Transylvanian surprise

Mon, 17 Nov 2014 12:32:38 +0000

IN A world where politics often seem locked down by political scientists and campaign consultants, it is nice to be surprised once in a while.

Shale fail

Fri, 14 Nov 2014 10:29:24 +0000

ON NOVEMBER 25th, fracking experts from across the continent will convene in Warsaw for the Shale Gas World Europe conference.

A minister comes out

Wed, 12 Nov 2014 13:32:51 +0000

WHEN Edgars Rinkēvičs, Latvia’s foreign minister, came out as gay last week, he had a good sense of the political and cultural minefield he was stepping into. “All hell is likely to break loose, but #proudtobegay”, his Latvian coming-out tweet concluded. The English-language version was shorter, and actually featured a typo.

The dissidents look back

Tue, 11 Nov 2014 14:07:52 +0000

FOR most of the 1980s, avant-garde artist Laszlo Rajk deployed his creative talents towards irritating Hungary’s communist regime. From 1981-83, he ran a samizdat (underground literature) bookshop out of his apartment. “There was an open house on Tuesday evenings, announced on Radio Free Europe, which meant everybody knew,” he says.

Get on with it, already

Thu, 06 Nov 2014 20:23:00 +0000

BRITAIN and Germany want to save Bosnia from death by stagnation. This is the subtext of a plan unveiled in Berlin on November 5th in an open letter from the two countries' foreign ministers to the Bosnian people, at a meeting of Balkan and foreign officials to discuss the region's future (pictured).

Georgian Dream's wake-up call

Thu, 06 Nov 2014 16:03:03 +0000

NOVEMBER is a fateful month in Georgian politics. The Rose Revolution took place in November of 2003. In November of 2007, a brutal police crackdown on demonstrations triggered snap presidential elections. Seven years on, the government is in turmoil again.

Potemkin observers

Tue, 04 Nov 2014 13:33:44 +0000

REBEL commander Alexander Zakharchenko smiled only slightly on hearing that he had won this weekend's elections in Donetsk, Ukraine (pictured). The results were never in doubt: Mr Zakharchenko's nominal opponents openly supported him, and his face was the only one on campaign billboards.

Polls closed

Mon, 03 Nov 2014 21:42:43 +0000

CRITICISMS of Romanian corruption and democratic improprieties are common enough in Brussels. But on Sunday the criticisms came not from EU functionaries, but from Romanian expatriates.

Cold self-interest

Fri, 31 Oct 2014 11:28:42 +0000

IT IS getting chilly in Kiev. During parliamentary elections on October 26th, as temperatures hit 7° Celsius, polling-station officials huddled in padded coats; one warmed her hand over an electric heater while handing out ballots with the other.

A bit of protest

Thu, 30 Oct 2014 10:44:17 +0000

UPDATE: On October 31st Viktor Orban announced he was cancelling the plan to introduce an internet tax in its current form. Mr Orban said he would launch a "national consultation" on internet regulation in January, to look for ways to tax some of the "huge profits generated online". VIKTOR ORBAN has finally hit a speed bump.

Spy versus politician

Wed, 29 Oct 2014 16:31:16 +0000

LATELY the Czech Republic has become one of the weaker links in Europe's efforts to punish Russia for its interference in Ukraine. For months, critics, especially in Poland and the Baltic states, have accused Czech leaders of insufficient vigilance against Russian aggression.

A coalition for Kiev

Mon, 27 Oct 2014 14:51:33 +0000

THE clock starts now. Ukrainian voters opted for a Western-leaning parliament on October 26th, casting off the last remnant of Viktor Yanukovych's reign after nearly a year of revolution and war. President Petro Poroshenko (pictured, holding a ballot) hailed the results as "democratic, reformist, pro-Ukrainian and pro-European".

After the Maidan

Sat, 25 Oct 2014 12:12:21 +0000

On the eve of parliamentary elections, a new political class is agitating for change. Only months ago, they were the revolutionaries

For your coal plants and ours

Thu, 23 Oct 2014 16:37:24 +0000

"FOR your freedom and ours" was a motto used by Polish rebels who fought in various uprisings against the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires between 1830 and 1849, both in Poland and in Hungary and Italy. Their intent was to build a coalition of nationalist independence movements from various ethnicities.

No prize for Leyla Yunus

Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:30:26 +0000

LEYLA YUNUS did not win the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought this year—it went to Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist who has battled sexual violence against women—but she was one of the three finalists. That gives me an excuse to write about her, and to put it bluntly, she needs the attention.

Donetsk for me, Lviv for you

Tue, 21 Oct 2014 15:14:51 +0000

Editor's Note: the original version of this post was based on statements by Radek Sikorski, the former Polish foreign minister, that an offer from Vladimir Putin to Donald Tusk to partition Ukraine had taken place. Mr Sikorski has since retracted those statements.

How to buy a (good) reputation

Wed, 15 Oct 2014 12:34:18 +0000

RHEINISCH-BERGISCHE VERLAGSGESELLSCHAFT (RBVG), a German publishing group, looks set to sell its 50% stake in Petit Press, the owner of Sme, a Slovak daily, to Penta, a powerful Central European financial group, via an intermediary. Petit Press also owns Slovakia’s only Hungarian language daily and its one English language newspaper.

A historic football victory

Mon, 13 Oct 2014 16:36:17 +0000

JUST as fears are mounting that Germany is heading for a recession, there is more bad news for Germans, who have become so used to success in recent years. Poland beat Germany, the current world champion, with a 2-0 victory in a qualification game for the European championship.

The Twelve Labours of Putin

Wed, 08 Oct 2014 15:44:14 +0000

VLADIMIR PUTIN turned 62 yesterday. According to the Kremlin press service, he marked his birthday deep in the Siberian taiga, a snow forest 200 miles from the nearest inhabited village. Back in Moscow, the capital was dotted by celebration.

How to deal with Harmony

Mon, 06 Oct 2014 18:26:17 +0000

HARMONY, a centre-left party, which draws most of its support from Latvia's Russians, won more votes than any other party in Latvia’s parliamentary elections on Saturday. Yet Harmony is far from victorious: the Saeima, Latvia’s parliament, has 100 seats and Harmony won 24, well short of a majority.