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  • Invasive birds plague Hungarian waters, angering fishermen

    Hungarian fishermen are up in arms against the earlier than usual invasion of great cormorants, known as proficient hunters that kill as many fish a year as they do.

    Ferenc Lévai, head of the Hungarian Fisheries’ Association, told Magyar Nemzet that the invasive bird species can cause irreparable damage to the fish population of a pond in just a few hours.

    In the winter period, fish hunker down at the bottom of lakes and rivers and their metabolism slows down considerably. Indigenous fishing birds do not reach those depths, but the sea fisher cormorants do, and in packs. As a result, they injure many more fish than they can actually eat.

    Lévai said that in the past few decades cormorants have been overprotected, and as their numbers grew, they extended their habitat considerably from their previous nesting places in Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Poland.

    He said in the past few years cormorants caught 3,000 tonnes of fish per year, almost as much as all the country’s fishermen (3,500 tonnes).

    The Ministry of Agriculture has for the past few years paid millions of forints to fishermen for ammunition to hunt the birds, but more often than not the result was that the birds moved from natural waters to fisheries. Lévai said only a concerted European effort could provide a solution to the problem.

    After years with a hunting ban in place, neighboring Romania passed a bill allowing the hunting of cormorants last November, which have also caused significant damage to the fish populations of the Danube, especially the Danube Delta leading into the Black Sea.

    Title image: Great cormorant in Hungary. (MTI/Zsolt Szigetváry)

  • PM Orbán at Auschwitz: “Tell it to your children”

    Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his wife, Ankió Lévai, attended the 75th anniversary commemorations at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland on Monday. Orbán posted a 14-image gallery of the event on his Facebook page with the text “Tell it to your children.”

    At the ceremony, Orbán placed a candle in front of the Hungarian memorial to the victims of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.

    A number of survivors spoke at the event along with the World Jewish Congress leader Ronald Lauder, who criticized anti-Zionsim, saying there is a “shameful and constant fixation on Israel at the United Nations,” pointing to the 202 UN resolutions condemning individual nations since 2013, with 163 of them directed at Israel.

    “Anti-Zionism is nothing but anti-Semitism,” he added.

    During their visit in the country, Orbán and his wife also laid a wreath at the grave of former Polish President Lech Kaczyński and his wife, who both died in a 2010 plane crash in Russia.

    Title image: Commemoration at the Auschwitz concentration camp. (source: Facebook) 

  • Czech dogs on duty with US law enforcement

    In the United States, dogs trained in the Czech Republic are highly popular with law enforcement, who use the dogs from everything to tracking suspects to catching smugglers.

    The U.S. officers even have to learn their four-footed friends’ language but that has never stopped them from being part of the team.

    U.S. police officers often use terms like “Knoze (Heel),” “Sedni (Sit),” or “Stekej (Bark)” when addressing their four-legged companions as their dogs are trained in the Czech Republic, or by Czech specialists in the U.S., and do not understand English.

    The newest canine reinforcement for U.S. officers is a German Shepherd named Ivan, reports NBC news.

    About a quarter of German Shepherds in U.S. law enforcement have Czech origins, with 2-year-old Ivan serving as the newest addition to the U.S. police force, where it is his job to protect officers and hunt down suspects.

    Ivan has over 1,000 hours of training. He was trained by former officer Brad Kohn, who had just retired after 30 years of service.

    He spent 22 years training police dogs and for the Kennewick Police Department, he trained all the dogs they have in service.

    Dogs from Ivan’s K-9 program also help with police operations by tracking down smugglers and drug dealers. Last week, another dog from the same program returned from treatment after eating unspecified amounts of meth.

    Interestingly, Ivan is not the first Ivan among US police dogs. Some time ago, another well-known police dog named Ivan from Moreno Valley won several prizes in competitions measuring police dog skills before passing away.

    The Czech Republic has a great tradition of breeding and training dogs for the police, army, and rescue services. Most dogs are stationed in the army and police forces in Germany, Russia and countries in South America.

  • The winner of Miss Germany is political correctness

    After 93 years of existence, Miss Germany has decided that there will be no man in the jury this year. The competition wants to judge the candidates mainly on their personality. The Times reports.

    However, in a sign that beauty is still one of the most dominating factors in the competition, the contest only allows women between the ages of 18 and 39 to apply, a policy that may come across as ageist.

    The motto of this year’s Miss Germany is “Empowering Authentic Women”. Next month, the all-women jury will judge the 16 entrants on their personality and life story.

    The female jury does not mean that there will be no more men in the future juries, said Max Klemmer, the chief executive of the Miss Germany Corporation. However, any man who would like to become a juror will be screened to prove they back the new competition concept.

    This year, karate fighter Anna Lewandowska, TV host Frauke Ludowig, and former CSU politician Dagmar Wöhrl are set to look for Germany’s most beautiful woman.

    Last year, Miss Germany abolished its swimsuit competition. Participants are instead supposed to reveal their personality, the chief of the competition said. Instead of a swimsuit, the candidates presented themselves in summer clothing.

    The Berlin Spectator describes how Miss Germany has been changing lately. In general, beauty contests are more about personalities and life stories, although the beauty aspect is still important.

    This year’s Miss Germany wants to show that women participating in such contests are no less emancipated than any other. It is thus becoming more “modern and politically correct”.

    There are 16 federal states in Germany, which corresponds to the number of candidates. Each of them represents one country.

    Miss Universe is now experimenting with a concept similar to the German one.

    At the end of last year, the international contest announced that for the first time in its history, the jury of the upcoming year would also consist of women only.

    The panel of judges consists of businesswomen, business leaders, and experts in various fields. The competition management said in a statement that former holders of the Miss Universe title would also be part of the decision-making process.

  • Two Czechs trapped in Wuhan quarantine amid coronavirus outbreak

    According to the latest news, the number of lives the coronavirus has claimed in China has risen to 81, with almost 3,000 confirmed ill.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) and national authorities report on 44 confirmed cases outside China, but no deaths. So far, the virus has spread to Thailand, Vietnam, France, and the United States.

    In Vietnam, one Czech has been hospitalized for a suspected case of coronavirus but not yet confirmed infection.

    Wuhan, the city where the virus originated, is in quarantine, and travel from the city has been restricted.

    There are currently four Czechs in Wuhan. Two of them live there permanently and show no interest in returning to their homeland. However, the other two are students who, according to Czech Minister of Health Adam Vojtěch, would like to return.  

    “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is currently negotiating with France, which is preparing a mission to evacuate its citizens,” said Minister Vojtěch on Sunday.

    One of the students, Daniel Pekárek, described the atmosphere of the closed city of Wuhan in an interview with irozhlas.cz.

    Pekárek has been in Wuhan since last August. He says the local people are in shock from the epidemic, comparing it to the spread of SARS in 2003. He said the locals had learned about the new virus in mid-December, but then, “no one took it seriously”.

    The Czech student said that local people are buying food supplies and shops are still open. There are also online shops operating in the city delivering most of their goods for free.

    Pekárek says there are noticeably fewer people in the streets. He also heard that there were Chinese who could get anyone out of Wuhan for a large sum of money.

    On Monday, the Czech National Security Council met due to the coronavirus.

    Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said after the meeting that security measures should be tightened. The crew of any aircraft that lands in the Czech Republic should inform passengers in advance that if someone has any respiratory problems or feels ill, they should seek medical assistance.

    The next possible step is to check all passengers from China.

    According to hygienists and the Minister of Health, however, blanket screening is not yet needed. Minister Vojtěch added that it makes no sense given the incubation period of 14 days.

    Also, Vojtěch does not consider banning direct flights from China to Prague as rational if all nearby airports do not ban them either. However, Prague Airport has already set aside two special entrances for flights from China, which will be disinfected regularly.

  • Czechia is the most innovative V4 economy: report

    According to this year’s Bloomberg innovation ranking, Czech Republic is the most innovative country in the Visegrad Four alliance, while Germany has the world’s most innovative economy.

    Compared to the last year, the Czech Republic jumped to 24th place, improving its ranking by one position, putting it on top of the other Visegrad Four countries of Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary.

    The Czech Republic has become the most innovative country within V4 for the first time since 2014, as the number of patents has helped the country to rise in the ranking.

    Poland placed 25th in the rankings, while Hungary claimed 28th place, and Slovakia was in 41st place.

    The ranking, published for the eighth time, assesses, for example, expenditures on science and research, the number of patent applications, and a country’s tech company density.

    This year, South Korea dropped to second place, followed by Singapore. In fourth place is Switzerland, which hosted a World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos on Jan. 21-24, with innovation being the main topic.

    From the European countries, the top ten list is completed with Sweden (5th), Finland (7th) and Denmark (8th).

    Israel ranked sixth, while the United States dropped one place to rank ninth, and China moved up one place to rank 15th.

    This year’s winner, Germany, scored in value-added manufacturing, high-tech density, and patent activity. South Korea dropped in the ranking mainly due to a decline in productivity.

    The surprise of 2020 is Slovenia, as it improved by ten places in the ranking and placed 21st, mainly due to patent activity.

  • Victory! Hungarian men’s team wins European water polo title after 21 years

    After a 21-year dry spell, the Hungarian men’s water polo team has once again won the European Championship in an intense match that will go down in the history books.

    In a battle with Spain that went down to the wire, the match ended in 9-9 draw during regular play time, with shootouts then deciding the game (14-13). Following the victory, the home team and their fans were sent into seventh heaven, filling the arena ecstatic cheering.

    For Hungary, the hero of the match was 22-year-old goalkeeper Soma Vogel, who did not play a single minute in the final and only replaced Viktor Nagy for the last two penalty shots.

    The match didn’t only hand Hungary the European gold but also means Hungary automatically qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

    “It is a fantastic thing to see the sparkle in their eyes. The [current team’s] two Olympic champions, Dénes Varga and Norbert Hosnyánszky, only lacked this gold for their collection, while this victory will give a huge boost to the careers of the younger generation,” coach Tamás Märcz, himself an Olympic champion in Sydney in 2000, said after the match.

    Hungary is generally considered to have produced some of the best water polo teams in history, and with this victory, the country extends its lead in the overall medal count by winning its 13th title.

    The Spanish team had to console themselves with silver, but their women’s team did manage a win, beating Russia 13-12 in a closely fought battle.

    Title image: Hungarian water polo team celebrates European Championship win on January 26 in Budapest (MTI/Zsolt Szigetvári)

  • Joining the eurozone wouldn’t be a good move: Hungarian finance minister

    Joining the eurozone before Hungary has reached a certain development threshold would do the Hungarian economy more harm than good, Finance Minister Mihály Varga told weekly magazine Mandiner in an interview.

    “Until the Hungarian economy has reached a certain level, it is not its interest to be part of the eurozone, as that would result in a competitive disadvantage,” Varga said, adding that he would also be reluctant to board a train “whose destination is unclear”.

    Varga said that the 2008 global financial and economic crisis has highlighted a series of shortcomings of the euro, echoing the words of Hungarian Central Bank governor György Matolcsy at a recent conference.

    Matolcsy called on all eurozone members to start a dialogue in order to reform the monetary group so it can face its three biggest challenges: geopolitics, competitiveness and global finances.

    In the interview, Varga said that in the coming years Hungary must simultaneously reduce taxes, public debt, achieve a balanced budget, and support a demographic turnaround without compromising growth.

    He said that despite press reports to the contrary, Hungary was not being left behind in the growth race among the members of the Visegrád Four.

    “We managed to catch up with the Visegrád Four, and in some indicators, we are even in the lead. Based on the data, Hungary is setting an example to these countries in some respects. There is nothing to be ashamed of, but due previous economic policy mistakes, it took Hungary ten years to regain its rightful place within the Visegrád Four.”

    Varga added that he was an advocate of stricter fiscal discipline, meaning that Hungary should aim for a balanced budget in the coming years.

