Articles

Six Hungarian opposition parties from across the political spectrum held the country’s first national primary contest in order to choose the joint candidates who will take on the country’s long-serving and increasingly autocratic prime minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party in the next parliamentary elections in 2022. Andrea Virág, Director of strategy at Republikon Institute, presents key takeaways from the Hungarian opposition primaries.

The final instalment of Daniel Craig’s James Bond is finally in the cinemas but I had no high hopes for it given the plot-hole riddled previous movies. No Time to Die added to the pile of rubbish that was Spectre. Liberals, though, can learn from its mistakes. Beware, spoilers galore!

The COVID-19 outbreak caused a global public health crisis, but unfortunately, its impacts go far beyond the health dimension. Since the beginning of the crisis, disinformation actors have played a key role in spreading disinformation and hoaxes.

The cost of the state\'s family policy reached PLN 70 billion in 2020. By comparison, spending on countering the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigating the effects of the economic lockdown amounted to PLN 103 billion, and spending on defense amounted to PLN 42 billion.

The COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by unprecedented state interventions – from restrictions on basic individual freedoms to significant increases in public spending, among others, to compensate companies for the effects of the shutdown.

Within the framework of the \"Polish Deal\", PiS is raising the tax burden on income from rental housing drastically and without a transition period. In this way, the government wants to slow down the growth of property prices and, at the same time, increase budget revenues. This is a wrong direction.

Both euro-optimists and euro-critics agree that the European Union is facing critical challenges these days, it is not strong enough and the bloc must implement significant changes to fulfil its original aims and secure peace and progress for its citizens.

Poland has imposed a state of emergency along its border with Belarus, holding back small groups of men, women and children who are refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, and other countries. They are without shelter, clean water, food, and access to medical help.

In the past few years, there have been significant changes over the Hungarian media market, more and more media outlets are owned by government-friendly companies, often spreading misinformation to serve political agendas. Viktor Orbán’s regime in Hungary led to the centralization of several public sectors in order to secure its power over the past decade.

The Paris Agreement was and is the only climate accord to date, which is a legally binding document, encompassing 196 countries with – somewhat – clear milestones to reach the desirable outcome: that is, limit global warming to well below 2, preferably 1,5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.