The heart of European integration is fading. The people governing in Brussels, such as Timmermans and Selmayr remind us of the 5thcentury Roman comites who waged wars with each other only to benefit themselves, which eventually ended the Roman Empire.
When one looks at what the European Commission is doing when it comes to Brexit, energy policies, migration, ecology and large national infrastructural projects, it’s hard not to ask “what is even going on?”
Poland needs the European system of government and security now more than ever. Poland is increasingly becoming a part of the rivalry of global powers. This has been proven by the recent Chinese espionage affair and the Iran and Middle East issue. The thought that Poland can be independent or connected to only one power is simply damaging.
The European integration upheld by France and Germany simply does not suit the ambitions and potential of not only Poland, but many other European countries
The European integration upheld by France and Germany simply does not suit the ambitions and potential of not only Poland, but many other European countries. The proposal of thoughtless, deepened integration offered by PiS’ opponents in the opposition is unacceptable and will set the country back by a decade.
If the EU is not to follow in the Roman Empire’s footsteps, it must integrate itself anew. The terms of uniting Europe after the Cold War, thanks to which Poland became part of the European community, should change after 30 years. Poland has changed, Central Europe has changed and the world with it has changed – so too must the European Union.
This process will only work, however, if we take an active part in it and claim our responsibilities.
Ciamba – speaking on behalf of Romania, currently holding the revolving presidency of the European Union – told news agency Mediafax that the outcome of the vote was predictable, with the only real surprise being the “much worse result than expected”.
He said that while Romanian officials were continuing to coordinate among member states preparations for an unregulated Brexit, “there is no reason to spread fear nor is it entirely clear that there will be an exit of Great Britain without an agreement.”
Romanian minister for EU affairs George Ciamba
He added, however, that all EU member states will continue to prepare for an unregulated exit.
Ciamba also reminded of the assurances given by Great Britain that even in the case of an unregulated exit, citizens of other member states residing in Britain will not suffer any negative consequences and from their point of view the transition will be a regulated one.
S&P forecasts that Poland’s GDP will increase by 3.4 percent in 2019 and by 3 percent in 2020. The deficit of the public financial sector will be 1.5 percent of GDP in 2019 and 2 percent in 2020.
The agency, one of the “big three” rating companies also presented the first forecast for 2021 – according to them, Poland’s economy will maintain its level of growth and deficit level from 2020.
Good ratings
From among the three largest rating agencies, Poland’s creditworthiness is rated highest by Moody’s – level “A2”. Poland’s rating according to Fitch and S&P is “A-“, which is one level lower than Moody’s. The forecasts of all the grades are stable.
The next ratings of S&P will arrive mid-April and mid-October 2019.
Next week, representatives of the Slovak government and representatives of local companies will head to London to offer to the Slovaks working in the UK several dozen jobs in the field of IT and corporate services.
Slovak Deputy Prime Minister for Investment and Informatisation, Richard Raši said that there are tens of thousands of Slovaks in the UK who could be uncertain about their future in Britain. The Slovak government, therefore, prepares incentives which should attract their citizens. Raši admits that salaries abroad are higher, but the cost of living in Slovakia is way cheaper.
Apart from IT, the government also looks for economists and accountants. Besides the authorities, private companies in the field of information and communication technologies also participate in the project. The government is even ready to help the Slovaks with the handling of formalities when moving back home.
“We offer them interesting jobs, Slovaks abroad probably have perfect English, and they can work hard,” said vice-president of the IT Association of Slovakia, Mário Lelovský. He added that salaries in centers of shared services reach 1,800 euros per month and 2,000 euros in the IT sector. This is significantly higher than the average salary in Slovakia.
In 2015, the Slovak government launched another program to support the return of experts, including scientists, to their homeland. Despite the financial incentives, the project budget was not fully drawn, and only about two dozen jobs were given. The reason for low interest was also the fact that the state did not offer specific positions.
An angry father wrote an email to the director of the kindergarten his child attends, saying he “refuses to tolerate multi-culture propaganda” because he noticed that in the kindergarten, children have a doll whose skin is not white. He said that if the nursery does not get rid of the doll, he will post photos on social media and make a negative ad about it.
Despite the parent’s reaction or his moral status, it is the court’s reaction, which dismissed the complaint against his prosecution, that is worth the attention. It is an expression of today’s policy that a parent should be punished for threatening public criticism.
The father’s behavior was certainly not clever. However, considering the legal context, he has not committed a crime. The question is, did he threaten anyone with a bomb, burning the nursery or at least throwing stones? Such threats could be considered illegitimate.
But none of those; the only threat was the threat of public criticism. They say that the pen is mightier than the sword, but everyone has to bear with criticism. If someone told me to “stop writing legal commentaries, or they will cruelly criticize them in public,” I would be a fool if I ran to call the police. It is my right to write comments, and it is a critic’s right to criticize them. They cannot forbid me, and I cannot forbid them; nor can I complain that they threaten me with criticism. This is part of my freedom as well as theirs.
Threatening someone with a bomb is forbidden because blowing something up is an illegitimate expression of disagreement. But a threat of criticism must be allowed. When we ban the threat of criticism, then we ban criticism as an allegedly illegitimate disagreement. We thus limit our freedom of criticism and our freedom of speech.
The acts of the father was not a crime, and the authorities´ approach to the “criminal threat of criticism of the multi-culturalism” was as shameful as writing such an email. One would like to call it a judicial error, but unfortunately, it was probably not a regrettable mistake, but an expression of current policy.
It will be interesting to see how the criminal law practice will further develop and whether it will be consistent.
Though the EP elections take place only once every five years, for the chosen politicians and all the colleagues they bring along to Brussels, they can result in a very well paid job. However, the fragmented Czech political scene fights for more than finances. The elections are a test which will prove the extent to which the quite unfavorable voters’ polls are reliable.
For example, the opposition, the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), currently has two MEPs, but it used to have nine of them. However, ODS could only dream about this number of mandates, because it is no longer the only party of an anti-Brussels wing and moreover, has nothing special to offer. Even taking into account the fact that many voters know MEP Jan Zahradil, the long-term leader of ODS in the EP, the party has to admit that this politician will attract hardly anybody.
The party structures do not want interesting candidates, such as former Minister and Senator Alexander Vondra, to go higher. In short, ODS is worried about positions and finances, so its offer sounds like, “Vote for our inventory”.
But there is another hitch in the elections: even if ODS gets more mandates than in previous elections, overtaken by the Pirates, it will hardly pretend it’s a triumph.
The Pirates as a populist party without opinion and anchoring is generally considered pro-European, although it highlights and associates the elements of the extreme left or Pro-Russian activists. The Pirates will be persuading us of an undoubted pro-Western orientation, but the nominees say the contrary in important posts. On the other hand, the Pirates benefit from being a new and unexplored party, and so does the government’s ANO.
In the EP elections, especially the smaller or declining parties will fight for contact with Brussels as the center of EU policy. Furthermore, the elections will test the extent to which the relatively unfavorable voters´ polls are reliable.
No doubt, this year´s European elections will not be secondary elections for Czech politics at all.
According to the prosecutor, Petra Piťha’s speech was primarily a criticism of the Istanbul Convention. “It cannot be ruled out that it was a calculated exaggeration of the text ad absurdum – see references to concentration camps, homosexuality superiority or status below the level of animals – with the aim to alert critics of the ratification of the Convention and by this achieve a rejection of its ratification,” the prosecutor explained. Nevertheless, no suspicion of a crime was found.
The Czech Women’s Lobby is, however, satisfied with the decision. According to the organization, the prosecutor confirmed that the preaching did not rely on facts and was a misinterpretation of an international document.
During his sermon on Saint Wenceslas’s day in St. Vitus Cathedral, Petr Piťha criticized the Istanbul Convention when he called the documents undemocratic and dictatorial, and he accused its authors of inspiration of Marxism and Nazism.
This will be the inaugural concert of the orchestra, established by internationally renowned Roma musicians, Béla Szakcsy Lakatos and Lajos Kathy Horváth.
“The mission of the orchestra is to provide a geniune interpretation of the European Roma without a home country and also that of the other indigenous minorities of Europe,” said Szakcsi Lakatos, artistic director of the performance.
The 37-member orchestra will begin its inaugural concert with Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. Reinhardt will join the concert with her Dotschy Reinhardt Quartet.
Title image: European Roma Festival Orchestra (MÜPA/Szilvia Csibi)
The Hungarian contestants for the Bocuse D’Or competition in Lyon are part of a new generation of chefs and despite their young age still managed to secure a place in the prestigious world competition.
While Hungarian chefs have yet to win a medal at the Bocuse D’Or, at the previous competition in 2017 Tamás Széll and Kevin Szabó placed a respectable 4th and won the jury’s special prize. The top three were the US, Norwegian and Icelandic teams.
The Bocuse D’Or – dubbed the Olympics of the culinary world – was established in 1983 and is held every year at the end of January at the SIRHA International hotel, catering and food exhibition.
Title image: Commis (junior chef) Ádám Csillag and chef Ádám Pohner (MTI/Zoltán Balogh)
The rallies were held on Monday in all major Polish cities, including Warsaw, Gdańsk, Poznań, Kraków and Katowice.
At the rally in Gdańsk, in addition to Donald Tusk, former president Lech Wałęsa, deputy mayor of Gdańsk Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, the mayor of Gdynia Wojciech Szczurek and the Deputy Marshal of the Senate Bogdan Borusewicz were present.
I want to promise you, dear Paweł, that we will defend our Gdańsk, our Poland and our Europe from hatred and disdain
“We came to you today as citizens of Gdańsk, every person in Gdańsk remembers you from your youngest years. You were always there, when a good and brave face was needed to oppose evil,” Tusk said and underlined that all of Adamowicz’s life focused on this.
“We came to you today as Poles. I remember how emotional you were when you sung the song of solidarity “Prayer at Sunrise” with us,” Tusk continued.
“I want to promise you, dear Paweł, that in the name of all of us – citizens of Gdańsk, Poles and Europeans – that for you and all of us, we will defend our Gdańsk, our Poland and our Europe from hatred and disdain. We promise you that. Farewell Paweł,” Tusk ended his speech.
Even amid the champagne of the New Year celebrations, it did not go unnoticed that Bundeswehr Chief of Staff Eberhard Zron said the armed forces may fill vacant positions – such as IT and medical personnel – with foreign nationals.
Before delving into the potential consequences, let us first look at some numbers. Germany’s current defense expenditure is 1.2 percent of GDP and the country plans to reach the 2 percent NATO requirement by the year 2030. Fresh polls indicate that 15 percent of Germans agree with higher military spending and 17 percent are ready to fight to defend their country.
This 17 percent is among the lowest in Europe, with highs of 74 percent in Finland and 73 percent in Turkey. This also explains the position of the chief of staff: the majority of German politicians and citizens do not consider national defense a priority.
The trauma of two world wars may somewhat explain this, but the phenomenon is still a concern for the security of Europe as a whole. First, because such recruitment would obviously primarily drain the staff of the armed forces of Central European nations.
The training of qualified IT and medical staff for the military is an expensive proposition, but beyond the financial considerations, the German plan also has intelligence and counter-intelligence implications.
Enrolling large numbers of foreign citizens could cause major headaches for the counterintelligence services. Not primarily because these people would be inherently more susceptible to leak military secrets but because of so-called “false flag” recruitment by other intelligence services.
Medical staff – while normally not having access to the most sensitive military secrets – could still provide an enemy with valuable personal information. Members of IT staff are even more crucial — they can provide access codes to command systems or even steal military research worth billions.
But beyond these practical aspects, recruiting foreigners also sends a more fundamental message. It’s merely a matter of time and money before the downfall of any country that entrusts national security to mercenaries.
From this perspective, the staffing problems of the German armed forces and the proposed solution are further signs of the internal crisis in Western Europe.
After the brutal attack on Sunday, many politicians urged calm and called on others to refrain from politicizing the mayor’s death. Unfortunately, not everyone listened. Gazeta Wyborcza’s deputy editor-in-chief, Jarosław Kurski called the murder “a political crime” on twitter:
“Let’s put it in one word. Yesterday in Gdańsk, a political crime was committed. It was a planned and calculated attempt to murder a politician chosen in general elections, a politician whose great political and democratic mandate had just been renewed.”
Nazwijmy rzeczy po imieniu. Wczoraj w Gdańsku doszło do politycznej zbrodni, do wyrachowanej i zaplanowanej próby zabójstwa polityka wybranego w powszechnych wyborach, polityka o niedawno odnowionym wielkim demokratycznym i politycznym mandacie. https://t.co/eAhNJIZbny
Minister of Interior Joachim Brudziński swiftly responded, criticizing Kurski:
“The culprit of this crime is a repeat offender sentenced for physical assault and not some politician. Creating a media storm, meant to heighten political emotions after this barbaric attack on Mayor Adamowicz’s life is something extremely indecent.”
Sprawca tego czyny to recydywista skazany za napady z bronią w ręku a nie żaden polityk. Robienie medialnej politycznej burzy, w celu podkręcenia politycznych emocji, po tym barbarzyńskim akcie zamachu na życie Pana Prezydenta Adamowicza, jest czymś wyjątkowo nieprzyzwoitym. https://t.co/hrdlNK3gfq
Saying the modern market economies are similar to feudalism is a metaphor that helps us understand the true nature of the modern financial system, Bezemer says.
One defining trait of feudalism was a sharp distinction between lenders and debtors, he says. Landowners diverted the profit from the land to their own benefit. In many countries the financial system serves a similar function.
It is like an economic machinery that pumps the money out of the real economy into the financial economy
Today’s desk jobs provide significantly better living standards than those of the factory workers in the industrial era or of the peasants in feudalism. But one cannot help to notice that total wages paid are decreasing with relation to the profit they produce.
In addition, while the financial system doesn’t like to distinguish productive and improductive debt, there is still a clear distinction. If an enterprise with a good product or good ideas borrows money to grow, that is productive investment. On the other hand, we have the mortgage system, where money is being lent against real estate collateral. In this case, the real estate is already there and the credit neither creates new value, nor does it stimulate innovation.
The fundamental problem here is that the debt volume grows without a growth in revenues from manufaturing or innovation, thus the repayment of the debt may become problematic
There are clear signs of growing risks – such as the economic slowdown in China – which, coupled with the increasing ratio of bad debt should make us more cautios. In the past few years of economic boom we have “overfilled our glasses”, but the cycle is coming to an end. The fact that we still have economic growth and high employment levels only serves to mask the inherent fragility of the financial system, but the threat remains, Bezemer concluded.
It’s telling that among those five countries, the euro is the official currency in only one, Slovakia. The others refused to adopt that European benefit. And I don’t think they regret it.
What’s also telling is that out of the Central and Eastern European five, four did not bow down and support the forced “migrant (mostly Muslim) quotas” during the EU summit in Brussels in 2015.
These measures were pushed by the European Union and countries conducting multikulti policies. At the time, Budapest, Bratislava and Prague voted against them and Bucharest abstained. Warsaw – meaning former Civic Platform PM Ewa Kopacz – had promised to support her V4 neighbors and allies but betrayed them at the last minute.
Poland’s new government not only joined the “migration-sceptic” sphere but has become its leader in staunchly defending the right to veto the EU’s unceremonious interferences in the internal matters of EU member states, including areas in which the European treaties uphold national sovereignty.
Poland has become increasingly caught up in a contest among world powers. It has put itself, and has been nudged by other countries, into one of the camps of the growing rivalry between America and China. It’s cause for concern that the political divisions in Poland correspond to the geopolitical affinities of the rivaling powers.
In terms of the two areas necessary for “hard” security — energy and the military — the decisions have been taken. The Polish army is being modernized with American equipment. The decision about a permanent American military base in Poland, the so-called “Fort Trump”, also seems to be preordained. Future American supplies of LNG gas are meant to give Poland a guarantee of energy security.
All of these decisions mean, that in the coming decades Poland’s fate will be intertwined with Washington’s foreign policy
All of these decisions mean that in the coming decades Poland’s fate will be intertwined with Washington’s foreign policy. When conducting business, the Polish state will have to take the American view into account and other countries will evaluate Poland through the prism of its larger partner.
The upcoming Middle East conference, which was criticized by the Iranian foreign minister, should be seen as an action taken directly as a result of Warsaw aligning itself with Washington in the global theatre. The detention in Poland of the Huawei director on suspicion of espionage also has an American context.
Soon, future events will confirm, that the choice made by Poland will antagonize other countries, including those in Western Europe.
Prominent economist Vladimír Pikora is more and more concerned at how quickly freedom is disappearing. The turning point for him was an interview with actor Petr Čtvrtníček who said that a famous satirical TV show he was a part of in the 1990s would be banned today.
People have mentally returned to the 1980s when the best jokes always began by looking around and saying, “But you must not tell anyone, otherwise my dad would be put in jail.” Nowadays, everybody is careful telling jokes, too.
While in the 1990s everyone was afraid of possible censorship, today everyone is afraid that something could offend someone. This is the exact opposite. Self-censorship is everywhere. We can only speak nicely about minorities and hand-in-hand with this goes the fight against sexuality.
Feminists have escalated the #metoo movement into absurd forms. Men are in a position where they are afraid of hiring feminists to be accused of holding a door but at the same time, they are afraid of not hiring them because then they could be accused of discrimination. The situation is definitely not balanced, and the global leaders behave like they do not see it.
Globally, the biggest fighter against freedom is Facebook. Freedom of speech is absolutely violated by the bullshit that Facebook is said to be private and therefore can violate the Constitution, for example, by a violation of the privacy of correspondence. But it can´t. The constitution is superior to the rules of private society.