    “I am a proponent of a budget without a deficit by the year 2022 or 2023 at the latest. This can only be achieved gradually as the economy is on a convergence path.”

    He refuted rumors that a tighter budget would mean less funding for healthcare.

    “We are pouring more money into the healthcare system, yet its debts are being regenerated. There are also management problems that have to be rectified,” he said.

    Compared with the conservative growth estimate of the European Commission of 2.8 percent, Varga said independent analysts expect the country’s GDP to rise by 3.5 percent this year.


    Title image: Hungarian finance minister Mihály Varga (source: Mandiner)

  • Migratory pressure mounting on Romanian-Hungarian border

    Recent reports from the Romanian border police indicate that the number of illegal border crossing attempts into Hungary is rising fast.

    Migrants using the Balkan route can go as far as Serbia, but crossing the Serbian-Hungarian border is very difficult. On the portion of the border featuring land, there is a temporary fence which migrants have trouble crossing. In addition, both the Hungarian Border Police and the Armed Forces have increased personnel patrolling the area in recent months while the Tisza River on the two countries’ border is now patrolled by a minesweeper boat retasked to protect the border.

    Due Hungary’s effective border security along the Serbian border, this has pressured migrants to seek an alternative route, mainly through Romania.

    In addition, some refugees from the Middle East and Africa enter Romania through Bulgaria or the Black Sea ports of the country and either try to make their way directly to Western Europe or do so after applying for asylum in Romania.

    According to data of the Hungarian Police, in the first three weeks of 2020, the number of illegal border crossing attempts for the year was 3,247, which is six times as high as the 541 cases reported in the same period of 2019.

    Over the weekend, Romanian border police were forced to fire warning shots after it became the only option to stop two Tunisian men, aged 29 and 38, near the village of Óvár (Oar in Romanian) in the northwestern part of the country.

    Last Friday, a group of nine migrants from Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Somalia were apprehended attempting to cross the border in the Arad region of the border with Hungary.

    Romanian border police said the seven men and two women, aged 21 to 52, have submitted asylum applications in the country. They were aided by two Romanian citizens in the illegal border crossing attempt who have also been detained and charged with human trafficking.

    Title image: A group of nine illegal immigrants detained on the Romanian-Hungarian border (source: Romanian Border Police)

  • Western media applies double standards to PM Orbán, says German political scientist

    Western European media is applying double standards by passing judgement on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and declaring that everything German Chancellor Angela Merkel does is for the good of Europe, German political scientist and professor Werner Patzelt told Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet in an interview.

    “This is a case of double standards stemming from the widely accepted narrative reinforced by the media and intellectuals that Orbán is a bad personality and Merkel is a good one,” Professor Patzelt said.

    “Everything Merkel does is for the good of Europe and brings people together but whatever Orbán does curtails democracy and stirs trouble in the European Union. They assess all of Merkel’s and Orbán’s deeds within this framework, leading to double standards. Most interestingly, those applying them do it with a clear conscience and don’t even realize their own bias.”

    Patzelt said that within the German political context, the Christian-Democrat (CDU) and Christian-Socialist (CSU) parties can no longer be considered proper conservative parties.

    “In our part of the world, conservative means right-wing, which some use in the sense of harboring Nazi feelings. This is why many say that they are not conservatives. Conservatives simply want to keep what is good in the current political situation. In that sense, even the Greens can be termed conservative, as they want to preserve the natural environment.”

    The German professor, who has taught comparative politics at TU Dresden since 1991 also said that beginning with 1968 Paris student protests, the entire political spectrum has shifted towards the left. 

    Kaczyński underlined that Poland faced enormous devastation following the war, including the destruction of its economy, factories, historic heritage, and cultural property.

    He added that Poland was also ruined during the First World War, especially the Kingdom of Poland, which was located in the Russian Empire and exploited by it Russia in that period as well.

    “Poland never received reparations for that. Meanwhile, France was receiving reparations from Germany on the grounds of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles until recently. Poland got practically nothing,” he said.

    Kaczyński admitted that the political situation in Russia could be difficult regarding sending reparations to Poland, especially compared to Germany where there is a democratically-elected government and “law and morality” apply.

    “Russia should pay, but I doubt our generation will live to see Russia admit its responsibility. One thing is certain: Our demands will never expire,” Kaczyński stated.

    PiS’s leader also referred to the Smoleńsk plane catastrophe of April 10, 2010, which killed the Polish President Lech Kaczyński and dozens of other top members of the Polish government, with Jarosław Kaczyński claiming that the issue is still outstanding following Russia’s decision to not return the plane wreckage.

    “I could talk with President Putin about the death of my brother [Lech Kaczyński], but first, he would have to return the wreckage,” Jaroslaw Kaczyński said.

  • Poland is erased from history at World Holocaust Forum: opinion

    Poland is an uncomfortable ally for Western powers, as its narrative during the Second World War conflicts with the one promoted by the Allied Powers since 1945, which has promoted Jewish suffering above all else.

    In short, Poland is a state which does not fit the Western historic narrative. We are not part of the story written after 1945.

    The discomfort Poland produces for its allies was on full display at the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem, where President Vladimir Putin’s version of history triumphed and Poland’s fate was erased.

    The history shown at the Forum presents a version where only one people suffered during the war: the Jews. The Second World War is seen through the prism of only the Holocaust and the Jewish genocide, which have become the main subject of not only the war or the 20th century, but the “greatest crime of humanity.”

    Poland’s does not exist in this version of history – it has been erased and forgotten. The film shown at the Forum suggests that the war begins in 1942 and our place in history is simply subsumed within Stalin’s empire. Global leaders presented a ludicrous narrative that claimed that the USSR was the first country to oppose the Nazis.

    The map shown in the film is scandalous, as half of Poland has been divided and titled “Belarus”. Lwów becomes a Belarussian city. The organizers didn’t even call it a Ukrainian one, let alone a Polish one, but it is unsurprising, as Putin is not fond of Ukraine lately. 

    The Soviets brought freedom to Europe through the aid of “heroic soldiers of the Red Army”, which was how Macron described them during the ceremony. Of course, according to Macron, the Red Army did not bring death, slavery and mass rape, but only rescue from the Nazis.

    Putin’s speech in Yad Vashem was toned down compared to the last few weeks, but it was no surprise why. Putin no longer had any purpose in attacking Poland, as he already had secured what he wanted.

    The world believed the Soviet version of history and Polish “revisionists” who spoke of communist bestiality had lost.

    Unofficially, the purchase is said to have cost €250 million, but Condor was kept afloat by a €380 million loan from the German government. The purchase was made possible after the bankruptcy of the British-baed Thomas Cook travel agency, which Condor was a part of.

    “There has never been such a transfer and purchase by Poland in Germany. We took over a company which will almost double our profits, and we will grow dynamically, creating one of the most dynamic airlines in Europe,” Milczarski explained.

    Ralf Teckentrup underlined that due to Condor’s expertise in the tourism sector, the company will complement Polish Aviation Group (PGL).

    The Chancellery of the Polish Prime Minister added that “the takeover of Condor will assure operation and cost synergies whose value will exceed €60 million annually.”

    In 2013, LOT was meant to be sold to a German carrier, either to Lufthansa or Air Berlin, which no longer exists. The purchase of Condor marks a major reversal in fortunes for LOT.

    LOT and Condor together will be one of the fastest developing airline groups in Europe, transporting 20 million passengers per year.

    Condor, as part of the PGL, will fly under its own colors and brand, and will not fire additional employees. In time, it plans to increase employment and purchase 30 new airplanes with LOT in the next three years.

    After the Boeing crisis stemming from the 737 MAX planes and the Dreamliner engine issues, LOT will be able to develop its fleet with the help of Airbus, which will help LOT diversify its fleet.

    Although there are always risks following such a large merge, there has also never been such an opportunity in the history of Polish aviation.

  • Privacy apocalypse: Experts worry about a new facial recognition app

    Clearview AI, a U.S. startup, announced that it created a giant database with facial biometric data of nearly half of the world’s population, raising concerns that the app could mean an end to privacy.

    His application automatically selects and compares facial photos from all publicly available sources and databases, revealing not only the identity of the person being watched but all his virtual life story based on vacation and work photos, social networking, school albums, and other personal information available on the web.

    The main creator of the app is thirty-one-year-old Hoan Ton-That, a native Vietnamese-born Australian who lives in the U.S. today.

    So far, Clearview reportedly collected face biometric data of three billion people, which is 40 percent of the world’s population.

    Over 600 police departments have used the app, such as the one in Gainesville, Florida, which has managed to detain dozens of criminals thanks to Clearview. The app is growing in popularity with police over its ability to identify suspects from photos or surveillance video in cases ranging from shop lifting to murder.

    However, it is not possible to absolutely rely on the application and its possibility to always assign a real identity to a particular person’s photo. Since many of the images used to find matches are taken from surveillance cameras placed on high walls or ceilings, securing an accurate match is not always reliable since facial recognition works best with images taken at eye-level.

    Yet, the application is of concern not only in Europe but also in the U.S., where the rules surrounding personal data are much more lax.

    Some privacy advocates have said the software is another reason why a complete nationwide ban on facial recognition is necessary. Some cities are taking heed, with San Francisco in 2019 becoming the first city to ban the technology.

    While the software is effective at solving crimes, the potential for abuse is enormous, especially when the ability to identify anybody in seconds has now become a reality for law enforcement. There are fears that the police could use the software to identify protesters at a demonstration or foreign intelligence services could identify a target for blackmail.

    “There will always be a community of bad people who abuse technology,” the creator of the system Ton-That, who is also aware of the risks of abuse, told the New York Times.

    However, as the Times points out, even if Clearview was banned from using the system, the taboo surrounding the technology has already been broken. Now, there are fears that it is only a matter of time when the technology becomes available to public, a scenario that could mean an “end of privacy as we know it” and an absolute end of public anonymity.

  • Could a four-day workweek become a reality for Czechs?

    At the beginning of January, the world media, including the Czech press, shared the sensational news that Finland’s new prime minister, Sanna Marin, proposed introducing a four-day workweek. Although Marin later denied she has any intention to reduce working hours for Finns, Czech media outlets started to speculate: Could such a novelty be implemented in the Czech Republic?

    Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamáček fueled the debate after he posted on his Facebook his thoughts about a four-day workweek.

    “A four-day workweek. I understand that when we start talking about changes, we don’t always take them seriously. On the other hand, people once believed that shortening the workweek from six to five days was not possible. And it happened,” posted Hamáček on Facebook two weeks ago.

    “Can you imagine today at your job, that if you do your weekly tasks in four days that the weekend will then start on Thursday afternoon? What would you do on Friday?”

    His post was based on the Microsoft experiment in Japan, which allowed 2,200 workers to reduce their workweek to just four days. After the study was published, it was revealed that their productivity increased by 40 percent, setting off a wave of interest in the international media. The company also reported saving on energy costs.

    However, Hamáček’s colleagues are not so keen on the idea.

    Former Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek admits that in the distant future, there might be a four-day workweek, saying there has already been a switch from a six-day to five-day workweek in the 1960s, however, he stressed that any changes have to be in line with the performance of the economy.

    Kalousek concluded that for at least the next ten years, Czechs will have to stick with their current working hours.

    The Harvard Business Review has also recently speculated about whether the four-day workweek will take hold in Europe, showing that the Czech Republic and Finland are not the only countries where it is being discussed.

    While a four-day workweek may sound novel, the idea of reducing working hours is not new. In countries like France, working hours were cut nearly 20 years ago to 35 hours a week in order to create a better work-life balance. In countries like the Netherlands, which has one of the strongest economies in Europe, the average number of working hours per person is only 29, which according to the OECD, is the lowest of all industrialized nations.

    Despite some trends pointing to a four-day workweek in the future, current Czech Finance Minister Alena Schillerová also warned against such an idea, as she considers it short-sighted.

    “If we do not want to jeopardize the prosperity and competitiveness of our economy, the labor market must remain the driving force behind these trends,” said Schillerová, although admitting that trends might change.

