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  • PM Morawiecki: Poland will reach climate neutrality at its own speed

    Poland has received an exclusion from the European Union’s restrictive requirements to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, with EU saying it will take into account Poland’s energy demands.

    The member states of the EU came to an agreement during the deliberations of the European Council in Brussels over reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.

    The head of the European Council, Charles Michel, said that Poland will require more time to achieve climate neutrality and that the Council will return to the topic in June 2020.

    “An exception, a rule which has to be to be considered during the legislative process, has been written into the EU conclusion at the third point, emphasizing that Poland will reach climate neutrality at its own speed,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced.

    He added that the EU understood that there are states with differing economic, technological and social situations.

    The Ładoś List shows that between 24 to 45 percent of Jews possessing forged documents from Paraguay, Honduras, Haiti, or Peru survived the Holocaust. Dozens of those people still live today.

    “Out of the 3,262 confirmed names, 796 definitely survived the war thanks to the passports and 952 did not. The fate of the rest is unknown, despite deep investigation and searches in several databases. It is certain, however, that the number of those saved is much higher,” Poland’s ambassador to Switzerland, Jakub Kumoch declared.

    He added that it is estimated that the Ładoś Group contributed to saving the lives of between 2,000 to 3,000 thousand Jews.

    According to the data, the majority of Jews helped by the Ładoś Group came from occupied Poland and Holland.

    British historian Roger Moorhouse referred to the list as “evidence of heroic and humanitarian efforts of people, who dared oppose the doom.”

    “The formulation of the ‘Ładoś List’ is one of the largest research undertakings devoted to the Holocaust in recent years. We searched many archives, including Bad Arolsen, Yad Vashem and the Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw,” explained Wojciech Kozłowski, the director of the Pilecki Institute.

  • Central Europe fights for a smaller slice of the cake: commentary

    Several nations have their sayings about money and friendship. While the German expression, “Friendship ends with money” is hard and direct, we Hungarians like to say that, “Accurate accounting is the basis of any good friendship.”

    We are approaching the critical year of 2020 when the debates among EU member states regarding the Union’s budget for the 2021-2027 cycle will come to a head.

    Even though we are talking about the (re)distribution of 1 percent of the EU’s gross domestic product, the debates often rival those heard in the Tehran carpet bazaar. This rite is repeated every seven years.

    This time, the formula is essentially very simple: The leaders of the Union want rich member states to contribute more, while we, the poorer East-Central Europeans want them to contribute even more than that.

    The rich are, of course, opposed to this payout to the eastern countries for their own good reasons. After all, those euros would have to come from taxpayers in Western Europe where citizens already have high tax burdens.

    As always, a compromise will eventually be reached, but the situation is fundamentally different from that of seven or 14 years ago, particularly due to the departure of Great Britain, one of the most affluent member states, which will impact contributions.

    The leaders in Brussels also want a higher proportion of the money to go towards common goals, such as climate protection, to the detriment of payments to individual member states or regions.

    That means a diminished cake must be cut into even thinner slices, which will inevitably produce acrimonious bargaining and smaller cabals formed around specific interests.

    One such issue is farm subsidies, where France, Hungary and Poland are in agreement that the money going to their farmers should not be reduced. The Dutch, on the other hand, who also have a significant agriculture sector, are more concerned with climate change, which is tied to the country’s fear of rising sea levels.

    Hungary, and East-Central Europe in general, has its own special position. These countries are net beneficiaries in the EU but are not really responsible for a changing climate. With the death of most heavy industries in our part of Europe, our emissions have fallen significantly since 1990 while countries that are maintaining coal mining by necessity, such as Poland and some parts of Germany, would face staggering social costs if they were to give up coal.

    The bottom line is that Hungarians don’t want their slice to get smaller just because the EU has set out a noble long-term goal. After all, popular support for the EU is higher when people see the benefits of membership. When people no longer see what the EU offers, another Brexit is sure to follow.

    Title image: EU flags in Brussels

  • Poland smeared as colonizer during Nobel Prize ceremony

    Polish social media exploded in outrage when the chairman of the Nobel committee referred to a “Polish history of colonialism and anti-Semitism” during his speech celebrating Olga Tokarczuk’s Nobel Prize win.

    “Polish literature is shining in Europe – it already has several Nobel Prizes in its output, and now it’s time for yet another, for a writer of world-wide renown, broad interests, which connect elements of poetry and humor in her work” Per Wastberg, chairman of the Nobel committee, said during his speech.

    Yet the representative of the Swedish Academy followed up his statement with a blatant attack on Polish history.

    “Olga Tokarczuk uncovers the history of Poland at the crossroads and perhaps even heart of Europe, as a country which became a victim of desolation by great powers, but also as a country which has its own history of colonialism and anti-Semitism.”

    Wastberg’s words were not met with any official condemnation, but it is no surprise when they echo Tokarczuk’s own claims from 2015 when she stated that Poles should “face their own history” and not hide “all those terrible things we did as colonizers, a national majority which suppressed minorities, slave owners and murderers of Jews.”

    Social media did not hide its disdain for Tokarczuk and Wastberg.

    Devastating for brains

    Regardless of whether the nervous system is stimulated by psychoactive elements or sexual stimulants, the stimulation has the same effect on their development.

    Unfortunately, one out of four parents has no idea how serious the issue is. Over 25.3 percent of parents admitted that they do not know whether their child watches violent or vulgar content, claims a report by NASK entitled “Parents of Teenagers 3.0”.

    The research concludes that the consumption of pornography by children is devastating for their brains. Regardless of whether the nervous system is stimulated by psychoactive elements or sexual stimulants, the stimulation has the same effect on their development.

    Unlimited access to pornography leads to the unprecedented hyperstimulation of the brain, to which it has not been evolutionarily prepared and may lead to addiction.

    Boys who have more contact with pornography often begin sexual initiation before they are 15. In persons who consume pornography, we can see an escalation effect where they reach for increasingly extreme content.

    Apart from parental controls, nothing protects children from accessing pornography online because on the Polish web, companies offering such content don not even use the most basic verification methods. You just need to confirm you are 18, which is not a barrier.

    New laws hindering access to pornography are needed immediately. Our children’s future is at stake.

  • Abortion Without Borders enters Poland

    The pro-abortion organization “Abortion Without Borders” has entered Poland with the plan to fund and organize trips for Polish women seeking an abortion abroad, but the Polish government is fighting back.

    The Polish Children’s Rights Advocate, Mikołaj Pawlak, has announced that he will file a notice to the Prosecutor’s Office concerning the group’s actions in Poland.

    According to the “Abortion Without Borders” initiative’s website, it supports people who need abortions by offering information, financial support, and translation as well as organizing trips, lodging and assistance to obtain abortions abroad. 

    The initiative is comprised of organizations like “Abortion Dream Team”, “Women on the Web”, “Polish Abortion”, “Abortion Support Network”, “Auntie Basia”, “Abortion Network Amsterdam”, and “Women Help Women”.

    “I have analyzed and consulted the issue with lawyers and in my opinion, the proposal shown on those websites are facilitations for committing a crime, which is violating Polish abortion law and the country’s penal code,” said Pawlak.

    Pawlak emphasized that the initiative’s offers are also against the Children’s Right Advocate’s law, who is meant to protect life from its conception, which serves as the basis for the motion he filed with Poland’s Prosecutor’s Office.

    According to Poland’s current abortion laws, abortions can only be carried out if the pregnancy threatens the woman’s life or health, there is a high likelihood of severe or irreversible disability, an incurable disease is threatening the life of the fetus, or if the pregnancy was created as a result of rape or incest.

    In the event of the first two cases, the pregnancy can be terminated until the fetus is able to independently live beyond its mother’s body.

    In the case of rape or incest, abortions are legal unless 12 or more weeks have passed since conception.

    Recent polling shows that a strong majority of Poles remain opposed to abortion. The Law and Justice party (PiS) has made keeping Poland’s strong abortion laws a pillar of the party’s family policy.

  • PM Orbán: Poor people cannot bear the costs of fighting climate change

    At an EU summit marked by Greenpeace demonstrations, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán set out its conditions for Hungary signing the pact which would make Europe carbon-neutral by 2050.

    “We are ready to sign the EU 2050 climate agreement with conditions,” Orbán said. “We cannot allow Brussels bureaucrats to have poor people and poor nations bear the costs of the fight against climate change.”

    Taking the same tack as Orbán, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said making his country carbon-neutral would cost an astronomical €30 to €40 billion.

    Both Orbán and Babiš stressed that nuclear energy is clean energy and the climate goals cannot be reached without nuclear technology being recognized as emission-free energy. Hungary has one Soviet-built nuclear plant in Paks, which is currently being expanded by Russia, while the Czechs operate two nuclear plants in Temelin and Dukovany, with two more planned.

    Orbán said he recognized that climate change is an issue but noted that Europe and Hungary need to take into account the economic impact that environmental reforms would have.

    “We all know that climate change is a big problem and to fight against it is a huge undertaking which costs an enormous amount of money. We need to get clear financial guarantees and the talks will center on the details of those guarantees,” Orbán added.

    “We all know that climate change is a big problem and to fight against it is a huge undertaking which costs an enormous amount of money. We need to get clear financial guarantees and the talks will centre on the details of those guarantees,” the prime minister added.
    Read more at: https://dailynewshungary.com/orban-poor-eu-countries-mustnt-be-made-to-bear-costs-of-climate-action/

    Separately, Gergely Gulyás, the minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office, said in Budapest that his country has four conditions for signing the climate pact.

    He said the costs of going carbon-neutral must be paid by big industries and the major polluting countries, it cannot lead to an increase in energy and food prices, it cannot mean the reduction of cohesion funds, and nuclear energy must be included within the plan.

    Gulyás said that in order to meet the climate targets, Hungary would have to close all of its gas-fired power plants and convert all public transport to electricity, which would cost 50 billion forints (€151 million) per year or 2.5 percent of the country’s GDP.

    He noted that since 1990, Hungarian economic growth was coupled with a 32 percent reduction in CO2 emissions and a 15 percent reduction in energy consumption. Hungary has annual CO2 emissions of 6.5 tonnes per capita, which is the sixth-lowest value in the European Union.

    Poland was the only member state that said it cannot agree to the pact and European Council President Charles Michel said the issue will be revisited next June. Poland also has plans to build additional nuclear power plants over the coming years, and shares the viewpoints of the other Visegrad Four countries.

    Nations like China, with weak environmental protections, may gain a competitive advantage in the event that Europe embarks on a program of strict carbon-neutrality goals by 2050. Policymakers continue to struggle with a program that can maintain Europe’s industrial and manufacturing sectors while still meeting carbon emission targets.

    Title image: Greenpeace demonstration in Brussels (Reuters/Yves Herman)

  • Czechia’s top Google search? Pop legend Karel Gott

    Google has revealed what Czechs are searching for this year, with the singer this year Karel Gott, the popular Czech Television comedy series Most! and the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris at the top of the list of what most interested Czechs. 

    Czechs searched for the name of Czech pop legend Karel Gott so often after she died this October that for a while the singer even became one of the most popular Google search personalities in the world.

    According to Google’s annual rankings, this year’s most popular event was the anti-government demonstrations organized by Million Moments for Democracy association.

    Czechs also demonstrated their interest in series and films, mainly from domestic productions. Most frequently, Czechs searched for the series Most! and the main characters of other popular series.

    “Search rankings are sometimes also called the spirit of the time because searching usually illustrates what has happened in the Czech Republic in a given year. The significant increase in searching for movies and series such as Chernobyl, The Painted Bird, Most! or Joker is the most surprising result. It shows that the influence of television and film production is still growing,” said Google Czech and Slovak branch spokesperson, Alžběta Houzarová.

    Czechs are also a nation of mushroom pickers. This is evidenced by the fact that mushroom specialties such as scrambled mushrooms and mushroom sauce were among the most popular dishes. Czechs were also interested in how to freeze mushrooms.

    As for foreign personalities, 17-year-old American singer Billie Eilish, who sold out a concert in the O2 arena in Prague or the similarly successful singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, were the most popular in Czechia.

    Czechs also frequently searched for information about the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

  • Cyberattack paralyzes Czech hospital

    A cryptovirus has completely paralyzed the operations of a hospital in the Czech city of Benešov, about 40 kilometers southeast of Prague.

    The virus attacked the hospital system starting on Tuesday night this week but the hospital’s network is still locked. Computers first began to slow down at the surgical clinic, and shortly thereafter, the IT systems in the entire hospital stopped working. The virus overcame the hospital’s firewall as well as two antivirus systems.

    Hospital management announced that patients’ health and lives are not at risk, although IT workers and cybersecurity experts have not been able to remedy the problem as of Thursday.

    As a result of the attack, no devices work in the hospital, and all planned operations had to be canceled. Many patients had to be transferred to other facilities in cooperation with ambulance services. The only exception was several births that were already underway, which meant it was not possible to postpone them, but all children were born without complications.

    In general, the hospital says it will still admit all women who need their children delivered.

    Otherwise, the hospital urged patients to seek help elsewhere. Hospital administrators are now working closely with one of Prague’s hospitals, which is receiving patients from Benešov and its surroundings while the hospital’s network remains locked.

    Police, as well as the National Cyber and Information Security Agency, are investigating the incident.

    Cybersecurity experts worry that in the worst case, the hospital may be blocked for several weeks.

  • PM Babiš: The EU must recognize nuclear power as emission-free

    The costs of reaching carbon neutrality in the Czech Republic will amount to 675 billion korunas (€26.5 billion), and the EU should take this into account in the next EU budget period, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš tweeted.

    Babiš wrote the statement after a meeting with Environment Minister Richard Brabec, State Secretary for European Affairs Milena Hrdinková, and Daniel Beneš, the CEO of the largest Czech electricity producer ČEZ

    They agreed on a strategy for the European Council summit, which starts in Brussels on Dec. 12.

    “The Czech Republic wants to achieve carbon neutrality as well, but we will not manage it without nuclear energy. The EU must recognize it as an emission-free source. Some states are still against it. We have to convince them with the help of the European Commission,” tweeted Babiš.

