A joint task force of 200 Hungarian police and Counter Terrorism Centre (CTC) officers hit 20 locations simultaneously in one of the country’s largest ever drug operations Wednesday morning, taking into custody 17 people and seizing an unspecified amount of designer drugs, weapons, ammunition, vehicles and cash, Hungarian National Police said in a statement.
Fifty police vehicles were involved in the raid, and the equipment used included ground-penetrating radars, sniffer dogs, metal detectors, and portable spectrometers used to identify designer drugs.
The drug network was dealing in two designer drugs, nicknamed chalk and snowflake, both synthetic methamphetamines, also colloquially known as crystal meth.
The bust — preceded by months of regular and undercover detective work — was conducted in the country’s central Pest and Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok counties and was coordinated by the police department of the small central Hungarian town of Cegléd.
The police statement said that according to information uncovered so far, the three main suspects taken into custody (identified only by their first name and surname initial) made a combined profit of at least 315 million forints (€931,000) from the distribution of the drugs.
Out of the 17 persons taken into custody – including one woman – 14 have been charged with various crimes. None of them had jobs.
Title image: Counter Terrorism Centre officers take into custody the member of a drug ring at an undisclosed location in central Hungary (still capture from police.hu video)
As a small country of only 10 million, Hungary has taken upon itself to fight the liberal mainstream out of necessity, but it cannot conduct this task on its own, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in Rome while attending the National Conservativism Conference this week.
“To fight against the liberal mainstream is not the job of small countries. To fight against the intellectual headwind, to change the attitude of the politicians in Western countries, is not the job of Hungary, [of] a small country as we are. The simple reason why we play that role is because: There is nobody else,” said Orbán during a podium discussion at the conference, moderated by Christopher DeMuth, a fellow of the American Hudson Institute.
Orban emphasized the unique circumstances that Hungary is facing in challenging the encroaching liberal order, saying, “First of all, what we Hungarians are doing — and what I am doing — is not ‘natural’ […] it is not an ‘organic’ thing for a country of 10 million [people] with no nuclear weapons, (and a) small GDP.”
Orbán said his “biggest hope” was that somebody else will come and replace Hungary, and that was the reason why he is trying to find partners in Italy and Spain. He expressed his hope that there will be new and upcoming political forces and bigger countries who will take up the same flag “and take the role away from us — or join us in leading that fight.”
“I am waiting for a new generation, [for] new movements full of energy and strength; Otherwise, the old way of politicians, [of] the traditional elites in Europe, will never make a competitive Europe again,” he said.
Konrad Szymański, Polish minister for European Affairs:
I believe that in this case we should more seriously approach operating the entire EU and not automatically accept every sum that is given to us, often by the EU administration itself
Szymański referred to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s assertion that the EU must limit its spending on bureaucracy. Szymański pointed out that although the Union is smaller, administration spending is still growing.
“I believe that in this case we should more seriously approach operating the entire EU and not automatically accept every sum that is given to us, often by the EU administration itself,” he explained.
The minister noted that in context of the issue with rule of law in Poland, the EU budget proposal had been put forward almost two years ago.
“It was criticized not only by Poland, but also legal authorities of the Council of the European Union and the European Court of Auditors,” he said.
The Polish minister also said that French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Poland could lead to a continuation of adequate financing of agriculture in the EU, which in the eyes of the European Commission should be limited.
He also mentioned financing of a just climate transformation based on the right energy mix.
“In terms of European issues, the possibility of cooperation in defense policy was also clearly underlined,” he pointed out, adding that it was “assuredly” in Morawiecki’s mind to strengthen cooperation in each of those areas with Macron.
The short story collection “The Last Wish” by Andrzej Sapkowski, which tells the adventures of the Witcher Geralt, has reached the first place in the bestseller list of German weekly Der Spiegel and scored second place in the bestseller ranking of Focus magazine.
“The Last Wish” was reprinted alongside “The Sword of Destiny” and the novel “Season of Storms”, which also reached the top 10 bestsellers of Der Spiegel (respectively sixth and seventh place). A week earlier, the first book in “The Witcher” saga, “Blood of Elves” had topped the ranking.
Germans, alongside readers from many other countries around the world such as the United States and the United Kingdom, are re-discovering Sapkowski’s work after Netflix’s show adaptation of the books.
Stefanie Schill of dtv, the publishing house responsible for publishing “The Witcher” in Germany, emphasized that 385,000 copies of Sapkowski’s novels have been sold in Germany alone.
She added that dtv had been well-prepared for the impact Netflix’s show would have on book sales, as they had released a special collector’s edition of “The Witcher” saga in December in anticipation of the show’s premiere.
The books were first published in Germany between 2007 and 2008 and had already gathered a popular following.
Andrzej Sapkowski himself has complimented the work of his German translator and fellow fantasy author, Erik Simon.
“Of course, something dies in every translation. ‘Traduttore, traditor’, as the Italian saying goes – a translator is a traitor. But I must admit, that my German translator works very thoroughly. German readers are most definitely dealing with the real Sapkowski,” the Polish author explained.
In January 2020, American publisher Orbit Books had announced it will print an additional half a million copies of Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels to meet readers’ demands in the United States.
In a dazzling departure from her customary casual style, Hungary’s most famous current female athlete, swimmer Katinka Hosszu, wore a dress by top Hungarian label Nanushka earlier this week when she received the Female Athlete of the Year award in Budapest.
Nicknamed the “Iron Lady” for her tenacity, the 30-year-old Hosszu is the current world-record holder in 100-meter individual medley, 200-meter individual medley (long course and short course), 400-meter individual medley (long course) and 200-meter backstroke (short course).
She was the first swimmer, both male or female, to hold world records in all five individual medley events at the same time and holds two-thirds of the Hungarian national records.
She also now matches the record of another Hungarian swimmer, Krisztina Egerszegi, who was the five-time winner of the Female Athlete of the Year award.