    “It is possible that with the increase in labor productivity, the workloads will gradually be reduced or flexibility will be increased. This trend has already been observed in many companies, so it is certainly not a utopia,” she added.

    Still, as a senior Czech government official, Hamáček has shown a willingness to advocate for the issue, which may provide an opening for the idea to take hold in the Czech Republic.

    “I see that I’m the only one willing to fight for a shorter workweek. I can definitely imagine it. Of course, this must be preceded by expert debates. But we should start,” wrote Hamáček in his latest post on Facebook as a reaction to his colleagues’ statements.

    The introduction of the four-day workweek is also a long-term topic of Czech trade unions, which appreciate Hamáček’s support in this matter.

    Overall, the fact is that the Czech Republic has the lowest unemployment rate in Europe and a very competitive job market. The country thus might have ideal conditions for introducing such a novelty.  Furthermore, it could attract even more talents from abroad to join the Czech job market.

  • U.S. officially protests Czech digital tax on Facebook, Google and Amazon

    The United States officially protested against a Czech proposal to introduce a 7-percent digital tax on tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon, Czech TV reported.

    The protest from the US came after the Czech Chamber of Deputies supported the government’s proposal to introduce a digital tax on Wednesday.

    If the law came into force, internet companies with a global turnover of over €750 million and an annual turnover of at least 100 million korunas (€4 million) would be subject to a 7-percent digital tax.

    Czech Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček said he recently discussed digital taxation with U.S. Ambassador Stephen King.

    “I understand that the United States perceives this negatively. On the other hand, we are trying to explain that this step is only temporary until an international solution is found,” the minister said.

    Rumors about the U.S. response to the Czech digital tax had already been circulating in Czech media, with an anonymous source from the U.S. government telling the Czech daily Hospodářské noviny that the U.S. warned the Czech Republic that introducing the tax could trigger countermeasures.

    Petříček has now confirmed the information that appeared in the Czech media at the beginning of the week was true.

    Washington considers the proposal a from of competitive discrimination against U.S.-based firms. The United States is going through a similar dispute with France, which recently has introduced a similar 3-percent tax.

    Czech Finance Minister Alena Schillerová (ANO) then said in Brussels on Tuesday that she was not afraid of any U.S. retaliation. According to her, the Ministry of Finance discussed the matter with the U.S. Embassy as well.

    Schillerová added that she had no official information that the U.S. was preparing any countermeasures. According to her, the tax is not aimed at U.S. companies but will also affect others that exceed the thresholds set by law.

    European countries already resorting to digital taxes

    Already in 2017, representatives of the European Union spoke about digital tax for large internet companies such as Facebook or Google.

    The following year, the European Commission presented proposals for changes in the taxation of digital companies, but the finance ministers of the EU Member States then failed to find a consensus on the possible form of a future tax.

    Some countries, including the Czech Republic, have therefore decided to act on their own. France, Italy, and Austria have all introduced a digital tax as well.

    To deter these digital taxes, Washington threatened to impose custom duties on certain goods from France. France then proposed postponing the April tax due date until the end of the year.

    Despite the U.S. stance, President Donald Trump has previously said in the past that Amazon does not pay enough tax. In the U.S., the tech company paid $0 in taxes in 2018.

    In the Czech Republic, the digital tax would also apply to digital economy platforms such as Airbnb or Uber. If the Czech Parliament manages to discuss and approve the new law, the digital tax could come into force by the end of this year.

  • Czech app that saves lives is now available in Hungary

    The life-saving Ambulance app, which has more than 1,150,000 Czech users, has now crossed borders to neighboring Hungary, allowing Czechs to use the app in Hungary without worrying about a communication barrier in an emergency.

    In the case of an emergency, the Ambulance app not only sends the Hungarian emergency medical services center the exact GPS location of a person in need but also his or her basic medical and personal data listed in the application, including contact persons or information about the battery charge level.

    “After the injured person presses the emergency button, a list of the nine most common health problems or injuries appears. When the caller selects one of them, the information is sent to the paramedics along with other information such as location and basic data,” explained Filip Maleňák, who created  the Ambulance app in 2016.

    “At the dispatch center, duty personnel will know what happened, where it happened, and to whom it happened before any call is made. This will greatly simplify communication and remove the significant language barrier that Czechs may have when communicating in Hungary.”

    When crossing the Hungarian border, it is not necessary to change any settings in the app, as it now automatically switches its location status.

    The Ambulance app team has also helped create a Hungarian version called ÉletMentő, which will work the same way as the Czech app.

    “We are excited about the idea of ​​a joint app that will call for help at home and abroad, and we hope that other European countries will join in at some point,” said Gabor Csato, director of the Országos Mentőszolgálat ambulance service.

    In addition to Hungary, Czechs can also use the app in neighboring Austria and the Slovak mountains. In the upcoming years, the founder of the project, Filip Maleňák, would like to expand the app to Croatia, as it is one of the most popular holiday destinations for Czechs.

    His team is also in negotiations about extending the app’s services to Romania.

    The application is unique in its capability to help find the nearest defibrillator of the 1,650 ones registered in its database.

    In some cities, the Ambulance app is also ready to issue warnings to residents in the case of an explosion, natural disaster, or even a dangerous substances leak. It was developed in cooperation with the Czech emergency services and is now used by about 50 people every day.

     

  • Freedom from Russia? Baltic Pipe construction to begin this year

    With the Baltic Pipe nearing its construction start date, Poland is inching closer to gas independence from Russia.

    The Baltic Pipe pipeline is on schedule to meet its completion deadline, with a number of important agreements signed with the suppliers needed to begin construction, including a deal with the EUROPIPE GmbH company for the supply of the underwater parts of the pipeline, which will be placed on the Baltic Sea seabed.

    In addition, the companies responsible for building and placing the pipe now have project documentation guiding the construction of the pipeline, including the method of placement of the pipeline on the seabed and of the section meant to connect the underwater pipeline with the valve station.

    The documents also contain reports of analysis concerning the security and stability of the pipeline.

    “The Baltic Pipe is at the finish line of the actions preceding beginning constructing the underwater part of the pipeline,” announced Tomasz Stępień, the head of Gaz-System.

    Stępień underlined that obtaining permission to construct the project is also in an advanced phase, as Gaz-System has received permits from Denmark, and the investment stage for Sweden and Poland is coming to a close.

    “In accordance with our declarations, we will start the construction of the part connecting Poland and Denmark this year,” Stępień declared.

    The next step in developing the Baltic Pipe is the signing of a contract for the construction of the land section of the pipeline between A. Hak International and Danish Energinet.dk.

    The Baltic Pipe is planned to have a 10 billion cubic meter capacity and be finished by October 2022, when the Polish-Russian Yamal gas contract for Russian gas will expire, with that contract supplying Poland between 8 and 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Poland is hoping at time that the gas contract with Russia can then be permanently terminated.

    The Polish Oil Mining and Gas Extraction company (PGNiG) has reserved 8.2 billion cubic meters of the capacity and announced that it will not continue the Russian contract.

    “This is important not just to Poland, but the entire EU, as it creates the possibility of establishing a competitor gas market in this part of Europe,” explained Piotr Naimski, the government plenipotentiary for strategic energy infrastructure.

    Poland uses about 15 billion cubic meters of gas annually, out of which a third is extracted inside Poland. Another third is expected to be delivered to Poland via the sea to the LNG gas terminal in Świnoujście.

  • Polish commentators defend President Duda’s refusal to go to Jerusalem

    Polish journalists and social media users heatedly discussing the 5th World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem on Jan. 23, an event which President Andrzej Duda refused to participate in.

    Several journalists and social media users defended President Duda’s decision not to participate in the event and criticized the pro-Russian atmosphere, including ournalist Marcin Makowski.

    “The whole World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem was conducted in Hebrew and Russian, the stage was decorated in Israeli and Russian flags. This is the Netanyahu-Putin forum in which the historic memory of the victims of doom is used as geopolitical currency. Sad times.”

    “As a Pole, I would be decimated to see our president sit in Israel and listen to lies regarding WW2 and the Holocaust. I am pleased, that Poland will not grace this propaganda show with its presence. Attacking our president for his decision means you’re nothing man than Putin’s helper,” wrote Krzystof Stanowski.

    Twitter user “Brat Wodza” pointed out how pointless Duda’s presence would have been at the event, saying, “Now visualize for yourself the situation which some so eagerly advised – in the middle of this PROPAGANDA re-enactment OUR PRESIDENT would have played the role of an extra.”

    Academic and former politician Romuald Szeremietiew emphasized how the Soviet Union sentenced Menachem Begin, who was born in pre-war Poland and went on to become prime minister of Israel, to a lager camp which he escaped to join Polish soldiers.

    “Putin should’ve told the audience at Yad Vashem how in the future Israeli prime minister, Menachem Begin, was welcomed to the USSR, and also explained why instead of sitting in the pleasant Soviet larger camp, he made sure to join the ‘anti-Semites’ of General Anders, and as a Polish soldier, escape the Soviet Union,” he said.

    Agnieszka Wolska commented on how the World Holocaust Forum relates to the post Yalta-Potsdam order:

    “The “Holocaust Forum” in Jerusalem shows, that the post-Yaltan-Potsdam “order” still reigns. The list of speakers in the ceremony in Yad Vashem is proof of that, as only the representatives of the victorious powers were allowed to speak. The novelty is permitting the aggressor from 1939 into that group.”

  • President Duda: It was the right decision not to be in Jerusalem

    President Andrzej Duda said his decision to not participate in the World Holocaust Forum in Yad Vashem on Jan. 23 in Jerusalem was the right one.

    Duda, who is currently at the World Economic Forum in Davos, explained that he did all he could to be able to speak during the World Holocaust Forum in order to emphasize that those murdered in the Holocaust were also Polish citizens.

    “Three million Polish Jews and three million Polish citizens who did not have Jewish heritage died. Those were huge losses for Poland,” he said, adding that he wanted to pay his respects to those who had fallen. 

    The Polish president pointed out that the one reason why he was not allowed to speak may have been related to the videos they planned to show at the commemoration, which showed the course of the Second World War but “did not show Polish participation in the fight against Germany.”

    Duda accused Russian oligarch Moshe Kantor’s foundation, which organized the Yad Vashem forum, for distorting history and ignoring the struggle of Polish soldiers who had fought on every front of the Second World War.

    “This again confirms that I made the right decision by not being there, because if I was, it would be hard for me to bear the situation, and I would have to do so in silence because I was not allowed to speak,” Duda noted.

    On one side, interest in housing grew and on the other, buyers could afford to take out increasingly higher mortgages so that they could purchase more expensive homes. This led to a rise in demand and a further rise in prices.

    Statistics Poland’s data on housing prices points out that in Q3 of 2019, housing prices rose by over 9 percent.

    Rogowski underlined that the growth dynamic of those homes worth over €82,500 exceeded 36 percent.

    Poland had a similar boom in 2008 when mortgages totaled over €15.6 billion, but the average level of wages was much lower than today and the lending actions now are supported by attractive CHF loans, which should create a safer market.

    There is a risk, however, given how low interest rates today, that a raise in rates in the future will put pressure on the market.

    Home prices increase: Poland in the European top 5

    Although the prices of houses are rising allover Europe, Poland is clearly well above the EU average and is in the top five countries in which home prices are increasing.

    House prices increased the most in Latvia, with a 13.5 percent increase, followed by Slovakia (11.5 percent), Luxembourg (11.3 percent) and Portugal (10.3 percent). Poland was fifth, with a 9 percent increase in prices in the last 12 months, according to Eurostat.

  • Duda thanks allies for support in face of Putin’s lies

    President Andrzej Duda thanked the allies of Poland who supported his country in the global media after Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a number of slanders and accusations concerning Poland’s role during the Second World War.

    On Thursday, 46 heads of state will participate in the 5th World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem to recognize the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the German death camp Auschwitz, but the president of Poland will not be present.

