Politics

On June 9, Hungary held the elections for the European Parliament along with its local elections to choose mayors and councilors. The elections saw a record turnout of 58.1 %, but the most interesting election, the Budapest mayoral election with a turnout of 60.51%, resulted in a very high number of spoiled ballots, at 2.98%.

Israel\'s human rights record is not untarnished, a fact which is amplified in the recent war in Gaza. It is right that Israel should be held accountable for its actions. However, this certainly does not mean that Israel does not have the right to defend itself against Hamas and other Iranian proxies, even if war measures are necessary. Nor should it relativize the horrors committed by the oppressive terrorists who attacked the civilians of a democratic country.

Hungary has been fined an unprecedentedly large amount for the severe violation of EU law over the rights of asylum seekers. However, this is not about Hungary\'s stance against the oppressive EU as the Hungarian governing party Fidesz wants to depict but about the party coming at odds with its ever-swaying populist positions. Yet the Hungarian voters, rather than EU activists, should punish the Hungarian government.

Since the systemic transformation in Poland in 1989, public media have varied in the intensity of presenting the ruling camp\'s viewpoint while simultaneously allowing opposing narratives. However, since the Law and Justice Party (PiS) took power in 2015, the media have fully become a propaganda tool for the government, thus reverting to their worst traditions from the People\'s Republic of Poland (PRL) era.

It is true that the role of career public officials in resisting authoritarian state capture is not properly appreciated. As Kisilowski points out, for the far-right, the “deep state” of liberal professional bureaucracy is frequently viewed as a prime opponent of the authoritarian agenda.

2024 is a turbulent year in Hungarian politics, and this is especially true for the capital. New alliances have been formed, while at the same time, some previous cooperation has so broken down that the parties are running against each other.

In this article, I would like to present the importance of religion in the migrant integration process. I will get a closer look at the situation of Muslims in Hungary and France and see how they are trying to integrate religious Muslim immigrants. I chose these two countries because both countries have policies that are against migration.

The combined military spending of NATO members is 18 times that of Russia, with a massive advantage in all types of weaponry. Being this afraid in a situation like that seems a peculiar way of doing the right thing, Raul Rebane notes in Vikerraadio\'s daily comment. Full-scale war has been raging for over two years in Ukraine, and fatigue is clearly setting in.

In their election manifestos for the European Parliament, the political parties have paid a lot of attention to environmental issues; there is talk of steps towards climate neutrality, but also of issues that directly affect Estonian entrepreneurs and rural life. The Reform Party\'s program links the environment with security. According to candidate Hanah Lahe, the party emphasizes restoring and preserving biodiversity.

The Georgian government, ruled by an informal leader (recently branded a \"Puppet Master\" by the Financial Times), adopted the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence. The Georgian Dream party claims that the country is facing a threat from agents of foreign influence, particularly from a \"Global War Party\" that includes local non-government and international organizations (including the New Economic School, which was founded in 2001).