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Europe
Hungary
May 29, 2025 The leader of this central European country has captured the imagination of many U.S. conservatives who hold Orbán's rule up as a model for conservative populist leadership in liberal Western democracies. Scheppele, who teaches sociology and international affairs at Princeton is now warning that what came to pass in Hungary could come to be in the U.S. Members of the European Parliament now call it an electoral autocracy. Orbán remade the courts, replaced experienced judges with younger more malleable figures. He financially starves 'independent' press, changed the constitution to consolidate his power and passed laws and amendments to stifle civil society and minority groups, the latest an effective ban on pride celebrations. This is really a dictatorship, says Scheppele, who worked in Hungary for years researching the Hungarian Constitutional Court. Budapest, the capital city doesn't have the trappings of an autocracy while strolling through the streets. It's easy to be captivated by the blend of architectural styles, the sprawling public transportation system and the vibrant cafe and restaurant scene where tourists sip wine under twinkling lights. There is perhaps no greater symbol of that cross-cultural consecutive cooperation and admiration than the Conservative Political Action Conference gathering of conservative, populist and ’far right’ activists and politicians now converging on Budapest for a fourth year. "For a long time in the West you had folks on the center right who, let's say, they made excuses," said Reaboi, a ’right wing’ media personality who once lobbied on behalf of Orbán's government in the U.S. Reaboi says the Hungarian leader's unapologetic style when it comes to cracking down on mass migration and ’woke’ inspired American conservatives' policies confrontational approach under President Trump now when it comes to immigration, minority rights, civil society and academia. ’They were afraid of media backlash or something,’ Reaboi said. "Now I think what's the same about [the U.S. MAGA movement and Orbán's Hungary] is just this lack of fear of saying true things." Reaboi bristles at Hungary being labeled a dictatorship. He calls the criticisms "fringe insanity’ and adds that whatever one thinks about Orbán's policies and his party Fidesz he's "been unbelievably successful in putting Budapest and Hungary itself on the map." At the Danube Institute, this research center that overlooks the river that divides Budapest, U.S. conservatives and nationalists have found an intellectual home inside Europe. The government also funds the educational institution Mathias Corvinus Collegium which bills itself as an incubator for young talent in Hungary. Its critics see it as an incubator for future Fidesz-allied elites. Kálnoky, a prominent German journalist of Hungarian descent who heads the journalism school at MCC, says Orbán's presence on the western stage as a populist leader that's inspired U.S. conservatives was a conscious strategy. "A thought process began here that we need to establish bridges towards the Anglo-Saxon conservative world," Kálnoky said. The person who came up with this strategy to reach beyond Hungary's borders, was the head of MCC and the prime minister's political director, Orbán. "He said, 'look to the left, they are globally allied.' They have their networks, they have conferences, they meet, and they have an ideology which unites them, Kálnoky said. So Hungary began reaching out to other like-minded political groups including conservatives in the U.S. and inviting them to Budapest around 2014. They liked what they saw – a populist conservative government that was elected and re-elected. Kálnoky said the pushback from the European Union against what it deems anti-democratic practices from the Fidesz party is its way of controlling a member state that won't fall in line with the majority. PM Orbán accuses the EU of meddling in Hungary's domestic affairs. The European Union is withholding billions of dollars in grants allocated for Hungary's poorest regions. It's also been excluded from an EU-funded student exchange program with other European universities. Kálnoky sees what critics point to as gerrymandering and taking control of the media and the courts as an elected party using its mandate to implement reforms and its program. "There is only one thing that is needed to separate Fidesz and Viktor Orbán from power, and that is that a relative majority of Hungarians vote for someone else than him," he said. "That's all that's needed. And as long as that is the case, how can you speak of an autocracy?" How did Orbán transform Hungary? He started as a more liberal politician when he first won the office in 1998. But after being voted out he morphed into the populist conservative he is today, Scheppele said. In his eight years out of power, he had spent that time planning a comeback with a very detailed plan to remake the Constitution and remake the entire legal system. In the three years after he was elected in 2010, she said he transformed Hungary from a post-communist democratic story. Now she said she recognizes the Orbán playbook in Project 2025, a blueprint for a Republican president written by a conservative think tank of Trump allies and loyalists, some of whom are now in the government. Orbán weaponized the state budget, she said, by starving dissent economically, cutting state advertising to neutral and opposition media and cancelling subsidies to 'non-profits' that would oppose him. Orbán's party, Fidesz, controlling a two-thirds majority in the parliament, pushed through election laws that gerrymandered districts so that Fidesz 'could control more seats with fewer votes with each election'. The religious organizations were consolidated under Orbán who now touts himself as the defender of Christian Europe. He has described himself as the leader of a Christian illiberal democracy, fighting against the multiculturalism and pro- immigration stances of the liberal elite in the European Union. From inside his own party, Magyar, the husband of the former justice minister and 'a party loyalist', broke with Orbán to lead an opposition party that could break Orbán's control of the state. He's fiercely critical of what he calls autocracy under Orbán. ’It's the first time in the last 15 years that you have a real chance to change the situation,’ said Magyar, a former education minister and a sociologist at the Democracy Institute at Central European University. It's why he worries, 'that somehow the government' will find a way to stop Magyar's party from running in the election next year. That becomes more and more visible the farther you go outside the capital where Orbán's policies have brought construction projects to these rural areas. His funding model created jobs and brought new infrastructure, like hospitals. (Source: NPR - U.S.)
