(Own report) – With tomorrow’s, Saturday’s parliamentary elections in Slovakia, the German government could lose an important ally in the Ukraine war. Prime Minister Robert Fico’s SMER party is the frontrunner in the polls and has good chances of forming a governing coalition - for the third time since 2006 and 2012. His popularity derives primarily from the social and economic misery into which the country has plunged under previous governments. For Berlin and the West, however, Fico’s intention to change course in the Ukraine policy is a serious matter. Not only does he want to stop arms deliveries to Ukraine, he also rejects EU sanctions against Russia. Furthermore, SMER favors closer cooperation with China and Cuba, among others. Current pro-Western President Zuzana Čaputova has declared this will be a “fateful election.” Because of their dissenting foreign policy, Fico and his SMER party had already come under massive attack in Germany during their previous terms of
Poland is spearheading a “counter-revolution” in the European Union that is garnering the support of other countries, according to a columnist for the Austrian daily Die Presse, as cited by a Polish news outlet. In a column for the Austrian newspaper’s website, journalist and author Karl-Peter Schwarz questioned the rationale of politicians and journalists who “intend to give the Polish, Hungarian and Slovenian people lessons in democracy and the rule of law,” according to Polish online daily dziennik.pl. “Shouldn’t Germans and Austrians be verbally defusing the dispute, instead of fanning the flames?,” Schwarz asked in his piece, entitled “Poland at the forefront of a European counter-revolution,” as quoted by the … Continue reading →