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  • Hungary’s ruling coalition popularity rises

    Hungary’s ruling conservative Fidesz-KDNP coalition remains the most popular political formation in the country, a study has found.

    What’s more, data from four polling institutes showed that an election today would result in an even higher parliamentary majority than the one reached at the last elections held in April.

    News site Origo.hu collated July’s opinion poll results from Nézőpont Intézet, Publicus, Századvég and Závecz Research which showed that among the whole population the support for Fidesz-KDNP rose one percentage point to 34 percent, but there was an unusually high spread among data from the four institutes, ranging from 25 to 42 percent.

    Among decided voters, Fidesz-KDNP was in a very comfortable lead with popularity of 53 percent, which in the case of elections would result in an even higher number of seats in parliament than in April. On April 8th, prime minister Viktor Orbán’s ruling coalition received 49.27 percent of the popular vote, resulting in a two-thirds majority in legislation.

    Meanwhile, the governing coalition’s main opposition, radical right-wing Jobbik only received 15 percent, down five percentage points from April. The Socialists and the green-liberal LMP both stood at 13 percent, up one percentage point from April.

    Hungarians will vote at two important elections next year, the European Parliament elections in May and the domestic municipal elections. The municipal elections are usually held in the autumn but recent reports suggest the latter may be brought forward to coincide with the EU elections.

  • Google: Billions of revenue, taxes of just 8.2 million koruna

    A shocking report has found that Google paid only 8.2 million koruna in taxes in the Czech Republic in 2017, its annual revenues are estimated at a whopping 4-6 billion.

    The relatively low figure is in stark contrast to what the Czech company, Seznam.cz, paid. Seznam.cz has annual sales exceeding CZK 4 billion, and paid taxes of 240 million koruna.

    “It is a shame, that state administration cannot create comparable conditions for Czech and foreign subjects,“ media expert Aleš Borovan says.

    In addition to low taxes, criticism of Google’s corporate irresponsibility towards the Czech Republic is also widespread.

  • There is no alternative to NATO, we will not recall soldiers

    Despite the deaths of three Czech soldiers in Afghanistan recently, Jan Hamáček still believes NATO guarantees our safety. Therefore, participation in the missions plays a crucial role when it comes to the security of Europe as a whole.

    “The authorization of our soldiers must be approved and it is valid for the next two years up to 2020. I don’t see any reason for changing that procedure. This given authorization was approved by the vast majority of the Chamber of Deputies,” Hamáček said in response to the issue of suspending foreign missions.

    The minister further adds that our position within NATO should not be affected in any way by the opinions of politicians regarding the suspension of the missions.

    In the first place, Hamáček would like to act in his authority in order to ensure that the Czech Republic remains one of the safest countries in the world. This goal is also connected with maintaining the numbers of personnel in security forces, and he thus wants to raise wages of police officers and firefighters.

  • President Zeman will not attend 100th anniversary celebrations of Czechoslovakia in Chicago

    The highlight of the American celebrations of the founding of Czechoslovakia will take place at the end of September. It was expected that president Milos Zeman will attend but it now seems that it is not going to happen.

    Reports suggest that Zeman gave priority to two other trips at the same time – to Germany and Israel. The report also pointed out that the Mayor of Chicago and former Obama’s head of staff at the White House, Rahm Emanuel was not too excited about Zeman’s visit.

    There is also uncertainty over the possibility that Andrej Babiš would arrive in Chicago. Celebrations in the US are to be held just before the communal and senate elections, when the campaign culminates.

  • The government will cut money to non-profit organizations

    The government intends to save up to three billion koruna on payments to non-profit organizations, that´s 22 percent of current spending. Cuts are to be implemented by all ministries.

    It is expected that organizations involved in the integration of foreigners will be affected by these restrictions. The Minister of Finance, Alena Schillerová assures that there will be no cuts for organizations that provides help to people with disabilities, the elderly or the socially weak. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš does not want to reduce subsidies for sport.

    According to earlier published data, more than a third of the funds were allocated to social and employment policies and almost 30 percent to sport.

    The Ministry of Finance has announced that expenditure to NGOs has risen to CZK 13.6 billion last year. But the latest analysis from 2015, and the The Center for Research of Nonprofit Sector has announced that it will not process the analysis for this year. Therefore it is unclear how the government will monitor and compare the level of spending.

  • Political fight over insurgents graves

    Warsaw’s mayor, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, and her office “have chosen to support parties who outright connect themselves to the criminal idea of communism”.

    During the commemoration of the Wola Slaughter in 1944 organized by the Warsaw City Hall, the wreaths put down by members of the ONR were carried down to the end of the line. Although all the other wreaths were announced by a speaker, the ONR’s were not.

    The member of Razem later wrote on Twitter, “I am proud that thanks to our initiative, the ONR delegation was not announced during the laying down of wreaths. I am terrified, that some would come with phalange symbols on their arms to commemorate the victims of the Wola Slaughter.”

    The ONR is not a banned group. Nor is the phalange a banned symbol. Some argue that we have come to a moment in which the Warsaw City Hall does as communist groups tell them to.

    Another incident occurred when the ONR’s annual Warsaw Uprising march was cancelled by the City Hall. Such decisions are taken when the participants are behaving aggressively, vandalizing public property or attacking police officers.

    According to the City Hall, the march was stopped because one of the participants was found with a banned symbol – the hammer and the sickle. The fact that the symbol was crossed out and an anti-communist slogan was written under it was somehow ignored.

    Ryszard Makowski concludes that he hopes, that during the local elections in Warsaw in November, it will be possible to push away from power from those who would cultivate anti-Polish sentiments.

  • Meet the president

    Andrzej Duda’s staff came up with an idea to invite random tourists to meet with the president and take a tour of the presidential palace in Warsaw.

    The event was immediately picked up by Asian media outlets, and a video of the visit can be viewed on the official twitter account of the president’s staff.

    During their visit, the tourists had the opportunity to ask the president a couple of questions over a cup of tea: “Do you like your job?,” one of them asked. “It’s not a job,” replied Duda. “It’s a duty.” The visitors also took a group photo with the president, which Duda then posted on his official twitter account.

    “After returning from #NATOsummit in Brussels, I had some fantastic guests in my office. Tourists from Taiwan and Singapore paid me and the palace a visit!”

    https://twitter.com/WPalacu/status/1025434291365400576

    The tourists were extremely pleased with the visit. They said they thought it was something impossible and that they considered it an honor and a delight to see the presidential palace.

    The visit was not bereft of criticism from the side of the Polish political opposition. The critics argued on twitter, that the head of state and defender of the constitution should be inviting protesters and defenders of the Polish Supreme Court. Not happenstance tourists.

    The whole event can be seen as the beginning of Duda’s campaign for re-election. Everything points to Duda being Law and Justice’s candidate. So far, Duda does not know who his main opponent will be. The elections will take place in 2020.

  • Ukraine considers cutting railways to Russia

    Kiev’s minister of Infrastructure believes that cancelling railway connections between Ukraine and Russia will not cause any financial losses. Some alternative theories explain the planned shutdown by pointing out that this could be connected with plans to “nationalize” the lucrative railway company owned by the state and it is not motivated by political goals.

    According to Oleksiy Honcharenko, the chairman of Odessa Regional Council, the measure will complicate the life of hundreds of thousands who visit their relatives in Russia. According to official estimates nearly three million Ukrainians are working in Russia.

    The connection between Kiev and Moscow is the most profitable line of the Ukrzaliznytsia, the state-owned Ukrainian railway company. The annual profit of the line is estimated at US$5.8 billion annually, followed by the connection between Odessa and Moscow (US$3.7 billion).

    Honcharenko reminded that the line is used by ordinary people who would still travel to Russia frequently, only in a more complicated way.

    The call for restricting the connection between Russia and Ukraine is not unusual. Due to the initiative of Kiev from 2015 there is no direct airline between the two countries, the Russian cargo trains heading to the west are also avoiding Ukraine.

  • Tear down this Palace!

    Law and Justice officials propose to demolish the Palace of Culture and Science which dominates Warsaw’s skyline. In its place, the ruling party’s politicians envision a column dedicated to Poland’s fallen heroes who fought for the country’s independence. 

    The Palace of Culture and Science (PKiN) is the symbol of Poland’s communist past. Built in the early fifties, it was meant as a gift of friendship from the Soviet Union. Over half a thousand 19th century town houses were torn down to make room for it. The Palace was named after Joseph Stalin. 

    It is high time to remove that symbol of Soviet domination over Poland and replace it with a column of glory of the Polish military

    The discussion of whether to demolish the PKiN has been ongoing since the fall of communism in 1989. Recently, two Law and Justice (PiS) politicians called for the demolishment of the building on twitter.

    During his seventieth birthday celebrations, Antoni Macierewicz, former minister of national defense, thanked the politicians for supporting the idea and stated, “It is high time to remove that symbol of Soviet domination over Poland and replace it with a column of glory of the Polish military. They deserve it. It was Poland’s army who fought for Poland’s independence.” 

    The idea for the construction of the column, with a statue of Holy Mary at its top was first introduced in may 2018. The candidates for the office of mayor of Warsaw are not as single-minded, however. PiS’s candidate simply stated he had a different idea of what should be done with the PKiN. Other ideas from other candidates include the construction of a central park in Warsaw or, interestingly, covering the whole Palace with moss. 

     

  • Spanish jet accidentally fires missile over Estonia

    A Eurofighter Typhoon of the Spanish Air Force accidentally fired and air-to-air AMRAAM missile during a drill in Estonian air space.

    According to news portal Origo, the missile was last located some 40 kilometers north of Estonia’s second largest city, Tartu.

    The 3.7 meter long missile carries an explosive payload of 10 kilograms (22 pounds). The missile has a built-in self-destruct feature for such accidents, but it may not have detonated and possibly landed somewhere near Tartu.

    AIM-120 AMRAAM

    AIM-120 AMRAAM being loaded onto an F16 fighter.

    Image: Staff Sergeant Vince Parker (USAF)

    Estonia and the two other Baltic states, Latvia and Lithuania do not have air patrol capabilities and air policing missions are carried out by their NATO allies in four-month rotations from the Ämari Air Base in Harju County, Estonia. Usual deployments consist of four fighter aircraft with between 50 and 100 support personnel.

    The air forces of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland have also served in these rotations.

  • Poland to buy Australian frigates

    Poland is to seal a deal with Australia to purchase two new frigates: HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Newcastle.

    Andrzej Duda is set to visit Australia to sign the deal in the middle of August. If everything goes according to plan, the first frigate can be expected in June 2019.

    The frigates are meant to be equipped with SM-2 rockets. The range of the missiles is 160km and they will be purchased from the United States. The current negotiations with the US are being carried out by both Poland and Australia. The rockets are a key element of the deal, as they are to be the main weapon systems on board. The whole deal will cost PLN 2 billion (US$545 million).

    Training the crew shouldn’t be an issue, as the Polish navy is already in possession of similar Oliver Hazard Perry frigates. These will be retired in 5 years. The cruise of the new ships from Australia to Poland could be treated as a test run.

    Sources say the units in which Poland is interested in are 25-year-old. They were first modernized in 2008-2010. Further enhancements are not currently foreseen, though the installation of a new 3D radar is not out of the question. Polish staff officers predict that the frigates will serve 16 years in the Polish navy.

    The new ships will serve in defense of the currently being built American missile defense base in Redzikowo, Northern Poland. In the event of war, they will be able to strike targets in Russia. 

  • BMW’s Hungarian plant is symbolic

    BMW’s recent decision to build a EUR1 billion factory in Debrecen, Eastern Hungary also sends a message that goes beyond the investment’s direct economic impact.

    According to Magyar Hírlap, Hungary beat neighboring Slovakia and Romania to the investment and there are several lessons to be learned from this. But before going into that, a short detour in Hungarian automotive history is in order.

    Boros reminds us of prominent Hungarian inventors and engineers such as János Csonka, inventor of the carburettor, József Galamb, involved in the development of the Ford Model T, renowned Mercedes engineer Béla Baranyi and BMW’s Ferenc Anisits.

    During the last decades of Communism, Western car makers were already building an Eastern European presence: Renault in Romania and Fiat in the former Yugoslavia and Poland. Hungary’s first such such investment only came in 1991 when Suzuki built its plant in the northern city of Esztergom near the Slovak (then Czechoslovak) border. Audi came shortly thereafter, followed after a long delay by Mercedes.

    BMW’s presence is no doubt also explained by lower Hungarian wages which will increase the Bavarian company’s bottom line, but the investment – just as the recent news that Mercedes will double its production capacity in Hungary – also is of symbolic value. It shows that while German politics in general is critical of Hungary, their industry leaders are all too keen to invest.

    And the main morale of the story is that Western productive capital likes political and market stability, as opposed to the left-liberal jumble typical of many current Western governments. And this is especially true for traditionalist German regions such as Bavaria.  

  • Reprisal and irrelevance

    Peter Javůrek writes that Trump’s negotiation technique is fairly simple: after a unilateral cancellation of an agreement and escalating the situation the other side comes with an alternative solution.

    He adds that this technique can be successful if it is used by someone who is irreplaceable in the field of global security or world economics, ideally in a situation of one versus the other.

    From Trump’s point of view, negotiation is much easier if the European Union is atomized, making good deals is less problematic with Germany or Slovakia than with the European Union.

    The issue is whether the European Union can find an effective way of defense against the economic outcomes of Trump’s sanctions against third parties. Like in the case of Iran, because in this situation Trump’s best interest is to marginalize other factors and lock out everyone else from the negotiations.

    The new wave of sanctions against Iran affect everyone who is conducting business with the Middle Eastern country – they will be unable to do the same with the USA.

    If Europe would cede his activities with Iran despite the existing nuclear agreement, Trump would reach his goal – force other countries to follow his strategy without them even negotiating.

    The European Union has a strong geopolitical motivation to continue business, but the question is whether Europe can find an effective way of defense against Trump’s sanctions and stay united – and cannot pretend that he doesn’t need the USA when talking about security and business.

  • Swedish left may lose elections on migration issues

    Sweden’s ruling Social Democrat-Green coalition deserves to lose this autumn’s general elections because of its leniency towards immigrants while voters are increasingly aware of the drawbacks of migration, writes Magyar Idők columnist Dávid Megyeri.

    In an anecdotal story, an elderly Swedish lady recounted that while Sweden may not have taken part in World War II, the population experienced deprivations during the conflict years as there was a marked shortage of cream. This story is a good illustration of the historic fact that Sweden had last been in an armed conflict during the Napoleonic wars, hence why their measure of deprivation is on another scale.

    During World War II, Sweden supplied Nazi Germany with the steel needed for its war machine and sat back comfortably at its “Swedish buffet” as it watched the occupation of Denmark and Norway. The same submissive attitude is evident in Sweden’s actions against Hungary in the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

    Sweden recently took the European Union’s side in legal proceedings against Hungary for its law on foreign-funded NGOs. The Hungarian government responded by saying that while it is allowed and even customary for member states to enter a particular lawsuit in the CJEU, this is usually in support of a member state, not in support of the Commission.