    He later added that the costs of going carbon-neutral will be huge throughout the EU, but they will be much higher in the Czech Republic.

    “EU states must be prepared to participate fairly and to seek financial resources together,” he said.

    The key topic of the EU summit will be the commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050.

    Hrdinková said that the Czech Republic cannot commit to that goal yet. However, she sees a strong will to meet the requirements of countries that have a problem with financing the transition to an environmentally responsible economy.

    This June, the Czech Republic, together with Poland, blocked the EU plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

    In addition to financial support for fossil fuel-dependent regions, skeptical member states such as Poland and the Czech Republic would like further assurance that their citizens’ living standards will not drop significantly due to the new commitment.

    Besides the climate, the summit will also include topics regarding the EU’s multiannual budget and strategic priorities.

  • Czechia to become center of EU’s space program

    The future European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) will be headquartered in Czechia as of 2021 and will hire 600 new employees, the Czech Transport Ministry representatives announced.

    The EUSPA will be created as an extension of the European Global Navigation Satellite System Agency (GSA), which is headquartered in Prague and manages the European satellite system Galileo. With the new hires, the EUSPA will have a total of 700 employees.

    In addition to the GSA and EUSPA, the Copernicus Earth Observation Satellite System program, the Govsatcom satellite telecommunications program, and the EU’s program to monitor near-Earth will all be operated from the Czech Republic.

    The Czech government also recently approved a proposal of the Ministry of Transport to invest 1.205 billion crowns (€48 million) per year in space activities. By expanding these activities, the government wants to help the Czech Republic to get rid of its label as a low-cost economy.

    Around 50 companies participate in the space program in the Czech Republic.

    Space production includes, for example, rolling solar panels for hundreds of satellites, an adapter for launching dozens of small satellites from the Vega carrier rocket, optical systems, a new air traffic control system over Europe, and aluminum and titanium launcher parts for the Ariane 6 carrier rocket.

    According to the Ministry of Transport’s analysis, the return on space investment in the economy is more than eight times higher.

    Additionally, in 2016, ESA Business Incubation Center Prague became the sixteenth branch of the European Space Agency (ESA) network of business incubators. Thanks to that, more than 20 other companies, which typically also use space technologies on Earth, are developing in the Czech Republic.

  • Hungary, Turkey unveil joint memorial to 16th-century siege

    Hungarian and Turkish officials unveiled a joint memorial to the soldiers fallen of the 1552 siege at the eastern Hungarian Eger fortress, a battle where Hungarians famously defended the fortress against overwhelming odds.

    The siege of Eger went down in Hungarian history as one of the most heroic defensive efforts against the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the mid-16th century. The fortress of Eger faced a numerically and technically superior enemy force for 39 days, from September 9 to October 17 in 1552.

    The besieging army, led by Pasha Kara Ahmed, had between 35,000 and 40,000 troops, 16 very large siege cannons and 150 pieces of medium and small artillery.

    The defending forces consisted of between 2,100 and 2,300 people, of which 1,530 were combat-ready soldiers, with the rest peasants, children and a few dozen women.

    After a protracted and bloody siege, the Turkish forces abandoned the siege. Despite the failure of the siege, the campaign itself was a resounding success for the Ottoman Empire, whose forces captured 28 Hungarian strongholds, including four of key strategic importance. Part of Hungary remained under Turkish occupation until 1718.

    The siege was immortalized in an 1899 romantic novel Eclipse of the Crescent Moon by writer Géza Gárdonyi and a feature-length television film based on the siege that is still regularly shown on Hungarian television channels. The largely renovated Eger fortress is one of the most popular tourist destinations in northeastern Hungary.

    The granite obelisk has a cross and a Hungarian inscription on one side, and a crescent moon and a Turkish inscription on the other side. The Hungarian inscription says, “A dead soldier is not an enemy – Tribute to the fallen Christian heroes”.

  • Former FM: EU investigation into rule of law in Poland is illegal

    “The EU’s procedure for inspecting the rule of law in Poland is illegal. We should not submit to it,” declared former Foreign Minister and PiS MEP Witold Waszczykowski

    Waszczykowski referred to the vice president of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, and her potential meeting with Polish authorities to discuss the rule of law, which she announced on Tuesday.

    “If Mrs. Jourová comes to Poland, she will see that nothing wrong is happening,” the MEP said in an interview for wPolityce.pl.

    He explained that he does not share the opinions of Didier Reynders, the EU’s new commissioner for justice, that there has been a negative turn of events in Poland and Hungary. Waszczykowski emphasized that there is nothing out of the ordinary in Poland’s ongoing attempt to reform the judiciary in Poland and that “the European Commission or any other European institution has no right to interfere.”

    Under current Poland’s current abortion law, fetal terminations are permitted only if there is a threat to the mother’s life, if there is a fetal abnormality or when pregnancy has resulted from rape or incest. 

    Despite the relatively stringent restrictions on abortion compared to the rest of Europe, the poll found 49.9 percent of Poles believe that the current abortion law should not be changed.

    An additional 14.9 percent think that the laws should be tightened while 28.7 percent said they think access to abortion should be more easily available.

    Poles are however divided when it comes to teaching religion in schools. The survey showed 31.3 percent decisively supported the idea of religion in schools and 20.1 percent “probably” supported it. At the same time, 26.7 percent objected to it and 13.3 percent of the surveyed were “probably” against it.

  • Moody’s keeps Central European banking outlook stable

    The outlook for Central and Eastern European banks remains stable, according to U.S. credit rating agency Moody’s Investor Service, which also changed bank outlooks to negative in the UK and eurozone countries.

    In its 37-page annual report of the banking system, Moody’s said that the downward revision of the eurozone and UK banking system was necessary “as weakening economic prospects in much of the region will cause loan quality and profitability to deteriorate.”

    The outlook for the banks of the eurozone was changed to negative because the economic slowdown and a somewhat lax monetary policy was expected to further undermine already weak profitability.

    The outlook for the UK’s banking system also turned negative due to Brexit-related uncertainty weakening operating conditions and reducing loan demand.

    “The UK and German banking systems account for the largest share of banking assets in the region and drive the overall negative outlook,” Carola Schuler, managing director for banking at Moody’s said in a statement.

    For this year, Moody’s expects a 1.1 percent increase in economic growth in the eurozone, the slowest rate in five years. For 2020 and 2021, their growth forecast is 1.2 and 1.4 percent, respectively.

    While the economic slowdown in the eurozone and the UK will have a negative impact on Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as well, the region was still expected to “outperform the euro area and foster business opportunities for the banks.”

    In the CEE region, the banking system will remain stable mainly because an improvement in their assets structure, and the fact that the process of cleaning up bank balances has been completed in Hungary, Romania and Slovenia.

    Moody’s sees a CEE economic growth of between 2.5 and 3.5 percent in emerging economies in 2020 and 2021 and a robust 3.2 percent in Hungary.

    Title image: Moody’s logo

  • Duda: Poland will be the energy hub for Central and Eastern Europe

    A new gas terminal will be constructed in Gdańsk or Gdynia, President Andrzej Duda announced. He added that Poland has ambitions to become the energy hub for its entire Central-Eastern European region.

    Duda explained that the aim of ongoing investments is to not only ensure Poland’s energy security and supply but to also apply that security to other Central European countries, such as Slovakia, Ukraine and other countries further south.

    The president also noted that Poland already has a gas terminal in Świnoujście, which will be connected to the Baltic Pipe project, which is currently under construction.

    The plans for a gas terminal in the Gulf of Gdańsk, which would feature a Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) design, have been discussed for a number of years. The construction of the gas terminal was originally announced by the former prime minister, Beata Szydło, in his expose in 2015.

    The gas terminal would be connected with the underground warehouses constructed in salt deposits in the Kosakowo municipality as well as the state’s gas transport network.

    The investment would be funneled towards the construction of a high-pressure pipeline on both land and underwater from Kosakowo to Gdańs, which would stretch 56.5 kilometers (35 miles) in length.

    The former marshal of the Pomeranian voivodship, Mieczysław Struk, emphasized in 2015 that he believed that the environment of the Gulf of Gdańsk was perfect for the construction of a gas terminal.

    He said that the main reasons behind his belief were the hydro-technical conditions of the location, the ease of transporting materials by sea and the stability of supply in the region around Gdańsk.

    The terminal in the gulf is meant to be an emergency solution in case of one of Poland’s other energy diversification projects are delayed, such as the Baltic Pipe.

    Duda’s plans hae strong support as the project of the second gas terminal has also been earmarked as a Project of Common Interest, which are European projects considered to have value for the entire union.

    The gas terminal’s operator would be Gaz-System, who is also the operator of the Świnoujście terminal. According to their plan for the gas system development, the gulf terminal would be connected to the system between 2024 and 2025.

    The chief of the president’s cabinet, Krzysztof Szczerski, also emphasized that the security of the Polish gas market should be based on three pillars: domestic excavation, new sources of import and the opportunities offered through import via gas terminals.

  • What Poland’s Google searches look like in 2019

    Google has released the queries and phrases most searched for by Poles in 2019. According to the ranking, Poles have become much more active in societal and political affairs this year.

    The internet giant released its 2019 Year In Search which contains the most popular phrases used by every country around the world, providing a unique insight into what most interests people.

    In Poland, at the very top of the list in terms of politics was a search concerning the teacher’s strike, which likely had many concerned adults searching for what to do with their children during the protests, but also likely featured searches from students themselves and other family members.

    Among the top searched phrases there were also the parliamentary and European elections.

    The most asked “How?” questions concerned how to vote in the elections. The question of how to calculate and pay the personal income tax was also high as well as how to check tax returns. In the category “What is this?”, politics also turned up at the top in the form of the question, “What is a constitutional majority?”

    Most trending phrases

    1. Teachers’ strike
    2. Piotr Woźniak-Starak
    3. Paweł Adamowicz
    4. EU election results
    5. Olga Tokarczuk

    How?

    1. How to vote in the EU elections?
    2. How to vote in the parliamentary elections?
    3. How to calculate personal income tax settlements?
    4. How to check tax returns?
    5. How to activate Google Assistant?

    How much does it cost?

    1. How much does a cow cost?
    2. How much does a ticket to the USA cost?
    3. How much does Netflix cost?
    4. How much does using air conditioning cost?
    5. How much does a gram of gold cost?

    Google also noted increased questions concerning LGBT and apostasy.

    The most popular questions in the “how many?” category concerned the number of sides in a cube and the average lifespan of a mosquito.

    Poles were also more interested in the number of episodes in a popular TV show instead of the sums earned in Jurek Owsiak’s country-wide charity organization.

    Polish internet users were also highly interested in the morbid case of the death of Piotr Woźniak-Starak, a billionaire who died in an accident in Masuria and the murder of Gdańsk Mayor Paweł Adamowicz who was killed during a charity event at the beginning of the year.

    In terms of the “how much it costs?” category, the most trending question concerned the price of a cow.

    This could be due to the government’s program to give extra payments to farmers for their cows. In second was the question concerning the price of a plane ticket to the US, likely due to the fact that Poland joined a US visa-waiver scheme in November.

    In third was the price of a Netflix subscription.

  • Opposition only wants left-wing control of theaters in Hungary: commentary

    Hungarian opposition parties only want to have liberal theaters and arts that are under their full control.

    Yesterday’s debate in parliament over theater financing was a clear indication of how deeply confused opposition MPs are in their interpretation of Shakespeare’s words, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”

    While this time they refrained from more violent or egregious acts during the debate, they still decided it was a good idea to don black theatrical masks. But this very action only served to illustrate that instead of reasonable debate followed by a traditional vote, they are only interested in mounting yet another show, a show that has nothing to do with either democracy or the issues being discussed.

    In what little debate that occurred, they clearly demonstrated they have no idea what they are talking about.

    The bill does in no way give Minister of Human Capacities Miklós Kásler the exclusive right to appoint theater directors, nor does said bill disband the National Cultural Fund, the main body deciding on central budget subsidies for culture in Hungary.

    The opposition find it revolting and unacceptable that the state should have any say in the appointment of directors at the institutions partially or entirely financed by the state, while at the same time they consider it only natural that the opposition’s mayor in Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, has free reign in appointing the management of the municipality’s theatrical firms.

    While shouting about dictatorship and censorship, they apply the well-known double standards of the left-liberal side.

    The truth is that the new system is both transparent and equitable. It simply cannot be that the government which finances these theaters to the tune of hundreds of millions of forints should have no influence on how they are run or even verify their books.

    The other obvious thing is that the left-liberal side is fighting to maintain its exclusive reign over culture, largely inherited from the communist times and has no intention of allowing alternative views to be staged.

    In their interpretation, culture should only be supported and defended as long as it serves their interests while democracy simply means their opinion is paramount.


    Title image: Opposition MPs don black theater masks during the debate of the financing bill (Magyar Nemzet/István Mirkó)

  • Hungarian parliament passes theater financing bill despite opposition protests

    The Hungarian parliament passed a law changing the system governing how theaters are financed on Wednesday, setting off a debate between Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party and the opposition over the purpose of the bill.

    Fidesz says the law is meant to create a more transparent financing system while the opposition claims it is an attempt to starve independent artists.

    The law, which passed with 115 voting yes, 53 voting no and three abstentions, introduces some major changes to Hungary’s world of theater.

    In the future, there will be three types of financing: theaters run by the state, those financed by municipalities and a third that features mixed financing.

    In the third case, municipalities can apply for partial financing from the central budget through the Ministry of Human Capacities. If the ministry approves central financing, the Hungarian central government along with the municipalities in question will have to reach an agreement on how to run the theater production, including on the system of designating theater management.

    State Minister for Culture Péter Fekete said during the debate of the bill that it will create a “transparent, more balanced and cleaner system of theater financing.”

    The opposition parties, on the other hand, took a different view. The Socialists see it as an assault on artistic freedom and cultural autonomy, while the Democratic Coalition said the Orbán-government was “attempting to control minds, hearts and souls.”