Common sense has disappeared. The fact that someone is offended by something is not yet a reason not to say it. Liberal democracy is simply the end of freedom.
While it is not yet clear what will happen with the free trade agreement after Brexit, its political impact can already be partially predicted. It’s not only the Czech Republic that will have to reconsider its orientation and look for permanent and temporary allies. Czech diplomats agree that Britain leaving the EU will be a significant loss for the Czech Republic, as both countries have often agreed.
Also, we can expect that Brexit might trigger further integration efforts. “We can assume that France and Germany will be the main integration force,” predicts one of the Czech diplomats. The United Kingdom that used to balance the interests of the Germans and the French has by its departure made life unpleasant to those states who often disagreed with this large European couple. The Czech Republic is one such state.
However, Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček sees potential in the Visegrad Four or the alliance of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Austria. He believes that the tandem of France and Germany will be very active in the question of further direction of the EU, but will not dominate the EU. According to Petříček, the influence of the coalitions of the medium and smaller states will also strengthen.
The position of the Czech Republic and V4 can vary radically from those of Germany and France, as demonstrated, for example, by the migration crisis. However, the Czech delegation in Brussels needs to ask who else could represent a partner for the Czech Republic. It seems like we will have to look where we do not have such traditional ties as in Visegrad.
According to one of the diplomats, the Czech Republic has a chance in the Baltic States, Spain or Portugal. It would rather be ad hoc alliances, that is, in individual cases. MEP Dita Charanzová sees potential in Scandinavia, Denmark or the Netherlands, with whom the Czech Republic has a similar view over the direction of the joint European project. On the other hand, the view on migration in these countries was completely different from the Czech Republic´s attitude.
According to Charanzová, the influence of Britain on the functioning of European institutions is already, less than three months before the actual Brexit, minimal. British diplomats, according to the source from Brussels, do not talk much about Brexit. Just as for the Czechs, it is a painful topic for them.
Babis will be accompanied by companies from the defense and energy industries, manufacturers of medical devices, aviation engineers, engineering firms, as well as manufacturers of luxury glass, financial companies and e-commerce representatives.
He will meet with Prime Ministers of all three visited countries, in Bangkok the entrepreneurs will accompany PM Babiš and Marta Novakova to a meeting with the Thai Defense Minister, and during the visit, the launch of the direct Bangkok-Prague air service will be announced. In India, Babis will attend the Vibrant Gujarat Summit Economic Forum, one of whose partners this year is the Czech Republic.
“It is very important that we do not have 85 percent of all exports to the European Union but have a clear strategy in Asia and Africa. It is a great opportunity for our companies,” said Babis, who has long been promoting greater economic diplomacy and helping the interests of Czech companies abroad. This year, the Confederation of Industry and Transport of the Czech Republic plans to organize at least another 11 business missions.
Czech companies export goods worth CZK 15 billion per year to India with the largest share being delivered to the automotive industry. Export to Singapore has increased from two to seven billion crowns per year over the last eight years. The most required are Czech electronic components and devices, systems for automation of production and measuring instruments. Export to Thailand is dominated by energetic devices, automotive components, and artificial food rags, which reach 4 billion crowns per year.
Le Pen stressed that “the time has come for a major political change,” adding that voters should give her the chance to end the “antisocial and anti-national” policy of the European ruling parties. Le Pen´s National Rally is one of the anti-European parties that would like to interrupt the long-time hegemony of European people´s parties and socialists after the elections. In the previous vote five years ago, the National Rally was the most successful party in France and won 24 mandates out of 74, which the country gained in the EP.
To at least repeat the last result, Le Pen chose 23-year-old Jordan Bardell as the leader for the European elections. Migration remains their number one election topic among other issues. France, according to Bardella, will reject “the migrants that Mr. Macron and the European Commission want to place in our cities and villages”.
The French president is currently facing protests from the Yellow Vests, who call for an improvement in the economic conditions of the poorer part of the French population, which is home to a large number of Le Pen´s voters. Although Macron has initiated some changes, including raising minimum wages and a tax relief, protests are continuing.
“The closing of the Timișoara unit was an extremely difficult decision which we took after detailed analysis. Locally, Nestlé is operating on a rapidly-changing market with new consumption patterns and a labor deficit, in a competitive environment,” said Leszek Wacirz, country manager of Nestlé Romania.
Nestlé bought the Timișoara plant in the year 2000 and had an annual output of some 10,000 tons of chocolate and coffee. All 388 employees of the plant will be laid off, but Jackie Avery, human resources manager of Nestlé Romania said the company will assist the people in finding new jobs and gaining new skills, and employees will receive compensatory payments based on the time they spent with the company.
Nestlé also said that it will retain its regional cost competence center in Timișoara, but it will be relocated to the city center. This unit has 30 employees.
At the height of the Greek financial crisis Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank said that the common European currency is a true wonder of nature, like the bumble bee. By every natural law, the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly. By the same token, the euro shouldn’t work, yet it does.
The mighty dollar has been as strong as 0.85 against the euro in 2002 and as low as 1.62 at the onset of the global financial crisis that first hit the United States. It is abundantly clear that the euro has been and remains a major component of global power play. At the core of this global power play is that in past centuries, all five major trading and banking nations of Europe – Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Great Britain – have at some point been “the global power”. When it was Germany’s turn, the five prevented this with two world wars.
But in the second half of the 20th century there was apparently a tacit agreement that Germany can after all fashion its own “global empire”. While it was not allowed to create a de facto empire, it was allowed to establish the euro as the “Mark of the fourth German empire”.
The euro is, without question, in the hands of the “fourth German empire” which is also its main beneficiary. But signs are increasingly supporting the view that Germany has both won too much for its own good and as a result is becoming a rival of the weakening American empire.
As a means of power economics, the euro has remained sufficiently weak to afford Germany the biggest trade surplus in the world, but at the same time it has also become dangerously strong for its main European partners.
Twenty years after its introduction, the euro is now beneficial to the countries that are effectively part of the German “imperial region”: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Finland and the Central European countries that adopted the currency.
A second group of unstable nations – Greece, Ireland and Portugal – are in the middle, enjoying some benefits but also experiencing drawbacks.
But the real strategic challenge comes from the third group – Malta, Cyprus, France, Italy and Spain. Great Britain is no longer relevant due to Brexit.
Beginning with the 1980s, in France, Italy and Spain the welfare state has become increasingly unsustainable. The introduction of the euro may have halted the erosion of real wages in these countries – and even led to an increase in real wages – but at the cost of a huge debt to Germany.
This has created tremendous social conflicts and so far Germany has been unable to devise a strategy to counter the threats. This means that the euro – and the European Union itself – is facing its biggest challenge ever. Whatever the first twenty years have brought, the next twenty years will be even more adventurous.
Mayor of Gdańsk Paweł Adamowicz has died after being stabbed on stage during a charity event. Despite undergoing a five-hour operation, he unfortunately succumed to his injuries today.
“We lost the fight for his life,” a spokesperson from the Municipal Hospital in Gdańsk has confirmed.
Following the stabbing, the mayor was resuscitated and transported to the hospital and was rushed in for emergency surgery. He could not be saved. According to police sources the assailant is 27 year-old Stefan W. from Gdańsk who has a record of violent crime.
Struggle on stage
According to witnesses, the attacker got onto the stage during the final of the Grand Orchestra of Christmas Charity (WOŚP) and had screamed that he had served prison time during Civic Platform’s rule but that he was wrongly convicted because he was innocent.
During the struggle, the man stabbed Adamowicz with a knife in the stomach and chest. A short film showing the moment of attack was published on Twitter: “Film on attack. First attacks, next speaks and comes to Adamowicz again”
The attack has been condemned by PM Mateusz Morawiecki and many other politicians from all political options.
“The assault on Paweł Adamowicz’s life merits the highest condemnation. I have ordered Minister of the Interior Joachim Brudziński to inform me of the latest developments concerning the situation. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mayor Adamowicz,” Morawiecki wrote on Twitter.
Atak na życie i zdrowie Pawła Adamowicza jest godny najwyższego potępienia. Zobligowałem ministra @jbrudzinski do przekazywania mi na bieżąco wszelkich informacji dotyczących tej sytuacji. Myślami i modlitwą jesteśmy teraz z prezydentem Adamowiczem.
Minister Brudziński has called the attack an “act of unbelievable barbarity.” Opposition MP Borys Budka said that the attack “was probably a criminal act and cannot be treated as a political one”. Although his political background associates him with Civic Platfrom (PO), Mayor of Gdańsk Paweł Adamowicz won the last election as an independent candidate.
Act of unbelievable barbarity
Polish President Andrzej Duda also sent his prayers and support to mayor Adamowicz:
“Usually we differ with Mayor Paweł Adamowicz in our views concerning public and Polish issues. Today, however, I am unconditionally by his side and those closest to him, as I hope all of our countrymen are. I pray for his swift recovery”.
Zwykle różnimy się z Panem Prezydentem Pawłem Adamowiczem w poglądach, jak powinny być prowadzone sprawy publiczne i sprawy Polski, ale dziś bezwarunkowo jestem z Nim i Jego Bliskimi, tak, jak – mam nadzieję -wszyscy nasi Rodacy. Modlę się o Jego powrót do zdrowia i pełni sił.
In a previous article written in December, I wrote that while 2018 was a year of increasing confrontations in Europe, 2019 will be the year of clashes, but I did not elaborate on the nature of those clashes. So, what kind of clashes can we expect in 2019?
First of all, the global elite and its spearhead, George Soros, together with the Brussels bureaucracy doing their bidding will launch an all-out attack on the governments whose nations are for national sovereignty while opposing globalization and migration.
The crosshairs will of course be on the governments most opposed to the goals of the global elite, primarily Hungary, followd by Poland, but Italy, Austria, Serbia, Romania, Macedonia and the Czech Republic will also be affected. But the primary target will be Hungary, as it is so close to Soros’ heart.
We can expect 2019 to be the year when the globalist network will solidify and make permanent their presence in the above-mentioned countries, but, as previously said, Hungary will warrant special attention.
We must put aside our illusions and acknowledge that many European party families – such as the Liberals, Socialist, Social-Democrats, Communists, the radical left and the Greens – subscribe to the globalist ideology and willingly disseminate their conspiracy theories.
But, even more importantly, the European family of conservative people’s parties is itself divided and it is unclear which faction will come out on top.
This also means that even if the EPP wins the elections, this would not automatically result in a new Brussels leadership that will take off the table the goal of a federal empire and the legalization of migration.
These European elections are special in that for the first time the vote will be about a truly European issue. But this, in turn, raises the question whether the Union itself can survive or a new cultural Iron Curtain will descend after the elections. It cannot be excluded that the Union itself will break into two: a Eurabia in the west and a coalition of nation states in the east.
“This letter reminds that each company cooperating with the Russian sector of energy export pipelines risks USA sanctions based on CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act),” claims the embassy’s spokesman. He added that NS2 is also opposed by other European states.
German daily newspaper “Bild” was the first to reveal the letter on its website on Sunday.
Countries which support the construction of both pipelines actively work towards minimalizing the security of Ukraine and Europe
“We underline once more that companies who engage with the Russian energy export sector are taking part in something which risks sanctions. As an effect, countries which support the construction of both pipelines actively work towards minimalizing the security of Ukraine and Europe,” writes the embassy.
Wintershall and Uniper, Shell, Engie, OMV
Formally, the only shareholder of the company responsible for NS2 is Russian Gazprom.
The company has signed deals concerning the financing of the endeavor with German Wintershall and Uniper, as well Dutch-British Shell, French Engie and Austrian OMV. All of these energy companies would be receivers of the newely delivered gas through NS2.
Spahn told Blick that the European Union should introduce legislation that would prevent member states from taking away other countries’ doctors and other professionals.
Spahn – one of the defining figures of the Christian Democratic Union – said the phenomenon has an undesirable domino effect.
“There is a shortage of these professionals in Germany. And then Polish doctors come to work in our country, who in turn create a shortage in Poland,” Spahn said.
“We should think about maybe creating new regulations on attracting away people in certain professions within the EU, without fundamentally questioning the freedom of movement within Europe,” he said.
He also said that there are alreaday such agreements within the World Health Organization that could serve as a blueprint for new legislation.
According to data of the German Medical Association (Bundesärztekammer), in 2017 alone 1,965 doctors left Germany, 641 of which moved to Switzerland. Data from the Swiss Medical Association show that some 6,000 doctors or 17.7 percent of the country total have a German passport.
Asked whether Germany might charge Switzerland for educating doctors who then work there, Spahn said “No, that is not my plan.”
The publication is based on the commentary of Chinese experts. Zhao Junjie from the Chinese Academy of Sciences claims that if “Poland wants to damage ties with China over Huawei, (…) it will be the biggest loser.”
Zhao warns Poland that in such a case China may use so-called trade instruments, which can be understood as economic retaliation. He also believes that Poland should not be “too close” to the US, especially in Huawei’s case.
If Poland wants to damage ties with China over Huawei, it will be the biggest loser
The daily also quoted anonymous Chinese workers from Warsaw who claim that the detention of the Huawei worker was “groundless”.
Spying operation
Last week, the Polish special services (ABW) detained a Pole and a Chinese under the suspicion of cooperating with Chinese secret services.
Weijing W. was the director of the Polish Huawei department. Piotr D. is a retired high ranking ABW officer, currently a cyber-security expert.
The International Middle East conference will take place in the middle of February, on the 13th and 14th, organized alongside the United States. The foreign ministers of dozens of countries have been invited to participate.
The main issue to be discussed is that of Iran, which has been mentioned by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Fox News.
PM Mateusz Morawiecki has commented on the event on twitter: “Poland treats the issue of peace in the Middle East as one of the most important challenges of defense and foreign policy. The containment of conflict in such a sensitive region is a fundamental issue, when it comes to preserving the security of the entire world.”
Polska traktuje kwestię pokoju na Bliskim Wschodzie jako jedno z najistotniejszych wyzwań polityki zagranicznej i obronnej. Powstrzymanie walk w tym newralgicznym regionie jest kwestią fundamentalną, jeśli chodzi o zapewnienie stabilizacji i bezpieczeństwa całego świata. https://t.co/jeZdRknPYg
Iran’s minister of foreign affairs Javad Zarif has criticized Poland’s involvement and organization of the conference:
Reminder to host/participants of anti-Iran conference: those who attended last US anti-Iran show are either dead, disgraced, or marginalized. And Iran is stronger than ever.
Polish Govt can’t wash the shame: while Iran saved Poles in WWII, it now hosts desperate anti-Iran circus. pic.twitter.com/iOOvhgtUsL
On Sunday the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Poland’s charge d’affaires in Tehran and protested against co-organizing the conference by Poland. The Polish diplomat was told that “this move is treated as a hostile act against the Islamic Republic of Iran”.
The exact schedule and list of participants is soon to be announced by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry is responsible for the event alongside partners from the US.
Good evening. You are watching the program of the Visegrád Four. “The European Parliamentary elections in May will bring significant changes in the leadership of the EU in Brussels,” said Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in an interview with Financial Times. His statement is based on the expectations that foresee the rise of nationalist and Eurosceptic parties at the elections, which will have a strong impact on the European Union. On the phone we are connecting with Péter Törcsi, Research Director of the Center for Fundamental Rights. Good evening. Mr. Director, what basis is there for the Polish prime minister’s statement?
Good evening. The Polish prime minister’s statement shows that the anti-immigration parties, or the parties that have a more realistic and skeptical approach towards Brussels, have systematically grown stronger. Austria and Italy are good examples, and so is the Front National in France. And, actually, in the Benelux states as well, parties that are more critical towards the EU decision-making processes have become stronger. In the V4 we see that the parties that are more honest about the EU’s decision making do not belong to the outside of the establishment, but are rather the mainstream, governing parties. These parties are willing to communicate to the electorate the mistakes that have been made by Brussels in a frank and straightforward fashion. From this it can be suggested that at the next EU elections, people will vote for parties that are ready to talk about their countries’ and the continent’s problems honestly and that are not afraid to criticize the current power in Brussels.
That’s right. Going back to Poland, the governing radical party, the Right and Justice (PiS), seems to be the most popular according to opinion polls. Is this a definite answer or reaction from the side of the nation states to Brussels’ politics?
I think that citizens are more and more willing to support the ideas that favor strong nation states against the federalist aspirations. In Poland, this idea is represented by the governing party, the nationalist and conservative PiS, and not by the also rightwing but more liberal Civic Platform. Ever since the 2015 elections, the governing party has been the absolute number one in opinion polls. Right now the PiS has a 13 to 14% advantage over the next largest party. I think that the governing party and its leader, Morawiecki, have a very comfortable position looking forward to the European Parliamentary elections. Let us not forget that there will be parliamentary elections in October–November in Poland. Therefore, the governing party’s performance at the EU elections is very important, as it can further strengthen the chances of the PiS in the national elections.
As a last point let us talk about Brussels’ reaction to these tendencies. Do you think that the EU or the European Commission will be willing to take into account the tendencies in these member states, for example in Poland?
It certainly will, since the composition of the Commission will change. The current commissioners’ mandates will expire at the time of the EP elections, and the current national governments will delegate the new members. The parties that represent the idea of the federal United States of Europe have failed in many countries, for example, in Austria, Italy, and in almost all of the V4 countries, so the Commission will definitely change, which is good news for our region. Moreover, concerning the composition of the European Parliament, it is likely that the structures that have been solidified in the past decades will change. Therefore, we can expect that there will be realignments both in the Commission and in the Parliament. It is too early to be able to tell which direction things will move in, but I believe that the Polish prime minister’s prediction about the strengthening of the EU-realist or EU-skeptical forces can be taken as given. If we look at national survey data, we can see that the realist and honest parties are enjoying more support than usual. We will see if these hopes become reality at the elections, and if the electorate agrees to this. I think we are close enough to the elections to say with certainty that there will be some kind of restructuring both in the Commission and in the Parliament.
