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  • Poland’s bipolar disorder

    “First of all, Poland is playing to survive and not be subjected to foreign powers,” says Bartosiak. He further explains that Poland must stop being a sub-supplier for countries like Germany and protect her culture from Russian influence.

    Poland has not always found itself between the powers of Germany and Russia: “We are not fated to be between Germany and Russia. Even from a historical point of view, their threat is a fairly new phenomenon. Previously, our opponents had been Sweden and Turkey.” Bartosiak argued that Poland had become trapped between Moscow and Berlin in the 18th or even 19th century.

    Poland had been an empire in its history, reaching into the East and over the Dnieper. On the other hand, Poland had suffered by being colonized by its neighbors, unlike other empires

    Bartosiak underlined, however, that Poland suffers from a geopolitical bipolar disorder. Poland had been an empire in its history, reaching into the East and over the Dnieper. “This is visible in our culture, our literature and even the Polish military,” explains Bartosiak. On the other hand, Poland had suffered by being colonized by its neighbors, unlike other empires. “I’m not sure whether there has been another empire in history with such contradictory experiences.”

    The expert called Polish history so far “a kind of prologue”, which had proven certain regularities from which Poland should learn. This will help the country enter the new game being established.

    For Poland to enter the big international game, Bartosiak argues, she needs her own brands, own traders and own tradespeople. “Poland has amazing potential: good land, resources, access to the sea, trade routes, wide rivers, nature and a great location: one need only use this.”

  • Czaputowicz: The wreckage of TU-154 divides Poland and Russia

    According to Jacek Czaputowicz one of the biggest unsolved issues between Poland and Russia is the yet to be returned Tu-154M plane wreckage from the Smoleńsk plane crash of April 2010. The minister underlined the gravity of human loss from the catastrophe and stated that: “Poland should decide where the wreckage should be because the plane is Polish property.”

    He evaluated that the whole issue could’ve been resolved by Russia seven years ago.

    Another point of conflict are Red Army statues in Poland. According to Polish estimates, more than one million Russian soldiers are buried on Polish soil. The government spends millions on protecting those graves. When it comes to the statues, however, Czaputowicz said: “the statues aside from burial grounds are not under this protection. Moreover, our legislation requires the demolishment of symbols of totalitarian regimes.”

    The Russians see their army as liberators from the Nazi occupation, whereas Stalin’s government later executed and tortured thousands of Poles

    The minister explained the dilemma of the Russian approach, as the Russians see their army as liberators from the Nazi occupation, whereas Stalin’s government later executed and tortured thousands of Poles.

    Czaputowicz also spoke of the proposed Fort Trump, a permanent American base stationed in Poland: “military-political issues are still to be discussed, as well as the direct area of operations.” He hopes that a final decision on Fort Trump will be made in Spring 2019. 

    Speaking about Ukraine the minister argued, that Russian sanctions should remain until Moscow does not change its policy towards Kiev.

    Other issues between Poland and Russia include Nord Stream 2: “We are negative towards the Nord Stream 2 project. We believe that it does not promote diversification and safety of energy for European countries and we’re not the only ones who think so: the European Commission has also deemed this project disadvantageous for Europe.”

    The minister also underlined that Russia as a partner will use gas to pile on the pressure and blackmail other countries.

  • Following the pattern

    In an act of unparalleled courage, two opposition MPs hung a banner out a window of the Hungarian Parliament with the word “Dictator” and three portraits side-by-side: those of Viktor Orbán, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    In the not quite polished words of Dialogue, the party that set up the two-person flashmob, these three leaders don’t care for the welfare of the people and are only interested in consolidating their own power. It follows that  Viktor Orbán – should he listen to said party – had no business meeting the Turkish president. Nor the Russian, the Chinese or the American one, because he is after all the much-hated Donald Trump.

    The pattern followed by Dialogue and its representative Tímea Szabó is in the time-honored tradition of “democratic” leaders blaming “non-democratic” ones for their behavior. Because it is always the liberal élite that gets to decide who the good ones are and Tímea Szabó and associates are always better judges of living standards in Turkey, Russia or anywhere else than the people actually living there.

    Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been leading one of the major Middle Eastern powers since 2002. He has been all over the world, having been in Great Britain nine times, France ten and Germany sixteen. Strategic cooperation between Hungary and Turkey would mean that we could get natural gas through the TurkStream pipeline, while Turkey can also prevent migrant inflow via the Balkans route.

    This is a very complex and dynamic network of relations that deserves a pragmatic approach and no nation is in a position to tell another who they should choose as their leader. We should rather examine how Erdogan the “dictator” can be so successful in a successful country and why is, for example, the track record of Dialogue so abysmal.

    We should not be naïve: dictators, irrespective of their image, are being received everywhere. Such meetings are not communions of values. In its time, the Soviet Union could demand ideological compliance, but in the year 2018 Red China is just as unemotionally capitalist as Turkey, Saudi Arabia or Sweden.

    Many countries are racing to do business with Turkey. We must also be clever in this race and not pay too much attention to what Big Brother is saying. Because the Western Big Brother does not care how Turkish money smells, it just wants to make deals which it is trying to prevent us from.

    Title image: Hungarian President János Áder (R) welcomes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) in Budapest (MTI, Zoltán Máthé).

     

  • Influential businessman planned murder of Slovak MP

    The MP believes the reason for Kočner’s intentions was the fact that he was filing a complaint in connection with the businessman’s activities. According to Denisa Baloghová, the spokesperson of the police the authorities gained knowledge about Kočner’s plans from their own sources.

    During the investigation process the police secured an audiotape, which implies that the businessman was trying to have the MP murdered. In the following months Rajtár was placed under police protection, until Kočner was taken into custody. The businessman’s name is also involved in the investigation of Ján Kuciak’s death, the investigative journalist was killed with his fiancée in his home and while the supposed killers were also taken into custody, the person behind the murder is still to be found.

  • Danko: Sanctions against Russia sank Eurasian summit in Bratislava

    Danko recently travelled to Antalya to discuss the possibilities of improving Russian-European Union relations. In a press conference the politician mentioned, the country planned to invite leaders of 39 states from Europe and Asia to Bratislava, but the meeting is taking place in Turkey instead.

    In Turkey Danko also organized his fourth meeting with Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the Russian Duma. “We have really friendly relations which I really appreciate. I am really sorry that we were unable to bring this gathering to Bratislava due to the sanctions against Russia, which is a very unfortunate measure. I still believe that through discussion we can convince the competent politicians that the European Union needs this event,” commented Danko about his meeting with the Russian official.

    Volodin emphasized that the Slavic nations belong together and Danko is doing everything to improve the communication between the European Union and Russia. “Our relations due to this will strengthen and develop,” the chairman added. 

    The purpose of the Eurasian meeting is to discuss the topics of economic cooperation, sustainable development and the environment. Danko’s ambition is to improve the position of Slovak companies in the world market and examine the possibilities of a potential Eastern expansion. The countries of the European Union were unanimously agreed on sanctons against Russia from the summer of 2014 due to the annexation of Crimea and supporting the separatists in Eastern Ukraine.

  • America as an empire and nation state

    According to Viktor Orbán, Donald Trump represents something radically different from all the presidents before him, as illustrated by his U.N. speech in which he said that he was breaking with the intent on “global governance” undertaken by previous administrations.

    We should take a closer look the issue itself and its deeper layers. Especially because traditionally the speeches of U.S. presidents in the U.N. had been followed with awe even if not all those in attendance agreed with the content. Trump, however, was laughed at when speaking about momentous changes.

    Yes, the world order is undergoing a spectacular change and despite the laughter, Trump was right in that respect. At the core of all recent tensions is the dual nature of America itself. There is an America as a nation and an “imperial” America, the interests of which not only don’t always line up, but they are often directly conflicting.

    The election of Trump – even if he may not have realized it – was mainly due to the fact that Steve Bannon and his intellectual circle were the first to grasp the core of the American tragedy that has been playing out for decades.

    Namely, that as any other previous empire, America is also doomed to failure and it is already crumbling. The formidable challenge America and the world will have to face in the coming decades is what and how to do in order to avoid a global conflict that could ultimately lead to the destruction of both the world and the American nation state.

    The consternation that rippled through the U.N. auditorium was one caused by the realization that for all his assurances, Trump is himself hostage to an imperial America that is forcing him to do the exact opposite of the national strategy devised by Steve Bannon. Meanwhile, America as a nation is in agony as evidenced by a series of financial, demographic and healthcare trends. The wealth of the top 0.1 percent has grown further and now equals that of the bottom 93 percent. 

    National debt stands at 106 percent of the GDP, a level unheard of in times of peace. But that is exactly it: these are not times of peace. We are witnesses of a war waged with increasing cynicism by the imperial America against America as a nation state and against all other “non-compliant” nation states.

  • The real reason for Tusk’s visit to Kraków

    Until now, Tusk’s preparations for the presidential campaign were mostly limited to appearances on the TVN news station, which promoted him. This time, however, Tusk was brought to Poland not by TVN but by priest Tadeusz Pieronek, a staunch opponent of Law and Justice (PiS), for the “role of the Catholic Church in European integration” convention.

    Pieronek’s hatred for PiS and its chairman Jarosław Kaczyński is so great, that he uses terms such as “dictatorship” to refer to Poland’s current political direction. He claims that the government uses terror to maintain power and to quell the opposition.

    “There is no reason for us to hate each other,” says the European Council President. But it is Donald Tusk, after all, who during his reign as PM ignited the Polish-Polish conflict in politics

    He even strikes at Kaczyński’s dead brother, former President Lech Kaczyński who died in the Smoleńsk catastrophe in April 2010: “Why don’t we have a portrait of Lech Kaczyński in every house, so that we all bow before it like in North Korea?,” Pieronek stated sarcastically.  

    Meanwhile, Donald Tusk has referred to the recently released tapes which had allegedly painted PM Mateusz Morawiecki in a bad light. Tusk uses this opportunity to come across as a Wiseman speaking conventional wisdom to his political opponents.

    But Tusk’s comments do not stop at the tapes. He calls for unity between political party leaders and urges them to take part in the March of Independence on the 11th of November together. “There is no reason for us to hate each other,” says the Europen Council President. This is a clear attempt at manipulation as PM Morawiecki has called for the same a month ago at the Westerplatte celebrations.

    It is Donald Tusk, after all, who during his reign as PM ignited the Polish-Polish conflict in politics. He has managed to enchant a handful of Kraków citizens and now TVN cameras will repeat his speech non-stop: you are my new hope that it can be better – “with me as President, of course,” but that is a thought Tusk has kept to himself.

  • Orbán and Erdogan discuss migration, military and economic ties

    The security of Turkey and Hungary are intertwined, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said after a meeting with visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He added that the meeting was not one of two NATO allies, but also an important part of overall Hungarian foreign policy.

    Hungary must pay attention to three capitals: Ankara, Moscow and Berlin, thus we have a vested interest in balanced relations,” Orbán said

    He said that from a Hungarian point of view the most important was Turkey’s ability to stop illegal migration. Hungary expresses its thanks to Turkey for taking in several million refugees and honoring the agreement between the European Union and Turkey.

    The Turkish president said the countries’ economic relations need to be increased further to reach an annual level of EUR 6 billion and that Turkish Airlines wanted to cooperate with Hungary in establishing a direct Budapest-Mumbai route. Orbán said Hungary’s Eximbank will open a US$500 million credit line for bilateral trade.

    He also said that Turkey is currently hosting 3.5 million Syrian and 500,000 Iraqi refugees but has already begun the process of resettling them in their home countries. Orbán said the two countries were stepping up bilateral cooperation in military technology to increase the Hungarian Armed Forces’ capabilities.

    Törököt

    From left to right: Turkish First Lady Emine Erdogan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Hungarian President János Áder and Hungarain First Lady Anita Herczeg at a Budapest gala dinner (MTI, Tamás Kovács)

     

    Title image: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán attend a joint press conference after their bilateral meeting in Budapest. (MTI, Szilárd Koszticsák)

  • Italy to close airports to planes carrying migrants

    “If someone in Berlin or Brussels thinks of dropping dozens of migrants via non-authorized charter flights in Italy, they should know that there is not and there will be no airport available,” Salvini added.

    The two countries are working on a deal which would allow Germany to send migrants back to Italy if they have already applied for asylum there. But the agreement has yet to be signed. Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported that Germany’s refugee agency was sending letters to asylum-seekers, advising them of their return to Italy.

    Representatives of the German Interior Ministry and the Refugee Office have not yet spoken to the Italian newspaper. Horst Seehofer, the head of the German interior ministry, said last month that he had managed to conclude an agreement with Italy and expects it to be signed soon.

    Salvini denied it a day later, demanding more benefits from Germany. The Italian government wants to introduce the deployment of asylum seekers across the EU and to change the EU’s Sophia naval mission. At present it says that all migrants picked up in the Mediterranean must be taken to Italy.

     

     

  • The resurrection of the Civic Democrats

    The strongest conservative party has almost the same number of candidates advancing to the second round of senate elections as the PM´s party ANO.

    The results of the municipal and senate elections show that Babis with his ANO movement had successfully completed the regional structures and thoroughly took the voters away from the Social Democrats and Communists.

    However, the most important part is the return of the Civic Democrats to the struggle for power. Victory in Prague, success in Brno, but above all the superb result in the Senate elections show that the party is losing the label of unacceptability it has gained after corruption scandals and the overthrow of Nečas’s government. It is obvious that the ODS will become a challenger for the ANO in the next parliamentary elections.

    Clearly, it is paying off by TOP 09 which apparently sits in a car going to the junk of history. This might not be evident in the shadow of the CSSD disaster, but it is substantial. The fall of the Social Democrats could mean the end of their boss Jan Hamáček.

    On the other hand, the success of the Pirates in Prague was expected. It is good that the Pirates will finally have to show what they want and how they carry it out. There is no doubt that their liberal and right-wing voters will be greatly and unpleasantly surprised.

    There is a tough test waiting for Prague. Prague citizens may soon begin to remember Adriana Krnáčová´s time as an era of the city development.

     

  • Czech MEP tells Macron to release innocent driver from prison

    At the beginning of July this year, the French police found 15 Iraqis in a refrigerated semi-trailer truck driven by Czech driver Jiří Sagan. Without further investigation, the driver was immediately taken into custody under the suspicion of being an accomplice of smugglers. By the end of September, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

    “The number of drivers who are victims of an unfair system is gradually rising and we are still counting new drivers who ask for help. Unfortunately, the situation has gone so far that an innocent person is now being prosecuted in France for suspicion of smuggling and other crimes,” Zdechovský wrote in the letter.

    He also pointed out that the French court ignored the records of the inspections, the damaged lock on the truck, or the migrants’ own testimony that they had entered the truck illegally on their own without any knowledge of the driver.

