The defeat of Andrej Babiš in Czechia and the resignation of Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz were hailed by many as a win for Europe’s progressives. What is missed in these arguments is that there are only conservatives in line to replace the populists.
We are looking into it. That is the answer that the Guardian of the Treaties - documents that enshrine the principles of equality and human rights into EU law - gave in response to a new Hungarian law that tramples those very rights by lumping together LGBTQI+ people in with paedophiles.
Sitting on the beach with an overpriced cocktail in the Montenegrin resort town of Budva while furiously typing away stories on EU affairs would sound like a dream if it was not preceded by a desperate tour-de-ville looking for a stable wireless connection.
A crowd running from water cannons. An accredited journalist refused entry. The roar of police helicopters above a horde of shielded officers. Riderless horses roaming the streets. You’d be forgiven for thinking this was a scene from an uprising. But...
Last Friday, and without much media coverage, the Guardian of the Treaties dealt the latest blow to European citizens' shot at direct democracy by rejecting a petition proposing a protection package for national minorities that had garnered 1.1 million signatures across the EU.
Since 2015, 335 journalists have been killed across the globe, nine of them in Europe, and this figure does not include citizens journalists, and media assistants. In nine out of ten cases, the killers go unpunished. A further 247 journalists are currently behind bars.