Péter Törcsi, thank you.
According to the experts of the National Food Chain Safety Office, every other Hungarian has experienced a difference between the quality of food of the same brand in Western Europe and in Hungary. In Slovakia, for example, there are less fish in fish sticks, in the Czech Republic, there is less cocoa in chocolate, and in Hungary there is less actual meat in meat products. Even though the dual food quality was first reported by the Visegrad countries to European Union officials, it is also unacceptable for Slovenians, Croats, Romanians, Bulgarians, and Greeks. We’ll show you the details.
Fish sticks with fewer fish, soft drinks that are flavored with more artificial sweeteners and are therefore more harmful to health, sweets containing more additives, meat products with lower meat content, and other foods of different quality than in the West in Central Eastern Europe’s grocery stores. Dual food quality was first reported by the Visegrad countries’ government back in 2017, when it turned out that although the packaging is the same, multinational companies often sell poorer quality products, for example, in Hungary than in Austria. Our staff asked Hungarian buyers to what extent they perceive the quality difference.
– – To tell the truth, I always buy Hungarian products.
– – Why?
– – Because I am convinced that Hungarian products are very good. They are made by Hungarian people and are made very well.
– – For example, there is a chocolate that has been available in Hungary for some time now. The same chocolate in a certain commercial chain, where the product is brought in directly from the country of origin, the same chocolate is quite different, it has a different texture.
– – I think it is not a new phenomenon. The only difference is that earlier these products were not available in Hungary, but people went abroad to buy the better quality.
Dr. Attila Nagy, Director of the Food Chain Safety Laboratory Directorate of the National Food Chain Safety Office, also considers the indignation of consumers legitimate. When examining samples of products, they often face the dual quality of food.
Sometimes there is a difference that can be perceived with our senses, and the food has fewer good parameters. Sometimes we cannot find out, and it cannot be stated that it is better or worse. Sometimes the replacement of the ingredients actually results in worse quality, for example with the use of additives instead of natural ingredients.
The National Food Chain Safety Office’s comprehensive research in 2017 carried out sensory tests and compared the ingredients on the packaging and other elements of the label. The survey found that in the case of 96 products distributed in Hungary, Italy, and Austria, 71 were found to be different at the expense of Hungarian consumers.
We have found dual quality in many producers’ products. Smaller, milder, or more severe differences were found. It can be said that those who we contacted and those who explained the phenomenon on the manufacturer’s side very often explained the difference between the products from a legal point of view or with customer preference and customer expectation. Many of them do not deny that the phenomenon exists; they just explain why it exists. There are some producers who, based on the results of the survey and on the basis of our feedback and discussion, will change the practice and will make one type of product and use one type of recipe in the future.
In addition to Hungarians, it is also unacceptable for Slovenians, Croats, Romanians, Bulgarians, and Greeks that nearly 100 million European citizens have access to poorer quality products because large food manufacturers use double standards for food sold to people in Western and Eastern Europe. In the spring of 2018, the European Commission presented its draft package of amendments to consumer protection legislation, including proposals for dealing with the phenomenon of dual quality.
My guest in the studio is Róbert Zsigó, State Secretary for Food Chain Supervision at the Ministry of Agriculture. Good evening and thank you for accepting our invitation.
Good evening, thank you for your invitation.
I would like to go back to this draft with which I introduced our discussion. Since following the work of the various consumer protection working groups and their negotiations, the provision to terminate the practice of dual quality of food in this particular draft was eliminated. However, a more recent piece of news, particularly from today, shows that thanks to the recent V4 cooperation, following the amendment in December, the Romanian presidency reintroduced the issue of dual quality food in the draft on unfair commercial practices. This action must have required very fast cooperation from the agriculture ministers of the four Visegrád countries. How did the cooperation work?
We can say very much that the issue of dual quality foods is being followed up on by the governments of the V4 countries and the concerned ministers. The fact that we can look for a legal solution at all, and the European Commission is looking for a legal solution to this matter, is entirely due to the V4 countries’ cooperation. Towards the end of the Austrian presidency, in the middle of December, the passages were eliminated from the draft that would qualify it unfair to sell the same product of the same manufacturer in a different composition, in a poorer quality, say in Eastern Europe—and in Hungary—than in Western European countries. At the meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council, the Agriculture Ministers of the V4, together with the French and Greeks, unanimously were in favor of getting those passages back. Back then we already asked Romania, who from the 1st of January took on the EU presidency, to have the passages inserted back in the draft, and that is what happened. There is now an opportunity to adopt this legislation with the passage on dual quality foods, and thus in its framework, we can protect, among others, Hungarian customers.
We saw the footage about the products available in Hungarian grocery stores, and it was mentioned that this is not a new issue. You and the viewers surely remember when statements were made years ago that Hungary and the Central Eastern European countries were the garbage dump of the European Union. We get the garbage that cannot be sold in Western Europe. So, obviously, this was not a new problem for the agricultural ministry. What steps had been taken before this decision were finally made with the help of the V4’s agriculture ministers. How had you been able to fight it?
There are many solutions. On the one hand, a legal framework must be provided. According to the European Union food law, this practice is legal today, if the given companies and the respective manufacturers indicate the difference among the ingredients. And, we say it is not fair in any way, and we need to create a law that allows customers to know exactly that if they buy the same product, and if it is of a different composition, it should be written on the packaging.
Excuse me for interrupting you, but let us clarify a very important point here. Now that this passage has been reinserted in the draft, what will be allowed? Will it oblige manufacturers to indicate that this food has a different composition, maybe even of a lower quality, or will it mean that the double standard will disappear and that food of the same quality will be placed on the shelves of shops in all EU Member States? There is a huge difference between the two.
Yes. Now that the passage has been reinserted in the draft, the opportunity is given that at the end of the negotiations the European Council, the European Commission will adopt the directive with this passage. And, from that point on, in the case when a manufacturer produces a product of different qualities or of a different composition in Eastern Europe than in Western Europe, national authorities will have the right to act and to draw the attention of the manufacturers to the fact that this practice should be terminated, or, if not terminated, that the practice needs to be clearly indicated on the packaging. For example, Hungarian customers need to see on the packaging that the given product has a different composition and is of a different quality than the same product in Western Europe. In this case, as usually in cases of shopping and in the food economy, customers have a decisive word, and we think that if customers have the information that a product is different and in some cases inferior, they will not buy it, and the manufacturers will be forced, for the sake of profit, to produce food of the same quality.
Regardless of this law, have the food chain safety authorities in the different member states not had this right, or have they not been obliged to report such anomalies?
We had the opportunity to do comparative tests, and we indeed did those before 2017 and at multiple times in 2017, and we made the results of these tests public in order to draw the attention of Hungarian customers to the problem. But, we could not legally say that this practice should be abolished. Therefore, we said from the beginning that the legal solution is in the hands of the European Commission.
And, this is the case right now. A few months ago, a representative European Union survey showed that Hungarian citizens have the most trust in their own national food safety authority. This is obviously a commendment to you and your team. If I’m not mistaken, the agency has existed since 2012.
Yes, the National Food Chain Safety Office is turning seven years old. If you can be praised in this regard, then sure, it is a commendment. It is also part of this survey that, according to the vast majority of Hungarian people, food safety and food control are the most important areas under state supervision. It affects everyone: every family shops, every family cooks, every family eats. Therefore, it is very important that the work done by the National Food Chain Safety Agency in the past six and a half years has not just been about punishing those dishonest businesses that are forging food or not complying with the rules. It is also about sharing all the information at our disposal with the companies and the Hungarian people, because they can then make good decisions about their purchases if they have all the information about the food that we have. So, we managed and launched many campaigns in the past years, and we plan to continue doing so in the coming years, which provides the Hungarian customers with the information they can use to make decisions about their food.
I know that every year there are so-called seasonal, spring, summer, and winter inspections carried out by the Food Chain Safety Office. I don’t know if you have finished the winter inspection yet, but if so, what were the results?
It is done, yes, and in the second half of the week we will have the final results. We are now summarizing the data that came from the county government offices.
Obviously, you will not report on the results now, but we can talk about trends, as these inspections have been carried out for several years now. Can any shift be detected in either direction, be it positive or negative? Hopefully the former.
We carry out the seasonal inspections during the Easter period, during the summer season, and during the Christmas shopping season. Generally speaking, businesses that work in this area have a more law-abiding attitude. That is, they pay more attention to hygiene and they pay more attention to transparency. In other words, they pay more attention to selling the right products to their customers. We do inspections year round, but we highlight these ones so that customers pay more attention. Perhaps the biggest shopping period of the year is the weeks before Christmas, when everyone buys gifts and groceries. So, people have to pay much more attention in this period. Of course, fines are also imposed during the inspections, but the tendency in the past six years has been that businesses are more and more law-abiding.
What is the role of the volume of fines in this tendency? Are they a deterrent force? For example, compared to last year’s inspections, what was the scale of the fines imposed this year, and what types of abuse did you find first and foremost?
This is a difficult question to answer because it is hard to summarize one year in this respect. For a food business to be law abiding, I think it is important that there is a food safety authority that acts tough and punishes a business that fails to comply with the law, but I also think that the fact that we treat trustworthy businesses as partners also has an important role. Businesses get all the help and all the information they need about what they need to pay attention to and about how they should work, whether it’s a start-up business or a well-established business. I think it is this partnership that has been the key to success in recent years and that can be continuously the key in the years to come, because, after all, we are working for the benefit of Hungarian customers.
In what areas is there a need for development?
It would be very important to have a central laboratory base in the coming years. Laboratory testing is the basis for all regulatory procedures and all official decisions. In the case of dual food quality, we heard the director say that besides sensory tests, there were also accredited laboratory tests. So, we want to create a central laboratory in Budapest.
This has been needed for a very long time now. Forgive me for interrupting you, but maybe a few years ago, you and I might have been talking about the same topic in another TV studio of another TV channel relating to honey scandals and honey counterfeits. I think the samples had to be sent to a laboratory in Bremen and to other laboratories abroad. So, the demand was already visible back then.
We cannot say that nothing has happened because it is obligatory for us to spend 10% of the food chain supervision fee on development. So, every year, 10% of our income is spent on development, and a part of it is laboratory development. But, it is definitely important to have a properly equipped national authority in the areas where there is a lot of food counterfeiting, where there is a lot of cheating. That’s why it is important that we combine our different locations in a modern building with modern technology.
When is this expected?
This will be an important task for the coming years.
Secretary of State, thank you for coming to us and telling us about all this. Dear viewers, thank you for your attention. We will be back with the show in a week. Goodbye.
According to Topolánek, the preparations for his new talk show are in full swing, and the pilot has already been finished. “It is not a classic discussion or political format. In the Czech media, I miss a soft discussion on serious topics; my show will be more about people than politics,” the former PM explained.
Topolánek recently announced his departure from the management of the Heating Plants Association, a lobbying association that includes Křetínský´s Czech power plants Opatovice, where he worked for seven years.
He explained the departure by saying that “it is time for new challenges”. Another attempt to return to politics, for example through this year’s European Parliament elections, in which Czech energetics need to have strong and influential advocates, could have been expected. Topolánek, however, claims that after last year’s experience with the presidential candidacy, he does not want to try politics anymore.
Topolánek continues to work in Křetínský´s holding EPH, which owns heating plants, power plants and mines all over Europe. The question is how long he will stay in the EPH. According to Seznam sources, it has been difficult to accept such an unconventional former PM, openly opposed to European climate policy, and a social media provocateur, for Křetínský´s foreign partners from Australian bank Macquarie.
That explains why Topolánek, at the age of 63, heads to a completely new profession. His originality, flippancy, directness, and knowledge of the backstage of Czech society can be more beneficial in the role of a talk show host than in political lobbying.
The latest novel from Michele Houellebecq offers a dark and saddening vision of Europe. The first reviews are extremely positive, and readers talk about a great novel from an author who can predict the future, as Houellebecq foresaw the yellow vests movement.
Houellebecq’s main character, an agronomist, returns to the French countryside after experiencing several life debacles. And the reality hits him hard there – agricultural policy imposed by the EU has been devastating the countryside. Even though farmers seemed to be passive and resigned at first, later they start mass protests against Brussels, block roads and use all sorts of radical measures.
It all leads to a bloody confrontation with authorities and unrest. Basically, the novel describes recent events in France. However, Houellebecq finished his latest piece a long time before the so-called yellow vests demonstrations against Macron and his government started.
The protagonist is deprived, he believes that common sense is giving way to EU regulations. That’s how the civilization dies, without drama or bloodshed, wrote Houellebecq. He also sees feminism as one of the causes of European decay.
The author brilliantly observes the public sentiment and imagines its consequences. He has a great sense for current affairs and can benefit from it. Also, he enjoys being provocative, just as he was in a recent interview with Harper’s Magazine. Houellebecq called Europe a stupid idea that became a nightmare and praised US President Trump as one of the best leaders in the history of the United States, adding that he finds him horrible on a personal level.
According to Le Monde, Serotonin is a technically flawless novel in which Houellebecq juggles with many writing styles. Others call it a romantic book with some disturbing aspects like the overarching cynicism and explicitly described violence. The Czech translation is expected to arrive this summer, a dark and saddening vision of Europe
The euro is “a common currency of 19 countries and 340 million Europeans” and it indeed “reminds a bumblebee that shouldn’t be able to fly that it still flies.” Then there are proclamations like the one by Donald Tusk – “the euro has matured into a powerful political force in the world”. But no one went as far as Chief Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker, who said “the euro has become a symbol of unity, sovereignty and stability … it has delivered prosperity and protection to our citizens and we must ensure that it continues to do so … this is why we are working hard to complete our Economic and Monetary Union and boost the euro’s international role further.” He would really make a great general secretary of the (communist) party!
Of course, none of that is true and it’s surprising that the euro has survived 20 years. For example, the Economist dedicated three rather pessimistic pages to the currency’s anniversary. Italy is back at the 1999 level of living standards. Europe has been tragically divided by the monetary union, which didn’t bring promised welfare and stability. Thousands of young people emigrated from the Southern countries after the budgetary discipline dictate brought by Germany and France. Yet, 25-30 percent of those who stayed remain unemployed.
And it was none the better in the Norther states, regardless of full employment. Some experts even call the last decade lost and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better. Sadly, Juncker is right about one thing. Unless the EU takes responsibility for budgetary planning from its members, the common currency won’t be crash-proof. The euro is simply strengthening the so-called ‘anti-cyclic’ economic development and the EU lacks a fiscal tool to compensate for the Southern deficit, neither has a coherent and unified European nation.
While the New Hanseatic League, a grouping of Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Baltic states formed last February, calls for a necessary settlement of accounts between Northern and Southern Europe, Germany incorporated a monetary union stop sign into its constitution and it doesn’t want to share its astronomical international trade balance surplus. So, when a crisis strikes, there will be a lot of ‘patching up’ again.
It took nearly 100 years for the US to develop a monetary union and the integration wasn’t done without a civil war. There is no threat of a civil war in Europe, however. European nations are divided into international union elite and patriotic natives, which is why the euro may survive the next crisis.
By the way, Italy plans to introduce its own parallel currency.
Zeman believes that the single most important aspect of a family is an upbringing. It is nothing against same-sex couples nor their sexual orientation, he added. The President discussed the bill during a private meeting with the Czech Primate, Cardinal Dominik Duka.
The two were also talking about a state award for the priest and former Education Minister Petr Piťha, who made the news last year with his sermon, in which he denounced the Istanbul Convention. Piťha was decorated with a state award in 2011, when he received the Medal of Merit from then-President Václav Klaus. It took courage to stand up against the Convention and its adoption, said Zeman about his sermon.
During a TV show called A week with the President, Zeman commented on other matters as well. Regarding a currently debated taxation of the Church restitutions, Zeman revealed that many mayors have been expressing discontent about the Church to him, for demanding properties despite its original promise not to.
On the issue of the Huawei case, Zeman warned that the Czech Republic may expect retaliatory measures from China and that allegations made by the directors of the Czech National Cyber Security Center and Security Information Service harmed their country’s economic interests.
Left-leaning parliamentarians have for some time now been engaging in fighting the Catholic Church. They do not mind other faiths, it’s the Catholic Church they object to. Taking the lead in this is Joanna Schering-Wielgus MP, backed by the former leader of the Modern Party Ryszard Petru and the left-wing ally of the main opposition party, the Civic Platform, Barbara Nowacka. Their aim is to build their political capital on anti-clericalism.
These politicians have either forgotten or simply do not know that it is thanks to the catholic church that the Polish state exists. For centuries brave priests have supported and died for Polish independence. They were persecuted and repressed. If it was not for them there would never have been independence.
For centuries brave priests have supported and died for Polish independence. They were persecuted and repressed. If it was not for them there would never have been independence
But now a group of noisy activists have decided to follow in the footsteps of the libertine Janusz Palikot who tried and failed to build an anti-clerical political party. The current leader of the largest opposition party, Grzegorz Schetyna is attempting to build a broad anti-conservative coalition which is to include these enemies of the church.
It’s not difficult to predict how this will end. But it will be interesting to see if the rural and church-friendly Polish People’s Party (PSL) will join this anti-church alliance. If they do, PSL voters will either stay at home or support another party, as they are only too keenly aware of the role that the Catholic Church plays in defining Polish identity.