  • ANO wins election in major cities except Prague

    The Social Democrats (CSSD) and also Communist suffered immense losses and will not enter some municipal assemblies at all.

    In Prague, the opposition Civic Democrats and Pirates took first and second places. However, the Civic Democrats´ victory appears to be a hollow victory, as the party will likely be frozen out of power as well as ANO since a group of several other parties that is looking to band together would have 13 mandates, giving them a comfortable majority of 39 seats in the 65-seat Prague City Assembly.

    Czechs also picked one third of the upper chamber of parliament. Former presidential candidate Jiří Drahoš and current senator and regional governor Jiří Čunek are the only two candidates who gained more than 50 percent of the vote. Civic Democrats had the best showing, with 11 of its candidates advanced to the second round. The Social Democrats have only five and the party will likely lose the post of Senate speaker. And for the first time since the upper chamber of Parliament was formed, the Communists may fail to elect a representative in a Senate race.

    Therefore, the big losers of the day, in both the municipal and Senate races, were the Social Democrats and Communists. Nevertheless, CSSD chairman Jan Hamáček takes the outcome as a sign that the Social Democrats have already bounced off the floor after last year’s parliamentary elections.

    According to Prime Minister and ANO chairman Andrej Babiš, the result in the regional and district cities is a success. “I think our citizens see that the ANO movement is moving our country forward. To the top of Europe,“ the Czech PM said in his post-election speech.

  • A girl stigmatized for reading a poem

    The poetry competition was meant as part of an anti-racist initiative. Ida Marie Muller, the daughter of Nicole Hochst, an Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician, took part in the event. The girl read out a poem, which referred to the recent knife attack by an immigrant.

    The organizers did not like such poetry and decided to disqualify the girl, even though the participant had been the most applauded by the audience. Muller was also banned from attending the award ceremony.

    He arrived in our holy German land. Because he couldn’t find himself a girl, he used a knife to help himself

    Furthermore, the teenager was accused of using the poetry event to propagate AfD political views.

    The girl’s mother made posts on social media, supporting and encouraging her daughter. She also attached pictures of their family home which had been vandalized after the girl’s performance.

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    “Modern Nazis are scrawling over people’s houses,” she wrote.

    The girl’s poem contained fragments such as: “A man from far away had fallen into the hands of smugglers, without a passport or mobile phone. He arrived in our holy German land. Because he couldn’t find himself a girl, he used a knife to help himself.”

  • Tusk enters the game

    The former Civic Platform (PO) Prime Minister came to Kraków to take part in the “Role of the Catholic Church in the process of EU integration” convention. Although there are videos on the internet which show Tusk being greeted by masses, in truth there were no more than 150 people.

    This is how Tusk’s greetings in the Kraków Main Square looked like on TV…

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    …and this is how it really looked like:

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    “We don’t need to rise from our knees, because we’ve never been on them. We need need to finally learn to give each other a hand,” Donald Tusk told people at the Kraków Main Square.

    Morawiecki hit the ball

    During Law and Justice’s (PiS) party convention in Dębica, Poland, the Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki said that: “We’re not lazy, we’re not kicking the ball around, we’re working hard. Sometimes we make mistakes, but someone who doesn’t make mistakes is someone who isn’t working.”

    Tusk, who is a passionate football fan and remained so even during his time as PM, had popularized the term to “kick the ball around”.

    “Kicking the ball around is an activity for gentlemen,” Tusk replied on Twitter in response to Morawiecki.

  • Books, money and video games

    The author of “The Witcher” book series Andrzej Sapkowski recently issued a call for payment to video game company CD Projekt Red. The claim was the discrepancy between Sapkowski’s and CD Projekt’s profits from the sales of “The Witcher” games.

    On the internet forum Reddit, in a thread dedicated to discussing the ongoing conflict between the Polish author and the company, American fantasy author Brandon Sanderson had expressed his willingness to work with CD Projekt: “I would seriously consider giving CD Projekt Red the rights to my books for free.”

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    Sanderson argued that video games are becoming an increasingly popular and influential medium in culture and that a good adaptation would have an enormous impact on the popularity of a book series.

    Sanderson also complemented CD Projekt by saying that “they’ve made by far the best book-to-video game adaptations ever. It’s the sort of thing the rest of us salivate over.” Sanderson explained that the entire genre of fantasy benefits from an adaptation such as “The Witcher” games.

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    Brandon Sanderson is one of the most famous modern fantasy authors, known for his “Mistborn” and “Stormlight Archive” book series. His titles have been #1 bestsellers on the New York Times bestseller list multiple times.

  • Friedman warns of EU falling apart

    “The EU is breaking apart and we need to think about what will happen next. Poles will be immune as they know how to survive tough times,” said Friedman.

    Friedman claims that “the EU is an entity at war with itself.” He argued that the authority of Frans Timmermans is not based on people and national self-determination because it is the EU which decides what is and isn’t liberal.

    “I am certain that Timmermans would condemn Franklin Roosevelt for being illiberal and undemocratic. That there had been breach of the constitution,” Friedman said referring to the conflict around Poland’s judiciary reforms. He compared Poland’s current struggle to that of FDR’s with Republican dominated American courts after he had taken the presidency.

    The EU is an entity at war with itself

    According to Friedman, Poland and Eastern Europe have great potential, but Poles are not rewarded for it. He hopes that Poles can find the way to unlock this potential. Eastern Europe is the heart of the European continent. Not the “tired” West.

    There are three main threats to Poland: Russia, Germany (because no one is yet able to foresee what Germany will become) and Turkey, which is also a rising power like Poland. The good relations between Poland and the US are shown in America wanting to be the “guarantor of Poland’s self-determination.”

    George Friedman is a Hungarian born political scientist and publicist. He has been an advisor to American military strategists and established a private agency in Texas for Stratfor which is known as the “CIA’s shadow.”

  • Bystroň: The Euro is a political, not an economic project

    The German politician in an interview for parlamentnelisty.cz emphasized that in Germany the situation is tense. In the cities, where mass protests against crime were organized, like Chemnitz, Freiburg, Kandel or Offenburg the local protesters met with massive pressure from the side of the socialists, greens, far-left, workers unions and the church presenting them as Nazis. “The protests are not targeting the immigrants themselves, rather the politics of Merkel,” claimed Bystroň who believes that German society is losing trust in the state and the media.

    The politician believes that the European Commission’s acts against Hungary are “unbelievable perversity.” Bystroň pointed out that Viktor Orbán has a majority that politicians in the Czech Republic and Germany couldn’t even dream about and the Commission is violating the sovereignity of a state. He called Germany “Merkelistan” – a country, where the elections are manipulated against the opposition, people are fired from their work for their opinion and owners of restaurants are pressured to not provide space for the opposition.

    Bystroň agrees with Václav Klaus who believes the European Union should be transformed. “The idea of an European community is right – we share our cultural values, the Roman law, living in the same continent,” pointed out the politician while praising the removal of economic borders and the free market. He still named the Euro, which he said is more a political than an economic project and enforcing a political union, as a bad idea.

  • V4 analyzing technical requirements of high-speed railway

    The main task of the group is to formulate the technical, infrastructural and transportation-related demands connected with the project including the location of the stations and possible speed limitations. According to the Slovak Ministry of Transport the first meeting should take place in 2018. The prepared material would be the first step towards a feasibility study.

    Karolína Ducká, spokesperson of the ministry emphasized that the project is ambitious and financially demanding. The plans were announced last week after the meeting in Štrbské Pleso. The capitals of Bratislava, Warsaw, Prague and Budapest should be interconnected with the railway, while Brno and Kraków are also included in the project as housing potential railway stations. The initiative came from Hungary, the country already secured 5 million euros for working out the plans.

    The management of the project is one of the priorities of the Slovak presidency of the Visegrad Four which started in July, 2018. The politicians believe the high-speed rail network could provide an alternative to air transport and the time to travel from Prague to Bratislava could be reduced to one and half hours.

    Rastislav Cenký from the Institute of Transport and Economy (IDH) was skeptical about the rentability of the project, the expert believes that Slovakia should rather focus on short-term investments regarding the state of the railways.

  • Hungary sets aside HUF 500 million for swine fever damages

    Farmers can apply for a maximum of HUF 70,000 in damages per sacrificed sow, the ministry said in a statement. African swine fever reached Europe in the spring of 2018, with Romania the most affected country, where a total of 900 outbreaks have been reported and 230,000 pigs had to be culled.

    In September, Romania asked for the EU’s financial assistance to deal with the effects of the outbreak. Once infection is detected on a pig farm, all animals have to be culled. The disease – while the carrying vectors are often human – does not affect humans.

    According to data from the Hungarian Food Safety Office NÉBIH there are currently 330 areas in Hungary hit with various levels of restriction – area under observation, infected area or area under special surveillance – due to the swine fever.f

    Arican swine fever has already reached Western Europe – in the first days of October 4,000 pigs had to be culled in Belgium.

    The disease can have significant economic repercussions, due to the fact that pork exports account for 8.5 percent of the European Union’s agricultural output and 62 percent of its meat exports.

  • Ethnic Hungarians shun failed Romanian referendum

    Voters in the Hungarian-inhabited Romanian counties of Hargita and Kovászna were the least willing to express their vote at a referendum over the weekend aimed at changing the constitution to specify that marriage is between a man and a woman.

    The “yes” vote in the referendum was backed by most Romanian churches, including the largest Orthodox Church, which also played an important role in bringing the issue to the table. Preliminary results showed that the turnout was 20.41 percent, well short of the minimum 30 percent required for validity.

    Turnout in Kovászna county was the lowest in the country at 8.5 percent and the second lowest in Hargita county at 11.12 percent. Members of the Transylvanian LGBT community expressed their thanks to the Hungarian minority for their support in a Facebook post:

    “Our thanks go to all those who rejected manipulation, who did not heed to the problems of Romanian families in stomping out a minority.”

    LMBTQ

    The referendum would not have changed the legal status of same-sex marriages in Romania, as paragraphs 271 and 277 of the Civil Code already state that marriage is between two people of the opposite sex and that same-sex marriages are not recognized, respectively.

  • German conservatives support Hungarian migration stance

    Gulyás said that in Western Europe it takes courage to support the Hungarian position and unfortunately there are many cowards both within the European People’s Party (EPP) and among conservative politicians.

    “Sometimes people do gather courage and then we can hear some sympathetic opinions,” Gulyás said

    While the left-wing press has an overwhelming dominance in the West, constituents have first-hand experience with the drawbacks of immigration and it may well be that siding with Hungary can be good policy.

    He said that two thirds of the Sargentini Report, a politically motivated attack against Hungary was dealing with issues in which the European Parliament did not have any jurisdiction whatsoever as they fell within the competence of member states. He said in this sense the sovereignty of the Hungarian parliament has been questioned.

    Gulyás said Hungarian constituents made it clear at the last elections that they wanted to remain in charge of the decision over who they want to share their country with and the European Parliament was attempting to overrule this decision.

    (Image: Gergely Botár, Prime Minister’s Office)

     

     

  • Soros-funded group censors Facebook entries, Fidesz says

    Hollik said Facebook removed a picture from Hungarian conservative portal 888.hu’s page featuring French President Emmanuel Macron alongside two African men and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with his latest grandchild. The same meme has already been posted or shared several times on Facebook by others.

    “It is not for the first nor probably the last time Facebook is openly assuming a political role. It does so by giving moderation and censorship (role) to a company funded by George Soros,” Hollik told journalists on Sunday.

    He was referring to German company Corrective Media, which has a contract with Facebook to combat fake news on a non-partisan basis. The image (shown above) has the Hungarian caption “You choose”.

    Hollik said with the approach of the European Parliament elections pro-migration forces are stepping up their campaign to sideline conservative views.

     

  • Strengthening parliamentary cooperation between Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria

    The declaration was signed by the Czech Chamber of Deputies chairman Radek Vondráček and his counterparts, Andrej Danko and Wolfgang Sobotka. The parliament heads committed to boost the citizens’ trust in democratic processes and the European integration and to remove misunderstandings that have been recently occurring in Europe.

    Representatives also agreed on exchanges of workers of the Parliaments. Sobotka stated that half-year internships of Czech and Slovaks are being prepared at the Austrian National Council and that the exchange stays would begin next year.

    The participants of the two-day meeting also began drafting a code of ethics for parliaments. “It is important to talk about it in terms of clientelism, corruption, but even clothing at parliamentary meetings,” Danko said.

    The meeting follows in tripartite cooperation of the Czech, Austrian and Slovak governments in Slavkov format, the first meeting of which took place on January 29, 2015 in Slavkok at Brno, and also commemorated the 170th anniversary of the meeting of the Austrian Imperial Council in Kroměříž which attempted to create the first constitution that would form a basis of the new constitutional order of the Habsburg monarchy, the equality of nations and modern division of power.

  • 2018 export could be all-time best

    However, domestic export is now facing several obstacles such as labor shortages and limited capacity of the Czech economy including insufficient transportation and logistics services. Also, the export industry will slow down at the beginning of next year, claimed the Exporters’ Association and Raiffeisen bank at their joint press conference.  

    According to the association, export results of July have restored the hope to outperform last year´s record, but the main factor will be whether the koruna will strengthen significantly after raising the interest rate.

    “An alarming signal is that export of passenger cars has fallen by almost six percent in seven months,” added Otto Daněk, Deputy Chairman of the Exporters´ Association.

    Uncertainty about Brexit has already begun to have an impact; both the export value and the United Kingdom’s share of Czech exports are falling. Exports of Czech companies to the UK declined by 3.8 percent to CZK 121 billion from January to July. On the contrary, the US trade war with key trading partners or Turkey’s economic and political problems have so far no impact on Czech export figures.

    However, the revival of exports in the last quarter will be only temporary, and at the beginning of next year Czech exports will slow down. German leading indicators show the worst figures over the last five years. Germany is the largest trading partner of the Czech Republic. Declining exports to Germany by a tenth would lead to a fall in total domestic exports of CZK 138 billion.

    In the first seven months of 2018, Czech exports grew by 1.4 percent to CZK 2.5 trillion in total.

  • Gerloch: There would be no Czech Republic without the Czechs

    Negative reactions surprised me, said Gerloch. Of course, there would be no Czech Republic if it weren’t for the Czech nation, he added. European unity should truly be in its diversity, a unity of different nations which cooperate together based on principles of subordination and proportionality. Excessive bureaucratic centralization could be just as dangerous to a united Europe as one-sided nationalistic tendencies.

    He believes it is crucial to distinguish between nationalism and patriotism. Patriotism is based on a positive bond to your own nation, its history, culture, language while respecting other nations. Nationalism on the other hand, emphasizes the specific role of one nation and its superiority. 

