Slovak President Zuzana Caputova announced on Tuesday that she won’t seek re-election in 2024. In her statement, she cited a lack of strength and consideration for her family as reasons behind her decision. Constant verbal attacks from some politicians, like ex-PM and Smer leader Robert Fico, were not the main factor in her decision-making, the president said. Caputova remains the most trusted politician in Slovakia, according to several polls. Observers point out that her decision may discourage some voters from voting in the September parliamentary election. In recent months, foreign media have mentioned Caputova in connection with the next secretary general of NATO, though it is believed that the current chief, Jens Stoltenberg, will be asked to stay in his post for another year. Over the coming weeks and months, presidential hopefuls are expected to start announcing their candidacies following Caputova’s decision. The former diplomat and ex-foreign minister Ivan Korcok admitted on Wednesday he is considering running.
Meanwhile, parliamentary speaker and Sme Rodina leader Boris Kollar rarely speaks about his family, but was forced to address the issue on Wednesday after one of the mothers of his 12 children by 10 wives, Barbora Richterova, accused him of beating her up in 2012 while on a holiday in Florida. She related her version of events in a letter to 150 MPs, which has already led to some calls for Kollar to step down. The speaker said he had given her “a few slaps” as he defended the life of their little boy, and he said he would do the same thing again in such a situation. As he described it, Richterova threw their child across the living room. Richterova denies this and is continuing to attack Kollar on social media. She even claims that Kollar ordered Slovak intelligence to monitor her, which the service has denied. The speaker believes the whole scandal has been orchestrated by powerful people with links to opposition forces, with the aim of harming Sme Rodina ahead of the election.
Pipes at the landfall facilities of the ‘Nord Stream 1’ gas pipeline in Lubmin, Germany, 07 September 2022. EPA-EFE/HANNIBAL HANSCHKE
Poland denies role in Nord Stream sabotage; murder in Greece is politicised
Prosecutors are so far rejecting the idea that Poland could have been used as an operational base for blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines in September 2022. According to a June 10 report by the Wall Street Journal, a main hypothesis of German investigators into this act of sabotage was that Poland was used in this way, when the yacht Andromeda, strongly believed to have perpetrated the attack, journeyed into Polish waters and even used Poland as a logistics and financing hub for the attack. An important role was allegedly played by an otherwise passive travel agency based in Warsaw, the Ukrainian-owned Feeria Lwow, which is said to have rented out the yacht from Germany. In responses provided to the daily Rzeczpospolita and published by the paper on Thursday, the Polish prosecutors in charge of the case claim that “the statements made in the WSJ report, that Poland was a logistical hub for the operation, are entirely false, and do not find any basis in the evidence collected to investigate this case”. Polish prosecutors admit, however, Andromeda did stop in Polish waters for 12 hours and was even checked by the Polish Border Guard: “The findings of the investigation show that, during the stay of the yacht in the Polish port, no items were loaded onto the boat.”
Polish politicians are apparently trying to score political points using the murder of 27-year-old Anastasia Rubinska on the island of Kos in Greece. The woman’s body was found last Monday, six days after her boyfriend (the couple were working in a hotel on the island) reported her missing. Anastasia was found in a plastic bag, naked from the waist down. A Bangladeshi man was arrested in connection with her death, with his Pakistani roommate also under investigation. According to the Greek and international media, multiple pieces of evidence indicate Anastasia was in the men’s apartment; her body was found nearby and signs of a struggle were found on the Bangladeshi’s body. Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki has asked Polish prosecutors to investigate the case and said the Bangladeshi man should be turned over to Poland “to stand trial before a Polish court and receive the highest possible sentence.” Deputy Justice Minister Michal Wos told TVP: “This case needs to be clarified very carefully, especially since we already know, we can say today, that the most likely scenario was murder at the hands of a person from Asia, of so-called refugees, that is, economic migrants.”
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic (R) receives Hungarian PM Viktor Orban ahead of a meeting of the Hungary-Serbia Strategic Cooperation Council in Palic, Serbia, 20 June 2023. EPA-EFE/Vivien Cher Benko
Ukrainian PoWs sent to Hungary causes tensions; ECJ challenges asylum law
Keeping Russian Orthodox Church leader Kirill off the EU’s sanctions list has paid off for Hungary, it seems. As a sign of goodwill, the Russian church – a close ally of Vladimir Putin – announced earlier this month it would help free 11 Ukrainian prisoners of war and hand them over to Hungary. The PoWs are all members of the Hungarian ethnic community from Transcarpathia, who fought voluntarily on the side of Kyiv and were captured by Russia. If Russia’s intent was to strain relations between Ukraine and Hungary, and Orban and the EU, it has worked. Yet it also seems to have caused rifts inside the Hungarian government. RFE Hungary reported government-close circles as saying that Deputy PM Zsolt Semjen personally dealt with the issue in a rather secretive way, forgetting to inform both PM Orban and Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. If true, this could be a singular case in a system known for being tightly controlled by the PM. The release of the prisoners also raises the practical question of how and where did Russia physically hand over the PoWs to the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service, since there is neither a common border nor direct flights between Russia and Hungary.
