One dorm, 80 students and 8 toilets. That was my very first impression of my Erasmus semester in Warsaw, and it soon became a running joke. Countless other impressions followed — the limited bathroom situation being one of the very few negatives. Five years have passed since then, and I still look back fondly on that time, one defined not only by cheap beer, but above all by the incredible people I met.
Originally, I hadn’t even planned to go to Warsaw. London or Bordeaux — those sounded much more glamorous back then. But it was in my backup-choice city that my perspective on Europe was sharpened in ways that have stayed with me to this day. At the time, there was hardly a country where politics could be experienced more directly. The national-conservative ruling party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS) was pushing through a judicial reform that severely undermined judges’ independence, leading not only to protests across Poland but also intense conflict with the EU.
You might think that, as an ordinary international student, I would hardly have noticed any of this. Quite the opposite. Beyond the protests in Warsaw’s Old Town, two impressions remain in my memory. First, a heated discussion with one of my professors, who fiercely questioned the primacy of EU law. Second, a cartoon pinned to the wall in another professor’s office that depicted a politician shooting a judge. These moments have shown me how subtly political developments can seep into everyday student life.
What stayed with me was a sense of ambivalence. On the one hand, there was my Erasmus bubble: us students as the personification of an open-minded and interconnected Europe embodied in friendships, parties and late nights. On the other hand, the political reality, which stood in stark contradiction to it.
Since then, Poland’s political landscape has shifted, and the rollbacks on the rule of law are now being undone. However, across Europe more broadly, the trend seems to be heading in the opposite direction: nationalism is on the rise, right-wing populism is gaining ground, and cooperation is becoming ever more fragile. So, what is it like to be an Erasmus student today — in a Europe that feels increasingly more complex?
One country that offers a particularly striking example is Hungary. No other EU member state has had such a conflictual relationship with the EU in recent years. To explore this question, I spoke with Leon, who is currently spending his Erasmus semester right there. “I feel well received here as an Erasmus student,” he told me. In his perception, it is the way of implementation that is perceived as problematic by many Hungarians he met, but not the abstract concept of the EU. Once again, the devil lies in the details — and conversations with people can open the way to understanding and reflecting on dissenting voices. “In terms of the current political climate in Europe, I find it interesting and, in some ways, reassuring to discuss current issues with other young people whose countries are facing similar difficulties/tensions,” another Erasmus student in Dublin told me.
So what remains? What remains is a paradox. Erasmus, with more than 15 million participants since the programme was founded in 1987, can be seen as one of the EU’s most successful and beloved programmes, embodying the promise of a continent without borders. As a current Erasmus student told me, “I feel very privileged to have this experience and I guess it reinforces my Europeanness because I feel like I’m in a friend’s country, a place that is connected to mine in some way”. Erasmus often feels like a small, perfect version of Europe. Borders disappear, friendships form across languages and cultures, and daily life is shaped by a sense of openness and connection. The EU is experienced as something that can be lived and felt and not just found in lofty treaties.
At the same time, Erasmus cannot exist in isolation from the broader political climate. Outside this Erasmus world, the picture can look very different. Across Europe, divisions are growing, nationalist voices are louder, and trust in common institutions is fragile. The contrast between these two realities makes the contradictions of today’s Europe especially visible, and at the same time shows how important it is that spaces like Erasmus continue to exist.
Keeping the European Idea Alive. For me, Warsaw was the city where these contradictions became visible, where nights spent with fellow students from across the continent clashed with a surrounding in which nationalist voices became increasingly noticeable. For Leon in Budapest today, the dynamic is similar: an Erasmus semester full of openness is set against a political backdrop of distrust.
Perhaps that is precisely what makes Erasmus so relevant in 2025. It does not erase tensions, nor can it solve Europe’s crises. But it keeps the doors of dialogue open. Erasmus makes the European idea tangible that seems to gradually disappear according to many of the current newspaper headlines. In a time when cooperation feels fragile, that simple act of living together may be the most convincing argument for why Europe — in all its imperfections — is still worth fighting for.