Clothing label Nanushka was established in 2006 by young Hungarian designer Sandra Sándor. After graduating from the London College of Fashion in 2005, what started as a modest brand for Sándor came to international prominence around a decade later.
Peter Baldaszti, Sándor’s longtime partner, later joined as a co-owner and CEO, and was key to bringing business acumen to help the budding firm grow.
The brand operates a free-standing flagship concept store in Budapest. Her collections are now stocked in over 30 countries internationally through online stores, specialty shops, and department stores like Bergdorf Goodman, Selfridges, Liberty and Browns, Net-a-Porter, and MyTheresa. Her brand also ships to over 100 countries worldwide.
Hosszu even posted an image of her wearing the Nanushka creation on her Instagram
Title image: Hungarian Olympic champion swimmer Katinka Hosszu receives the Female Athlete of the Year award from Charles Camenzuli, Secretary General of the International Sports Press Association (MTI/Tibor Illyés)
President Andrzej Duda’s decision to sign the judicial law amendment, which will implement disciplinary measures on judges who neglect their duties, has infuriated the opposition. They are demanding a State Tribunal and accuse Duda of treason and breaching the constitution.
For what?
Basically, simply for breaking up the system of those who felt they were untouchable for decades.
No other change in the law forced such objections from the opposition as the introduction of the Disciplinary Chamber has. It is important to remember who stood on which side of this conflict.
The tradition of untouchability for judges moved from generation to generation and this pathology which hurt so many citizens only grew. The more stable the judges and lawyers felt in their closed world, the lower the chances for justice for people outside of it.
In the US, stars can publicly insult Donald Trump, but they will not dare to call millions of their countrymen idiots or morons.
If the popularity of actors carried over to election results, Trump wouldn’t have had the slightest chance to become president. Only childishly naïve people can believe that film talent equals political competence.
Treating actors like authorities in areas outside their professions is, to put it lightly, a sign of infantilism.
In fact, many Americans saw Hollywood’s elite as people out of touch with the average citizen, both culturally and economically. Americans could simply no longer relate to people immersed in the bubble of Hollywood, protected by security guards and traveling in private jets.
Americans, as representatives of a mature democracy, have learned that voting should be based on political realities and not Hollywood fantasies. They can love Meryl Streep as an incredible actress but also see her as a political idiot, and those two thoughts can actually coexist in harmony.
Polish voters are now becoming similar to their American counterparts. The difference is that Polish actors have taken their attacks far beyond what is considered appropriate and respectful by most American stars. In the U.S., actors can publicly insult Donald Trump, but they will not dare to call millions of their countrymen idiots or morons.
This difference represents a massive chasm between Poland and the United States.
Poles are in serious debt over phone bills and electronic devices, with 390,000 Poles owing a collective €327 million to media providers, leading to an average debt of €818 per household.
This is almost equal to the average state salary per person in 2018, according to the Economic Information Bureau (KRD).
Polish consumers owe the most to telephone companies, with over 251,000 people identified with €177 million in unpaid phone bills.
Jakub Kostecki, the CEO of Kaczmarski Inkasso, explained that apart from overdue phone bills, contractual penalties and debts for electronic devices, which include phones, laptops, tablets, modems, consoles, and TVs purchased as part of contract packages, also contribute to the massive debt.
He pointed out that debtors often claim that they will not pay phone bills for a device they have already sold.
The second position in the ranking of debts is occupied by rent payments, which stands at €99 million, followed by debts for radio and television bills, which is €38 million.
Poles care more for their electric bills, perhaps due to fear of electricity being turned off, and the debt is only €8.6 million. Water, heating and internet payment debts are much lower, with sewage and waste being the lowest.
Jacek Sasin, Polish deputy PM:
The French president has already given much harsher speeches towards Poland. I understand that he felt obliged to repeat these ‘ritual spells’.
The deputy prime minister believed that Macron’s visit and his speeches are a signal that Polish-French relations are improving.
Sasin stressed that Emmanuel Macron had become renowned for his criticism towards Poland but “not in the areas which the opposition would like. Instead of the judiciary, they would like him to focus on economic issues and social dumping.”
The deputy prime minister claimed that the opposition will be disappointed with Macon’s visit.
“We aren’t disappointed. These were truly quite good talks,” Sasin underlined and pointed to cooperation in terms of EU budget as the most important issue.
Sasin further explained that France and Poland have many issues in common, such as the common agricultural policy, and Poland will continue to encourage France to maintain its current position regarding cohesion policy.
He also noted that his conversation with the French minister of economy and finance, Bruno Le Maire, went very well.
“Please believe me, we weren’t talking about problems but economic cooperation for the future,” Sasin said.
Title image: President Andrzej Duda has gifted President Emmanuel Macron with two books of two Polish Nobel Prize winners: “The books of Jacob” by Olga Tokarczuk and Henryk Sienkiewicz’s “Quo vadis” which in Latin means, “Where are you going?”
After President Andrzej Duda signed an amendment to bills introducing judicial reform in Poland on Tuesday evening, Polish citizens said they were organizing demonstrations in Warsaw to support the reforms and point out the injustice of the current system.
The amendment to the law concerning the court system and the Supreme Court bill introduces a range of disciplinary actions for judges that fail in their duties.
According to the amendment, judges can be held responsible for actions or negligence that could prevent or impede the functioning of the judiciary, actions which question the efficiency of calling a judge and public activity that is incompatible with the rule that courts and judges must be independent.
Demonstrations in defense of reforms called on Saturday
Various citizen groups dubbed “Gazeta Polska” are organizing manifestations in defense of judicial reforms in front of the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw on Saturday, Feb. 8.
Since the “Gazeta Polska” groups first got started, one of the main topics of the meetings has been the unsustainable situation in the judiciary.
Each time, regardless of the topic of the conversation among the participants, there was always someone who, by looking for help and understanding, shared the struggles they have faced with Poland’s judiciary.