    The organizers had arranged a speech for Putin but denied Duda a chance to speak on behalf of Poland.

    Due to the ongoing historic conflict between Warsaw and Moscow, the Polish president decided not to travel to Jerusalem, saying Poland would not have a chance to refute any false accusations spread by Putin in his speech. Poland will be represented by its ambassador to Israel, Marek Magierowski.

    During the World Economic Forum in Davos, Duda explained that he will watch how Poland’s allies will respond in Jerusalem if Putin repeats his accusations concerning Poland’s co-responsibility for the outbreak of the Second World War.

    At the same time, he emphasized that he is “deeply thankful for all our allies who have already shown us support”.

    Duda stated that there already is significant support for Poland’s cause in world and Israeli media, as well as for his and Poland’s position on the matter.

    He noted that Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda cancelled his participation in the event in Jerusalem and will instead take part in the commemoration under the Polish president’s patronage on Jan. 27 in Poland in the former German death camp.

    “This is a clear sign of solidarity. The president of Latvia, on the other hand, very clearly and even harshly referred to President Vladimir Putin’s words and Russian behavior in this issue in his speech to the diplomatic corps in Riga,” Duda said.

    Last week, Latvian president Eglis Levtis declared that Latvia has been listening to the “false history of the Second World War coming from Russia” with “disbelief” and has “denounced it”.

    “It is unbelievable that 75 years after the end of the war, we continue to hear absurd accusations towards our NATO and EU ally Poland and towards ourselves,” Levtis stated.

  • Swiss owner refuses settlement on Budapest river tragedy

    The Swiss owner of the river cruise ship Viking Sigyn refused an out-of-court settlement for the tragic boat accident on the Danube stretch in downtown Budapest which killed 25 South Korean tourists and two crew members last May.

    The Swiss-owned river cruise ship, captained by Ukrainian Yuriy Chaplinsky, hit the sightseeing boat just under the Margit Bridge and the much smaller boat sank within seven seconds in the cold water of the Danube amid heavy rainfall on May 29.

    The Hungarian owners of the sightseeing boat Hableány, Panoráma Deck Kft, estimate their damages at between 1 and 1.5 billion forints (between €2.97 and €4.46 million) while the families of the victims seek another 300 million forints in compensation.

    The legal representatives of the Hungarian company have been attempting for months to reach an out-of-court settlement but complain that the Swiss owner is uncooperative, saying he refused to present the ship’s insurance documents and his attorneys even refused to show the owner’s authorization by which they are supposed to represent their client.

    The owner of the Viking Sigyn is a Swiss-registered company whose board of directors is headed by Torstein Hagen, who resides in Switzerland. His lawyers want to move the case to a London court, but the other side would only consider a trial in Hungary, Switzerland or South Korea.

    Meanwhile, the captain of the boat, who was previously arrested in Hungary, has been put under house arrest in Budapest.

    Title image: Rescue ships recover the wreck of the Hableány sightseeing boat in May 2019 (source: Origo/Gábor Szabó)

     

  • Somali refugee who raped a Hungarian woman arrested in Budapest: report

    A Somali refugee who raped a 25-year-old woman in Budapest in the early hours of Monday was arrested and charged with the crime the same day, Hungarian national police reported on Wednesday.

    According to the police report, the unidentified victim and her female friend were out celebrating the successful completion of the friend’s final university exam at a bar where they met two men, one of which was a 30-year-old Somali refugee

    Later that night, the Somali man convinced the woman to go to a park by offering her a marijuana cigarette. In the park, when the woman refused the man’s sexual advances, he allegedly kicked and hit her multiple times before raping her and stealing her mobile phone, according to the police report.

    An unnamed American man, alerted by the woman’s screams, went to help her but was attacked by the Somali man who subsequently fled the scene.

    Based on images from surveillance cameras, Budapest police arrested the man the same afternoon in the Hungarian capital and charged him with rape, robbery, assault and possession of drugs. The man did not admit the crime.

    The Somali man arrived in Hungary in 2015 and was granted protective asylum. He later traveled on to Sweden but the country eventually deported him to Hungary, which was his original point of entry into the European Union.


    Title image: Budapest police apprehend Somali man suspected of rape on Jan. 20. (source: police.hu)

  • Hungarian surgeons install brain implant to treat Parkinson’s disease

    Surgeons at a Hungarian neurology clinic successfully performed a state-of-the-art surgery to implant a deep-brain stimulator into an elderly man to treat his Parkinson’s disease on Wednesday.

    The clinic, in Szeged in southern Hungary, performed the operation only after the man no longer responded to traditional treatment.

    The implant, which must be accurately placed within a tenth of a millimeter inside the patient’s brain, both stimulates neural activity and monitors it, with the latter function allowing more targeted dosage of medication.

    The stimulator implant is known to reduce symptoms of Parkinson’s disease in patients who cannot be helped otherwise.

    Medical researchers developed the surgical implant in the United Kingdom, and so far the implant procedure has only been performed in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

    In order for the surgeons to receive proper feedback, the patient has to be awake for most of the five-hour procedure and only asleep during the final phase when the device’s controlling unit is implanted under the collarbone.

    Despite the long procedure, recovery is usually very fast for patients. Most patients can be ambulatory the day after the surgery.

    After regular checks every two weeks until the unit is fine-tuned to his needs, he will only have to be checked twice a year.

    Title image: Surgeons at the Szeged neurology clinic implant a deep-brain stimulator. (Délmagyarország/Yvette Frank)

     

  • Romanian historian receives Hungarian Order of Merit

    Hungarian president János Áder awarded Romanian historian Lucian Boia with the Knight’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit for his exceptional historical work and his contribution to improving Hungarian-Romanian relations on Tuesday.

    Boia was handed the award at the Hungarian Embassy in Bucharest by Ambassador Botond Zákonyi.

    The 75-year-old Boia has enjoyed a long and eminent career revisiting and reinterpreting many of Romanian history’s cardinal concepts, creating a new school of history but also stirring opposition from Romanian nationalists.

    “I wrote the history as I believed it to be in an honest manner, striving for interpretations that avoided various ideologies and radical nationalism which has caused so much harm. This is my work. It would be nice if I could change the world, but alas, I have no such powers,” Boia said while summing up his work at the ceremony.

    Asked about Romanian-Hungarian relations, Boia said that the solutions to past grievances should not be sought in the past but in the future, adding that in a couple of generations 19th-century nationalistic debates will appear very curious. He said he believes in an increasingly unified European Union without borders.

    “After all, we are all Europeans, we are alike, and our problems are also much more similar to one another’s than those of other continents,” Boia said.

    In 1993, Boia established the Center for the History of the Imaginary within the History Department of the Bucharest University. The Center’s research focus is on historical and political mythology as well as national and political identity.

    Title image: Romanian historian Lucian Boia (L) receives the Hungarian Order of Merit from ambassador Botond Zákonyi (R). (MTI/Ildikó Baranyi)

  • Majority of Western Europeans believe Poland was the victim of WW2: survey

    Western Europeans overwhelmingly believe that Poland was the victim in the Second World War, according to a new survey.

    The United Surveys research agency found a staggering 97 percent of Britons believe that Poland and its citizens were the victims of the Second World War, while other countries also showed strong majorities in support of Poland.

    The survey also showed that 88 percent of French and 85 percent of Italian and German respondents believed Poland was a victim in the war.

    On occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau German death camp and the 110th anniversary of the birth of Irena Sendler, the famous Polish activist and Righteous Among the Nations recipient for saving over 2,500 Jewish children from the Holocaust, United Surveys checked how Poles and Poland are seen by the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Poles themselves in the context of the Second World War.

    Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland

    On the question whether Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland in September 1939, 68 percent of Italians answered affirmatively, as did 67 percent of Germans and French, 79 percent of Britons and 92 percent of Poles.

    The second largest amount of “definitely yes” answers apart from Poland (79 percent) were in the UK, which was at 40 percent. In Germany, 36 percent of respondents said “definitely yes” while Italy was 31 percent and France was at 20 percent. 

    United Surveys also noted that Poland has the most representatives who have been recipients of the Righteous Among the Nations medal honored by the Israeli Yad Vashem Institute in Jesrusalem.

    Poles risked their own lives to save Jews

    The survey also showed that 98 percent of Poles agreed with the statement that Poles risked their own lives to save Jews, as did 90 percent of Britons.

    In Germany, 73 percent of Germans also agreed, with 30 percent “definitely” agreeing while 70 percent of respondents agreed in France and 63 percent in Italy.

    Poles were victims of the WWII

    Over the question whether Poland and Poles were victims of the war, 100 percent of Poles declared that they were, with 94 percent saying they “definitely” were, as did 97 percent of Britons (65 percent definitely). Eighty-eight percent of French held a similar view, as well as 85 percent of surveyed respondents from Italy and Germany.

    United Survey pointed out that Germany’s defeat and the USSR’s, the UK’s and the United State’s victory opened the way to freeing all of Europe from Nazism. A few years after the war ended, a Cold War between the capitalist Western Europe and communist Central Eastern Europe began.

    In context of those events, 87 percent of Poles and 80 percent of Britons believe that the Soviet Union, while fighting the Germans, also conquered Central-Eastern Europe. Additionally, 77 percent of French and Germans think the same, as do 75 percent of Italians.

  • Miners who met with Greta Thunberg in Poland accused of treason by trade union

    Following the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg visiting Polish coal mines in Silesia to conduct secret interviews with miners, the spokesman of Sierpień 80, a miners’ trade union, accused miners who spoke to Thunberg of treason.

    Thunberg recently visited Poland accompanied by a BBC television crew, with Remix News unofficially learning that BBC is making a documentary on the phenomenon of Thunberg and a Polish tour will be an important part of the film.

    She visited the Bełchatów Power Station, the world’s largest lignite-fired power station, and later the Makoszowy and Guido coal mines in Silesia.

    Jerzy Hubka, a miner, posted on Facebook that miners had indeed met with Thunberg and took the activist along with the BBC camera crew to film the Guido mine and also to show Greta how the bottom of a mine looks like.

    Patryk Kosela, Polish miner, Sierpień ’80 trade union:

    Hubka humiliated himself just so Greta Thunberg could say in Davos that she had spoken with Polish miners and ‘even they haven’t surrendered’. Ms. Greta, Polish miners will NEVER surrender. Never! But Jerzy Hubka did not tell you that because he’s a fool who shits in his own nest.

    “Jerzy Hubka humiliated himself just so Greta Thunberg could say in Davos that she had spoken with Polish miners and ‘even they haven’t surrendered’. Ms. Greta, Polish miners will NEVER surrender. Never! But Jerzy Hubka did not tell you that because he’s a fool who shits in his own nest.” Kosela wrote in a statement.

    Thunberg began her rocket to world fame starting in August 2018, when she held a protest in front of the Swedish Parliament. She said that her protests were being held against climate change, which she said were derived from human actions. She also refused to attend school until world leaders took action against climate change.

    The seemingly minor act turned into a major movement, catalyzing youth from all around the world to follow in Thunberg’s footsteps.

  • Europe’s largest organ transplant center is in Prague

    Prague’s Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM) is the largest transplant center in Europe, transplanting 540 organs into 486 patients in 2019.

    According to Ondřej Viklický, the head of the IKEM Transplant Center, neither the largest center in the United Kingdom located in Birmingham nor the other centers in Northern Europe or the surrounding countries are achieving results as positive as those at IKEM.

    Last year, the facility replaced 299 kidneys, 154 livers, 38 hearts, 41 pancreases, seven islets of Langerhans that produce insulin, and one small intestine.

    Last year’s number of operations, which was one of the highest since organ transplants in the Czech Republic began, was achieved due to a record increase in the number of deceased donors. There were 288 Czech donors with organs from 155 of them being used in IKEM.

