Continued disharmony between Bratislava and Budapest

News

Continued disharmony between Bratislava and Budapest

The Editorial Board November 11, 2022

Slovakia/Hungary – Relations between Hungary and its former province of Upper Hungary, now Slovakia, have never been easy, with the recurring issue of the large Hungarian minority in southern Slovakia regularly undermining all attempts by both Budapest and Bratislava to improve…

News

Slovakia’s local elections marked by continuity

The Editorial Board November 10, 2022

Slovakia – On 29 October, Slovak voters – and also EU citizens permanently residing in the country – went to the polls to elect municipal and regional councils, as well as mayors and regional presidents. To save money and foster greater participation,…

Politics

Hungarian strategic thinking explained to Poles

Olivier Bault November 9, 2022

Hungary / Poland - The century-old Polish–Hungarian friendship has been going through a turbulent period in recent months due to deep differences concerning the war in Ukraine. While Poland has provided massive support to its Ukrainian neighbour from the outset, including in…

News

A new tax on superprofits in Czechia

The Editorial Board November 8, 2022

“It doesn’t make me happy at all to have to introduce this tax”, Czech Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura said when parliament voted at his request for a tax on “super profits” of banks and energy companies. A net profit of 15 billion…

News

Poland erecting border fence to keep out African and Middle Eastern immigrants from Kaliningrad

The Editorial Board November 7, 2022

Poland - “I have decided to take measures that will help strengthen security on the border with the Kaliningrad oblast. We will start the construction of a temporary barrier to strengthen the security of the border”, Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak announced…

News

Is the American ambassador trying to influence Hungary’s top judges?

Olivier Bault November 4, 2022

Hungary – On Thursday, 27 October, U.S. ambassador to Hungary David Pressman posted a tweet about his meeting with two judges of the Hungarian National Judicial Council, Csaba Vasvári and Tamás Matusik. He wrote that it was an opportunity for him to…

News

US company Westinghouse to build Poland’s first nuclear power plant

The Editorial Board November 4, 2022

Poland – Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced on Wednesday that his government had just passed a resolution on the construction of nuclear power plants in Poland. According to that resolution, it is America’s Westinghouse which will be commissioned to build…

News

Polish coal production keeps declining instead of increasing

The Editorial Board November 3, 2022

When it introduced an embargo against Russian coal several months before the rest of the EU, the government of Mateusz Morawiecki promised in March that Polish black coal production would be increased this year by 1 to 1.5 million tonnes. It has…

News

Demonstrations and counter-demonstrations in Czechia over sanctions against Russia

The Editorial Board November 2, 2022

“Czechia first!” This was the main slogan of the organisers of a demonstration attended by tens of thousands of people (according to the police) in Prague’s Wenceslas Square on Friday. Similar demonstrations also took place in other cities in Czechia, at the…

News

Environmentalists complain to Brussels about the Czech–Polish agreement on the Turów mine

The Editorial Board October 28, 2022

Poland / Czechia / Germany - German and Czech environmental organizations – Greenpeace, Bund Sachsen, and Sousedský spolek Uhelná (a local environmental group) – have sent a complaint to the European Commission this week against the agreement reached at the beginning of…

News

Record inflation in V4 countries

The Editorial Board October 27, 2022

Last Sunday the Hungarian capital Budapest saw one of its biggest demonstrations in years. The demonstrators were protesting against Viktor Orbán’s government, and especially against deteriorating standards of living and low teacher salaries. The Visegrád Group countries face inflation well above the…

News

Did Emmanuel Macron offer Pope Francis a stolen book from Poland?

The Editorial Board October 26, 2022

Poland/France/Vatican – A photo of the copy of Immanuel Kant’s Project for a Perpetual Peace offered by the French president to Pope Francis, whom he met at the Vatican on Monday, is causing a stir in Poland. On the photo of this…