Ukraine

Hungary has voted, and in doing so, sent a message to democratic forces worldwide. Péter Magyar's Tisza Party won a historic supermajority, ending 16 years of Viktor Orbán's authoritarian rule. But rebuilding democracy, restoring the Rule of Law, and repairing Hungary's relationship with the EU will be a monumental task. We asked Adéla Jurečková, Director of our Prague office (covering Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary) what the result means for Hungary, Europe, and Ukraine.

After years of hesitation, the EU – driven by geopolitical shifts – is finally moving forward. The special summit in Brussels shows momentum in defence policy. But Europe remains vulnerable without a big step forward.

Three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Paul Hockenos compares the efforts of the EU and the US in view of weaning from Russian fossil fuels. On the ground, Ukraine’s transition to distributed renewables already rhymes with resilience against the aggressor.

As part of an EU Democracy research project funded by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union office, Sophie Pornschlegel interviewed European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, during the summer break of the European Commission. In their conversation, Vice-President Jourová reflected on five years of efforts to safeguard democracy, human rights and the rule of law in the EU, amid increasing threats against democracy and a shifting geopolitical context, not least due to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. 

The major points of friction in foreign policy can be observed when it comes to the issue of military support for Ukraine and keeping of the veto right. Other timely topics that are almost completely absent from the parties' manifestos include, for example, the war in the Gaza Strip or relations with China.

Russian Imperialism has created many myths about Ukrainians and cannot be understood without a gender lense. Ukrainians are today persistently striving to uphold their national identity and advance gender emancipation, drawing parallels with the women’s movement in Ukraine a century ago.

Russia’s large-scale war against Ukraine does also reflect how China and Russia are interlinked with each other to challenge the current global order. The Black Sea region has become a key area where the new European security order will be negotiated.

An edited transcript of the international debate “Do You Feel Safe?”, organized on 23 November 2022 in Bratislava. This debate, facilitated by Zuzana Maďarová (ASPEKT), Weronika Grzebalska, a Polish sociologist, and Míla O’Sullivan, Czech researcher in international relations, discussed various gender aspects of security. The event was organized by the ASPEKT organization in partnership with the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Prague office.