According to preliminary data by national power distributor MAVIR, Hungarain electricity consumption in 2018 rose to 45.52 TWh (terawatt hour) from 45.06 TWH in 2017. In addition, domestic electricity production fell by 3.5 percent to 31.07 TWh, meaning that domestic production only covered 68.4 percent of the country’s needs.
Domestic consumption also hit two temporary records this year. The first was in June, when consumption was 6,342 MW (megawatt), of which domestic production could only supply less than half, meaning that the remaining 53.8 percent had to be covered from import.
The next, 6,869 MW peak came on December 19th, as a combined result of end-of-year rush in the manufacturing industry, cold weather and festive illumination for the Christmas period.
The author of the article – electrical engineer and electricity issues blogger Zsolt Hárfás – said the data is a clear indication that Hungary is in dire need of increasing the capacity of its only nuclear plant, Paks in order to ensure the secure electricity supply of the country.
Hungary signed a deal with Russia in January 2014 to increase the current 2,000 MW capacity of Paks – situated some 100 km south of Budapest – by 120 percent, adding two 1,200 MW blocks to the existing four. The current nuclear plant was built be the Soviet Union between 1969 and 1987. The capacity expansion will cost EUR 12 billion (US$13.83 billion)
The government authorized cull is to begin this Saturday. The government is anxious in election year to be seen actively combating ASF that is threatening Poland’s pig farmers. Back in November last year the Ministry of Environment appealed to hunters to “intensively cull wild boar in order to achieve a maximum possible fall in the numbers of the species”.
Mass protests have sprung up at the news that in January the cull is to affect 200,000 animals. The Polish Hunters Association argues it is a target that could be achieved over one whole year. They cite the fact that the annual target from April 2018 to March 2019 was 185,000 of which 165,000 have been culled in the present period.
The Ministry of Environment, in response to protests by environmentalists, denied there was a target of 200,000 and that wild boar would only be hunted in a buffer zone that will divide the regions to which ASF has spread from those which have not been affected by the virus.
The cull is to be attractive financially for the hunters. They will receive 300 PLN for a boar and 650 PLN for a sow.
Hunters concerned
The cull is proving divisive among the hunting fraternity. Some are refusing to participate or threatening to simulate because they object to hunting animals without paying respect to hunting ethics that do not allow for hunting sow just before giving birth or just after they have done so.
Environmentalists argue that the cull is a political act. They say that the ruling conservatives want to win support of the farmers and that the money spent on the cull would be better used in financing veterinarians.
The language in the debate has become highly emotive with the cull portrayed as “extermination”. A demonstration against the action was held outside Parliament and over 240,000 people have already signed a petition protesting the mass cull.
The Hungarian Meteorological Institute expects lows of -15 Celsius in some parts of the country through Sunday, with heavy snowfalls on both Saturday and Sunday.
“A code red is in effect as of 20:00 hours for the Northern and Northern Plains region. (…) Code red is primarily meant to increase attentiveness of social services workers in very cold weather, but is also a signal to the population to contact emergency services when they see people in trouble,” EMMI state minister for social affairs Attila Fülöp wrote on his Facebook page.
The “code red” for cold weather was instituted by the government in 2017 – its primary stipulation is that under this warning, all live-in social institutions must take in homeless people in case homeless shelters are full.
During the press conference, PM Orbán touched upon virtually every topical issue concerning Hungary and Europe, emphasizing the stability and outstanding growth of the country’s economy.
He said GDP growth for 2018 is expected to come in around 4.6 percent – more than twice the European average, state debt has been reduced to 71 percent of the GDP and the budget deficit was contained at two percent.
Orbán said that for political reasons many foreign analysts tend to underestimate the performance of the Hungarian economy in their forecasts and this will be especially true in 2019, a pivotal year with European parliamentary elections coming up in May.
Referring to the amendment of the labor law – increasing allowed overtime to 400 hours from a previous 250 – Orbán said that contrary to the opposition’s claims the modification “gives (more) freedom to employees”.
Referring to Italian minister of interior Matteo Salvini’s recent visit to Poland, Orbán said the birth of a “Polish-Italian axis” is further reason to hope that in the next European Parliament the European People’s Party will have more allies who stand against migration.
Responding to the criticism often leveled at him that he does not give interviews to the opposition press, Orbán said “an interview should not be me in a bullfight with a journalist”, adding that he does not accept situations in which “a hostile person asks prejudiced questions”.
Title image: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the weekly cabinet press briefing (image: MTI/Szilárd Koszticsák)
The upgrade in the 2019 forecast for Poland is justified by the high level of both consumption and investment. The 2020 forecast is for 3.6 percent growth and 3.3 percent for 2021.
Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki was quick to welcome the report: “Pleased that the World Bank has recognized the growth and dynamism of the Polish economy and has raised its GDP growth forecast for 2019. Such signals coming from international institutions show that the development potential of our country is increasingly being recognized in the world”
Cieszę się, że Bank Światowy docenia wzrost oraz dynamikę polskiej gospodarki i podniósł prognozę wzrostu PKB na rok 2019. Takie sygnały płynące ze strony instytucji międzynarodowych pokazują, że potencjał rozwojowy naszego kraju jest coraz bardziej dostrzegalny na świecie.
Overall the latest World Bank “Global Economic Prospects” report is as pessimistic as its headline title “Ever darker clouds” suggests. The authors of the report forecast falling economic growth due to tensions in trade, a slow-down in growth of the Eurozone, problems of developing countries and the rising risks in emerging markets.
However, the World Bank is more optimistic about the prospects in Poland, Hungary and Serbia pointing to “modest inflation and low interest rates” supporting faster growth.
Minister Anders participated in the meeting that took place between Jarosław Kaczyński and Poland’s other ruling party representatives with Italy’s Deputy PM Matteo Salvini on Wednesday. She characterized the meeting as friendly and constructive and was surprised by the negative reaction to it coming from Poland’s opposition, she told wpolityce.pl.
Anna Maria Anders was critical of the expressions of outrage that the meeting took place. She called it “nonsense” and said that Salvini is an “influential politician who may one day head the Italian government. We are not going to cut ourselves off from the world to please the opposition.”
We are not going to cut ourselves off from the world to please the opposition
The Polish official confirmed that no undertakings had been made and that these were purely exploratory talks. She confirmed that one of the topics of the meeting was immigration and that Jarosław Kaczyński was grateful to Matteo Salvini for protecting Southern Europe from illegal migration. Salvini in turn emphasized that the main target of his efforts was to stop the human traffickers.
Anders denied that any concrete proposals for EU reforms had been mentioned at the meeting. On Salvini’s support for Russian President Vladimir Putin the Polish official reported that Salvini had expressed understanding for Polish sensitivities towards Russia but maintained his opposition to sanctions on Russia.
Monte Cassino
Anna Maria Anders was adamant that she had done the right thing in meeting Salvini in her pursuit of maintaining close relations with Italy and a memory of the battle of Monte Cassino. She made the point that Salvini accepted an invitation to a Monte Cassino memorial that celebrated the struggle of Polish troops against fascists. Anna Maria Andres’s father, General Władysław Anders, served as commander of the Second Polish Corps fighting Germans at Monte Cassino in 1944.
According to Q Magazine, Pope Francis – in addition to the capital, Bucharest,Iași, Balázsfalva/Blaj – will visit the Roman Catholic pilgrimage site in Csíksomlyó/Șumuleu in Transylvania during his upcoming trip to Romania.
Francis will be only the second pope to visit Romania – the first was John Paul II who went there in 1999, making a bit of history in the process, as this was the first time a pope visited a predominantly Orthodox country since the Great Schism of 1054, the break of communion between what are now the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox churches.
At the time, John Paul II called Romania the “Garden of the Holy Mother”.
The Pentecost Pilgrimage of Csíksomlyó is the largest religious and ritual event of Catholics in the Carpathian Basin, an event in the area around the Franciscan monastic settlement of Somlyó that has been referenced in ecclesiastic documents and oral tradition going back to 1442.
The central element of the pilgrimage is the veneration of the Virgin Mary. Hundreds of thousands of participants express their gratitude with donations and commemorative plates, showing their devotion through prayers and religious folk practices.
Title image: Pope Francis and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in the Vatican.
France simply cannot afford to radically lower taxes and increase its minimum wage and pensions. For the administration, it’s almost impossible to respond to the Yellow Vests and their demands without abandoning its reformist program. Therefore, some time ago, Macron came up with an escape plan. He offered a ‘national citizens’ debate’ during which all the dissatisfied French people could speak their mind. At the same time, Macron made it clear that the most important program goals are not to be changed.
Surveys show that French citizens welcome Macron’s idea. Nearly 45 percent of them express an interest in participating and 81 percent are familiar with the consultations. Unfortunately for Macron, just a week ahead of the consultations, Chantal Jouanno, who was in charge of the project, stepped down in reaction to public controversy over her salary.
What also remains unclear are the topics of the discussions. The government set four priorities but omit debates on the explosive topic of migration. Even though Jouanno officially proclaimed that no topic is forbidden, just a day after Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux stated that the debate on abortion, death penalty or same-sex marriage is off the table and that the government is not abandoning its fundamental values.
The bottom line is that French citizens are rewarded with the consultations, while the contents is fully up to the moderator and it’s for certain that politicians won’t act upon public concerns. Hereby the government is risking that those who put on a yellow vest get even angrier. The consultations are far from what they asked for – a referendum based on a civil initiative.
There is also no consensus among the government and while the left wing praises Macron’s idea and is keen to hear the citizens out, the right wing remains skeptical. Citizens’ consultations can easily end up like last year in the Czech Republic, by achieving nothing at all. Only 2,000 people took part in the Czech consultations, which were supposed to bring the EU closer to the citizens.
Even though we may assume that more engaged French citizens will be more interested in the consultations, it is not enough to calm the situation down. An already weakened President Macron can achieve one thing only – buy some extra time.
Civic Democrat Zahradil believes it is time for the EU to reform itself and that some competencies will be given back to the nation states, and that integration went too far. Zdechovský from KDU-CSL agrees that the EU needs reform, however there are many things that have to change and it’s not enough just to criticize the Union.
According to Zahradil, the EU didn’t enter the new year 2019 in good shape, in some regards the integration simply went too far and not everything could be effectively resolved on the European level. The EU mainly failed in tackling the migration crisis, he added. Zdechovsky disagreed, he rather thinks that nation states failed during the crisis – cheating Italians, Greeks and those who opened up their borders.
As Zahradil believes, in almost every member state there are voices calling for a reconstructed Union, in which national states will have a stronger voice. The current course, when European institutions have increasingly more power, is about to stop and revert. He also pointed out that France and Germany are not against strengthening of the European institutions as they play an important role in them. Juncker’s chief of staff, General secretary of the EP and a deputy negotiator for Brexit are all German bureaucrats, reminded Zahradil.
Regarding the Romanian presidency, Zahradil noted that in Brussels, there are mixed feelings as the country is facing domestic political turmoil. Expectations are rather low, and he worries that the EU would try to use Romanian weaknesses and coach its presidency. As Luxembourg and the Baltic states have proved, member states are able to be strong negotiators, reacted Zdechovsky, adding that a vacuum cannot exist in politics, so if Romania won’t be strong enough, someone else would have to step in. Regarding the people in the European institution, Zdechovchy reminded that the Czech Republic, for example, didn’t nominate anyone for Brexit negotiations. On the other hand, he mentioned Hungary as an example of a smaller state able to be visible in the institution.
Following Britain´s withdrawal from the EU, the European Parliament will now have 705 seats instead of 751. The Czech Republic has 21 seats in the current EP. The elections in 2014 were accompanied by a record low turnout, only 18.2 percent of the eligible voters participated in the elections.
In 2014, the ANO movement gained 16.13 percent of votes. TOP 09 received 15.95 percent, CSSD 14.17 percent, KSCM 10.98 percent, KDU-CSL 9.95 percent, ODS 7.67 percent, and the Free Citizens’ Party received 5.24 percent of the vote.
The winning ANO gained four seats as well as the CSSD and TOP 09. The KSCM and the KDU-CSL have three mandates, the ODS two and the Free Citizens’ Party one.
EU citizens elect representatives to the EP every five years. This year, the elections in EU countries will be held between May 23rd and 26th. The last polling station will close on the Sunday in some of the member states and all results will be released soon afterwards. Therefore, the final results can be expected in the evening and midnight hours of Sunday, May 26th.
Brazil is a sovereign state and it decides on its own whether to accept migrants or not, anyone coming to our country has to abide out laws, rules and traditions, tweeted Bolsonaro, adding migrants have to sing the Brazilian national anthem and respect its culture. Brazilians and migrants will be safer if Brazil sets its own rules without pressure from abroad, he added.
His government – sworn in on January 1st – already announced their intention to opt-out from the UN migration pact, while Bolsonaro announced his intention even before Brazil had adopted in. In December, just five countries opposed the pact, including the Czech Republic and the US.
Bolsonaro is often compared to Donald Trump for his provocative rhetoric and extensive use of social media. They both want to adjust agreements they see as non-beneficial for their economies. Bolsonaro also announced he is considering opting-out from the Paris climate agreement and to leave regional trade organization Mercosur.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo said last month that Brazil welcomes migration, but the UN pact is an insufficient tool. Brazil will continue to help migrants, mainly Venezuelans fleeing from an authoritarian regime and economic collapse in their country, he added.
In the third quarter of 2018, the three cities in the world with the fastest-growing residential prices were Xi’an in China with 20 percent, Ahmedabad in India with 19.6 percent and Budapest with 19 percent.
The index – which compares residential prices in 150 cities around the world – showed that at the other end of the scale, residential prices dropped by 13.2 percent in Turin, 8.3 percent in Tel Aviv and 7.4 percent in Stockholm.
In neighboring countries, residential prices rose by 11.5 percent in the Croatian capital, Zagreb and by 5.6 percent in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.
Hungary’s largest real estate agency, Duna House said in a recent market survey that in a regional comparison residential prices in the central areas of the capital were the most affordable in Budapest at US$3,050 per square meter, slightly higher in Warsaw at USS$3,100 but significantly more expensive in Prague (US$5,155) and Vienna (US$7,185).
Salvini believes the next EP will be “totally different” to today’s EPP and socialist dominated chamber. He described his meeting with Kaczyński as “long, positive and concrete”. He said that the two leaders “talked about a Europe of the future that gives sense to the European dream which is being suppressed by the bureaucracy in recent times”. He added that the two leaders also managed to talk about values and the situation facing families and young people.
We talked about a Europe of the future that gives sense to the European dream which is being suppressed by the bureaucracy in recent times
The Italian leader said that both leaders agreed that the future EU budget should not cut resources for fisheries and agriculture for both Poland and Italy. He felt that there was a chance of a “Polish-Italian axis” emerging in the EU and that his country would support Poland’s stance in its rule of law dispute with the EC.
The press spokesperson of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) tweeted: “Positive talks, full of mutual understanding. Issues in which difference of view between PiS and the Liga exist were covered. The talks opened the way to future contact on how to speed up development of the EU and to ensure its place in a global context.”
Rozmowa pozytywna,pełna wzajemnego zrozumienia.Podniesiono kwestie w których istnieje rozbieżność poglądów pomiędzy PiS a Ligą.Rozmowy otworzyły drogę do dalszych kontaktów odnoszących się do kwestii przysieszenie rozwoju UE i zapewnienia UE właściwego miejsca w skali globalnej. pic.twitter.com/8o7GqjNicg
Matteo Salivini was in Warsaw on an invitation from Polish Interior minister Joachim Brudziński. The two met earlier on Wednesday with Salvini, using a press conference to declare that Poland and Italy will lead a new “European spring leading to a new balance of power after years of Franco-German domination.
The Italian Deputy PM also met Poland’s PM Mateusz Morawiecki during his visit. Salvini is attempting to persuade conservative parties in Europe who share a commitment to a Europe of nation states to join forces in the coming EP elections.
Customs officers stopped a van at the southern Röszke border crossing with Serbia and following a search found the drugs in the modified double floor of the vehicle, NAV said. The drugs have a street value of HUF 151 million (US$542,000).
The Serbian driver – who said he was traveling to Germany – has been charged and handed over to police.
An earlier report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) showed that the total value of heroin and opium smuggled from Afghanistan to Western Europe through the Balkans amounts to some US$28 billion every year. 65 percent of it (US$18 billion) is generated in Western and Central Europe. The four largest European markets for heroin – France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy – account for nearly half of the gross profits, as the major heroin benefits are made by traffickers on the retail markets.
The report also said that the total value generated by drugs of Afghan origin reaching Europe through the Balkan route is one third larger than the entire GDP of Afghanistan.
The tourists are now to be found not only in traditional tourist places such as the Old Town and the Royal Castle and Royal gardens but also on the redeveloped Vistula western river bank and on the eastern bank – the revitalized Praga quarter.
The crowds of tourists can also be found at Warsaw’s showpiece museums such as the Jewish History Museum, the Warsaw Rising Museum and the Copernicus Science Center.
According to the Warsaw Tourist Board, the Polish capital is the most dynamic tourist market in the country and this trend is likely to continue as Warsaw’s brand is becoming increasingly visible on foreign markets.
Germans, Americans and British tourists dominate among the visitors
According to the “Tourism in Warsaw” report the city attracted 25.7 million visitors in 2017, an increase of 24 percent on the previous year. Of those 16 million were one day visits. According to the data Germans, Americans and British visitors dominate among the incomers. Warsaw’s attractiveness rating is high at 8.66.