  • Disturbing act at concert against racism

    At least one song at the recent ‘Concert against racism’ in Chemnitz had extremely controversial content. Some of the lyrics of a song titled ‘Ein Affe und ein Pferd’ by German hip-hop group K.I.Z., which has been formed mainly by children of immigrants, are ‘I’ll make mousse of your gob. I’ll ram a knife into journalist’s gob. Kick your woman to her belly and eat the aborted fetus.’

    And tens of thousands of mostly young people sang along. Could you imagine the same situation, only replace ‘woman’ with ‘Jewish girl’ and use ‘Muslim’ instead of ‘journalist’?

    Considering how many politicians including Chancellor Merkel condemned the protesters in Chemnitz, it is striking that many are keeping quiet regarding the hateful performance. Even the sole fact that an act like this hasn’t really been publicly shamed, if compared to a reaction to Chemnitz protests, shows us that a tolerance for left-wing radicalism is much higher than for a criticism of immigration and Islam. 

    K.I.Z. wasn’t the only controversial band at the anti-racism concert. According to Spiegel, a band called Freine Sahne Fischfilet had been investigated for hate speech crimes and violence back in 2012.

  • Zahradil: Deeper political integration of EU is not in Czech interest

    The EU has also been trying to break the V4, but no matter what we think about PM Orbán, we must respect Hungarian voters and their decision. Unfortunately, the Czech government is acting ambiguously. Division on the vote against Hungary was exemplary. I’m afraid that Mr. Petříček is not strong enough to bring order to this chaos.

    Most likely all the key EU seats will be agreed between Merkel and Macron and I fear that small states would have to consume what Germany and France served, more so once the UK leave. Thus, deeper European political integration is not in our interest, because we could be easily out voted in important matters.

    Why not have the president of the European Commission from Visegrad? Decades of communism gave us a unique experience. We know how it feels to be oppressed and how an economy strangled by absurd regulations and central planning works. Western Europe and especially technocrats in Brussels often overestimate the role of a state, the more regulations the more welfare they believe.

    Five years ago, member states’ leaders made a mistake and let the socialist and people’s party select the EC president. They decided to base it on election results, which led to Mr. Juncker’s, who will be leaving the EU more divided than ever and without the UK. Politicized Commission has been tried and failed, no one would choose to repeat it.

    Zahradil is the vice-president of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe and has an ambition to lead his group in the 2019 elections.

  • Excellent mobile internet in Central Europe

    On a day-to-day basis OpenSignal carries out measurements of mobile internet speeds in particular countries throughout the world. They recently published a report and ranking which concerned the quality of video streaming on mobile devices.

    For the needs of the ranking, OpenSignal created a 0 to 100-point scale, which evaluated mobile video streaming according to parameters such as video quality, transmission stability or video loading speed.

    No country was able to obtain 100 points.

    The highest was the Czech Republic with 68.52 points. Second was Hungary with 67.89 and Norway was third with 67.41.

    tt

    The top 10 were mostly European countries. Poland found itself right in the middle, taking the 38th place with 56.27 points. Surprisingly, the USA found itself quite low, 11th from the bottom. The last places were filled with India, Iran and the Philippines.

    OpenSignal analysists emphasize that although mobile internet speed has an effect on streaming quality, it is not the only factor. Connection stability and the number of users actively using a carrier’s services also are.

    As proof, the company also released a ranking of countries in terms of average mobile internet speed. Here, South Korea is at the top and also held the 16th position in the video streaming ranking. The Czech Republic is 11th when it comes to mobile internet speed and Poland is 37th, an almost identical result to the previous ranking.

  • From Russia with hack

    According to Jeremy Hunt, Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) agents were meant to carry out a series of cyberattacks whose targets were political and financial institutions as well as international organizations. In a special report, one can read that these cyberattacks had afflicted millions and led to enormous financial losses.

    Among organizations targeted by Russia were, for example, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) which had been struck in September last year. Other cybercrimes committed by GRU agents include the US Democratic Party during the 2016 presidential elections, the Ukrainian airport in Odessa in October 2017, the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure and Ukrainian media outlets.

    Our message is clear. Along with our allies we will uncover and respond to the GRU’s attempts to undermine international stability

    Jeremy Hunt vowed to respond to the GRU attacks: “Our message is clear. Along with our allies we will uncover and respond to the GRU’s attempts to undermine international stability.”

    He also claimed that the British National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has hard proof that Kremlin agents are behind these attacks. Hunt gave examples of known hacker organizations such as APT 28, Fancy Bear, Sofacy or Pawnstorm.

    Some of these organizations are also held responsible for cyberattacks in Poland and the Baltic States.

  • Morawiecki rings the bell at Wall Street

    At exactly 9:30am New York time Morawiecki symbolically rang the bell whose sound has been the signal to begin shares trade at the American stock exchange for the last 140 years.

    Over the course of the past decades, thousands of CEOs, politicians and celebrities had taken part in the ceremony. Their presence on Wall Street has always meant that their countries are open for business. This was the message with which Morawiecki had come to New York. He promoted Poland’s economy and encouraged foreign investments in the country.

     

    tt

    “PM Morawiecki learning the tricks of the stock-broker’s trade on Wall Street,” tweeted Polish Radio US correspondent Marek Wałkuski.

    Mateusz Morawiecki told a crowd of business people that Poland, with its five-percent GDP growth, is considered as the country of “high hopes, which gives good prospects for the development of local, domestic, but also the international business.” 

    “I have received confirmation at the New York stock exchange that Poland is seen as a rapidly developing country. One of many hopes and perspectives for the development of local, state and international business,” said the PM.

    The main points of the PM’s one-day visit were the meetings with the CEOs of global companies and participation in the Polish business day in New York.

    CNN’s Quest Interview 

    Later in the evening Morawiecki gave a live interview for CNN on the popular show “Quest means business”.

    tt

    Answering Richard Quest’s questions Morawiecki reminded that recently Poland joined the 25 most developed economies in the world by being promoted by FTSE Russel from Emerging to Developed Market status.

    Richard Quest stated that “Poland has serious issues within the EU in principal matters such as the rule of law.”

    “Some people think exactly that,” replied Morawiecki.

    “No, this is not the matter of opinion but of fact. This is concerning Article 7 of the EU treaty,” the CNN journalist went on.

    “The facts are, that many Western European countries, which did not have to suffer communist and post-communist periods do not understand these weird and different phenomena, which take place in Central European countries such as Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia and many more,” the Polish Prime Minister replied.

  • Kaczyński: I trust Morawiecki, his choice as a PM was a “bullseye”

    “It is thanks to PM Morawiecki that the living standard of the poorer parts of society have been improving,” Kaczyński underlined, and stated that he trusts Morawiecki and called his choice as PM a “bullseye.”

    “The attack on PM Morawiecki is an attack on a person who really hurt them, but who really helped Poles and Poland,” Kaczyński explained referring to the tapes released by Onet.

    Portal Onet.pl revealed this week that a tape which was secretly recorded a few years ago at a restaurant in Warsaw. At the time Morawiecki was CEO of the BZ WBK bank. On the tapes Morawiecki is heard trying to financially help a prominent politician of Civic Platform (PO).

    The attack on PM Morawiecki is an attack on a person who really hurt them, but who really helped Poles and Poland

    Kaczyński said that Mr Morawiecki was “on his party’s side”, even during the time he was a banker and had to accept the rules of this “bad circle”.

    The leader of PiS also disclosed how Morawiecki first consulted with him when offered the position of minister of finance and deputy Prime Minister under the PO government. “He came to me after this proposal and we talked about it,”  said Kaczyński.

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    The PiS chairman also determined that PO’s excuses for not having enough time to fight the VAT mafia are hard to defend: “They governed for eight years. We managed to do it in our first and the effects were visible in the second and third.”

    “Such abuses could not have happened without the conscious passiveness from the government,” he added.

  • Fidesz among the strongest parties within the EPP

    According to the latest polls, Hungary’s ruling parties could win as many as 14 MEP seats next May (out of a total 21 for the country), and with the addition of representatives of the Hungarian minority in neighboring countries the number could be as high as 17.

    Based on the current constitution of the European Parliament, 17 seats would mean Fidesz could be the third largest force within the EPP, that would undoubtedly increase the weight of the Hungarian community and that of the Carpathian basin. On its own, being the third largest force within the group may not mean much, but it is also increasingly likely that the traditional left-right grand coalition will be unable to gain a majority of the 705 mandates, meaning that Fidesz’s role in creating a new coalition could be bigger.

    European Parliament

    Fidesz was the most successful among its European peers at the last three general elections. In 2004, 2009 and 2014 they received around 50 percent of the votes at the European elections, an unequalled performance. It is also worth remembering that after the last EP elections it was a matter of a few dozen mandates that the EPP outnumbered the Socialists, preventing Martin Schulz from becoming head of the European Commission. Without Fidesz this would not have been possible.

    Seen at an EU level, Fidesz and its allies could end up being among the ten strongest groups within the EP. This would not only reinforce its position within the EPP, but also increase the government’s manoeuvring room as a whole.  This could both result in being the tip of the balance in key votes and gaining important positions in various EP committees, bringing clear benefits to the country.

    This is also the first time when EP elections are not being dominated by the member states’ various domestic policy issues, but by the larger issue of migration, in which the majority of the European constituents does not want to see the continuation of the present pro-migration agendas.

     

  • Orbán: A cultural battle is waged in Europe

    Orbán said that while some media may suggest there is a cultural battle in Hungary – and a jostling for positions is a normal state of affairs in modern life – there is peace in Hungarian culture and a growing consensus that “we must build our future around family, work and the reunification of the nation,” Magyar Hírlap reports.

    Orbán said Europeans respect the cultures of other nations but “no one can force us to abandon our own culture and yield to another one”.

    Orbán Hagyományok

    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán speaks at the inauguration of the refurbished Hungarian Heritage House (image: MTI/Zoltán Máthé)

    Orbán said the future of a country is not only defined by its economic strength, military capabilities and political clout, but also by its cultural achievements. For this reason, every forint is an investment into the future, a Hungarian, a Christian future, that is a European future.

    He said the Hungarian Heritage House has been refurbished at a cost of HUF 7.5 billion (EUR 23 million) to again become one of the headquarters of Hungarian culture.

    The Hungarian Heritage House is one of the many architectural jewels of the Hungarian capital. It was built in 1899 as a concert and event hall for the Buda bourgeoisie, in an eclectic style on the outside and Art Nouveau on the inside.

     

  • Kuciak investigation builds trust in Slovakia

    Monika Beňová (Smer) compared the case to Daphné Galizi’s murder in Malta. She emphasized that in comparison with the Maltese investigation, Slovak authorities were quick and efficient, while the results also met with favorable reactions from other MEPs in the European Parliament. A parliamentary commission lead by Sophia in t’Velt visited the country two weeks ago gathering information about the state of the case.

    Ivan Štefanec (KDH) pointed out that while the supposed killers were caught it is important to find out every aspect of the murder, including the person who is behind the events. In Malta, the journalist’s killers were found, however there is no result regarding the motivations and possible political connections. Štefanec suggested the European Parliament will not cease controlling the Slovak political processes, including the budget-related issues and agricultural funding.

    Richard Sulík (SaS) warned about letting the police continue the investigation without the pressure from the side of politicians. The leader of the liberal party believes the time for evaluation will come after completing the case and finding the person who ordered the murder. Boris Zala (Smer) praised the quick investigation and emphasized the role of international cooperation in police progress.

  • Everyone is right in regards to Brexit

    In their own way everyone is right in this story. The Labour party in Great Britain has a right in demanding early elections or a second referendum after the refusal of Theresa May’s Brexit plans. From their viewpoint leaving the European Union without an agreement is not a legitimate act. Boris Johnson, the loudest critic of May is also right when he claims that Brexit without major changes in economic relations between Great Britain and the EU is actually not a Brexit. The British plan’s biggest weakness is however not that.

    The main issue with May’s conception is that it wants the European Union to change its rules. The British two years ago were deciding about leaving the institution, however they were not allowed to make a decision about the Union’s principle of single market or the free movement of workers.

    May is realizing that the plan from Chequers is principially rejected by Brussels. This will culminate in inner-party conflicts and chaos, which causes further radicalization, like Jeremy Hunt’s claims about the parallels between the European Union and the Soviet Union. While everyone is right in this story, the situation cannot be solved in everyone’s favor. In any case, May is preparing for another step, possibly early elections.

  • The Ukrainian-Hungarian game

    Consul for consul – this is how the game is played. According to international diplomatic tradition this is the way for a country to express its misgivings about another country’s actions in a firm, yet restrained way – just like it happened with the Hungarian consul in Beregszász.

    We could argue about legal interpretations, but that is not Hungary’s job: it should be left to Kiev, who has expelled our consul. We have one task only: to protect – in accordance with our constitution – the rights of Hungarians, whether they have a Hungarian passport or not. The gauntlet must be picked up as this is the only way to solve the issue.

    It is immaterial what troubles Ukraine or what kind of campaign is being run there. There certainly are some Ukrainians who now say their president Petro Poroshenko is a tough guy and hit the Hungarians the way they deserved it.

    Ukraine has also growled at Prague, lest the Czechs remember that Transcarpathia was part of Czechoslovakia between the two world wars and venture to give passports to its Czech brothers living there.

    Following the expulsion of the consul, Ukraine now hopes that Hungary will refrain from any unfriendly steps. The very same day, the parliament in Kiev passed a language law that clearly indicates to Hungarians (and other minorities) that they are not considered citiziens of equal standing.

    It now expects Hungary to comply, while it is very clear that Ukraine is in no position to dictate terms. Currently, Hungary is a very stable country and it has excellent relations with six of its seven neighbors. The old Hungarian leadership may have yielded and left the ethnic Hungarians there to their own devices.

    But this Hungary is different. Good relationships and successful cooperation are based on mutual respect and that cannot involve us being dragged into their domestic political feuds.

     

  • Hungary-Ukraine diplomatic row comes to a head with expulsions

    The Ukrainian foreign ministry announced on Thursday that it has declared the Hungarian consul in Beregovo, Ukraine – Beregszász in Hungarian – persona non grata, giving him 72 hours to leave the country. The consul has not been named.

    In response, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szíjjártó said he summoned Ukraine’s ambassador in Hungary and told him that “a consul working at the Ukrainian embassy in Budapest would have to leave Hungary within 72 hours”.

    Recently, Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform released a hidden camera recording showing ethnic Hungarians from Ukraine taking their Hungarian citizenship oath at the Hungarian consulate in Beregszász (Beregovo, Ukraine). While Hungary grants easy access to citizenship for all ethnic Hungarians living abroad, Ukraine frowns upon dual citizenship. Ukraine is host to some 140,000 ethnic Hungarians in the Transcarpathian region, that was once part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

    Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said that with the expulsion he considered the case closed, while his ministry reacted to the Hungarian counter-measure saying it was “inappropriate”.