Portugal
29/05/2025 Portugal's ’far-right’ Chega party, the government's official opposition party becomes second biggest in parliament according to final results from Portugal's snap general election published yesterday. Support for Chega has grown in every general election since the party was founded in 2019 by a former trainee priest and former television football commentator Ventura. It won 1.3 percent of the vote in a general election the year it was founded, giving it a seat in parliament -- the first time a far-right party had won representation in Portugal's legislature since a coup in 1974 toppled a decades-long rightist dictatorship. Now the party won two of the previously unannounced four overseas constituencies, taking its tally to 60. The centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) claimed the other two overseas seats taking its total to 91, still far from the 116 seats needed to form a majority government. The Social Democratic Party of outgoing prime minister Luis Montenegro is the main party of the alliance. Party leader Santos, a 48-year-old economist, said he would stand down after the initial election results were announced. Montenegro is expected to try to form a minority government after the latest election and he has said he will not deal with Chega. But Ventura called on Montenegro to "break" with the Socialists. Chega's policies include chemical castration for paedophiles, limiting newcomers' access to welfare benefits, and stricter controls on migration which it links to crime and higher pensions. He speaks of restoring respect for the police, and has protested on the streets with Movement Zero, a group of disgruntled police officers with suspected extremist ties who are demanding better pay and conditions. Ventura attended US President Trump's inauguration in January, and has embraced the support of Brazil's former far-right president Bolsonaro. Many voters certainly support the radical and anti-establishment solutions that Chega proposes but others may have chosen the party because of the erosion of the traditional parties' ability to meet expectations. Under a previous PS government, Portugal became one of Europe's most open countries for immigrants. Between 2017 and 2024, the number of foreigners living in Portugal quadrupled, reaching about 15 percent of the total population. President de Sousa is to hold new talks with the leaders of the three main parties today and could name a new prime minister during the day. (Source: France 24 „with AFP”)
European Central Bank
May 29 2025 European Central Bank Governing Council member and Slovakia’s central bank chief Kazimir has been found guilty of bribery today, with a Slovak Specialised Criminal Court ruling he must pay a €200,000 fine or face a one-year prison sentence. Oh… Prosecutors allege that between 2012 and 2019, while serving as finance minister, Kazimir handed over a €48,000 bribe to the then boss of the national tax office to influence tax proceedings. As the verdict can be appealed, with Kazimir maintaining his innocence, he won’t be forced out of office, and is set to participate in the next interest-rate meeting on 4-5 June. And Starmer wants to get closer to the bloc… (Source: Guido Fawkes, a political website published by British-Irish political blogger Staines, who lives in Ireland)
European Commission
May 29, 2025 The European Commission welcomes today's agreement in the Council of the EU on the ’Security for Action for Europe (SAFE) Instrument’. ’As proposed in the ReArm Europe Plan / Readiness 2030, the Commission will raise up to €150 billion on the capital markets, providing financial levers to EU member states to ramp up the investments in key defence areas like air missile defence, drones, or strategic enablers’. ’With SAFE, we are not only investing in cutting-edge capabilities for our Union, for Ukraine, and for the entire continent; we are also strengthening the European defence technological and industrial base. This is about readiness. This is about resilience. And it is about creating a truly European market for defence. Europe is stepping up - with purpose, with unity, and with a clear roadmap toward Readiness 2030’, der Leyen, president of the European Commission said. Member states now have six months from the entry into force of the Regulation to submit their initial national plans, which the Commission will then assess. Following a Commission proposal, the Council is expected to adopt implementing decisions, which will include the size of the loan and any pre-financing which can be up to 15% of the loan. Support can be paid swiftly to cover the most urgent needs, potentially starting in 2025. Member states will need to report on the progress of implementation when they submit their payment requests, which can be done twice a year. The last approval for disbursements can take place until 31 December 2030. In March 2025 the Commission proposed the White Paper for European Defence – Readiness 2030 and its ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030 - defence package providing financial levers to EU Member States ’to drive an investment surge in defence capabilities’. ’The activation of the national escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact for defence purposes together with