The Warsaw Tourist Board also highlights the city’s culinary offer, which includes not only high class restaurants but also highly recommended local markets at which local delicacies can be purchased. Warsaw’s night life has also received praise and the city is now ranked 9thin the “Hostelworld” service ranking ahead of well established metropolitan centers such as New York, London and Paris.
According to Business Insider, the Praga quarter on the eastern bank of the Vistula is one of the most interesting districts in Europe. Skyscanner on the other hand regards it, alongside the Zbawiciela Square as one of the most hipster places in the world.
The deal was announced by Minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás, the Fidesz MP for Debrecen Lajos Kósa and the mayor of the city, László Papp. The painting will be part of the collection of the Debrecen museum.
The painting, Golgota, is part of Munkácsy’s famous “Trilogy”, with the other two paintings being Christ in front of Pilate and Ecce Homo. Golgota was owned by Imre Pákh, retired businessman of Hungarian extraction who made his fortune in the United States as a trader of Eastern European art and jewelry.
He sold his business interests in 2000 and has since focused on investments and art collecting.
“This is important news for fans of Hungarian culture and of Munkácsy’s art,” Gulyás said. “It has made both Hungary and the city of Debrecen richer.”
The Trilogy was first exhibited in Debrecen in its entirety in 1995 and at the time two of the paintings had been in foreign ownership. Not even the artist has seen the three paintings together. The treasury of the Hungarian Central Bank purchased Christ in front of Pilate in 2015 from the Canadian Art Gallery of Hamilton.
Munkácsy’s (1844-1990) art is considered the pinnacle of Hungarian national painting.
The US Ambassador’s intervention concerned draft legislation that would have made it hard for Uber to remain in the Polish market. This action comes on the back of her previous interventions over proposals for a deconcentration of the media ownership law and interests in drug company “Roche”.
“Please do not make a mistake that could have far-reaching consequences,” wrote the US Ambassador in a letter in which she demanded the Polish government withdraw the draft and warned that unless this is done, technological investment in Poland could be frozen.
Please do not make a mistake that could have far-reaching consequences
“I don’t understand why Poland is considering such a move. Stopping one of the largest technological firms in the world from being active on the Polish market would undoubtedly freeze future investment in the sector,” argued Ms Mosbacher.
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The legislative draft was submitted to the Legal Committee of the Council of Ministers in October last year, a day before protests by taxi drivers against Uber. The letter from the US ambassador was written a few days after that.
Despite the fact that the transport minister backs the draft law, it is not likely to be processed at the present time and is unlikely to see the light of day in advance of the Parliamentary elections in the autumn.
Romania does not have a single politician who would stand up for the nation’s interests as does Orbán for Hungary, Țiriac said in the interview.
“The question is, is Orbán really the Hitlerist of Europe? For the time being, he defends Hungarian interests from A to Z and, with all respect, when he goes to Brussels he stand up,” he said, adding that he does not understand the criticisms leveled against the Hungarian Prime Minister.
“Why would one criticize Orbán? This baffles me. They say he is imperfect because he strikes a three billion (euros) deal with Russia. But how many billions (in deals) do you think Germany has with Russia every year? Very many billions,” Țiriac said.
Last summer, Țiriac – joint holder of the franchise – sold the rights for an ATP tennis tournament to Hungary and is said to have good relations with the Hungarian Prime Minister.
Țiriac, a former top 10 tennis player won one a Grand Slam title, the men’s doubles at the 1970 French Open with Ilie Năstase but rose to fame later as the manager of several tennis players such as Henri Leconte, Boris Becker and Goran Ivanišević. He was also a member of the Romanian ice hockey team at the 1964 Winter Olympics.
Born in Transylvania, he was a businessman in Germany and returned to his native Romania in 1990 to establish a bank and several other businesses. Forbes ranks him as the wealthiest Romanian with a net worth of US$1.2 billion as of 2018.
According to Krasnodębski, Polish companies and the Polish state should be doing more to participate in EU defense cooperation initiatives. As the rapporteur of an EP report on the European Defense Fund, the senior Polish politician sees general unity on the issue of the initiative.
In an interview with Defence24.pl he argues that Poland needs to take advantage of the Romanian Presidency in the EU to ensure that the initiative is compatible with NATO plans in Europe.
The initiative contains encouragement for multi-country projects that create opportunities for the defense industries across Europe and preferences for small and medium enterprises with a budget of some 13 billion Euro for the 2021 period.
The initiative is an opportunity for the Polish defense industry to go to the next level and enter international corporation networks and participate in large defense projects
Prof. Krasnodębski feels that the initiative is an opportunity for the Polish defense industry to go to the next level and enter international corporation networks and participate in large defense projects as long as Poland becomes more pro-active in this field, as it has shown it can in other sectors such as energy and infrastructure development.
He says that there is agreement that companies who are partly American owned but located in EU states should be able to participate. The senior MEP argues that although Poland must make military cooperation with the US priority it should not ignore the EU initiatives and says that Poland “must work on both fronts”.
Prof. Krasnodębski sees some dangers of the French wanting to use EU initiatives to distance Europe from America but on the other hand he sees potential for using the initiative to increase German military capacity under a European umbrella. He does not see increasing EU defense capacity as a threat to Poland’s interests as long as there is close cooperation on them with the US.
Research shows completely contradicting figures if compared to a three-year-old study by the Public Employment Service Austria (AMS). A study from 2016 focusing on level of education of asylum seekers in the country concluded that their qualifications are much better than expected. Back then, AMS collected responses from 898 migrants, but the recent study works with more than 32,000 respondents. Which is one of the reasons why the new data differs from the original findings.
The largest group among asylum seekers are Syrians, followed by Afghans and migrants from Russia, Iraq and Iran. Migrants from those five countries combined amount to 28,000. And according to Die Presse, nearly 70 percent are uneducated. For example, less than 13 percent of the Afghans surveyed have higher than compulsory education.
Moreover, many of those who claim to be trained in craftsmanship don’t have anything to prove it. In 2016, the study showed that many migrants are analphabets and they must learn the basics before being able to attend more advanced courses planned for them.
A common currency, and therefore a common supranational monetary policy, was a practical and important step towards the realization of a supranational European super state. A state which, regardless of its final official form and name, aims (as it always did) to replace a concept of historically functional nation states.
This is one of the reasons why advocates and critics of the eurozone cannot find common ground. There are many arguments and data proving the euro to be extremely costly and defective, but its proponents turn a deaf ear to such facts, for them the eurozone is a political project. For the Eurofederalists the euro confirms what has been achieved in terms of European integration on one hand and supports deeper integration on the other.
Also, as over-indebted Greece shows, they are determined to maintain it whatever the cost. In his New year’s statement, Jean-Claude Juncker reminded us that proponents of the euro are unable to assess the economic reality. According to Juncker, the euro has brought prosperity and protection to citizens, and has become a symbol of unity, sovereignty and stability.
The eurozone countries have been experiencing slower growth than other developed countries, not to mention developing economies. The average growth rate of the eurozone was 1.4 percent between the years 1999 and 2017, while the OECD average was 2 percent. At the same time, the European share of the global GDP dropped from 25 percent in 2000 to 17 percent in 2015. So much for the prosperity!
In terms of stability, during the financial crisis that started in 2008, the economy of the eurozone experienced a worse recession than the OECD countries and its economic downturn was deeper than the global average. The eurozone had a GDP growth of about -4.5 percent in 2009, while OECD growth rate was -3.4 percent and the global -0.5 percent. The eurozone’s economic recovery was slower as well. The area with one common currency wasn’t more resilient to an economic shock.
Now, institutional changes are supposed to cure the eurozone. After functional mechanisms, like the so-called ‘transfer union’ in which richer member states are asked to bankroll poorer peers, plans for a common budget and a common bond issue were introduced. All of this has a common denominator – a transfer of fiscal authorities to the European level, in other words further centralization and unification.
Actually, the eurozone fails to meet its own criteria. 12 out of 17 countries failed to fulfil the restriction of the maximum 60 percent debt to GDP.
Thus, in 2019, when we are celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the Czech(oslovak) currency, it would be wise to keep a distance from the eurozone.
During a recent meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Milos Zeman advocated “Hungarian road” in the completion of nuclear power plant blocks in the Czech Republic. President Zeman is a long-standing supporter of nuclear power, and he also speaks up for Russia’s Rosatom that will build the Paks blocks.
According to Lidove noviny, the visit will be slightly complicated to arrange but Zeman will do everything to look into the power plant to see how the “Hungarian road” works. “We will prepare the program in more detail,” spokesman Jiri Ovaccek said, adding that the visit should take place from May 14th to May 16th, and Zeman could visit the plant on the last day of his trip.
On the other hand, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said earlier that he would not choose the same way of completing the reactors as chosen by his V4 partner. “We do not consider a similar intergovernmental agreement as Hungary has,” Lidove noviny stated, remembering the prime minister’s words.
Candidates for the completion of nuclear power plants in the Czech Republic include Rosatom as well as American Westinghouse and South Korean KHNP. In this context, the US Energy Minister Rick Perry or South Korean President Moon Jae-in has already arrived in the Czech Republic. The interest in completing the Czech plant is understandable as it is a highly lucrative business. The lower cost limit per block is around €4 billion.
95 percent of citizens evaluated the Czech Republic’s relations with Slovakia positively. Followed by Poland, Hungary and Austria, praised equally by nine out of ten respondents.
According to a recent survey, the Czechs see their country’s relations with Germany positively (84pc), France (82pc), the UK (81pc), Italy (80pc) and the United States (78pc).
A little less satisfied are the relations with China and Japan, which only seven out of ten respondents viewed positively. However, positive perception of relations with China improved by 6 percent and negative dropped by 7 percent, which is the best result since 2008.
The perception of relations with Ukraine and Israel improved the most, if compared to the previous survey from January 2015, and Czech-Israel relations are evaluated most positively in the history of the survey.
On the other side of the list would be Iran and Syria. Negative responses outweigh positive ones, which is also the case for Saudi Arabia.
The CVVM agency conducted the survey with 1,078 respondents in December 2018.
United International Pictures, the distributors of the horror flick “Escape Room” have suspended, for an indefinite period, the release of the movie in Poland. The decision was taken in response to the fire in an ‘escape room’ that took place in Koszalin and in which five teenage girls perished and a man was seriously wounded.
Charges
Firefighters found the victims’ bodies after they extinguished a fire next to the locked room. Autopsies showed that the girls, who were friends from school, died of carbon monoxide inhalation.
As a result of the fire the public prosecutors have filed charges against an individual who is accused of negligence which unintentionally cause the fire. He is considered to be the person responsible for managing the ‘escape room‘ enterprise and having prepared the room.
According to the prosecutors the individual failed to take care of adequate heating systems and evacuation routes that would enable the participants to leave the place of entertainment. The individual charged has so far refused to testify and is being held in custody.
“Escape room” movie
The movie “Escape Room” which premiered in the USA on January 3rd was to go on release in Poland on January 11th. The film tells the story of six people who on the same day receive unsolicited invitations to a recently opened ‘escape room’.
Their reward for solving riddles and finding a way out of the room is a million dollars. However, it emerges that the stake in the game is not just the fortune but also the lives of the participants.
Frank Magnitz is the chief of the AfD for Bremen. In May that region will elect its assembly. Currently the party holds four out of 83 seats in that assembly. However, it now has 94 out of 709 deputies in the Bundestag.
This is a dark day for German democracy
The AfD politician was attacked in the center of Bremen by three masked men when he left the city hall after a New Year reception. The fact that a passerby disturbed the assailants probably saved Mr Magnitz’s life.
“Deputy @AfD to the Bundestag brutally beaten by left wing agitators. When I say that the level of political aggression in Germany is higher than in Poland I am met with disbelief,” wrote on twitter TVP correspondent in Berlin Cezary Gmyz.
Poseł @AfD do Bundestagu skatowany przez lewicowych bojówkarzy. Kiedy mówię, że poziom agresji politycznej w Niemczech jest wyższy niż w Polsce spotykam się niedowierzaniem pic.twitter.com/xSa4e6VkUg
AfD has published a photograph of Frank Magnitz which shows him in a critical condition on social media. The comment on the post says “This is a dark day for German democracy.”
The office of the AfD in Dobeln, Saxony, was bombed last Thursday. Commenting on the incident the deputy PM of the Saxony Land government Martin Dulig (SPD) said that AfD should be contested politically but not by physical violence. “Violence is not a democratic tool,” he said.
Poland’s FM Jacek Czaputowicz has proposed sending a special emissary of the UN Secretary General and the widening of the Normandy format with the US and the EU. The minister’s initiative has been received with interest in Kiev.
According to Ukrainian experts surveyed by the “Ukrinform” agency, Poland like the Baltic states wants to help Ukraine for the sake of its own security. Poland also wants to take advantage of the fact that France and Germany do not have a mandate to lead the EU, and Warsaw is entitled to present its own initiative.
Poland wants to take advantage of the fact that France and Germany do not have a mandate to lead the EU and Warsaw is entitled to present its own initiative
One of the experts interpreted this as Poland being keen to challenge German supremacy using its own influence in the EU. However his assertion that one of those Polish agents of influence is Donald Tusk, which flies in the face of the reality that the current President of the European Council is not working with Poland.
Bohdan Yaremenko one of the experts from the “Majdan foreign affairs” foundation is skeptical about the Polish proposals. “It’s obvious that the Kremlin wants to continue its aggression and that in the EU there is no will to stop Moscow”. He is convinced that as a result of economic interests the key players in the EU do not feel that it is worth their while to take decisive action against Russia.
Sikorski writes in his book that CIA interrogation centers were located in Poland and that terrorists were held there. He mentioned a particular villa in Stare Kiejkuty, northern Poland, where the interrogations allegedly took place.
Sikorski reveals that it was leased to the US secret services “without a signed agreement” and Americans paid Poland with “cash in boxes.” He commented wryly that the only benefit from the whole process was the revamp to the villa in which he later stayed and briefed “Polish intelligence operatives”.
The former Foreign Minister also wrote about the alleged proposal given by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Donald Tusk, former Polish Prime Minister. In 2014 Sikorski told “Politico” that during Tusk’s visit to Moscow in 2008, Putin allegedly offered Poland the possibility to participate in the partition of Ukraine.
When the interview in “Politico” was published, Mr Sikorski said that his words were “taken out of context”, and later claimed that “his memory had failed him”.
In his book, Mr Sikorski also revealed details about how some diplomats cooperated with intelligence services, and uncovered sensitive details which Warsaw was privy to during the Russian-Georgian war. He admitted that Poland had been “bluffing” about Nordstream blocking the Świnoujście LNG port.
Bartosz Cichocki, deputy Foreign Minister, told “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna” that the revelations by Mr Sikorski were “irresponsible”. “This is the behavior of a person who is leaving politics. It is hard to judge a person who writes first, then thinks about what he wrote,” Cichocki said.
The latest – third quarter of 2018 – foreign payments balance of the MNB indicate that Hungary’s foreign financing capacity was 3.4 percent of GDP, while its current account balance had a 1.9 percent surplus.
It also showed that due to the excellent financing capacity – which well exceeds the regional average – foreign debt has continued to decrease while foreign direct investments are on the rise.
The country’s current account balance – consisting of the trade balance plus cash transfers balance – has continuously been positive since 2010.
The overall foreign debt of the economy has been reduced by two percentage points to 58 percent. In the first three quarters of 2018 foreign direct investments (FDI) amounted to EUR 2.3 billion (US$2.63 billion), a significant increase from the same period of 2017.
Short-term international debt – an important measure of the country’s vulnerability to external factors – has dropped to EUR 18.2 billion (US$20.86 billion) while the country’s foreign currency reserves of EUR 23.7 billion (US$27.1 billion) remain well above safe levels.
Károly Kárpáti was born Károly Kellner to a Jewish family in Eger, northeast Hungary and he was the man who deprived Adolf Hitler from celebrating Germany’s first gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games by defeating German titleholder Wolfgang Ehrl.
“They (the Germans) have been making preparations for this (victory), he was supposed to march to Hitler flanked by a row of SS. They even pre-printed postcards with the inscription Wolfgang Ehrl, Olympic Champion. Well, I defeated him,” Kárpáti said in an interview in 1992.
At the end, Kárpáti was so exhausted, his teammates carried him outside in their arms to give him fresh air.
“When they took me outside the sports hall to get some fresh air, I noticed a line of SS soldiers. I spoke good German, so I asked them what is happening.”
The Chancellor is leaving before the awarding ceremony – the answer came. So I can say that not only have I won on the carpet, but that Hitler also suffered a defeat at my hands
During the Holocaust, Kárpáti – on account of his sports fame – was spared from persecution, but was ultimately arrested and sent to a labor camp in Nadvirna (earlier part of Poland, now in Ukraine). But he survived and died in 1996 at the age of 90.
The exhibition will be the opening event of the Budapest Photo Festival.
“As a filmmaker, David Lynch has embraced the various Surrealist approaches, not least in the incongruous pairing of suburban banality with the esoteric, the unnerving and the violent,” the publicity material of the exhibition says.
David Lynch in 2017
With Surrealism and Lynch’s own latter-day incarnations, the narrative is one of continually shifting contexts and emotions, from humor to beauty to profound unease, often within a single shot.
Lynch is considered one of the most important film directors of his era and – on account of also being a painter, musician, actor and photographer – some consider him “the Renaissance man of modern American filmmaking.”
The exhibition opens on March 1st and lasts until June 2nd.
Szíjjártó – on an official visit to Liechtenstein – told national news agency MTI in a telephone interview that the document has everything to facilitate migration but nothing to keep it in check.