    While Sweden’s leftist government is unable to control rampaging migrants in its own back yard, it demonstrates firm authority in the EU court. It is very likely that the Swedish government’s attempts to attract the migrant will backfire at the general elections and the next cabinet will have to renounce its strange Stockholm syndrome on migration.

    General elections in Sweden are scheduled for September 9th and the newly elected members of parliament (Ricksdag) will in turn elect the new prime minister.

  • Sziget Festival kicks off in Budapest

    The 26th Sziget Festival – one of the largest music festivals in Europe – kicks off today with the organizers hoping for a new audience record of 500,000.

    The festival is held on Óbuda Island in the middle of the Danube in the northern part of the Hungarian capital every August. From its humble beginnings of 43,000 visitors in 1993, the event reached a record audience of 496,000 in 2016. The total area is 76 hectares (188 acres).

    It is also Budapest’s main tourist attraction in the summer, together with the Formula 1 car race held in July. Organizers say the festival is also unique in that 55 percent of visitors come from abroad, unlike other major European festivals where the majority of the audience is domestic. This year the previously largest group of visitors, the Dutch, are expected to be outnumbered by the Brits.

    This year’s performers include Lykke Li, Kendrick Lamar, Bonobo, Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks, Lana del Rey, Bastille, Mumford & Sons and Liam Gallagher.

    Noise levels during the event have been a constant nuisance for nearby residents, sparking a series of lawsuits and investigations as municipality leaders try to balance the economic benefits of the event with the complaints of the locals.

    The seven-day event accounts for around 5 percent of Hungary’s guest nights in a year and besides the profit of the organizers it also adds an estimated HUF 5 billion (US$18 million) in VAT and excise duties to state coffers.

    A seven-day ticket for the event costs HUF 99,000 (US$360) while a single-day ticket HUF 23,900 (US$87). During the first festival in 1993, the same tickets were sold for HUF 1,800 and 300, respectively.

  • It’s not only Putin with political commissars

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has restored the function of so-called Politruks in the Russian Federation, which will have the task of securing the proper moral and ideological status in the army and securing discipline.

    Putin’s decision caused a wave of ridiculous reactions in the Czech media and social networks recently. However, the question of overseeing the “proper ideological and moral views” is not only in Russia. Politruks are also in the European Union, and not only in the army.

    Activities of political commissars in the Czech Republic and the EU do not exist officially, but we could look for them, for example, in the army within HR. There are a variety of training courses to promote the ideology of multiculturalism, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people) and the fight against “intolerance”. However, such behavior can also be observed at schools, police departments, government offices, or private companies.

    Very often, these trends are pointed out in the context of education. For example, Václav Klaus Jr. (ODS) is very critical of this situation. On the example of an official document of the Czech Ministry of Education, according to which pupils are, among other things, led to engagement in combating intolerance, racism and xenophobia, Klaus points to “multicultural education”.

    Like Marxism-Leninism was the state and party ideology of the Eastern Bloc, multiculturalism is the state ideology of the present Czech Republic and the EU. Nowadays, besides the Russian Federation, the European Union also has its “watchdogs of state ideology”. Although these two ideologies may be different, they have the activity of political commissars in common.

  • Spanish police failure: Inability or reluctance?

    “The events in Ceuta are another example of how we can not protect the borders of Europe even from the wacky crowd of civilians. Although we have Frontex to protect the borders, the agency works more like a travel agency on the Libya-Italy route,“ says security expert Lumír Němec.

    Němec reminded us of the recent uprisings during elections in Catalonia. In comparison to that he wondered why the police were not afraid to use tear gas or batons. “It is strange that the same police are unable to stop maddened crowd of migrants with bags of quicklime and excrement,“ he said.

    He called for the border to be defended and with the appropriate intensity necessary for the situation and also named Hungary or Israel as a good example of how borders can be successfully protected.

  • Czech industry grew 3.4 percent year-on-year

    Figures released by the Czech Statistics Office show that Czech industrial production was performing well in June, rising from 1.4 percent in May to 3.4 percent year-on-year.

    Also the manufacturing industry accelerated, although it grew at a slower pace, up 7.5 percent after the May increase of 10.1 percent. Retail sales were slightly disappointing, growing by just 2.0 percent YoY, while the 2018 average growth rate was above 5 percent.

    The growth of the industry was mainly supported by power industry and engineering. With regard to the development of contracts, analysts say the industry will also be doing well in the upcoming months. However, according to them, it will have to deal with the fact that it is hitting the cap of its capacity and lacking a workforce that is getting more expensive because of it. In June alone, the average gross monthly wage for workers in industrial enterprises with 50+ employees increased by 7.4 percent year-on-year.

    According to analysts, construction figures confirm a rather favorable trend, especially for structural engineering, where production increased by 9.6 percent in June. Regarding building construction, it was 6.7 percent higher year-on-year.

    Analysts appreciate the strengthening of housing construction, which contributes to slowing the rise in prices of new flats. On the other hand, the demand for flats will be hardly satisfied. According to Expobanka economist Jiří Schwarz, the increase of flat prices cannot be expected to stop, although the tightening of the conditions for mortgage loans by the Czech National Bank slows down the increase in their prices.

  • Babiš wants an extra visa for foreigners

    When the deputies return from their holidays in September, a new amendment to the Foreigners Law is waiting for them. According to journalist Marketa Žižková, the government’s proposal has been criticized – some even proposed a full withdrawal during interdepartmental proceedings.

    In addition, the Ministry of the Interior added to it the possibility of so-called extraordinary work visas without any discussion. “This goes against the sense of integration of foreigners, which Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and his cabinet often talk about,“ Žižková wrote.

    “Releasing of visas will be terminated in the case of the subsequent availability of Czech workers on the labor market,“ states the law. Foreigners could work in the Czech Republic for a maximum of one year and it will not be possible to extend the visa, only to request it once again.  This step would bring more simplicity to hiring of workers from selected countries and firms could also “get rid of them“ pretty quickly in the case of economic slowdown.

    “The circular migration proposed by the Ministry of the Interior in the context of extraordinary work visas is the worst possible kind of migration in terms of integration,“ the head of the Association for Integration and Migration Magda Faltová opposes. According to experts, the proposed system will also lead to foreigners remaining in the Czech Republic even after their visa ends. They will be part of the “black zone“ and work illegally.

  • Poles against discrimination of white South Africans

    In an open letter to the South African ambassador in Warsaw, Polish conservative societies criticize the recently planned amendments to the South African constitution. Motivated by worry for the lives and rights of white citizens in South Africa, they ask the ambassador to intercede in his government to stop the amendments on their behalf.

    The planned amendments abolish the need to pay compensations to owners of lands seized by the government. The South African president Cyril Ramphosa has made the campaign of land redistribution one of the key policies during his rule. The amendment will allow the government to begin a mass-seizure of white owned land in the country.

    “The world cannot be silent in the face of such audacious violation of basic human rights,” the head of the Warsaw Enterprise Institute, Tomasz Wróblewski writes on twitter.

    The world cannot be silent in the face of such audacious violation of basic human rights

    The Polish conservative societies argue that these amendments are undemocratic. They also fear that this will only fuel the already heated conflict between black and white people in South Africa. Each year dozens of white farmers are killed during raids on farmsteads and millions of white citizens leave the country in fear for their lives and families.

    The societies also warn that these actions will ruin South Africa. “As Poles, experienced in our own history, we have a moral obligation to warn you of these thoughtless acts,” they write. After the Second World War, Poland’s communist government also seized land without compensation. The policy left hundreds of thousands in poverty and ruined the nation. Poland struggles with the consequences of those action to this day.

    The letter was signed by organizations such as the Warsaw Enterprise Institute, the Jagiellonian Institute, the Adam Smith Centre and the KoLiber Association.

  • The Baltic Pipe is ready to roll

    The Baltic Pipe system will transfer gas between Norway, Denmark and Poland. According to Gaz-System chairman Tomasz Stępień, the planning stages of the Baltic Pipe have been completed.

    Sources state that clearance is to be given by April 2020, and the aim is to finish the pipeline by the Fall of 2022, just before the end of Poland’s gas agreement with Russia.

    According to Salon24.pl, the Baltic Pipe is an ambitious project. It is meant to be made up of five elements, passing through all three participating countries. It starts with a connection between the Norwegian and Danish gas systems in the North Sea. Then, the development of the transit line in Denmark, followed by the construction of a gas compression station on the Danish island of Zealand. Finally, a pipeline between Denmark and Poland will be built and Poland’s gas transmission system developed.  

    At the end of 2017, the European Commission ratified a list of energy projects, which will allow easier access to EU funding. The Baltic Pipe appears on this list, and this additional funding will allow the completion of the project in 2022.

    The Baltic Pipe is not a new idea, as it had first been proposed by the Polish government of Jerzy Buzek in 1999-2001. However, the next government, that of Leszek Miller and the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) terminated preparations of the plans. Only recently, in 2016 during Beata Szydło’s Law and Justice (PiS) government, did the project resurface.

    The Baltic Pipe is also an opportunity to further gas transmissions to other Central and Eastern European countries. Poland is currently negotiating with its Southern neighbors the topic of developing their gas systems on a North-South route.

  • Marking three years of Duda’s presidency

    “Andrzej Duda passed the test and showed a presidency of wise compromise,” Professor Norbert Maliszewski of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University says.

    The 6th of August marked the third anniversary Andrzej Duda’s presidency. In an interview for dorzeczy.pl, Maliszewski states that Duda’s greatest success was the promotion of the Three Seas Initiative, whereas his greatest failure was the constitutional referendum.

    The Three Seas Initiative is a forum for Central and Eastern European EU members, which include countries such as Poland, Croatia, Romania and Hungary. In 2017 Poland was the host of the Three Seas summit and US President Donald Trump also attended.

    Andrzej Duda passed the test and showed a presidency of wise compromise 

    The main failure of Duda’s presidency was the idea of the constitutional referendum rejected by the Senate, argues Maliszewski. “Although the discussion about changes to the constitution itself was not a failure,” he adds.

    The wise compromises include the recent judiciary reforms. “The leaders of other countries must see, that Poland sought to compromise,” argues Maliszewski.

    Maliszewski also underlines that Duda has struggled with the government. “When the president and the prime minister come from the same political camp, contrary to popular belief, cooperation isn’t the easiest,” he said.

    Maliszewski reminds us that it was Duda who began the string of right-wing victories in Poland. Starting with his presidential victory in May 2015 and by promoting Law and Justice’s social policies during the campaign.

    As to why the opposition continuously accuses Duda of being a Law and Justice (PiS) president, Maliszewski explains that his opponents see him as a member of a particular political group. The opposition’s aim is to belittle Duda.

    In truth, everyone could see his struggles with the Law and Justice government and Duda’s presidency is aimed at helping not only PiS voters, but also those of the Centre.

  • Slovakia’s Airbnb tourism is booming

    The number of tourists using Airbnb in Slovakia has increased by 108,000 and this means the biggest growth in the region among active users.

    The countries of the Visegrad Group received 2.7 million tourists in total during 2017, where nearly 36,000 owners were providing housing for visitors.

    Slovakia’s growth in yearly comparison reached 83 percent, while the Polish market grew by 70, Czech republic by 52 and Hungary by 44 percent.

    The most visitors using the services of Airbnb are coming from Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom and France. According to experts, the sudden rise of Airbnb listings is not threatening traditional hotels.

  • Völner: Sweden should mind its own business

    Pro-immigration forces are attempting to interfere in Hungarian internal affairs, Pál Völner, state minister for parliament said in response to the news that Sweden took the European Union’s side in legal proceedings against Hungary in the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

    Last December, the European Commission (EC) filed a lawsuit against Hungary for its law on foreign-funded NGOs. It was one of three lawsuits filed against the Visegrád Four group. Of the other two, one concerned Hungary’s amendments to the higher education law restricting Hungarian activities of foreign universities while the other was against the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland for refusing to participate in the resettlement of migrants.

    In the statement issued by national news agency MTI, Völner said it was already common knowledge that “foreign-funded, pro-migration organizations” have been lobbying the Swedish Embassy in Hungary in support of their own agenda.

    It would be much more appropriate if every country should concern itself with its own domestic issues. The Hungarian government’s principal concern is the safety of its own people and for that reason it is ready to stand for its opinion even in court.

    Völner said that while it is allowed and even customary for member states to enter a particular lawsuit in the CJEU, this is usually in support of a member state, not in support of the Commission. The Swedish stance is all the more puzzling given that Sweden portrays itself as “the champion of transparency” and the Hungarian law in question aims to establish exactly that.

    The law itself states that it aims to establish transparency in order to do away with the potentially negative security impact on Hungarian society stemming from outside sources of unknown origin.

     

  • Symbolic journey to Georgia

    The Polish foreign minister Jacek Czaputowicz and his counterparts from Lithuania, Latvia and Georgia – Linas Linkeviczus, Edgars Rinkevicz and Dawit Zalkaliani as well as the deputy prime minister of Ukraine Paweł Rozenka – made a journey to the border between Georgia and South Ossetia to mark the tenth anniversary of Russian aggression in Georgia.

    The journey followed the path taken by president Lech Kaczyński and leaders of the Baltic States and Ukraine during the war in 2008.

    In August 2008, Polish president Lech Kaczyński gathered leaders of the Baltic States and Ukraine. Together, they travelled to Georgia and held a joint rally in Tbilisi. In a famous speech, Kaczyński warned the world of Russian aggression. “We know very well, that today it’s Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after the Baltic States and then the time will come for my country, Poland!,” he said.

    We know very well, that today it’s Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after the Baltic States and then the time will come for my country, Poland!

    Lech Kaczyński died in a plane crash in Smoleńsk, Russia in April 2010.

    Last year, former Polish foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski visited Tbilisi twice as part of the Eastern Partnership of Tbilisi. This partnership includes cooperation in terms of economy, international security and human assets.

    In August 2008 a military conflict between Russia and Georgia over control of South Ossetia erupted. Georgia aimed to reclaim the lands which Russia had helped tear away from Tbilisi in the nineties. In response, the Russians entered not only South Ossetia but also further into Georgian territory.

  • Hungarian traitors’ days are numbered

    While media reports continue over increasing national safety, growing prosperity and a good overall mood of the population, there is still a loud and angry minority that takes every opportunity to denigrate its own homeland.

    According to Magyar Hírlap, they keep shouting that the country is small, but the dictatorship is looming and they do this mostly abroad.

    “The likes of Péter Niedermüller, István Ujhelyi, Csaba Molnár, Tibor Szanyi and all the others who denounce and defame Hungary at every turn are simply traitors,” Dippold wrote.

