Salvini, leader of the even-more-right-wing opposition: "I dream of Italy reopening bridges to Russia before the others." 1. Salvini doesn't think Hungary and Slovakia are important enough for him to include among "the others." 2. No comment. www.repubblica.it/politica/202...

Czech foundations drops plan to buy Ukrainian Flamingo missiles, due to alleged corruption. kyivindependent.com/czech-founda...

In Moscow, Putin told Orbán that it was Trump's idea to hold a US-Russia summit on Ukraine in Budapest, according to the Orbán mouthpiece, the newspaper Magyar Nemzet. magyarnemzet.hu/kulfold/2025...

I just got news from Bristol University Press that they granted translation rights to a Polish publisher. I don't know yet who that is, but I'm overjoyed. I always wanted the book to be accessible in Polish. Ale się cieszę!

Orbán is not "echoing" Trump, as the article says. He was there first. Trump is echoing him, if anything. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Fascinating article by James Renton on the origins of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, and its entanglements with islamophobia. www.middleeastmonitor.com/20251028-mus...

What an amazing, important project.

Slovak cartoon: "Politicians have made a law to set up a walking speed limit of 6 km/h. Finally! A measure to slow down the departure of young people from the country."

Hundreds of thousands demonstrate in Budapest against the Orbán government, while opposition leader Péter Magyar leads in the polls with an agenda ("moderate" to be sure) of social justice. www.reddit.com/r/europe/com...

In Egypt, Trump explicitly wished Orbán good luck in the upcoming elections. Choosing to meet with Putin in Budapest is another gift to this architectsof "illiberal democracy," who is facing a very serious electoral challenge. www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

It seems that in the Czech parliamentary election, there was a successful effort by voters to elect female candidates. denikn.cz/1859395/vysl...

In the Czech parliamentary elections, parties from the left to the centre-right received 89.59% of the vote, and A. Babiš's "populist" ANO only 3.24% - among Czech voters in Canada. (Not quite so back home.) www.seznamzpravy.cz/p/vysledky-v...

Orbán's mouthpiece newspaper Magyar Nemzet revels in Trump's plans to prosecute George Soros, Orbán's long-term obsession. This is perhaps the most striking of the many parallels between Hungarian and American autocracy today. magyarnemzet.hu/kulfold/2025...

The Progressive Slovakia party is the country's most popular, ahead of the leading "populist" Smer. www.politico.eu/europe-poll-...

Looks like even Fico could not refuse to sign this statement; Orbán could. www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/ukraine...

Even his mentor Viktor Orbán is not doing this. www.reuters.com/world/china/...

For his sake, let's wish him a speedy recovery and for the country's sake, let's wish this doesn't make him more likely to be elected. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Orbán's geopolitical ideology in a nutshell: Hungary is a "Western country," but the only one with a good relationship with Russia. telex.hu/english/2025...

"Ukraine should not be admitted to the European Union, bringing in the war with it – even if the whole of Brussels responds by throwing a fit." - Viktor Orbán miniszterelnok.hu/en/lecture-o...

Interesting word of the day: tsundoku 積ん読 (Japanese) - to buy books and not read them or only read a part of them. Apparently this is considered to be a positive thing in Japan, as you may possibly read the works later.

The idea of Central (and NOT Eastern) Europe has been around for some 200 years. Is it anti-E-Eur racism? Is it the vision of a global role for a marginalized area? Nationalities Papers has now accepted our Special Issue proposal on the topic. @salvapappalardo.bsky.social @brasky.bsky.social

There is a Horizon Synergy grant call out, on antisemitism in Europe. If anyone is involved in that and would like me and the University of Toronto to come on board with a project connecting antisemitism and Islamophobia, then let me know.(Or if you know someone who might be interested.)

Remember when people said Western democracy failed in the East because the Eastern Europe was "so different"? Well it's been failing in the West too—because the crisis of liberal capitalism is global. Glad @ambpressman.bsky.social avoids that tired East-West trope. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/o...

"Ivan is a Ukrainian name. Ivan is a big guy who lives in a village and works for his family. It's a hard punch, Ivan." Might Usyk have named his left hook after Rocky's Cold War nemesis, Ivan Drago? Was Ivan Ukrainian? www.bbc.com/sport/boxing...

The Polish ambassador to Budapest has been recalled, marking perhaps the worst turn in Polish-Hungarian relations since Donald Tusk became the prime minister of Poland. notesfrompoland.com/2025/07/18/p...

