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16 political groups ran for the European Parliament. Every step of the campaigns it was clear that these elections are primarily a rehearsal for the forthcoming parliamentary elections this summer.

Civic Platform and Law & Justice confirmed their domination on Polish political scene during European Parliament election on 25th of May. Donald Tusk’s party have received 32,13% and Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s party 31,78% of voters support according to final result of elections.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orbán won his second consecutive term in a landside election last month. The governing Fidesz party managed to retain its absolute majority as the result of arguable new election laws and a highly inept opposition. Even more disturbingly Hungary’s infamous far-right Jobbik emerged as the second biggest party in the country.

The joint event of the Hungarian Free Market Foundation and Political Capital was searching for answers to the ever present questions such as: what is the program of the far-right, how certain far right groups in Europe differ, should the media give these parties a voice, what effective counter strategies exist and is it possible that these parties form a partnership in the EU parliament.

Many people, both in the West and in the former socialist countries, display an attitude which I call—somewhat pointedly—“a mentality of Soviet official”. It is a generalized belief: “whatever problem there exists, only the state can solve it.” The state is perceived as a deity, i.e. an omniscient and benevolent being with unlimited resources.

Since the transition, a number of national and international contrastive studies have noted a growing anti-capitalist sentiment in the Hungarian society.

Bulgaria became a member of the EU, it became a member of NATO, but still, I don\'t think that the expectations that everybody had when it joined the EU in 2007 were matched to the full extent.

When we are talking about inequality we should always distinguish between inequality before the law and inequality in wealth or the accumulation of income.

Besides the general turnout and results of the elections Republikon Institute took a deeper look into the performance of each parties as well, with special regard to the changes since 2010, the parties different performance in different regions and the phenomenon of fragment of ballots.

FDP leader Christian Lindner expressed a strong need for more responsibility in fiscal policy and a legally anchored ban on the bank bailout. He criticized the state bank bailout as a perversion of the market economy.