Eurasia Press & News
The net continues to tighten around PiS politicians who are alleged to have played fast and loose with the rules during their time in power from 2015-2023. On Thursday, Poland’s parliamentary affairs committee began considering waiving former justice minister and PiS MP Zbigniew Ziobro’s immunity over allegations he abused his position while in office – some of which he has largely admitted to – including the misallocation of millions of euros from a crime prevention and victim support fund to the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) so it could purchase the Pegasus surveillance software. An indictment was filed in October against one of Ziobro’s deputy justice ministers, Michal Wos, over the issue. At the end of September, Polish police removed Ziobro from a plane at the airport and escorted him to testify before the parliamentary commission looking into the use of Pegasus spyware by the previous PiS government. The National Prosecutor’s Office wants to bring 26 charges against Ziobro, with the most serious alleging he headed a criminal group operating within his ministry that favoured entities related to the justice minister, according to a 158-page document sent to the parliament’s speaker, Euronews reported. With Ziobro meeting Viktor Orban on Monday and the Hungarian PM publicly supporting the former Polish justice minister, there is speculation Ziobro could join another of his former deputies, Marcin Romanowski, who was granted political asylum in Hungary last year. The two posed for a photo, on which Polish PM Donald Tusk remarked: “Either under arrest or in Budapest.” Ziobro denied to the portal wPolityce.pl that he had applied for political asylum in Hungary, but Reuters reported that he skipped parliamentary proceedings on Thursday, “seemingly choosing to observe them from Hungary as he believes he will not get a fair hearing in Warsaw.”
Poland’s most famous antisemite, the extreme-right MEP Grzegorz Braun, was one of two Poles honoured by the Belarusian government on Monday with the so-called “Peace and Human Rights Award” of the Emil Czeczko International Charitable Foundation. The foundation was named after the eponymous soldier who deserted the Polish Army in December 2021 while on duty at the Polish-Belarusian border and requested political asylum in Belarus. Czeczko was later found dead in his apartment in Minsk in 2022, with the official cause of death reported as hanging. Also honoured was Tomasz J., a former member of the pro-Kremlin Zmiana party, who is under investigation in Poland over his alleged involvement in promoting Russian interests and propaganda. The award is, according to BelTA, “virtually a gold medal in the field of defence of human rights”, though neither Braun nor Tomasz J. was there to pick it up. Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski sent his ‘congratulations’ to Braun via X, saying “you have earned it”. Among Braun’s more notable contributions to the defence of human rights listed by TVP include using a fire extinguisher to put out candles lit in the Polish parliament to mark the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah in December 2023; destroying a Christmas tree decorated with EU and Ukrainian flags; vandalising an LGBTQ+ exhibition in the Polish parliament; interrupting a lecture by a German historian; and holding a doctor captive for more than an hour over an abortion she had carried out.
Orban tightens grip on media; data leak shakes election campaign
Hungary’s biggest tabloid Blikk was this week taken over by the pro-government publisher Indamedia, just six months before the country’s next general election. Blikk, which currently has around 30,000 readers, is one of the last remaining print newspapers in Hungary. The takeover is part of a major deal in which the Swiss media company Ringier is selling all its Hungarian assets (except for two online sites) to Indamedia, effectively withdrawing from the Hungarian market after more than 30 years. Blikk’s editor-in-chief Ivan Nagy – who was hired only seven months ago to transform the paper from a tabloid into a more serious, politically relevant daily – has already announced his resignation. “We’re only five months away from the election, so it’s hard to assume that political intent is entirely absent from the equation,” he said. Investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi commented that the deal marks “another sad day for Hungary’s media freedom”. He also pointed the finger at Western media companies which, he said, “have all contributed to the extent to which Orban’s propaganda empire has been able to build itself up.” Ringier CEO Marc Walder denied any political pressure, insisting his company’s withdrawal from Hungary was based purely on business considerations. This is surely not the case for Indamedia, which had to borrow 13 billion forints from the government-connected MBH Bank. One of Indamedia’s owners, Miklos Vaszily, happens to chair MBH’s supervisory board. Both Ringier and Indamedia have controversial pasts. Ringier once owned Nepszabadsag, the country’s largest and most influential political daily, before selling it to the opaque Austrian investor Heinrich Pecina, who abruptly shut it down overnight in 2016. Indamedia, which publishes one of Hungary’s most-read news sites Index.hu, was taken over by pro-government figures in 2020, triggering mass protests and a walkout by the entire editorial staff, who later went on to found Telex.hu, now one of the most successful independent outlets in the country.
A major data breach marked another low point in Hungary’s election campaign. The pro-government daily Magyar Nemzet reported that opposition party Tisza allegedly allowed the personal data of its 200,000 supporters to be leaked online. The information appeared on the website Leak-Base.la. PM Viktor Orban called the incident a “serious scandal” and claimed in a video statement that some of the leaked data had been processed by Ukrainian citizens – an attempt to frame the case as another example of alleged Ukrainian “infiltration”, consistent with the government’s ongoing narrative portraying Kyiv as a threat to Hungary’s national sovereignty. Tisza leader Peter Magyar said his party’s IT systems, including its online app, had been under constant attack for months. He accused “international networks with a vested interest in keeping Orban in power of being behind the attacks as well as cooperating with Russian and Chinese troll farms. He added that “the government’s goal is intimidation”, especially as the opposition party is expected to present its parliamentary candidates by the end of November. The leak is undoubtedly embarrassing for Tisza. While some supporters have dismissed its importance, others – especially those who have tried to keep their political sympathies private due to potential repercussions at work or within their families – are nervous. “This case could further deepen the polarisation of the country,” warned data protection expert Gabor Molnar.