    Klimkin

    Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin

    European Union and NATO member Hungary has in recent months been blocking Ukraine’s ambitions to join NATO over ethnic Hungarians’ minority rights.

     

     

  • Education in Austria needs reform to withstand immigration

    Vienna is less and less mixed, also more and more immigrant neighborhoods are arising across Austria. Those parallel societies are bad for us, we must separate Muslims and mix the population more. It is still harder to teach as you must overcome religious and cultural obstacles first. Strikingly enough, the fluency in German is also worse even when the children were born in Austria.

    Wiesinger said, that politicians in Austria do not have courage to do something with this issue. According to her, politicians do not talk about education problems, fearing that it would raise the popularity of FPÖ that is perceived as a populist party against immigration.

    Although children want to live the European way, they simply cannot. They do not have contact with Austrian children, strong religious roots and excluded neighborhoods are pushing them away from the Austrian way of life. Therefore, Wiesinger thinks that Austria needs more social workers, but also policemen and another housing policy for more mixing. “In my point of view, being a Social Democrat means taking care of the weakest in our society. The children I work with are definitely among them,” she said.

  • Support for Orbán’s government still over 50 percent

    For example, voters in Hungary, which is now facing disciplinary proceedings, continue to stand by Orbán. Despite the EU’s actions, his government still has support of more than 50 percent of the population, by far the most among the EU28. At the same time, Jobbik would end up second with 16 percent and none of the pro-EU leftist parties would achieve more than 10 percent. 

    Italian results are also not looking good for the EU. Matteo Salvini’s Lega Nord is on the rise, leading the polls after their support nearly doubled since the last election results. The Five Star movement would be second with more than 30 percent and pro-EU leftist party’s support dropped by 3 percent to its current 16 percent.

    While numbers from Hungary and Italy do not come as a surprise, Macron’s decreasing popularity does. According to the polls, only one third of the French public approve of his actions. 

  • Brexit: The Empire strikes back

    Latvian Ambassador to the UK wrote, in response to the British Foreign Minister who compared the EU to the USSR, that his country lost thousands of people after an illegal occupation, which destroyed the lives of three generations. Well, someone coming from a country that has been free throughout the 20th century, might find it difficult to appreciate the EU for having gulags. However, the problem is elsewhere. The EU is supposed to be an open club and as such it should be possible to leave it unharmed.

    The situation with Brexit is simple. The Chequers deal confirmed that Britain wants access to the European single market, free movement of goods and workers. At the same time, May sticks to her plan to leave the customs union, which became the focal point of the quarrel. 

    Even though the EU acts like it is impossible to split the single market and the customs union, agreements with Norway and other countries show otherwise. Brussels is apparently not much invested in this, yet in an absolute number, exporters from the EU27 would be punished more than the British if hard Brexit were to happen.

    It is evident that leaders of the EU are counting on an erosion of the UK’s political scene. Also, there is a ‘European fifth column’ in the British government when it comes to the customs union – Finance Minister Philip Hammond. The Empire is exploiting the fact that May is weaker from day to day and they want to see the UK hitting the wall no matter the price, but could a temporary victory do any good?

    It does in a way recall old Soviet times.

  • Do the Social Democrats have a foreign policy at all?

    Czechs were perfectly divided on Hungary already in the European Parliament, when ten voted for, nine against and two abstained. The recent vote in the Chamber of Deputies ended up in the same confusing manner, one half of MPs stood in solidarity with Hungarians.

    Only two out of fifteen Social Democratic MPs found the courage to refuse sanctions. Three agreed with the procedure and ten didn’t have an opinion. So why do we (ČSSD) want the Foreign Ministry seat?

    Half of the ANO deputies were for the refusal, but ministers including PM Babiš abstained. On the other hand, Pirates opposed the proposal in total unity, showing they are keener to punish Hungary than TOP 09, which is strongly against Orbán in Brussels.

    Thus, the signal is clear – no one can actually rely on us, especially not our allies. And it remains unclear, whose opinion is going to represent President Zeman at the upcoming V4 summit.

  • How Timmermans rose from the conflict with Poland

    Timmermans has become the most influential EU commissar, mostly due to the conflict with Poland. Many of his colleagues see him as “a hero of law and order. An adamant man.” A European Commission official claimed that he had “beaten even Juncker and Selmayr”.

    When the conflict between the EU and Poland had begun, no one expected Timmermans to come out of it strengthened. Many believed that Jean-Claude Juncker had simply put him up front so that he himself didn’t have to deal with the matter. Many expected Warsaw to react like Hungary, to slowly but surely concede over time. Warsaw’s stance at not seeing Timmermans as a partner, despite the man’s efforts, had forced Brussels to reassess its position. No-one expected Timmermans’ diligence in the matter.

    Although Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki and Juncker tried and struggled to find a middle-ground, Timmermans always undermined the offers made by Morawiecki

    Despite Juncker wanting to sweep the issue of the rule of law in Poland under the rug many times, Timmermans always stood his ground that the concessions from Poland were not enough.

    Although Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki and Juncker tried and struggled to find a middle-ground, Timmermans always undermined the offers made by Morawiecki. Juncker had to eventually accept Timmermans’ lawsuit against Poland sent to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) concerning Poland’s Supreme Court and judiciary reforms. 

    Timmermans’ actions are also well received in Holland, which still sees the need to “Europize” the “barbarians from the East.”

    Timmermans’ actions are also well received in Holland, which still sees the need to “Europize” the “barbarians from the East.” Many in Holland still regard Poles through stereotypes and their media underline the negative situations in which Polish citizens in the Netherlands find themselves. Therefore, Timmermans as the defender of European values may find much success in his home country.

    This is how Timmermans rose from being an average EU commissar to a superstar of the European Commission and “the champion of Europizing Eastern Europe” among Western politicians.

  • Few Polish flags evident at sea

    For many years Poland relied on maritime trade mostly due to poor roads. This was the answer to transporting goods from say, Japan to Poland when transport on bumpy roads to Slovakia would take twenty hours. Meanwhile, it was much easier to simply do so through a port like Hamburg, which although further away, would still take less time to transport than using badly developed Polish roads.

    Times have changed as Poland finally has better roads, especially on the North-South axis. Transshipments in Polish ports are booming and Gdańsk is currently constructing a massive central port and Gdynia, an outer harbor.

    Social security for sailors is enforced on Polish ships, whereas it is not on those from, for example, Panama or the Bahamas

    But what about ships under Polish flags? Well, there are few. So why do Polish ship-owners exploit ships belonging to the state treasury under foreign banners? This is due to the maritime labor costs.

    Land companies operate on the same laws so competition is fair. But the sea laws are a different story. Social security for sailors is enforced on Polish ships, whereas it is not on those from, for example, Panama or the Bahamas.

    A ship-owner lives off of haulage that they receive for transporting goods. And haulage shapes a market dominated by comfortable banners. Therefore, who will win? A ship-owner paying social security dues or the one not doing so?

  • Polish “Bison” is selling well

    CEDC, Żubrówka’s producer boasted that they had sold 82,000 9L boxes of the vodka in Duty Free areas in 2017. This makes Żubrówka the best-selling Polish vodka. Second was Żołądkowa Gorzka (65,500) and third was Belvedere (63,500).

    Żubrówka sales in duty free areas have seen a 6 percent increase in 2017 compared to 2016. According to IWSR magazine ranking, Żubrówka is in the top of growth of sales among alcohols between the years 2012-2017.

    The most famous version of Żubrówka is the original “Bison Grass” which includes grass from the Białowieża Forest national park, home of the rare European Bison

    According to another magazine, Shanken’s IMPACT, Żubrówka is the third best-selling vodka worldwide, only behind Smirnoff and Absolut. CEDC states that Żubrówka’s overall sales have increased by 11.3 percent in 2017 compared to 2016.

    The most famous version of Żubrówka is the original “Bison Grass” which includes grass from the Białowieża Forest national park. It is home of the rare European Bison, in Polish the alcohol’s namesake “żubr” (“bison”).

  • What was omitted on Onet tapes and why?

    According to Onet journalists, the 2013 tapes were meant to contain proof of Morawiecki purchasing property by using personal fictional entities.

    Tvp.info has published transcriptions of the omitted tapes from 2013 in which Mateusz Morawiecki – who was the CEO of one the private banks at the time  – instead discusses Radosław Sikorski with the then chairman of the Polish Energy Group (PGE) and close friend of former PM Donald Tusk, Krzysztof Kilian. Sikorski was a foreign minister in Civic Platform government.

    He’s [Sikorski] the perfect example of a spineless guy. A spine hasn’t been found in his body. He just has a tool that stands vertically and that’s it

    Here are transcripts from the conversation:

    Killian: And how did Radek Sikorski fly indeed! With such intensity! Ho ho ho!

    Morawiecki: This doesn’t make sense…

    Killian: I know, I know he’s truly a great patriot, a fighter. I heard that he had shot down four of those flying tanks at Monte Cassino. Those f**king flying tanks, you know, those Tigers…

    Morawiecki: More so that he…

    Killian: He’s the perfect example of a spineless guy. A spine hasn’t been found in his body. He just has a tool that stands vertically and that’s it.

    Morawiecki: Although it does have full flexibility.

    Killian: Yeah, he’ll b**w anyone

    Morawiecki: Not just Germans.

    Killian: It’s not even worth talking about.

    The original tapes revealed by “Wprost” magazine in 2014 put Donald Tusk’s government in crisis. The issue concerned the recording of private conversations of politicians, businessmen and public functionaries between 2013 and 2014.

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  • Production of Star Belt to begin in Hungary

    The movie “Star Belt Legend Begins” will be a Chinese-Canadian-Hungarian co-production, directed by Liu Jing and Alastair Paton (400 Boys), with the latter also the writer of the film. Alastair Paton is also the producer on the Canadian side of the venture, together with Hungarian producer József Cirkó and Chinese producers Henry Cheung and Ricky Tong.

    All that is known about the movie so far is that it will be in the young adult sci-fi genre, pitting Dakota Johnson against the villain Salma Hayek.

  • The day of German division

    The Saxonian town of Görlitz or the Hansa-city WIsmar may both look very nice and Berlin has mainly become a single city again since the Wall fell, but the East has remained the East and the West has remained the West in wallets, minds and politics alike.

    East Germans still earn less then West Germans, face higher unemployment, none of the leading German companies have their headquarters in the East and only a single team from the former Eastern states – Leipzig – is in the 18-strong Bundesliga.

    All the while, one out of five Germans live in these Eastern parts. So much for the material part of it. And as for what is in the heads: the recent events on Chemnitz or Köthen, the attacks on journalists in Sachsen Anhalt and the surprising popularity of the anti-migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the East has left most West Germans baffled.

    Proportionally, there are much less migrants in the Eastern states than in the Western ones. After Chemnitz, analysts are beginning to say that Saxonia is more like Poland or Hungary than the West.

    On the Day of German Unity – with the risk of being a spoilsport – we must mention that this is also the day of German division. Where is the leading power of the European Union headed nowadays? Will it be drifting towards the May European elections together with the EU in dire need of overhaul?

    Standing (or rather slumping) in front of us is a Chancellor Merkel, who for the past year has surreptitiously made two types of moves: revolving around her own axis in tiny steps, giving up her previous pro-migrant stance and bowing to much-maligned populism in an attempt to regain at least some of her former popularity.

    The other movement she is capable of is a continuous slide on a downward slope. The parties of her ruling coalition are in bad shape headed towards regional elections in Bavaria and Hessen in October.

    There are growing calls for the resignation of Merkel, but she is not the only one in this position. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has never won any meaningful direct election in his life, in a departure from the script, went out against Viktor Orbán in a speech, questioning the very existence of illiberal democracy.

    People like him are afraid of popular support: they are both resentful of the successes of the leaders they are unable to emulate and very much afraid that their example will catch on.

  • Hungarian online retail sales set to grow by 20 percent this year

    After a growth of 23.6 percent in the first half of the year measured by the Central Statistics Office (KSH), online retail in Hungary is expected to grow by 20 percent in 2018 to about HUF 440 billion (EUR 1.36 bln), Balázs Várkonyi, CEO of Hungary’s largest online retailer of consumer electronics, Extreme Digital told Világgazgaság in an interview.

    He said the single biggest factor in the increase was a 70-80 percent jump in the sale of television sets in the run-up to this summer’s Football World Cup (even though Hungary wasn’t playing). Várkonyi said online sales would thus amount to about 6 percent of total domestic retail, a relatively good ratio in regional comparison, but added that the Czechs were significantly ahead of Hungary in this respect.

    The concentration of online retail is continuing in Hungary, with the top ten retailers now accounting for 40 percent of total sales. He said the Christmas shopping season would be decisive for the final growth figure and predicted that this year’s biggest hits would be scooters, taking over from drones last year.

    Várkonyi also said that online retailers were facing two major problems: a shortage of website developers and an increasing logistics bottleneck caused by growing sales volumes and the unavailability of qualified workforce.

    For the latter reason – while still competing on prices and offering sizeable discounts in the winter holiday season – now the majority of online retailers have to charge for delivery. “The time of free deliveries is over,” he said.

     

     

  • Endorsing local food causing conflict between SNS and retail chains

    According to plans the levy would be 2.5 percent of the retail chain’s turnover and the collected financial sources would be used for food industry-related investments. The Slovak Alliance of Modern Business (SAMO) believes the measure is discriminatory and goes against the European law. “We are convinced that similarly to the case of Poland and Hungary the European Commission would act,” warned SAMO officials. The retail chains are arguing that the state already collects 100 million euros each year in this area and the state has more than 4.6 billion euros ready to finance farming and agriculture-related projects. The SAMO is the collective institution of Billa, dm drogerie markt, Kaufland, Lidl, Metro, TERNO and Tesco .

    According to Radovan Baláž, the retail chains dominant position on the market is causing disproportion in allocating profits. The MP promises measures endorsing quality and food security. The party is also planning the foundation of a marketing fund.

  • Hungarian opposition pulls out all the stops in debate

    With invectives flying left and right, the Hungarian Parliament has kicked off the debate on a draft resolution submitted by MPs of the senior ruling Fidesz party, Gergely Gulyás and Máté Kocsis entitled “On the defense of Hungary’s sovereignty and the rejection of slanders against Hungary”.

    The Sargentini Report, which states that Hungary is violating the values of the European Union, calls for the activation of Article 7 of the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty which was passed with a two-thirds majority by the European Parliament on September 12. It may ultimately lead to the suspension of Hungary’s voting rights in the Community institutions.