The community groups often receive handwritten letters, in which people describe the tragedies they and those closest to them suffered from unjust and hurtful court verdicts.
Keeping the free movement of services in the EU and stopping French discrimination on their market towards our entrepreneurs is more important to our development than the transfers.
The point is that under certain circumstances, EU transfers facilitate development, but the circumstances themselves remain subject to debate.
Sometimes EU funds help in development, such as building roads. Other times, building airports everywhere or putting down cobblestone do not help. These funds have also led to a certain element of dependency within Poland and created an entire “specialist” class to manage these EU funds, producing another group of special interests entirely reliant on Western money.
What is more important to Polish prosperity than a couple billion euros from the EU is whether we will function in the EU market on equal terms. Will the discrimination of Polish services deepen or be pushed back? This is the question that will play a key role in determining the future of Poland’s economic development.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrived in Rome on Monday for a two-day visit, which began with meetings with Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Cont and Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Italian nationalist-conservative Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party.
To mark his arrival in Italy, Orban posted a video on Facebook with the short text, “All roads lead to Rome”.
Upon his arrival, a military honor guard welcomed Orbán before his planned meeting with Conte.. Orbán was accompanied by MEP József SZájer and Katakin Novák, state secretary at the Ministry of Human Capacities.
Orbán’s meeting with Meloni was especially important, as the Brothers of Italy party is seen as a close ally of Matteo Salvini, the leader of the anti-immigration Lega party that Orbán has been supportive of in the past.
Speaking to the Italian press, Meloni said Orbán was an “ally” and praised the Hungarian government’s pioneering of family policies and its “resistance to Islamization”.
Meloni said Orbán is one of the few European leaders who think belonging to the European Union should not mean giving up his country’s independence.
“Hungary is defending its sovereignty against a European Union that seems to curtail the freedom of nation states,” Meloni said.
Orbán is also scheduled to speak at the National Conservatism Conference in Rome on Tuesday, which will feature speakers like National Front member and former politician Marion Marechal, Spectator associate editor Douglas Murray, and Meloni.
Title image: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (L) meets Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in Rome. (source: Viktor Orbán’s Facebook page)
Dominik Wałęsa, the grandson of Solidarity legend and former Polish President Lech Wałęsa, has been sentenced to 2 years and 8 months in prison for drunk driving and insulting police officers.
The verdict issued by the Gdańsk District Court sentencing Dominik Wałęsa to prison is final, with the Gdańsk District Court maintaining its verdict from April 2019 after Wałęsa’s defenders and the prosecutor’s office appealed the verdict.
The decree also requires Dominik Wałęsa to face a six-year-long prohibition on driving vehicles and forces him to pay a €1,861 fine to charity.
According to the Gdańsk prosecutor’s office, on Feb. 25, 2018, Wałęsa was driving a car in Gdańsk without appropriate documents while under the influence, with 2.08 per mille of alcohol measured in his blood.
Dominik Wałęsa was weaving around the road, driving onto sidewalks, forcing pedestrians to flee, and crashing into other vehicles. He was also accused of insulting police officers and assaulting a security guard who tried to stop him.
I am shocked by what that “total opposition” is capable of to regain power in Poland. I am shocked by their readiness to use any method possible for their own political benefit.
It is sad to see Polish politicians and intellectuals from the Third Polish Republic speak so poorly of their homeland.
It is unthinkable in Croatia for serious politicians, even ones on the left, to speak so negatively about their democratically-elected government during such official meetings. At the same time, I do not know how political polarization might develop in Croatia in the future.
I naively thought that some form of solidarity and cooperation would exist in Poland, especially in a country that paid such a terrible price for its freedom and independence.
The Polish opposition’s actions actually led me to worry about the entire picture of the EU, how it functions, and where it will lead.
Tense in Brussels
It must be tense in Brussels after its technocrats and central planners are confronted with the reality that there might be life outside the EU. What if the UK, instead of falling into economic ruin, begins to bloom by signing beneficial trade agreements with the United States?
The self-satisfaction of EU officials will only hurt them, as they’ve taken no blame. They don’t see the issue with constantly interfering with the internal affairs of member states. They also don’t seem to mind the increasingly preposterous decrees of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) which expands its competencies and jurisdiction with each new verdict.
In Poland, we had a taste of what the ECJ is capable of. The European Commission has learned to wield its power by filing appeals to Europe’s top judicial body, which almost always rules in the favor of more centralization of power at the expense of nations.
This harassment has become commonplace and can only make one wonder how much worse the EU and its branches of power will become over the coming years.
The original aim of European integration was economic cooperation and constructing solid foundations for growth, which would offer security and prosperity to members.
Kazimierz Smoliński, PiS MP:
We are reaching a situation in which almost every larger project of our government is being attacked by the European Commission.
This argument has been raised by environmentalists, who in addition to the Russian government, want to block the Vistula Spit excavation. There has been ongoing debate between EU authorities and the Polish side for months regarding the issue.
The General Directorate for Environmental Protection (GDEP) has prepared a project which includes EU recommendations and entails several permissions to appeal over investments.
Meanwhile, RMF FM radio stated that the European Commission intends to sue Poland in the European Court of Justice over excavation special acts being used in the country. The lawsuit is also meant to introduce a safety measure that would allow an option to halt construction of the new canal.
“The law regulating the development of this project is the subject of anti-violation procedures which were initiated in 2016 because it does not permit Polish courts to check whether such projects are being completed in accordance with the law,” the European Commission declared in a statement.
Although sources claim EU authorities have suggested suspending works on the excavation, they have not declared so in an official document.
PiS MP Kazimierz Smoliński criticized the European Commission’s actions and explained that “we are reaching a situation in which almost every larger project of our government is being attacked by the EC. We will not bend under political pressure. The excavation is necessary.”