Trump is lying again. EU-US tariffs on each other are similar overall. (The EU does protect its farm products, while the US gets a large surplus from exporting services.) Don't expect this nonsense to stop, though.

Czech poll shows the "populist" ANO party way ahead of the rest, with about 30% support. www.lidovky.cz/domov/volebn...

"Since Donald Trump took office, practically everything has changed in the world. (...) We Hungarians are pround that we are among the standard bearers of this revulution." Hungarian FM Péter Szijjártó. 444.hu/2025/07/02/s...

Great article by @zsolt.bsky.social and B. Stanley. As I've been trying to say also, illiberalism in "Eastern Europe" has never been unrelated to "the West" or "anti-Western." Also because, as Z and S show, the West isn't what it used to be. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

"I am so bored of fascism," one poster said. www.bbc.com/news/article...

It's not really a culture war. It's a clash opposing people who respect others and love in its many forms, to people who don't respect others and also don't respect love. Both kind are found in all cuiltures, in Hungary as much as elsewhere. www.politico.eu/article/orba...

The Orbán government declares that it has the right to buy any Hungarian company before it is sold to foreigners. forbes.hu/uzlet/fevasa...

It's very likely that this is directed from Russia, but the methodological problem is how to prove it - that it's not just Russia sympathizers spontaneously reposting. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Etsuko Kato, who lead the translation team, says that the new, Japanese version of my book White But Not Quite got excellent reviews in the leading national newspapers Asahi Shimbun (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Asa...), Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) & elsewhere (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nik...).

"Viktor Orban's promise to make Budapest the intellectual capital of dissident European conservatism has come true." www.bbc.com/news/article...

A recording of the book launch event is now available of this groundbreaking work edited by Kasia Narkowicz, annagawlewicz.bsky.social & Konrad Pędziwiatr, a groundbreaking collection on migration from AND INTO postsocialist countries of the EU. youtube.com/watch?v=wAy5...

I have learned so much from this meeting, and am looking forward to editing a special issue on the Notion of Central Europe. It is way much more complex and far more interesting than even those of us thought who came to gether to discuss it.

Sigh. Perhaps I spoke too soon.

This is what Trump hates about Canada: In my opinion piece @theglobeandmail.com, I say that "Canada" and "America" are not just countries, they are political metaphors. And there are "Canadians" and "Americans" in both countries - and the world. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

I am very much looking forward to this new book by Kateřina Kolářová. Beyond the disabilities issue, it promises to critically discuss neoliberalism, illiberalism, race/gender/sexuality politics, and postsocialism in the global context. press.umich.edu/Books/R/Reha...

Canada PM Carney meets Giorgia Meloni in Rome. Among the topics she says they'll need to discuss together: migration and Africa. Will we find out what Carney thinks about Meloni's illiberal ideas on migration? And what about Africa? www.youtube.com/watch?v=yofE...

Big thanks to Tomáš Hučko, chief editor of Kapitál, a leading Slovak critical portal, for translating and publishing my essay on "Canada" and "America" as political tropes in the global struggle for democracy. kapital-noviny.sk/kanada-verzu...

Slovakia is the number one importer of Russian fossil fuel in the EU, surpassing even Hungary, which has almost twice the population. svet.sme.sk/c/23485450/v...

Russia just exempted Hungarian and Slovak cosmetics from tariffs! Big news for the one HU cosmetics maker I found on the web. Click through to see the name of their product line - no relation to Orbán's politics! www.ecco-verde.com/categories/h...

Rubio publicly criticizing an ally for cracking down on right-wing extremism. And Germany hitting back. We are in a new world

Ironies of history: After the American Revolution, which had been supported by France, the US could not pay back its loans. So France attacked US ships, leading to the "Quasi War" of 1798-1800. Now the US wants its money back from Ukraine.

Record number of Hungarians left the country last year, reports @insighthungary. Neighboring Austria was by far the most popular destination. Does this indicate an unwillingness to move very far or for very long?

Amazing Q&A during my talk at Sciences Po in Paris on Economic Nationalism and Illiberal Class Alliances: The East and South of the EU. Organizer Eugenio Sanchez and I then had a chance to chat about his fascinating work on relevant issues. Great ending to my short Europe trip.

Ústí nad Labem má nejvyšší koncentraci metamfetaminu v Evropě