    MPs from the green-style party, Párbeszéd (Dialogue for Hungary), said it was a black day for Hungarian culture and opposition MPs donned black theatrical masks in protest.

    “It cannot be that while we are the country which spends most on theater financing in per capita terms, the state is left without a way to assert control or have influence over how these theaters are managed,” Fekete said. “It is not true that the Hungarian government would want to choke independent performing arts. On the contrary, they will have more funding available.”

    On the same day, parliament also passed an amendment of the criminal code, making unlicensed healing punishable by up to one year in prison.

    Title image: Opposition MPs don black theater masks during the debate of the financing bill (Magyar Nemzet/István Mirkó)

  • Klaus: Brexit problems show Czexit would be irresponsible

    The problems surrounding Brexit show that the Czech Republic’s withdrawal from the EU is impossible in the near future. Only irresponsible politicians are alluding to the idea of Czexit, former President Václav Klaus said at the Euro Business Breakfast event on Dec. 10 in Prague.

    At the same time, Klaus criticized the functioning of the EU, saying the entire political body has serious issues.

    “You can see how the great, powerful, economically strong, centuries-old democracy of Great Britain is being tortured. In all ways you can imagine, the EU makes it impossible for Britain to withdraw, even though Britain has the advantage of being an island near Europe, not a country in the heart of Europe. If Britain can’t make it, I think a possible Czech withdrawal today is a childish proposal that only an irresponsible person can support,” Klaus said.

    “It may be someone’s political goal in two or three decades, but currently, Czexit does not seem rational,” Klaus said.

    At the same time, however, Klaus criticized the functioning of the EU. According to him, the Union is not democratic and its main objective is to gain central power at the expense of individual member states.

    According to Klaus, the EU is threatening Czech national sovereignty when, for example, it seeks to influence the Czech Republic’s energy plans.

    In his speech, Klaus also spoke about the fact that in recent years, the Czech Republic has been losing its freedoms with its democratic institutions and free-market facing more and more restrictions.

    In regards to this issue, Klaus sees a solution in restoring a more mainstream system of political parties that would be clearly ideologically defined in thee terms of traditional center-right and center-left parties. But he doubted that there was a demand for such a change, blaming, for example, the media, which in the past criticized these types of parties.

  • Gunman kills six at Czech hospital

    On Tuesday morning, Dec. 10, a gunman killed six people in a hospital waiting room in the Czech city of Ostrava before shooting himself in the head. Another three people were wounded, one of them being in a critical condition.

    The tragedy was the second-worst the Czech Republic has ever experienced. Only one other attacker shot more people in a restaurant in the city of Uherský Brod in 2015. Eight people died in that attack, including the attacker who shot himself.

    Three hours after the Ostrava attack, police managed to track the gunman’s car thanks to a hospital camera system and a helicopter. The attacker’s mother helped police to find him after the gunman called her, saying he had killed several people and was going to commit suicide.

    Although his mother contacted the police immediately, it was too late. The gunman shot himself and the officers were unable to save his life even after half an hour of resuscitation.

    The gunman was a 42-year-old construction engineer. According to his employer, his behavior had recently changed. He said he felt ill, but complained tht no one wanted to treat him. The man was reportedly convinced he had cancer and is believed to have been a patient at the hospital, but his motive still remains unclear.

    Due to the attack, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš decided to cancel his planned trip for a two-day official visit to Estonia. Instead, he flew to Ostrava to express solidarity with the survivors. Babiš said he appreciated the work of the police who found the gunman thanks to their quick reaction.

    Czech police officers continue to investigate the crime and are interested in the motives of the attacker. The key question is whether his health and mental condition were the cause of the attack.

  • Soros-backed campaign against Hungary continues with latest Article 7 hearing

    Soros-backed campaign against Hungary continues with latest Article 7 hearing

    Hungary continues to be punished for its stance on migration after the European General Affairs Council held another Article 7 hearing on Dec. 10, thereby continuing a process that has already plagued Hungary for 15 months.

    The campaign to apply Article 7 to Hungary is supported by a number of Soros-backed politicians, and despite the session including topics such as the “rule of law” and “freedom of the press” in Hungary, the hearing itself featured a number of clear violations of the General Affairs Council rules as well as a general disinterest in the facts offered by the Hungarian government in its defense.

    The European Council is violating its own rules

    Despite the hearing allegedly being about the rule of law in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government noted that the European Council was participating in an egregious abuse of power during the session, with member states were playing fast and loose with the procedure for adding new items to the agenda.

    The Finnish presidency, which is currently leading the European Council on a rotating basis until Dec. 31, 2019, failed to consult Hungary in its decision to add the Article 7 proceedings during the Dec. 10 General Affairs Council meeting. Hungary was only informed when a preliminary draft agenda was circulated amongst all EU member states.

    The agenda was simply proposed by the Finnish presidency but EU member states never had an opportunity to raise questions or objections about holding another hearing. Additionally, it had already been decided that the last hearing that took place in September under the Austrian presidency would be the last and only opportunity for the European Parliament to present its porposal in an Article 7 hearing.

    “We agreed that the European Parliament will be given a single opportunity to present its reasoned proposal during an informal meeting organised by the Presidency where reps of member states are invited,” said Zoltan Kovacs, the spokesman for Orbán. “This meeting took place under the Austrian Presidency of the Council.”

    The Finnish presidency ignored the prior agreement and began the Dec. 10 hearing without specifying what subjects would be debated. This information was only released later when it was clear the hearing would occur.

    Judit Varga, the Hungarian minister of Justice, presented Hungary’s defense during the Dec. 10 session, but noted that the questions posed by EU members during the session regarding the rule of law and academic freedom have been answered many times before.

    “We’ve been here for more than 15 months now and this procedure leads us nowhere. It’s based on false accusations and it creates mistrust amongst the member states,” she said.

    She called on the EU to change course, saying “Let’s end this witch hunt” and “move on to face European challenges together in a mutually respectful manner.”

    Soros-backed campaign against Hungary

    Kovacs expressed his frustration with the EU, pointing out on social media just how relentless the Soros has been in his campaign against Hungary.

    The campaign against Hungary has seen the same George Soros-backed politicians and unelected Soros-funded NGOs making it clear that Hungary’s democratically-elected government is their prime target along with Poland.

    That is why there is little sign that the EU will stop its efforts to apply Article 7 to Hungary or Poland, which is also faced an Article 7 session on Dec. 10.

    “I would say that we heard from Hungary and Poland that everything is fine, and my reaction is, the concerns have not been addressed. We need to discuss further, we need to understand the situation, we need to come to the solutions,” said Věra Jourová, European commissioner for Values and Transparency at the General Affairs Council. 

    She also said it is important for member states to be “again convinced whether they can trust Hungary and Poland.”

    Jourová and other European politicians have been active against Hungary often have direct ties to Soros, such as Vice President-designate Franz Timmermans, Commissioner Didier Reynders and Pekka Haavisto, a Green Party member of the Finnish Parliament.

    According to the public calendar for the European Commission, Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans received George Soros for face-to-face meetings on April 28, 2017, February 1, 2018, April 16, 2018, November 26, 2018.

    Jourova also received Soros for face-to-face meetings on June 11, 2015, April 26, 2017 and Nov. 9 2017.

    Jourova has also been photographed with Soros and his son.

    Lobbyfacts.eu has shown that lobbyists from one of Soros’ flagship NGOs, the Open Society European Policy Institute, had at least 49 meetings with senior Commission officials, including commissioners, cabinet members and directors-general between 2014 and 2018.

    Soros is on record saying, “We are actively engaged with everyone, particularly in my native Hungary, where our approach is in direct opposition to the one advocated by the current prime minister, Viktor Orbán.”

    He has also said that Orbán has turned Hungary into a “Mafia state” and despite of Soros’ emphasis on “democracy” has consistently targeted the democratically-elected Orbán regardless of the Hungarian leader’s continued strong support from the Hungarian electorate.

    Hungary being punished for its migration stance

    Kovacs asked that Hungary only be judged within the narrow confine of the actual law and procedures laid out by the European Council.

    “Those who posed the questions demonstrated no interest in facts because this isn’t about facts and rule-bound procedures. This is a political campaign against a government of Hungary that stands in the way of the agenda that Soros and his liberal allies are determined to push,” he said.

    Kovacs was blunt about the reasons behind the EU’s aggressive stance towards Hungary, saying, “We’re attacked because we reject migration.”

    Varga also echoed Kovacs’ sentiments, saying the hearing “was yet another stage in the revenge campaign by pro-migration forces.”

    The Article 7 hearing also represented the eleventh hearing held by EU institutions regarding Hungary in just nine years, and despite the same topics having been exhaustively discussed, the EU is still pursuing Hungary over freedom of the judiciary, freedom of the press and academic freedom.

    The failure to follow procedure during the General Affairs Council session follows on the heels of the European Parliament’s Sargentini report in 2018, which claimed the rule of law was “waning” in Hungary.

    Hungary has sought to nullify the Sargentini report in the European Court of Justice over the fact that the methods for calculating votes during the resolution violated procedural rules. Hungary’s government plead inter alia that the European Parliament breached 354(4) TFEU as well as Article 178(3) of its own rules and procedures when it excluded abstentions. If those abstention votes had been counted, the resolution would have never been adopted. 

    Nonetheless, the Hungarian government chose to address the Sargentini report in the spirit of cooperation, refuting many of the accusations made against the country.

    Despite the continuing campaign against Hungary regarding Article 7, applying the article to Hungary would require unanimous support from all EU member states, which most analysts believe is likely an impossibility, especially with Visegrad Four member states allied with Hungary opposed to such a measure.

    “If it comes to the discussion in the Council, we will be against it. We will veto the decision if it comes to the sanctions,” Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz said.

    Hungary is hoping that under the new European Commission president the country will fare better but there are still grave concerns.

    “We had hoped – and we still have reason to be hopeful with Ursula von der Leyen’s leadership – that this new European Commission will take a new, more constructive direction,” said Kovacs. “But we’re troubled to see some familiar faces, who express an intention to do everything possible to keep this process from concluding.”

    Commissioner Didier Reynders indicated they are unlikely to stop their pursuit of Article 7 against Hungary, with Reynders’ saying during the Dec. 10 hearing that it will be a “never-ending process.”

     

  • New Czech record: Millenium Falcon assembled with 70,000 Lego pieces

    A 16-year-old Czech designed and built a Millenium Falcon from Star Wars using 70,000 Lego pieces, which set a new record for the largest Millenium Falcon built with Legos.

    Radek Popík began working on the model, which includes a detailed interior, for almost a year. The final version measures over 160 centimeters while the Lego kit to build the same spacecraft is barely a third in size. Due to the boy’s efforts, a Czech agency registered Popík’s work as a new Czech record.

    Popík began to build the Star Wars ship at the age of 14. He exhibited the model in Denmark twice and had plans to go to an exhibition to the United States as well in January. However, he could not find any adult to accompany him on the trip, so he had to cancel it.

    Popík says his family does not really support his hobby.

    “I’m not even allowed to have a single piece of Lego at home. I have to assemble all my models in a room above our garage,” Popík said. His goal is to build a 5-meter long Falcon, surpassing an Australian builder whose creation measures about 4 meters.

    Popík’s Millenium Falcon design was inspired by Lego’s commercial model. Its rectangular base gives the ship stability, even if it needs to be transported in parts. Popík used a great number of very small pieces to build the ship “because they’re the cheapest.”

    The commercially available kit costs about 20,000 korunas (€800), Popík’s model was about 7,000 korunas (€280) more expensive to build.

  • Tram driver helps a lost tourist’s child: video

    It has happened to nearly every parent. One moment your child is next to you and the next minute they are nowhere to be found. In a crowded city like Prague, that terrible feeling of not knowing where your child went is even worse.

    For one family who visited Prague for Christmas, the nightmare came true.

    Fortunately, one observant tram driver took action when he saw a child all by himself.

    Josef Chodounský was on his usual route through the center of Prague when he noticed a small boy crying on the street. Other people may have drove on by, by Chodounsky thought something was off.

    “The boy was standing at the stop while his parents left in a tram by mistake. He tried to follow it for a moment, but the tram disappeared in the distance almost immediately. When I saw his desperate expression, I stopped by to find out what had happened to him since I did not notice before,” says Chodounský.

    “Tearful, he tried to tell me in English what had happened to him. I took him inside and hurried to the next stop, where I expected to see his parents. Everything turned out well, and the family reunited,” describes the hero on Twitter.

    The boy, whose nationality or age Chodounský did not mention, will surely not forget this Christmas trip. However, the driver hesitated to publish the video because it would mean violating the regulations of his employer. But in the end, he decided to release it.

    “At Christmas time, helping one’s neighbor feels even more pleasing than usual. A possible penalty cannot spoil my mood,” he adds.

  • Hungarians are strong supporters of human rights: Eurobarometer

    Citizens of the European Union consider the worldwide protection of human rights should be the European Union’s top priority and Hungarians are just above the EU average in this respect, a recent survey by Eurobarometer showed.

    On average, 48 percent of Europeans consider human rights to be the most important issue, while this ratio is 49 percent in Hungary. Freedom of speech came in as the second most important issue followed by equality between men and women.

    With nearly six in ten Europeans (59 percent) in favor of their country’s EU membership, citizens’ support for the European Union remained high for the third consecutive year. The survey conducted in October 2019 also showed an increased level of satisfaction with the way democracy works in the European Union with 52 percent of Europeans sharing this sentiment.

    The results indicate that the recent European elections and increased voter turnout likely had a positive contribution, with the survey showing a three percentage point increase from the previous one conducted in the spring of 2019.

    European citizens would like to see the European Parliament playing a stronger role, with 58 percent of respondents calling for a more influential parliament in the future. This is an increase of 7 percentage points since spring 2019 and the highest result for this indicator since 2007.

    In terms of what issues the European Parliament should address, respondents put climate change first, followed by air pollution, maritime pollution, deforestation, and the growing amount of waste.

