Hungary will veto the European Union’s 2021-27 budget and its COVID recovery scheme if access to funds is made conditional on governments’ adherence to the rule of law, a move… Read more »
Budapest’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic has been to suspend parliament and give Prime Minister Viktor Orbán open-ended powers to rule by decree. Will the latest move by the ruling… Read more »
Media capture is a situation in which the media are controlled “either directly by governments or by vested interests” which seek political influence rather than profit, according to analyst Alina… Read more »
Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party will remain suspended from the European People’s Party, the EU’s conservative umbrella group, EPP chairman Donald Tusk said on Wednesday, extending a year-long standoff with… Read more »
“Always prepared!” For decades, it was a catchphrase of the Pioneers, an outdoorsy youth group that was a hallmark of communist indoctrination efforts targeting schoolchildren throughout the U.S.S.R. and its… Read more »
Russian government-backed cyber aggression is heightening concerns from the west following a spate of high-profile incidents, prompting threats of countermeasures from the likes of Nato, the EU and UK, the… Read more »
Democracy is in mortal danger in Poland, in part because of the failure of the opposition, says a leading analyst. Here is a government that spreads unsupported conspiracy theories, is doubling… Read more »
Look back a year, and remember how disquieting European politics seemed, as populist strategist Steve Bannon seemed to be on the verge of establishing The Movement, a cross-border alliance of… Read more »
One thing is especially disconcerting about the illiberal turn in Eastern and Central Europe. It has been the early front-runners of democratization – Hungary and Poland – where democratic backsliding… Read more »
The leading figures on the world stage today practice a brutal, smash-mouth politics, a personalized authoritarianism, notes Foreign Affairs editor Gideon Rose. Old-school strongmen, they do whatever is needed to… Read more »