    They are seemingly impervious to the contradiction that if this were a dictatorship – as there was indeed one from 1945 to 1990 – they would long ago have been made to disappear by the ÁVO (reference to Communist Hungary’s infamous Stalinist-era secret service). These same traitors keep claiming that there is no migration crisis, hence there is no need to speak about one.

    Indeed, there is no migration crisis in Hungary. And that is because Hungarian leaders have been quick to acknowledge the danger, built a fence on the southern border protecting both ourselves and – just as importantly – a European Union that considers itself superior.

    Brussels bureaucrats swallow the lies of Niedermüller and ilk have not yet realized the danger represented by the pampered gangs of aggressive people brought in from the East and South.

    Small Hungary has, however, fostered through masterful diplomacy the Visegrád Four Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) which has grown into a medium power in Europe. And as liberal Western Europe wakes up to the truths upheld by Hungary since 2015, the above-mentioned traitors will deservedly lose their MP seats next year. 

  • Drowning migrants could be saved by simply stopping their boats

    The Australian government faced heavy criticism four years ago when the local authorities targeted immigrants with an advertisement stating “No way. You will not make Australia your home. Any vessel seeking to illegally enter Australia will be intercepted and safely removed beyond Australian waters,” a statement read.

    Despite the radical measures the solution worked, the level of immigration in Australia is the lowest in ten years while 72 percent of the population is supporting Malcom Turnbull, the country’s Prime Minister’s immigration policy. Jim Molan, who was also involved in creating the policy claimed that Europeans are thinking, it is easy for Australia to control its borders. “However they are finding excuses for not doing anything,” he said.

    Meotti claims that Italy, after changing the government is starting to apply the Australian approach on its maritime borders. The concept of applying a method, which is already successfully implemented elsewhere is the best way to deal with illegal migration.

    A delegation from the European Union already visited Australia last year studying the methods of the Manus Regional Processing Center in Papua New Guinea, while Italy is directly implementing the strategy in Lybia despite the objections of international organizations, such as François Crepeau, the U.N. special rapporteur on migrant human rights. However, ensuring that the immigrants don’t die on the seas is the opposite of cruel – it is humane.

  • Will the Slovak President fall amid kidnapping scandal?

    Peter Pellegrini’s government is facing a serious crisis after it turned out that the former Slovak Minister of Interior, Robert Kaliňák could be involved in the kidnapping of Vietnamese businessman Trin Xuan Thanh.

    Aktuality.sk reminds us that Kiska is staying in office until June 2019. In the case of early elections, the head of state wouldn’t be able to continue his career as leader of a party. In May, the president stated that he won’t leave politics after his mandate ends. Kiska’s exact plans are unclear, according to analysts the politician could form a new party, alternatively unite existing, smaller liberal-right parties such as Progresivne Slovensko and Spolu.

    An early election negates the possibility of the president’s direct involvement in any kind of campaign. Roman Krpelan, the spokesperson of the presidential office, stated that Kiska’s plans are unchanged and the politician will announce his long-term plans to the public in November.

    According to media sources, Kiska is considering several options. The president could in theory openly support a political party but cannot get personally involved in the election campaign. According to political analyst Tomáš Koziak, the case of presidential resignation is very unlikely as well as founding a party without his direct involvement in the early stages. In any case, Kiska’s political rivals on the right are content with the current situation.

  • Hungarian Air Force gets state-of-the-art business jet

    The Hungarian air fleet has been complemented with a Dassault Falcon F7X business jet which will also be able to carry out courier and transport missions, Colonel Jenő Szénási, department head at the Ministry of Defence said.

    This new addition comes shortly after the delivery of an Airbus A319 in February and is in line with the requirements of the Hungarian military doctrine laid out in a 2005 joint document of the five ministries involved. The doctrine specifies that the Armed Forces is responsible for the transport and protection of select state leaders.

    Previous, larger military transport and cargo planes are also able to fulfill this role, albeit at significantly higher operational and maintenance costs. The FX7, on the other hand, is ideally suited for this task at considerably lower costs and over larger distances.

    The three-engine FX7 has a range of 11,000 kilometres at a cruising speed of Mach 0.8 and can take off and land on relatively short runaways of 1,700 meters.

    The Ministry did not provide any financial details of the deal.

     

  • Living standards improve in Hungary

    Due to rising real wages and stable prices an increasing proportion of Hungarians can spend more on daily items and can afford to make longer-term plans, according to Magyar Idők.

    Average incomes are rising and the number of the deprived has fallen. By 2016, the number of those deprived dropped to 1.3 million compared with 2.7 million in 2012. The country has a population of 9.8 million. “Deprived” means people who cannot come with unexpected expenditures, are late in paying their bills and loans, cannot afford an annual vacation, eat meat at least every second day and heat their dwellings to a comfortable temperature.

    The largest problem in Hungary is that in 2012, 7.3 million people said they would be unable to cover unplanned expenses. In 2016, this number was 3 million – still a high one, but a vast improvement compared with the previous figure.

    Economist Magdolna Csath said only savings allow people to cover unexpected costs and these savings increase as wages grow and debts fall, adding that the improvement also comes from gradually improving financial knowledge and the planning ability that comes with it.

    Tamás Éder, president of the Hungarian Meat Industry Association said that over the past four years the number of those saying they cannot afford to eat meat every second day has fallen by 700,000. He said a contributing factor to this was the reduction of pork meat VAT to 5 percent in 2016.

    Katalin Kardosné Gyurkó, president of the National Association of Large Families said the improvement also shows in other areas of consumption. More and more people can afford to buy new clothes or household appliances in a planned manner instead of struggling to replace worn ones. She also said that since the introduction of free textbooks a family with many children can save as much as HUF 50,000 (US$180) at the beginning of the school year.

  • Is a covered face a security risk?

    “For less attentive readers, it should be pointed out that the ban refers only to the wearing of, for example, a niqab in public (!!!), in private Muslims (but everyone else) can still wear what they want,“ Kolman wrote. He added that it is absurd to complain that anyone is dictating what people can and can not wear.

    Kolman noted that France is a pioneer in such prohibitions. He also mentioned some of the positives of the ban. He first pointed to the security aspect, because face cover de facto makes it impossible to identify the hidden individual. He sees the second benefit in the possibility of higher social interactions.

    “When someone’s face is covered, we hear his or her voice, but the rest of the communication is definitely horrible. This can cause not only misunderstanding, but also a non-conforming experience for the uncovered rest of the population,” Kolman wrote.

    In the end, Kolman recalled the European Court of Human Rights ruling on similar French laws, saying they did not oppose the protection of human rights.

  • Hundreds of thousands of refugees on welfare

    According to IAB, there is no evidence that the influx of refugees has led to a decline in German wages. However, as reported by the Deutsche Welle news station, job statistics work only on nationality and do not take into consideration whether the employee is a refugee.

    The political party Alternative fur Deutschland therefore wanted to know from the government how many refugees are taking German minimum social benefits, Hartz IV. The government has announced that this means approximately 1.6 million people out of a total of 5.9 million recipients. In the previous 12-month period, it was 1.36 million people.

    In this context, it highlighted the criticism against the refugees and the negative attitude towards them. In 2017, there were five attacks on refugees per day on average.

  • Why do terrorists not attack the Czech Republic?

    The Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) has recently published a study about countries that are most often targets of terrorist attacks. While in Portugal or Switzerland the risk is minimal, in Germany, France or Britain, the risk is steeply rising. Why is that so?

    Robert Simox from the Heritage Foundation believes that we should pay attention to the size of the Muslim population in the individual countries.

    “When you look for example on Switzerland, Ireland, Portugal and Norway, you will find that there are roughly half a million Muslims living in these four countries. On the contrary, put together the UK, Germany and France. There are almost thirty times more Muslims in these states,“ Simox said.

    In some countries, there are more people who can be approached by the Islamic State and pose a potential threat. Professor Jonathan Laurence of Boston University also agrees with this. However, according to him, the problem is deeper.

    “It depends whether there is the second or even the third generation of the original migrants in these countries. In such an environment, a subculture can develop that will want to fight for IS. Moreover, there is the problem of those who “convert” to Islam and join the terrorist forces. Such people do not convert for the sake of religion, but rather for the political point of view. Therefore, it cannot be said that when a person is a Muslim, then he or she must be a terrorist,” says Laurence. Both France and the United Kingdom have also actively participated in military retaliation against the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, which may play its part.

    “Violence will cause another wave of violence (…) But honestly, it is in the hands of those countries. If they stop interfering with foreign affairs, violence in their territory can be avoided altogether,” concludes Trevor Thrall, a Cato Institute member and professor at George Mason University.

  • Three Czech soldiers killed in suicide attack in Afghanistan

    A suicide bomb killed three Czech soldiers on patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, the deadliest assault on NATO troops for many months.

    According to The New York Times, the bomber was young, about 18-years-old and the attack was claimed by the Taliban.

    The repatriation of the remains of the killed soldiers will take place on Wednesday, and President Milos Zeman promised to attend the ceremony.

    Defence Minister Lubomír Metnar said a staff sergeant and two corporals had died in the explosion. He said their deaths had touched him deeply and expressed condolences to their families.

    PM Andrej Babiš along with many other politicians (for example Czech Prezident Milos Zeman or Chairman of the CSSD and Foreign Minister Jan Hamacek) paid tribute to the three Czech soldiers, hailing them as “heroes”. “I respect what they did for our country. I am sending my deepest condolences to their families,” he tweeted.

    Thirteen Czech soldiers have been killed on duty in Afghanistan serving in NATO’s Resolute Support mission. There are some 250 Czech troops serving in the country at present.

  • Anti-Catholic pop culture

    Weronika Kostrzewa writes that the attacks on the Church in Poland are nothing new. The communist regime have already accomplished so much in that regard. Today however, these attacks have taken a different form – they have become rooted in pop culture.

    Although Poland comes across as a deeply Catholic country, there is a substantial anti-Catholic movement at large in the liberal arts and media. Jokes and provocations that once would have been outrageous are now more commonplace in society, writes Kostrzewa for Rzeczpospolita.

    “Streets named after Pope John Paul II can be found in almost every Polish town. Ninety-two percent of Polish society are, at least theoretically, members of the Catholic Church. Christian values are written into the Polish Constitution and Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki has admitted to dreaming of a re-Christianized Europe.”

    But is Catholicism’s position in Poland that strong?,” asks Kostrzewa. “Anti-Catholicism has become trendy.”

    In “the Voice of Poland”, one of Poland’s most famous talent shows, one of the members of the jury is Nergal. The front man of the Behemot heavy metal band has called the Catholic Church “the greatest criminal cult”, the Holy Bible “the book of lies” and has torn pages from the book and thrown them to the audience screaming “eat this sh*t”. “And Nergal is only the tip of the iceberg,” says Kostrzewa.

    These performances can also be found in theatre. A play titled “Klątwa” (the Curse) caused controversy by defiling holy images such as the cross or images of John Paul II. Father Paweł Rytel Adrianik, the spokesman of the Polish episcopate, said that demeaning the image of John Paul II is “particularly hurtful for Poles.”

    One of the recent hot topics in Poland are the rights to abortion. There were acts of vandalism committed against the Catholic Church by the supporters of pro-abortionist movements. Signs such as “Murderers of women!” or “This is my body. This is my blood. Hands off!” had been written on churches.

    “It isn’t the number or the intensity of the attacks that are the biggest issue. It is religious society getting used to them, ignoring them and eventually allowing them that is,” concludes Kostrzewa.

     

  • Tribute to Macierewicz

    The weekend saw Law and Justice celebrations on the occasion of Antoni Macierewicz’s seventieth birthday. One of the guests was Law and Justice president Jarosław Kaczyński. The PiS leader praised Macierewicz and said he is a man who believed in Poland from his youngest years. “Antoni from the very beginning decided to serve his homeland. And in a different way than many imagined.”

    Amongst Macierewicz’s accomplishments, Kaczyński highlighted his activity in the Workers’ Defense Committee (KOR), which he co-founded. KOR was an organization meant to help the prisoners and their families of the June 1976 anti-communist protests. “It was an act of extraordinary bravery,” Kaczyński said.

    Kaczyński also praised Macierewicz’s work on the Smoleńsk plane catastrophe of April 2010, in which Polish President Lech Kaczyński and ninety-five other Polish officials died. Kaczyński criticized Civic Platform politicians who wanted the Smoleńsk issue to be forgotten. “It wasn’t forgotten and is remembered to this day, thanks to Antoni,” he added.

    Kaczyński also referred to Antoni Macierewicz’s Catholic values and commended him on combining the best of the political traditions of the Second Polish Republic.

    On a final note, Kaczyński added that Macierewicz is in excellent physical condition. As proof he showed a video of Macierewicz doing a backflip into a swimming pool. In his younger years, Macierewicz trained in diving.

    Antoni Macierewicz was born on the 3rd of August, 1948 in Warsaw. He was a member of anti-communist opposition and a cofounder of KOR. He was also a member of “Solidarity” and co-created the strike committee of the Gdańsk Shipyards in 1981 when Martial Law was introduced by general Wojciech Jaruzelski. He was then imprisoned for several months, escaped from prison and went into hiding for several years.

    After the fall of communism, he was the interior minister between 1991 and 1992, vice minister of national defense from 2006 to 2007 and minister of national defense between 2015 and 2018.

    He oversaw the first parliamentary attempt to reveal communist secret agents in 1992. Then, in 2006 he liquidated post-communist military intelligence (WSI) and created new intelligence and counterintelligence agencies.

     

  • The world according to Roger Waters

    At recent concerts in Krakow and Gdańsk, Roger Waters, the lead singer of Pink Floyd, used the opportunity to get political. On a large screen behind the stage he showed phrases such as “free the courts” or “konstytucja!” (constitution!), slogans commonly used by anti-government protesters in Poland.

    There was also a list of “neo-fascists” which included names such as Donald Trump and Nigel Farage, as well as Jarosław Kaczyński and Viktor Orbán. This is not a precedent at his concerts, as Waters is well-known for propagating his world view during performances.

    Another controversial slogan was used in Krakow, the city closely related to late Pope John Paul II. “Resist the unholy alliance between church and state everywhere, but particularly in Poland.”

    Waters was most critical of American President Donald Trump, whose controversial tweets and comments showed up on the screen during the song “Pigs”. At the end of the song the words “Trump is a pig” were shown.

    The sign “Resist Israeli anti-Semitism” also draws attention to itself, referring to the ongoing struggle between Israel and Palestinians.

    At the end of the concert in Gdańsk, during the song “Comfortably Numb”, Waters went up on stage dressed in a shirt with the word “Konstytucja!”

    Marcin Makowski, a journalist from “Do Reczy” weekly magazine comments on twitter: “I love Pink Floyd. I was brought up listening to their music. It is better, however, when musicians don’t try to pretend they know something about politics. Kurz, Kaczyński, Orban, Trump as neo-fascists? There are a thousand ways to define them, but fascism is not the right one.”