    Apart from IKEM, university hospitals in Prague’s Motol, Brno, Hradec Králové, Pilsen, Ostrava, and Olomouc also performed transplantations. The Czech Republic has also increased cooperation with other countries, such as its decision to create an organ donor swap program with Israel.

    In every transplant center, there is a team of coordinators who organize donations. The priority is to reduce the time of transmission of the organ to the recipient as much as possible. In the heart, blood circulation must be restored within a maximum of four hours, in the liver within 12 hours, while in the kidneys the general limit is 24 hours.

    In the Czech Republic, the law requires consent to donate organs either by the donor or the donor’s family.

     

  • Czechia should learn from Hungary’s pro-family policy

    The Czech Republic could learn a lot from the Hungarian government when it comes to pro-family policy, with Hungary introducing a range of innovative solutions to combat demographic decline, including a lifetime abolition of income tax for mothers with three or more children.

    This tax measure is already in place for women with four or more offspring but Hungary recently decided it didn’t want to stop there and expanded the option to mothers with three children as well. Although Hungary is a close neighbor, the Czech government has not yet decided to take such bold steps despite our country’s own dire demographic situation.

    While a Hungarian tax revolution for families also has a political motivation, it can indeed increase birth rates. If it is successfully implemented, the policy will make a significant contribution to saving the country’s pension system, which is being financed from the pockets of the economically active population and companies.

    The courageous Hungarian proposal appears to come at a time of severe tax difficulties of the Czech government, which partly has to do with the number of economically active people decreasing in the Czech Republic, providing a smaller pool to draw taxes from.

    At the same time, the number of pensioners is growing and the pension system is expected to face difficult times ahead.

    Despite this reality, government policy in the Czech Republic is not pro-natal, thus it does not support an increase in birth rates that would prevent natural population decline.

    The birth rate is around 1.7 children per mother in the Czech Republic, which is below replacement level, a problem seem in many European countries. Instead, the population is increasing mainly due to migration from countries such as Ukraine and Slovakia, leaving those countries with their own demographic predicaments to contend with.

    Even the recent increase in children’s benefits from the Czech government cannot be seen as a real incentive to have more children. It is just a modest benefit to help average families survive, especially at a time when living costs are dramatically rising and housing prices are breaking records.

    Other countries in the region are already taking a cue from Hungary. Poland has pursued a tax policy to help young people, and hopefully help them establish families, when it abolished income tax for young employees up to the age of 26 as long as their income does not exceed a set level.

    Meanwhile, there are no sign of such brave and innovative ideas stemming from the Czech government. The government’s strategy is fundamentally short-term focused and opportunistic.

    Not only do Czech politicians lack the courage for real strategic reforms that would boost healthy economic development, but they totally lack the ability to look beyond the horizon of the next elections.

  • Sweden reports a rise in sex offences against teen girls

    According to Sweden’s Crime Prevention Council (Brå) statistics, the number of sex attacks against teenage girls aged 15 to 17 has increased by 51 percent in the last five years.

    Only in 2019, Sweden reported a 6-percent increase in rapes compared to 2018. Overall, the authorities investigated 8,350 cases last year.

    However, the surge in the reported sex offense cases has been on an upward a trend for a while. Even though last year the Swedish police increased the number of police officers dealing with sex crimes, the situation is not getting any better.

    The statistics provide truly shocking comparisons. For example, the number of sex offenses against females older than 18 rose by 27 percent between 2015 and 2019.  In cases of girls aged 15 to 17, the increase was even higher, at 51 percent.

    The category of victims under 15 years old also saw a substantial increase of 11 percent.

    Worrying trend in Sweden’s increasingly multicultural society

    Although migrants make up a fraction of the population of Sweden, statistics show they have a disproportionate role in sexual offenses.

    In 2018, SVT showed that rape statistics in Sweden indicated that 58 percent of men with rape or attempted rape convictions over the preceding five years were immigrants born outside the European Union, mainly from North Africa, South Africa, Afghanistan, and the Middle East.

    The BBC also reported that in cases were victims did not know their attackers, the proportion of foreign-born men convicted of sexual assault was 80 percent.

    Some of the most high-profile rape cases in Sweden have involved migrants and asylum seekers. In 2019, for example, a Swedish court dealt with a case of an immigrant in his 20s who repeatedly raped an 11-year-old girl and even got her pregnant twice, claiming he thought she was older than 15.

    Even though the perpetrator had been sentenced to three years in prison, he has avoided a lifetime expulsion from Sweden, and is permitted to come back to the country after ten years.

    A similar case occurred in June 2019 when a 17-year-old migrant forced an underage girl to have sex with him, claiming he did not know it was a crime to have sex with a minor.

    As cases of sexual assault explode higher, gang rape has also become an increasing concern.

    In 2018, Swedish newspaper Expressen reported on this growing trend in Sweden. After an investigation into the court cases involving gang rape over the previous two years, the paper found that there were 43 men convicted of the offense. The paper also determined that of the 40 out of the 43 men with gang rape convictions, they were either immigrants who were born abroad or born in Sweden to immigrant parents.

    Another investigation also found that since July 2012, there were 112 men and boys convicted for gang rape. Of those, 82 were born outside of Europe. The median age of victims was only 15, while seven out of ten perpetrators were between 15 and 20.

    Sweden offers a stark contrast to countries like Hungary and Poland

    Sweden’s rape statistics differ drastically from other regions of Europe that have refused to take in migrants, with 73 per 100,000 citizens reporting a case of rape in 2017, representing a 24 percent increase in the last decade.

    In contrast, Hungary has a rate of 3.9 per 100,000 citizens reporting rape in the country. Poland’s rate is even lower, at 3.2 per 100,000.

  • Czech Senate chairman suddenly dies aged 72

    Czech and Slovak MPs observed a minute of silence at the beginning of Tuesday’s session in memory of Jaroslav Kubera, the head of the Czech Senate, who died suddenly on Monday at 72 years of age.

    Kubera experienced a sudden cardiac arrest at his office in Teplice, the city he was a mayor of. He was taken to the local hospital but died after a transfer to a better-equipped facility in Ústí nad Labem.

    Kubera was the chairman of the Czech Senate, the upper house of the Parliament, since 2018. He was known for his humorous statements, which entertained not only his colleagues in politics but also the public. He especially liked to poke fun at his own smoking habits.

    On Tuesday, senators proposed to hold a state of national mourning for the deceased politician. The proposal is yet to be approved by the government.

    “He’s a person I liked very much. He created a unique new dynamic in the senate. I’m in shock,” commented Prime Minister Andrej Babiš upon hearing the news.

    Last week, Kubera attended a New Year’s lunch with President Miloš Zeman and the head of the Chamber of Deputies, Radek Vondráček. After the lunch meeting, he joked about his interactions with the president and appeared to be in good health.

    The late Kubera, who was the second-highest constitutional official in the country at the time of his passing, is eligible for a state funeral. However, the family will probably want to say their last farewells in a private service for family and friends.

    Kubera was in the Czech Senate since 2000 and is survived by his wife and two daughters.

  • Hungary to host 2023 World Theater Olympics

    In what can only be considered a major breakthrough for Hungarian cultural diplomacy, the official announcement was made that Hungary will be hosting the 2023 World Theater Olympics.

    The announcement was made on Monday at the preliminary press conference of the 7th Budapest International Theater Meeting (MITEM) by Theodoros Terzopoulus, president of the International Committee of Theater Olympics.

    “I was hoping that maybe by April it will have had been decided whether the 2023 Theater Olympics will be held here [in Hungary]. I hadn’t even hoped that the founding director is going to make the announcement today,” Attila Vidnyánszky, director of the Budapest National Theater said at the press conference. “This is such a huge surprise that I am still processing it. It will of course be a giant task and involve a great amount of organizing.”

    “I wasn’t surprised that we decided to hold the 2023 Theater Olympics here”, Terzopoulos told news portal Origo. “We have been thinking about it for two years. Hungary is in the heart of Europe. It is a country of major cultural and theatrical traditions.”

    The World Theater Olympics was established in 1993 in Delphi, Greece, on the initiative of the famous Greek theatre director, Theodoros Terzopoulos.

    It has since been held in Japan, Russia, Turkey, Korea, China, and Poland, with this year’s event co-hosted by St. Petersburg in Russia and the Japanese village of Toga.

    The year 2023 it will be both the 200th anniversary of Hungary’s emblematic playwright Imre Madách and the year of the 10th international MITEM Festival organized by the Budapest National Theater.

    Title image: Attila Vidnyánszky, director of the Budapest National Theater (L) and Theodoros Terzopoulus, president of the International Committee of Theater Olympics. (Origo/Csaba Talán)

  • Hungarian MEP urges objective EU dialogue on rule of law

    The European Commission should take an objective and fair approach when compiling its first annual report on the rule of law in the member states of the European Union, Hungarian MEP Balázs Hidvéghi said at a Tuesday meeting of the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) committee.

    At the meeting, Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said that the first such report including all 28 member states will be completed this year and will look at the state of justice systems, media, and corruption in European countries.

    The report will also take into account Article 7 proceedings targeted at Hungary and Poland.

    During the meeting, Hidvéghi said that the rule of law is a cornerstone of democracy and of the European Union, and it is very important to avoid double standards and, instead, create equal conditions for all.

    “We don’t need a political campaign”, Hidvégi said, adding that in Hungary’s critique, the country has always stated there was a lack of objectivity regarding the rule of law hearings directed at it.

    Hidvégi said that so far the rule of law debates and proceedings have been driven by ideology, going against both the rule of law itself and the core values of the European Union. He added that in his previous position as commissioner, the actions of Frans Tmmermans, now first vice-president of the European Commission, could be best described as party politics.

    Hidvéghi also asked Reynders what will he, as commissioner, do to ensure that objectivity will be a key principle of the dialogue on rule of law.

    Highlighting the attitude of opposition Hungarian MEPs who often vote against Hungary in the European Parliament, Hivdvéghi posted a photo of the empty seat of Momentum MEP Anna Donáth, with the comment “Attacks against Hungary did not feature on the LIBE meeting agenda today. As expected, not everybody was there…” 


    Title image: Fidesz MEP Balázs Hidvéghi (Magyar Hírlap/Róbert Hegedüs)

  • Poland to introduce ‘sugar tax’ starting April

    A “sugar tax” on sugary drinks and drinks containing stimulants will be introduced to Poland starting in April, according to the Polish Ministry of Health, which is introducing the tax through an amendment to the bill concerning promoting healthy consumer choices.

    The amendment will impose a tax of €0.17 to €0.19 on every sweetened drink and €0.05 on each liter of drinks containing stimulants such as caffeine, taurine and guarana.

    The tax will also target small alcoholic beverages, requiring €0.24 tax for each bottle of alcohol smaller than 300 milliliters and a dietary supplement information ad will also be imposed.

    Morawiecki said that due to Poland’s success in growing its economy, the country will need a partner “as good” as Japan when it comes to developing key technologies, including nuclear power, communications and 5G networks.

    “After today’s talks, I am convinced that we will attract further investments worth €1.17 to €1.65 billion and thousands of new workplaces,” Morawiecki said.

    Morawiecki also expressed his gratitude to the Japanese prime minister.

    “Thank you Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for the warm welcome and touching upon the subjects concerning our strategic partnership during our meeting,” the prime minister’s chancellery posted on social media.

    Abe also brought up the 100-year anniversary of Polish-Japanese relations and noted during the press conference that he had spoken with Morawiecki about economic cooperation with Poland, including the construction of the new Central Communications Port (CPK) and the development of “clean coal” technology.

    The two statesmen also discussed developing cooperation in security and Japan’s cooperation with the Visegrad Group.

    The Japanese prime minister also underlined that Poland is “becoming increasingly important in Europe” and that given its solid economic development, they agreed to further tighten cooperation and move from bilateral relations to issues concerning international society.

    Abe also mentioned that Japan’s goal is to have Japanese technology and expertise lead to improvements in Poland’s infrastructure, which would also further boost Poland’s already strong economic performance in Europe.