Opposition presidential candidate Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, of the Civic Platform, stated a few months ago that “if nature wanted there to be a Vistula Spit excavation, it would be there.”
Title image: Vistula Spit channel visualisation, source:MGMiŻŚ
President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Poland in February will be a good chance to discuss transforming the Polish economy and the European Union budget, an anonymous source from the French Foreign Ministry told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
The source explained that France hopes to touch on subjects meant to unite with Poland and not divide. They added that Macron will also be speaking about rule of law in Poland.
Although the details are still being discussed, the French embassy in Warsaw confirmed that Macron will be accompanied by Bruno Le Maire, the minister of economy and finance.
Macron will meet with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, President Andrzej Duda, representatives of French society in Poland, and Polish intellectuals on Feb. 3.
We stand before an opportunity. Let us not waste it for current political benefits and such temptation, especially during election campaigns, can arise in both of our countries.
Meanwhile, Polish and Israeli citizens cooperated excellently. The number of direct flights between Polish and Israeli cities has increased, cultural exchange bloomed, Polish malls filled with shopping Israelis, and Polish citizens fell in love with Israeli cuisine and tourism offers. This was all also accompanied by economic, intellectual and even military exchanges.
Poland remained one of the most pro-Israeli countries in Europe, which it proved by organizing the Middle East summit concerning Iranian activities in 2019. In many key issues on the region’s security, Poland remained Israel’s stalwart ally.
This is why the words of President Reuven Rivlin, who said that the Israeli nation wants to reach out to the Polish one by inviting the Polish president for a visit to Jerusalem to work on improving bilateral relations, is a good sign.
Of course, there will be differences and conflicts of interests between our countries. Yet, it is the community of memory which united dozens of leaders in Auschwitz, that makes the relations between the Polish and Jewish nations so special.
We are on the cusp of a real opportunity. Let us not waste it for current political benefits and a temptation to pander to radical elements, especially during the course of upcoming election campaigns. In March, Israelis will go to the ballots to choose a new Knesset and in May, Poles will choose their president.
We should not waste the chance given to us by fate, and not allow for relations to become hostage to extremists operating both in Poland and Israel.
Hungary’s economic rating has reached a 12-year high, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said based on the treasury’s recent successful buyback of dollar-denominated government bonds worth $1 billion (€908 million).
In the January 21-27 period, the State Debt Management Agency announced a week-long buyback of four batches of high-yield dollar-denominated bonds maturing between 2021 and 2024.
In conjunction with this, the agency has also carried out a successful hedge deal to avert currency exchange risks – actually making a profit. The total buyback was financed from the state’s existing Hungarian forint and foreign currency reserves, without the need to issue new foreign currency bonds.
Varga said the buyback will result in the budget saving 42.7 billion forints (€126 million) in interest payment by the end of the financial year 2024, of which savings of 16.5 billion forints will be realized this year.
He said that the country’s economic rating is best measured by the risk premium on such bonds. While in 2010 the risk premium was 400 basis points, which peaked at around 700 basis points when the government was in disagreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), currently this stands at 47 basis points, the same as the risk premium for Polish foreign currency bonds.
Image: Hungarian Finance Minister Mihály Varga. (MTI/Zsolt Czeglédi)
With two Czech students stuck in China’s Wuhan amidst the coronavirus outbreak, France has now accepted the request of the Czech Republic to ensure their evacuation together with French citizens.
The two Czech students from Wuhan, who showed an interest in an evacuation, will be transported from China by a plane dispatched by France.
“We can confirm that France accepted our request to ensure their evacuation together with French citizens. At the moment, we are negotiating the logistics of the evacuation. I expect the transport to happen in the middle of this week,” said Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Tomáš Petříček.
According to Petříček, the ministry also currently deals with other evacuation requirements, including the subsequent two-week quarantine of all evacuees.
“There will most likely be a 14-day quarantine in France,” the Minister said. However, the French authorities are yet to specify the details.
Petříček further added that the Czech Republic will bear the cost of evacuating the two students, which Czech law permits in certain situations.
Nevertheless, the Foreign Ministry will discuss with both students whether they will participate in paying expenses of the evacuation. Petříček also stated that two other Czech citizens, who are in the area affected by the virus, are not interested in the evacuation because they live in China long-term.
The Czech authorities also confirmed that Czech diplomats will not yet be withdrawn from the areas hit by the virus.
“At the moment, our diplomats stay in their offices. We have issued stricter measures, especially concerning hygiene, to avoid exposure to the infection,” concluded Petříček.
Hungary is replacing the barbed wire with a permanent fence on the border with Serbia in the Röszke region where two groups totaling 71 immigrants of various nationalities attempted to forcefully enter the country on Tuesday.
After the early morning incident – during which border guards had to fire warning shots – the government convened an emergency meeting after which Minister of Interior Sándor Pintér told the media that authorities had advance intelligence that such an attempt would happen, allowing border police to prepare.
“We have had information since last week that attempts will be made to cross the border at several locations. But Hungarian police were prepared, and we have proven that nobody could enter the country undetected,” Pintér said.
Police Lt. Gen. Károly Papp, director of public safety at the National Police, said that the 71 migrants made attempts to illegally cross the border at four different locations, and in one place, they even tore down the barbed wire fence. Four of them made it into Hungary, but by midday all four have been apprehended and are currently being investigated by the district attorney’s office.
György Bakondi, national security advisor for the prime minister, said the attempt was a “blatant and violent organized attack by young men that had the hallmarks of coordination”.
Image: Workers replace the barbed wire with a permanent fence at Röszke on the Serbian border. (MTI/Zoltán Gergely Kelemen)
Over 3,000 attacks against Christians in Europe were recorded last year, representing an all-time high, according to a study by the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
The institute reviewed thousands of newspaper and police reports, parliamentary inquiries, social media posts, and specialized blogs from Britain, France, Italy, Ireland, Germany, and Spain. The research shows that roughly 3,000 Christian churches, schools, cemeteries and monuments were vandalized, looted or defaced in Europe during 2019.