    Former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, leader of the opposition Democratic Coalition (pictured above)  said “we have seen such rotten systems as yours and they all fell, as will you. You are bastards in the political and ethical sense.”

    Kocsis, one of the sponsors of the resolution said the Sargentini Report was a political attack and that they reject the false claims in it.

    “We are determined to safeguard Christian culture, European borders and the safety of Europeans”

    Gulyás_Kocsis

    The sponsors of the resolution, Gergely Gulyás (L) and Máté Kocsis (R) in the Hungarian parliament (images: MTI/Noémi Bruzák)

    Bertalan Tóth, leader of the opposition Socialists said “the migration crisis should be solved through European cooperation but (the ruling party) Fidesz wants to keep it alive”.

    Gulyás, the other sponsor of the resolution said no dictate or accusation from the European Parliament can force the Hungarian government to change its migration policy and that the pro-migration report attacks Hungary for protecting European borders.

    Parliament is expected to vote on the resolution in mid-October.

     

  • Has Turkey lost its shot at EU membership?

    “I see declarations of my colleagues about Turkey not belonging to the European Union. I believe we shouldn’t be hypocrites, if it is so, let’s tell them. But we continue the negotiations and I would also say for objectivity that Turkey is doing a lot for Western civilization as a member of NATO in the security aspect,” said MEP Eduard Kukan. The politician believes the decision of the EU won’t backfire in the field of refugee policy, currently Turkey is home to 2.5 million immigrants. Kukan thinks that it is in the country’s interest to receive funding from the European Union due to immigration policies.

    “Nowadays nobody is really expecting Turkey to become a full-fledged member of the European Union. Of course the country is our important partner from the viewpoint of solving the immigration crisis, which however costs us billions and we need to pay Turkey for maintaining the camps,” pointed out MEP Monika Beňová. While the European contribution to Turkish camps is reaching 4.5 billion euros, in comparison the finances for European integration are negligible.

  • The sexist meme and the changing face of Sweden

    The Swedish Democrats’ parade wasn’t just backed by an influx of immigrants but also by a worsening security in the country. Despite the Swedish population being constantly reminded that Sweden Democrats are gross, they didn’t come out of the elections weaker. Now the Swedish structures are changing, and the first swallow is here to prove it.

    The Swedish advertising standards council banned a ‘distracted boyfriend’ meme. This picture originally from a photobank is already a cult and one of the best memes of 2017, however it’s also sexist. At least according to Reklamombudsmannen.

    Swedish internet provider Bahnhof used the ‘distracted boyfriend’ to advertise that the company is hiring and its jobs are tempting. 15 people complained about it to the council and it proved them right, because ‘the lady in red is presented as a sex object by the man’s appreciative reaction’.

    Reklamombudsmannen has no actual power in Sweden, therefore the ad wasn’t cancelled, and the company wasn’t fined. However, the finding is resonating as an experiment trying to implement Bolshevik idiocracy in a free speech environment.

    Such an urge to use power is foolish and suicidal. It couldn’t happen in today’s Russia or China, unless the meme targeted the very base of its political power. The regimes there know it is necessary to control public opinion strategically and selectively. Apart from that, the public has to feel free to be obedient, more so in an era of information revolution.

    So how long will it take for ideologists to become completely insane – before they discredit themselves and sadly also the liberal-order institutions they’ve colonized?

  • It is necessary to reduce the flow of migrants

    If the refugees are fleeing to safety, it should be enough to give them medical care, blankets and schools, arabist Petr Pelikan said in an interview for internet television channel DVTV.

    There is no “ideal abstract orphan”. In our society, orphan is defined differently than in the Orient. There is a wider definition of family, and the orphan is a child without any relatives who could take care of him/her. I suppose that children in refugee camps are only unaccompanied which is very different from what we understand as an orphan.

    Therefore, MEP Michaela Šojdrová must say what specific children she has in mind. As long as she does not say so, we talk about common moral problems. Because of the different definition of an orphan, unpleasant consequences could have come from their arrival. Immigrants coming to Europe have a choice between two loyalties. Between loyalty to their new homeland and to their community. When it comes to it, the loyalty to an immigrant´s community wins.

    When the Central European states entered the Schengen area, the EU strictly controlled how they were able to guard their borders. Nowadays, there are states that have slackened off their border guarding and states that have not. For example, Hungary. The Czech Republic should keep doing what it does, that is to press the other states. Babis’s decision that the Czech Republic will not accept a single refugee is correct.

  • Babiš the great merchant

    Reverse charge is a measure that shifts liability for final VAT payments to the government budget from the vendor to the customer. The same system is used in the Czech Republic and it often leads to an infamous hedge command. Babiš has been one of the most vocal proponents of the reverse charge use on the EU28 level. By doing so, he antagonized France and other member states.

    France had been a long-time opponent of the reverse charge system and earlier this year, it obstructed the final compromise. In return, Babiš had been blocking a lower VAT on a digital publications proposal that France wanted. Allegedly, lobbyists from France and other countries were regulars at the Czech Finance Ministry, pushing Czechs to change their mind. Now both reverse charge and lower digital publications’ VAT have been approved.

    The mechanism can be applied to a transaction of goods and services over EUR 17 500, which is much more than the Commission originally proposed, and it will be a subject of strict criteria. Austrian Finance Minister Löger mentioned it is an exceptional and time-limited measure.

  • Czech MPs officially condemn vote against Hungary

    The Chamber of the Deputies voted based on a proposal from Civic Democrat’s Jan Skopeček. There were 97 out of 153 MPs present across the political spectrum – Babiš’s ANO, Skopeček’s ODS, far-right SPD, Communists, Christian Democrats/People’s party and two Social Democrats.

    As stated in the resolution, the Chamber of the Deputies considers the vote of the European Parliament to trigger Article 7 of the Lisbon treaty against the sovereign Hungarian state wrong and unfortunate.

    PM Babiš earlier criticized voting of MEPs from his ANO party who supported sanctions and said his stance at the European Council meeting will be different. It will not change our position within the Visegrad Four, he said. Also, President Zeman openly spoke against the vote by saying it is an act that lacks solidarity.

    On the other hand, proposal by the Pirate party wasn’t accepted. Pirates called for limiting subsidies for large enterprises, such as Babiš’s Agrofert which is receiving more in subsidies than is paying on taxes. Only 47 of 172 supported their proposal.

  • Pentagon warns Europe of Russian nuclear missile system

    Such a message came from the head of the Pentagon, Jim Mattis, to NATO states. This system would allow Russia to carry out nuclear strikes across Europe.

    NATO fears that Russia’s new missile system 9M792 is against the current pact that abolishes an indirect and medium range missile (known as the INF treaty). Today, in Brussels, the ministers of defense of NATO states are starting proceedings concerning defense and security.

    The NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warns, that according to US intelligence, the missile system is already being deployed.

    Russia’s responses are also worrying, as: “So far, Russia has not given any credible answers in response to these new missiles,” the Secretary said during a conference in Brussels on Tuesday.

    Stoltenberg also refuses to say where exactly NATO foresees the deployment of these new systems.

    Banned by Gorbachev and Reagan

    The INF agreement, signed by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan in 1987 foresees not only the abolishment of missile arsenals, but also forbids their production, maintenance and use.

    US ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison warns, that if such a system becomes operational the USA will react accordingly so that the missiles “will be unable to strike any of our countries in Europe and America.” She also called for Russia to sit down at the negotiation table and to stop breaking the pact.

  • Failed attack on Morawiecki

    This was meant to be a hit, an earthquake! Instead, what we got was a rehash of what we knew and some colorful stories which don’t actually paint the Mateusz Morawiecki of 2013 in a bad light.

    After dozens of hours of being pressured by internauts, journalists and politicians, German-owned Onet.pl decided finally to unveil all of the tapes’ contents. What’s interesting, is that apart from some meaningless minor threads, the material is the same as those exposed by German-owned “Newsweek” from 2016! No compromising materials had been revealed, despite Onet’s claims based on the so called “testimonies of waiters.”

    The main summary of Onet’s media storm is this: the portal did not possess anything new about Morawiecki

    An interesting novelty is one which had not been noticed by “Newsweek” journalists, in which Morawiecki foresees the migrant crisis:

    “There are more people below seventeen in Nigeria than in all of Europe including Russia,” says Morawiecki.

    “You bl**dy well know that they’ll come over here. They’ll have to do something. The iPhones will show them: here, life is different. And what can we do against a flotilla of rafts? They’ll come from just the North of Africa. We’ll have to shoot to push them back.”

    The main summary of Onet’s media storm is this: the portal did not possess anything new about Morawiecki. Either you have the “testimonies of waiters” or you are just manipulating public opinion before the elections.

  • “Kler” initiated a brutal invasion into Catholic life

    The anti-Christian and anti-catholic atmosphere accompanying the movie “Kler”– watched by a million people so far in cinemas – is not only a way for anti-clericals to relieve themselves, it’s also an invasion into the lives of Catholics.

    Proof? The triumph of people such as Jerzy Urban, a propagandist and civilian murder apologist from Poland’s communist era. So are the attacks of liberal newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza” who finally can give release to its hatred due to the publication of an anti-clerical movie.

    What is more important than Urban and “Wyborcza” is the third element – the brutal marching into our lives.

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    An example of this are the speeches of Wojciech Smarzowski, the director of “Kler” who goes on about how amazing it is that masses in the Czech Republic happen only once a week, whereas in Poland you have a few masses daily.

    It is those words which show the greatest disdain. They are an encroachment into the sphere of belief which according to Smarzowski himself is meant to be an intimate one.

    I’ve had friends who found support and peace in the Church, including myself. Therefore, Smarzowski with his words invades our lives and wants to govern them.

    He wants to take something important away from us. By speaking of freedom, he does exactly what he criticizes the Church of doing.

  • Sapkowski demands more money for “The Witcher”

    The writer has demanded additional profits on top of what he had negotiated and signed with the company years ago. There are unconfirmed reports on the internet that in 2002 Sapkowski was paid by CD Projekt only PLN 35,000. 

    The plenipotentiaries of the author are basing these demands on article 44 of the copyright law which can be enacted if the profits of the author of a piece are too small when compared to the overall profits gained from exploiting their piece.

    The call for payment sent to CD Project Red underlines, that Sapkowski’s compensation should be equal to 6 percent of the profits, especially those made from the game “The Witcher 3”. Considering the profits Sapkowski has already made, this would amount to PLN 60 million.

    There are unconfirmed reports on the internet that in 2002 Sapkowski was paid by CD Projekt only PLN 35,000 

    CD Projekt Red has deemed these demands without merit. “The company has deemed these demands baseless in terms of both the amount and the basis for them. The company had legally purchased the rights from Andrzej Sapkowski, mainly for use to create the games and had regulated the negotiated payments,” a statement reads.

    The company is adamant however, that they wish to maintain good relations with the author whose work has been an inspiration for the development team. They seek an amicable solution to the situation, but it “should respect the previously agreed upon intentions and contracts.”

  • Syrian orphans unleash heated discussion

    Pellegrini mentioned the possibility of taking in the orphans during the weekend in a debate which took place on Slovak Television. The Prime Minister mentioned that there is no decision on the issue, but debates will take place with Minister of Foreign Affairs Miroslav Lajčák. Pellegrini is convinced that in case of need Slovakia is able to take care of the ophans, what should not take place in the facilities provided for immigrants, but rather in orphanages. The Prime Minister however clarified that he is against the mandatory quotas and has the right to determine, exactly how many asylum-seekers the country should receive.

    Opposition party Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) agrees with the strategy. According to the official stance of the party, Slovakia is “wealthy enough to accept several dozen Syrian children who lost their parents during the civil war.” Boris Kollár however criticized Pellerini for his statements. “Our kids are threatened with poverty, mothers cannot feed them and provide them clothing, while the state support is meagre 0.19 Euros,” stated Kollár on Facebook, who believes that the issues connected with Slovakian poverty should be solved first.

  • Hungary drafts reply to Sargentini Report

    The Hungarian Parliament has kicked off the debate on a draft resolution submitted by MPs of the senior ruling Fidesz party, Gergely Gulyás and Máté Kocsis entitled it “On the defense of Hungary’s sovereignty and the rejection of slanders against Hungary”.

    The Sargentini Report, which states that Hungary is violating the values of the European Union, calls for the activation of Article 7 of the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty was passed with a two-thirds majority by the European Parliament on September 12. It may ultimately lead to the suspension of Hungary’s voting rights in the Community institutions.

    After the vote, Hungarian leaders said the report was passed with trickery, as the abstention votes – which would have changed the outcome of the voting – have not been counted.

    Orbán

    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán speaks for his country during the debate of the Sargentini Report in Strasbourg, on September 11.

    In the debate preceding the vote, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said the European Parliament wants to condemn Hungary because it has decided not to become a country of immigrants, adding that regardless of the outcome of the debate and the vote on Wednesday, Hungary will stay its course.

    “I respectfully inform you that whatever your decision, Hungary will not yield to blackmail, is going to halt illegal migration and defend its rights – even against you, if need be,” Orbán said.

    The Hungarian parliament is expected to vote on the resolution in mid-October.

     

  • Pro-migration Italian mayor under house arrest

    Domenico Lucano has been the mayor of Raice since 2004 and many young people left his commune looking for better jobs in urban areas – just like elsewehere in Italy. Lucano has been attempting to reverse this trend by encouraging the settlement of migrants – even illegally.

    The prosecution in Locri – under whose jurisdiction Riace falls – said that Lucano is being charged with aiding pretend marriages to help migrants gain legal status in Italy. The prosecution released parts of recorded telephone conversations in which the mayor said he will oppose regulations he deemed to be stupid.

    In one such conversation, Lucano told a foreign national that he will issue her with a local identity card and certify that she has lodging and a job there, although none of this was true. “I am going to take responsibility for this and say that everything is in order.”

    In another conversation he told a Nigerian woman that her only chance to gain legal status in Italy was a pretend marriage and that he would perform the ceremony himself.

    Riace, with an indigenous population of 1,500 is now also home to some 500 migrants from more than 20 countries.

    Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Matteo Salvini said in August he will pay special attention to cases such as that of Lucano: “I have been and I will go back to (the Calabria region) to visit all those mayors who work for the Italian people, not for the immigration business.”

  • Central Europe is one of the EU’s fastest-growing regions

    Economic growth in Central and Eastern Europe continues to significantly outpace the EU’s average and it is poised to remain the growth engine of the entire Union, Varga said at a recent meeting of EU finance minister in Brussels, Magyar Hírlap reports.

    He said that according to the latest data, economic growth in Hungary was 4.8 percent. He warned, however, that the overall economic performance of the 28 member states in the first half of the year was slightly below expectations and could fall further unless trade disputes with the United States are solved. Uncertainties regarding Brexit and growing crude prices also represent risks.

