Democracy Digest: Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary Pick Fight with Berlin Over Ukraine Aid

A testy Slovak PM, Robert Fico, accused German Chancellor Friedrich Merz of “blackmail” over his demand that all EU countries help finance Ukraine after 2027. Merz has warned that Germany could block the EU’s next seven-year budget unless member states agree on long-term funding for Kyiv. Slovakia – whose government ministers still make regular trips to Moscow – Hungary and the Czech Republic have so far refused to join further EU loans for Ukraine. Fico reacted angrily at a press conference in Bratislava alongside Czech PM Andrej Babis on Tuesday. “What, the big Germans say something and we’re supposed to shit ourselves? Well, we won’t,” he said, insisting that Slovakia would not contribute “a single euro” to another Ukraine loan. He also pointed out that the proposed EU budget already includes funding for Ukraine. Rather more diplomatically, Babis said that he would discuss the disagreement with Merz privately at Thursday’s European Political Community summit in Dublin. Prague, however, is also refusing to guarantee further loans. Fico has clashed with Merz before. He recalled an angry telephone conversation earlier this year over Slovakia’s opposition to further sanctions against Russia. The premier has repeatedly threatened to use his veto in Brussels, including in disputes over Russian energy supplies. This time, the stakes are higher. Ukraine, Slovakia’s eastern neighbour, remains under daily Russian attack and faces a funding shortfall estimated at 70 billion euros next year, with the EU expected to cover around 45 billion of that. The EU’s 2028–2034 budget also requires unanimous approval. Fico reminded Merz that Slovakia has the same veto power as Germany. He also took to social media, accusing the German chancellor of having been wrong about mass migration and nuclear energy, and now about what Fico called “financing the war”. Germany is the EU’s largest net contributor, while Slovakia receives more from Brussels than it pays in. EU money remains crucial for Slovak infrastructure, including motorways and hospitals. Yet Fico recently went so far as to claim that Slovakia’s 2003 referendum on joining the EU had been rigged. Hungarian PM Peter Magyar also criticised the idea of linking Ukraine’s financial support to the ongoing EU budget talks during a visit to Germany this week. “I would like to express, diplomatically and politely but nevertheless firmly, that I do not consider it a good idea to link the European budget, which is ultimately about the EU itself, in any way to another issue,” he said at a press conference with Merz in Berlin, where he otherwise heralded a new beginning in German-Hungarian bilateral relations after years of frosty ties under his predecessor Viktor Orban. Magyar also delivered the renowned State of Europe speech organised by the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Speaking in German, he did not spare Europe’s governing elites, accusing them of having “lost contact with the people”, nor Brussels, which had detected the problems Europe was facing but had been unable to find solutions in recent years. The PM also warned against radical movements offering easy solutions to problems but, in fact, merely end up dividing and polarizing Europe and serving the interests of outside, often hostile forces. His view of the EU sees a gradual shift back towards nation states, which, in his words, know better what their societies need. He also pleaded for cheaper energy sources – though stopped short of saying they should be Russian – and for strengthening the continent’s industrial fabric and competitiveness, and stepping up the fight against illegal migration and climate change. Fico’s mood this week was not helped by his government losing its parliamentary majority. The prime minister, who spent years demanding early elections whenever his opponents found themselves in the same position, now seems prepared to govern without one. The numbers became clear on Wednesday, when a controversial amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code received just 75 votes in the 150-seat parliament. Two MPs around the recently dismissed environment minister and lawmaker Tomas Taraba voted against it, while former coalition MP Jan Ferencak abstained. The amendment sought to restrict the use of testimony from cooperating defendants. Prosecutors and anti-corruption groups warned that it could undermine ongoing criminal cases, including the “Purgatory” police corruption trial, in which high-profile Smer politician and former police chief Tibor Gaspar is a defendant. Gaspar denies the legislation was intended to help him personally in his legal disputes. Things went wrong again that afternoon. A bill to abolish postal voting from abroad was derailed because none of its sponsors appeared to present it. Under parliamentary rules recently introduced by the coalition itself, the proposal could now be delayed for six months. Gaspar, who was chairing the session and is also among the bill’s sponsors, wants that interpretation reviewed. Fico once had little patience for governments relying on independent MPs. He accused former PM Mikulas Dzurinda of buying support and demanded early elections when Iveta Radicova and Eduard Heger struggled with their majorities. In 2006, he described opaque deals with independent MPs as one of the gravest attacks on parliamentary democracy since 1989. His own coalition now has 75 dependable MPs. Fico says he will negotiate with Taraba’s group and accepts that some bills may fail. Smer still insists this is not a minority government. Flowers and burning candles are placed at a memorial site in Main Market Square following a deadly shooting incident, in Krakow, Poland, 09 November 2026. EPA/LUKASZ GAGULSKI Gunman’s extremist links investigated; Poland calls Russia arrest of alleged spies provocation Polish investigators are examining possible links to far-right extremism as they seek to establish the motive behind Saturday’s mass shooting in Krakow, which left six people dead and 15 injured. Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek said on Tuesday that police had discovered evidence that the 24-year-old gunman, Michal Oksinski, had visited websites devoted to Anders Breivik, the Norwegian far-right terrorist who killed 77 people in 2011. “There is a very strong thread of right-wing extremism,” Zurek told Radio Krakow, stressing that investigators were considering other possible motives. The gunman opened fire on pedestrians from his car in Krakow’s historic centre on November 7. He was shot by police and died in hospital two days later. Police subsequently discovered the bodies of his parents and younger sister at the family home in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski. Investigators also found anti-government symbols and material apparently associated with misogynistic online subcultures among the gunman’s belongings. Prosecutors are examining whether he drew inspiration from previous mass killings, including a 2014 shooting in California. “It is a very similar modus operandi. We cannot rule out that the perpetrator was inspired by that crime,” prosecutor Eryk Stasielak told Gazeta Wyborcza. Investigators are preparing a psychological profile of the gunman, who left no manifesto explaining his actions. His death has complicated efforts to establish a definitive motive. Russia’s Federal Security Service announced on Wednesday that it had arrested two people suspected of spying for Poland in Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave bordering Poland. According to the FSB, the suspects, whose nationalities were not disclosed, had gathered and passed information about Russian Defence Ministry personnel and military facilities to Polish intelligence services. Both face espionage charges and remain in custody. The agency also issued formal warnings to seven Polish and three Russian citizens over alleged contacts with Polish intelligence. A spokesperson for Poland’s minister-coordinator of special services, Jacek Dobrzynski, dismissed the arrests as “yet another provocation and act of disinformation”. The announcement came a day after Polish authorities detained two Ukrainian citizens suspected of conducting espionage and sabotage on Russia’s behalf. Then a candidate for Prime Minister, Andrej Babis, lights a candle at the memorial to students who were attacked by riot police in 1989 on Narodni Street, marking the 36th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in Prague, Czech Republic, 17 November 2025. EPA/MARTIN DIVISEK Czech PM criticised over plan to miss Velvet Revolution events; record low birth rate Czech PM Andrej Babis is facing criticism over plans to travel to Israel for a working visit next week at the same time as the country holds events commemorating the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that toppled the communist regime – one of the country’s most important holidays. “I am sorry that this year I will not be able to go to Narodni trida on November 17, where I normally go every year,” Babis said in reference to the central Prague street where a big part of the events usually take place. “On the other hand, it may contribute to calming the tense situation,” he added, referring to the growing discontent in the country over his government’s plans to reform the funding of public media, scrap licence fees, and fund Czech television and radio directly from the state budget. Tens of thousands of people are expected to gather on Prague’s Letna plain this Sunday in what is expected to be one of the largest anti-government demonstrations in years. Some have suggested that the PM – who’ll travel to Israel along with a large delegation and has been known to face unruly and disagreeable welcomes during past November 17 celebrations – has found a convenient excuse to avoid being confronted with the public’s anger next week. “To leave your own country as prime minister for the most important holiday of freedom and democracy? That is the definition of cowardice and hypocrisy,” criticised Martin Kupka, head of the right-wing opposition ODS party. Babis defended his trip by saying the Czech government had been waiting for an invitation from Tel Aviv for a long time, emphasising the importance of the upcoming talks set to largely focus on security cooperation, air defence and anti-ballistic protection. Czechia’s demographic crisis is bound to worsen as the country could face yet another record-low birth rate in 2026. The number of new live births this year could drop below 75,000, according to the director of the Institute of Health Information and Statistics (UZIS), Ladislav Dusek, down from around 77,600 last year – already the lowest ever recorded since data started being gathered. Czechia has faced one of the fastest declining birth rates in the world since 2020 after long remaining one of Europe’s high achievers in that area. “The birth rate is falling dramatically,” Dusek warned this week, pointing out that only about 36,000 children were born in the Czech Republic during the first half of the year. “In the coming years, it could be even worse… A significant decline in the number of women of childbearing age logically leads to a decline in the birth rate,” he explains as the smaller cohort of Czech women born in the 1990s is now entering peak reproductive age. As the birth rate continues to decline, the government is expected to present plans to restructure the country’s network of maternity wards and hospitals by December, with some expected to close. Then-Hungarian PM Viktor Orban delivers his address during the Hungarian-Vietnamese Business Forum in Budapest, Hungary, 19 January 2024. EPA/Szilard Koszticsak Former Hungarian PM’s brother arrested Viktor Orban’s younger brother has been arrested on charges of human smuggling during Fidesz’s time in office. Aron Orbon allegedly operated a scheme that helped Vietnamese citizens obtain visas to the EU’s passport-less Schengen Area in 2024-2025, based on fictitious employment contracts. Officially, the Vietnamese nationals were promised employment in Hungary under the government’s guest worker program. However, most failed to obtain clearance from the immigration authorities. They were subsequently recruited as “students” to participate in training programs at selected Hungarian universities. Many, however, either never attended the training sessions or disappeared shortly after completing them, travelling to Western Europe, where they found illegal employment. The prosecution accuses Orban and three of his accomplices of human smuggling as part of a criminal enterprise. They allegedly received a “recruitment fee” of at least 1,000 euros from each applicant, many of whom came from impoverished regions and had accumulated substantial debts to pay the fees, hoping to secure legal employment in Hungary. He also reportedly received payments from recruitment agencies which sought to capitalise on importing guest workers to alleviate Hungary’s labour shortages. Aron Orban regularly invoked his family connections, while his close associates presented their business dealings as having backing at the highest level. The illegal visa scheme already surfaced in 2025, when a recorded conversation was leaked in which Orban’s brother could be heard complaining to an aide to the then-prime minister that certain consulates were “blocking” visa applications. Yet the police appeared disinclined to investigate the scheme for years. In a striking irony, it was Orban’s government that had increased prison terms for human smuggling to up to 10 years, which could now apply to his own brother. In reaction to the arrest, the former PM wrote on Facebook: “I am the target; my brother is merely a pawn.” However, Aron Orban’s lawyer confirmed that the charges had nothing to do with the former prime minister. Meanwhile, the opposition Fidesz party, whose support had plummeted to 16 per cent in a recent opinion poll, portrayed Aron Orban as yet another victim of political persecution.