Violence against Christian sites occurred most often in France, where not only churches were attacked, but also schools, cemeteries, and monuments. These important institutions are being vandalized, desecrated and burned at an average rate of three per day, according to French government statistics.
According to police reports, in Germany, attacks against Christian churches occur at an average rate of two per day.
France and Germany are the two countries where Christians face the most attacks. Although Muslim perpetrators were often identified, the Gatestone Institute says that anarchists also play a large role in the attacks.
Previous years were not much better. In March 2019, France’s central criminal intelligence agency, the SCRC, stated there were approximately 875 acts of vandalism against Catholic churches in 2018, with the Ministry of the Interior drawing the same conclusion.
Attacks on Christian churches and symbols are also commonplace in wide range of European countries, including Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Slovenia, Italy, and Spain. The attacks overwhelmingly involve Roman Catholic sites and symbols, although in Germany, Protestant churches are also being targeted.
“In the past, even if one was not a Christian, the expression of the sacred was respected. We are facing a serious threat to the expression of religious freedom. Secularism must not be a rejection of the religious, but a principle of neutrality that gives everyone the freedom to express his faith,” said Dominique Rey, Bishop of Fréjus-Toulon, in an interview in Italian magazine Il Timone in August 2019.
“We are witnessing the convergence of laicism — conceived as secularism, which relegates the faithful only to the private sphere and where every religious denomination is banal or stigmatized — with the overwhelming emergence of Islam, which attacks the infidels and those who reject the Koran. On one hand, we are mocked by the media … and on the other, there is the strengthening of Islamic fundamentalism. These are two joint realities.”
European media blackout on Christian persecution
The Gatestone Institute further writes, “The perpetrators of anti-Christian attacks — which include acts of arson, defecation, desecration, looting, mockery, profanation, Satanism, theft, urination and vandalism — are rarely caught.”
When individuals are arrested, the police and media often censors information about their identities and ethnic backgrounds. Many suspects are said to have mental disorders; as a result, many anti-Christian attacks are not categorized as hate crimes.
In France and Germany, the spike in anti-Christian attacks corresponds with mass immigration from Muslim countries, according to the Gatestone Institute. However, there is also a problem with reporting. The lack of official statistics on perpetrators and their motives makes it nearly impossible to calculate how many attacks can be attributed to Muslim anti-Christian sentiment and jihadists.
The report says that Spain’s attacks against churches and crosses are almost all the work of anarchists, radical feminists and other far-left activists, who have an ideology designed to remove Christianity from the public space and the country overall.
While Europe’s media often amplifies attacks on Muslims, it also tends to downplay malicious acts against Christians. The issue of anti-Christian vandalism was rarely reported by the European media until February 2019, when vandals attacked nine churches within the space of two weeks. Following a suspicious fire that destroyed the iconic Notre Dame Church in Paris, the issue of church burnings once again made the headlines. However, the issue has once again receded from the media’s attention.
Data shows that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world. A recent report commissioned by the United Kingdom’s government states that persecution of Christians is reaching near “genocide” levels. A report issued by the U.S. State Department states that approximately 245 million Christians live under severe persecution and that four out of five people persecuted for their religion are Christians.
Hungary defends Christians both in Europe and beyond
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called on Europe to end its silence over Christian persecution during the 2nd Conference on Christian Persecution in Budapest on Nov. 26.
Orbán said during the conference that despite Christians being the target of 80 percent of all religious persecution in the world that “Europe remains silent over and over again.”
“A mysterious force shuts the mouths of European politicians and cripples their arms,” he said. “Christians are not allowed to be mentioned on their own, only together with other groups that are being persecuted for their faiths.”
Orbán sees Hungary as a bulwark against Christian persecution, and although it is a small country, he believes it will give courage for others to act.
During the 2019 conference, Orbán highlighted the country’s “Hungary Helps” program, which was created in 2017 by Orbán’s government with the purpose of helping Christian communities living under oppression. The Hungarian government provides direct aid instead of going through international NGOs or the United Nations.
“We are convinced that doing the right thing inspires good deeds, the determination of Hungarians breeds courage, the example can catch on. Action will liberate the paralyzed and restore faith in the importance of individual effort,” he said.
Title image: Map of attacks on Christians across Europe in 2019.
Poland has confirmed it will sign an agreement to purchase 32 F-35 stealth multi-role combat aircraft from the United States on Friday, in what is expected to be significant addition to the fighting capabilities of the Polish Air Force.
U.S. ambassador to Poland, Georgette Mosbacher, announced on her official Twitter account the signing of the purchase and underlined that the F-35 fighters will enhance Poland’s interoperability with U.S. forces:
This week Minister @mblaszczak will sign the agreement to buy 32 American F-35s. I’m proud that the U.S. is sharing the latest defense technology with key allies. F-35 fighters will enhance Poland’s interoperability with U.S. forces and our partnership for common security.
On Monday, the Minister of National Defense Mariusz Błaszczak also confirmed that the deal between Poland and the U.S. would be signed in Dęblin in Eastern Poland.
The Ministry of National Defense (MON) declared the finalization of the deal at the end of 2019, with the planes set to cost Poland $4.6 billion. The Polish offer was first proposed in May 2019.
According to Lockheed Martin, which produces the F-35s, the first planes for Poland could be delivered as early as 2024.
At first, the planes would remain in the U.S. where Polish pilots and ground staff would train. They would enter service in Poland two years later.
The American company also announced lowering the price of the planes and the costs of their use. The current price of an hour of flight of F-35 is $44,000 but will be reduced to about $25,000.
The current technical modernization plan between 2021 and 2035, apart from purchasing the F-35s, also foresees complementing the fighters with unmanned systems fulfilling combat and reconnaissance missions.