    Among the several topics on the table at the Luxemburg meeting was the issue of measures against money-laundering. Varga said Hungary supports closer cooperation between national authorities but was apprehensive about giving further powers to the European Banking Authority (EBA). He said Hungary would not support proposals giving the EBA powers to make decisions involving a member state’s banks above the head of the national authorities.

    Regarding the VAT reverse charge mechanism, which moves the responsibility for the reporting of a VAT transaction from the seller to the buyer of goods or services. Varga said that while Hungary will support the proposal, better targeted measures are also necessary, such as the online reporting system of retail transactions and electronic tracking of goods transports recently introduced by Hungary.

    He also said the finance ministers agreed on the reduction of VAT on e-books.

  • Europe should prompt a Sargentini Report, not Hungary

    The very title of the report makes it abundantly clear that the Sargentini Report is not about the Hungarian government, but Hungary itself. The (Hungarian) left has made a mistake by voting against the country and I’m not aware of any political force that would so diligently attack its own country as the “left” here. Domestic political debates should be conducted at home.

    By voting for the Sargentini Report, the Hungarian opposition has sided with the pro-migration European forces, further alienating its voter base, which will show at the European Parliament elections next year.

    Szili is one of the rare dissidents from the Hungarian left. Formerly a prominent member of the Socialist Party, she was Speaker of the House from 2002 to 2009 during two subsequent Socialist-Free Democrat coalition governments. She left the party in 2010 and now serves as the Prime Minister’s special envoy for autonomy issues of the Hungarian minorities living in neighboring countries.

    Szili said there are many issues in which Brussels has failed to represent European interests. All recent elections have shown a growing strength of parties that defended country and national interests, opposing migration.

    “The European Union is now attempting to take revenge after realizing that it has mishandled the issue of migration. It is too late for them to speak about the defense of the Schengen borders” 

    Hungary has been doing this for the past three years and demonstrated its ability to defend the national and EU borders.

    Speaking about the Hungarian opposition, Szili said they lack a personality or political force with a coherent world view. These parties don’t stand a chance until they make some changes in that respect. “This is especially true given that the current governing parties do have a coherent world view. Viktor Orbán has outlined one running to the year 2030 and is tailoring its policies in line with it.”

     

     

  • European paradoxes

    After the events of last week, it is clear that Hungary’s PM Viktor Orbán became the villain of the year, at least according to some. Orbán is an authoritarian and a threat to so-called liberal democracy, who refuses to accept immigrants and does not hesitate to stand against the heads of the European Union.

    But what went largely overlooked is one of the principal actors in the EP´s anti-Orbán movement, MEP Judith Sargentini. It would be a shame not to look closer at this lady and her political party because such a view reveals several interesting paradoxes about the current state of the EU.

    Sargentini´s home party Groen Links was formed in 1989 by a merger of four parties: Pacifist Socialist Party, Political Party of Radicals, Evangelical People´s Party and finally the best one – Communist Party of the Netherlands.

    Sargentini then profiled herself politically, for example, on issues such as combating climate change, supporting migration, and women’s emancipation.

    The Groen Links party has never been in government, regardless of current preferences, and has never won over 10 percent of votes in the national elections. In the last elections to the European Parliament, it gained only 6.9 percent of votes.

    A woman whose party has never exceeded 10 percent is the main critic of a politician whose party has never fallen below 40 percent in the last 16 years.

    To sum up, the repeatedly democratically elected PM Orbán was judged by a lady who has no experience with any executive function. A woman whose party has never exceeded 10 percent is the main critic of a politician whose party has never fallen below 40 percent in the last 16 years.

    We should also pay attention to the fact that the man who was one of the leading figures of the anti-communist movement at the end of the 1980s is now opposed by an MEP whose party is largely based on the ideas of communism.

    And that is the biggest paradox ever! The prominent European mainstream today is not represented by an anti-communist defender of conservative values, but, on the contrary, by a lady from an extremely leftist party with communist roots. Everyone can decide for themselves, whether this is good news for the European Union.

  • Grand coalition strengthens political extremes

    According to Financial Times´ commentator Wolfgang Münchau, no one plans to overcome the curse of German centrist politics. There have been speculations about the end of Angela Merkel since 2015 when she did not estimate the impact of her own political decision to open borders to migrants from Syria.

    There have been further speculations following the elections. Currently, the topic has come back to the top of the political agenda when the CDU/CSU rebels deposed Merkel´s closest ally Volker Kauder from the position of an influential parliamentary group leader.

    Merkel is now undoubtedly perceived as someone who is behind the political top.

    However, much more important than the Chancellor’s future is the fact that the grand coalition strengthens political extremes. It was predictable, and it is happening.

    Nowhere is it as obvious as in Bavaria where elections will take place on October 14th. Support for both CSU and SPD is falling, significantly boosting Greens and AfD. AfD will not enter any coalition, but its influence on German politics will grow. On the basis of a proportional system, 20 percent support of AfD is enough, which makes support of any coalition extremely difficult for others.

    After the last elections, only two coalitions were possible: FDP, Greens and CDU/CSU – and the current grand coalition CDU/CSU and SPD.

    While there may be some candidates to take over the presidency in the CDU/CSU, nobody has a plan to overcome the curse of centrist politics in Germany. The CDU/CSU lost far-right voters as the borders were opened. The SPD lost significantly leftist voters after pushing labor market reforms in 2005.

    The only thing that holds the current grand coalition together is fear of change. There are no new political leaders yet who would have the courage to form a political majority in any other way. German policy has an aversion of risk; it is fearful and boring. One of the reasons why AfD flourishes is that it does not apply to the mentioned characteristics of German policy.

  • EU solidarity with tinted glasses

    132 percent of GDP is the debt the second most indebted EU country, Italy, is facing. France is just a little better, its debt is 99 percent of GDP. That is why Emmanuel Macron tries to convince Angela Merkel that the member states of the eurozone should guarantee the debts of its members, and the Italians agree with Macron.

    The first US Finance Minister Alexander Hamilton came up with the same proposal after the war with England and took over the debts of rebel states. After the second war with England in 1813, the Americans did it again. The joint debt guarantee impressed the creditors so much that all countries of the union were paying lower interests. Macron and other notorious debtors expect absolutely the same.

    However, simple access to money and no accountability led to the fact that in the 1930s almost a third of the states went bankrupt. The government in Washington tried to save the situation in a same way but the owed amount was so high that the government simply did not manage it. And there was a political crisis and, in the course of time, a civil war. After the Civil War, the Americans finally came to the point that each state must deal with its debts, and that the central guarantee is meaningless.

    Today, like two hundred years ago, people do not like paying for somebody else´s spending. The joint guarantee for debts, which Emmanuel Macron wants today, and with him all South Europe, would not lead to unification, but on the contrary, to conflicts and hatred among the members of the EU.

  • The Czech Republic should stand for Hungary

    With the only difference – instead of people’s democracy, liberal democracy is being invoked.

    The chairman of the Liberal and Democrat´s Club in the European Parliament and former Belgium Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt even appeal to the EU and the US for intervening against Hungary because it is threatening the international order by its move away from liberal democracy and European values. According to him, citizens of Hungary deserve a much better way than Viktor Orban leads them.

    Is it really just a haughty arrogance because the Liberals in the European Parliament are convinced that they know better than the Hungarians and what is good for them, who repeatedly and unambiguously choose Viktor Orban?

    It is in the Czech interest to stand up for Hungary along with Poland and to convince Austria and Italy to do the same. If Hungary loses now, Poland will be the next one, and then the Czech Republic, Austria and Italy, or all the countries where politicians critical of Brussels win. We cannot rely on MEPs, they will not go against their own interests in the EU. It is, therefore, necessary for the whole Czech government to say loudly that in the fraternal assistance of Hungary the comrades from Brussels cannot count us in.

  • The downfall of Angela Merkel

    Owing to the policy of open borders, the German middle class was able to profit on migrants for almost two years. From hotel owners and builder’s workshops to teachers and state institutions. This period of fairy-tale investments has passed, however.

    What is worse than the profits of Angela Merkel’s bull market are the costs which became apparent in 2017/2018. Merkel’s policies struck the already underfinanced local governments, moving the costs from a federal to a local level. This therefore, struck the lower classes hard.

    Due to a lack of proper education, lack of financial resources or knowledge of foreign languages, the lower classes have to compete with not only (previous) Turkish immigrants, but also the new Arabic ones. They do not see Muslim immigrants as social partners but as a group threatening their very existence. They see Merkel’s naïve policies as being able to spend billions on upkeeping migrant infrastructure but unable to increase the standard of living for the lower classes.

    Due to a lack of proper education, lack of financial resources or knowledge of foreign languages, the lower classes have to compete with not only Turkish immigrants, but also the new Arabic ones

    This has led to alienation between the governed and the liberal political class, which resulted in demonstrations such as Chemnitz.

    Merkel’s government has also taken a hit in polls. The most recent one by Emnid Institute indicates, that her coalition (CDU and SPD) has lost their majority of popular support. What is more worrying for the SPD itself is the rising trend of the right wing AfD which has caught up with them and even overtaken them in the former DDR.

    The weakening CDU and the crumbling SPD led to the presumption that the government’s dismissal and new general election is becoming a real possibility, though not an automatically necessary one.

  • Andrzej Duda: Poland is gaining power

    “The permanent presence of American troops in Poland is a part of solidifying Poland’s presence in the world of the free West,” said Duda in an interview for “Sieci” weekly. “It is a search for defense possibilities in the case of an attack.”

    The President underlined how important “Fort Trump” would be in developing Poland’s security. “The money spent on a permanent US military base are means spent here, in Poland, so that Poland and Poles can be safer.”

    NATO’s borders had moved in 1999. It is time to also move the borders of security 

    Duda also commented on the changes to NATO’s geopolitical structure after 1999. “NATO’s borders had moved in 1999. It is time to also move the borders of security. This would be possible due to allied, mostly American, military presence in Poland and countries such as Romania,” he said. Although this presence is already there, it is necessary for it to be further developed and permanent.

    He also referred to the infamous photo of him standing next to Donald Trump while signing a declaration. “If someone prefers to focus on the issue that I’m not sitting on a golden throne, too bad. I promised an effective presidency, not a celebrity one,” he said. 

    If someone prefers to focus on the issue that I’m not sitting on a golden throne, too bad. I promised an effective presidency, not a celebrity one

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    The President evaluated Poland’s position in the EU as positive. “Matters are going well – within the country itself as well as in building Poland’s position in international relations,” he said. 

    He argued that Poland is “gaining power”.

    Duda noted that he could not be blind to what was happening around him, however.

    He criticized the “EU of two dynamics”: “How to understand the Union of two dynamics, which wants to marginalize us? How to call dictating Poland how to run her judiciary system and who is meant to govern it? And it’s just us because Western countries can regulate their judiciary as they see fit.”

    He underlined that his main role as President is to “care about the fate of his country.”

  • Partition of Ukraine discussed on Russian TV

    In the program “60 minutes” aired on Russia 1, guests invited to the studio had to decide how to partition Ukraine between Poland and Russia, reports Rzeczpospolita.pl through Dialog.ua.

    Twitter user Ukr_Che posted a screenshot of the show on his twitter account. In it, one can see a map with the proposed division of Ukraine:

    tt

    Ukraine’s Western territories, including the city of Lvov and the Eastern marches would go to Poland. Russia would get Odessa, Donetsk, Kharkov and Kherson.

    Dialog.ua states that Russian politicians and experts have previously claimed that Ukraine is doomed to fall apart. They proposed the following partitions: Eastern Ukraine to Russia and the West to Poland and Hungary.

    Ukrainian internauts are not amused and under Ukr_Che’s thread have posted, for example, pictures of the predicted future of Russian territories being broken apart and divided into sub-states:

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  • Vote for me and I will build a McDonald’s in town, says mayoral candidate

    Włodzimierz Nowotniak is an independent running for the chair of mayor in Sokołów Podlaski, in eastern Poland. His surprising election poster reads:

    “Do you want a McDonald’s in Sokołów Podlaski? If you decide YES, then I promise that if I become mayor, we will have a McDonald’s in Sokołów Podlaski.”

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    The restaurant chain had this to say to Nowotniak’s idea when asked by web portal wirtualnemedia.pl:

    “We are glad that we are such a wanted brand that we have become part of electoral promises. However, decisions on whether we open new restaurants are made on business grounds.”

    McDonald’s did reassure, that they are looking into developing their brand in smaller towns and will make sure that a restaurant will be constructed in Sokołów Podlaski.

    KFC, McDonald’s main competitor in Poland, decided to parody Nowotniak’s poster to promote their food, by replacing him with their iconic Colonel Sanders:

    “Mayor of all restaurants” and “Do you want more delicious chicken in Poland?” reads the ad.

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    Some internauts have been critical of Nowotniak’s idea, however:

    “Where McDonald’s goes, obesity grows. I understand that you want to be the face of diabetes in your town?,” asks one user.

    “Pathetic. This is a fast-food version of an election sausage. An unhealthy program,” mocks another.

    The first round of local elections in Poland will take place on October 21st and the second, on November 4th.

  • Hungary’s bumper grape harvest of excellent quality

    HNT secretary general Dávid Brazsil said that due to excellent weather throughout the season harvesting began very early this year and is approaching completion. Grape growers have delivered an excellent crop and vintners are quite optimistic.

    While there are some regional variations, overall grape harvesting stands at about 95 percent, some vintners have completed processing and the first batches of the fresh vintage have already hit the market.

    This year’s crop is expected to come in just above last year’s 456,000 tons, compared with 401,000 tons in 2016 and 399,000 tons in 2015. But good harvests also have their share of problems – compared with an average price of HUF 100 per kilogram last year, this year the average price is between HUF 80-85 with only a slight premium for extra quality.

    The early harvest and simultaneous picking of different grape varieties also meant that vintners’ processing capacities have been bottlenecked and in some wine growing regions harvesting had to be suspended for a few days.

    In addition, some grape growers who failed to follow market demand had difficulties selling less popular varieties such as the Leányka (a white variety grown in Moldova, Romania and some Hungarian regions).

    Initial tests of the harvested grapes indicate that 2018 vintages will be of outstanding quality, Brazsil said.

    Hungarian vintners are proud of the country’s winemaking tradition, but mostly due to deficient marketing and strong competition from other winemaking countries, export prices of bottled wine in 2017 averaged only EUR 1.14, about half the prices fetched by the wines from neighboring Austria.

  • Hungary’s ruling parties more popular than the opposition

    If the elections for the European Parliament were to be held this Sunday, the ruling Fidesz-Christian Democrat coalition would win 60 percent of the available mandates, the poll showed. In terms of MEP seats, this would mean 13 for the governing coalition, four for far-right Jobbik, three for the jointly running Socialists and Democratic Coalition and one seat for the greens LMP.