  • Seuso murder investigation suspended

    Police have suspended the investigation into Hungary’s arguably most notorious art crime, the killing of József Sümegh, Magyar Hírlap reported.

    The Seuso (also spelled Sevso) treasure is a hoard of 14 silver objects from the late Roman Empire, discovered in Hungary by Sümegh – then a young soldier – in 1975 or 1976 near the town of Polgárdi, some 80 kilometers southwest of Budapest.

    Sümegh’s dead body was found in a nearby cellar in 1980. The official investigation at the time determined that he had committed suicide, but later the police came to the conclusion that he had been killed and the investigation into his murder remained active until now.

    The first objects were offered for sale by an Austrian art dealer in London in 1980 and eventually what is believed to be the complete set of 14 pieces was purchased by a consortium led by Spencer Compton, 7th Marquess of Northampton.

    Seuso Treasure

    The Hyppolitus set

    After a long and convoluted legal and bargaining process – also involving Croatia, who claimed that the treasure was originally discoverd in what was then Yugoslavia around 1960 on the Istrian peninsula –  Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán announced on 26th of March, 2014 that half of the Seuso Treasure (seven items) had been returned to Hungary, for a sum of €15 million.

  • A dangerous precedent

    As part of the ongoing struggle for judiciary reforms in Poland, the Supreme Court had turned to the European Court of Justice for help in determining the validity of the government’s new laws. These laws force judges of the Supreme Court to retire when they have reached the age of sixty-five, as opposed to the previous seventy.

    The Court has also frozen the laws, by using an injunctive order, a dangerous precedent in Polish law-making, write the authors of dziennik.pl, quoting law experts. This implies that any court, even a regional one, could block any law in the country.

    Experts are in agreement that the Supreme Court has gone a step too far. Professor Maciej Gutowski, a lawyer says that the decision to use the injunctive order to freeze the new laws is debatable. “The injunctive order is meant to help the parties of proceedings, not the public interest,” he said.

    In response to the question of whether any judge in any court in Poland should be able to block any regulation, Michał Laskowski, the Supreme Court’s spokesman stated that it would be difficult for him to answer such a complicated question. He did say, however, that such an interpretation “was possible”.

    “That would be the rule of lawyers, not the rule of law,” vice minister of Justice, Michał Warchoł responds.

    Krystian Markiewicz, the chairman of the association of Polish judges “Iustitia” defends the Supreme Court. He argues that the idea that ordinary court judges could freeze a law is possible only in theory. As to the actions of the Supreme Court itself, he states that a good law should be flexible, so that it can be used in unforeseen situations. He claims that the SC has found itself in such a situation.

    “So what if the ECJ would agree with the Supreme Court and state that the new law is illegal, if it’s already been set in motion?”

  • Jihadist and opinion terror kills our traditional values

    Opinion terror coupled with jihadist terrorism are destroying European culture, traditions, faith and our very selves, MagyarHírlap columnist Mariann Őry said in an opinion piece. She said we still have in idealistic image of a Europe of free speech, soaring intellect where the progress is guaranteed by the respect of knowledge and experience coulped with the capacity for renewal.

    This, however, may no longer apply, Őry says. “Innovation is lagging in Europe, freedom of speech is being trampled and even the conditions for our continent’s security are no longer present,” she said.

    She referred to an article by French philosopher Chantal Delsol in Le Figaro, in which Delsol said that since the end of World War II immigration has been the most vital and troublesome issue in Europe, but an open debate is practically impossible in Western Europe. Opinion terror has reached a point where anyone who dares to question the “open arms policy” towards migration is immediately branded as non-pc (politically correct), and leading European figure such as Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron only act against immigration in order to silence their “populist” opponents.

    But the core of Őry’s story was a recent British story about a policeman who asked legal advice on dealing with a paedophile. The suspect – a 26-year-old Iranian man in a relationship with a 12-year-old girl – said that in his culture this was an accepted thing. So in his counfusion, the policeman, istead of enforcing the law asked for legal assistance. Őry says “while we cannot exclude that said officer was simply stupid, it is much more likely that his actions where dictated by fear of opinion terrorists and of being branded racist.”

    Őry concludes that instead of just decrying this state of affairs we should do everything in our power to safeguard Europe.

     

     

  • Soros is meddling with Hungarian media policy

    Billionaire financier George Soros is interfering with Hungarian media policy, it has been claimed.

    According to Magyar Idők, ruling party Fidesz hit out in a statement in response to allegations made by international journalists’ organization Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) regarding the takeover of HirTV.

    The Fidesz statement said RSF is sponsored by Soros and is part of his network of migration supporters. A statement released on Friday by RSF said that it “condemns Hungarian TV news channel HirTV’s acquisition by a friend of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as the latest step in a takeover of the country’s media by Orbán and his ruling national-conservative Fidesz party”.

    Magyar Idők said that RSF, which never raises its voice when conservative journalists in Hungary are sacked, reacted immediately when Hungarian news channel HírTV changed ownership last week and was being repositioned along its original conservative values.

    The conservative takeover of HírTV and the sacking of its recent iconic faces has been the biggest upheavel in Hungarian media history. The Magyar Idők article also said that sponsors of RSF – a Paris-based NGO with consultative rights in the United Nations – includes the Soros’ Open Society Institute, which is a stark opponent of the Hungarian government.

    Conservative politicians said the previous owner of HírTV, Lajos Simicska, a former ally of prime minister Viktor Orbán who declared “all-out media war” on the government in 2015, robbed conservative viewers of their television and put leftist liberal journalists on screen. Yet at that time RSF did not protest.    

     

  • Polish historian: Soros is playing with fire

    The United States may be the world’s leading power but is itself confused and marred by internal divisions, Polish historian Marek Jan Chodakiewicz said in an interview with Magyar Idők.

    He said billionaire financier George Soros is putting a lot of his own money into creating a world of his own making.

    “Unlike many of his critics and opponents, Soros devotes money to create a world envisioned by him and does not do so spending other people’s money,” Chodakiewicz said. He added that over past 30 years Soros has spent in excess of US$3 billion on stoking revolutions in the former Soviet bloc, legalizing marijuana in the United States and influencing law enforcement and the judicial system.

    “He believes these will lead to reforms that aim to create an open society. But I think he is playing with fire.”

    Chodakiewicz contributed to Donald Trump’s Warsaw speech delivered on July 6th, 2017. He has been accused of anti-Semitism for his participation but said the whole issue blew over very quickly, probably because he didn’t react to the accusations.

    He also said that the United States is interested in having a stable, peaceful and prosperous Europe. For this reason, he said, the presence of U.S. troops is reassuring.

    “The NATO and American military presence in Europe is a sort of insurance policy for the host countries, assuring that if U.S. military installations or troops are in danger, the United States will intervene immediately”.

     

     

  • Kurz’s Austria could be the pillar of a new European structure

    Jan Koukal has said that the Austrian presidency beginning in June will not change the general direction of the European Union but several rational steps would mean a problem for the Brussels administrative.

    “The evidence for this is the hateful commentary of former president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz. He is a typical representative of the arrogant politicians who still control the steering wheels of the Union Politics and the needs and interests of the European people are marginal for them,” Koukal told parlamentnelisty.sk.

    The former ambassador thinks that the results of the elections in Austria, Hungary and Italy are showing that Schulz, Merkel and Macron are losing their support and the European Union could change.

    Koukal believes that Schulz and Merkel will not change their initial directions and principles, while Austria has a plan on how to handle the migration crisis.

    Koukal thinks that Kurz is a pragmatic and consistent politician and the overture of Austria and the countries of the Visegrad Four is based on geopolitical logic which is motivated by standing on their own feet on important issues in Central Europe and creating a balance between Berlin and Paris.

  • Brexit: To fake an agreement

    The chief editor of Euractiv.sk recalls that only eight months remain to the date of the British secession from the EU. London and Brussels still need to sign an agreement regarding exact divorce conditions in a very limited time.

    Theresa May was able to present her vision in a recent White paper, which can be seen as an alternative between the political logic of Brexit and the economic logic of the British and European market. It creates an opportunity to remain in economic cooperation but at the same time provides space to create individual business agreements. It also helps to avoid the economical succession of Northern Ireland. All of these elements are representing a problem for the European Union for different reasons.

    While the positions of the two sides are clearly incompatible, the solution is impossible without a withdrawal. If May steps back it is even possible that the Eurosceptic MPs of the British parliament will block any kind of agreement, which would mean a political and economic nightmare for both sides.

    According to Geist, a small change in negotiations is clearly visible. The European Union is softening its position regarding the methods while the principles are unchanged. The journalist, referring to the Financial Times, says that the Union will be content with a “faked” agreement on future relations, which would mean a general declaration about Brexit. This kind of an agreement will say nothing directly about the nature of the economic cooperation and foggy formulation could be interpreted by both sides in their favor. It is not something that will please the supporters of hard Brexit, but it is enough to create a temporary agreement, Geist concludes.

  • Absurd debate on migration

    According to conservative commentator Tomský, the prime minister’s speech is not only addressed to citizens, but also to the EU and the Italians.

    He points out what caused an open border policy and that accepting only a small number of migrants would mean agreeing to this disastrous policy.

    According to Tomský, this problem is illustrated, for example, by a recent incident that occurred in the Spanish city of Ceuta, where the city fortification was breached by eight hundred refugees from sub-Saharan Africa. Local police do not have the right to force the refugees out of EU soil, despite the fact that they are not asylum seekers but economic migrants who should be sent back.

    Tomský thinks that instead of importing people to Europe, smuggling ships should be turned and taken back to the waters of the African continent before docking at the shores of the Union. But that does not happen and the Western countries are to be blamed. They use international treaties and commitments as excuses.

    Tomský calls the open border policy to be suicidal and society disrupting. “Scandinavia, for example, once had almost zero criminality, nowadays, it has the highest criminality in Europe, and to hell with subsidies, they are hellish indeed from the economic point of view. Why risk raping of women, attacks on Jews and homosexuals, as the Western media almost daily inform?,” he asks. Finally, he points out that we should do our best to help, but not at the expense of the people closest to us.

  • Europe will have three groups of countries within a decade, says President Macron

    According to Emmanuel Macron, Europe will have three groups of countries within a decade. The first will include the EU countries and the surrounding nations, including Russia and Turkey. This group will be less integrated than the EU, but Macron expects peace from the inclusion of Russia and Turkey.

    The Czech Republic will probably be in the second group of countries. These are the Member States that have not adopted the euro. And as far as the third group of countries is concerned, France will have the main say, it will be a progressive, integrated group, which will actually be a single country.

    Macron’s thoughts remind Pikora of Napoleon’s vision of Europe. Next to such a “grand and naive” view of Europe, Pikora identifies a completely different perspective, represented, for example, by Hungary, which wants to revert to the traditional values of national countries and to step on the brakes regarding multiculturalism. The European elections will decide which perspective will win.

    As in America, Europe is now struggling for so-called liberal democracy, which is a meaningless term, because non-liberal democracy is contradictory. “In blunt terms, it’s just a fight for multiculturalism”, although the defenders of liberal democracy, such as Macron, refuse to call it by the proper name.

    However, a greater opposition against France has been forming, with Poland, Austria and Italy in it in addition to Hungary. The Czech Republic and Slovakia are still undecided. The Czech Republic has no independent Foreign Affairs Minister, let alone an autonomous foreign policy.

    “Eventually, we’ll have to take sides with someone, because there will be nothing in between. It will be unpleasant. But in any case, I think it would be foolish to betray the V4,” Pikora says.

  • ANALYSIS: French multicultural illusions demolish Muslim attacks on Jews

    The largest problem with the situation is that, according to published statistics, attacks have been undertaken by the “French”. The problems stem from the government’s decision that the perpetrators of anti-Semitic attacks, during which a number of Jews have been killed in recent years, will not be specified. This decision is closely related to the French dream of a multicultural country where people are not divided by race, roots, or religion, and are all equal before the law.

    In the spring, the prominent newspaper Le Figaro commented on the subject. “New anti-Semitism in today’s France is Muslim anti-Semitism. But this is not said because people are afraid of branding Muslims or unleashing a wave of Islamophobia,” it stated. A few weeks after publication, 250 French citizens signed a declaration condemning the new anti-Semitism, as according to them, Islamic radicalization is behind it.

    Signatories include Nicolas Sarkozy, three former prime ministers, professors, intellectuals, actors, as well as Muslims. The declaration also states that there is a “silent ethnic purge” in the country that the media does not talk about. According to some, these accusations are exaggerated, and while there is a lot of debate on this topic, Jews continue to face waves of aggression from the growing Muslim population.

  • The Czech economy overheats

    Companies are facing a significant shortage of employees. At present, employers have more than 300,000 vacancies, compared to 224,000 people who are unemployed.

    Inflation is currently another significant problem that the Czech National Bank (CNB) has been facing in the past several months. In June, its value was 0.7 percentage points higher than the CNB predicted, which was 2.6 percent. One reason is the rising price of oil and food, rising wages and, last but not least, weaker Czech koruna.

    The main reason why interest rates are not at a level where they should ideally be is the limitations of CNB on the part of the European Central Bank (ECB). With this policy, within which it purchases corporate and public debts, ECB keeps low interest rates in the euro area economy.

    As for other world countries and overheating, the Czech Republic has defeated Iceland, which is now second, and third being Slovenia. According to forecasts, the latter should skip the ideal situation next year by 4.5 percent, replace the Czech Republic and take first place.

  • Duda’s back is against the wall

    President Andrzej Duda’s relationship with Law and Justice is not an easy one. The newest reform on electoral law in the upcoming European Parliament elections is seen as troublesome. Not only by the opposition, but also by smaller right wing parties, writes Zuzanna Dąbrowska for Rzeczpospolita.pl.

    If he does not sign it, he risks losing Law and Justice’s support in the next presidential election, she adds.

    The new reform is meant to be a tool to help Law and Justice gain more influence in Brussels. Although the reform would also increase the influence of the Civic Platform, the government’s main opposition, it would cut out the smaller formations such as Kukiz’15 from the elections. The gained support will probably be worth the criticism towards Law and Justice from both the left and the right, argues Dąbrowska.

    “As for Andrzej Duda, he can bid farewell to his dreams of political independence,” Dąbrowska adds.

    There was a time when the Kukiz’15 movement wanted to become Duda’s political backing. However, much has changed since the President declared full cooperation with Kukiz’15 over a year ago. The movement’s results in the polls have fallen significantly and that makes them a much less viable support for Duda in the upcoming elections.

    Only Law and Justice can provide that kind of political base, which is why he will have to do what the government tells him to.  

    After all, there is nothing more important for a political party than elections writes Dąbrowska. “Law and Justice look for confirmation and legitimization of their changes to the law. They need to show that their popular support is as strong as ever, even if slightly less people vote for them than in the previous election,” she concludes.

  • Immigrants, clowns and neo-Marxists mentioned in Sulík-Poliačik clash

    Sulík claims that Spain is experiencing a real attack on its borders.