  • Polish conservatism lacks a viewpoint on culture: opinion

    There is a conviction on the Polish right about fostering deeper connections with British conservatism, but the famed British conservative thought leader Sir Roger Scruton shows that this connection may not actually be simple or straightforward.

    In reality, it should be rather obvious that it is impossible to draw a straight analogy between conservatism in Poland and in Britain.

    Yet, for the right in Poland, for some reason there is a particular kind of emotional connection to the idea of a shared vision between Polish and British conservatism and a thought of a deeper alliance of the two in Europe.

    A very clear and political sign of this was the establishment of cooperation in the European Parliament between British Conservatives and Law and Justice (PiS) as part of the European Conservatives and Reformists.

    The numerous reactions in Poland the recent passing of Scruton, known a conservative giant in both Great Britain and across Europe, are further proof of the existence of a conviction in the Polish right about a deeper emotional bond with British conservatism.

    Scruton show that connection between the Polish right and British conservatism is not so clear and it has a lot to do with culture.

    Scruton represented everything that began to strongly characterize political conservatism in the UK since the time of Cameron: the rising skepticism towards the direction of EU integration, the abandoning of Thatcherism and more broadly, neoliberal dogmas, in favor of earlier traditions of a socially responsible economy, and finally, the struggle against the cultural and anthropological consequences of the left-wing revolution in Europe.

    It is that last area, paradoxically, which seems to be the most problematic for the supposedly imagined symbiosis of Polish and British conservatives.

    Scruton represented the great tradition of European conservatism dating as far back as the time of Romanticism. As a witness himself to the events of May 1968 in Paris, he understood that the true battleground at the front line for the future of the West will not be economics or politics, but rather culture.

    This is because culture is a way of expressing our humanity and our approach to the world. Culture is created by everything we partake in and everything we believe: our customs, our pleasures, what we learn and how we learn it, what our approach to the natural world is, and how we imagine and develop the public space in which we live together.

    From this viewpoint, a human is simply culture, which is why we must never end our quest to both understand culture and empower it in our own societies.

    It is the lack of this point of view, however, that seems to be one of the largest shortcomings of Polish right-wing thought, which is mostly concentrated currently on one thing – claiming and maintaining power as a value in and of itself.

  • Czech PM donates to Syrian child refugees, drops building project

    Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš does not plan to build a center for orphans in Syria anymore, and instead, he will personally send 500,000 korunas (€20,000) to local organizations looking after orphaned children.

    According to Babiš, there are enough Christian or Muslim organizations in Syria looking after children without one or both parents. However, they lack money for clothing and teachers’ salaries.

    “Because of the war, banks in Syria are out of order, so a local organization approached us asking for financial assistance. I will personally contribute with 500,000 korunas (€20,000) and I hope that others will join me,” the prime minister wrote on Facebook on Sunday.

    Last year, an area in Syria for the orphan center was selected. The center, which planned to house 50 children, included sports facilities and a school, and was expected to cost about 65 million korunas (€2.5 million).

    Babiš conceived the project as his personal initiative. According to him, it would not be effective if organized by government authorities.

    In November, however, the plan failed because the Syrian side was not interested in the center and submitted its own proposal, which was significantly more expensive than the Czech vision.

    Babiš formulated the orphanage in response to previous suggestions from MEP Michaela Šojdrová (KDU-ČSL) to move 50 Syrian orphans from refugee camps in Greece to the Czech Republic.

    On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Jan Hamáček (ČSSD) said that the Czech Republic would not admit children from Greek refugee camps because Greece denied providing the required list of 40 orphans.

    According to Hamáček, there is a risk, for example, that Afghans and Pakistanis between the ages of 16 and 18 may end up coming to the Czech Republic, which he considers an unacceptable security risk.

    According to Médecins Sans Frontières representatives, there were 5,000 unaccompanied refugee children in Greece last November. In the refugee center on the island of Samos, there were 7,000 people, 300 of which were unaccompanied children. However, only 15 percent of them were under 13 years of age.

  • Driving electric cars becomes more expensive

    Electric cars are hurting consumers’ pocket books and it could present a serious obstacle for the electric car movement.

    Charging electric cars, which was supposed to be one of the main advantages when compared to conventional cars, is quickly becoming more and more expensive. Several suppliers have announced a sharp price increase and recharging a car is starting to cost significantly more than fueling a petrol or diesel car.

    Last Thursday, Ionity, one of the largest European networks for high-power-charging electric vehicles announced a new pricing structure. Per every kilowatt-hour, electric car owners will pay €0.79. For example, charging a Hyundai Kona electric car with a 40 kWh battery will cost almost €31.60. With a fully charged battery and under ideal conditions, the car can travel up to 350 kilometers.

    Traveling one kilometer in an electric car can thus cost up to €0.20 or more, which is several times more expensive than traveling by a car powered by a diesel or petrol engine.

    The difference is even more substantial with vehicles powered by compressed natural gas (CNG), which can cost around €0.04 per kilometer. A cost-effective diesel car is well below €0.08 per kilometer.

    Besides Ionity, the German company E.ON, which operates several charging stations in the Czech Republic, announced a price increase just a few weeks ago. In case of high-speed charging, E.ON customers will pay up to €0.52 per kWh.

    According to informed sources, Czech company ČEZ will also significantly increase its charging rates at the end of January, canceling the flat rate payments and introducing prices per kWh.

    Furthermore, the Czech company will adopt the philosophy of other EV charging networks, which force customers to register with one company that will in exchange provide the EV car owner with more affordable prices. The catch is that the customer will be forced to use only charging stations from one provider.

    However, these price increases are also due to the situation presented by the energy market and business model of electric vehicles.

    Companies have to invest substantial financial capital to build a network of charging stations, while the price, as well as the consumption, of electricity, is on the rise.

  • U.S. threatens Czech Republic with a trade war

    The United States has expressed its opposition to a digital tax on tech giants that will soon be discussed by the Czech Chamber of Deputies, with the Americans warning the Czech Republic that introducing the tax could trigger countermeasures

    The Czech daily Hospodářské noviny reported on the threat from the U.S., referring to a confidential, anonymous source directly from Washington.

    In the Czech Republic, internet companies with a global turnover of over €750 million and an annual turnover of at least 100 million korunas (€4 million) would be subject to a 7-percent digital tax.

    The U.S. has argued against the introduction of such a tough digital tax because it could harm a number of U.S.-based companies. Specifically, the tax would apply to major global players such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple.

    However, given the large profits of these giants, the introduction of the tax is not expected to be a significant blow to them. There are still fears that the tax could become widespread, with France having introduced a similar tax lately.

    The U.S. Congress must agree that a tax is recognized as discriminatory, but at the moment, it is not certain that Congress will do so. Many Democrats believe that the tech giants should indeed be heavily taxed.

    According to Cyrrus analyst Tomáš Pfeiller, the dispute between the Czech Republic and the U.S. is rather symbolic.

    “Donald Trump presents himself as someone who wants to settle the American trade relations with other countries and wants to negotiate,” Pfeiller explained.

    So far, there have been no official talks, but the Czech Ministry of Finance has confirmed that both countries have already discussed the matter of digital taxation.

    “The Ministry of Finance has not received an official plan or draft countermeasures from the U.S. During the talks, the U.S. side only referred to the official statement of the current U.S. government,” said Anna Fuksová, spokeswoman for the Czech ministry.

    The U.S. statement is part of a letter which Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin sent to the OECD Secretary General, Ángel Gurría. Mnuchin wrote that all countries should stop the plan to introduce a digital tax and warned of possible consequences.

    In addition to the Czech Republic, France and Italy are planning to introduce a digital tax as well.

    The U.S. does not question the introduction of the digital tax as such but wants to address the issue comprehensively at the OECD level.

    Czech trade with the U.S., which would be affected by possible U.S. retaliatory measures, is currently in a deficit exceeding 15 billion korunas (€600 million). The most exported Czech goods to the United States are components for the aircraft industry, especially jet engines.

  • Czechia reports an increase in illegal migration

    Police authorities in the Czech Republic are reporting an increase in the number of people trying to enter the country illegally, which mirrors trends seen throughout the region, including in Hungary.

    Last year, police officers in the South Moravian region seized 568 people who entered the country illegally, while it was 359 a year earlier.

    “We are dealing with intensive illegal migration and border controls will continue,” said South Moravian Region Police Director Leoš Tržil.

    Although the number of detained immigrants increased slightly year-on-year in 2019, it was noticeably lower than in 2015 and 2016, when Europe was facing a massive migration wave.

    In 2015 alone, police officers detained nearly 2,000 people who entered the country illegally.

    The police statistics also show that so-called transit migration, which means that the Czech Republic is not the final destination for apprehended migrants, slightly increased in 2019 as police detained 69 people compared to 30 people a year before.

    The detainees came mainly from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

    “The Czech Republic is not their final destination, they head to other countries. We have detained these migrants mostly on international trains from Vienna or Bratislava, or on the highways,” Tržil said.

    In July 2019, for example, police also detained three migrants from Bangladesh. They were spotted by a truck driver who noticed them walking along the highway in the southeast of the Czech Republic.

    The men, who were aged 17, 20, and 25, and hidden in a truck without the driver’s knowledge, were seeking to travel to Germany. They paid smugglers in Serbia to help them make the journey through Europe. Based on an international agreement, the police handed them over to Slovakia.

    Hungary has also reported in an increase in illegal immigration and has responded by doubling troops at the border.

  • Poland’s magical forest is enchanting foreign visitors and media

    The mystery and fantastical shape of the trees of Poland’s Gryfino Forest, dubbed the “Crooked Forest” for what appears to be trees straight out of a fairy tale, has made it one of the many renowned tourist attractions in Poland.

    It became famous due to the unique look of its bow-shaped pines. Despite many attempts to understand and explain the creation of the forest, researchers still can only fall back on hypotheses and theories.

    The most popular and most likely theory is that the specific crook of the trees is due to people having trimmed the trees when they were young.

    Journalists from The New York Times and Daily Mail have been delighted by the Crooked Forest, which is drawing thousands of tourists as “forest tourism” expands.

    Lidia Kmiecińska, a senior specialist from Gryfino’s Forestry Service, told the Polish Press Agency that the reason for the trimming could have been to use the crooked wood to create bows, fantastically shaped furniture or even wooden sleighs.

    Kmiecińska pointed out that all the crooked trees in the forest are bent in the same direction.

    The specialist also mentioned that tourists enjoy coming up with their own theories as to the unique shape of the trees when they visit.

    “Many even claim that this is the effect of supernatural or cosmic powers. This all leads to the Crooked Forest being inspirational and sort of a game to figure out the most accurate hypotheses,” she said.

    The increase in interest in the Crooked Forest and other forests is due to the rising trend of “forest tourism”, which is encouraged by not only nature enthusiasts but also by doctors who believe that contact with nature is the best cure for stress and tiredness.

  • Poland braces for Putin’s next WWII slander at upcoming Holocaust commemoration

    As the World Holocaust Forum in Israel approaches, Polish authorities are expecting more slanders from Russian President Vladimir Putin concerning the outbreak of the Second World War and Poland’s role in it.

    Jan. 23 is an important date and test for Polish politicians. Vladimir Putin will be one of the main speakers during the World Holocaust Forum in Yad Vashem, and the Russian president might use the opportunity to present the Red Army as the liberators of oppressed nations under German occupation.

    The Polish Presidential Palace is convinced that Putin will once again attack Poland and accuse the country of collaborating with Germany and participating in the partitioning of Czechoslovakia, which supposedly led to the outbreak of the Second World War.

    Andrzej Duda has called a crisis staff comprised of experienced historians and PR management. In the following days in the global press, articles with a Polish narrative concerning the global conflict will appear, particularly in the American and Israeli press.

    This is the same industry of disdain which was used against former President Lech Kaczyński.