    Title image: The Parliament building in Budapest (source:tripsavvy.com)

  • Budapest Christmas market beats Vienna, Gdańsk for best in Europe

    The Hungarian capital’s Christmas market in front of the downtown Basilica has won this year’s vote for Best Christmas Market in Europe.

    European Best Destinations, a Brussels-based European organization meant to promote culture and tourism in Europe, ran a vote for Europe’s best Christmas market and all four Visegrád countries were represented: the Czech Republic with Prague, Hungary with Budapest, Poland with Gdańsk, and Slovakia with Bratislava.

    The voting closed on Dec. 10 and of the 280,000 votes, Budapest received more than 40,000, beating Vienna and Gdańsk for the top title.

    “In addition to being the most beautiful Christmas market in Europe, the Advent Feast at the Basilica deserves the title of Best Christmas market with the spirit of Christmas but also the title of best eco-friendly Christmas market,” the site wrote. “Advent Feast at the Basilica is held with a community spirit in mind: Guests can enjoy charity-boosting concerts, and preserve the environment by using eco-friendly cups and cutlery while leftovers are being recycled.”

    The contest is at its eighth edition and the previous winners were Strasbourg with three wins, Zagreb with three wins and Tallinn.

    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also congratulated Budapest for the result in a Facebook post.


    Title image: Christmas market in front of the Budapest Basilica (Magyar Hírlap/Péter Papajcsik)

  • Worst Christmas ad ever? Norwegian postal service mocks Christians

    The Norwegian postal service has just released this season’s most anti-Christian ad, designed entirely to mock Christanity during the time when Christians are supposed to be celebrating the most. 

    In essence, the just over one-minute ad raises (and answers) the question about who Jesus’ father could have been, barring immaculate conception.

    In the company’s interpretation, it is was a postman who met Mary while delivering a letter to the family. The ad was meant to show how important postal services are and how much they are part of Christmas.

    Though business interests and advertising rarely take into consideration moral values, this particular ad has gone too far. Not only questioning but also ridiculing fundamental Christian values at a time when Christianity is the most threatened religion in the world shows just how much Christianity has been devalued in the 21st century.

    Other religions would not tolerate the endless mocking Christians seem to endure in the world of advertising, Hollywood and popular culture, but Christians seem to put up with it every year.

    This is Europe today.

    Title image: Caption from the Norwegian Post’s Christmas ad (Youtube)

  • The priest who refused Joe Biden communion offers us hope: opinion

    Despite the revisionist voices appearing within the Catholic Church, there are still priests who adhere to the rules of Christian faith and give us hope.

    I haven’t been so impressed in a long time, as when Father Robert Morey from the St. Anthony parish in South Carolina refused to give communion to former Vice President Joe Biden, who is currently running to become the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate.

    Instead of praising the candidate for his progressive approach to sexual minorities and abortion, Morey adhered to the rules of his faith and simply said, “No”. He added that he will pray for Biden, but he cannot let him receive communion because he publicly supports abortion.

    I wonder how many priests and Church hierarchs would have made such a gesture. For years I have remembered in clear detail the moment in which President Bronisław Komorowski received communion when his party’s approach to killing unborn children was widely known.

    None of our priests even thought of chasing him out of the church and encouraging him to repent or be a better person. That would have been to grave an insult to his “majesty”.

    Bad things are happening in the Church and the synod in Amazonia has confirmed that Pope Francis is not (or does not want to) control the situation. This smells of heresy and a schism.

    The prime minister pointed out that only 46 percent of Poles trust Polish judges, which is half as many people that trust the judiciary in the United Kingdom.

    “Many judges are tempted to break one of the basic rules of Roman law: nemo iudex in sua causa (no one is judge for their own cause). My government follows another Roman rule clearly: pacta sunt servanda (agreements must be kept). We are upholding our election agreement with Poles,” the head of the Polish government underlined.

  • FAIL: Wrong anthem played for Slovak team at World Floorball Championship

    Swiss organizers of the 2019 Women’s World Floorball Championship suffered a major fail after they played the Czech national anthem for the Slovak team.

    Not only did the Slovak team lose the match, but they also had to face the anthem failure on the part of the organizers. The video of the baffled Slovak players can be seen at aktualne.cz.

    The Slovak women’s floorball team lost to Sweden in the Women’s World Floorball Championships.

    At the opening ceremony, the Slovak floorball players not only had to endure the Czech anthem being played instead of the Slovak one, but the panels behind them also showed Czech flags.

  • World’s oldest ceramic statuette attracts thousands of art lovers

    Some 20,000 people came to see the nearly 30,000-year-old Venus of Dolní Věstonice, the world’s oldest known ceramic statuette, during a 12-day exhibition at the Regional Museum in Olomouc.

    The statuette, which depicts a female body, was on display from Nov. 27 to Dec. 8.

    According to Břetislav Holásek, the director of the Regional Museum in Olomouc, the number of visitors interested in seeing the statuette was immense throughout the entire exhibition, which prompted the museum to extend its opening hours.

    The exhibition was popular among a wide range of age groups, from children to pensioners, said Holásek who added that many foreigners also arrived.

    Due to exceptional interest among visitors, lines to see the statuette were forcing visitors to wait for up to an hour and a half.

    After the exhibition concluded on Dec. 9, security moved the statuette from the security showcase of the Olomouc Museum to a portable bulletproof box and transported the famous work of art back to Moravian Museum in Brno under armed escort.

    Due to the value and rarity of the statuette, the Venus of Dolní Věstonice is not exhibited more than once every five years.

    The approximately 25,000- to 29,000-year-old statuette represents the oldest known use of clay, and thus possible evidence of the beginnings of ceramic art. A team of scientists led by Karel Absolon found the statuette in 1925, and the artifact soon became a world sensation.

    At the end of January, the Regional Museum in Olomouc will display another archaeologically unique artifact, the marlstone head of the Kelt from Mšecké Žehrovice, which probably dates back to the third century BC.

  • Czechia tightens its citizenship law

    The Czech Republic is tightening its citizenship laws in a number of ways after approving a draft amendment, including requiring that applicants prove that they did not commit certain kinds of misdemeanors.

    According to the draft amendment put forward by the Czech government’s cabinet, applicants should submit a clean criminal record and also provide documents proving their financial situation.

    However, only offenses against security or society will be relevant to the application process. These include, for example, repetitive offenses against the public order.

    Individuals aged 18 to 21 will now be able to acquire citizenship under a simplified regime, but will no longer have a legal entitlement to citizenship.

    There are some exceptions as well to new language requirements. Foreigners who studied in Czech primary and secondary schools, or universities for three years, will not have to prove their Czech language competency.

    People living in the Czech Republic for ten years or more will be required to provide evidence proving their time in the country. This may include, for example, employment contracts or school reports.

    The draft amendment will come into effect in the middle of next year. The Chamber of Deputies will now discuss the proposal.

  • V4 capitals to strengthen cooperation

    Prague will close the pact of “free cities” with Budapest in Hungary, Bratislava in Slovakia, and Warsaw in Poland to strengthen cooperation between capitals of the Visegrad Four countries.

    Mayors of the V4 capital cities agreed to create the pact during a meeting to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

    Prague councilours now have to approve the partnership agreement.

    “Cities are engines of growth and innovation in the regions and face many identical challenges,” explains a document from the Prague City Council offering reasons behind creating the pact.

    The mayors of each city will sign the document in Budapest on Dec. 16.

    Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and Warsaw say they will work together to tackle issues such as climate protection, housing policy, aging of the population, and social policy.

    In addition to the pact, Prague also plans to sign a partnership agreement with Vienna, which will focus on cooperation in the area of transport, housing and climate protection. In January 2020, Prague will also sign a sister agreement with Taipei.

  • This is what Hungarians buy for Christmas

    Hungarians plan to spend 38,000 Hungarian forints (€115) this year on Christmas gifts, a survey by credit monitoring agency Cofidis showed.

    The survey also found that eight in ten Hungarians plan to buy Christmas gifts or materials to make homemade gifts this season, with every fifth buyer saying they would prefer to make gifts of their own. 

    Consumers still buy the majority of their gifts at shopping malls followed by hypermarkets and supermarkets. Unlike in previous years, when there was a constant rise in e-commerce during the holiday season, this year Cofidis expects a 10 percent drop in online sales and sales from specialty shops.

    The most popular gifts, in descending order, are cosmetics, clothing, books, food and beverages, and toys.

    The survey also showed that women feel more under pressure during the Christmas shopping season, with most of the family’s burden falling on them. Despite this, women are still more likely to experience the season as a holiday rather than an inconvenience.

    Overall, 60 percent of Hungarians said they loved Christmas, with only 16 percent having a negative opinion of the holiday.

    Title image: Shopping mall in Budapest (source: Mandiner)

  • Why did Tusk ‘shoot’ Trump in the back?

    Donald Tusk’s bizarre behavior, such as his decision to post his now-famous “shot in the back” photo with Donald Trump on Twitter, is a disappointing case of a man who will do anything to get the attention of others.

    The day following the conclusion of the NATO summit, Tusk made a post on Twitter, which he captioned by saying, “Despite seasonal turbulences, our transatlantic friendship must last.”

    He also added a distasteful photo in which he pretends to shoot Donald Trump in the back with his fingers.

    In the same photo, Chancellor Angela Merkel looks at Tusk and appears to be shocked by the behavior of one of Europe’s leading politicians. That photo provoked the outrage and confusion of dozens of politicians and publicists, as well as thousands of social media users.

    Tusk’s political gaffe affects not only himself but also his party within the European Parliament, the European People’s Party (EPP), which he now leads after recent presidential elections where he was the only candidate for the position.

    Tusk’s decision to post such a strange photo could also negatively affect Poland’s image in the world, but in all likelihood, it should not have much of an impact in the future as Tusk is not perceived as an important politician in the world and Europe.

    At this point in time, only the Polish opposition continues to see him as an outstanding European politician and Polish statesman. They are so blinded that they are even able to find refined humor in Tusk’s bad joke on Twitter at the expense of Trump.

    We also heard some paradoxical claims, such as that Hołownia, as a Catholic, would like a “friendly separation of Church and state.”

    He also mentioned how rural Polish voters feel excluded from the rest of the country, which is indeed a massive problem. What he failed to mention was how the current government led by Law and Justice (PiS) has already made that one of their top priorities, and which probably accounts for the party’s already strong showing with that voter demographic. 

    If there really is a group that wants to invest a lot of money into Hołownia’s campaign, then we might be going Ukraine’s way, where comedian and television personality Volodymir Zelensky became president. Like Zelensky, Hołownia is a man who can work the media to his advantage and knows how to present himself as the model president, at least for a television audience.

    It is similar to scoring a figure skating competition, where the judges evaluate both artistic and technical values. In the former category, Hołownia will be perfect, but he might fall over in the latter.

    He is clearly not a candidate for right-wing voters, but that does not mean PiS should underestimate him. The party’s authorities should analyze why Hołownia is running and for what reasons. He will not win in the first round of elections, but he might draw the support of those who had not declared themselves for a candidate.

    What is more important is what will happen to “his” votes in the second round. They will move to support whoever Andrzej Duda’s opponent will be.

    Think about in which circles a man such as Hołownia is popular, for whom he could be a figure of authority, and from where his actual voters come from?

    Hołownia scores 9 percent in the first poll

    Hołownia may be known for his role on television, but he is also a writer and journalist. He co-hosted the Polish edition of “Got Talent!” and is also an author of 20 books on social issues and religion.

    In the newest presidential survey published on Monday by Social Changes for wpolityce.pl, he received 9 percent and scored in the third-place behind Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska of Civic Platform (25 percent) and incumbent president Andrzej Duda (44 percent).

  • Opinion: We must preserve the crimes of totalitarianism or risk losing our past

    The greatest obligation and mission we have to the victims of 20th-century criminal totalitarianism is to maintain the evidence of those horrific crimes.

    There are symbolic gestures, and there are facts. Undoubtedly, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Auschwitz, the former German death camp which serves as a focal point of the totalitarian crimes of the 20th century, was a symbolic gesture.

    It was her first visit to Auschwitz after 14 years of governing. Yet, despite Nazi Germany building its factories of death in many different parts of Europe, Poland is the country the memories of those horrific events are cared for and memorialized.

    In other countries, the cemeteries of those crimes are being degraded and their terrain privatized. A dark example, and one of many, is the story of the Gusen concentration camp gate in Austria, which was sold and later transformed into a private villa. This is how material proof of how totalitarian crime is vanishing in Europe.

    Maintaining existing evidence of the criminal totalitarianism in Europe is our greatest responsibility towards the victims and ourselves. That is why we must work against those who wish to vanish these important pieces of evidence.

    After all, opposing totalitarianism and surviving in the face of doom is the most important tale Europe has to tell about humanity, for which key years like 1939, 1944 and 1980, all serve as grave reminders of the sacrifices that were made.

    At the same time, we must not play cheap political games while using our own victims but instead work hard to preserve their memory for the common good.

    Despite all the debate concerning the historic politics of the state, we still do not have a central, national place of remembrance of the Second World War and the millions it killed. This shows that we still have a lot of hard work and understanding ahead of us.

  • VIDEO: PM Orbán celebrates Christmas in Hungary with Facebook video

    Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán continued his long-running series of Christmas posts on Facebook with the ninth installment, this time featuring a short montage video of the country to the tune of the traditional Hungarian Christmas song, “Mennyből az angyal” (Angel from Heavens).

     

    The song is not only the most popular in Hungary but likely the oldest Hungarian Christmas song.

    It is attributed to 18th-century vicar Mihály Szentmihályi and first recorded on a phonograph cylinder in 1910. The tune was transcribed by world-famous Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist Béla Bartók.

    Showing various winter and Christmas-themed short outdoor cuts from around Hungary, the video ends with a panoramic shot of downtown Budapest with the parliament building in the background and the greeting “Merry Christmas, Hungary!”