    According to the politician, hundreds of immigrants with home-made weapons are forcing their way into the European Union.

    “These people are not engineers or doctors, not even people running from the war. These people are agressive predators and Europe should defend itself from them,” Sulík wrote.

    The politician warned that local authorities were instructed to avoid intervention. Sulík also pointed out that the Spanish police were willing to act in other cases, such as repressing the referendum in Catalonia.

    The politician also attacked his former party member Martin Poliačik, who allegedly stated that Europe should make the immigrants lucky. Poliačik denied the accusations on the social network and claimed that he was referring to Slovak president Andrej Kiska’s words, who made a similar statement regarding the local Roma minority and the fate of all minorities in general.

    While Poliačik addressed Sulík as a politician who acts as a “clown on German television”, the leader of the Freedom and Solidarity claimed that Poliačik’s new party, the Progressive Slovakia is based on the neo-Marxist ideology and falsely identifies itself as a true liberal party.

  • Ukrainian workers in Poland drawn to German money

    Eight out of ten Ukrainian workers are satisfied and speak positively about Polish terms of employment. However, they are becoming increasingly interested in the higher wages offered by Germany.

    “The fact that there is an influx of Ukrainian citizens into the Polish market, does not have to be a permanent phenomenon,” says a report published by the Polish Press Agency. If Germany were to open their labor market for them, they would seek better paid jobs in Germany. That is the opinion of 59 percent Ukrainians polled in Poland. 

    Only 6 percent of those polled would refuse to leave Poland.

    “This approach stems from the main reasons as to why Ukrainian citizens have decided to migrate in the first place. To them, higher salaries are key and Polish employers are in no position to compete with their German counterparts,” the report states.

    Almost three out of four Ukrainian workers, however, would like to stay in Poland for at least two to three years. The research was compiled using the responses from 303 subjects.

    According to the calculations of the National Polish Bank, there were on average nine hundred thousand Ukrainian citizens living in Poland in 2017.

    According to reports, by the end of 2018 more than two million Ukrainians will be working in Poland. Their average monthly salaries will be between PLN 2000-3000 (US$540-810). 

  • Jaruzelski’s daughter enters politics

    Monika Jaruzelska, the daughter of the last president of the communist Polish People’s Republic (PRL), is seeking entry into Polish politics. 

    Monika Jaruzelska will take part in local elections at the city council of Warsaw this fall. She is the daughter of Wojciech Jaruzelski, the last president of the communist Polish People’s Republic (PRL) and the man responsible for martial law in Poland between 1981-1983.

    “My father was the president. For now I want to be just a member of the city council,” says Monika Jaruzelska in an interview with Robert Mazurek for dziennik.pl. However, Jaruzelska does not rule out a run for parliament next year.

    Jaruzelska will be running as a city council candidate for the postcommunist formation the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). She explains she chose the party because she has always supported left-leaning organizations.

    She wants to engage in protecting the rights of people who lived in the PRL, such as the pensions of former communist soldiers and police officers who were neglected by previous governments, such as the Civic Platform.

    Jaruzelska is very critical of the past eight years of Civic Platform rule in Poland and twelve in Warsaw. Even though in last local elections in Warsaw she had voted for Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, the current mayor of Warsaw and member of the Civic Platform, she would not vote for that party again. 

    As to the Civic Platform’s criticisms of Law and Justice rule, Jaruzelska is opposed to the phenomenon of the “total opposition”.

    She cannot help but approve of Law and Justice’s social reforms, such as the government’s 500+ child benefit programme. “I’m happy for those children, who before the benefit programme were unable to spend their holidays by the sea. Now they have that opportunity. Just like children in the PRL,” she said.

  • Kiev deceives Ukrainians fighting for survival with staged litigation

    While Ukraine is facing serious social and economical problems, former president Yanukovych is being sued for treason.

    The legal process is currently being held in Yanukovych’s absence after he left the country.

    The reason for the latest delay in the judicial process is that the judge was unwilling to listen to the defense’s witnesses, instead the attorney presented the accusations. Yanukovych was also unable to provide his confession in the form of a video speech. The former president’s representatives are asking the representatives of OSCE and the UN to monitor the situation due to the possible violation of human rights.

    Yanukovych was sued in June 2017, numerous allegations were made against the politician after the Maidan protests and the fall of the former Ukrainian regime. Leonid Kravchuk, Janukovych’s predecessor previously claimed that before the protests he received an anonymous telephone call which informed him about the intentions of killing the president, possibly with the assistance of Ukrainian radicals. The clarity of the process was questioned after the Ukrainian authorities leaked to the public the testimony of Janukovych’s helicopter pilot about the former president’s escape to Russia.

    The Pravda warns that in the middle of the trial the country is facing different problems. Gas prices are rising again due to the advice of experts from the IMF. According to Mikhail Pogrebinsky, the Ukrainians are getting more discontent with the current regime but the absence of capable activists and oppositional politicians is delaying the protests.

  • Poland’s Supreme Court strikes back

    The Polish Supreme court has turned to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) with five questions concerning judicial independence as an EU law, in hopes of abolishing the Polish government’s new judiciary reforms.

    Until an answer from the ECJ has been received the Supreme Court has suspended the new regulations, which will force judges of the Supreme Court to retire at the age of 65.

    Chairman of the Constitutional Tribunal Julia Przyłębska declares that actions of the judges of the Supreme Court have no legal basis. “The judges of the Supreme Court have violated the constitution as well as the Civil Code; the Polish judiciary system does not admit the ability to suspend the practice of regulations,” Przyłębska told the Polish Press Agency.

    The Chairman explained that according to the 7th article of the Polish constitution, the Supreme Court is meant to oversee the work of civil and military courts. The Polish judiciary system does not admit the Supreme Court, or any other court the right to suspend laws. No matter from which normative act such a law comes from, including governmental bills.

    The Chancellery of the Polish President has also deemed the Supreme Court’s decision as not valid: “(…) today’s action of the Supreme Court, consisting of suspending the application of the new law on the Supreme Court, occurred without a proper legal basis and has no effects on the President or any other body.”

    Earlier this month, twenty-two Supreme Court judges over 65 years old, nearly a third of the total, were forced into early retirement. There has been opposition to the regulations as some have refused to go. Including chief justice Małgorzata Gersdorf who remains adamant that her constitutional term does not expire until 2020.

    A measure signed into law by the Polish president Andrzej Duda gives the Law and Justice (PiS) government authority to choose the next head of the Supreme Court. In response, protests were held across Poland including both the judges in question and members of the opposition.

     

  • Croatian border guards struggle with supporters of migration

    Croatian border guards are facing the same problems Hungary did a few years ago when it first attempted to stem the inflow of migrants. Despite the society’s overwhelming support for the defense of national borders, migrant-huggers continue to undermine the work of law enforecement authorities.

    888.hu pointed out that Croation online media outlet national.hr published an extensive article on the Croatian “Dobrodošli” (Welcome) movement that aims to settle migrants in the country. They consist of several hundred smaller groups, whose main activity is to denigrate the work of the police and border guards, going against the overall population’s positive view of their work.

    The article says that members of the movement falsely accuse the border guards of mistreating and even sexually abusing migrants and call on them to disobey their orders.

    Croatia lies south of Hungary and it is struggling to shore up its southern border with Bosnia in an attempt to halt the inflow of migrants through the South Balkans route.

    Croatia currently has 350 asylum seekers, the majority located in two refugee centers: Zagreb’s Dugave district and in the central Croatian town of Kutina. Since Croatia established its asylum system in 2004, 560 people have been granted some form of international protection, about 100 of whom have since left the country.

  • Mária Schmidt: The EU wishes to erase Hungarian identity

    The European Union wants to erase Hungarian identity in the name of democracy, Mária Schmidt told Le Monde.

    The historian, museum director and former advisor to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Hungarians live in a democratic country and have not for a minute forgotten the value of democracy. She added that thirty years ago the country again took its fate into its own hands in order to freely define the values that it wishes to adhere to.

    “For this reason, it is especially revolting that some people – more often than not present or past leftists and Communists – falsely depict Hungarian democracy as a dictatorship,” Schmidt said.

    She said Hungary needs no lessons from those who have never experienced the harsh realities of a Communist dictatorship and who never really wanted to find out what Socialism really looks like, fearing that the truth would jumble their nicely constructed utopian dream world. Schmidt said that when Communism fell, Hungarians were full of illusions about Western Europe but ultimately were left disappointed.

    “There was no magnanimity, no new Marshall-plan. They purchased wholesale our markets and state services. They treated us like we have somehow been defeated,” she said.

     

  • Ukraine bashes Hungary for so-called “interference”

    The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has handed a protest note to the acting Hungarian chargé d’affairs in Kiev.

    László Csaba Pap was handed the note for what Ukraine regards as Hungary’s inteference and hostility.

    According to Magyar Idők, Hungary has recently appointed István Grezsa as ministerial commissioner for the development of Subcarpathia and the development of Hungarian nurseries in the Carpathian basin.

    The Subcarpathian region of Ukraine – currently home to some 160,000 ethnic Hungarians – has been part of the Hungarian Kingdom and subsequently the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but since the closing stages of WWI has in turn been part of the West Ukrainian National Republic, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the independent Republic of Carpato-Ukraine and after world war two was a province of the Ukrainian SSR, until the breakup of the Soviet Union.

    The region lies northeast of Hungary and its ethnic Hungarian population represents just over 12 percent of the total population of the Zakarpattia Oblast. Hungary has to various degrees assisted ethnic Hungarian minorities in the Carpathian basin since its regime change in 1989 but a more consistent aid policy has been established by the government of Viktor Orbán since 2010.

    The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that the appointment of the ministerial commissioner whose title includes the name of a Ukrainian region is interference in the state’s internal affairs. It also protested against Orbán’s speech on July 28 in Tusványos, Transylvania in which he said that Ukraine’s EU and NATO membership aspirations are unrealistic. Ukraine interpreted this as a sign that Hungary chose a path of confrontation instead of cooperation.

    István Grezsa told Magyar Idők that the Ukrainian allegations are totally unfounded and that Hungary has always sought cooperation with the Ukrainian authorities.

    Tamas Menczer added that Ukraine is unable to make progress in the process of accession to the European Union and NATO through its own fault and Hungary has nothing to do with it.

  • Oscar-winner István Szabó to direct new movie

    Hungary’s arguably most famous film director István Szabó will begin shooting a new movie this September, news site Origo reported.

    Szabó – the first Hungarian director to win an Oscar – received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1981 for his movie Mephisto, an adaptation of Klaus Mann’s eponymous novel starring Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer.

    The only other Hungarian director to receive an Oscar was László Nemes, whose Son of Saul won the award in 2015. Both award-winning movies dealt with some aspect of the Nazi regime.

    Pál Sándor

                                                              Pál Sándor

    Szabó will for the first time team up with the second greatest director of his generation, Pál Sándor who will be the producer together with Attila Tőzsér.

    Sándor has only made four movies in contrast to Szabó’s 40 plus feature and television films, but all of his work has reached cult status over the years and his 1976 film A strange role (Herkulesfürdői emlék) won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

    Origo said Szabó’s new movie, Final Report will portray a retired medical professor seeking new meaning to life in his twilight years. The production was awarded a state grant of HUF 561.8 million (US$2 million) from the National Film Fund and is expected to be released next year.

  • Who is Prime Minister Viktor Orbán?

    In 2010, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s revival of Hungary began. He had a new constitution and electoral system, he seized control of the justice and the media, and convinced the prime ministers of neighboring post-communist countries to rebel against Brussels and to promote anti-immigration policy.

    “I have replaced the failed liberal democracy with Christian democracy of the 21st century that guarantees people dignity, freedom and security,” Havlingerová said, describing PM Orbán’s politics with his own words from a recent post-election speech.

    The author also points out that political commentators immediately criticized Orbán for joining autocrats like Putin. Similarly, he is criticized by EU leaders. But according to Havlingerová, Orbán relates the criticism of his person to the entire Visegrád Group.

    “Western countries of the European Union are critical of the Visegrád countries, as the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia are successful. In spite of this criticism, the V4 countries intend to continue to defend from illegal migration and protect their culture,” she said, citing Orbán’s words.

  • Migrants overtake Germany

    At present, people with migrant roots make up 23.6 percent of the 82 million people in Germany, that’s 19.3 million people. The year-on-year increase in these numbers was recorded at 4.4 percent.

    Compared to previous years, there is also an increase in the number of people with migrant roots who do not have German citizenship. They accounted for 42 percent of the total number in 2011, compared to 49 percent in the previous year, that’s almost half.

    More than 77 percent of people with migrant roots have moved to Germany, with more than 14 percent having a link to Turkey, almost 11 percent to Poland, over 7 percent to Russia, 6 percent to Kazakhstan, and less than 5 percent to Romania.

  • Babiš is the most popular Czech politician, but receives his worst result since 2014

    Andrej Babiš, the leader of ANO, still remains the most popular politician, with 47 percent of the respondents giving him positive reviews in June.

    However, despite the high number, the results proved his worst since 2014, when he received support from 71 percent of respondents, according to iDNES.cz.

    Sources claim his current popularity was probably affected by the complications in the formation of the government.

    Second place was taken by Jaroslav Faltýnek, who was supported by 38 percent of the respondents, with one seventh of them stating they did not even know him.

    The leader of the Pirate Party, Ivan Bartoš came in third with 36 percent, while the leader of the populist and anti-immigrant SPD Tomio Okamura was supported by 35 percent of the respondents.

    The STEM agency pointed out that the positive ratings of all politicians were not higher than their negative ratings, so the Czech Republic does not have a politician that would be positively accepted by a majority of society.

    Miroslav Kalousek from TOP 09 came off worst in the survey and the results also found that many people do not know other members of the leading political parties, such as deputies or key figures.

  • US defense budget cites US military base in Poland

    The US Congress has just approved a 2019 defense budget law that includes reference to a US military base in Poland. The document is now awaiting approval from President Donald Trump.

    Congress has ratified its most recent defense budget law, worth $716 billion, with the addition of an amendment concerning US military disposition in Europe.

    Called the “John McCain National Defense Authorisation Act” (NDAA), it also anticipates permanent US military bases in Poland. It now needs President Donald Trump’s approval.

    The amendment calls for the Pentagon to submit their report to congressional defense committees by the 1st of March 2019. The Pentagon is to examine the effectiveness of moving such a combat team into Poland, including potential locations and the ability of Poland to host the forces. It is also set to monitor Russia’s reaction to the move.

    The amendment also asks planners to consider whether “future growth in army end strength may be used to source additional forces” in Poland.

    The force in Poland would consist of a single US brigade, which would amount to between fifteen-hundred to four thousand soldiers.

    The Polish Defense Ministry has shown willingness to pay for some of the support. According to press reports, Poland would be able to provide as much as two billion USD to support the deployment of a permanent unit.