The fallout from the PoW affair was a further blow to already strained Hungarian-Ukrainian relations. Kyiv complained that Hungary did not inform it about the liberation of the prisoners and its embassy hasn’t been allowed access to them. Zoltan Kovacs, Hungary’s state secretary for international communications, said the government had nothing to do with the release of the soldiers. The secret deal between Hungary and the Russian Orthodox Church has also caused headaches in Brussels. European Commission spokesman Peter Stano urged the Hungarian authorities “to explain to their Ukrainian counterparts what happened, how it happened, what was the role of Hungary, who was involved, who was not involved, and how this was managed.”
Elsewhere, Europe’s top court, the ECJ, ruled this week that Hungary infringed migrant rights when it prevented them from submitting asylum claims at the border, instead forcing them to first hand in a “declaration of intent” and apply for travel permits at the Hungarian embassy in Belgrade or Kyiv. These travel permits are usually not granted, meaning migrants are stripped of any legal possibility to launch an asylum application. The ECJ ruled on Thursday that by “making an application for international protection subject to the prior submission of a declaration of intent at a Hungarian embassy situated in a third country, [the government in Budapest] failed to fulfil its obligations.” The measure effectively reduced the number of asylum seekers virtually to zero; the Hungarian Helsinki Committee reported that only 16 people received a permit to enter Hungary to launch an application last year, while tens of thousands were pushed back from the southern border. The law was the “successor” of previous legislation that locked asylum seekers in transit zones for months, which the EU’s top court also found breached EU standards in 2020. The government has not commented yet on the latest ruling.
Andrej Babis during a press conference after the announcement of the preliminary unofficial results of the 2nd round of the Czech presidential election at his election office in Prague on January 28, 2023. TASR PHOTO – Jaroslav Novák
Babis must sell media assets; compensation of sorts for German shot by Czechoslovak guards
Andrej Babis, the former Czech PM, will be forced to sell his large media holdings after the parliament approved a bill tightening conflict of interest rules. The new regulations, which Babis’s ANO party and the far-right SPD sought to block, will ban politicians from owning media outlets starting from next year. Companies owned by members of the government will also be blocked from claiming subsidies. Current legislation, introduced in 2017 and branded “lex Babis”, bans politicians and government members from “controlling” such assets. But despite the billionaire putting his Agrofert conglomerate into trusts headed by his wife and lawyer, the EU still found him to have a conflict of interest during his time as PM. Assuming the government-friendly Senate and president approve the amendment, the regulations will apply to “beneficial ownership”. ANO claims that the measure – which would give affected parties just 60 days to comply – is aimed solely at one man and threatened to take the issue to the Constitutional Court. Anti-corruption experts welcomed the tightening of the regulations, but also noted that companies owned by members of the government remain free to take part in public procurement.
A German man who was shot and detained in 1989 by Czechoslovak border guards can claim 400 koruna (16.83 euros) in compensation, a court in the Czech Republic has ruled. Attempting to cross to West Germany, Steffen Schlegel was shot in the leg, detained for four days, and handed over to the Stasi – East Germany’s Communist-era secret police. Removing his record as a convicted person, a court in the city of Cheb, close to the German border, has now opened the way for him to claim 20 koruna per day for wrongful detention and 80 koruna per day for lost wages. A week after Schlegel’s arrest, East Germans received the green light to emigrate to the West through the embassy in Prague.
The Czech government agreed on Wednesday to recommend the ratification of the Istanbul Convention to parliament. The convention on preventing violence against women and domestic violence imposes no compulsory action, but involves a pledge from the state to work to prevent violence against women and commit funds to helping victims. However, the convention has become highly symbolic due to the opposition of conservative forces, who claim that it will allow the state to intrude upon family relations and even work to disrupt the “traditional” family. The Czech Republic signed the convention in 2016. Parliament will now vote on ratification, which is necessary for it to take effect. The populist and far-right opposition are likely to seek to block ratification, along with conservative government factions. In total six EU countries – Czechia is joined by Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia – have signed but are yet to ratify the document.
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