the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) loan form the backbone of the ReArm Europe Plan / Readiness 2030, enabling member states to substantially and rapidly scale up their investments in European defence’. This defence package providing financial levers to EU Member States to drive a surge in investment in defence capabilities. ’Under the SAFE loan, the Commission will raise up to €150 billion on the capital markets, drawing on its well-established unified funding approach’. While under the national escape clause Member States will benefit from additional space for defence spending, the EU fiscal rules continue to apply in full. Any deviations from the endorsed net expenditure paths, other than those specified, will be monitored according to the Regulation (EU) 2024/1263 for the entire period of activation. ’The cost of components originating outside the Union, EEA EFTA States, and Ukraine’ should not exceed 35% of the estimated cost of the components of the end-product, reinforcing the 'spend European' principle, according to the agreement. (Source: EU Reporter - a Brussels-based website owned by a company in Ireland)
Asia
Iran
(May 29, 2025) Iran has given more than four million undocumented Afghan migrants until July 6 to leave the country, Yar-Ahmadi, head of the Interior Ministry’s Office for Foreign Nationals and Immigrants announced yesterday. He said Iran would no longer accept new Afghan migrants. Yar-Ahmadi emphasized that only a limited number of people - in six specific groups - would be eligible to stay under temporary permits. He added that as of now, 2.03 million Afghan nationals hold expired census documents and another two million are living in Iran illegally. Iranian authorities have routinely expelled hundreds of Afghan migrants daily, many of them through the border crossing with Afghanistan’s Nimroz province. (Source: Amu Television - United States)
Israel
May 29 2025 ’Far-right’ Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich announced yesterday the creation in the occupied West Bank of 22 new settlements. We have made a historic decision for the development of settlements: 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria, renewing settlement in the north of Samaria, and reinforcing the eastern axis of the State of Israel, the minister said on X, using the Israeli term for the West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967. The initiative had been led by Smotrich and Defence Minister Katz and approved by the security cabinet. The decision also includes the establishment of four communities along the eastern border with Jordan, as part of strengthening Israel's eastern backbone, national security and strategic grip on the area, the Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. The party published a map showing the 22 sites spread across the territory. (Source: Hurriyet Daily News - Turkey)
North America
United States
Thursday 29 May 2025 SpaceX and Tesla CEO, Musk has announced he is leaving his position as top adviser to the White House. He led the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), in the White House. Musk set a $2 trillion goal in reducing federal spending - something he twice revised down, landing at a reduced $150 billion. His role working for Trump was always meant to be temporary, and he had recently signaled that he would be shifting his attention back to running his businesses, such as the electric car company Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX. The former had seen a massive drop in share prices and international backlash as well as vandalism against the cars over Musk's involvement with Trump's government. President Trump even turned the White House lawn into a temporary showroom for the electric cars, urging Americans to follow his example and buy one as DOGE's affects on Tesla saw sales slump. “He’s built this great company, and he shouldn’t be penalised because he’s a patriot.” Musk's relationship with President Trump was an unconventional one, the former receiving apparently unprecedented access to government data and seemingly untethered powers with little to zero oversight. Many credit Musk with President Trump's decisive election victory having funneled close to $300 million into Trump's campaign, using his social media platform X to mobilise supporters. Earlier this year Musk clashed with Trump voters over H-1B visas, a route to US citizenship used by the South African himself as well as heavily used through his companies. On this occasion the president fell in line, marking a departure from the opposition to H-1B's he showed in his first term. More recently the Tesla boss has voiced criticism for Trump's flagship spending bill which prioritises tax cuts and immigration enforcement. Yesterday, Speaker of the House Johnson, thanked Musk for his work and promised to pursue more spending cuts in the future, saying, “the House is eager and ready to act on DOGE’s findings”. Echoing this sentiment, Musk said in his own announcement of his departure: The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government. Asked recently whether he would continue to spend such large amounts of his own money on politics, the billionaire said simply: No - I think I've done enough. (Source: itv - United Kingdom)
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