    In the proposal, the ministry refers to “aggressive Russian actions”, such as those in Georgia in 2008 and in Ukraine in 2014. The American amendment states that “an increased U.S. permanent presence in Poland will give America the strategic flexibility it needs to confront and deter these threats”.

  • Migration schizophrenia

    The immigration policies of the European Union and Poland come across as schizophrenic because of their contradictory natures, writes Tomasz Grzegorz Grosse for nowakonfederacja.pl.

    The policies strive to achieve fundamentally different aims, which are not always what the general public wants.

    At recent Brussels summits European member states had hardened their stance on immigration. With the help of Frontex, they have decided to strengthen the EU’s borders. By creating immigration centers in Europe and hotspots in Africa, they seek to improve background checks on incoming migrants. These centers and methods are also meant to dissuade illegal immigrants. African countries are resisting this solution because they see these centers as permanent holding places for refugees.

    This is why the European Commission’s two lawsuits against Hungary come as a surprise. The first concerns the fines that Budapest imposes on organizations assisting illegal immigrants and the second addresses claims that Hungary keeps asylum seekers for long periods of time in transition camps. The contradiction here may have a political agenda, as the EU tries to pressure Prime Minister Orbán for his opposition and criticism of the European Union.

    A different example of this schizophrenia is the immigration policy of the current Polish government. On one hand, Law and Justice is well-known for its firm opposition to EU immigration and relocation policies. The main argument being the need to protect Poland from radical Islamists and the long-term dangers of a multi-cultural society.

    On the other hand, the Polish government has for many months accepted immigrants from countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh, which are predominantly Muslim. Law and Justice’s stance against EU policy may come across to Poles as solely populist because of this apparently “open-door” policy towards other Muslim countries.

    The majority of Poles do not want a high rate of immigration from foreign cultures and can see this as betrayal. This is a dangerous precedent because society’s dissatisfaction with Law and Justice may lead to the election of a much more right leaning party. 

  • BMW factory in Hungary means opportunities for Slovakia

    The new investment will create opportunities for Slovak, Hungarian and Romanian vendors, according to analyst Martin Jesný , and will test the competitiveness of companies in eastern Slovakia. Efficiency, price and quality will play a role in choosing the right vendors.

    BMW will be the third German car company with operations in Hungary and will include focus on electric cars, which strengthens the country’s position in the car manufacturing industry in the long run. Slovak car factories, unlike the Hungarian plants, are focusing on more traditional automobiles. The industrial park in Haniska, prepared and offered by Slovakia to BMW, is fundamentally similar to the industrial location in Debrecen selected by Hungary and the German car company. The Slovak alternative is also located in the eastern part of the country where wages are relatively low and potential workforce is still available. Romanian and Ukrainian workforce could also be used. The Slovak location is still attractive to other companies and could attract potential investors in the future.

  • If the 1944 Warsaw Uprising were to be called pointless, the memory of it will die

    As Warsaw and the rest of Poland paid tribute to the 1944 heroes, Karnowski writes about the danger of deeming the Warsaw Uprising a pointless act.

    The publicist says the memory of those who fought in it would die. He warns that such phenomena does not occur in the lives of nations.

    “Enjoying the great celebrations of the 74th Anniversary of Warsaw Uprising we can clearly see, that the discussion about the necessity, meaning and consequences of this great national effort is not fading. And will never fade,” writes Karnowski for wpolityce.pl.

    The publicist notes that the Uprising is implemented into current political choices and argues there is nothing wrong with that, because it is proof that it is a lively and a true subject.

    Karnowski fears that if, however, the discussion was to lead to the common conclusion that the Uprising was a pointless, foolish act, or even a criminal one, then it would destroy this “strongly cherished memory” of the sacrifices of Polish heroes.

    The supporters of such conclusions defend themselves by saying that the glory and memory of those who died would not vanish. It would be the leaders and organizers of the Uprising who would be assessed in a negative light.

    The fallen would still be honored and people would remember the anniversary, however the celebrations would resemble those of France or the United Kingdom when they remember the end of the First World War, warns Karnowski.

    “The celebrations are sparse and rather quiet. The First World War being broadly deemed as a mindless slaughter has led collective memory to the level of social analysis. Only the trauma is remembered, not the objective historic context,” he said.

    On August 1st every year in Warsaw sirens go off to honor the fighters of the Warsaw Uprising and thousands of Poles stops for a minute, paying tribute to the heroes of the sixty-three day long and unequal fight against the German occupiers.

    However, these celebrations are also a catalyst for ongoing discussions about whether the Uprising was necessary.

    The Warsaw Uprising of 1944 is seen as the biggest resistance operation in Nazi-occupied Europe. Intended to last several days, it continued for sixty-three days before being suppressed by the Germans. The uprising claimed the lives of around two hundred thousand civilians and eighteen thousand fighters. The Russian Red Army took over only half of Warsaw on the right bank of the Vistula River and did not help insurgents in their fight for freedom.

  • Romanian president to curb rights of ethnic Hungarians

    Romanian President Klaus Iohannis wants to scrap long-standing rights of ethnic Hungarians, the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) announced.

    The statement, made in response to Iohannis’ protests filed with the Romanian Constitutional Court, was signed by lawyer and RMDSZ politician Attila Cseke, who was also minister of Health between 2009-2011 and Senate representative between 2008-2012.

    According to Magyar Hírlap, Romania is about to adopt a new Code of Civil Administration where legal procedure requires that the Constitutional Court publish it beforehand and judge any constitutional complaints before the law comes into effect.

    Iohannis filed a series of complaints against the passages of the new code which either reiterate or specify in more detail minority language rights. Minority rights remains a contentious issue in Romania, with 11.1 percent of the population belonging to ethnic minorities, with the four largest being the Hungarians, Roma, Ukrainians and Germans, according to the 2011 census. Iohannis himself hails from a Transylvanian Saxon family.

    “In seventeen years no one has complained against the law stating that in any settlement where the proportion of minorities exceeds 20 percent, municipality counsellors are allowed to use their mother tongue,” Cseke wrote in the statement. He was part of the special commission which drafted the new Code of Civil Administration.

    “These provisions have been adopted verbatim into the new code from the existing 215/2001 law – and are nevertheless attacked at the Constitutional Court by the President of the state, himself a member of a minority group,” the statement said.

    He also said that Iohannis is attacking legal provisions that are also part of EU accords and international treaties ratified by Romania.

    “Should the constitutional court curtail minority rights, it would throw Romania back into the 1990s,” the RMDSZ statement said.

  • The day that belongs to Warsaw

    It was crucial for local leaders that a nation in time of need could not rely solely on foreign forces, according to Jaroslav Daniška. The nation cannot remain passive. The uprising of 1944 was at the same time similar and fundamentally different to the Solidarity movement in the seventies. The ideal was the same, but the era and the instrument differed. It is impossible, as John Paul II said, to understand Warsaw without understanding what happened here in 1944.

    The revolutionaries vainly awaited help from the side of the Soviets and the United States, but only Winston Churchill understood the importance of assistance. After 63 days, the rebels finally capitulated, and tens of thousands were killed by the Germans who wanted to level the city to the ground. The moral victory however belonged to the Poles.

    “What fills Poles with pride? It has to be seen, it cannot be written. The city is proudly growing to the sky. It is connected to the river again. It is the most dynamically evolving city in eastern Europe. It is celebrating the cause of its survival.”

    Warsaw showed that something could be stronger than sheer military force and the totalitarian regimes of the last century.

  • Analysis: The Visegrád Group can no longer be ignored

    Under the revolving Hungarian presidency, the Visegrád Group (consisting of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) have had a successful season and European major powers pay attention to their positions, a survey highlights.

    According to analysts asked by the Hungarian Foreign Policy and Trade Institute (KKI), the survey found that the European Union can no longer make decision which affect the V4.

    Published by news portal origo.hu, Levente Magyar, deputy minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the European Union can no longer afford to force major decisions against the will of the V4.

    The Hungarian presidency of the group was marked by last autumn’s political difficulties in the Czech Republic (difficulties in forming a new government), a new head of government in Poland and a Slovak government crisis, said Márton Ugrósdy, director of the KKI.

    “In this respect, the Hungarian presidency was a stroke of luck, because radical changes have not been required after the spring parliamentary elections,” the report said. Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz won its third consecutive election in April with a two-thirds majority.  

    Ugrósdy also said that in most EU debates the V4 unity was maintained due to structural and historic reasons going beyond daily politics. “For the V4 countries EU membership is vital, but not primarily because of subsidies coming from Brussels, but the market and corporate relations with it and Germany foremost,” Ugrósdy said.

    One of the key successes during the Hungarian V4 presidency was the group’s stance against double food quality standards in the EU, said Péter Dobrowiecki, analyst at the Antall József Knowledge Centre. He said the Hungarian presidency also made sure to harmonize the group’s positions ahead of major EU coordinations.

    KKI analyst Nikolett Garai said that the dynamics of V4 cooperation remain uninterrupted both at expert level and at the level of top leaders. She said this trend is a positive development given that the lack of a permanent supra-national institutional structure leaves cooperation dependant on individual governments’ priorities. Garai said that while there are differences among the V4 member states’ priorities and a joint position is not always readily identifiable, cooperation and reconciliation among the members has been strengthened during the Hungarian presidency.

  • Wałęsa asks forgiveness of Kaczyński

    Polish Solidarity hero Lech Wałęsa has asked Law and Justice Chairman Jarosław Kaczyński for forgiveness.

    The former Polish president and Solidarity hero Lech Wałęsa wrote a post on Facebook in which he seeks to reconcile with his political adversary.

    “Brother Kaczyński,” the post begins, followed by “you and me and our entire generation will soon pass into eternity. I would like to leave order behind myself. I would like to leave united with my foes.”

    I beg you for forgiveness and am also capable of forgiving you

    The post comes as a surprise because Kaczyński and Wałęsa have been political opponents since the early nineties, when Jarosław Kaczyński and his twin brother Lech left President Walesa’s chancellery when he was still in office.

    In March 2018, Jarosław Kaczyński sued Wałęsa for defaming his name and that of his deceased brother and former Polish President Lech Kaczyński. The suit cites Wałęsa’s main offense as claiming that Kaczyński had ordered the landing of the presidential aircraft in Smoleńsk, despite the pilots’ warnings. This was, in Wałęsa’s mind, the main reason for the plane crash in Smoleńsk April 10, 2010 when President Lech Kaczyński and 95 other high ranking Polish officials were killed.

    Kaczyński has requested thirty thousand PLN (8,230 USD) in damages for charity as well as a formal apology. Wałęsa, when asked whether he would apologise, emphasized on many occasions that he would not and even went as far as repeating his accusations.

    Thus the apology in the Facebook post came as a surprise to many. “If I have done anything to hurt you,” wrote Wałęsa, “I beg you for forgiveness and am also capable of forgiving you and your brother for what you did to me.” The last was a reference to accusations that in the early 1970s Wałęsa collaborated with the Polish communist secret service (SB).

    Files and handwriting analysis revealed by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) in January 2017 proved that Wałęsa had been a communist spy working for SB. IPN, which prosecutes crimes from the Nazi occupation and the communist era, said the former president and Nobel Peace laureate, referred to by his code name “Bolek”, signed a collaboration agreement and receipts for payment from the secret service. There is “no longer any doubt” that the 73-year-old collaborated, said IPN official Andrzej Pozorski.

    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.

    In recent years, Wałęsa has also become a vocal opponent of the Law and Justice government. In July, he called upon supporters to join him at the Supreme Court to protest the judiciary reforms. “Enough of destroying Poland!” he wrote on Twitter. In a reference to Jarosław Kaczyński, he continued, “I will lead the struggle to remove the main culprit of all of these tragedies.”

  • Hungarian conservatives retake news channel HírTV

    In the biggest media upheaval in recent years, Hungarian conservative journalists are again at the helm of the country’s first news channel, established in 2003, online and print media Magyar Idők said in an article.

    The new leadership of HírTV sacked two of the channel’s iconic faces of recent years, Olga Kálmán and Sándor Csintalan. Kálmán came to HírTV from liberal TV channel ATV and brought with her a highly popular evening political talk show while Sándor Csintalan, former Socialist MP and former vice-president of the Socialist Party had a phone-in political talk show.

    HírTV was previously owned by businessman Lajos Simicska, who was also the head of the country’s tax authority in 1998-99, during the first administration of Orbán Viktor. He had extensive media holdings, including the daily Magyar Nemzet, the radio station Lánchíd Rádió, the weekly magazine Heti Válasz and HírTV. 

    The relationship between the government and Simicska began to turn sour in 2014, culminating February 4, 2015 when Simicska — in response to a new five percent tax on media advertising — announced an all-out media war against the government in an interview published in the now defunct liberal daily Népszava. He subsequently announced his support for Jobbik, the far-right party.

    Following Fidesz’s third consecutive victory in the 2018 parliamentary elections, resulting in another two-thirds majority for the ruling party, Simicska began to scale down his media holdings and in early July 2018 sold all his business interests to former associate Zsolt Nyerges.

    The new CEO of HírTV is Bálint Répásy, while the former president of the channel and majority owner of Magyar Idők will return in an advisory capacity.

  • PM Orbán goes on vacation

    Prime Minister Viktor Orbán joined in with the popular children’s game VAKÁCIÓ on his official Facebook page to announce his vacation.

    In Hungarian primary schools, seven days before the summer vacation (or vakáció in Hungarian), school children start spelling out the word VAKÁCIÓ backwards on the blackboard by adding a letter each day in a countdown to the well-deserved break.

    The accompanying picture is a collage of seven snapshots of Orbán. The first one with his grandchildren Aliz and Johanna sitting in his lap, while the others illustrate the past year’s busy foreign policy agenda, including his visits to Germany, Israel, Turkey and the most recent NATO summit.

    Customarily, Hungarian government heads go on vacation in the first half of August and are back by August 20th, Hungary’s national day. Politicians celebrate the foundation of the Hungarian state by their first king, Saint Stephen in the year 1,000.

  • Lazarevic: Germany has failed to integrate immigrants

    Publicist and journalist Arsen Lazarevic has responded to OECD Secretary-General José Ángel Gurría’s statement that the Czech Republic should be more open to controlled migration and invest in the recruitment of people with the necessary talent.  

    Lazarevic said Gurría’s criticism is not fair because the Czech Republic practices a proven policy of controlled gradual migration. Thanks to a strategy called Regime Ukraine, 13,000 Ukrainians have found a job in the country over the past two years.

    He added that they are not getting anything for free, and they have to get involved in the labor process. The example of the United States, one of the richest countries per capita in the world, also proves that such an approach is the only one that works, he adds.

    Lazarevic also gave an example of Germany, where nearly a million people came in the last three years. According to the current figures, only a quarter of migrants found work, although 1.2 million jobs are available in Germany. He said this proves that most incoming migrants do not have the required qualifications.

