Eurasia Press & News
Elsewhere, Mr Fiala goes to Washington, Mr Duda goes to New York; Poland looks toward Sky Shield; and new prosecutors needed in Slovakia.
Anational-conservative conference in Brussels, featuring populist and right-wing politicians such as Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage and French firebrand Eric Zemmour, would not normally be expected to generate many headlines, but the attempted banning of it this week proved a PR gift to the organisers. NatCon, sponsored by the Hungarian state-funded Mathias Corvinus College (MCC) and the US-based Edmund Burke Foundation, was initially cancelled by two venues, while a third attempt was temporarily interrupted by the Belgian police. Liberal and Socialist mayors of Brussels districts ostensibly based their decision to ban the conference on hypothetical militant antifa demos, meaning they could not guarantee the safety of speakers. But this didn’t wash with many. Belgian PM Alexander de Coo said: “Banning political meetings is unconstitutional. Full stop.” The second day of the conference, featuring Orban’s speech, went ahead as planned after a court overturned the ban, but the PR disaster gave the right-wing camp the perfect opportunity to confirm the existence of leftish cancel culture and suppression of free speech. “This is a symbolic event, a good description of the situation in Europe. Europe today is teetering on the border between freedom and oppression,” said Orban, comparing EU bureaucrats to communists and calling for change using June’s EU elections. Yet like all such brouhahas, there was more than a whiff of hypocrisy in the air, with many pointing out that Orban and his allies are also guilty of restricting free speech when it suits them. Just last week, several foreign journalists were banned from next week’s conservative CPAC shindig in Budapest, organised by a government-close foundation, for “belonging to a woke organisation”.
The investigative news site Direkt36 revealed this week that Hungarian taxpayer money went into buying Euronews in 2021. According to documents obtained by the investigative site and co-publishers Le Monde and Expresso, 88 per cent of Euronews was bought by Alpac Capital, run by Portuguese investor Pedro Vargas David, the son of Mario David, a conservative politician and friend and advisor to Orban. At the time of the transaction, there were already fears about possible Hungarian influence and whether Orban, who already controls large parts of the Hungarian media, wanted to extend his influence in Europe. The joint investigation showed these fears were well grounded: not only was Pedro Vargas David a friend of the Hungarian government, but the 150-million-euro transaction was partly financed by 45 million euros from a Hungarian state investment fund, while the government’s favourite media partner, New Land Media, provided a 12.5-million-euro loan to Alpac Capital. The investment fund was chaired by Finance Minister Mihaly Varga. The leaked documents show that one of the arguments for the transaction, designed to remain secret, was to “mitigate left-wing ideas and bias”. Insiders told Direkt36 the investment was politically backed to improve Hungary’s image in Europe and that the decision to finance the deal came “from the top”. Euronews said it had not witnessed any signs of editorial interference since the acquisition, while its Budapest bureau said it has been allowed to work independently for the past two years. Orban’s spokesman denied any knowledge of the deal. Hungary’s nationalist PM has previously denied any links to the Euronews deal, insisting his Fidesz party had “no plans for a world empire”.
Mr Fiala goes to Washington; Senate fast-tracks same-sex partnership bill
Czech PM Petr Fiala was in Washington this week at a critical time for global stability, kick-starting his two-day trip on Monday with a meeting with CIA chief William Burns, accompanied by the top brass of Czechia’s intelligence services. The PM later headed to the White House for some long-anticipated facetime with President Joe Biden, with talks focusing on security topics and economic and energy cooperation, just a few months after US-based Westinghouse was excluded from Czechia’s multi-billion-dollar nuclear expansion tender. Describing the bilateral meeting as “very friendly”, Fiala told reporters that both Czechia and the US stood united in their support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, and that Biden, who labelled Czechia as “a great ally”, had praised Prague’s initiative to buy artillery shells for Ukraine from around the world. On Tuesday, Fiala met with representatives of Congress, including House Speaker and Trump-ally Mike Johnson, just a few days before a crucial and long-delayed vote on the US’s 60-billion-dollar military aid package for Kyiv. In a speech at the Hudson Institute, Fiala warned against the potentially disastrous consequences of US isolationism, saying that “without America, we cannot deal with the crises we are facing today and will face in the future”. As Czechia’s ‘ammo for Ukraine’ collection continues to make global headlines, Fiala’s US diplomatic round was largely praised and showed that “the stature of the Czech Republic has increased significantly”, according to political pundit Jiri Pehe. Pointing to the lack of any major announcement, others however deemed the media buzz around the White House invitation as overblown and a sign of “immaturity” and “a certain servility”, in the words of former PM Mirek Topolanek. Judiciously timed to coincide with the critical Congress vote on Ukraine aid, the visit nevertheless has come near the end of Biden’s term, with discussions unlikely to have substantial long-term effects should a new administration take over.
After Washington, Brussels. In a joint letter with Belgian counterpart Alexander de Croo, Fiala on Wednesday called on the EU to adopt new sanctions and “restrictive measures” against the Kremlin in light of recent revelations regarding Russia’s large-scale attempts to interfere in EU politics and influence the results of the upcoming European Parliament elections. “We simply cannot allow Russia to get away with such a blatant attack on our democratic institutions,” the two leaders wrote as European leaders gathered for a two-days extraordinary summit. “We have to be very clear that attempts like this are not acceptable, and that we have to do everything to defend our democracy”. In March, the Czech intelligence agency BIS uncovered a Russia-funded network of disinformation and political meddling around the Prague-based media Voice of Europe, which the government sanctioned along with its two main operatives, involving possible cash-handouts and bribes to politicians from at least half a dozen European countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and France. The revelations about Russia’s efforts to interfere at the highest level of EU politics sent shockwaves across the bloc just a few months before EU elections, prompting calls to launch investigations, including with the participation of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and the Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).