    In reality, the “language of pogroms” and “communist mentality” only exist in the fever dreams of the opposition.

    But this is what they see in President Duda and how they describe him at home and abroad. Why? Because he is not breaking under pressure, he cannot be bought, threatened, or chased off, and ultimately because he did not join them.

    They do not offer new arguments either. To them, of course he is a fascist. After all, they believe that everyone who is against them is a fascist. It is a label they can use to justify any slander, any attack, and any indignity they can deliver to a political foe.

    The goal is to strike at the very heart of the presidency with an aim to humiliate, mock and create a wave of disdain.

    Tony Hush, American Chamber of Commerce in Poland:

    “Success of the Polish economy attracts people who want to participate in it.”

    PAIH’s head emphasized that in 2019, Poland solidified its position as the regional leader in the electromobility sector. This is largely due to the investments of the Korean SK Innovation company, which invested €335 million in a factory for electric car battery components as well as the close to €250 million worth in investments from the British Johnson Matthey company.

    PAIH currently supports almost 200 investment projects whose total value is almost €8 billion, with half of this sum coming from 18 electromobility projects. If this year’s projects are confirmed by investors, then the 2018 record might be broken.

    According to PAIH data, the current political situation, such as the conflict over the judiciary, should not discourage foreign investors.

    Tony Housh, the head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland, declared that the “success of the Polish economy attracts people who want to participate in it”.

    He noted that each year, over half of American investments are actually reinvestments carried out by companies already in Poland, which is a sign that these companies feel positive about the country and trust the market.

  • Croatian EU presidency opposes sanctions against Hungary, Poland

    With Poland and Hungary faced with the threat of sanctions stemming from the European Union’s rule of law hearings, the Croatian presidency of the current European Council says that dialogue and not sanctions are the way forward.

    The protection of the rule of law is a fundamental value of the European Union, but the Croatian presidency of the EU believes that this can best be achieved through “mutual respect”, presidential spokesman Bruno Lopandić told Euronews in a response to their query.

    “Our position is that the meaning of the procedure initiated under Article 7 (1) should not be the sanctioning of countries where such weaknesses exist, but their elimination and finding satisfactory, mutually acceptable solutions through reasoned dialogue and mutual respect, which is essential for the preservation of European unity,” Lopandic wrote Euronews.

    He added that Article 7 proceedings against Poland and Hungary are continuing, however, it has not yet been decided what form, content and timeline the events will follow.

    “The Croatian Presidency expects to continue the proceedings initiated under Article 7 (1) TEU for Poland and Hungary,” Lopandic wrote.

    “The content, format and frequency of such discussions shall be determined in consultation with all partners in the Council and the European Commission,” he added.

    The Article 7 procedure was launched by the European Parliament in September 2018 against Hungary. After that, one year passed before the first hearing. In all, there were two hearings, with Judit Varga, the Hungarian government’s justice minister, denying that there was any systemic deficiency in the Hungarian rule of law or democracy.

    On Jan. 16, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the Croatian Presidency of the EU not to delay the continuation of the Article 7 procedure for Hungary and Poland.

    Title image: Rule of law resolution vote outcome in the European Parliament on January 16.

  • Eurozone must be reformed, says Hungarian central bank governor

    Hungary will eventually become a member of the eurozone, but the economic area must be reformed so it can face the challenges ahead, Central Bank governor György Matolcsy said at the Lamfalussy Lectures 2020 conference in Budapest.

    Matolcsy called on all eurozone members to start a dialogue in order to reform the monetary group so it can face its three biggest challenges: geopolitics, competitiveness and global finances.

    He said all three challenges are closely linked with climate change and a new dialogue is also necessary because convergence criteria has changed. All Europeans have a vested interest in making the continent stronger by improving its competitiveness and cohesion.

    The first ten years of the eurozone were successful but after the 2008 global financial and economic crisis, it had to face a series of crises and unresolved issues.

    In order to update convergence criteria, there is also a need for dialogue between the institutions of the European Union the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

    Matolcsy noted that since 2013, Hungary has been on a straight path of sustainable growth, saying that the average annual GDP increase since then has been 3.8 percent, which is two percentage points above the European Union average.

    This economic growth also brought Hungarian GDP per capita to 73 percent of the EU average and current predictions show that the country’s net public debt will fall to 60 percent of GDP by 2022.

    Despite these positive steps, the Hungarian economy still needs additional competitiveness reforms.

    Another speaker at the conference, Robert Holzmann, governor of the Austrian Central Bank, said that the European region must increase in stability and the bank union must be made tighter. In addition, the free flow of capital retail markets also needs closer integration.

    The Lamfalussy Lectures Conference is named after Baron Alexandre Lamfalussy (born Sándor Lámfalussy, 1929-2015), who was a Belgian economist of Hungarian extraction and considered the “father of the euro”. From 1994 to 1997, he was founding president of the European Monetary Institute in Frankfurt, which was the forerunner to the European Central Bank.


    Title image: Hungarian Central Bank governor György Matolcsy at the Lamfalussy Lectures 2020 conference in Budapest on January 20 (source: Magyar Hírlap)

  • Does Fidesz have any reason to remain in the EPP?

    Should Hungary continue its efforts to remain in the European People’s Party (EPP)?

    In my opinion – barring an exceptionally positive change – there is no reason.

    The majority of the EPP voted in the European Parliament for the resolution condemning Hungary and Poland for the alleged deterioration of the rule of law in the two countries, and with that action, has made a clear decision. The EPP has in effect condemned and stigmatized a member of its own political family.

    Even worse, the resolution itself has no other tangible consequence or justification other than to stoke negative sentiment against Hungary and Poland, a clear goal of the leftist, liberal and green parties. Article 7 procedures are already underway and the European Parliament really no longer has any say in them.

    This also means that the EPP could have chosen to stay away from the entire charade. It chose not to.

    And it appears the situation is only getting worse. While in the autumn of 2018, only one-third of EPP representatives approved the Sargentini report, now a clear majority of them pushed the same button targeting Hungary, with the notable exception of Berlusconi’s party and the French and Spanish conservatives.

    So I ask again: Is there any reason to remain in the EPP?

    Viktor Orbán is, of course, right that all avenues should be exhausted and further talks are necessary in order to show the world that if he makes a decision to leave, it would not be driven by spite, but made after careful consideration.

    What are the arguments for staying in the EPP? First and foremost, the obvious political weight of the group and particularly that of the German CDU-CSU within it. But it seems as if those German family members have already turned their back to Hungary and are now paving the way for others to do so as well.

    If Hungary makes the effort to remain, we will end up in a situation where every word of gesture of ours will be subject to great scrutiny and admonishment, like in a bad marriage.

    Hungarians with a national and Christian conviction value two things above all: their freedom and independence. In this sense, we shouldn’t be afraid to say goodbye, allowing us to soar on without any further restraint from the so-called conservatives from the EPP.

    After all, there are better allies to be had in Europe, many who won’t turn on you the second the liberal media names you a target.

    Title image: European People’s Party logo

  • Czechia to fight Austrian child benefits law in EU court

    The Czech government plans to continue its fight in the European Union against an Austrian law passed a year ago which forbids child benefits to foreign employees who commute to Austria.

    The law sparked rage among many Czech politicians and families when it was first passed. Even though the European Commission has initiated proceedings against Austria, Czech MEP Martina Dlabajová thinks the situation is becoming unbearable, and she intends to pursue the case at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

    According to Dlabajová, the CJEU might be the only way to stop the Austrian policy that concerns about 9,500 Czech families.

    “More and more Czech families, to whom the Austrian authorities have not paid the child benefits they are entitled to under the EU law, are contacting me,” Dlabajová explained, adding that complaints to Austrian authorities very often receive no response.

    Austria itself, according to Dlabajová, apparently does not intend to pull back on the so-called indexation of child benefits.

    “Vienna is thus creating unnecessary barriers in the internal market, obstructing the free movement of people and dividing Europe,” she said.

    According to the Austrian government, however, there is no reason for foreigners to receive the same benefits for children as Austrians because their living standards, as well as the price range they are used to, are different.

    In January 2019, the European Commission opened infringement proceedings against Austria, stating that the Austrian law is discriminatory.

    In September, Austria did not justify the reduction in child benefits at the European Commission and was urged to correct the situation. However, there have been no changes since then.

  • Czechia will not admit any refugees from Greece

    The Czech Republic will not admit children from Greek refugee camps as Greece refuses to provide the required list of 40 orphans, stated Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamáček.

    According to Hamáček, it is possible that the so-called children refugees may include Afghan or Pakistani boys between 16 and 18 years of age.

    “The Greeks themselves say their placement in families is not realistic. They point out that they would have to be placed in some special institutions. I will not bring 18-year-old Afghan boys to the Czech Republic because I consider them a security risk,” said the Minister, adding that he considers the matter closed.

    “The Greek side has made it clear that it will not send the list of 40 children, claiming that the cases must be approached on an individual basis,” continued Hamáček.

    Last year, Greece called on all EU interior ministers to accept unaccompanied children from Greek refugee camps. Hamáček then said that the Greek side is only trying to relaunch the debate on the redistribution of refugees, adding that he sees no sense in relocating 17-year-olds without asylum rights around Europe.

    Later, he urged Athens to provide a specific list of 40 children that the Czech Republic could potentially accept.

    At that time, Czech MEP Michaela Šojdrová proposed to accept 50 Syrian orphans from the Greek refugee camps.

    The “Czechs help initiative”, one of the projects dealing with the refugee issue, announced that about 200 Czech families are willing to accept refugee children from Greek camps. However, the founder of the initiative, Jaroslav Miko, confirmed that the Czech Interior Minister had asked for a concrete list of Syrian children, and the Greek side repeatedly refused to provide it.

    Nevertheless, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has stated on a number of occasions that the Czech Republic will not accept any refugees and that the best approach is to manage migratory pressures in the countries that produce the largest amount of refugees.

    According to Médecins Sans Frontières representatives, there were 5,000 unaccompanied refugee children in Greece last November. In the refugee center on the island of Samos, there were 7,000 people, 300 of which were unaccompanied children. However, only 15 percent of them were under 13 years of age.

  • European Commission to change its approach to V4

    The German daily Die Welt reported on a brand new policy that the new European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has allegedly prepared for the Visegrad Four.

    According to this policy, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is to become a “mediator” between the European Commission and the Visegrad Four countries of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

    Kurz allegedly led a long discussion with von der Leyen on a new form of relations with Central Europe on Sunday in Brussels on Jan. 12. Kurz’s Prague meeting with Visegrad Four countries provided a symbolic introduction to this “restart”.

    According to Die Welt, the new strategy will be a two-track one. On the one hand, the president of the European Commission wants to show a strict approach in disputes over violations of the rule of law. On the other hand, she wants to have a “structured dialogue” with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which should go far beyond the communication strategy of the previous European Commission led by Jean-Claude Juncker.

    Through its sources in the EU, Die Welt also ascertained that the basis of the new policy should be a greater respect and the ability to listen to Visegard Four countries.

    Reportedly, the European Commission further plans to send its representatives, including European commissioners, more often to the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia.

    The daily also asks why Kurz is the one entrusted with building the bridges, instead of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who seems to be a more likely choice, but then Die Welt answers its own question, saying, “From an Eastern European perspective, Merkel is in favor of quotas for the redistribution of refugees, and her role as a German chancellor will expire in 20 months.”

  • Czech fire: 8 killed in fire at home for disabled

    Eight people with mental disabilities have been killed, and another three have been seriously injured after a fire broke out at a special care home in Vejprty near Ústí nad Labem in the Czech Republic.

    The fire was reported to firefighters on Sunday morning, just before 5 a.m.

    “The fire in the facility was reported to the operations center at 4:49 a.m.,” said one of the firefighters, adding that the team managed to get the fire under control fairly quickly.

    The cause of the fire is not yet clear, said the mayor of Vejprty, Jitka Gavdunová, but a medical emergency was declared as casualties began to rise.