    At the last European Parliament elections in 2014 the Fidesz-Christian Democrat coalition won 12 seats, Jobbik three, the Socialists and the Democratic Coalition two each, and one seat each was won by LMP and the Together-PM coalition.

    Nézőpont Institute said that among the total population support for the ruling coalition stood at 39 percent, meaning that after more than eight years in power they still remained more popular than all the opposition parties put together. Jobbik’s popularity stood at 10 percent while the splinter group Our Homeland Movement was at one percent.

    On the left, the battle for dominance was gearing up. The Socialists’ popularity fell one percentage point to five percent while the Democratic Coalition also stood at five percent, meaning they each had the support of about 400,000 constituents.

    The 60 percent voting result projected by the poll for the Fidesz-Christian Democrats also meant that they “may well be the most popular party in their own country within the entire EU”.

    The poll was based on canvassing a representative sample of 2,000 people over a three-week period in August-September.

     

  • Merkel and Macron stuck in migration’s embrace

    Merkel is desperately trying to stay in power, while Macron is chasing popularity, Kiszelly said. He pointed out that a recent Bertelsmann poll showed that every third German constituent sympathizes with the position of the so-called populist parties and 13 percent of them would now cast their vote for the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD).

    As a consequence, both Merkel’s own Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) have been pushed to the right.

    “Should the CSU show a weak performance at the upcoming Bavarian elections and the CDU also poorly at the Hessen regional elections, Merkel may well be replaced as the party’s leader at their December congress,” Kiszelly said.

    He also reminded that at a recent forum in Augsburg Merkel had quite a noteworthy change of tack, grudgingly admitting Hungary’s role in defending Europe’s borders.

    “(Orbán) always points out how well he is defending the border, which I otherwise find correct and I have never spoken against his defense of the borders, because (Hungary) has outer Schengen borders, but this unfortunately was not yet built when so many migrants arrived,” Merkel said at the Bavarian forum.

    Meanwhile in France, Macron has come under attack for a selfie with two young men during his recent Caribbean visit, one of whom made an indecent gesture. Macron has been trapped in several such situations while seeking popularity, a game he is not very good at, Kiszelly said.

     

  • Orbán: Opposition should support national causes

    PM Orbán said it is not only a clever saying that “where there are jobs, there is everything”, reminding representatives that during the summer months the Hungarian economic model continued to show a good performance, Pesti Srácok reports. He also asked opposition MPs to “stand together with the nation in national issues” and never vote against Hungary.

    Again addressing opposition parties, he said that at the parliamentary elections five months ago the Hungarians decided that “you are this big and we are that big”.

    “Perhaps you should consider this: If you don’t want to be stuck in the past and run around in the same hamster wheel, you should follow the people, that will help a lot,” Orbán said

    He said Hungary will not yield an inch of its rights to protect the borders adding that “we are better at this than anyone in Brussels or any international organizations”. The central issue of next year’s European elections will be migration. Since the migration crisis public safety has been deteriorating in Hungary and there have been 347 casualties of violence by migrants.

    PM Orbán also said that employment has been rising since his party took over in 2010 and almost 800,000 new jobs have been created. “We are approaching the 4.5 million dream limit – soon this many Hungarians will have jobs,” he said. He added that the government is intent on delivering on a promise made after the elections to make Hungary one of Europe’s five best places to live in by 2030.

     

     

  • V4 planning to build high-speed railway

    The ambition of the project is to provide an alternative to plane traffic. The project will be financed from contributions of all Visegrád countries, alternatively from sources of the European Union. The project should improve the accessibility of Central Europe, the infrastructure according to Péter Szijjártó is in an “abysmal state.”

    The Hungarian minister also pointed out that transport is the weakness of the region which is inadequately connected with other European countries. “The fact that it takes eleven hours to travel by train from Budapest to Warsaw is laughable. Interconnecting the four capitols is a priority for our country,” added Minister Szijjártó.

    Árpád Érsek from Slovakia pointed out that the project is a long-time investment. Securing the funds, summing up the expenses and creating plans could take decades, as a first step a study will be prepared about the sustainability of the project. This activity will start in 2018. Érsek also claimed that Bratislava would need a new train station if the railway would be built.

  • Tesco stops selling Zem a Vek

    Hajdin wrote an email to the British retail company in June, according to him he was “bewildered and unsettled” because of the newspaper, which is spreading conspiracy theories, anti-semitistic stances and “dangerous thoughts.” Hajdin considered it a very bad sign that Tesco is selling the monthly and claimed he will stop buying at the supermarket and encourage his friends to boycot the retail chain.

    Tesco firstly emphasized that the company is not political and everyone has right to their own opinion. The company claimed that it offers a wide variety of press products with different views. After a few months of intensive facebook campaigning by the activists, Tesco changed its original stance and decided to stop the promotion of Zem a Vek from October. The activists claim they will target other companies as well, just like in the case of Billa, which stopped selling the newspaper in June.

    The monthly believes that the companies were subdued to the influence of “liberal propaganda.” According to the statistics approximately 800-1,000 magazine were being sold in Billa and Tesco. Other companies are still selling Zem a Vek, like Kaufland, which issued a statement about “not giving up on censorship and restricting the freedom of expression.”

  • Freedom is crouched in the corner when Jourova speaks

    The smart media regulation Jourová talked about would harm the so-called “bad” media, disinformation distributors, and it would not apply only to websites but also to print. Quality is supposed to be on public channels and in independent mainstream media that “we have to support (…) more broadly than just letting the market work”.

    What the smart regulation is supposed to be, is not known yet. To the Czech daily E15, who asked the question, the Commissioner’s spokesperson only said that Jourova did not propose any new legislation but she meant it generally.

    There is still a tradition of freedom of speech in Europe so strong that it sounds unimaginable and paranoid. However, the two strongest EU member states – France and, in weaker terms, Germany – have already put in place state aid for the press, and it did not lead to an increase of criticism towards governments in any of these cases.

    Moreover, Věra Jourová is not quite a self-sufficient person in Brussels, but rather a medium through which the prevailing conventions speak. Over time, she has developed into some seismograph of moods prevailing in the heart of the EU. According to the performance in Vienna, it looks like an advanced despair.

  • Bannon’s vision of Europe: A community of independent and sovereign states

    Europe should transform in a group of independent and sovereign nation states run by their citizens, who join together where it is convenient for them.

    It is a counterpart to the globalists who advocate as much political and commercial integration as possible, and sometimes even want to create the United States of Europe. However, Bannon does not want the EU to disintegrate but it should work well for its citizens.

    The V4 is one of the most important geopolitical groups of today. “I was excited that I could come to the Czech Republic and to Hungary. I was at several conferences and was convinced that Visegrad is a vital geopolitical unit,” Bannon said.

    “These are states that maintain the core values within Europe,” Belgian People´s Party chairman Mischaël Modrikamen, who was also present at the interview, said. He also considers deeper EU integration to be the wrong direction. According to him, we have to go a few steps back and get rid of the democratic deficit that is wide today.

    European values are the basis of the Jewish-Christian world for Bannon. Faith in the freedom of the individual, in the importance of family and responsibility. These are the pillars on which Europe grew from Athens, Jerusalem and Rome and which are the most important for Bannon´s movement.

  • The Czech Republic is catching up with the Eurozone

    With GDP at 83 percent of the average, the price level in the Czech Republic rose to 66 percent of the euro area average last year from 64 percent in 2016, according to the Ministry of Finance. “In the coming years, the comparative price level of GDP should gradually increase to 70 percent in 2019. However, this increase should not jeopardize the competitiveness of the Czech economy,” the ministry said.

    The economic level of the countries are compared on the basis of the purchasing power parity. This is the ratio between currencies that express the ability to buy the same set of goods or services in both countries. The price level index is the share of the exchange rate and the purchasing power parity between currencies.

  • Czechs are preparing for 100 year celebrations

    Anniversary celebrations have already begun by launching The Prague astronomical clock and the opening of the reconstructed National Museum is expected.

    Celebrations will last for the entire month of October and culminate on October 28th. Preparations have cost 10 million korunas so far and it is uncertain what the final amount will be. “The final amount will be known after the celebrations,” said Jana Zechmeistrová, head of the Ministry of Defense press department.

    The military show will be the first since 2008, but it is going to be the biggest one according to Zechmeistrová. The general public rehearsal will take place will take place on October 27th at the Evropská boulevard in Prague and will show state-of-the-art military technology. The attendance of honorary guards of Slovakia, France, the United States, Great Britain and Italy are expected and also the possibility to see a collection of Integrated Rescue System vehicles including army and police helicopters will be remarkable, Zechmeisterova added.

    The military show will include historic vehicles, which will demonstrate the development of Czechoslovak/Czech military since 1918. The Ministry of Defense also invited all veterans of WWII. 

  • Morawiecki senior criticizes Polish policy towards Russia

    “Is America pro-Russian because they sent congratualtions to Putin when he became president?,” Kornel Morawiecki asked during an interview for Polska The Times. “Are France and Hungary pro-Russian for doing the same? Why didn’t we?” He called this a “lack of diplomatic behavior.”

    Morawiecki further criticized the mutual distrust between Poles and Russians. He accused the Russian and Polish governments of promoting these negative perceptions. “It’s the Polish government, elites and media which do everything they can to pit Poles against Russians and it’s the Russian government, elites and media which do everything they can to pit Russians against Poles,” he said. 

    The politician called for friendship with the Russian nation and for a symmetry which would lead to improving relations but not to another moment in history in which “we’ll be at each other’s throats.”

    It’s the Polish government, elites and media which do everything they can to pit Poles against Russians and it’s the Russian government, elites and media which do everything they can to pit Russians against Poles

    He agreed with the Polish PM that Russia wants to subjugate Poland but he questioned why Poland can’t propose policies not based on confrontation? An example is the constructions of the Yamal pipeline. “Why did we refuse, when Russia proposed to build the Yamal pipeline, a second thread through Belarus and Poland, because we wanted it built through Ukraine?,” he asked. He deemed it absurd because, simply, the shortest way was through Belarus.

    He also referred to his idea of connecting Russia with the European Union. “This is a serious civilizational proposal,” he pointed out. If the EU were to include Russia, Ukraine and Turkey, then “a billion populated Europe would be able to compete with China, India, the Arabic countries, America and Africa.”

    Morawiecki said that he saw Poland, which is in the heart of Europe, as a natural bridge between West and East and that Poland should be fulfilling that role.

  • Poles defend volleyball World Championship

    Poland’s men’s volleyball team successfully defended their title. The previous time Poland and Brazil met in the grand final was in 2014 in Katowice when Poland also won 3:1.

    This time in Torino it was 3:0 for Poland. The MVP (most valuable player) of the championships was Polish player Bartosz Kurek.

    Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki cheered on the “white-reds” and posted a photo of himself and his son in a team scarf:

    “In each situation and in every sport I cheer for Poland. We are watching the finals of the volleyball world cup, just like millions of Poles are right now. A second silver or a third gold? We’ll do it! I strongly believe so!”

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    Polish President Andrzej Duda congratulated the team on Twitter:

    “Poland is the World Champion in volleyball for the second time in a row! What happiness! What a success! THANK YOU!!! You are GREAT!! Bravo White-Reds! BRAVO!”

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    Poland’s toughest opponent was the experts’ favorite in the semi-finals, the United States. The Poles managed to overcome their opponents in a tie-breaker and won 3:2. In the end, the US team managed to take home the bronze medal by beating Serbia 3:1.

  • Poland: Campaign is heating up

    Mazurek’s statement was in response to PO leader Grzegorz Schetyna’s accusation that PM Morawiecki was “caught lying.” Schetyna also called for Morawiecki’s resignation: “A liar cannot be the PM of Poland. If he has honor and does not want to stain the pages of Polish history, then he must resign,” he said.

    During his party’s convention on Sunday, Schetyna was referring to the court ruling on his lawsuit against Morawiecki concerning the PM’s accusation that the previously ruling coalition did not construct roads when they were in charge.

    “The court called it a lie and made a decree and ordered a rectification. The Prime Minister, instead of apologizing is relying on cheap tricks,” said Schetyna.

    In response, Beata Mazurek also recounted all of PO’s past lies, including: the retirement age increase despite saying that they will lower it, sending six year old’s to school despite parent protests, 21 tax raises despite promises to lower taxes and supporting VAT mafias.

    The spokeswoman drew attention to the fact, that PO first claimed that PiS’s child benefit programs are impossible to upkeep. Today, PO argues that they will maintain the benefit programs and even extend them.

    Mazurek also wrote on Twitter that she saw Grzegorz Schetyna’s speech as “breaking any boundaries of populism, hypocrisy and lying. We can see the effects of his visit to Germany.”

  • Wałęsa’s birthday wishes missing important signatures

    This Saturday saw the celebrations of Lech Wałęsa’s 75th birthday. The party took place in the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk and was also an opportunity to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Wałęsa receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.

    Guests included EU President Donald Tusk, US Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher and liberal Gazeta Wyborcza editor in chief Jarosław Kurski.

    As a gift, Tusk offered a speech on behalf of Wałęsa as well as birthday wishes signed by all of the leaders of EU states bar two: Mateusz Morawiecki and Viktor Orban. When Wałęsa asked about Morawiecki’s signature, Tusk claimed that the Polish PM had “turned his back and declined.”

    Wałęsa’s spokesman claimed that Orban signed the paper in the place designated for the president of Cyprus but one cannot visibly see that signature on the document published on the internet.

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    Wałęsa is a strong critic of the current PiS governemnet in Poland and supporter of the opposition. In an interview for Deutsche Welle Wałęsa mentioned that the Polish opposition should come up with something better than protests in their struggle with Law and Justice. He called for German and EU support because “ballots are still far off.”

    Communist agent

    Files and handwriting analysis revealed by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) in January 2017 proved that in the 1970s Wałęsa had been a paid, communist spy working for the Security Service (SB). Wałęsa, who co-founded the independent Solidarity union in 1980 and then negotiated a bloodless end to communism in Poland in 1989, has been dogged by the allegations for years but has always denied them.

  • Hungary wins nine medals at Euroskills competition

    Hungarian professionals have won three gold, three silver and three bronze medals at this year’s Euroskills competition, a European event held every two years for young professionals with the participation of 28 countries, Magyar Hírlap reports.

    “There is a need for exacting, precise and conscientious work everywhere in the world,” Hungarian President János Áder said at the closing gala of the competition in Budapest.

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    Hungarian President János Áder speaks at the closing gala of the Euroskills 2018 competition in Budapest. (Image: MTI, Zsolt Szigetváry)

    Dita Traidas, President of WorldSkills Europe praised the Hungarian organizers for their professionalism and said this year’s event raised the bar for future organizers – the next event will be held in Austria.