As the world tackles a new wave of not anti-Semitism and hate, the Czech Republic may serve in setting an example, with the country not facing nearly as many problems as countries like France, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said following the 75th liberation anniversary commemorations at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on Monday.
Babiš was attending the ceremony together with many other politicians representing more than 30 countries, including, for example, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová,
Polish President Andrzej Duda gave a speech, as well as the survivors, who spoke emotionally of Nazi horrors and appealed for respect for human rights and the fight against racism and intolerance.
Polish President Duda named the Auschwitz concentration camp as a factory of death.
“Jews from Poland, Hungary, France, Holland, Greece, and other occupied territories were brought here in cattle cars and the vast majority of them were immediately murdered in gas chambers and burned,” Duda recalled. He said that one could not pretend they do not see crimes that must not be forgotten.
During World War II, over 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, died in Auschwitz.
Before his departure to Poland, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said that commemorative events are extremely important from the perspective of new waves of anti-Semitism in Europe.
According to Babiš, there are no extreme anti-Semitic manifestations in the Czech Republic.
“In this respect, we can set an example for other countries. We do not have such fundamental problems as does France, for instance,” said Babiš.
Babiš also said that, together with Culture Minister Lubomír Zaoralek (ČSSD), they agreed to restore plans to build the Memorial of Silence at the disused Bubny railway station in Prague.
The memorial is to commemorate the transports of Czech Jews to the Czech concentration camp Terezín during World War II. In Prague, Jewish transports were being dispatched from the Bubny railway station.
The Hungarian government is raising concerns after George Soros, the 89-year-old Hungarian-American financier convicted of insider trading, announced his plan to invest $1 billion to build the Open Society University Network (OSUN) at the World Economic Forum summit in Davos, calling it “the most important and enduring project” of his life.
Soros, who has already donated a significant amount of his fortune to pro-migration and liberal causes, is known for his concerted opposition to the Hungarian government and other nationalist-conservative governments in the West.
“In Soros’s view, it is high time [for] Open Society Foundation, the vehicle through which he funds myriad endeavors to advance an ideologically-driven political agenda, to build on his previous efforts and develop ‘a new and innovative educational network that the world really needs’,” commented Hungary’s Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Relations, Zoltán Kovács, on Soros’s plan.
“Certainly, tens of millions of voters around the world would agree that this is what the world really needs,” Kovács sarcastically said while pointing to the absurdity of Soros’s statement, adding that while “the international media and advocates of globalism enjoy referring to Mr. Soros as a ‘philanthropist’ engaged in ‘charitable giving’,” it is pretty clear that Soros’s aim is to ‘push his open society agenda’.”
Around the world, Soros enjoys the support of powerful patrons and has been active in ensuring the free movement of people into Europe. In 2017, a leak revealed a list of “reliable allies” for Soros in the European Parliament, which included 226 MEPs, seven vice-presidents, and former European Parliament president, Martin Schulz, as well as a number of other key figures.
Soros has also actively caused difficulties for the Hungarian government and its attempts to curb illegal immigration, with the financier supporting efforts by the European Union to change it transparency standards in the Hungarian legislation.
Soros’s new plan to invest an additional $1 billion will only help increase the pressure on those who oppose him.
The Hungarian government has already been active in trying to thwart Soros, including implementation of the “Stop Soros” law, which was designed to restrict non-governmental organizations which helps migrants by charging them a 25 percent tax. As a result, the Soros-funded Central European University, previously located in Budapest, was forced to end its program for refugees.
The Czech government has agreed to send 60 troops to Mali, Niger, and Chad to join European Union anti-terrorism missions, but the Czech parliament has yet to consider the proposal.
If approved by deputies and senators, Czech soldiers would engage in the fight against terrorism in the North African region of Sahel. Czech soldiers are already operating in Mali where they participate in the training and protection of the EU mission. In the middle of the year, the Czech Army is set to take over the command of the Mali mission.
Under the proposal, Czech soldiers would become part of the extended Operation Barkhane, France’s largest overseas military operation. European countries plan to create a joint task force named Takuba, which is to replace the French forces in the Sahel region.
The Czech Ministry of Defense estimates the mission to cost almost 600 million korunas (€23 million). Czech soldiers will be sent to Africa with the consent of Mali, Niger, and Chad.
The task of the Czech soldiers would be mainly offering serving in an advisory for Malian soldiers, as well as accompanying them in combat. The headquarters of the operation is in Chad, and the troops could be deployed to Niger in case of cross-border operations.
The proposal will now be submitted to the Parliament of the Czech Republic.
“If the parliament approves it, we will get a mandate to engage in Operation Barkhane with a maximum of 60 persons valid until Dec. 31, 2022,” said Czech Defense Minister Lubomír Metnar.
According to him, by sending troops to the Sahel, the Czech Republic would confirm its position as a country that intends to fight all forms of terrorism. Metnar called the possible Czech deployment one of the key foreign policy points of the government’s agenda.
Operation Barkhane
France launched Operation Barkhane in August 2014 and last year called for the involvement of other European allies. French troops plan to fight terrorists in other parts of Mali.
“An advanced team should start operations in the middle of this year. The main part of the operation lasting 12 months is planned from August or September 2020,” said Aleš Opata, the Chief of the General Staff of Czech Armed Forces.
The Czech Republic now has about 120 soldiers in Mali. This year the Czech Army will take over the command of the European Union training mission in Mali, which will give Czech soldiers six months of command responsibility. The main task of the mission is to help build and train the Malian army, which is fighting Islamic radicals.
In parallel to the EU Mission, the United Nations (UN) also has MINUSMA (Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission) running in Mali. It aims to ensure security and create the conditions for further humanitarian and political assistance to the Malian government.
The Czech Army has five soldiers in the UN mission. Unlike Operation Barkhane, however, this mission does not take part in combat against terrorist groups.
