This Week in Central Europe

In this week’s podcast, the TWiCE team talks about Poland's plans to strengthen border security as Wagner fighters are seen relocating to Belarus following a deal negotiated by Belarus leader Aleksandr Lukashenko, which included the welcoming of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin to Minsk on Tuesday.

In other news, in a surprise move, Hungary’s Justice Minister Judit Varga announced on Wednesday that she was resigning; Czech energy giant made to pay out profits made on back of the energy crisis; and pro-family Slovak speaker under pressure over once slapping girlfriend.

In this week’s podcast, the TWiCE team talks to Edit Inotai, BIRN's Budapest correspondent, about the unsuccessful fact-finding visit by the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee, which left Hungary still concerned about the government's anti-corruption efforts.

In other news, Polish parties try to outdo each other over child handouts; the media is in the headlines in Czechia; and Slovakia’s new technocratic government gets to work.

In this week’s podcast, the TWiCE team talk to Claudia Ciobanu about the arrest of an alleged Russian spy in Poland and the government’s decision to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing at the European Games this summer in Krakow-Malopolska.

This week’s podcast focuses on the fallout from the ICC’s arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, especially with regards to Hungary, while the TWiCE team talk to Petr Pojman, a renowned Czech criminologist who is helping investigate and catalogue war crimes in Ukraine.

In this week’s podcast, the TWiCE team talks to Tom Junes, an historian at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, about the political fallout from allegations that Pope John Paul II protected pedophile priests while archbishop of Krakow during the 1970s.

In this week’s podcast, the TWiCE team talk to Petr Cermak, a research fellow focusing on Western Balkan politics at the Prague-based Association for International Affairs, who discusses the inauguration of the new Czech president and what it means for Czech relations with its neighbours in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe.

In this week’s podcast, the TWiCE team talks to Adam Reichardt, editor-in-chief of New Eastern Europe magazine and host of the Talk Eastern Europe podcast, about how Poland has found itself on the world stage with the visit of the US president and its hosting of a meeting of eastern NATO members in the week of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

We briefly connect with Edit Inotai, our Hungarian correspondent, to discuss yet another controversial Orban's claim before turning the attention to the rest of the region.

In this week’s podcast, the TWiCE team talks to Peter Dlhopolec, the new editor-in-chief of the Slovak Spectator, about the continuing debate in Slovakia over the date of the early election and the chances of Mikulas Dzurinda making a political comeback with his Blue Coalition.

In this week’s podcast, the TWiCE team talk to Rob Anderson, former FT correspondent in Prague, about what Petr Pavel’s first week as the Czech president-elect can tell us about what kind of president he will be when he takes office in March.

A recent government decree allowed the Hungarian defence minister to dismiss high-ranking military officers after 25 years of service. This could affect much of the country's military leadership in a time of war in Hungary's immediate neighbourhood. The timing and the rushed implementation led to speculations in the Hungarian media.

Slovakia will likely hold an early election in the autumn, after interim PM Eduard Heger admitted he has not managed to form a new government. On Saturday, citizens are expected to vote in a referendum on a constitutional change that would make it possible to shorten parliament’s term via referendum or a majority vote in parliament.

The popular Erasmus program was in the headlines this week in Hungary. On Monday, it was revealed that the Hungarian government was informed by the Council of the EU on December 15 that the country’s universities, now operating as private foundations governed by a board of trustees, would not be eligible for the program funding any more.

Students risk losing a great opportunity for their education and academic career. How did the country take this news? Gyula Csák help TWiCE host Nick Watson unpack the news.

Slovakia's minority government finally breathed its last on Thursday as PM Eduard Heger narrowly lost a no-confidence vote in parliament. This meant the whole government had to resign, bringing an end to Heger’s year and a half in office.

So, what happens now, snap elections? We discuss about it with Michaela Terenzani, editor in chief of the Slovak Spectator.

Hungarian Finance Minister Mihaly Varga vetoed the 18-billion-euro EU loan to Ukraine on Tuesday, kiboshing what would’ve been a unanimous decision by the EU. The Hungarian government also suddenly scrapped the fuel cap that had kept petrol and diesel prices low for voters as fuel shortages raged across the country, while a close ally of PM Viktor Orban, the central bank governor Gyorgy Matolcsy, broke ranks to criticise the government’s handling of the economy, which has made it among the most vulnerable in the world.

What’s Hungary up to? Gyula Csak tunes in this week to discuss events with TWiCE host Nick Watson.

Hungary was very much in the news this week, much of it centred on an announcement by the European Commission it is recommending the withholding of billions of euros in funds. Once again, the reason for this recommendation are concerns that the government of Viktor Orban has been weakening the rule of law and not doing enough to stop corruption.

On this and other major events from the country, TWiCE host Nicholas Watson talks to BIRN’s Budapest correspondent Edit Inotai.

In other news, a high-profile judge critical of the Polish government returns to the bench after almost two years of suspension; Czechia finally makes some nuclear progress; and Slovakia’s chief prosecutor summarily closes case against former PM Robert Fico to consternation.

There doesn’t appear to have been any major breakthrough in talks between Brussels and Poland's new EU minister, Andrzej Szynkowski vel Sek, about the release of Poland’s 35-billion-euro slice of the EU’s coronavirus recovery fund. The money has been held up by the EU over concerns about the rule of law in Poland until now.

While the EU Commission has accepted as a positive step the dismantling of a Disciplinary Chamber at the Supreme Court used to punish critical judges, there are still pending issues Warsaw needs to solve before any money can be paid out. Our Polish correspondent Claudia Ciobanu tell us more about it together with TWiCE host Gyula Csak.

An ongoing investigation by the Polish authorities, with the help of the US, is looking into precisely what happened on Tuesday afternoon, when a missile hit farm infrastructure in southeast Poland, just 6 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, killing two workers.

“Nothing indicates that this was an attack directed intentionally against Poland,” said Duda. “This was most likely an accident. Russia yesterday attacked Ukraine, Ukrainian defence fired numerous missiles to neutralise the attack… It’s unfortunately very likely that one of the missiles fired by the Ukrainians fell on Polish territory.” In this context, Poland will not be asking to invoke Article 4 in the NATO Treaty.

In an internal document sent to Slovakia’s priests, Trnava Archbishop Jan Orosch wrote in early November that he considered the two queer victims of the October 12 terrorist attack outside a Bratislava gay bar were not innocent. He even questioned whether the police had ever bothered carrying out a drug search of the bar.

The leaked remarks prompted an immediate backlash from the police and public, including many Catholic believers and even some individual priests. Slovak Spectator correspondent Michaela Terenzani helps us unpack this news with TWiCE host Nick Watson.

The Polish government announced this week that it will construct a wall on its border with the Russian exclave Kaliningrad. Fearing what happened last year on the border with Belarus, Poland aims at preventing a new migration wave into the EU.

The announcement of the wall was met with a mixed response at home. While few in Poland doubt the need to take strong measures to stand up to Russia, which is waging war in next-door Ukraine, some doubt whether a few rows of barbed wire that the government plans to put up would actually prevent migrants sent over the border by Russia from getting across.

Protests demanding higher pay and better working conditions for teachers continued this week in Hungary. On Sunday, some 80,000 people, according to organisers, demonstrated in Budapest, calling for a better education system, less centralisation and more freedom for schools and teachers.

The Czech government is mulling ways to get public media reforms past the opposition as part of a promised push to strengthen the independence of Czech Television (ČT).

The reform bill, which was finally put up for initial debate in parliament on October 13, is intended to prevent the ČT Council from being politicised by the ruling power of the day and limit the executive body’s power over the public broadcaster’s management.