    Title image: Nativity scene in rural Hungary (source: Viktor Orbán’s Facebook page)

  • Pope Francis visits Hungarian nativity scenes in Vatican

    Pope Francis paid an impromptu visit to the nativity scenes exhibition of the Vatican on Monday, where he delivered a short speech at the Hungarian scenes, with the country being the guest of honor of this year’s exhibition.

    Pope Francis spoke shortly in Italian, emphasizing the importance of families and saying all families awaiting Christmas this year should look upon the example of the Holy family because it is the symbol of faith, hope and love.

    He also asked auxiliary bishop Ferenc Cserháti, leader of the Hungarian delegation, about the demographic situation in Hungary.

    He also sampled the szaloncukor, a type of sweet associated with Christmas and customary to eat in Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. He offered his thanks for it by saying “God bless” in Hungarian.

    This year’s nativity exhibition in the Vatican was the 100th one, with Hungary chosen as the guest of honor because it is the country which will host next year’s International Eucharistic Congress between Sep. 13 and Sep. 20.

    Hungary has been a permanent exhibitor at the nativity expo since 1993.


    Title image: Pope Francis and one Hungarian nativity scene. (MTI/EPA/ANSA/Ettore Ferrari)

  • Czech diplomats in Berlin complain about health issues

    Some employees of the Czech Embassy in Berlin have complained about health problems, which they say are related to the amount of asbestos in the building, which is a known carcinogen for humans.

    The health issues reported by embassy workers include rashes, menstrual disorders, fertility issues, and severe fatigue. One of the biggest issues, according to one of the diplomats, is the “flawed” air conditioning, which is in “desolate state.”

    An embassy employee, who works in the building in the center of the German city, talked about the “clutter from the air-conditioning” and the excessive dust.

    “God knows what is in there,” said another employee about the air-conditioning system, adding that because of the obsolete air conditioning, it is sometimes hard for people to breathe and that people are often sick.

    Both the Czech Foreign Ministry and the Czech ambassador to Berlin, Tomáš Podivínský, argue that the asbestos level is normal. According to them, dangerous fibers would only get released in case of damage to the building, which has had asbestos in it dating back to the 1970s.

    “The problem of asbestos does not arise until it is necessary to do construction on the building,” said Podivínsky at the end of November. Podivínský then stated that health issues of the Czech Embassy employees may not be related to asbestos.

    According to the Czech National Institute of Public Health, asbestos can be responsible for serious illnesses, including respiratory tract cancer. Some of the diseases may appear up to decades after exposure to asbestos.

    Judge advocate Zoja Guschlová believes that the aforementioned health issues are not related to asbestos. At the same time, however, she points out that even people working in standards-compliant buildings can still be breathing in large amounts of asbestos fibers in a year, as there is no such thing as a safe threshold for asbestos levels.

    Czech Foreign Ministry stated that it did not register any formal complaints concerning the deterioration of health in relation to the state of the embassy building.

    Nevertheless, preparations for the reconstruction of the building are underway, although, according to some diplomats, it is already too late.

  • 5G is coming to the Czech Republic

    Karlovy Vary will be the first city in the Czech Republic to feature widespread 5G mobile network service, with Vodafone planning to launch the technology in the city by July next year.

    In July this year, the city and Vodafone signed a memorandum of cooperation and since then, there has already been one signal transmitter installed in the city, but it has not yet been made available to the public.

    As part of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the operator tested the network using the transmitter. Afterward, the first real-time holographic interview in the Czech Republic took place over the network. After the test, the transmitter has stayed in the city.

    Thanks to the 5G network’s development, the Karlovy Vary City Hall expects a boost in tourism. Tech companies may also be attracted to the city to try the network out.

    According to Mayor Andrea Pfeffer Ferklová, the city government may also find uses for the super-fast network.

    “For example, it is possible to connect the transport company’s applications to the network in the future,” she said.

    The 5G technology also supports so-called augmented reality, with which Karlovy Vary already has made use of even before 5G has been implemented. For more than half a year, a virtual version of Charles IV has been guiding visitors around the city colonnade, another first for the Czech Republic thanks to Karlovy Vary.

    The introduction of the 5G network could help extend the abilities of Karlovy Vary’s virtual city guide, allowing Charles IV to take visitors to more places, such as famous film locations as well as the city’s major architectural monuments.

    Much still depends on the auction of frequencies for 5G networks and how they are distributed. According to the Czech Telecommunication Office, this auction should take place in January 2020.

    Regardless of the outcome of the auctions, 5G coverage in the Karlovy Vary region will certainly increase in the future. Companies in the area also eagerly await the network, especially those like BMW, which plans to build a development center in the area next year.

    The German carmaker wants to use the center for testing autonomous cars, which are dependent on the super-fast 5G network and its ability to transmit data in real-time.

  • Three people charged over deadly explosion in Slovakia

    Slovak police have charged three people in connection with a deadly gas explosion in a high-rise apartment building in the eastern Slovak town of Prešov. The blast, which claimed at least seven lives, occurred on Friday, Dec. 6.

    The police investigating the tragedy did not provide any details about those charged. However, the investigators recommended the prosecutor’s office ask the court to hold the three charged people in custody.

    On Saturday, Slovak media reported about six people being detained. According to the press, executives and workers of the construction company, which carried out excavation works in the area days before the explosion, were among those arrested.

    Shortly before the explosion, the occupants of the 12-story house complained that they could smell gas in the building.

    Firefighters and police said the number of victims in the building was eight, but so far, they have found only seven bodies. Even two days after the explosion, Slovak rescuers have still been unable to find the missing person in the ruins of the house, who is thought to be the eighth victim.

    The explosion and fire had severely damaged the top four floors of the building, which, according to structural engineers, would have to be demolished. The emergency team will decide whether or not to save the rest of the building.

    The blast damaged the roof and the entire internal staircase of the apartment building.

    Low temperatures that have resulted in frozen water in the building have caused further complications. However, structures of the nearby houses, from which people were also evacuated, have not suffered any damage.

  • Czech woman beats Greta Thunberg at Women of Europe Awards

    A Czech woman beat out Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg at the Women of Europe Awards hosted in Brussels at the BELvue Museum.

    The Czech woman, Johanna Nejedlová, the founder of an association dealing with the prevention of sexual violence, took home an award in one of four categories.

    The four award categories were “Woman in Action” for undertaking extraordinary actions at the grassroots level in Europe, “Woman in Power” for showing extraordinary political leadership in Europe, “Woman in Business” for advancing European integration with entrepreneurial spirit, and “Woman in Youth Activism” for women aged 15 to 30 strengthening the voice of young women in Europe.

    Nejedlová won in the last category, and thus defeated the other nominees, which included Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and Irish Student Union member Síona Cahill.

    “It is essential to eliminate violence against women. We cannot expect women to flourish as long as their safety remains at risk. We must focus on creating a safer environment for women, but we do not have enough tools to do so,” said Nejedlová.

    “The jury chose me out of all these wonderful women as the Woman of Europe in Youth Activism. It’s a strange feeling. During my speech, I mentioned that prizes are great, but that awards do not pay for renting an office and that if there is something crucial that can be done to support ‘women in youth activism’, it is to provide sufficient funding,” wrote Nejedlová on her Facebook account.

    Nejedlová is a co-founder of the non-profit association Konsent, which is engaged in the prevention of sexual violence. The association organizes workshops, educational events, and training on the issue of rape and sexual harassment.

    One of the educational events is a campaign on social networks called “Respect is sexy”.

    The campaign focuses on harassment in clubs and bars, Nejedlová helps to train bartenders to know how to react when guests ask for help. Furthermore, she instructs bartenders and security guards on how to recognize when a situation is unpleasant for some of guests, such as in the case of sexual harassment.

    “But we don’t want to become flirting police, i.e., to judge if people get to know each other accordingly,” said Nejedlová, adding that the goal is not to discourage men in clubs from inviting women for a drink.

  • Hungary needs to expand its economic protection plan: finance minister

    The Hungarian government will devise a second economic protection plan in order to maintain GDP growth amidst a global slowdown, finance minister Mihály Varga said on Saturday at a Budapest business conference.

    “While we cannot speak of a recession, the growth rate of the global economy is diminishing and in order to keep the Hungarian economy on a growth path and ensure an increase in GDP, we need further economic protection measures,” Varga said.

    The Hungarian government’s term “economic protection” does not mean protective import duties, but government measures to boost the domestic economy.

    Varga said the goal is to keep Hungarian economic growth at least two percentage points above the average of the European Union. He added that these measures would include support for investments and qualitative improvements, such as encouraging the spread of digitalization.

    He said Hungary remains an attarctive target for foreign direct investments, which amounted to 4.1 percent of the country’s gross domestic product in 2018.

    While most international organizations and rating agencies expected the Hungarian economy to slow down, its growth rate in the third quarter of the year remained a very strong five percent, mainly on account of robust domestic consumption, rising productivity and a high investment rate.

    Varga said the first package of the economic protection plan introduced this June is already showing results, such as the high purchase volume of the new five-year government securities with a progressive yield.

    He said the second package will include tax cuts, more streamlining in companies’ administrative tasks and a reduction in the amount of cash currently in circulation.

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

  • Want to make a movie in Hungary? This startup can help

    Building on the success of Hungary as a top location for major movie productions, a Hungarian startup launched a website offering film and photo locations for rent around the country.

    Spotager offers a variety of locations in Hungary for rent, including private residences, including apartments and houses, along with various commercial properties ranging from restaurants and wine cellars to garages. The site also offers vehicles for rent for use in films, including modern and vintages cars.

    “Uniquely in Europe, we were the first to build a platform that connects real estate and vehicle publishers with tenants looking for shooting or photography locations. Our goal is to digitize and simplify an industry to make it easily accessible to anyone,” the site says.

    Prices start from €150 euros a day for a 1957 Hungarian-made Pannónia motorcycle in pristine condition and a modest wooden fishing pier for €160. For those with more ambitious productions, filmmakers are able to take advantage of locations like the restored 13th-century Diósgyőr Castle in northeastern Hungary for €5,000 a day.

    After Communism ended in 1989, Hungary gradually became a popular location for major movie productions, with one of the first being the 1996 Evita, starring Madonna. 

    The movie was mostly filmed in Hungary on account of its recently-deceased producer, Andy Vajna, who was a U.S. producer with a Hungarian background. More recently, Hungary was also the location for Marvel’s Black Widow and 20 Century Fox’s Red Sparrow starring Jennifer Lawrence.

    Title image: The Diósgyőr Castle (source: MTI)

  • Big Tech censorship: YouTube blocks Polish conservatives

    YouTube has blocked the largest Polish online conservative channel, wRealu24 TV, after accusing the channel of “hate speech.” The channel’s creator, Marcin Rola, claimed that YouTube is censoring conservative content and said the corporation must be fought by those who value free speech.

    Rola joked in an interview with DoRzeczy.pl that the reason YouTube blocked his channel relates to what George Orwell called a “thoughtcrime.”

    He pointed out that this was not the first time his channel had been censored, which also occurred after he published a segment in defense of Catholicism and traditional, Christian values and priests.

    The content creator underlined that being blocked due to “hate speech” is unlawful in the eyes of the Polish law and constitution, as Polish law only recognizes cases of defamation, and it is up to Polish courts to decide whether such a crime was committed.

    He explained that his channel is the largest one promoting conservative content in Poland, with hundreds of thousands of followers and even more users on their website. Most of their funding comes from donations, as YouTube has also turned off advertisements on the channel and has even refused to pay wRealu24 TV for ads that previously ran on the channel when it was still monetized.

    The German Chancellor explained, that Auschwitz is not only a symbol of the Holocaust, but also the symbol of “the murdering and genocide of the Sinti Roma, the murder of political prisoners, Polish intelligentsia, members of the resistance, prisoners from the former USSR and other states, gay people, disabled people and many, many others from across Europe.”

    Merkel underlined that the suffering in Auschwitz, the death in gas chambers and the forced labor was “incomprehensible to the human mind.”

    She added that the camp’s official full name in German was Auschwitz-Birkenau, the German National-Socialist Work and Death Camp. 

    “Oświęcim is located in Poland, but in October 1939 Auschwitz was annexed as part of the German Reich. It then was a German death camp administered by Germans. It’s important to me to underline that, important, to clearly point out the perpetrators. We owe that to the victims and to ourselves,” Merkel declared.

  • Opinion: When it comes to the climate strike, be careful what you wish for

    The pressure to introduce a “pedocracy” or a “rule of the youth” is growing.

    The latest form of this movement is represented through the climate strike. The youth has put forward a radical ideology designed to completely reconfigure the social order, which will be enforced with constant surveillance by the most powerful governments and people in the world in a sort of modern-day Komsomol, otherwise known as the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League.

    The symbol of this movement is the upraised fist, a gesture which even left-wing journalist are calling “the most disgusting symbol invented by humanity.” All of this to fight to protect the climate and push back global warming.

    The issue is that the current generation is the one which is consuming the most plastic, producing the most trash and which respects material goods the least in human history. The more resources they use, the more they assault the rest of society with attempts to instigate moral panic.

    Instead of fighting this radical youth movement, we should radically propose to fulfill their slogans, but make sure they are first in line. If they want a revolutionary government, they should start the revolution among themselves.

    Here are just a few examples of what this youth movement should embrace if they are truly serious about climate change and the environment:

    • Forbid the sale of plastic toys, most of which are just thrown away after a few months.
    • Forbid the sale of soda and other fizzy drinks, most of which are bottled in plastic and unhealthy.
    • Limit the ability of minors to travel apart from language education purposes and sport.
    • End weird and scented pens, hair dying and shops with clothes for teens.
    • Forbid the sale of food and coffee for take-out.
    • No fast food from mass-production farms and put an end to all processed food.
    • Shaving only using razors.
    • No more soda and popcorn at the cinema, just tap water.
    • No more central heating in schools and rooms, which often requires coal, and only blankets instead.
    • An end to the gaming, streaming and computer industry, which requires enormous amounts of energy to deliver data around the world.
    • New phone models every five years, not every few months like it is now.
    • No more single-use diapers, wet tissues and an end to all cosmetics.
    • A ban on applying for driving licenses as there are already too many drivers and cars.