    “Sexual assaults in Cologne also led many Germans to disappointment with the current immigration policy and re-opened the issue of security risks,” Lazarevic said.

    Lazarevic also said Poland is the example of “reasonable immigration policy” for the European Union. Poland has received and employed almost a million migrants from Ukraine who has not received the status of asylum seekers. Therefore, they are not entitled to various social benefits and have to integrate into society as quickly as possible. Lazarevic called it a paradox that the EU criticizes Poland for not being solidary and also for rejecting immigration quotas.

     

  • Steve Bannon wants to create a “supergroup” in the EP

    Steve Bannon wants to bring together parties seeking a fundamental change in the current power structure in the EU.

    The former chief strategist of the US president now heads The Movement Foundation, which wants to help populist and Eurosceptic parties succeed in the European Parliament elections.

    According to Bannon, eurosceptics could get up to a third of the votes and create a “supergroup” in the European Parliament.

    Former Czech President Václav Klaus said he definitely supports Bannon’s stronger involvement in Europe, because Bannon is “an original and extraordinarily inspiring figure”. Klaus, however, does not see a political party in the Czech Republic that would fulfil what Bannon is promoting in politics.

    On the other hand, the two main Czech Eurosceptic parties, namely “Freedom and Direct Democracy – Tomio Okamura” (Svoboda a přímá demokracie Tomia Okamury) (SPD) and “Party of Free Citizens” (Svobodní), are still cautious about Bannon.

    Okamura said he welcomed Bannon’s initiative but added that The Movement “is a private foundation and we do not know who finances this activity and what is the overall background”. He wants to wait for what Bannon will come up with.

    The leader of Svobodní Tomáš Pajonk is even colder towards Bannon. “Just plain euroscepticism is, I think, not enough for the emergence of a unified movement and for uniting otherwise very different parties with a very different view of the world and society,” he said, adding that while Svobodní supports economic liberalism, Bannon is a national conservative in favor of state interventions in the economy.

    The author of the article also said that foreign eurosceptics, including Marine Le Pen’s National Rally or Salvini’s League, have a soberly assuming attitude towards Bannon’s initiative so far, particularly because Bannon wants to reserve the leadership in the potential eurosceptic alliance for himself.

  • New Polish-Ukrainian gas pipeline planned

    A new gas pipeline is in the works to connect Poland and Ukraine, which could see both countries become more independent from Russia’s energy supply.

    According to Tomasz Stępień, the chairman of Gaz-System, market research indicates interest in the pipeline and the Poles are awaiting the decision of the Ukrainian side before moving forward with the project.

    Gaz-System and Ukrtransgaz are planning to shift 4 billion cubic meters of gas from Poland to Ukraine in exchange for 1.6 billion cubic meters of gas from Ukraine to Poland per year.

    Furthermore, the scope of investments would be significantly larger on the side of Ukraine. Poland would have to build only 1.5km of pipeline, whereas Ukraine would have to build 110km.

    In 2014, after the Russian aggression on Donbas and Crimea, Ukraine stopped buying gas from Gazprom, the Russian gas distributor. Since then, Ukraine has been able to fulfill its own gas supply needs solely from EU states.

    The new pipeline can also be seen as a rival to Nord Stream 2 (NS2), which is a second pipeline between Germany and Russia under the Baltic Sea, bypassing Poland. The construction of NS2 was criticized by President Donald Trump at the recent summit in Europe, and calls for better gas supplies have been raised.

     

  • Recalling the 1944 Warsaw Uprising: “Poles wanted to be Poles”

    The 1944 Warsaw Uprising is considered by many to be one of the most heroic but also tragic struggles in the history of the Second World War.

    Marking the 74th anniversary on August 1st, Poles are determined to keep its memory alive and highlight the fight they gave to reclaim their country.

    “We saw that we were fighting for the honour and independence of our country,” Andrzej Wernic said, a survivor of the Uprising.

    During an interview for Gazeta Polska Codziennie, Wernic remembers the first day of the Uprising well. “On the 1st of August I was left home alone. In the first hour of the Uprising my house was set on fire by an explosion. Together with my neighbors, we put the fire out,” he said.

    When asked whether as a fourteen-year-old boy he was conscious of what was happening, Wernic replies that he understood that his country was occupied and was trying to free itself from German oppression.

    “I thank my parents for my upbringing. My family is rooted in the tradition of independence. My father served in Józef Piłsudski’s Polish Legions,” he said.

    The Polish Legions were the first active Polish army in generations. They fought in the First World War and sought Polish independence, which finally came to be in November 1918. “I spent my childhood in military garrisons, which is why I was aware of what was happening,” Wernic adds.

    When talking about the day-to-day life during the Uprising, Wernic remarks that it was very varied. “At times it was amazing,” he says. Even under the threat of German fire when building barricades, the atmosphere remained optimistic. “And at other times, terrifying,” he said, such as being witness to mass executions and murders of Poles by the Germans. “They did it only because Poles wanted to be Poles,” says Wernic.

    A question he is often asked is whether he was afraid during the Uprising. “Of course I was. Each day I prayed for no bullet or explosion to hit me. I was scared of suffering,” he said. The conviction amongst all of the underground soldiers was the same, be it men, women or children: “We had a mission to fulfil. After five years of occupation, we wanted to be free for at least one moment,” he added.

    Addressing publications criticizing the decision to carry out the Uprising that couldn’t be won and resulted in the death of about two hundred thousand people and total destruction of Warsaw, Wernic simply said, “They will just never understand the social mood back then.”

               

  • MP Arkadiusz Mularczyk: Poland should assess WW2 damages not only from Germany but also from Russia

    Arkadiusz Mularczyk has said that Poland should assess WW2 damages not only from Germany but also Russia.

    Mularczyk, MP of Law and Justice (PiS) and chairman of the parliamentary committee to assess Germany for damages of WW2 on Poland, told Rzeczpospolita that Poland has had a long struggle over war reparations.

    He says that one of the issues in Germany is the inability of Polish citizens to sue families and institutions for casualties taken during the war. Polish lawmakers are currently taking the necessary actions to solve complicated legal issues between German Civil Code and Polish Constitution.

    According to reports, Poland is not the only country to hold war reparations claims. “Greece has already prepared two reports on war reparations against Germany, Italy and Bulgaria,” Mularczyk said.

    When asked how this influences the Polish bid for reparations, Mularczyk underlines the necessity to create a bona fide and structured report about the losses dealt by Germany in the years between 1939 and 1945. “Not just material and human losses, but also those in GDP and in demographic and economic potential,” he said.

    The report is expected to be published in early 2019. It is up to other political forces, however, to determine when it will be given to the German government to begin the negotiations.

    Mularczyk estimated that the reparations from Germany alone would amount to approximately 850 billion USD.

    “A report concerning the war casualties dealt to Poland by Soviet Russia should also be made,” Mularczyk said. “I know that the Baltic States have created such reports.”

    He also underlines that because “Russia is a country that does not respect international law and order”, it will be a challenge for Poland’s parliament to create such a report.

    During the Second World War the Soviets deported tens of thousands of Poles to Siberia. They are also responsible for the murder of thousands of Polish officers in locations such as Katyń.

     

  • Polish FM: We are not breaking European law

    Poland’s foreign minister has declared that the country’s judiciary reforms are in line with European standards and are not breaking any European law.

    At the beginning of July, the European Commission launched legal action against the Polish government, claiming that the new law undermined judicial independence of the Supreme Court. The Commission has given Poland a month to respond, which will soon pass.

    “We will answer the European Commission about the Supreme Court on time,” said Jacek Czaputowicz. “We believe, that the judicial reform is proceeding in line with European standards,” he added.

    During an interview with Polsat, when asked whether the answer of the Polish authorities will satisfy the Commission, Czaputowicz replied that if they have any doubts, they can turn to the European Court of Justice.

    “But there is no threat of financial punishments,” assures Czaputowicz. Poland is a “model country,” he says, when it comes to abiding by European law in contrast to other European countries. “If we took into account factors such as putting Court of Justice amendments into practice, then Poland would be at the top,” the foreign minister claims.

    The new law imposes a retirement age of 65 on judges of the Supreme Court. Those judges who wish to stay on, can only do so with presidential assent. Up to 40 percent of Supreme Court judges are expected to leave, including the chief justice whose 6-year term guaranteed in the Constitution will be terminated. That is the core of the controversy. Some legal experts argue however, that there are other articles in the Constitution that would allow such a move. 

    Another Polish law which caused controversy was the Holocaust law, which threatened incarceration for anyone who would accuse Poland of participation in German crimes during the Second World War.

    Czaputowicz states that contrary to press reports, the visit of the Polish president to the White House in September is independent of changes to the Holocaust law. 

    “I met with the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before the law was changed and we discussed the visit,” he said, adding that he believes “it’s good that the changes were implemented.”

    What’s more, following pressure from both Israel and the United States, the Holocaust law was changed in June. In the declaration, Mateusz Morawiecki and Benjamin Netanyahu rejected “actions aimed at blaming Poland or the Polish nation as a whole for the atrocities committed by the Nazis and the different nations that collaborated with them,” he said. The statement was published in several prominent European and American dailies as a paid ad.

  • The frozen country

    Now they concern themselves with how many people froze to death last winter. An entire mythology has been created around the issue: the government is hiding the facts, but they, the heroes, went to court and “sued for the information” so everyone can see how people freeze to death in this dictatorship. Every group has its own mythology – some are heroic, some are just Battles of Frogs and Mice. We simply call the latter ones deplorable fools.

    An opposition site shouts in its title “After a long legal battle, we now finally know, how many froze to death in the country”. And they also reveal the number that between October 15, 2016 and March 1, 2017, 180 people froze to death. So this is the big news the authorities – clearly intent on freezing people to death – has been trying to hide all along.

    All is fine and well, but digging into our memory chest we find that on April 13, 2017 another oracular site already published an article titled “By the end of March, 203 people froze to death in Hungary”. So what exactly was there to sue for, when said article already gave the number more than a year ago?

    I think I’m beginning to understand. First, we publish the unequivocal news that so many people froze to death. Then we just wait for a year, start blaming the government for trying to obfuscate and then sue them to release the very same data we already published more than a year previously.

    Also, another oracular news site looked into the statistics, which showed that from a low of 50 people frozen to death every winter in the 1970s, the number has been creeping up steadily to peak at 316 in 2003.

    These figures disprove the underlying assumption that under the Orbán Governments the country freezes to death and is warm and cosy at other times. No matter. Next spring they will give us the casualties of the 2018 winter, subsequently sue for the same data to be released again. But we should accommodate them as we clearly understand that these wretched people also need something with which to occupy themselves.

  • Peter Marček visits Crimea

    Independent MP Peter Marček, a former member of the Sme Rodina political party has visited Crimea on an official visit.

    Marček initially claimed that he’ll be accompanied by other members of parliament, including several coalition party candidates. However, the politician arrived with a small group and was the only senior member of his delegation.

    The 64-year-old MP refused to name the potential guests who were set to join him in Moscow and eventually Crimea. He said the naming of his sympathizers would meet with ‘”controversial reactions from the public.”

    Marček’s plan was initially backed by Dušan Čaplovič (Smer-SD), however the former minister for Education was unable to join him due to health problems.

    The politician stated that the Slovak delegation consists of 15 members, part of the delegates are businessmen. He was joined on his trip by Igor Cibula, his official consultant and former director of the Slovak Secret Service.

    According to Marček the main purpose of the visit is to gather opinions about the state of handling human rights in Crimea. The visit has been criticized by several politicians and political parties.

  • Slovakia voices its concerns over the latest revelations surrounding the alleged kidnapping of Trinh Xuan Thanh

    German authorities investigating the alleged kidnapping of Vietnamese ex-politician Trinh Xuan Thanh claim he left Bratislava on the Slovak government’s special plane which was flying to Moscow with the Vietnamese official delegation.

    The Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs has voiced its concerns over the latest revelations and says it may well have been used as a pawn in a political game.

    “If turns out that the Slovak republic was used and misinformed by the Vietnamese authorities, consequences could follow,” Peter Susko said.

    “The German investigation and its conclusions are serious and they are questioning the correctness of the information which was provided to us by the Vietnamese side,” he added.

    The TASR state agency reports that Slovak officials are in close contact with German police regarding the investigation of the entrepreneur’s alleged kidnapping from Berlin, which happened on July 23rd, 2017.

    Susko pointed out that finding the persons responsible for the crime is the common goal of the two countries and in future the cooperation between Germany and Slovakia should intensify regarding this matter.

    According to Vietnamese authorities, Thanh was not on the plane and this was officially communicated to the Slovak authorities.

    Susko says the German investigation is based on the assumption that the officials had no information of the false identity of the passengers. Slovakia asked for additional information regarding the abduction in June.

  • Romania must take a pragmatic view of PM Orbán

    It only took twenty-four hours for the Romanian media to express their consternation over Viktor Orbán’s speech in Tusványos, Transylvania.

    PM Orbán said that for the Hungarians the centenary of Romania’s re-unification was no reason for celebration (1920, in which Hungary lost two thirds of its territory and population to the neighbouring countries) and even after all this time, Romania could not come to terms with the fact that there are ethnic Hungarians living in the country.

    The reaction was both predictable and surprising. The majority of the Romanian press took PM Orbán’s words as an insult, as they normally do, because every time he speaks in Romania that is news and the easiest path is to criticize him.

    The surprising part was that many took note of the Hungarian PM’s offer for cooperation, inviting Romania to be a partner in forging a Central European region. Given the Romanian government’s so far successful struggle to stay in power, it is anybody’s guess whether they are actually going to take up this offer.

    The Romanian press – as most of the press elsewhere – loves to remind us of Orbán’s famous 2014 speech, also delivered in Tusványos, in which he said that Hungary is building an “illiberal future”. That word has often been turned against him, with debatable success. Given Hungary’s openness, economic strides and political activity, it is somewhat difficult to construe “illiberal” as a slur.

    But in this year’s speech Orbán clearly stated that Western Europe has liberalism but no democracy, clarifying once and for all the deeper meaning of “illiberal”.

    The Romanian political elite has yet to react to the speech, but one thing is clear: it is in Romania’s best interest to accept a rising Hungary as a partner despite existing disagreements. It is also evident that Hungarian-Romanian relations have never been so good.

    We don’t know how Bucharest views the fact that Orbán delivers his annual program speech in Transylvania, but a pragmatic Romania should accept his offer of cooperation even in this year of national celebrations.

  • Judiciary crisis

    Present-day Hungary is the direct heir to the Communist dictatorship and Socialism, as well as the chaos that lasted for almost twenty years after the regime change.

    The judiciary system has been revamped along liberal lines and logic, leaving one of the most powerful castes to rule undisturbed in a world of their own. The ultra-liberal practice grafted onto the inherited Socialist system continues to damage an already frail social consensus at every turn.

    One of the most emblematic cases is the slaying of Romanian handball player Marian Cozma that happened in the central Hungarian city of Veszprém on February 8, 2009.