This package only takes into account the interests of the migrants but does not deal with the interests of those who want to live in peace and safety in their own countries
He said the fact that in the U.N. General Assembly 40 states did not vote on the migration pact is a clear indication that the attempts to make the document one of international reference lack credibility and are unacceptable.
He said that during his talks in Liechtenstein the issue of migration was a central one, adding that the parliament of Liechtenstein also had a day of debate about migration and due to the concerns voiced there, the country eventually abstained from voting on the pact.
“I said that Hungary will continue to deny the entry of all illegal migrants, we consider the protection of our borders a national security issue and we will continue to defend our borders – which we consider to be a solely nation competence,” Szíjjártó said.
Title image: Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szíjjártó and Liechtenstein Foreign Minister Aurelia Frick (MTI/Mitko Sztojcsev)
Good evening and happy new year to all our viewers. This is the V4, the show covering the Visegrád Four, for the first time in 2019. In recent years, Central European countries have been facing serious challenges. These countries have been subjected to numerous attacks because of their migration policies, and the attacks are likely to continue in the future, primarily in European politics. Bringing the French military industry into an advantageous position is behind Emmanuel Macron’s ambition to create a European army, according to political scientist Eszter Petronella Soos in an earlier show of ours. We also talked about the possible economic effects of Brexit with Csaba Szajlai, Deputy Editor in Chief of Figyelő, and Dávid Szabó, an international politics analyst. Here is a summary of these discussions.
What is Emanuel Macron’s goal with the V4?
Right after taking office, the V4s became a focus of Macron’s presidency. We remember his tour about posted workers and the new directives concerning them. At that time the official French communication was that the goal was not to divide but to bring as many Central Eastern European member states as possible behind the French proposals. Back then they said that they wanted to avoid the appearance of the Western–Eastern divide. To give a little background, I think it is very important to understand that the consequences of the 2004 EU enlargement in some parts of the Western population are not popular because they meant the appearance of social dumping and the appearance of a cheap Eastern workforce. There was an internal political logic behind the fact that Emanuel Macron began his activities with this directive. This is one of the issues that can be understood from a French point of view. The other one is that Macron made a promise to try to visit every European capital. We can see that the visits to Warsaw and Budapest are being procrastinated. A year ago, Macron’s visit to Hungary was being planned. It seems that the V4 is a flexible cooperation, and when it comes to common interests and common opinions, this alliance can act together relatively smoothly, but when there is not a common interest, then naturally everybody represents his or her own national interest. Macron tries to play with this. We’ve seen him trying to use another group in the Council voting, the Slavkov cooperation, which is composed of Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Austria.
Let us clarify one more question. I wonder what the demand is today for the two-speed Europe. And, the other question is, if the goal of Macron’s last visit was to disrupt the countries of the Visegrád Four, what are the most obvious signs of his attempts to disintegrate the alliance?
These questions are related. The two-speed Europe is one of the central elements of Macron’s European program. The idea here would be that the eurozone has a separate parliament, a separate minister of finances, and a separate budget. Obviously, Germany’s accordance and enthusiasm would be essential for this plan. So far, this is limited because Germany would have a restrained interest in excluding its own economic hinterland from core Europa. This is basically the case, and it is clear that the situation in Slovakia is very different because it already introduced the Euro in 2009, but the Czechs still hesitate.
Is this a reason for Slovakia to be invested in belonging to core Europe?
The Czechs have hesitated several times. They are talking about whether or not a V2 + 2 formation is possible in this case. I would very much like to point out that the issue of the eurozone is an issue of oscillation in the V4, but in other cases, this block is able to act in a coordinated fashion. Honestly I believe that the real question about the eurozone and core Europe is whether or not the Germans are willing to invest money in it. This is a very important question of this election, and following the election it can be back on the agenda. I am in an awkward situation as an analyst, because there is a German chancellor who announced her resignation from the CDU, and we hear a lot about, and it is my feeling too that Angela Merkel might not complete this cycle.
My instincts also say—and the various statements we hear and the various processes we see also reinforce this belief—that the weakening of Angela Merkel can also cause Macron’s weakening. Do you agree with me?
If the next chancellor has a very orthodox position on the eurozone question and does not show any flexibility—and remember that German citizens have not been enthusiastic about spending German money on other countries since the Greek crisis—then Macron’s program on Europe might suffer a huge setback. This is why this is a very important election for Macron. He will need to send a group to the parliament that has the capacity to exercise pressure. This is his investment in the elections.
Petronella, back to the point of Macron’s purpose of disintegrating the V4. Do you think that his attempts were met with reception in the affected countries of the V4, I mean primarily Slovakia and the Czech Republic, whom he tried make his allies against Poland and Hungary, the conservatives?
I think that this is more about the countries’ interests. The Czechs and the Slovaks may be separated on the issue of the eurozone. Russia can be another question. I think that in certain cases, and first of all I am thinking of migration, this block can effectively act together, even though there are small differences in politics, and an instance could be the Slovakian refugee policy. However, when it comes to voting and to representing the common interests, then these countries can cooperate. There are different legal proceedings going on in the case of posted workers, and there seems to be coordination even from the side of member states who back then showed receptivity in rhetoric. This I can explain with a very simple reason. Since nobody yet knows what Europe will be like after next May, what can and what cannot be done, it is also reasonable that some Member States want to leave the doors open.
At the EP session in Strasbourg, Angela Merkel said that we need to consider creating a European army. Earlier, Emanuel Macron also had mentioned this as well, and Viktor Orbán also raised the same possibility in his 2016 speech in Tusványos. Going back to Macron, what could his real intentions be? We have already clarified his domestic political situation, but where does he see himself in the future, and what does he pursue at the European level?
Macron gave a speech last September in Athens in which he explained that he saw Europe as a system of geopolitical relations. He thinks that Europe should be strong and sovereign vis-á-vis other super powers. This reflects what the Hungarian Prime Minister says about Europe being rich but weak, hence the demand of the European army. There is a geopolitical vision, but of course there is a narrower national interest, and this is the interest of the French military industry. Emanuel Macron told CNN in an interview that he did not want the EU to spend the joint army and defense budgets on American weapons. It is not difficult to see the natural interests of the French military industry behind this statement.
Do you agree that a possible hard Brexit would primarily in the long term and indirectly strike the countries of the region, especially the Czech Republic?
We could say that “one eye is crying and the other is laughing” since what we are talking about means that the Central and Eastern European countries, the V4, are embedded in the economic mechanisms of Western European. In general, the export volumes of the Hungarian, Polish, Czech, and Slovakian manufacturing industries are large. I am going to present a number to the viewers, although it is not of Britain, but of Germany, which has one of the largest economies and is one of the largest export powers in Europe. In Central and Eastern Europe, the volume of imported goods is 13.4%. This is a huge amount considering the state of these economies in 1990. But, with regard to Brexit, the Czechs are more embedded in economic relations than the Hungarians. The Czech exposure is greater, but ours is great too. The whole region has more or less the same data. If a hard Brexit prevails, it will first of all be the processing industry that will have a strong impact on the Czech economy. As far as Hungary is concerned, the country in this respect may suffer fewer losses even in the case of a hard Brexit, since roughly 5% of our commodity turnover accounts for our annual export base to the UK. It is probable that this wound could be repaired in the Hungarian economy.
Before hearing the director’s opinion, let us clarify for the viewers what exactly a hard Brexit means. It would mean that after Britain leaves the customs union and the common market, it could only trade with the member states of the European Union according to the WTO rules. This would result in the increase in duties on foreign trade and other costs, and I also read that it would lead to a drastic change in migration policy. What is the correlation?
The correlation is that British migration policy in this case would be forced to look for other resources instead of the highly-skilled, risk-taking, and aspiring Central-Eastern European workers. Britain would be forced to turn back completely to the workforce of the British Commonwealth or former British colonists. From this point of view, it is very interesting that those who were campaigning for Brexit specifically because of the immigration policy eventually could create virtually greater immigration as a result of the process. And, about the other part of the question, the conditions Anett described would actually mean a super hard Brexit, and such hard conditions would make us concerned too. Even in case of a hard Brexit, that is without British membership in the customs union and in the common market, we would like to minimally create a free-trade zone or a similar cooperation between the European Union or European Economic Area and the UK. It is in the interest of all of us. This is also emphasized by the British. Even those in favor of a hard Brexit emphasize the need for a free trade agreement with the European Union, but it is also necessary to establish such agreements with the rest of the world, notably the United States, and also with the successor states of the British colonial empire or with East Asia.
In fact, in the economic and political sense, it is a stalemate. We are member states of the European Union, so it cannot work that the British quit but keep all kinds of advantages. Earlier, there were plans that the British would have an agreement with the European Union based on the Norwegian or Swiss example. This is quite the challenge that they presented to the European Union’s decision makers. I think that the European Union must be firm, as Brexit affects the 27 member states. Keep in mind that Great Britain is in a special status as a net contributor to the European Union’s common budget, but they can reclaim a lot and enjoy special treatment as well, just like Denmark or Sweden.
March 29th is still far away, but we know very well that British domestic politics have been subject to the negotiations of Brexit. Some say that Prime Minister Theresa May’s stability has been wavering. Indeed, the issue is far from being over. Meanwhile, during our conversation we are showing a graph to the viewers. The population of the countries of the Central and Eastern European region is primarily interested, beyond the economic indicators, in what will happen to the workers. Here is the chart. It shows the number of registered workers in Great Britain in 2017. How would the current Brexit terms protect the interests of the region’s workers?
The British say that in fact everything will remain unchanged, as far as labor market conditions and regulation are concerned, but this is still awaiting refinement. The Hungarian national interest, on the other hand, is to have more people come home to Hungary or closer to Hungary from those who are working in Britain. It is natural to be worried about Hungarian workers in the UK, but we need to see that they are contributing to the UK’s GDP. We Hungarians are interested in solving the tight labor market problems in Hungary. It is highly likely that the British interest is to regulate the labor market in a liberal way, since it would mean a huge cut if they applied new rules. But, it is certain that the current EU regulatory system will not work.
Our next topic is the EU budget that we can expect after 2020. The European Parliament adopted the negotiating starting points for the post-2020 budget last week. We’ll continue after a short summary.
Based on the proposal of the European Commission, the Visegrád countries will have about 25% less cohesion funding after 2020 than in the 2014–2020 cycle. The committee’s proposal affects the V4 negatively because the Visegrád countries are among the 11 major beneficiaries of EU funding, and these resources cover most of their public investment. Due to the economic needs caused by Brexit and immigration, the Commission revised the system for allocating aid from cohesion funds and put in place criteria in the resource allocation system for efforts in the areas of unemployment, the relocation of immigrants, innovation, and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. Brussels decision makers also noted that the drop in funding provided for the V4 is to some degree the price of the region’s economic successes. The change in conditions is thus partly a result of the dynamic development of Central Europe, to which the funding received over the last two fiscal cycles contributed greatly.
Does the EU argumentation stand?
Well, to me it seems to be a little bit circumlocutory at first glance. The experts of the European Commission say that the Mediterranean countries need to catch up because since the 2008–2009 global economic crisis, they are still in a lousy situation, as they cannot reach the level of economic output as before 2008. By contrast, the Central European countries, namely us, the Poles, the Slovaks, and the Czechs, can grow quite well. The region is performing astonishingly. At the same time, the argument that the Mediterranean countries need to be supported now is not entirely correct, as the level of development of the Mediterranean countries has not yet been reached by the Central and Eastern European region. The best indicator of this is the GDP growth rate. In this respect, perhaps the Czechs are ahead of a Southern European country, namely Portugal, but Hungary could not pass nor catch up to neither Spain nor Italy in this respect. Greece has fallen far back, so they are probably not a point of reference. The essence is that the Central and Eastern European region must be helped in order to catch up. We have not benefited from the funds and income that the Mediterranean countries have. In fact, we now get much less money than these countries received in the 80s to assist them to catch up. So, I see not entirely professional reasons but a kind of political pressure. We all know that there is a Polish case, a Slovak case, and a Hungarian case before the European Commission and the European Parliament. I think that there is sort of a regulation factor in this story. At the same time, we have to keep in mind that the situation is not yet completely final.
Are we being punished?
Well, some would like us to be punished. I believe that the countries of this region have realized their power after more than ten years of European Union membership. They are able to use the European cohesion and structural funds so that they can make a real contribution to the quality of life of those living here and to economic growth, while at the same time the Western European net contributing elite also benefit from cohesion policy. So, this is a success story. To knock over or diminish a success story can be only of interest if there are other political considerations beneath the surface. This is how I interpret the case. These states that came to power and consciousness now do not want to stand behind the globalist future envisioned by Brussels, and, therefore, Brussels is trying to put political pressure on them. We do not have to complain but have to actively get involved in coalition building and fight to defend our interests.
Dear viewers, with the news of the Visegrád Four, we are counting on seeing you next week. Thank you for being with us and goodbye.
To put it simply, the backlash is criticizing his criticism of an ongoing indoctrination in Czech schools. But does boys wearing skirts or girls wearing uniforms count as a fight against fear and hate?
Let’s take a look back to remind us of this ‘Jandák moment’. When former President Havel finished his dream project, a movie based on his play ‘Leaving’, most critics didn’t dare to be adequately critical simply out of respect and considering his age and illness. Actually, most people but one, a then MP Vítězslav Jandák. By denouncing it, he allowed critics to shift their focus on him and ignore the movie.
In this case, infamous far right politician Fiala has replaced Jandák and drew public attention away from the happening itself. On his Facebook profile, he just raised a question if there isn’t an ongoing indoctrination at schools, which was at the heart of his critique and should be essential for a consequent public debate.
The question itself is indeed important. Fiala believes, based on his observations, that indoctrination is happening. In fact, we are still far from ‘indoctrination levels’ of some Western countries, the process is not systemic yet.
However, we must not forget a recent case of kids’ news aired on Czech public TV that Václav Klaus Jr. legitimately criticized. Also, those who are familiar with ideological seminars for Czech teachers, would probably agree with Fiala.
But above all, nothing supports Fiala’s concerns as much as a response of the high school director. He expressed his support for such events as they are ‘supporting the role-model of a functional traditional family more than any restrictions, insults and intolerance’ – all of which was according to the director present in Fiala’s post.
What does he mean by that? Disrupting of gender stereotypes supports traditional family? Does it apply only if compared to the Facebook cesspool? And does it even matter when we are allegedly fighting the world of fear and hate?
Additionally, the Office of the Government, precisely its Council for Equal Opportunities of Women and Men, sent a letter to the school. In the letter, its director also showed support for involved students and offered to hold one of the Council’s seminars on gender equality in Blansko.
“If we did not adopt the law on Brexit, we would endanger about 40,000 Czech citizens who live in Britain,” the Interior minister said. People would feel restrictions on free access to the labor market or the fact that they would not be part of the health and social system in the Czech Republic without adopting a bill. The government will want the Chamber of Deputies to approve the law in a fast debate during a single reading.
By the end of 2020, if the law in the Czech Parliament is approved, British citizens will be viewed as citizens of the European Union in the 18 listed categories. This is essential for about 8,000 British people living and working in the Czech Republic. Worsening conditions for them would have a negative impact on Czechs in the UK.
The British government has previously promised that all European (including Czech) citizens living in the United Kingdom will have the right to live and work there based on a valid identity card until the end of 2020.
Last weekend, France witnessed yet another yellow vests’ protests and even though it may seem like a domestic issue, it affects us as well. We are also a member of the EU, and as such we have every right to comment on what is going on in France. The problem is that Macron prefers a diarchy and wants to steer (or at least shape) the EU alone, with Germany.
In a simplified way we can say that a large part of the French has been applauding so long for the road to socialism that their hands have become painful. The pivotal question, then, is whether a country governed by the “Macron-Holland” governments should be tolerated or allowed to try to manage and determinate the fate of the entire European Union.
According to the commentator and analyst Martin Manak, the answer is a clear NO. If a country cannot properly manage public policy at home, then it can hardly manage it as a leader at the European level. “Macron does, to a significant extent, only reap what his predecessors have sowed. But it does not change anything,” Maňák writes.
The only thing France is champion of is the number of nuclear weapons and the world football championship. Otherwise, it suffers from an enormous debt of 97 percent of GDP, weak economic growth and all-pervading state expansion into different areas.
It is absurd that, in this situation, France is lecturing, instructing or even forcing its political model to anyone. Still, it is happening, or at least France is trying hard.
It is obvious that Macron (as well as his predecessors) is being captured by the illusion of France’s trusteeship and leadership role in Europe. Stormy yellow vest protests, held literally a few yards from Macron’s presidency seat, show that his home turf is burning under his feet. And all this due to the long-term economic-political mismanagement of the French government.
Those states of the European Union that have not yet lost the last remnants of self-preservation instincts should bear it in mind and face France’s leadership efforts together, Maňák recommends. In this respect, the gradual strengthening of the Visegrad Group raises hope.
According to Klaus, an ongoing multicultural attack on the foundations of human civilization is a major threat, and migration is only worsening its risks. He thinks that Czech politicians should’ve mentioned it in their new year’s addresses and worked more with our October anniversaries. It is not enough to praise the birth of our nation in 1918, if no one adds the threats the nation states have been facing in 2018, he said.
On the other hand, he didn’t criticize his successor Zeman for using the term ‘better people’ to label a part of the society in his Christmas speech, he claimed that there have always been people like that. There are more important issues to be mentioned, according to Klaus, like the migration crisis and the spreading of green ideology.
Klaus believes that society is polarized. It is us and them in the Czech Republic, where activists threw out flowers from the president and the prime minister on 17th of November, and it is the same in France, as we see in the mass protests taking place there.