Czech far-right leader becomes speaker; President Pavel still on the lookout
The chairman of the far-right SPD party Tomio Okamura was elected on Wednesday as speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower and most important house of the Czech parliament. The vote, which came two days after the newly elected MPs sat in the house for the start of the first session since parliamentary elections over a month ago, was seen as the first test of unity for the incoming ruling coalition, made up of former and future PM Andrej Babis’s ANO party, the conservative Motorists and Okamura’s SPD. The latter’s nomination to the key parliamentary post and third highest position in the Czech Republic’s constitutional order is seen as highly controversial, even within the ranks of Okamura’s future coalition partners. An opposing bid by Jan Bartosek from the Christian Democrats KDU-CSL and outgoing coalition that had hoped to attract enough votes from ANO or Motorist moderates failed, however, with Okamura elected with 107 votes out of 200 deputies. “I would like the house to function well, for the atmosphere to be better than during the last election cycle, for the atmosphere to be positive, and I would like to contribute to that,” Okamura told reporters after gaining the post he had long sought – a reference to the notoriously toxic and divisive mood seen in the Chamber of Deputies over the past four years. “I would like us to sit down with the future opposition and have an atmosphere of cooperation, not of hatred,” claimed Okamura somewhat implausibly, given that he has become notorious for his obstructionist antics and hours-long speeches. He also confirmed to journalists that the incoming ANO-SPD-Motorist coalition is looking to amend the internal rules of procedure of the house with the goal of increasing the speed and efficiency of parliamentary debates.
Meanwhile, the presidential office announced that Petr Pavel will once more meet with Babis next Wednesday to discuss the draft program statement of the future government, and ask more details about how the billionaire ANO chairman – whom he tasked with forming a government a week ago – will resolve his conflict of interest in relation to his ownership of the Agrofert conglomerate. Since Babis won a landslide victory in last month’s general election, Pavel has shown great caution and prudence in not rushing the nomination of a new government and repeatedly outlining several red lines for him approving future cabinet members, including safeguarding Czechia’s place in NATO and the EU, and preserving the country’s independent checks and balances and democratic institutions. “I will monitor the concrete expression of these principles in the coalition agreement, in the division of ministries and in the staffing of ministries, as well as in the definition of common program priorities of the proposed government,” Pavel said. Babis is widely expected to become the next PM, but several of his coalition partners’ cabinet nominees – including the Motorists’ picks to head the ministers of environment and foreign affairs – have proven particularly controversial.
Slovakia suffers rise in petty theft after penal code changes; still awaiting justice
Mayors across Slovakia – including those from the ruling coalition – are warning of a rise in petty theft following last year’s overhaul of the Criminal Code. The law now treats a crime as such only when damages exceed 700 euros, and a minor theft and repeated minor thefts are classified merely as misdemeanours, punishable by a fine. City leaders say this shift has emboldened offenders. “The state must play a clear role in ensuring security – it cannot abdicate responsibility,” said Bratislava’s mayor, Matus Vallo. Yet government officials and police leadership have dismissed the concerns. Police chief Jana Maskarova argued that the reported surge in thefts is “more a matter of perception” than fact. She and government politicians advised citizens and shop owners to take basic precautions such as securing bicycles and using anti-theft chips in shops, and suggested municipalities strengthen their local police forces. Police have published statistics on misdemeanours from recent years to support their stance that no significant increase has occurred. Shop owners, however, counter that many have stopped reporting thefts altogether, saying that under the new legal framework, there is little point in doing so. Police officers themselves reportedly refuse to deal with such thefts. Justice Minister Boris Susko has accused the opposition and the media of fuelling unnecessary panic. Earlier on, he pointed to inflation and migration as contributing factors to public unease. In response, several mayors met with General Prosecutor Maros Zilinka, who sided with them and criticised the coalition for the legal changes. Zilinka, who reportedly visited several shops to see the situation firsthand, did not oppose the 2024 amendment that downgraded small thefts from crimes to misdemeanours, but he now plans to submit comments on the next proposed revision of the Criminal Code. PM Robert Fico has not commented on the issue recently. Earlier, however, he dismissed claims of rising crime as “total nonsense”, accusing the opposition of attempting to undermine the government’s reforms.
Twenty years after the brutal killing of 21-year-old university student Daniel Tupy, his family is still waiting for justice. The trial of Bratislava lawyer Adam Puskar, charged with Tupy’s murder in 2023, is set to continue in January 2026. Puskar denies guilt and has so far refused to testify. Tupy, a philosophy student at Comenius University, was stabbed to death by a group of men armed with knives and brass knuckles on Bratislava’s Tyrsovo embankment on November 4, 2005 – an attack widely believed to have been motivated by far-right extremism. His death shocked Slovakia and became a symbol of rising intolerance and the failures of the justice system. The investigation has been plagued by controversy and shifting theories. An earlier trial ended in acquittals after prosecutors failed to produce sufficient evidence, and the case was suspended in 2012. Only in 2022 did police claim to have strengthened the evidence, leading to Puskar’s arrest the following year. On Tuesday, activists from Antifascist Bratislava and other civic groups marked the anniversary with a vigil and concert at the memorial to victims of extremism. “It is unbelievable that after 20 years this murder remains unresolved,” organisers said. Daniel’s brother, Martin Tupy, warned that the far-right ideology behind the attack remains pervasive. “It is deeply unacceptable that both the former and current state officials deliberately protected those responsible for the attack on my brother and his friends,” the brother said. Fico was in power then – and is in power today once again.