    There are hundreds of situations in which the radical postulates of teenagers can be applied to themselves.

    I am convinced, that even the opposition in the Polish Senate would support that program. If so many teenagers want to be Greta Thunberg, let’s let them. After all, every change should start with yourself.

    And the rest of society can promise: if the experiment works out, after a year we can talk about what will come next.

  • Little hero saves friend from drowning

    Twelve-year-old Robert Lebeda is being celebrated as a hero after he pulled his drowning friend out of the water and saved his life after using resuscitation.

    Lebeda, who hails from Prague, received an award for his efforts from an organization that recognizes “little heroes” for their actions.

    Lebeda was honored by the Children’s Deed of the Year Fund, which awards students from grammar schools and special needs programs who have done a good deed or noticed a good deed of a friend.

    Robert received the award for saving a human life during a ceremony at the Old Town Hall in Prague.

    The accident occurred when both friends were at the swimming pool during the holidays, and Robert’s friend Pavel decided to swim the whole pool underwater.

    “When he swam in the pool underwater, he couldn’t get to the surface. As he finally managed to get to the surface, he hit his head, splitting his eyebrow open, and then he was no longer breathing,” Lebeda said. Immediately, he started resuscitation before placing his friend in a stabilized position and treating the cut on his eyebrow.

    Lebeda had never been in a similar situation before. Late in the hospital, he learned that he saved his friend’s life.

    The 12-year-old says he has been involved in firefighting since he was four years old and when he grows up, he would like to rescue people.

    Among the children who were awarded was also 14-year-old Karolína Neslušanová, who received a special award for her involvement in the “Heart with Love” donation event. She and her classmates created the initiative to contribute to the Intensive and Resuscitation Care Unit of the General University Hospital in Prague.

    This year, it was the 15th Children’s Deed of the Year award ceremony, which has recorded over 580 heroic acts of children.

  • Will Czechia abolish physical punishment for children?

    Within the European Union, the Czech Republic is one of the last countries that has not yet banned physical punishment of children. However, this may change in the foreseeable future.

    On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Czech ombudswoman Anna Šabatová stated that the ban on physical punishment of children in the Czech Republic should be considered. The government commissioner for Human Rights, Helena Válková, then added she is in favor of such a law.

    The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, as well as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, recommended a ban on physical punishment in the Czech Republic years ago. A total ban is now imposed in 23 EU countries.

    “When I was a child, it was common for children to experience physical punishments, and it has been approved to this day. Most people still consider a slap to be an appropriate educational tool. But if a prisoner was slapped by a guard, it would be found to be an infringement. We should think about whether children should have the same rights as adults. After all, we cannot slap adults even for educational reasons,” said Šabatová.

    Last October, the Nielsen agency conducted a survey of the Czechs’ attitude regarding the ban on physical punishments of children. The results showed that three-quarters of Czechs over 15-years-of-age do not agree with implementing a law that would ban physical punishment.

    According to the survey, the attitude of Czechs to physical punishment of children has not changed fundamentally over time. Within the past year, however, it turned out that this is not entirely true. Courses teaching parents to handle various situations without physical punishment are getting more popular, helping parents deal with difficult situations without resorting to slapping or other physical punishments.

  • Climate change madness has the young attacking Western civilization

    The young generation reproaches the older one, exclaiming: “You destroyed our planet!”

    But it’s nonsense.

    The older generation has made many mistakes, but climate activists are not paying attention to the essentials that matter. Instead, they are fighting an apocalypse cooked up in the virtual world where hashtags matter more than substance.

    When the Fridays for Future student strikes began, many people considered these protests to relatively reasonable. Even if someone does not agree with the protesters’ message about climate change, it was good that young people care about something enough to voice their concerns.

    Eventually, however, crazy people from the Extinction Rebellion started to promote a culture of hate with the aim to destroy liberal democracy and capitalism.

    “Change the system, not the climate” has become the main slogan of those who want to not only curb carbon dioxide emissions but also stir conflict with the whole Western civilization.

    Greta Thunberg’s latest appeal, calling young activists to be “combat-ready”,  is a great example. Thunberg no longer sticks only with climate protection proclamations. She has also started to blame the “colonial, racist, and patriarchal oppression mechanisms” for “creating and nourishing the crisis of human rights, justice, and political will.”

    But the opposite is true. The culture of the “white heterosexual man” gave the world civil liberties, the rule of law, and the democratic will to move towards a better world. In many other countries, critics like Thunberg would not even have the right to speak. In many countries, people of her gender still have little to no rights, a tragedy that Thunberg overlooks in her pursuit of trashing the West.

    We in the West have made many mistakes along with every other that has existed on this planet, but no one can deny the merits of the Western system.

    It is a very strange rebellion that is taking place against the “old”.

    It is not a rebellion of young people trying to have a different lifestyle than their parents. Sometimes, I doubt they want to live at all.

    As a person who experienced the world before these young activists were born, I know what the planet used to look like. Furthermore, communism was a real threat, not a virtual nightmare. it was a real reason to fear the future.

    In the past, nature was polluted and poisonous water flowed in the rivers. We ate food with many dangerous pollutants, the air was contaminated by emissions that smothered us and people died of cancer and lung diseases. Fortunately, the world today is quite different and better.

    Rivers, soil and air are several times cleaner than in 1989. We limit dependence on coal power plants. We can travel freely, live in peace and security, and enjoy the advantages that capitalism offers.

    We also have access to amazing technology, much of it derived from the West, that despite its drawbacks has made life much easier, including for those who have access to it in less developed parts of the world. It is also the reason Thunberg can even reach such a large audience with the click of her mouse.

    My generation did not destroy the planet. On the contrary, we will hand the planet to the current young generation in a much better state, with cleaner nature, and a society that is freer, safer and richer.

    So what is this new “generation rebellion” about?

    In fact, there is nothing particularly new about in the sense that young people want to be heard, as they always have. At the same time, new systems of exploitation has sprung up around it, including those who see opportunities to get rich through the climate business.

    At the end of the day, there is not much to rebel about. Green policies are part of the program of most political parties, and the economy is increasingly focusing on green technologies. The protection of the environment is an integral part of constitutional rights for most countries and not many are truly questioning that, but young people seem to think that only they can change a system that is already in many ways working towards their goals.

  • Czechia, Israel sign multi-million euro military radar deal

    The Czech military is set to vastly improve its defense capabilities after acquiring cutting-edge radar systems from Israel, according to defense Minister Lubomír Metnar.

    The Czech military will buy eight MADR 3D mobile radars from Israel for 3.5 billion korunas (€137 million) based on an intergovernmental contract that the Czech defense minister signed on Dec. 5.

    The Czech army will receive the first mobile radar within 20 months while the last tranche of radars will be delivered within 40 months at the latest. Furthermore, based on the terms of the contract, the participation of the Czech companies will constitute at least 30 percent of the construction and delivery of the radars.

    “The purchase of MADR 3D mobile radars is one of our key modernization projects. Czech soldiers urgently need this device. We will end our dependence on obsolete Russian devices, and at the same time, we will obtain a top-notch system from our important strategic partner,” said Metnar.

    Metnar also pointed out that the Israeli radars have proven their reliability in previous combat deployment while emphasizing that Czech companies will participate in the implementation of the contract.

    The new technology will replace Russian radars that have significantly exceeded the recommended operating time. Israeli radars will allow the army to monitor the above-ground situation at altitudes from 100 to 3,000 meters.

    The MADR 3D mobile radars, made by the Israeli state enterprise Elta Systems, will be delivered to the Czech Army through the Israeli government.

    Both Metnar and the director of the Israeli International Defense Cooperation Directorate, Jair Kulas, also stressed that the contract will further strengthen strategic cooperation between the Czech Republic and Israel.

    Kulas then recalled that the cooperation between both countries began in the late 1940s when Czechoslovakia, despite an embargo, supplied Israel with weapons that allowed the newly established state to defend itself against a coordinated attack from other Middle Eastern countries.

  • Santa is the ultimate globalist: commentary

    You may think of him as everybody’s beloved Santa, but the nice old man dressed in red is, in fact, the ultimate globalist.

    Unlike in Anglo-Saxon countries, where Protestant tradition links Santa Claus to Christmas, many predominantly Catholic European countries celebrate him on Dec. 6, when the saint his figure is based on, Nicholas, the bishop of the Greek port of Myra, died in 343 AD.

    Following are the six reasons why Santa Claus is the ultimate globalist:

    Santa delivers to a global market

    Early on in his business, he realized that the North Pole is not much of a market and has thus taken his venture to a global level, a strategy that has proven successful. Incidentally, his move also greatly helped the toy market, whose global sales would be nowhere near as high without his existence.

    Santa is an expert at brand building

    Starting from and sticking to his roots, he managed to build a global brand that has a strong connection to its origins while at the same time is instantly recognizable around the world.

    Santa’s brand also transcends religious barriers. For example, many children from non-Christian cultures whose families might be otherwise reluctant to celebrate other aspects of Christianity, often learn to embrace Santa when they arrive in Europe or the United States. The reward for these kids in accepting Santa is often far too great.

    Santa is a human resource wizard

    Santa employs a vast army of elves in the North Pole, and despite the enormous workload, we have never received any reports of strikes or industrial actions from Santa’s workshop.

    Santa’s decision to move production to the North Pole was also a savvy strategy. For one, there are no other industries that exist in the region that can poach his elf staff, while at the same time, his monopoly on the workforce also likely helps keep costs down.

    Despite Santa’s strong position, there is no evidence that he treats his workers poorly. Most elves appear to enjoy working for the big red boss. Long vacations following the Christmas season probably also contribute to high worker satisfaction.

    Santa conducts impeccable market research

    Any global brand experiences difficulties in accurately gauging the pulse of its many local markets. Not so with Santa: he has a myriad force of unpaid yet loyal local agents in the form of parents, uncles and grandparents.

    Santa retains their loyal service through the generous distribution of presents to these parental figures when they were kids. For Santa, it only requires around ten to 12 years of gift-giving to ensure decades of free labor from these grown-ups.

    The fact that they remain loyal to him throughout their lives shows that Santa even bests Japanese companies in terms of workforce retention.

    Santa delivers high customer satisfaction

    Jeff Bezos is known for his relentless drive to improve customer satisfaction, but compared to Santa, Bezos is an embarrassment.

    Santa has made children happy for generations and unlike Bezos, he has never been accused of running a year-round “sweatshop,” refused to pay corporate taxes (there is no real government in the North Pole) or turned his products into spy devices to gather private information from customers.

    Simple and effective product distribution.

    Santa is a master of the supply chain. He manages to visit millions of households all in the space of a few hours on one magical night a year. Unlike other services that leave packages on your doorstep only for them to be robbed by the local neighborhood tweaker, Santa never fails to deliver his presents directly inside your home.

    He also mostly manages this on his own. Using nothing more than his sleigh, he distributes presents around the world directly into waiting stockings and underneath Christmas trees, and in the process brings the concept of just-in-time delivery to a whole new level.

    Title image: Joulupukki holding a press conference at the Budapest Chain Bridge Hotel (MTI/Balázs Mohai)

  • Outrage: Tusk ‘shoots’ Trump in the back in viral photo

    Polish social media users did little to conceal their distaste and outrage at Donald Tusk, the former President of the European Council, after he posted a photo on social media in which it appears to show him pretending to shoot U.S. President Donald Trump in the back with his fingers.

    A day after the conclusion of the NATO summit in London, Tusk, who also previously served as prime minister in Poland, posted a photo on Twitter in which he is pointing his fingers at Trump’s back in what looks to be in the form of a gun.

    Just moments after posting this photo, the online discussion became heated as hundreds of critical comments appeared beneath it, with many social media users finding Tusk’s gesture highly distasteful.

    TVP Info portal head Samuel Pereira could not hide his disbelief at the photo, saying, “No, this is not fake or photoshopped. This is Donald Tusk and the photo which he himself posted on Twitter.”

    Another journalist, Patryk Osowski emphasized the bad taste of Tusk’s joke and lack of diplomatic tact.

    “There are funny jokes and misguided jokes. This one is tragic from a diplomatic point of view. Aiming at the back of another politician?” asked Osowski.

    Given Tusk’s new status at the president of the European People’s Party and his ambitions to remain active in Polish politics, many were questioning why Tusk would antagonise the leader of the United States, the country that serves as one of Poland’s primary allies.

    Another internet users drew attention to Angela Merkel’s shocked reaction to Tusk’s gesture, saying:

    “Even Angela Merkel is quite shocked.”

    Some other users compared the photo to the infamous one of Donald Tusk and Russian President Vladimir Putin taken on April 10, 2010, shortly after the Smoleńsk catastrophe in which President Lech Kaczyński died:

    “Tusk and Trump, Tusk and Putin”

     

    While some wanted to give Tusk the benefit of the doubt, others questioned why Tusk would post a photo of himself pointing his fingers at Trump’s back in the form of a gun if he truly wanted to highlight their “friendship”.

    Most world leaders and politicians post photos of themselves standing side by side with other politicians, as Tusk demonstrates in other photos on his Twitter feed, including the post he made right before the one he posted with Trump.

    Despite the outcry, the post still remains active on Tusk’s Twitter page at the time of publication.

  • Hungarian students stabs teacher over one bad grade

    A 17-year-old student of a high school in the northwest Hungarian town of Győr knifed his physics teacher after the 51-year-old woman gave him a bad grade on his paper, regional newspaper Kisalföld reports.

    The attack happened during class as the teacher was drawing on the board. She suffered arm and chest injuries, but the director of the local Petz Aladár hospital told news television HírTV that while she suffered a lung puncture and needed surgery for the wound on her forearm, the woman’s life is not in danger and her condition is stable.

    The unnamed student has a strong academic record and even took part in several academic competitions, placing his team third at one local event. After he submitted his paper, he told his classmates that he will stab the teacher if she gives him a bad grade. In the Hungarian school system grades run from one to five. His paper received a three, which is a passing grade.

