March 20, 2026
While Homophobia in Hungary is rising, the Fidesz government actively furthers the stigmatisation and marginalisation of the LGBT+ community. Ahead of the 2022 election, the government introduced another law that increases penalties for pedophiles while at the same time outlawing the “promotion of homosexuality” for those under 18 – thereby censoring sexual identity and conflating pedophilia with homosexuality.
When an autocratic state calls for democracy, rule of law, and sovereignty, something just does not add up to Westerners. For the West to better understand contemporary China and its government’s underlying values, understanding China’s interpretation of those three elements should be a priority.
After 11 years under the rule of the Fidesz government, the adoption of new controversial laws is a common practice, and rarely too much attention is paid to their potential long-term consequences. On April 27th, 2021, the Hungarian Parliament approved a new controversial law. With the new legislation, the transfer of vast amounts of state assets, universities, and other public institutions to government-aligned foundations was written into law – likely further tightening Fidesz’ power grab ahead of the 2022 elections.
According to Daniela Szymanska, professor Nicolaus Copernicus University, development happens on two scales: the horizontal and the vertical. The former is bounded by certain limits and includes factors such as the population’s rise of a certain city. The latter is unbounded, infinitely complex and includes factors such as diversification of human activity. Based on recent developments in Poland’s coal crisis, it is clear that the vertical development in Poland is kept in the hands of a few mainly politically affiliated players – which becomes increasingly problematic and ineffective.
The forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk on May 23rd should raise multiple questions for the EU and the Western community as a whole. What is the adequate response to such an incident? Are sanctions an appropriate tool to address this type of behaviour? And how can we effectively safeguard values such as human rights and freedom of expression in wider Europe?
“Liberté, égalité, fraternité”, translated as liberty, equality, fraternity, is the national motto driving French society and culture. A motto that is chanted and written on signs during protests to transmit the notion of freedom, something that has built France and developed its pride. A motto with the goal of uniting a diverse country that holds diverse individuals under one roof. It conveys an image of France as a place where one can live in harmony with those different from them. Everyone is free and equal in the Republic. Well, everyone except for those who are Muslim.
The world of politics is a difficult environment to understand. It is the responsibility of politicians is to handle this compound world in the most honest and constructive way to ensure the well-being of the state. In Poland, however, this obligation is far from being met. What ensues is an extensive amount of useless, chaotic information, which makes the world of politics seem more complex and the average citizens feel even more overwhelmed who thus become passive and submissive, with great consequences for the future of the Polish democracy.
The end of history and the predominance of capitalism and liberal democracy, resulting in the end of ideological fights, was believed to favor people’s well-being. With the fall of socialism, a new system has risen, neo-liberalism, which had overthrown liberalism and conquered the world. Liberty, equality, fraternity were replaced by profit margins.
Growing concern about the correlation between women and poverty in developing countries has expanded in the last decades within the field of international development. Studies to investigate the effectiveness of the ‘investing in girls and women’ narrative have shown that economic empowerment is not enough to confer women and girls a just and equitable position in society – quite the contrary. This analysis explores why economically investing in women and girls in developing countries is not an effective strategy to eradicate gender inequalities.
Recently, Nicola Zingaretti has resigned as secretary of the Italian Democratic Party. Zingaretti’s resignation was unexpected and created a crisis – which was ultimately solved by the election of the former PM Enrico Letta as the new secretary. Before his election, Letta gave a long speech addressing various issues. His main goal appears to reform the Party for new future challenges.