    Among the 28 participating countries, Russia was placed first with a total of nine gold, eight silver and two bronze medals, followed by Austria, France, Hungary and Germany.

    The fields for the skill competition are information and communication, manufacturing and engineering, construction and building, transportation and logistics, social and personal services, creative arts and fashion.

  • Hungary: Ukraine can’t intimidate our foreign minister

    Anti-Hungarian attacks in Ukraine have the backing of their government and state, Menczer said at a Budapest press conference on Sunday after a radical Ukrainian website included Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szíjjártó on its list of the “enemies of Ukraine”.

    Recently, Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform released a hidden camera recording showing ethnic Hungarians from Ukraine taking their Hungarian citizenship oath at the Hungarian consulate in Beregszász (Beregovo, Ukraine). While Hungary grants easy access to citizenship for all ethnic Hungarians living abroad, Ukraine frowns upon dual citizenship. Ukraine is host to some 140,000 ethnic Hungarians.

    At a meeting of the countries’ foreign ministers on the sidelines of a U.N. conference in New York, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin admitted that the Ukrainian law does not forbid dual citizenship, nor is it a criminal offence to withhold information about dual citizenship from the Ukrainian authorities.

    Klimkin said in an interview recently that he “does not exclude” that Ukraine will expel the Hungarian consul in Beregovo, adding in a later interview that Ukraine might do so if Hungary does not recall him.

    Menczer said the hidden recording at the Hungarian consulate was a “breach of every written and unwritten rule of diplomacy”, adding that the officer in charge of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry’s security was informed about the fact that Szíjjártó was included on the list of Ukraine’s enemies and all necessary safety precautions have been taken.

  • National dance ensemble announces US-Canadian tour

    The Hungarian National Dance Ensemble will go on a North American tour between October 18th and November 4th, commemorating the 170th anniversary of the 1848-1849 Hungarian revolution.

    The tour will have performances in Chicago, Clevenald, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Seattle, Vacaville, Mountain View, Los Angeles, San Diego and Fullerton, with the main target audience the Hungarian diaspora in North America.

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     Hungarian National Dance Ensemble (image: Dénes Albert)

    The company is Hungary’s largest folk ensemble, incidentally also celebrating its 70th anniversary, as its successor, the Ensemble of the Armed Forces was established in 1948. Its current art director is renowned Hungarian choreographer Zoltán Zsuráfszky.

  • Salvini: I don’t care what the EU says

    The Northern League will push ahead with the current Italian budget proposal for the next three years despite criticism from Brussels, Salvini was quoted as saying by news portal Magyar Idők.

    “I don’t care if Brussels says that I cannot push through this budget, I will do so anyway,” Salvini said

    He added that the Northern League and the Five Stars Movement (M5S), the Italian governing coalition’s two largest parties no longer govern their country as the servants of Brussels as the previous leftist government did.

    “The Italian budget now serves the interests of Rome and the Italians. This should be understood in Brussels, Berlin and even some hills of Rome,” he said. The reference to the hills of Rome alluded to Italian President Sergio Mattarella whose official residence is in the Quirinale hill.

    Salvini said the Italian President, the financial analysts, investors and the Brussels bureaucrats should rest assured that “we don’t  want  to leave behind an indebted, but a better Italy”.

    The League-M5S cabinet last week put forward its first financial and economic plan calling for higher budget deficits in the next three years. It will have to be signed by the President and passed by Parliament.

    Italian finance minister Giovanni Tria will present the plan to the finance ministers of the Eurozone on Monday.

     

     

  • Orbán has legitimacy to govern

    Koudelka believes the immigrant wave stopped by Hungary would have caused the masses to march to Germany through Slovakia, Moravia and the Czech Republic. Koudelka thinks that Hungary is a functional democratic state. “It has no political prisoners like Spain. Hungary kept the European measures connected with border protection in opposition to Germany. Despite this the European Parliament is silent about these two issues. Also, Hungary has one of the best ethnical minority regulations,” he pointed out.

    The Czech professor thinks that Orbán is a strong policitian mixing power with authority, similar to Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle.”For democracy it is important to govern for a certain time period. The politicans have to win elections to see if the voters still trust them. Orbán is winning in democratic elections repeatedly. He has right to govern,” Koudelka highlighted. 

  • Euro election shadow play

    It had its logic, in the national elections the voters are choosing leaders after all and the campaign is turning around the question of the next head of the government. The Spitzenkandidates were trying to imply the same at a European level, the leader of the strongest group was meant to become the president of the European Commission. Despite many weaknesses, the plan was successful by naming Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the EPP. This time it’ll be more complicated.

    The member states were never pleased with the conception due to the fact that the strategy weakened the competence of the Council of Europe. Right now it seems that a similar selection could be problematic. While the EPP seems to be the strongest faction besides the Social Democrats, other groups should not be pleased with a conservative candidate. Like the liberals of Macron, who believe the Spitzenkandidates only help to preserve the cartel of the EPP and the socialists.

    The issue of democratic legitimacy won’t be solved by shadow plays. The EU won’t have federalist structures (for a very long time) and the decision is in the hands of national political parties, who shouldn’t be dismissive towards the European elections.

  • The political resurrection of Theresa May

    There are only questions and conspiracy theories about what Brussels intends to negotiate. Only six months are left until Brexit, and nothing has been agreed in over a year and a half. From where has the negotiators´ arrogance come from?

    A second referendum on Brexit? It is not possible. Britain is the oldest democracy in the world. The referendum on Brexit is valid, the decision has been approved by Parliament. Even though the opposition sometimes speak of such a thing, the new referendum can only address consent or disagreement with what has been negotiated.

    The latest draft was politically acceptable in Britain, yet the EU rejected it. Brussels apparently thinks that May´s government is weak, but it is not. The prime minister managed to find a powerful leadership role as the one that fulfils the will of the people.

    Therefore, the political upheaval in Britain will not happen. But if Brussels is unwilling to negotiate a joint compromise, it would be a very unfortunate (hostile) divorce. A collapse would drastically affect both parties. EU representatives behave as if they did not know what further wound they would inflict on themselves in today’s weakened position.

  • Multiculturalists and genderists are more dangerous than Islamists

    Migration is a serious issue, but Islamist terrorism is not as serious and aggressive as another form of terror that entered our culture through the gate of multiculturalism linked to the migratory wave. It is the doctrine of genderism and feminism, which is the cause of demographic decline and the desire to occupy less populated areas.

    Migration is a very serious problem. It is a manifestation of the widespread war of fanatical Muslim terrorists that hit the Euro-American zone and, by extension, the whole world. No doubt, it’s a war, a genocidal religious war. War is not only conducted at the level of armed action. It also has a form of ideological struggle, in which we find ourselves almost every day and everywhere.

    Thinking of peace is inappropriate, we have to think in terms of war. It follows that we must take care of borders and sovereignty. The boundaries must be guarded and defended. We have to express the sovereignty in legislation, especially the visa obligation.

    How to act in a war that goes beyond the framework of current international law? The attacker is the so-called “Islamic state” that is not a state.

    Many members of this movement have proper citizenship in the states that defend themselves. How, why and under whose charge the politicians act? Is Angela Merkel, for example, more scared of her citizens or the terrorists? Is Putin, pervaded by the spirit of the Soviet Kremlin, in fear of Muslims, NATO or China?

    However, I would like to draw attention to another, more serious war, a more aggressive terrorism. The new ruthless doctrine of feminism and genderism endangers us far more. Such a pressure, through the enforcement of legislative changes, has paved the way for Islamic extremism. How? It introduces us to the culture of death. The resulting demographic decline creates a vacuum and raises the desire to occupy/populate less-populated areas.

    We came from the issue of migration and terrorism to the real danger of far worse terrorism. Such a return is quite logical because today’s migration is connected with the multiculturalism that has opened the gates to it. But it is also a gateway for genderism. The danger lies in the fact that all these movements are mutually reinforcing themselves and threatening the order that has so far created and bound our society together. 

  • SPD defends V4 states against Macron

    President Macron said that countries rejecting solidarity on the issue of migration should be excluded from the Schengen area. According to the SPD, he is trying to break the unity of the V4 states.

    SPD considers the statement by the French president, who spoke at the informal summit of EU leaders in Salzburg, quite scandalous. He said that countries that reject solidarity in the migration issue or the extension of Frontex should be excluded from the Schengen area and those countries that do not want a stronger Europe will face financial penalties.

    By this, he had in mind the persistent resistance of the V4 countries, especially Poland and Hungary, on the issue of illegal immigrants entering their territory. It is another Macron attempt to break the V4 states, in which his monster way of acting in the form of threats to so-called “disobedient” Member States continues. 

    SPD unambiguously rejects such methods and argues that we do not want to live under such a dictate of the European Union. SPD proposed and called for the adoption of the Referendum Act so that Czech citizens can freely express whether they want to stay or leave the European Union. As an alternative, SPD proposed a format of the so-called Union of European Nations (UEN) to ensure cooperation between sovereign states and where cooperation between its members would be based only on the fundamental pillars of the freedom of movement of persons, goods, services, and capital, or on a common defense agreement.

  • Babiš criticizes media for spreading lies

    Speaking about current politic affairs in an interview for internet television XTV, PM Babiš explained why he criticized the Czech media at the European Council.

    “i said everything. That websites are lying about Orban or about Syrian children,“ Babiš said, adding that the foreign media are spreading hundreds of repeated lies from Czech anti-babis websites.

    A permanent media campaign against him is also the reason why he is not so popular in Prague. He admitted, however, that his ANO movement could have had better results.

    The prime minister drew attention to his various charity activities and complained that the media wrongfully made him a human monster with a misinterpretation of his stance on Syrian orphans. By saying that the Czech Republic will not accept any migrant, I have pointed out the EU’s inability to deal with illegal migration, Babiš explained.

    Babiš also said that the theme of migration became more a political issue because the number of migrants is declining. “People are coming to the Czech Republic on the basis of a permit or work visa, so it must be throughout Europe,” Babiš emphasized at the end of the interview.

  • Orbán: We have the luxury of upcoming success

    When Western politicians lose elections, they do not return to politics and start to do business. “But if we lose, we will remain in politics. We will return. That is my mission in European politics,“ Orbán said.

    Nowadays, the key word in European Union policy is “frustration.” The story begins in 2001 when the EU adopted a strategy for the future. This strategy has basically three points – the EU as the most competitive in the world, the free trade zone from Lisbon to Vladivostok, the euro being more competitive than the US dollar. To date, however, none of these aims have been achieved. The euro is not strong, Russia is an outsider.

    So what gives us a hope in Central Europe? First of all, success. We are on our way to success. Local politicians would be stupid if they destroyed this path because here in this part of Europe we are in a different position than Western Europe. We started much lower, we can only go up. So, we have the luxury of upcoming success.

    Now, however, two issues need to be addressed. Is Austria in Central Europe and should we include western Germany in Central Europe? Yes, and yes. Austria should have a leading position, and if Germany is connected to Central Europe, it will become Europe’s most successful region and, in addition, will solve the problem of so-called Central European values ​​compared to the rest of Europe and the Visegrad countries. Visegrad must unite with the rest of the Balkans – Serbia, Croatia – and also strengthen cooperation with Germany.

    What is, then, Central Europe? Countries with a common history, now emotionally prepared and determined to understand one another. The geopolitical expansion of the V4 is a reality.

  • Poland plugs the tax system

    For the first time in a few years, the value of tax extortion in Poland has dropped, the Ministry of Finance has confirmed. According to data released by the newspaper, the revenue service detected 250,000 empty VAT invoices, amounting to PLN 57 billion. In 2016, there were 420,000 and their value stood at PLN 104 billion.

    The report discussed documents produced by scammers and fraudsters to extort VAT returns from the revenue service or to discount fictional fiscal costs.

    And there is still much to be done

    According to the Ministry of Finance, the improvement this year occurred thanks to plugging the tax system.

    What helped was, amongst others, overseeing companies through advanced analysis and risk evaluations as well as speedy crossing out of suspicious entrepreneurs from the tax-payer register by the revenue service.

    Thanks to this, there are less scams and their traceability has increased. Despite the drop, experts believe there is still much to be done.

  • 100 years of Polish successes and failures

    40 percent of respondents chose the regaining of independence in 1918 as the most important event in the last 100 years. This is double the number of people compared to 2008 (the previous survey), probably due to the upcoming 100 year anniversary.

    19 percent chose the fall of communism in 1989 and 18 percent spoke of Poland joining the EU.

    Other choices included the ascension of Karol Wojtyła (John Paul II) to the Papal seat (15 pc), the Second World War (14 pc) and the end of the Second World War (11 pc).

    Another question concerned what Poles saw as the greatest success of the last 100 years. The majority chose regaining independence in 1918 (25 pc), then entering the EU (24 pc) and the fall of communism (15 pc), often underlined that it was a bloodless transition.

    CBOS also asked about Poland’s three greatest failures in that period. The majority spoke of the Second World War and German occupation (14 pc). Second was the communist period in Poland between 1945-1989 (9 pc) and third was the election of Law and Justice (PiS) in 2015 (6 pc) as well as Poland’s subjection and dependency on the USSR (6 pc).

    The survey was carried out on 952 random people via the face-to-face method, between the 28th of June and 5th of July 2018.

  • Fallacies of PiS’s judiciary reforms

    I did not pity the previous judiciary environments which for years solidified their agreements, pathologies and odd situations in which the judges found themselves. In the end, however, the judiciary reforms are clunky and will most likely be successfully blocked not only because of the “bad” EU, but also due to PiS’s mistakes.

    There are two arguments among the electorate of Law and Justice when it comes to the courts: first of all, PiS will not give up and the other – trusting Jarosław Kaczyński to “clear out the clique of judges.”

    There seems to be no government plan if the ECJ in a matter of a few weeks orders to reinstate the retired judges and the Chief Justice in the Supreme Court

    The accelerated actions of the European Commission and the inevitable decree of the ECJ lead to blocking the judiciary reform of Kaczyński and Zbigniew Ziobro.

    The government had already accepted one ECJ decree – the one about the Białowieża Forest. Then everyone also said that the government won’t relent and will ignore the ECJ’s decision. Meanwhile, the logging was halted, financial repercussions do not hang over Poland and the minister of environment had been changed. The same thing happened after the European Commission sent warning signals concerning the trade tax on supermarkets.

    There seems to be no government plan if the ECJ in a matter of a few weeks orders to reinstate the retired judges and the Chief Justice in the Supreme Court.

    We’ve been hearing a lot, that Poland respects ECJ decrees. If so, in the case of blocking the reforms PiS will have to submit to the European Union. This will of course be fuel for the fire for nationalists who will feel betrayed.