    “I could no longer bear the pressure,” the student said after the event.

    If the court finds that the attack was of malicious intent and the perpetrator was of sane mind, he could face seven years in jail. Such violence is very rare in Hungarian schools, which made the incident garner national headlines.

    Title image: Police take in custody the Győr student who knifed his teacher (source: HBE Kisalföld)

     

  • Victory for families: Polish court decide against splitting children from Chechen mother

    Polish courts have continued their strong defense of families after deciding to return parental rights of five Chechen children back to their mother after she fled to Poland from Denmark.

    The Chechen family lived and worked in Denmark for several years where they earned their refugee status, with Zalina Adzjeva and her husband Artur Dombaev raising five children in the Scandinavian country. In 2017, when a conflict arose between the couple, the mother applied for a divorce, prompting the interest of Danish social services in the family.

    In July 2019, Danish authorities from the administrative organization for child and youth issues (the Borne-Ungeforvaltningen) decided to split the five children apart and send them to three different foster families. The move occurred without stripping the parents of their parental authority

    The parents could not accept the decision and decided to leave Denmark. The mother wanted to return to Chechnya through Poland, explained Babken Khanzadyan, the family’s lawyer who represented their case.

    Danish authorities inserted the children in the Schengen Information System as lost persons, which led to the mother and her children being stopped on the Polish-Belarusian border near Terespol in eastern Poland.

    After a court decision, the children were temporarily transferred to a foster family in Terespol.

    The lawyer representing the family appealed the verdict and requested the Polish state give back full parental authority to the mother.

    This week, the district court in Biała Podlaska in eastern Poland decided that the children will remain under the care of their parents.

    “Full parental authority was restored. Once again, a Polish court stood in defense of a family and its basic rights by keeping them together,” Khanzadyan emphasized.

    This is not the first such case in recent years. In April 2019, Russian Denis Lisov’s three daughters were taken away from him by Swedish social services and given to a Muslim foster family.

    Lisov had escaped Sweden and Stockholm after authorities released a European arrest warrant for Lisov, claiming that he had kidnapped his daughters.

    A Polish court decided not to turn the man over to Sweden and declared that the daughters should remain with him.

     

  • How Poland convinced Turkey to strengthen NATO’s Eastern flank

    Poland did not concede to Turkish concession demands but still managed to convince Turkey to bolster NATO’s Eastern flank with more troops, said Minister Krzysztof Szczersk following the NATO summit in London.

    Turkey had originally demanded that NATO support Turkey’s actions against Kurdish groups in northern Syria in exchange for allowing NATO to send additional troops and resources to Europe’s Eastern flank.

    At the NATO summit on Dec. 4, Poland’s diplomatic team convinced Turkey to support Poland’s position out of a gesture of solidarity with Poland, according to Szczerski, who added that Polish diplomacy under the lead of President Andrzej Duda achieved one of its primary objectives at the summit.

    Szczerski, who accompanied Duda during his visit to the UK, stressed that Turkey’s initial opposition to updating NATO defense plans of the Baltic states and Poland did not come from poor Polish-Turkish relations but was a part of the “Turkish defense plan”.

    Szczerski explained that Duda first spoke with Turkish President Recep Erdogan on the phone on Monday before the summit. The presidents met again during the party at Buckingham Palace and for the third time before the North Atlantic Council deliberations, accompanied by the leaders of the Baltic states and NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg.

    Sending reinforcements to NATO’s Eastern flank would have required unanimous consent from all NATO members, which is why Poland required Turkish support for the additional deployments.

    “For the first time in the history of our Alliance, we have forces ready to act and deployed on the eastern flank in Poland and other member states,” the secretary-general said, adding that NATO has activated its “4 times 30” Readiness Initiative, which will allow it to act much quicker than before.

    The presidents of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Stoltenberg, and Estonia’s prime minister also met with Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO summit. The talks, which concerned Turkish support for strengthening NATO’s eastern flank, were set up during a phone call between Erdogan and Andrzej Duda before the summit.

    PiS MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski declared that Poland can be “absolutely pleased” by the results of the London NATO summit.

    “The London declaration is very satisfying and the key statements in both the declaration and at Stoltenberg’s conference are good for Poland. First, the confirmation of Article 5 in a united manner was presented, with members saying it is fundamental for security. Secondly, the readiness plans of countries such as Poland and the Baltic states were confirmed. Finally, members succeeded in putting Macron and Erdogan back into line,” Saryusz-Wolski summarized.

  • Major Polish airport project is vital for the country’s future

    A major Polish airport project and transportation hub will serve as a direct competitor to foreign airports and is vital for the development of LOT Polish Airlines, declared the government plenipotentiary for the project, Marcin Horała.

    Known as the Central Port of Communication (CPK), Horala says that the project is being criticized due to the fact that many foreign initiatives view it as a direct competitor.

    “These competitors have, as we can see, influence in Poland,” stated Horała. He said that he believes that the project is also cost-effective.

    The minister emphasized the importance of the CPK in Polish Airlines LOT’s development, as the airline should have a host airport from which it can develop additional flight connections without a natural limit on the airport’s capacity.

    Horała also addressed the question of whether the CPK will also serve as competition for communication networks of partner states in the Intermarium region, such as Hungary and the Czech Republic, but he said that will depend on the development model of the flight industry.

    “Will it be a hub and spoke model, so a large hub in which traffic is concentrated, or a network of direct point-to-point connections? Everything points to it being the former,” he said, emphasizing that such a hub currently does not exist in the Intermarium and Poland is the only logical place to build it.

    The plenipotentiary explained that Poland is the largest country in the region, with the strongest economy and largest population which generates most of the air traffic.

    He underlined that it is the traffic to and from Poland and the tens of millions of passengers passing through the country that will drive the airport into existence and attract additional transfer traffic.

    Mikołaj Wild, the current acting head of the CPK, is looking for foreign companies that want to cooperate on the investment. There are also open positions for a strategic advisor for the CPK and a consultant for the Warsaw Chopin airport.

    The management of the CPK project has already met with the representatives of the Singapore Changi Airport and the Singaporeans have expressed interest in participating in the project.

    The Polish CPK project is ambitious

    The Central Communication Port (CPK), also known as Solidarity Transport Hub, could serve up to 45 million passengers a year. Polish and regional passengers could have to change flights abroad much less often and would have access to better connections, including additional flights from LOT Polish Airlines.

    The airport is meant to eventually replace the Warsaw Chopin Airport, which is currently at full capacity.

    The planned transportation hub is meant to occupy an area of 3,000 hectares near Baranów, which is 37 kilometers west of Warsaw.

    Not only will the project feature a major airport, which is expected to be finished by 2027, but also includes railway investments meant to better connect the entire country by providing speedy connections to Warsaw and other major cities. In total, 1,600 kilometers of new routes are meant to be constructed, starting with a rail line between Warsaw and Łódź.

  • NATO’s fragile unity: commentary

    When a political alliance is attempting to demonstrate its stability, it usually ends up highlighting existing fault lines, often in a quite shocking manner. This is exactly what happened at the NATO summit in London on Dec. 4.

    The celebrations were hosted by the country which is on its way out of a European Union and led by a prime minister who is on excellent terms with U.S. President Donald Trump. And this means a lot, at least from a military perspective.

    The reason is very simple: NATO is essentially the United States’ domain and is largely financed by Washington, but in the year 2019 it no longer works the way it did in 1958. The U.S. feels that it is paying way too much and that the others are just along for the ride, secure in their knowledge that America wants to maintain and, if possible, further expand the alliance.

    Meanwhile, medium-sized NATO member states are wondering whether this system is actually to their benefit or a standalone national defense will serve them better.

    Interests have changed, the Cold War is history and while there are and will always be joint interests, no European country is willing to give its strategic position in the name of a fancy ideal.

    The French president called the alliance “brain-dead” and is seemingly sticking to this evaluation. Paris is about as enthusiastic NATO member as Great Britain is one of the European Union. So much so, that in 1966, France left the military cooperation side of NATO and has only rejoined it on its 60th anniversary.

    It is painfully obvious that on account of too many diverging interests, NATO is in urgent need of a reform.

    But the question is, who should decide the future direction of the alliance? In today’s media-driven world, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stole the show at NATO summit during a hot mic moment where he was caught mocking Trump along with French President Emmanuel Macron, but should Canada really be the one to decide where to take NATO?

    Title image: NATO flag 

  • PM Orbán: NATO now recognizes the security risk that migration poses

    NATO has for the first time admitted that illegal migration represents a security risk, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in London on Wednesday after the NATO summit there.

    “As a result, the alliance will mobilize more means and funds against migration and the terrorism that follows it,” Orbán told journalists after the meeting.

    Orbán, 56, was prime minister of Hungary when the country, along with the Czech Republic and Poland, joined NATO on March 12, 1999. He added NATO membership was very important for Hungary and he was proud that he could be the one who signed the accession document on behalf of his country.

    “NATO membership is also an important identity component of the political community as it was the Christian national forces that brought the country into NATO during our first government,” Orbán said.

    He said that since then new challenges have appeared in the world, including mass migration and the security risks posed by the terrorism that follows it. NATO has already previously admitted the nature of these risks, but the major change is that now it has included it among the most significant challenges.

    Orbán also praised the work of Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, whose efforts of several years have resulted in the change of mindset from NATO.

    ISIS is still alive in Europe

    Orbán’s remarks come at a heightened time of tension in Europe regarding terrorism.

    On Nov. 12, three ISIS terrorists were arrested in Germany after planning massive attacks with explosives in Frankfurt. Two of the citizens were of Turkish origin while a third was a German-born citizen with a North Macedonian background.

    On Nov. 19, just a week later, German police arrested a Syrian jihadi in Berlin. The man was employed at a primary school as a cleaner and had already been in the country for three years. Despite Germany accepting him into the country, the man had purchased chemicals to produce enough explosives to “kill as many people as possible.”

    A little over a week later, on Nov. 29, the London Bridge terrorist attack resulted in two dead and three wounded. The Islamic terrorist attack was not the first one on the bridge either. The entire case has thrown Britain’s legal system into question after it came to light that the terrorist, Usman Khan, was released early after being convicted of terrorism-related charges.

    In a sign of the challenges that lay ahead, Turkey, a NATO member, also has plans to start repatriating ISIS terrorists back to their country of origin, according to Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu. He said that their deportations will occur even if fighters had their European citizenship revoked:

    “We will send back those in our hands, but the world has come up with a new method now: revoking their citizenships. They are saying they should be tried where they have been caught. This is a new form of international law, I guess. It is not possible to accept this. We will send back Daesh (Islamic State) members in our hands to their own countries whether their citizenships are revoked or not.”

    Turkey has thousands of ISIS fighters in its custody, including at least a hundred of German origin. The country’s actions are forcing “Europe to face its militants”, according to the New York Times. The German Interior Ministry said it does not know the identity of the terrorists being sent back to Germany but that the country would have to accept the ISIS fighters if they have German citizenship.

    Many countries in Western Europe, including Germany, France and Great Britain, have been beset with terrorist attacks for years. On top of the dozens of attacks that have occurred, security forces in those countries devote enormous resources to monitoring terrorist activity and foiling attacks before they occur.


    Title image, (L to R): NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the November 4 NATO summit in London (MTI/Gergely Botár)

  • Hungarian women ask for ban on director hit with sex scandal

    Two Hungarian women’s associations demanded on Wednesday that all theaters remove the plays created by film and theatrical director Péter Gothár, who was involved in a recent sexual harassment scandal.

    “No Hungarian theater should perform any of his plays until his case has been thoroughly investigated,” Kinga Szőnyi, president of Hungarian Women’s Interest Protection, said in front of the theater where Gothár – as he himself admitted – has been involved in at least one harassment case.

    “No woman in Hungary should be subjected to the kind of harassment that allegedly happened in this theater,” she said.

    In October, Budapest’s prominent Katona József theater announced the sacking of an employee for “repeated inappropriate conduct” but did not name him. The following day Gothár himself issued a statement admitting blame and apologizing.

    “One year ago I approached a female colleague in a morally unacceptable way. A few days later, I apologized and she accepted the apology,” the award-winning Gothár wrote in the statement. “Now that the case became public in both the theater and the country, I would like to publicly apologize again. I am very sorry for what happened. I am also sorry if I have offended anyone with my brusque style, bad manners or morally objectionable behavior.”

    The two presidents of women’s rights groups held their joint press conference in front of the theater while on the same day the ethics committee of the Budapest University of Theater and Film Arts discussed the issue behind closed doors. No details have yet emerged about the result of the meeting.

    Title image: Women’s rights activists Kinga Szőnyi (L) and Nóra Király (R) lead a protest against film and theatrical director Péter Gothár in Budapest on December 4. (MTI/Márton Mónus)

  • Czechia joins Giving Tuesday movement

    For the fourth time, the Czech Republic joined the annual worldwide charitable event Giving Tuesday, in which people and companies donate money, food, clothing or offer volunteer work.

    The Giving Tuesday initiative was launched seven years ago in opposition to the Christmas shopping period which features buying sprees and a focus on materialism. It is held annually on Tuesday after the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving.

    Last year, Czechia raised nearly 32 million korunas (€1.3 million) on donations during this event. However, this year’s Giving Tuesday surpassed this amount with more than 55 million korunas (€2.2 million).

    “We already know that the number is record-breaking,” said the director of the Association of Social Responsibility, Lucie Mádlová.

    However, the charity event exceeded the organizers’ expectations even before its launch. Already on Monday, they registered more than 300 donor calls.

    “For example, there are calls from fathers and mothers in prison looking for a donation for their children,” Mádlová explained.

    Mostly, people contribute financially during Giving Tuesday. The event is intended not only for individuals but for companies, non-profit organizations, schools, and cities as well.

    There are many ways to get involved in the campaign. For example, companies can donate their products to people in need while individuals usually volunteer in a non-profit organization, donate to charity, or offer winter clothing and food to homeless people.