    We recently reported that third-degree defendant István Sztojka (serving a 13 years, 10 months sentence) has been released on probation by the penitentiary group of the Szombathely court. The leader of this group is none other than Sándor Szabó. When asked by us about the case, he said he has no knowledge of it as he was on vacation at the time. This is at least curious given the national notoriety of the case.

    But, more to the point, the very same Sándor Szabó is also the vice-president of the National Council of Judges (OBT) and soon to be its president. He is also one of the most vehement critics of the Orbán-government, accusing it of attempting to set up a system of party judges. Opposition media has immediately jumped to the defence of Szabó – ignoring the obvious fact that he could not conceivably have been unaware of the release.

    In another glaring irregularity, his being part of the OBT is in itself in breach of the rules. He has already been a member of the OBT between 1990-1994 and the OBT charter clearly states that no one can be nominated for the body for more than one term.

  • BMW to build EUR 1 billion plant in Hungary

    Szíjjártó said the greenfield investment will bring state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment to Debrecen, a city some 230 kilometres east of Budapest, and that the production line that will have a capacity of 150,000 units per year.

    BMW said in a statement that the decision to build the new plant in Debrecen was based on the city’s good infrastructure and logistics base as well as the already present network of BMW suppliers.

    “Our new plant in Hungary will also be able to manufacture both combustion and electrified BMW models – all on a single production line,” Oliver Zipse, BMW AG board member for production, said in a statement quoted by Reuters news agency.

    Bloomberg reported that the plant will bring the number of BMW’s production sites to 31, but will be the first new one in the European Union in the past two decades.

    BMW plant site near Debrecen
    Caption

    The site of the new BMW AG plant near Debrecen, Eastern Hungary

    (photo: MTI)

    Szíjjártó said Hungary has entered the race for high-tech capital investments bringing to the table low taxes, flexible labour legislation, dual tuition and well-trained IT and engineering professionals. He said Hungary’s success in this field is clearly illustrated by the fact that currently some 6,000 German companies have almost 300,000 employees in Hungary.

    BMW will be the fifth global car maker to build a production facility in Hungary. Daimler AG, the PSA Group, Suzuki and  Volkswagen AG’s Audi brand all have plants in Hungary. Last year the automotive sector accounted for almost 27 percent of the country’s industrial output with a production value of over 8 trillion forints ($29.2 billion) and a production volume of 472,000 units.

    Construction of the plant will begin in the second half of 2019.

    (Sources: MTI, Bloomberg, Reuters)

  • “They want to destroy all of Europe”

    Well-known author, playwright and conservative political commentator Benjamin Kuras spoke recently with editor Lukáš Petřík about his candidacy for the Senate.

    The beginning of the interview focused on views on migration issues and solutions proposed by the EU.

    “Political elites have been leading a disastrous political approach for decades that threaten all of Europe with civilization extinction (…) we must exchange these elites with people who feel a sense of responsibility for European civilization and its individual national cultures and traditions,” declared Kuras and added that we needed to “start in the place we call home and help where we can reach.”

    Kuras was critical of the Andrej Babiš government, but he highlighted its success in the democratic elections. He also pointed out that Prime Minister Babiš apparently cooperates with the Visegrad Group and “contradicts the most destructive absurdities of the EU”.

    Kuras further criticized the direction of the West and, above all, the activities of the so-called Liberal Democrats.

    “Despite all this, we clearly belong in the West, and we have to take responsibility for its survival because it will not be able to defend itself without us. By us I mean Central Europe,” said Kuras, recalling similar words by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

    According to Kuras, the return of Europe to true European values is ​​on the right path, also thanks to the activity of V4.

    Regarding the prospective reform of the EU, Kuras pointed out that it was probably not possible. He would prefer to “dismantle the monstrous bureaucratic structures” and return to the European Economic Community with strong sovereignty of national parliaments. He mentioned the termination of the Lisbon Treaty and disobedience to EU regulations as potential steps.

    Afterwards, he named Viktor Orbán and Matteo Salvini as political examples worthy of following. Politicians should be inspired by “their clear and uncompromising defense of their national interests, which, at the same time, they perceive as the interests of Europe as a whole.”

  • MEP Jan Zahradil: The EU no longer has the power it once had

    MEP Jan Zahradil has said he agrees with the move taken by Italy recently which sent a message to migrants, smugglers, and NGOs that by closing the ports they are not welcome.

    “What, however, has made this message a bit diminishing is the Italian prime minister’s attempt to redistribute several hundreds of refugees who have been rescued or caught by fishing boats. Such an attempt sends an opposite signal,“ the Czech MEP said.

    Zahradil also disagreed with the conclusions of a study by Harvard University, according to which Czechs are the biggest racists in Europe.

    “If you look at what is constantly happening to Poland or Hungary in European parliament, you will find out that they do not really understand us at all,” Zahradil said.

    He also criticized the attitude of the old member states to the new ones, saying that the old and new members speak with different languages and do not communicate equally.

    “This is quite an unexpected experience for me, and there is a need for empathy from Western European countries, from what we know as Old Europe, to a new Europe. Otherwise we will not get out from the vicious circle,“ he said.

    At the beginning of the interview, Zahradil also focused on US President Donald Trump’s relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and broadly discussed Russian interference in the US presidential elections in 2016. According to Zahradil, Trump doesn´t like the questioning of his victory and wants to silence his critics and opponents.

    Finally, Zahradil talked about the importance of the European Union in international negotiations but said it no longer has the power it once had.

    “The European Union is certainly not a significant player in the quadrangle that has been created in the world (…) It also turned out that from the point of view of Trump’s style or his understanding of foreign policy, the US president prefers to communicate with individual states (France or Germany) rather than with European Union as a whole.“

  • Tensions rise as more Law and Justice (PiS) officials are vandalized in Poland

    The vandals sprayed the acronym of the former Polish Communist Party “PZPR” on the office building in Warsaw. This is not an isolated incident. Other incidents include vandalism of the headquarters of the Gazeta Polska club in Elbląg in northern Poland as well as online threats sent to Member of European Parliament Ryszard Czarnecki on Twitter. “I’ll kill you,” read one of the threats, “you Nazi dog.”

    Last Friday saw more protests against Law and Justice’s judicial reforms at the Presidential Palace. Protesters accused police of using pepper spray on the demonstrators but video footage shows the protesters using the spray. The incident is now under police investigation. Police response to the other attacks has varied as the culprits are often well hidden and masked, which makes investigation difficult.  The assailants in the case of Mariusz Kamiński’s office should be found as their likeness is known to the police.

    Despite the insults and punishable threats, the politicians of the Civic Platform have not denounced the attacks. Law and Justice politicians, such as Ryszard Czarnecki, claim that “the opposition are held morally responsible for these hateful attacks.” He warns: “Some of those in the opposition dream about bloodshed.”

    One of the most tragic attacks on Law and Justice officials was the 2010 murder of Marek Rosiak in Łódź in central Poland. He was shot by Ryszard Cyba. In court, he testified that he is “sorry to everyone, but it is the fault of Jarosław Kaczyński [the leader of the Law and Justice Party].” Ryszard Cyba was a member of the Civic Platform in the years 2004-2006.

  • No referendum for Duda

    Another 52 percent of people suggest that Duda should build a broader agreement around his initiative and continue his discussion with Poles. The majority of voters of Law and Justice (83 percent) and Kukiz15 (72 percent) want to continue the constitutional debate. The strongest opposition is amongst the SLD – Democratic Left Alliance voters (73 percent). Both the Civic Platform and Modern party liberal voters remain roughly equally divided on the subject.

    Last week, Polish President Andrzej Duda turned to the Senate for a referendum to change the Polish constitution and failed to win the necessary votes. The majority of Law and Justice senators abstained and those from the Civic Platform voted against. The fifteen questions included: “Are you in favour of adopting a new constitution?” and “Are you in favour of a constitutionally guaranteed European Union membership for Poland?”

    Although Poles are not yet ready for changes to the constitution, they encourage conversation and debate on the topic, writes Tomasz Krzyżak for Rzeczpospolita.pl. Speaker of the Senate Stanisław Karczewski says “that the result of the vote shouldn’t be seen as Duda’s failure. His success is instigating conversation.” The Speaker and many Law and Justice MPs agree that changes to the constitution are necessary, but disagreed with the proposed dates – November 10th and 11th — which coincide with the 100th anniversary of Poland’s independence.

    Jarosław Flis, a sociologist from Jagiellonian University, reminds both Law and Justice and President Duda that those encouraging discussion should not be underestimated. Duda, according to Flis, “made a mistake putting the referendum on edge. The last referendums in Europe turned into popularity contests of who is for and against the government. Like in Italy or the United Kingdom.”

  • Mečiar’s return to politics is no joke

    BRATISLAVA. Bárdy points out that the political reinvention of Mečiar is happening in an uncertain time period, when a certain media players enjoy twisting facts. As a result, Mečiar could re-emerge as a relevant politician for a certain part of the population, despite the fact that the era of Mečiarism (1992-1998) marks the darkest period in the history of independent Slovakia.

    Bárdy reminds that Mečiar created a regime that led to privatization of 170 billion Slovak crowns worth of state property and a new generation of oligarchs literally from one day to another. A secret service connected with the mafia became the tool of the government, which culminated in terrorizing Mečiar’s opponents and kidnapping Michal Kováč Jr., the son of former President Michal Kováč.

    Mečiar’s amnesties, which protected the kidnappers and the persons involved in this act, were abolished only last year, and the case was never properly investigated. However, certain influential, conspiracy-oriented websites are openly providing Mečiar a platform to promote his alternative views. As a result, the former prime minister can appear before his audience as a renaissance man who knows all the answers and solutions. This can easily deceive a younger generation that does not remember the era of Mečiarism, according to Bárdy.

  • The EU is the champion of tax evasion and money laundering

    Western money laundering is the reason why economic growth came to a grinding halt in developing Middle Eastern and African countries, according to a report by eurodad.org.

    The report states that through its tacit approval of industrial-scale tax evasion and profit withdrawal, the decadent liberal elite has sanctified theft.

    The study shows that the syphoning off of taxable profits has caused losses of about one trillion euros in Europe and 660-870 billion euros in developing countries.

    As a result of the money laundering, the taxes after these profits are not reaped by developing countries but by states tax havens such as Luxemburg, the Netherlands or the U.K. What’s more, developed Western countries are doing nothing to regulate companies who syphon off profits several times larger than their charitable contributions.

    This is a stark misuse perpetrated by the ruling elite, major capital and the background powers, the report states. The fact that Brussels keeps postponing a crackdown on these tax havens is both flagrant and unacceptable.

    The report states that the explanation for their cynicism and hypocrisy is that some Western European member states stand to profit from the existence of these tax havens. In a farcical turn, the criteria for tax havens have been massaged to such extent that finally none of the EU states made it to the list (with the exception of British overseas territories). Only three small and largely inconsequential mini-states – Guernsey, Andorra and Monaco – feature in the list.

    The domestic bank of the EU, the European Investment Bank is part of this practice. A study of the Counterbalance Foundation shows in a five-year period, 5.66 billion euros of the EIB’s lending went through British, Dutch and French banks using tax havens.

    The report concludes that it is simply outrageous that while Brussels takes Hungary to task regarding the rule of law and solidarity, it is instrumental in robbing African countries through helping the banks and corporations of some member states to use tax havens.

  • PM Orbán doesn’t follow trends. He sets them

    Political analyst Zoltán Kiszelly has said Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s recent speech in Tusványos, Transylvania reached the core of the issues, just like in 2014.

    Kiszelly added that the Hungarian leader has a crystal clear picture of the present situation, including its ramifications in Europe and beyond.

    One central element of the speech was the Trianon treaty (1920, in which Hungary lost two thirds of its territory and population to the neighbouring countries). In the speech, PM Orbán added that Hungary had nothing to celebrate on this centenary but added that it was time to start rebuilding the economic ties and regions cut off by the treaty.

    Ágoston Sámuel Mráz, CEO of the Nézőpont Institute, said that next year’s European parliamentary elections were a central feature of the speech, in which PM Orbán stressed that the election could bring a new balance of power between Eastern and Western European.

    He said one of the key issues of the speech was the Christian and democratic policy that the prime minister pitted against liberalism. Beyond political cooperation, reinforcing Central Europe would also require a new level of economic cooperation. In contrast to the centennial celebrations in Romania, PM Orbán gave Hungarian voters – and specifically the Hungarians in Transylvania — the prospect of the economic and cultural reconstruction of the Carpathian Basin.

    Miklós Szánthó, director of the Center for Fundamental Rights, said that a mere decade ago it would have been nearly impossible to do what this speech achieved – a clear diagnosis of crumbling liberalism and proposing Christian democracy as an alternative.

    “The prime minister is well beyond the otherwise customary Central European model of following patterns, he instead has a vision of immediate and global events that forges new patterns.”

      

  • 1944 Warsaw Uprising makes NYT headlines with Mike Tyson tribute to Polish fighters

    The New York Times has informed its readers that “the 1st of August 1944 will be remembered by humanity as a day of unprecedented heroism and bravery. The Uprising was a struggle for freedom against the purest evil.”

    The article, a paid advertisement by Polish food company FoodCare, states that the heroic 1944 Warsaw Uprising against Nazi Germany took place more than a year after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, carried out by Polish Jews.

    The article details basic information about the Warsaw Uprising: the Polish Armia Krajowa, led by Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski along with 50,000 men, women and children. Their aim was to free Warsaw from German hands to create an independent Polish authority before the Red Army entered.

    The article also highlights Poland’s losses during WW2. Since 1939, six million Polish citizens were killed by the Germans – three million Jews and three million Poles. Poland’s human losses had the highest percentage among European countries, including the Soviet Union.

    The Wola Slaughter remains to this day one of Germany’s bloodiest crimes in which 60,000 Polish civilians from the Wola district of Warsaw were exterminated at the beginning of the Uprising. 

    The mass execution was carried out for an entire week. It’s aim was to break the partisans’ spirit. It took the Germans two months of constant struggle to regain control of the Polish capital. This included more executions throughout the city, of POWs and civilians alike, as well as artillery shelling and aerial bombing.

    The article reminds American readers that the Red Army did nothing and waited on the other side of the Vistula River. The Soviet government also refused access to their airports to Allied aircraft carrying supplies.

    After the Uprising, thousands of Poles were deported to POW and concentration camps across Germany and occupied Poland.

    In a video, also by FoodCare, Mike Tyson, the American boxer, speaks about the Uprising, thanking and praising the Polish fighters and civilians. According to niezależna.pl, Mike Tyson did not accept a fee for the video.

    The 74th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising will see several commemorations throughout Poland. The culmination will be held at Dmowski Roundabout in central Warsaw where thousands of young people will light flares at 5pm, on August 1st.

    The event will be conducted under the codename “W Hour” – the exact moment the Uprising started.