North Korean diplomats planned to have military material smuggled from Czechia to Pyongyang via Africa and China, but the Czech counter-intelligence service (BIS) uncovered the North Korean operation in late 2012 and successfully thwarted the plan.
Upon uncovering the suspicious activities, Czech intelligence officers began to monitor the trade secretary who worked at the North Korean Embassy in Prague due to an existing arms embargo that prohibits importing weapons to North Korea (DRPK).
“I cannot comment on the details of this older case. However, I can confirm that in the past, BIS has actually prevented an arms sale from the Czech Republic to North Korea,” said Ladislav Šticha, a spokesman for the counter-intelligence service BIS.
Allegedly, the North Korean diplomat contacted a Czech businessman and asked for spare parts for the old Soviet tanks T-54 and T-55, which the North Korean regime still uses today.
He also sought spare parts for armored cars BMP2, BRDM, and BTR and L-39 aircraft produced in the 1970s for the Czech company Aero Vodochody.
In addition to spare parts, the trade secretary also tried to secure a purchase of small drones.
The diplomat was allegedly forced to obtain military material by North Korean secret services and his superiors.
“The trade secretary received requests from representatives of three North Korean companies involved in the DPRK’s arms program. This gentleman later served as North Korea’s trade secretary in Germany,” said a source familiar with the matter.
Three Czech companies, which names are not known, were reportedly involved in the business activities with North Korea, as well.
After gathering relevant evidence, BIS presented the information to the government and requested the expulsion of the diplomat. However, the Czech Foreign Ministry refused to do so because a year earlier, another North Korean economic diplomat had been expelled due to another matter.
Later, the diplomat was forced to return to North Korea.
A female migrant victim had boiling hot water poured over her face following an argument with an African migrant in a home for asylum seekers in the German state of Brandenburg, according to a report from Brandenburg police.
The report states that police were called to the asylum home located in Zossen after security guards working there reported the incident to police.
Upon arrival, police learned that a 61-year-old Sudanese woman, who lived at the asylum residence, had an argument with a 31-year-old male from Chad in the asylum home’s shared kitchen.
Afterwards, the 31-year-old male suspect poured boiling water from a pot over the head and face of the woman, resulting in severe injuries.
She required immediate transport to a specialist clinic for treatment.
After the male suspect was interrogated by police, prosecutors ordered his release. Police are continuing their investigation into allegations of severe bodily harm and assault.
Violence inside asylum homes is nothing new in Germany, with Der Spiegel reporting as early as 2015 about the struggle for police to contain violence, which was particularly intense between migrant groups with different ethnicities and religions. The article also notes that sexual assaults targeting women and children were common.
In conversation with young Polish nationalists in the last decade, I often heard how important a reference point Hungary’s Jobbik party is for them. For some of them, it was a dream to build a party with similar broad societal support.
Currently, the right-wing Confederation is often compared to Jobbik, as many parts of both parties’ programs are similar, especially international policy.
Jobbik held its party congress recently where it chose a new leader, Peter Jakab. The congress helped to demonstrate the party’s deep crisis, as its popularity since 2014 has almost been cut in half. Five years ago, it was the largest opposition group in Hungary and had the support of over a million citizens (20.7 percent). Even in polls in 2015, it was projected to have 25 percent of the vote.
In 2019, in the European Parliament elections, it received only 6.34 percent of the vote, which was barely enough for one mandate. Current opinion polls also point to a continued downward trend for the party.
How did this crisis happen? For years, Jobbik found itself in a similar situation as the Confederation: It was the only right-wing option that leaned to the right of in a country where a right-wing government held an absolute majority. This situation repeated three times for Jobbik in Hungary in 2010, 2014 and 2018, where it lost to the Fidesz party every time.
This led to disappointment within Jobbik’s party leadership. Despite being the second most voted for political force in the country, Jobbik could not participate in power.
The radical concept of attacking Fidesz and voting together with Hungary’s leftist parties began to take hold in the right-wing party. The goal was to weaken Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s party to the point that it lost its majority and needed coalition party to continue governing. Jobbik would then become a natural ally to form a government.
When Orbán’s Fidesz party called for an anti-migration referendum and subsequently held the anti-migration vote in parliament, Jobbik, along with the rest of the opposition, stood against the government. The liberals and left voted against the measures because the plans limited migration while Jobbik did so because they believed the plans weren’t anti-migration enough.
This action led to an identity crisis that resulted in a mass movement of voters to Fidesz and a part of Jobbik breaking off to form a new party.
This might not be the end of tensions within Jobbik’s party leadership, as Peter Jakab is the first right-wing politician to have publicly appeared with Ferenc Gyurcsany, the former socialist prime minister disgraced by the 2006 “tapes of truth”.
Jakab is a supporter of cooperating with Gyurcsany’s left-wing Democratic Coalition, which is a position opposed by many members of the Jobbik party who fear a further drift to the left.
Today, Poland’s Confederation finds itself in a similar position. The left remains its ideological opponent and it is in a rivalry with PiS over the right-leaning electorate. The Hungarian example shows that in such a situation, it is easy to make a mistake that voters will never forgive.
Polish authorities have criticized scandalous comments concerning the Polish judiciary and constitutional court from the European Commission’s spokesman, with the Polish Foreign Ministry summoning Poland’s European Commission representative in protest.
Last week, the Polish National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) put forward a motion to the Constitutional Court (TK) to determine the constitutionality of the laws which currently deem a judge chosen by the Polish president, upon the request of the current KRS, to be an illegal judge.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki carried out a similar action by turning to the Polish Constitutional Court to investigate whether the law applied to the verdict of the Supreme Court’s (SN) three chambers was constitutional.
Meanwhile, Brussels elites are beginning to work in defense of the Polish “extraordinary caste” (which the judges in Poland called themselves).