In an unusual procedural move, the Czech Senate on Wednesday passed, without debate, an amendment to the Civil Code relating to same-sex partnerships. In order to “avoid “lengthy debates”, the upper house of parliament merely removed the item from the meeting agenda, automatically sending the bill for final approval to the desk of President Petr Pavel, a supporter of equal marriage. This was reportedly the first time in the Senate’s history that such an option has been used, with MP Zdenko Nytra – who came up with the idea – arguing it was to avoid the kind of discriminatory rhetoric heard when the bill was debated in the lower house. Falling short of fully legalising gay marriage, a measure supported by a majority of Czechs, the bill merely extends to same-sex couples some rights that are currently the preserve of heterosexual unions – including on the issues of joint property and pensions – and rename the current “registered partnerships” simply as “partnerships”. Adoption of children would only be possible if one of the spouses is the biological parent. Gay rights activists acknowledged that the reform, which should come into force in January, is a step in the right direction and would strengthen the rights of same-sex couples, but deplored the failure to introduce equal marriage, vowing to continue the fight for full legal recognition.
Poland looks toward Sky Shield; Duda meets another Donald
Polish PM Donald Tusk said this week he wants Poland to join the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI), a project to build a ground-based integrated European air defence system, covering all elements from short-range to long-range defence systems. A German initiative that Berlin presented to NATO partners in 2022, it has been so far been taken up by 21 countries. As part of the initiative, members jointly purchase air defence systems, including Patriots (US), Arrow 3 (Israel and US) and IRIS-T SLM (Germany). “Poland should be a part of several systems, which could together form an iron dome above the Polish sky,” Tusk said during a press conference on Tuesday as he announced his government’s intention to join ESSI. Under the previous PiS government, Poland passed on joining the initiative, with President Andrzej Duda labelling ESSI a “German business project”. The PiS government argued Poland was doing enough to build a strong air defence, relying primarily on Patriots, complemented by shorter-range missiles of British and domestic production. Yet Jacek Siewiera, the current head of the National Security Bureau, said that the Polish system planned by PiS was composed primarily of short- and mid-range missiles while the ESSI would bring more of the necessary long-range components. “You can’t build a European dome without detection ability, that is, without radars on Polish territory, on NATO’s eastern flank,” he added.
On Wednesday night in New York, President Duda visited Trump Tower and met with US presidential hopeful Donald Trump in what Duda referred to as a “private visit”. Trump told reporters as he welcomed Duda: “We’re hosting this gentleman, who is doing a great job. The Polish people truly love him. It’s not an easy thing to achieve, but he’s doing an extraordinary job. He’s my friend and we had four great years together,” adding that he hopes to repeat the experience. The staff of the Polish president didn’t give details about what the two men discussed, but Trump’s team wrote on social media they touched on NATO members’ financial contributions, the war in Ukraine and the war in the Middle East, among other things. On Tuesday, when the US media first reported that a meeting between the two was likely, Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz pointed out that “there are no private meetings of a president abroad” and Duda should discuss with Trump the issue of Republican lawmakers blocking an aid package for Ukraine. He also made it clear that Poland’s new government would cooperate with the next US administration whoever wins November’s election.
New prosecutors needed in Slovakia; crowdfunding for Ukraine
New prosecutors will have to take over the prominent Jan Kuciak murder case after prosecutors Matus Harkabus and Daniel Mikulas announced that they would quit their jobs in June. Their decision comes a month after the Special Prosecutor’s Office, their former workplace, ceased to exist after the government passed legislation to close it. Prosecutors from the abolished Special Prosecutor’s Office began to work at the General Prosecutor’s Office, where they were assigned to departments that have nothing to do with organised crime, corruption and murders. Therefore, Harkabus and Mikulas asked Prosecutor General Maros Zilinka to send them to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Zilina, northern Slovakia, where they both come from. Zilinka, who’s never be known to stand up for prosecutors from the Special Prosecutor’s Office, refused this request and subsequently declined to comment on the decision. In a letter to Zilinka, Harkabus wrote that the way he runs the General Prosecutor’s Office resembles the 1970s, a period when any democratisation efforts were suppressed following the 1968 invasion of then-Communist Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops. The EU Commission also announced it wants to know why Zilinka didn’t reassign prosecutors from the abolished body – who’ve been praised for their thorough work by the media and public but attacked by politicians from the ruling party Smer – to relevant departments. Kuciak, an investigative journalist, and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova were murdered in 2018 in a contract-for-hire killing. Last year, the Specialised Criminal Court failed to find the alleged mastermind of the murders, Marian Kocner, guilty. Given the announced prosecution changes, it’s not clear when the Supreme Court will decide on the next steps for this extensive case.
In contrast to the Slovak government, which refuses to send ammunition to Ukraine from warehouses of the armed forces and refused to be part of Czechia’s ‘ammo for Ukraine’ initiative, the public have decided to help its neighbour. In just three days, around 1.5 million euros was crowdfunded to purchase ammo, six times the original 250,000-euro target. The final sum will be sent to a fund managed by the Czech initiative Darcek pre Putina (Gift for Putin). Last year, it took four months to fundraise 650,000 euros for the purchase of the Bozena 5 demining device. The Slovak and Ukrainian governments held a meeting in eastern Slovakia last week, where the contents of a document signed by the premiers, Denys Shmyhal and Robert Fico, stand in stark contrast to the anti-Ukrainian statements made in public by the Slovak PM. For example, Fico has claimed that Ukraine cannot join NATO and questioned Zelensky’s peace plan; yet according to the document, he now supports Ukraine’s future in NATO and the president’s peace plan.