According to the former president, our democracy is threatened by bureaucrats, administrative and European structures. The EU continues to threaten the Czech Republic. It is trying to offer us whatever it can, but it can never be our homeland, and that is what is most frightening, said Klaus.
Additionally, international tensions have grown significantly, and we are basically just one step away from the abyss. Klaus sees Ukraine as the main problem confronting the international community today. The country has been lured by Western political elites to provoke Putin’s Russia.
He also doesn’t rule out that he might run for presidency again in 2023, but he is of the view that this is rather a task for new generations. We need a candidate strong enough to resist attacks, added Klaus, and pointed out that his son, Vaclav Klaus Jr., has profiled well and has the courage to stand against the wind. Klaus Jr. has become one of the bookmakers’ favorites for the next presidency.
The Ministry of Transport has signed a contract for preparing the project which will provide a fast rail link between Kraków, Nowy Sącz and Zakopane. The line will provide a major boost to the tourist industry in this popular Tatra Mountain of southern Poland. It will be the longest railway line constructed in Poland for 40 years.
According to Transport minister Andrzej Adamczyk the project will be important not only for the region, but also for the transport system of the whole country and for the international transport network.
It will be the longest railway line constructed in Poland for 40 years
“This line will serve international traffic in goods as part of the “Amber trail”. It will also serve passengers and be connected to the proposed Central Communication Port (Central Airport) which is to be built in Central Poland.
A part of the North-South axis
The project on completion will improve transport links in Southern Poland as well as on the North-South axis of Europe that covers territories between the Baltic, the Balkans and the Black Sea. The project consists of 58km of new railway track and 80km of modernized tracks. It will include the construction of 11 tunnels, 20 bridges and 30 viaducts. It will cost 180 million PLN and should be ready in 2027.
There is no reason why the leader of PiS should not meet Matteo Salvini to talk about the future of the EU as Poland will be, once Brexit is complete, the EU’s third most important state.
The meeting between Kaczyński and Salvini is to take place in Warsaw on Wednesday. This meeting is being criticized because Salvini is pro-Russian, cooperates with Putin’s party “United Russia” and has posed in the Red Square in a Putin T-shirt.
Nevertheless, Jarosław Kaczyński will talk to Salvini about cooperation in the European elections because he has little choice. Now that the ECR grouping in the EP has been decimated by the departure of the British conservatives due to Brexit, PiS must find a new political alliance.
Now that the ECR grouping in the EP has been decimated by the departure of the British conservatives due to Brexit, PiS must find a new political alliance
If he made the presence of parties sympathetic to Russia the yardstick for membership, he would not be able to select any grouping. Putin sympathizers are present in all groupings, including not only the hard right but also in the EPP.
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There is also plenty of sympathy for Putin on the left too. Mr Schroeder, the former German Chancellor who is effectively employed by Putin isn’t an isolated case. Even within the liberal ALDE you will find the pro-Russian Centre party from Estonia and Lithuania’s Labor Party founded by the Russian born and Gazprom connected Victor Uspaskich.
Unless Brexit is reversed and the British Tories remain within the ECR, Jarosław Kaczyński has no choice but to seek allies who are united by more than skepticism towards immigration and European integration.
More dangerous than photos in Putin T-shirts of course are long-term decisions which support Russian imperialism. Even when Salvini, Kaczyński and even Putin have departed from the political scene the Nord Streams of this world will still be causing damage.
According to Jacek Protasiewicz, a Polish opposition MP close to the president of the European Council, the cutting short of Donald Tusk’s term of office, which would normally end on December 1st, 2019, is getting serious consideration. Protasiewicz, speaking in a TV interview, said that should the results achieved by the opposition in the European elections in May be unsatisfactory then “an extraordinary situation could call for extraordinary measures.”
An extraordinary situation could call for extraordinary measures
The successor to Donald Tusk is likely to be elected by the European Council by the beginning of September. Protasiewicz said that he could easily foresee Donald Tusk leading Poland’s opposition in autumn’s parliamentary elections should the need arise and that such a scenario “is being discussed in Brussels and in the European People’s Party.”
Tusk has called upon Poland’s opposition parties to unite against the ruling Law and Justice party. He has not been shy about intervening with criticism of the present Polish government in his public statements and has intimated that he is thinking of running for president of Poland in 2020.
The average temperature in Prague last year was 12.8 degrees Celsius (55 degrees Fahrenheit), 3.2 degrees above the average of the past 240 years, the CHMI said.
The previous record-holding years were 2014 and 2015, each with an average temperature of 12.5 degrees. The CHMI also said that since meteorological observations began, nine of the ten hottest years have all been in the 21st century.
Meteorological data in Prague had first been registered in 1752 at the Klementinum observatory – the country’s oldest such facility – and regular observations are available from 1775 onward. While the downtown location of the observatory may not be ideal for exact measurements, the simple fact of uninterrupted data going back so far in time represents a huge value to climate sciences.
“A few years ago, half of Poles reported having problems in covering unexpected expenditures. Today such a problem is raised by just a third of respondents, which is close to the EU average,” research by “Open Finance” found.
A similar picture emerges when we examine savings, 70 percent of both Europeans and Poles reported possessing some form of savings. However, whereas in Poland these savings amount to just 5 percent of income, in the Czech Republic savings account for 10 percent of income, and Germans and Swedes save about 20 percent of theirs.
The reasons for the rise in savers and savings in Poland is related to rising incomes and the existence of the universal child benefit (500+)
The reasons for the rise in savers and savings in Poland is related to rising incomes and the existence of the universal child benefit (500+), say “Open Finance”. The rise in incomes has also led to the number of people finding it impossible to fund holidays falling from 62 to 38 percent.
The rise in incomes and a rise in employment has led to an annual increase in average pay by 7.7 percent. The rise in the number of those in employment is of the magnitude of 3 percent over the same period.
According to “Open Finance”, disposable income now has one third more to spend than three years ago and double what it was ten years ago. However, this has also led to Poles falling into debt. According to “Open Finance”, since 2017 Poles have every month been spending increasing amounts on taking out mortgages.
After a grueling 44-day trip, Gábor Rakonczay reached the South Pole, Hungarian news agency MTI reports. The trip from the shore of Antarctica to the pole was 917 km (570 miles) and he completed it as the leader of a four-man team – according to Antarctica rules, the first trip to the pole of a person must be in a team.
Temperatures were initially just under -12 degrees Celsius, but as they approached the pole it sank to below -20 and occasionally as low as -30. During the trip he towed a 94-kg (207 pounds) sled, lost 10 percent of his body weight and suffered frostbites to his face, due to the almost constant icy headwinds.
Rakonczay crossed the Atlantic in a three-man canoe in 2008 and in a record 61 days in a solo trip in 2012. He almost died on the second trip, as halfway through the distance his canoe capsized, all electrical equipment – including GPS and satellite radio – had been disabled and he completed the distance without any connection to the outside world.
Title image: Gábor Rakonczay on November 22, 2018 (MTI/Camera Kft)
Instead of politely knocking, the new year has “kicked in the door”, President Áder said. The historic center of Havana was flooded by the sea, Indonesia has been hit by torrential rains in the wake of a tsunami, the ice covered over the North Pole, Greenland is at its smallest ever and ice is also melting at an alarming rate in Antarctica.
The president said we are carrying a “heavy burden” and time is running out for us to find answers to the ever more pressing questions. He said climate change is accelerating and despite promises to the contrary, the emission of greenhouse gases grew last year.
President Áder said that there has been very little progress in the three years since the Paris climate conference and the only “success” of the United Nations conference in Katowice was that it managed to prevent the collapse of the Paris Agreement.
The president said we are now further away from the goal defined in Paris – namely to keep global warming under two degrees Celsius – than we were in 2015 when said goal was established. He said the real issue is not the condition of the atmosphere but the future of human society and civilization.
Áder said there was still hope as we have all the required technological knowledge and even if at a great sacrifice, we can field the associated costs. All that is really needed is determination and courage, he concluded.
Title image: Hungarian President János Áder speaks to the diplomatic corps in Budapest (MTI/Tamás Kovács)
While Romania has already been at the helm of the European Union for a week, the effects of this momentous event have yet to register. The debate whether Romania is equipped to handle the task goes on, as do domestic political rifts but there is hardly any information regarding what the country would like to achieve in these six months, whether it has any priorities or is just playing for survival.
Jean-Claude Juncker has made it clear that Brussels doesn’t have high hopes: he said that while Bucharest will technically be able to perform the task, it does not comprehend the essence of the task. From a Romanian perspective the situation is also confusing: while in theory President Klaus Iohannis should be leading the proceedings, the task has fallen to Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă. She has almost no credibility or respect, not to mention the members of her cabinet, some of whom are barely semi-literate and have nothing to do with the sectors they are in charge of. As a consequence, they will hardly be able to steer specialty policy debates and, lacking any credibility, would be unable to reach any consensus.
We don’t know yet what Romania wishes to achieve during its presidency. It is customary that every nation sneaks in one or two points in its agenda that are of national interest. Hungary – during its 2011 tenure – had the Danube strategy and the EU Roma strategy. Bulgaria focused on the EU accession of the West Balkans countries and managed to start negotiations with Macedonia and Albania. The outgoing Austrian presidency was intent on border protection and halting migration. The Romanian program includes a few barely defined sentences about the Eastern Partnership and the Black Sea, but nothing really tangible.
Even Romania’s dream of hosting as many major meetings as Austria did seems increasingly unlikely: some summits have been cancelled and the only one still on the table is only mentioned in the context of which Romanian dignitary should host it. It seems as though Romania faces the same conundrum in its presidency as with its EU membership in general – it insists on deserving it but has no idea what for. It is most unlikely that it will profit from it and we can only hope that it will keep the damages to a minimum.
German Christian Churches are paid by the state via a so-called “church tax”. Germany wants to introduce the same tax for Muslims, because the Muslim church is being paid from Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Basically, Germany wants to cut this eastern influence which can cause serious problems and violent ideology. This tax can lead to greater independence for Muslim churches in Germany.
“Everything that our religious societies need for their work should be covered by the money of their members themselves,” said Seyran Ates, a Berlin lawyer and Muslim activist. She is the founder of the Berlin “Ibn-Rushd-Goethe.mosque” organization supporting the ideas of so-called liberal Islam.
Thorsten Frei, member of the conservative CDU, said in a statement to German newspaper Die Welt that the goal is “to free Islam in Germany from the influence of foreign states and get a stronger domestic orientation,” and described the “mosque tax” as the most important step ahead of this.
The German government wants to cut the support of Muslim associations who receive financial support from abroad, especially those of Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), which currently runs more than 900 mosques in Germany for the country’s nearly 5 million Turkish community and other Muslim minority groups.
Romania is technically well prepared, according to European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, but is unable to make political compromises. “I think the government in Bucharest has not yet fully understood what it means to take over the presidency of the EU. Prudent negotiations require a willingness to listen to others, and the firm will keep their own interests aside, “Juncker said.
Although Romania does face its own internal political problems, Juncker’s words, according to experts, are exaggerated and it is too soon for such a verdict now. “I do not think Juncker can know how they can handle it before the presidency starts. This will be seen in the course of the process – especially during the negotiations on the multi-annual financial framework, “Jan Kovář, EU expert, says.
“It is definitely not ok from the European Commission chief. What he said was exaggerated. It is a typical example of the politicization of the European Commission that is totally useless. He did not help anyone, it was pointless and on the contrary, he even worsens the atmosphere – the cooperation of the Romanian Presidency with the European Commission is certainly not going to be easier,” Vít Dostál, an expert of the Association for International Affairs, thinks.
According to Dostál, the situation in Romania is “quite odd”, which shows the latest assessment by the European Commission which found that instead of improving the rule of law, the situation in the country is worse. However, selecting such words about Romania was not right or appropriate.
Democracy is a form of government in which political control is exercised by all the people. On the other hand, Liberal Democracy tends to prefer the interests of several small groups over the interests of society as a whole. However, the combination of two positive words has allowed the “liberal democracy” to penetrate into our political vocabulary.
As Liberal Democracy becomes a widely used term, sometimes it is difficult to understand what these kind of people want. According to Hana Lipovska, the guide can be found in the document called “Central Europe in the next Seven Years” which is something like a “manifesto of liberal democracy”.
The report has a clear message: Whoever follows the liberal path of the European Union is a good guy, whoever does not is a bad guy and will suffer. According to the report, liberalism is threatened by eurosceptics, patriots, old voters, US President Trump, Hungary, Turkey, China and Russia. On the contrary, liberals put their hopes for a better future into young people, civil society, European democracy and the rule of law, the European Union and NATO.
Liberals are recommending for example a kind of education to Europeanism as well as wanting the rest of the Visegrad Four countries to enter the Eurozone. According to them, it is not possible to only cherry pick.
Reading the whole report with its five outlined scenarios thoroughly, Lipovska thinks that there is only one possible conclusion – Liberal democracy is a strange faith in European integration. They admire the EU based on the Berlin-Paris axis that forgives its naughty Central European members and always comes to save them from bad, non-liberal influences. According to the authors, there is clearly nothing worse than a sovereign nation state that manages its affairs alone without fraternal help from Brussels.
One cannot avoid comparisons with a fanatical secular religion, Lipovska wrote in her commentary. However, a true democrat cannot be a liberal democrat if he does not want to betray the principles of true democracy.
V4 summits will first be prepared by the Slovak Presidency which will be taken over by the Czech Republic in July. President Milos Zeman also plans to finish state visits to neighboring countries and V4 partners this year. He will travel to Hungary, Slovakia and Austria.
The Czech political leaders will also probably head to Asia and possibly to Africa and North America.
Zeman, for example, plans to take another trip to China, and plans an “African mission“.
Andrej Babiš is heading to India, Thailand and Singapore on January 13th. Apart from that, he will also attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, and in the upcoming months he will participate in the European Council summit to be held by the Romanian Presidency.
Chief of the Senate, Jaroslav Kubera, will head to Oman in late March. Until then, he only plans to travel to Slovakia. House Chairman Radek Vondráček is still considering destinations for his foreign trips.
In March, the Czech Republic along with the other states will celebrate 20 years since joining NATO, and expects to welcome a number of foreign guests on that occasion. In addition, there are further visits under consideration, for example, a state visit from southern Europe.
Kamecki estimates that the Polish art market is worth 252 million PLN. This is an increase of 17.6 percent on 2017, “a very encouraging sign for the future”.
The boom is reflected in records being broken. First of all, the record turnover of 252 million PLN (it’s worth recalling that at the start of the noughties turnover was between 60 and 80 million PLN). 302 auctions were held in 2018 with nearly 15,000 objects sold, whereas normally there had been 100-140 such events. For the first time individual auctions exceeded 20 million PLN in value and one auction house managed a turnover of 100 million PLN.
Polish artists for the first time are able to attract higher prices in Warsaw than in New York and London
2018 was also unusual in that the most valuable transactions that took place concerned modern art. The most valuable transaction was of a work by Wojciech Fangor which sold for 4.72 million PLN. Second came a combination of five Fangor pieces which fetched almost 7 million PLN when sold together.
Rafał Kamecki believes that this trend towards modern art is a result of collectors feeling that there are more buyers on the market willing to spend more on modern items than traditional art.
While the market is developing it is important to remember that the turnover of single western auction houses such as Sotheby’s or Christie’s is bigger than the whole of the Polish market. But what is important is that Polish artists for the first time are able to attract higher prices in Warsaw than in New York and London. This means that in future western buyers may attend Polish auctions which would significantly boost sale prices.
Five years ago, during the European elections campaign, an election spot was being prepared in the lovely market square in Pułtusk for “Law and Justice (PiS) using a “Magnificent Seven” western theme. Into a beleaguered town rides a sheriff and his team. They talk with the inhabitants who regain faith in the future and together ride out to change the country.
The slogan of the campaign was “Listening to Poles, serving Poland”. Participating in the spot was the leader of the party Jarosław Kaczyński, the future President Andrzej Duda and other key PiS politicians. The first take begins, politicians start to speak and people listen. Stop. I approach and plead, “the theme of the scene is listening. The people speak and politicians listen”. Admittedly there was little consternation at this but once Jarosław Kaczyński agrees, others follow. The second take works a treat.
These last four years have changed our politics because policies have come from the people and not from lobbyists, multi-national companies or policy wonks
It would be hyperbolic to argue that Polish politics was changed by this scene, but it has been changed by the effort made by PiS politicians to travel across the nation and listen, before making any promises. These last four years have changed our politics because policies have come from the people and not from lobbyists, multi-national companies or policy wonks.
The people are the politician’s employers. They employ by election and hold the employees to account. As a result, PiS has actually delivered on a lot of the promises that it made. This has totally disconcerted the opposition which has just fallen back on trying to ridicule the ruling party.
“Poland, heart of Europe”
The pre-2015 days are not coming back. Politicians will be evaluated according to delivery to their people and not anything else. The opposition is now therefore forced to make its own promises. The electorate will decide on how credible these are.
The ruling party’s election slogan “Poland, heart of Europe” is spot on. Courageous, at last moving away from defensive “Polish and Proud” or just saying ‘we are Europeans”. Indeed, we are Europeans who began building democracy 550 years ago when others were still subject to despots and who today wallow in political correctness and reject key European values. Poland should be a leader in rebuilding Europe’s civilization. Let’s hope 2019 brings exactly that.
In addition to the purchase of 44 latest-generation Leopard 7A+ main battle tanks, the Hungarian Armed Forces has announced the purchase of 22 armored, self-propelled artillery pieces.
The Panzerhaubitze 2000 (PzH 2000) is manufactured by Munich-based German defense company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann – which also makes locomotives, tanks and various other armored vehicles.