Christian Wigand, the European Commission’s spokesman, drew the ire of the Polish government by affirming that the European Commission has no doubts about the legitimacy of the Supreme Court (SN) in Poland, which is seen as a stronghold of the Polish opposition, but does have doubts about the Constitutional Court (TK), where most judges are appointed by the conservative PiS party.
It can never come to fore wishing that the Germans, who were the architects and perpetrators of the Holocaust, are confused with the victims.
“In the light of the intensifying smear campaign against Poland and the Polish nation, which has been going on now for several decades, and recently gained even more momentum, we face the slanders headfirst,” claimed the narrator in a video posted on YouTube by the organizers last week.
The organizers emphasized, that “It can never come to fore wishing that the Germans, who were the architects and perpetrators of the Holocaust, are confused with the victims.”
They also encouraged to download images from their website and for viewers to post them on their own cars.
“Distorting the history of the Second World War, denying the genocide and Holocaust, and exploiting Auschwitz for any aim is a desecration of the memory of the victims,” said Polish President Andrzej Duda at the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz.
The president opened his speech during the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz with a quote by Polish writer and former Auschwitz prisoner Tadeusz Borowski.
“We in Poland know the truth about what happened here very well because we were told of it by our countrymen who had camp numbers tattooed by Germans,” said Duda quoting Borowski.
The president emphasized that three generations have passed since the day of liberation on Jan. 27, 1945, when thousands of emaciated prisoners were freed by the Red Army.
Duda pointed out that gathered among them were the last of those who had survived the “hell of Auschwitz” and who saw the Holocaust with their own eyes, who experienced the fate of the Jewish nation.
“We stand before the gate of the camp in which the most victims died and which became the symbol of doom. We honor all six million Jews who were murdered in this and other camps, ghettos, places of torment, and on the streets,” Duda said.
He added that the authorities of the Third Reich had committed genocide against over 1,300,000 people in Auschwitz, which included Poles, Roma people, Soviet prisoners of war and Jews, of whom over 1,100,000 were killed.
Duda stressed the uniqueness of the crimes committed at Auschwitz, as “hatred, chauvinism, nationalism, racism, anti-Semitism which took the form of mass, organized and methodical murder.”
The president underlined that Jews from Poland, Hungary, France, Holland, Greece, and other occupied countries were transported to the German concentration camp in cattle wagons and robbed of everything they had.
“And then the huge majority of them were immediately killed in gas chambers and burned in crematoriums. This all took just hours or minutes. The factory of death worked at full power for years. People went in their thousands to their deaths.”
Duda emphasized that although the scale of the crime committed at Auschwitz is horrifying, we must never turn away from it and never forget it.
A group of some 50 migrants attempted to break through Hungary’s border fence with Serbia at the southern border station of Röszke in the early morning hours on Tuesday, national television M1 reported.
Hungarian national police issued a short statement at 07:22 a.m. saying that “a larger group of migrants attempted to illegally enter Hungary in Csongrád county but police stopped them. The few who managed to enter Hungary were detained by police and one border guard had to fire several warning shots.”
Since Hungary erected the border fence in August 2015 to halt the inflow of illegal immigrants, this was the first openly aggressive attempt to break through it.
Last year, Hungary warned that a migrant wave of 100,000 people was building on the border of the Balkans. In response, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government said it was preparing for the influx of migrants by extending emergency powers and seeking further cooperation with other countries in the region to secure Europe.
As reported in Remix News yesterday, data from Hungarian police showed that in the first three weeks of 2020, the number of illegal border crossing attempts into Hungary surged to 3,247, which is six times as high as the 541 cases reported in the same period of 2019.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has made it clear in the past that border defense is one of his top priorities, saying, “They still want to strip us of our right to protect the border and tell us who gets to live in Hungary and other European countries.”
“Our police and troops will protect our borders and we will not accept any resettlement schemes,” Orbán added.
Title image: Border guards on the Hungarian-Serbian border. (source: origo.hu)
Contrary to the hope that last May’s European Parliament election would improve matters, in reality the European Union remains under the influence of the global financial elite.
Last year, we had high hopes that after the elections the European situation would be better off, with nationalist forces who support sovereignty expected to gain the upper hand against the liberal-globalist powers. There were also hopes that a shift towards the nationalists would bring about an end to the attacks against Hungary it Poland.
Not only has this not happened, but the situation may be even worse now.
Instead of resulting in a breakthrough, the elections resulted in a stalemate instead. The two previously defining groups of the European Parliament – the Social Democrats and European People’s Party – both lost some of their influence, losing 35 seats each.
On the left side, the liberals and Greens gained 39 and 23 seats, respectively, while the two nationalist parties, the Europe of Nations and Freedom and the Identity and Democracy group, now have a combined 134 seats.
This made the political horse-trading of the new EU leadership a predictably convoluted process, with many behind-the-scenes deals, which ultimately resulted in the election of Ursula von der Leyen as the head of the European Commission. The agreement to install her in the position was a compromise and still a better outcome than the election of Frans Timmermans would have been.
While Hungary can be satisfied with the appointment of Olivér Várhelyi in the key position of Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, the executive vice-presidencies of Frans Timmermans and Margrethe Vestager from Denmark, and the vice-presidency of Czech Věra Jourová, are much less welcome, seeing how all three are outspoken globalists, federalists and pro-migration.
So there is, in theory, a stalemate. But as Viktor Orbán also pointed out, there is one small problem. The global financial elite, primarily represented by George Soros, are attempting to interfere from the outside with their support of the globalist-federal side.
In other word, outside powers not elected by anyone are influencing the internal political discourse in the European Union.
This is neither fair nor just, but most importantly it is not democratic. All we can do now is to make this state of affairs known to the best of our ability and as far as our voices can carry, so the whole worlds knows what kind of forces we are facing.
Title image: Flags in front of the European Parliament.
Konrad Szymański, Polish minister for European Affairs:
I believe that in this case we should more seriously approach operating the entire EU and not automatically accept every sum that is given to us, often by the EU administration itself