    Contributors should then write down their actions and donations on a special website that tracks the success rate of the campaign.

  • UN: Europe at the forefront of online shopping

    Europe leads in readiness for online shopping with the Czech Republic placing 25th out of 152 countries, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) index.

    The Czech Republic’s place also improved year-on-year by six ranks.

    The UNCTAD index takes into account the access to secure internet servers, the reliability of postal services and infrastructure, and the portion of the population in the country that uses the internet and has an account at a financial institution or mobile-money-service provider.

    Even though Czechia placed at an amazing 25th place, Slovakia ranked even higher, placing 24th in the ranking.

    Compared to countries with better results, the Czech Republic has lower scores in the area of the reliability of postal services and the proportion of people with a bank account.

    Overall, eight European countries – the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Britain, Denmark, Norway, Ireland and Germany – placed in the top ten.

    Besides these countries, Singapore ranked third while Australia finished at number ten.

    The survey further showed that 80 percent of internet users in six countries, i.e., Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Britain, do their shopping online.

    In comparison, in more than 20 poorer countries, less than 10 percent of internet users buy products online.

    UNCTAD stressed that the ranking is provisional as some of the data still dates back to 2017.

    As the latest data concerns internet security and the reliability of the postal service, these parameters are the ones making the biggest difference in the ranking compared to previous years.

  • Number of tourists in Prague is on the rise

    According to international research company Euromonitor International, the number of tourists visiting Prague has increased in 2019, with the Czech metropolis recording 9.2 million visits so far.

    Due to the increase in visitors, the researchers placed Prague in 22nd place among the most visited cities in the world.

    Even though Hong Kong is continuing to experience turbulent times, the city in South China has managed to keep its first place in the ranking. According to the survey entitled Top 100 City Destinations conducted by Euromonitor International, 26.7 million tourists visited the metropolis.

    Another five Asian cities then placed in the Top 10, including the Thai capital Bangkok (2nd place), Macau (3rd place), Singapore (4th place), and Kuala Lumpur (9th place).

    In addition to the number of tourists, Euromonitor International also monitors how much money people spend on their visits. In Asia, it was $532 billion (€480 billion) in 2019.

    However, the research report points out that the European continent attracts the highest number of tourists overall. Indeed, in 2019, nearly 722 million visitors came to Europe, spending $577 billion (€520 billion).

    In terms of the number of visits, the biggest European attraction is London, which recorded about 19.6 million visitors in 2019, about 300,000 more than in 2018.

    Paris follows with more than 19 million visitors. Several places behind is the city of Rome, which attracted 10.3 million people and ranked in the 16th place.

    In this regard, 22nd place for Prague with more than 9 million visitors shows the city ranks up there with some of the most popular cities in the world, especially compared to top destinations like Tokyo (10.4 million visits) and Saudi Arabia’s Mecca (9.8 million).

  • Gun rights crushed by EU court, Czechia fights back

    The rights of the Czech Republic’s gun owners, and those in all of Europe, are under threat following a recent European Court of Justice decision to dismiss a Czech lawsuit challenging EU firearm restrictions, with the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs stating that the country will use all available statutory exceptions to mitigate the decision.

    The Czech Republic complained to the EU Court that the EU directive is discriminatory as it interferes with the rights of firearms owners. At the same time, Czech representatives argued that MEPs did not sufficiently address the effects of the directive while approving it.

    The European Court of Justice did not accept the argument from the Czech Republic and dismissed the Czech lawsuit against the EU directive.

    “It is a final decision, no appeal is possible. The directive is valid. Now, it is up to Czech legislators to make use of the statutory exceptions,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Smolek, who represented the Czech Republic at the Court hearing.

    The aforementioned exceptions concern, for example, sport shooting and hunting.

    The ban on some semi-automatic firearms has been proposed by the European Commission in response to terrorist attacks in Europe, such as the one in Paris in November 2015.

    The European Parliament and EU member states approved the directive last year, but the Czech Republic was against it.

    Critics pointed out that the new rule would only affect legal firearms owners as terrorists usually purchase weapons illegally. Arguments also point to the fact that legal gun owners should not be punished for the actions of a few terrorists, many of them who entered Europe illegally or under asylum rules.

    Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamáček commented on the dismissal of the Czech lawsuit, assuring legal firearms owners that it does not change the fact that the Czech Republic wants to protect their rights.

    Currently, there are over 300,000 licensed firearms owners in the Czech Republic, with thousands of others ready to register their weapons.

    The directive bans short semi-automatic weapons with a magazine designed to hold more than 20 rounds of ammunition and long semi-automatic weapons with a magazine designed to hold more than ten rounds of ammunition.

    The Interior Ministry has prepared several amendments to firearms ownership laws ensuring that the Czech Republic complies with the EU directive. They are set to come into force in 2022.

    However, legislators will try to mitigate the impact of the directive as they already assured certain groups that the new rules will not apply to them. These groups include historical battles reenactment associations, which also criticized the EU restriction.

    According to the MPs from governmental as well as opposition parties, the implementation of the EU directive into the Czech law system should be as smooth as possible.

    The Czech government has generally backed firearm owners and recently passed a law supporting Czechs who use their weapons in self-defense.

  • New car sales rise 11.7% in Hungary

    In the first eleven months of the year, 141,769 new passenger cars have been registered in Hungary, an 11.7 percent increase from the same period of last year, Origo reported based on data from the automotive news portal carinfo.hu.

    With 23,139 units sold, Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp. – which began assembly of its cars in Hungary back in 1991 – remained the market leader with a share of 16.32 percent, followed by Ford, Skoda, Opel, Volkswagen, Toyota and Dacia, Renault’s Romanian brand.

    On a group level, however, the German Volkswagen Group remains the clear leader, whose combined sales of its various brands (Audi, Seat, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini and Porsche) amounted to more than 27,000 units, well above Suzuki.

    The Association of Hungarian Car Importers (MOGE) said, however, that sales still lagged somewhat behind their expectations and they have reduced their full-year sales forecast to 155,000 units.

    Title image: New cars at a dealership (MTI/Zoltán Máthé)

     

  • Von der Leyen’s praise of Juncker draws mixed response on social media

    The new president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, heaped praise on her predecessor, Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, after the official changing of guards ceremony on Dec. 3.

    “Dear @JunckerEU, this gallery is for the great Europeans & you’re one of them. You’re one of the founders of the euro, you’re one of the founders of the Lisbon Treaty. Personne n’a pris soin de l’Europe autant que toi. Danke für das, was du für die große Idee Europas getan hast,” she wrote in an English-French-German tweet.

    The translation of the French and German lines read, “Nobody took care of Europe as you did. Thank you, for what you have done for the great European idea.”

    Even among European politicians whose Twitter feeds are seldom widely followed (Donald Trump has 66 million to Emmanuel Macron’s four million), von der Leyen’s 171,000 followers are relatively little to speak of.

    Responses to the praise delivered a mixed bag of praise and derision.

    Some users even accused Juncker of being a dictator.

    Others placed the blame of Europe’s growing inequality partly on Juncker’s shoulders.

    Others took issue with politicians in general.

    The amount of money von der Leyen is set to earn as president was also a topic, with one user pointing to the enormous sum the commission president earns in comparison to other politicians.

    The topic of gender also came up, with some users welcoming the fact that the new EU president is female.

    Von der Leyen officially assumed office as president of the European Commission on Dec. 1.

     

    Title image: Ursula von der Leyen and Jean-Claude Juncker at Juncker’s farewell ceremony (source: Ursula von der Leyen’s Twitter page)

  • Orbán and Macron understand one another: French MEP

    French President Emmanuel Macron and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán have a series of common interests, liberal French MEP Bernard Guetta told conservative daily Magyar Nemzet in an interview.

    Guetta, 68, who incidentally is the half-brother of world-famous French DJ, David Guetta, is himself no fan of Orbán. He says that Orbán’s policies are controversial and believes that if Orbán is going to advocate for the common defense of the European Union’s external borders, he should, by the same token, also support a closer political union.

    Asked about a recent statement by German conservative politician Manfred Weber who was wondering how and why Orbán and Macron have found common ground, he said the following:

    “This is a much more complex issue. While in my opinion, they represent polar opposites in terms of liberalism and illiberalism, they also have many things linking them, such as the already mentioned joint European defense policy. I also have it on good authority that Macron considers Orbán one of the smartest – or even the smartest – European leader and, not incidentally, there is also ‘political chemistry’ between the two.”

    I also have it on good authority that Macron considers Orbán one of the smartest – or even the smartest – European leader.

    Guetta also said in the interview that Orbán is well aware of the fact that a United States led by Donald Trump is no longer the rock-solid ally of Europe it once was and consequently NATO must strengthen its European foundations.

    “This would require too many resources from individual states, so they must cooperate in terms of defense,” Guetta said. “It would, of course, be best if the U.S. and Europe were able to reform NATO together, but that hinges on the outcome of the next U.S. election.”

    With regard to European politics, he added that he does not really see an East-West divide within the European Union, but rather very similar divisions within all European member states’ societies.

    Despite the potential for cooperation, Macron and Orbán still have very two different worldviews and have clashed frequently in the past. Macron has been accused of trying to break apart the vital Visegrad Four alliance and is also seen as a direct rival to Orbán in many ways, including efforts Macron has made against Orbán’s efforts to stem illegal immigration.

    Orbán explained the issue he and other politicans in Europe have with Macron during a press conference with Italy’s Matteo Salvini in 2018.

    “He leads the European force that backs migration, he’s the leader of those parties who back migration to Europe, and on the other side there’s us who want to stop illegal migration,” said Orbán.

    Title image: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (L) and French President Emmanuel Macron’s meeting in Paris on October 11, 2019 (MTI/ Balázs Szecsődi)

  • Polish students are among the best in world in latest PISA tests

    Poland has some of the best students in the world, according to the latest results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

    The results show Polish 15-year-old students are the fourth-best in Europe, a position that puts them near the top of world rankings.

    The Minister of National Education Dariusz Piontkowski stated that Polish students participating in the PISA test received 512 points in the reading category. Only students from Estonia (523), Finland (520) and Ireland (518) had better results.

    The average for OECD countries amounted to 493 in that category.

    The average result of Polish students in math was 516 points, behind only Estonia (523) and Holland (519 points).

    Polish students also came third in Europe in the science category, with 511 points. Only two other countries, Estonia (530) and Finland (522), achieved higher scores.

    As a result, Erdogan decided to blackmail his allies within NATO and will block the plan to strengthen the Alliance’s eastern flank unless NATO will recognize the Kurdish formations as terrorist organizations.

    Erdogan can do this, as strengthening the flank requires unanimous support. Needless to say, Turkey’s blackmail directly impacts Polish security.

    It is hard to speak of compromise in this matter. On the one hand, the majority of NATO members condemn Erdogan’s policies but on the other, no one wants to create a situation where Turkey leaves the Alliance.

    That would mean a huge geopolitical shift in the Middle East and the Balkans. This concerns not just Turkish-Russian cooperation, but also the likely possibility of Turkey obtaining nuclear weapons.

    NATO is not unanimous when it comes to the Russian threat. France openly admits that it does not see Russia as an enemy, and it is hard to imagine it yielding to Turkey in the name of protecting the eastern flank. Other countries with that mindset include Italy and Hungary.

    Poland and the Baltic states have found themselves in the role of a bargaining chip between the feuding allies. Some in Poland try to use this for their own political game, as it is said by many anti-PiS activists, that if PiS had not bet so hard on forging ties with America, then we would have avoided this situation.

    This is not entirely true. Even if we had purchased thousands of Caracal helicopters from Paris, France would still not care about Polish or Eastern European security, just like in 1939.

    The issue is not to whom we become attached to but whether we are able to base our security on different pillars. One of them should be self-defense simply because military strength will bolster the influence of the country.

    The others would require an agreement above political divisions, which does not seem likely. Instead, we are wasting time on petty nonsense, such as who said what on Twitter.

     

  • London Bridge hero: When the attack happened, I acted instinctively

    More information about the harrowing London Bridge terrorist attack, including the heroic efforts of the Polish porter working in the local Fishmonger’s Hall, has now been released by London’s Metropolitan Police. 

    On Friday afternoon, 28-year-old Usman Khan ran into Fishmonger’s Hall at London Bridge armed with two knives and attacked a group of people inside the building, mortally wounding two Cambridge students.

    As panic ensued, 38-year-old Łukasz Koczocik, who worked inside the hall as a porter, did everything he could to stop the terrorist attack.

    “When the attack happened, I acted instinctively,” said Koczocik. “I am now coming to terms with the whole traumatic incident and would like the space to do this in privacy, with the support of my family.

    “I would like to express my condolences to the families who have lost precious loved ones. I would like to send my best wishes to them and everyone affected by this sad and pointless attack.”

    Koczocik’s boss, Toby Williamson, described the Pole’s heroic actions in an interview for BBC News. He explained that Koczocik had been washing dishes when the attack started and ran out of the basement, grabbing a 1.5-meter long lance (not a narwhal tusk) and threw himself at the terrorist.

    The Pole dueled the assailant and bought enough time for the other people in the building to escape outside, Williamson recounted. He added that although Koczocik had suffered five knife wounds he continued to try to overpower the terrorist.

    Soon after, two other people came to help Koczocik, one wielding a fire extinguisher and another a narwhal tusk (first thought to have been Koczocik). They chased Khan out of the building and onto the road where Khan was shot dead by the London police.

    The London police have published the statement of Koczocik, whose intervention prevented further bloodshed during the terrorist attack on London Bridge.

    “On the afternoon of Friday, 29 November I was working at Fishmongers Hall as normal when the unimaginable and tragic terrorist attack happened.

    “I and several others tried to stop a man from attacking people inside the building. I did this using a pole I found. Someone else was holding a narwhal tusk.

    “The man attacked me, after which he left the building. A number of us followed him out but I stopped at the bollards of the bridge. I had been stabbed and was later taken to hospital to be treated. I am thankful that I have now been able to return home.”