PzH 2000 is one of the most powerful self-propelled artillery pieces in the world. Its 155mm Rheinmetall gun can lob artillery shells as far as 60 kilometers (37.3 miles). It weighs 55.8 tons, has a 985 horsepower engine and a maximum road speed of 67 km/h.
In addition to the German Bundeswehr, the PzH is currently also operated by Croatia, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Qatar. While – as usual – the Hungarian Defense Ministry has not announced the value of the deal, the average price of PzH 2000 on the international market is US$4.5 million.
The biggest Epiphany parade took place in Warsaw, where 60,000 attended. But there were 752 such events in Poland on Sunday. There were no incidents or accidents during the celebrations. “They were colorful, joyous, family oriented and safe”, said a representative of the foundation which coordinates and promotes Epiphany celebrations across Poland.
This year’s celebrations were held under the theme of “Renewing the face of the earth”, recalling the words uttered by Pope John Paul II in Poland during the first pilgrimage to his homeland. Donations were collected for an initiative on financing holidays for children from deprived backgrounds.
On January 6th each year the Catholic church celebrates Epiphany in celebration of the three kings who visited Bethlehem after the birth of Jesus Christ. According to the gospel three wise men of the East, in medieval times they were deemed to be kings, visited Bethlehem because of prophesies that a king of the Jews was born.
The day has been a public holiday in Poland since 2011.
Hungarian oil and gas group MOL – the company setting wholesale fuel prices in the country – announces its prices weekly, and the latest petrol price now stands at HUF 341 (US$1.21) and diesel at HUF 375 (US$1.33) per liter.
At its peak in April 2012, petrol in Hungary was priced at HUF 451 per liter while diesel hit an all-time high of HUF 449 in January of the same year.
Fuel retail prices in Hungary change mainly as a function of crude prices, which have dropped to US$56.98 per barrel by the end of last week from last year’s peak of US$83.50 in September. The second most important factor is the forint/dollar exchange rate, which has remained mostly steady in the past few months due to good economic indicators in Hungary.
The diesel/petrol price differential is mainly determined by market demand and prices in neighboring countries. As in most other European countries, the effect of crude prices and exchange rates is not in linear relation with fuel retail prices, as the latter have an over 60 percent tax component: VAT, environmental and road tax are all included in the final price.
A visit to the countries of the Three Seas Initiative which contains meetings with politicians, journalists and civil society activists shows there is much interest in cooperation between countries that lie between Germany and Russia. Cooperation that would primarily be economic on the North-South axis in terms of transport and energy infrastructure.
However, not many people feel that the initiative has any potential to tackle German hegemony in the EU nor for enhancing security from threats in the East. Countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia do not perceive Russia to be a threat to their security.
Countries such as Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia do not perceive Russia to be a threat to their security
The countries which share Poland’s security perspective are the Baltic states, Romania and Ukraine. These are the countries which view Russia as a threat and are most pro-American, wanting to see a US military presence on their territories rather than projects for the creation of a European army.
The “S” format
Poland, Romania and Ukraine also happen to be the largest of the Three Seas countries in terms of territory and population. They happen to lie in a corridor between the Baltic and the Black Sea which is important for Europe’s security.
The current US administration is well aware of this. That is why apart from giving encouragement to the Three Seas initiative it is also willing to support the “S” format of states that lie on a S shaped route from Estonia through Poland and Ukraine to Romania. This is about securing the eastern flank of NATO. It is likely than that we shall soon be hearing much more about initiatives on an axis between Warsaw, Kiev and Bucharest.
The Prime Minister’s office moved to its new location in Buda Castle between Christmas and New Year.
In Catholic tradition on Epiphany day – the day that celebrates the revelation of God incarnate as Jesus Christ – homes are traditionally blessed by a priest and inscribed with the year and the letters C-M-B, standing for Christus Mansionem Benedicat (Christ blesses this dwelling in Latin).
The monastery now housing the Prime Minister’s office was built in 1736 by the Carmelite order on the former site of a mosque that was destroyed in 1686 during the siege that liberated Buda from Ottoman occupation. The order received the real estate in 1693 and completed the new monastery and church by 1736, but it was consecrated only in 1763. Two decades later, Emperor Joseph II disbanded the order and converted the property into a theater by imperial order in 1786, “for the delectation of high-ranking court officials”.
The building then served as a theater for many years, except when it was turned into a munitions depot between 1914 and 1918 during WWI. Its refurbishment to suit the purposes of the Prime Minister’s Office began in 2016 at a cost of HUF 4 billion (US$14.2 million).
Hungarian opposition parties that have organized a series of small-scale protests in recent weeks around the issue of what they call the “slave law” are gearing up for a joint list for the May European Parliament elections.
Csaba Molnár, president of the opposition Socialists called for unity ahead of the EP and Hungarian municipal elections next year. The opposition has found a joint cause in the amendment of the labor law passed last December, which increases the annual allowed overtime to 400 hours from a previous 250.
While government officials have repeatedly said that the overtime will not be mandatory and overtime payment will continue on a monthly basis, the opposition uses the “slave law” as a rallying call and László Kordás, head of the Hungarian Trade Unions’ Association said they will hand their demands to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Tuesday and if those are not met, they will launch nationwide protests.
So far, the most supported five opposition parties have indicated their willingness to have a joint EP list. Fidesz caucus leader Máté Kocsis said the list would be one approved by billionaire George Soros and only supporters of migration will be allowed on the list.
“There will be two lists for the EP elections: one where people can vote for the (ruling) Fidesz-KDNP coalition and one of the pro-migrants,” Kocsis said.
Statistics show, among other things, that more than 100,000 people are going to enter into marriage and more than 110,000 children will be born.
George´s salary could be more than 34,000 crowns this year, Jane will have a lower salary by one fifth. As of January, their parents´ pension increased by CZK 900 to CZK 13,200 a month. “Wages may rise by an average of seven percent,” David Navrátil, chief economist at Česká spořitelna, thinks and adds that an average gross salary will be 33,000 a month.
Children born in 2019 will live 30 years longer than children born a hundred years ago, boys will live 76 years, girls will probably celebrate their 81st birthday. The mostly used names for boys will probably again be Jakub (James), Jan (John) or Adam, for girls Eliška, Sofia and Anna.
Each Czech consumes on average 27 kilograms of poultry meat and 42 kilograms of pork per year. And about 250 eggs and 39 kilograms of bread.
Czech President Miloš Zeman plans to visit five countries next year, including Austria, Hungary and China.
According to Jindrák, the number of state visits is not important – whether it be low or high. He said it is not a competition and expressed the belief that the system, the meaning and benefits of the President’s state visits should be at the center of attention. Chief of the Czech Presidential Office’s foreign section also added that so far there have been planned state visits only during the first half of 2019.
It was clear soon after Zeman´s success in the presidential election that he will place an emphasis on Prague’s relations with its neighbors. That´s why the Czech President plans to visit Austria as well as Hungary, “our honorary neighbor“, in next few months. “In my point of view, our neighbors are a clear priority of Czech diplomacy, because I think we need to have extraordinary relationships with them. I am convinced that we are fulfilling this idea successfully within Visegrad,“ Jindrák said.
Speaking about other priority countries, Jindrák mentioned the US as well as Russia, China, Germany, Great Britain and France. “These are countries that have a strong impact on our domestic policy, so I think it´s right to focus on them,“ Jindrák explained, adding that the Czech Republic should not further omit, for example, Serbia that plays an important role in ensuring the long-term stability of the Balkans.
Despite the current complicated relationship due to the controversy surrounding Huawei, the president plans to visit China as well. Jindrák stressed the need to understand China’s role in foreign and world politics. “It is the second strongest economy in the world, perhaps it will be the first. But China has also become a strong political power, at least in a regional format,“ he said.
“The main reason for a better-than-planned result can be seen in exceeding the budget of tax revenues, including social insurance, by about CZK 20 billion, and also in exceeding the budget of other revenues by about 20 billion,” the Finance Ministry said.
In 2017, there was a deficit of the state budget of CZK 6.2 billion and a surplus of CZK 61.8 billion a year earlier. According to the Ministry, last year’s number is the second best result since 1996. The approved budget for last year ended with a deficit of 50 billion.
According to the chief economist of UniCredit Bank Pavel Sobíšek, the growth was better than planned mainly due to strong growth in employment and wages, which was reflected in a high increase of social insurance revenue.
Total state budget revenues grew year on year by CZK 130.3 billion to CZK 1403.9 billion. Total expenses grew by 121.2 billion to 1401 billion. The Ministry of Finance pointed out that the revenue from the EU budget exceeded the budget the most, by CZK 49.2 billion.
Analysts appreciate that spending has risen by 9.5 percent over the previous year, especially at the end of the year. In particular, expenditure on social benefits, including pensions, grew. Public investment has also begun, especially spending on investment projects co-financed by EU funds almost doubled last year. This year, the state managed to avoid the traditional phenomenon, when the end of the year is usually worse for the budget.
In the outlook for 2019, economists expect an ongoing slowdown that the Czech Republic has been going through since last year. State budget revenues could be reduced. On the other hand, the pressure to raise public servants’ salaries will probably continue, and defense spending is likely to increase, so the deficit can be expected to be deeper next year.
According to a survey by Market Institute conducted for journal Der Standard, almost half of the Austrians want more orientation on other neighbors, including the Czech Republic but also Hungary and Slovakia.
These three countries all grow economically and together refuse the friendly migration policy recently unveiled by German Chancellor Angela Merkel who is seen unambiguously by the respondents. Although they largely disagree with her migration policy, 49 percent of them are glad she remains in office until 2021. The same proportion of people believe that Germany without Merkel will lose part of its influence in the world.
71 percent of respondents also agree that Germany dominates the EU, and 53 percent of respondents think that German politics has a significant impact on life in Austria. 90 percent of them, however, rejected a possible unification with Germany.
The special German-Austrian relationship has not been harmed only by migration. Their partnerships have also been damaged by an espionage scandal in June 2018 when the German secret service BND spied on up to 2,000 targets in Austria including ministries and Austrian companies.
The Czech Republic initiated the rapprochement of Austria and the V4 in 2015. Former Deputy Foreign Minister Petr Drulák stood at the emergence of the so-called Slavkov format aiming to deepen cooperation between Vienna, Prague and Bratislava. Some Czech and Austrian politicians and experts also considered Austria’s association with the V4. In the Czech Republic, the idea was also supported by President Milos Zeman.
The protests that broke out in Hungary before Christmas against the overtime law have attracted surprisingly great attention from foreign media, although compared to other anti-government protests in Hungary, the latest have not been so great. The parallel wave of demonstrations in Europe from France to Serbia might have influenced the media attention.
Shortly before Christmas, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó gave an interview to renowned CNN editor Richard Quest in Quest Means Business. Interesting are the comments under the video, which, under the impression of the interview and mediated information only, were mostly written by foreigners. Usually, these comments were on the side of Minister Szijjartó, although in the interview, he advocates a measure that is unpopular.
Szijjartó, however, cleverly gets the editor into a defensive position and visible embarrassment while disproving one claim after another. Szijjartó is undoubtedly a skillful and talented English speaker whose capabilities help government popularity at home and abroad. It would be hard to find a Czech politician who would have had similar skills. BBC or CNN is like home to Szijjartó. He speaks English very well, has a pleasant and assertive performance, and never flies off the handle.
The latter makes Szijjartó the winner of interviews with biased activists who replace interviews with inquisitive interrogations, and the lack of preparation replaced by aggressiveness. Such is probably the case of the most famous Szijjartó interview with BBC editor Emily Maitlis, which has been very popular on Czech social media. Just the version with Czech subtitles has received hundreds of thousands of views.
It is impossible not to notice that besides the bias of some editors, a low level of knowledge of Hungarian politics that cannot be thoroughly understood without language skills, also help Szijjartó in the interviews. It is incomprehensible that such huge and financially secure newsrooms consider one-sided interpretations, filtered through their sources in domestic opposition, sufficient.
But the sources sometimes conceal essential nuances to make the situation look worse and to leave no room for doubt. They do not even bother to find out how the government communicates the issues. Then, it is not difficult for Szijjartó to break their propositions.
The labyrinth can be found in the Polish Tatra Mountains at the base of the Great Krokiew – Zakopane’s famous ski jump slope. It is the largest such labyrinth in the world, boasting a 3,000 square meter area and its walls are over 2 meters tall. It is made up of 60,000 ice bricks and in the evenings, the construction is colorfully illuminated.
It first appeared in 2016 and has been a tourist favorite ever since.
The construction of the attraction can only occur in negative temperatures and takes about a month to build. It then sticks around till Spring and is reconstructed again in December.
Other attractions around the labyrinth include a snow castle, complete with arches, walls, terraces and halls. From this castle, visitors are able to see all of Zakopane’s beauty, including the famous Giewont mountain.
Szilveszter Ókovács, general director of the Hungarian State Opera House of Budapest said that while the timing of the premiere as of now is uncertain as the Opera House is undergoing a major renovation, the first production of the Christian season will be Salome by Richard Strauss.
The defining feature of the new production will be the stage design, which will be based on the reconstruction of the Machaerus Palace, recently completed by a team of Hungarian archeologists.
A team led by egyptologist Győző Vörös – in cooperation with the Hungarian Academy of Arts and the antiquities directorate of Jordan – made a virtual reconstruction of the Machaerus Palace, which, according to Flavius Josephus, was is the location of the imprisonment and execution of John the Baptist.
This is the second time that Hungary hosts the International Eucharistic Congress, with the first one also held in Budapest in 1938. Budapest had been named host city by Pope Francis in January 2016, at the end of the 2016 International Eucharistic Congress held in Cebu City, Philippines.
Despite opposition-led protests against the amendment of the labor law allowing a higher annual overtime maximum – dubbed the “slave law” by the liberal opposition – Fidesz maintains its lead among political parties.
The poll conducted on a representative sample showed that among the total population Fidesz had a popularity rating of 35 percent at the end of December compared with 34 percent in November – a change well within the error margin of the poll. The right-wing radical Jobbik had a popularity of seven percent, with the Socialists also at seven percent and the social-liberal Democratic Coalition with six percent.
Perhaps even more telling are the party preferences among decided voters. These show a Fidesz lead with the party standing at a round 50 percent, followed by Jobbik with 11 percent, the Socialists with 10 percent and the Democratic Coalition (DK) with 9 percent.
Idea concluded that while the poll was an indication that the opposition protests had no measurable impact on party preferences, this type of change can take time, meaning that the next popularity measurement towards the end of January should be a better indicator.
The decree was issued during the last meeting of Angela Merkel’s cabinet before Christmas. The most important changes are including media entrepreneurships to the strategic sector and the limiting of the size of shares foreign investors have in German companies.
“Germans have great intuition when it comes to the importance of media and media capital in their own market,” explained media expert Hanna Karp. “They believe that foreign media capital cannot enter Germany and propagate its own policies.”
Foreign media capital cannot enter Germany and propagate its own policies
The German definition of media is very broad and encompasses “broadcasting, television media and printed products.” Not all of them, but those which “affect the shape of public opinion” and are “defined by their topicality and influence”, which include all information media and journalism.
According to the decree, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy will be able to intervene if a transaction would lead to foreign investors gaining more than 10 percent of shares in a German company, previously the boundary was 25 percent. Each purchase must go through the Ministry and will not be accepted without their consent.
Previously, the German critical sector included armament, energy, telecommunications, transport, finance, insurance, medicine and food and water supply.
Car sales in Hungary rose by 17.5 percent last year to 136,601 units, mainly on the back of runaway sales of SUVs. SUV sales amounted to 51,032 units, followed by 38,190 lower middle category sedans. Among SUVs, the Suzuki Vitara (pictured above) was the clear leader, with every fifth vehicle sold.
Behind the Vitara, the next most popular SUV models were the Dacia Duster, Ford Kuga, Nissan Qashqai and the Toyota C-HR.
This also helped Suzuki maintain its lead among car brands, selling a total 19,292 cars. Ford was second with 13,653 cars and Skoda came in third with 11,842 units. However, looked at in another way, total sales of the Volkswagen group – including its Volkswagen, Skoda, Audi and Seat brands – was even higher at 26,341 units.
Although car sales have shown two-digit growth both in 2016 and 2017, the over 136,000 units sold last year are still a far cry behind sales volumes prior to the 2008 global economic and financial crisis, when sales exceeded 200,000 units per year.
In fleet sales the Volkswagen Passat was the leader, followed by the Skoda Superb, Ford Mondeo and Opel Insignia. As a curiosity, 18 Teslas were sold last year in Hungary.
On January 9th, Salvini will meet with Kaczyński in Warsaw. La Repubblica claims that this meeting is meant to initiate an alliance prior to the upcoming EP elections.
Salivini’s trip to Poland, the first since he became foreign minister last June, has not yet been officially proclaimed in Rome.
Hard preparations
The left-wing journal wrote that organizing the meeting with the PiS chairman was not easy. For it to happen, a special delegation from Salvini’s party Northern League (Lega Nord), had to travel to Warsaw twice in advance. The journal reminds that Salvini is considered a “close friend of Moscow.”
Both leaders use the same language when it comes to closing the borders in front of migrant pressure
Salivini’s trip will also have an economic aspect to it, as 3,500 Italian companies have their headquarters in Poland.
The main reason for this trip is political, however, underlines La Repubblica, and is connected to the May EP elections. There is also the possibility of establishing a unified group in which both PiS and Salvini’s party would be members, as well as other right-wing forces.
The journal highlights that “both leaders use the same language when it comes to closing the borders in front of migrant pressure.”