    “Four people suffered moderate to severe injuries, one of them had to be connected to an artificial respirator. Another 26 people suffered minor injuries or were uninjured but taken to the hospital for precautionary medical examinations,” said Prokop Voleník, spokesman for the Ambulance Service of the Ústí nad Labem region.

    Although the building was not damaged from the outside, the main issue was the smoke that caused casualties. Due to bad weather, the emergency helicopter could not take off to help medics with faster transport of injured people to the hospital.

    “Among the dead and wounded is none of the employees of the facility. Among those slightly wounded is one policeman who inhaled smoke and went for a check-up,” added Voleník.

    Patients at the special care home were escorted outside the building in breathing masks.

    Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, Interior Minister Jan Hamáček and Social Affairs Minister Jana Maláčová sent their condolences to families and friends of the people who died. Babiš immediately headed to Vejprty to lend support to those affected by the disaster.

    The fire in Vejprty is the second most tragic one since 1990. The most tragic one since 1990 was a fire in October 2010, which killed nine homeless people in Prague.

  • Hungarians overwhelmingly against Soros-backed segregation fine for small town

    The overwhelming majority of Hungarians agree with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán that the fine against a small Hungarian town for the segregation of Roma students was disproportionate.

    Of the 60,000 SMS votes received by commercial news channel Hír TV, 97 percent said that they agree with Orbán and only 3 percent supported the verdict, which came about from a NGO backed by George Soros.

    As previously reported in early January, the Supreme Court of Hungary (Curia) ruled that a municipality and school district in central Hungary must pay a huge fine for its treatment of Roma children.

    The small Hungarian town of Gyöngyöspata must now pay a total of 100 million forints (€303,200) in reparation to the families of 62 Roma children who were in a segregated classroom for a few years. The segregation began in 2003, a period when Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was not in power.

    The legal proceedings on behalf of the families were initiated, coordinated and financed by the foundation A Chance for Disadvantaged Children, part of George Soros’s network of Hungarian NGOs.

    Shortly after the verdict, the local MP of the governing Fidesz conservative party, László Horváth, said at a press conference that the fine will put the municipality of Gyöngyöspata, with a population of 2,476, in an untenable situation, as the fine is equal to the town’s budget for two years.

    At his first press conference of the year, Orbán criticized the Curia decision and his remarks sparked an outcry in the liberal media.

    “If I was a local from Gyöngyöspata, I would ask how is it possible for someone to receive huge sums without any work”, Orbán said on Jan. 8.

    The question Hír TV asked in the ad-hoc poll was the following:

    “Do you agree with Viktor Orbán, who says it is unjust that some people be paid millions without any work or with the Soros-backed organization which advocates for Roma people in Gyöngyöspata to receive a 100 million [forints] in compensation for segregation?”

     

  • Hungary commemorates 75 years of Budapest ghetto liberation

    On Thursday, Hungary commemorated the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Budapest ghetto by Soviet troops on Jan. 18, 1945.

    “Every single Hungarian Jew is a Holocaust survivor, either in person or through their parents or grandparents,” Róbert Frőlich, chief rabbi of the downtown Budapest Dohány street synagogue, said at the commemoration. “We cannot forego these commemorations, or we would be condemning ourselves to oblivion.”

    A decree of the Hungarian Minister of Interior said that the Hungarian capital’s old Jewish quarter would be designated a ghetto on Nov. 29, 1944. A wall was erected around the area and Jews from all over the capital were taken there.

    At its establishment, the ghetto had an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants, but the number quickly grew between 70,000 and 80,000. Despite the best efforts of the Red Cross, 80 to 120 corpses were removed every day due to famine and deplorable sanitary conditions.

    The daily bread ration was 150 grams (0.33 pounds) and when the ghetto was liberated two months later, there were some 3,000 unburied bodies in its central Klauzál square alone. The last remaining portion of the ghetto wall was demolished in 2006.

    “We must remember what happened in Budapest so that it will never happen again,” Israel’s ambassador to Budapest, Yakov Hadas-Handelsman, said at the commemoration.

    He also said that the Jews who survived the Holocaust in Hungary subsequently had to face the terrors of communism, but he said that today the country again has a thriving Jewish community.

    In the interwar period, Budapest had a Jewish population of over 200,000 while this number is currently under 80,000. There are an estimated 100,000 Jews in Hungary, or 0.13 percent of the total population compared with over 444,000 or 5.1 percent in 1930.


    Title image: Commemoration of the liberation of the Budapest ghetto on January 19 (MTI/Tibor illyés)

     

  • Hungarians made 30% more home-brewed spirits last year

    Hungarians brewed 30 percent more alcoholic spirits at home last year, with the official amount totalling 151,000 liters, according to deputy Finance Minister András Tállai.

    The demand is such that last year stores sold 26,000 home distillery kits, he added.

    Pálinka, a fruit brandy made from anything from plums to elderberries, is a traditional drink in Central Europe. Hungary features eight designations for the drink under the European Union’s protected designation of origin labeling, underlining the beverage’s popularity in the country.

    The words pálinka (in Hungarian), pálenka (West Slavic) and pălincă (Romanian) derive from the Slavonic stem paliti, which means to burn or to distill.

    Since 2005, only distillers in Hungary and four Austrian regions are allowed to use the pálinka designation.

    The 2008 Hungarian “pálinka law” stipulates that the drink can only be from fruits and must be at least 37.5 percent alcohol.

    In 2010, Hungary introduced legislation that allowed home brewing for up to 50 liters, but the European Union launched a law infringement procedure against Hungary for not collecting taxes on home brewing.

    The two sides eventually reached a compromise under which home brewers can purchase excise tickets for 700 forints (€2.1) per liter, but these products can only consumed by the brewers and their guests, and they are not allowed to be sold.

    Tállai added, however, that Hungary has not given up the fight and continues to search for legal avenues to allow excise-free home distilling, a long-standing national tradition.

    Title image: Modern home distillery kit

  • President Duda: “We will not be told in foreign languages how to conduct Polish affairs”

    In response to European Union ongoing attempts to interfere with the judicial reforms being conducted by Poland’s Law and Justice party (PiS), President Andrzej Duda said, “We will not be told in foreign languages how to conduct Polish affairs.”

    In a a speech in Zwoleń in central Poland, Duda emphasized there have been problems with the Polish judiciary for several years and Polish citizens have a terrible opinion of how it has functioned up until now.

    In response, he said that the government had led an attempt to correct the issue.

    “There’s a group of people who believe they are untouchable and are most afraid of the Disciplinary Chamber in the Supreme Court. This group does not want to permit the changes in the judiciary,” the president spoke of the protesting judges.

    He pointed out that in the last couple of decades that judges in Poland had received many privileges, some of which came from the communist era.

    He explained that over 80 percent of Poles negatively evaluate Poland’s judiciary.

    “Judges should take a good look at themselves and the structure which they are making,” Duda said.

    The president referred to the Venice Commission’s recommendations, stating that “we Poles have a right to decide about ourselves and our laws on our own.”

    “We will not be told in foreign languages what kind of system we are meant to have in Poland and how to conduct Polish affairs!” Duda told the crowd gathered in Zwoleń.

    The president believed that the EU is trying anything it can to strip Poland of her right to correct and possess a proper judicial system, including recent actions against Poland’s Disciplinary Chamber for judges.

    “This is the European Union, yes! And we are glad. But above all else, this is Poland!” He declared.

  • Presidential campaign: opposition is fearmongering with Polexit

    Poland should prepare for opposition tactics that focus on hysterical predictions and dark visions of what will happen to Poland if incumbent President Andrzej Duda wins re-election in what is likely to be the most dishonest election campaign in years.

    Election races have always governed themselves with their own laws and for the most part, the old adage that everyone lies, is mostly true. In the end, almost no candidate gives voters everything they were promised. It always seems to end the same way, and after a while, the feeling of being tricked begins to take over.

    In what seems to be a break with that tradition, Law and Justice (PiS) has for the most part been fulfilling its election promises (although not all of them and not perfectly).

    Voters have accordingly rewarded PiS and look set to support the party going into the future. With that in mind, what is the opposition left to do but resort to scare tactics if its ideas for Poland are being consistently rejected by voters?

    Liberal TV station TVN believes that the “axis of the campaign should be Polexit”. In the end, they all agreed that it “should somehow be created.”

    They’re not even pretending anymore! Polexit is the campaign axis they will be “creating” and it needs to be created because it simply does not exist in reality.

    But in TVN, they are a century behind the leftist TOK FM radio, where they’ve realized that the Polexit narrative will not get through to voters. They ask instead in their program what opposition claim voters might actually buy into.

    Duda also announced a plan to invite all Three Seas leaders to the Lublin Voivodship to an economic meeting.

    “It is our neighbors from the Three Seas states who should come to see how this part of Poland looks like and how perfect the investment conditions are here,” the president explained.

    He further emphasized the importance of the project to the Eastern Poland region, which is vital to ensure it reaches economic equilibrium with Central and Western Poland:

    “Such a road is essential here, a road that would work as communication artery from the north to the south and south to north, which we have been seriously lacking until now.”

  • US Senate commemorates 1944 Warsaw Uprising

    The United States Senate has passed an acclaimed bipartisan resolution which commemorates the 75th anniversary of the tragic 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

    “The heroic actions of the Polish underground resistance during the World War II and the brave citizenry of Poland provide a valuable lesson in perseverance and patriotism,” the resolution reads.

    The document emphasized that the 1944 Warsaw Uprising was a part of “a nationwide resistance against the German Nazi occupation of Poland.”

    In many ways, the young activist has embraced her fame, but now the question is whether she will be able to handle the rising wave of criticism.

    Given that she has become such a central point of the broader climate revolution, criticism is only fair, especially if she is advocating solutions to the climate crisis that will harm millions of people in the here and now.

    Thunberg, who ended her education at a basic level, is giving out verdicts on issues she has no clue about. She recently commented on the Australian bushfires in her extremely simplified way, placing the blame entirely on man-made climate change, infuriating many of Australia’s inhabitants.

    These types of actions and declarations show that the girl is fulfilling a climate revolution plan designed by others. The innocent face of a child is meant to inspire trust and attract the majority, but the source of her actions are dangerous when they play such a powerful role in the environmental ideology that in many ways is being forced on us whether we want it or not.

    All of this points to 2019 ending with the highest-ever surplus in foreign trade in the balance of both goods and services exchanged, which already has been showing a clear surplus for a few years.

    The surplus for services trade will probably exceed €27 billion after the NBP publishes the accounts for the entire year, which will prove the high quality and competitiveness of Polish services.

    What is surprising in these results, is that according to analysts, Poland’s exports should have been decreasing due to economic slowdown in Poland’s Western partners, but instead exports increased.

    The Polish economy is also increasingly importing less. Since 2017, there has been a clearly rising trend in the relation between export to import when measured in euros. In November 2019, for each €1 Poland imported there was €1.137 exported

    It is also noteworthy to mention that according to Statistics Poland, the growth of the Polish GDP in Q3 of 2019 pointed to the positive influence of foreign trade in fueling that growth.

    According to data, not only consumption had a positive impact on GDP growth, but also investments and net export, despite the economic slowdown in Western Europe.

  • EU backs Poland, says Russia helped start WWII

    Poland was the victim and not the perpetrator of the Second World War, and Russia bears equal responsibility with Germany for the outbreak of the conflict, members of the European Parliament said during a debate concerning Russia’s ongoing manipulation surrounding the historic event.

    More than 50 MEPs participated in the debate provoked by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s accusations towards Poland.

    The vast majority of MEPs pointed to Russian responsibility for the Second World War along with Germany due to the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, which saw Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union divide up Polish territory.

    Deputy President of the European Commission Vera Jourova expressed solidarity with Poland by stating that “the European Commission entirely rejects any false statements which are trying to distort the history of the Second World War or to present victims such as Poland as culprits.”