farewell dinner