Olivier Bault | Visegrád Post

Brussels will remain in conflict with Poland even with a new European Commission

Olivier Bault August 5, 2019

By Olivier Bault. Poland - Together with its fellow Visegrád Group countries, Poland has managed to veto the bid of Dutch socialist Frans Timmermans to become the next President of the European Commission. Although Timmermans is expected to retain a vice-presidency of…

Politics

Poland and Hungary outperforming most other EU economies, at least partly through not adopting the euro

Olivier Bault August 1, 2019

By Olivier Bault. This article was originally published on Kurier.plus. Central Europe - According to the European Commission’s forecasts, Poland and Hungary will be the joint second fastest growing economies in the EU this year, after Malta. The EC has raised its…

Politics

Three months before parliamentary elections, the Polish opposition is divided and lacks credibility

Olivier Bault July 27, 2019

By Olivier Bault. Poland - A constitutional majority no longer seems to be completely out of reach for the Law and Justice party (PiS). Is it possible, though, under Poland’s proportional representation system? The D’Hondt method, used to calculate seats allocated in the…

Society

The international LGBT offensive in Catholic Poland

Olivier Bault July 1, 2019

By Olivier Bault. Poland - In Poland, as elsewhere, the months of May and June are the season of “Equality Parades”, as they are still called in the homeland of Saint John Paul II. These marches are free of the obscene behaviour…

Politics

JUST Act 447, the American law which could undermine the privileged relationship between Warsaw and Washington

Olivier Bault June 20, 2019

By Olivier Bault. Poland - The Law and Justice party (PiS) which came to power in Poland with the elections of 2015 has always seemed more attached to transatlantic ties than to further EU integration. At the NATO summit in Warsaw in…

Interviews

Andrzej Krzystyniak: “German historical revisionism acting to undermine Polish Silesia”

Olivier Bault June 3, 2019

Interview with Polish historian and essayist Dr. Andrzej Krzystyniak: "German historical revisionism acting to undermine Polish Silesia". Poland - By supporting pro-autonomy or pro-independence foundations and associations, as well as promoters of historical revisionism, and also by way of a German-owned regional…

Politics

Why the Spitzenkandidaten mechanism compromises the European Commission’s impartiality and is a cause of EU attacks against Poland and Hungary

Olivier Bault May 24, 2019

By Olivier Bault. This article was originally published on Kurier.plus. European Union - Meeting in Sibiu, Romania, for a European Council on May 9, European heads of state and government discussed whether the Spitzenkandidaten system – first used to choose the head…

Interviews

Ferenc Almássy: “The Visegrád Post is a Conservative Information Website Representing Mainstream Central European Views in English, German and French”

Olivier Bault May 20, 2019

By Olivier Bault. Central Europe - An interview with Ferenc Almássy, editor-in-chief of the Visegrád Post, for the Wacław Felczak Institute. This interview was originally published on Kurier.plus. The Visegrád Post website has recently celebrated its third anniversary. It describes itself as…

Politics

Linking EU funds to rule of law and “European values”: a move against Poland and Hungary?

Olivier Bault April 18, 2019

By Olivier Bault. This article was originally published on Kurier.plus. European Union - “The more I listen to Timmermans talk on rule of law and respond to questions, the more obvious it seems that spitzenkandidaten should temporarily leave their EU paid roles during…

Society

The Beginning of a Diplomatic Crisis Between Poland and Norway?

Olivier Bault March 29, 2019

By Olivier Bault. Poland/Norway - Case of the Barnevernet (Norwegian Child Welfare Services) - A Polish consul has disrupted the Norwegian establishment Is it a retaliatory measure after the asylum granted to a Norwegian mother and her 2-year-old daughter? In reality Sławomir Kowalski…

Politics

The new Franco-German Treaty: Should the rest of the EU be Concerned?

Olivier Bault March 21, 2019

By Olivier Bault. Originally published on kurier.plus. Europe - The new Franco-German treaty “of cooperation and integration” signed on January 22 in Aachen, the former capital of Charlemagne’s Frankish empire from which both nations trace their origins, does not represent a breakthrough…

Politics

Illegal Immigration to the EU: the V4 Proven Right Again in 2018 – but not all will Admit it

Olivier Bault March 1, 2019

By Olivier Bault. Article originally published on Kurier.plus. Central Europe, Visegrad Group - Although the number of illegal immigrants flooding to Europe has been significantly reduced since the crisis of 2015, when about one million migrants made their way north through the Balkans…