The Hungarian government banned this year’s Pride parade in Budapest. Yet people still came out in such numbers that the event turned from one of support for the LGBTQ+ community to a direct challenge to Viktor Orban’s rule. Photo story by Bela Varadi for BIRN balkaninsight.com/2025/06/30/b...

„Trzeba pamiętać, że państwo prawa istnieje nie tylko po to, by wspierać rozwój biznesu, ale przede wszystkim po to, by chronić obywateli. Deregulacja nie może oznaczać demontażu ochrony” – mówi Norbert Kusiak, dyrektor Wydziału Polityki Gospodarczej OPZZ oko.press/czy-rzadowy-...

W pierwszym powyborczym odcinku podcastu „Pałac Prezydencki” Michał Kolanko rozmawia z Krzysztofem Łapińskim – byłym rzecznikiem prezydenta Andrzeja Dudy i weteranem kampanii PiS. Tematem jest zwycięstwo Karola Nawrockiego oraz jego polityczne konsekwencje dla PiS i obozu rządowego.

There's remarkably little scrutiny in Poland over what a 'deregulation commission' set up in February by Tusk, led by a prominent billionaire, is coming up with. So at BIRN we decided to take a closer look: balkaninsight.com/2025/06/05/c...

With Poland a primary target of Russia’s hybrid war against the West, it has been closely monitoring for signs of interference ahead of Sunday’s presidential runoff. Numerous threats were identified, but the "Romanian scenario" seems to have been avoided, write Agata Pyka and Claudia Ciobanu.

With Poland ground zero of Russia’s hybrid war against the West, the government has been closely monitoring for signs of interference ahead of Sunday’s presidential runoff. Numerous threats were identified, but the ‘Romanian scenario’ seems to have been avoided. balkaninsight.com/2025/05/29/f...

We’re going to need to add Trzaskowski to the lengthening list of centrist politicians who found out the hard way that when u try to compete w radical right on their issues someone benefits from the extra salience this gives those issues & it isn’t u @benstanley.eu balkaninsight.com/2025/05/19/l...

Ukrainian women working as carers for elderly people in Poland have started unionising and recently demanded of the govt to help them get proper contracts & working conditions balkaninsight.com/2025/04/28/u...

Kurt Vonnegut man

This is an excellent thread of even better investigation into the human rights record of Frontex leadership 👇

Excellent reporting on the challenges confronting FRONTEX as it seeks to deal with member states' abuses of migrants

Leijtens said the Greeks had implemented some of their measures only “in a formalistic manner”; cameras, for example, were installed on coast guard vessels to record potential abuses, but they weren’t turned on - as was the case in the #Pylos #shipwreck.

"We may have contributed to 'a sense of impunity' in #Greece" Exclusive interview with #Frontex @frontex.bsky.social director Hans Leijtens at BIRN, @wearesolomon.bsky.social, @pointerkro-ncrv.bsky.social on #pushbacks in Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia. balkaninsight.com/2025/04/08/p...

Nog geen halfjaar nadat Nederlander Hans Leijtens aantrad als topman van @frontex.bsky.social kreeg hij het advies om zich terug te trekken uit Griekenland, wegens alle pushbacks. Hij deed het niet. Frontex bleef, net als de pushbacks. Onderzoek BIRN & Pointer pointer.kro-ncrv.nl/hoe-nederlan...

In this investigation for Balkan Insight, we review the human rights record of @frontex.bsky.social's director Hans Leijtens-two years after he vowed to end the agency's complicity in violent pushbacks. Amidst lawlessness at Europe's borders, is he fighting a losing battle? tinyurl.com/bddvh7f5 🧵👇

Αποκλειστική συνέντευξη του διοικητή της #Frontex σε BIRN, Solomon, Pointer. Ο Χ. Λέιτενς ανέλαβε να αποκαταστήσει την φήμη της Frontex μετά τις αποκαλύψεις για συγκάλυψη παράνομων επαναπροωθήσεων στην Ελλάδα. Τρία χρόνια μετά, οι βίαιες επαναπροωθήσεις σε Ελλάδα, Βουλγαρία, Σερβία συνεχίζονται.

“Leijtens is committed to the law but he inherited a poisoned chalice... As European leaders are preoccupied with being tough on migration, Leijtens has no leverage to really push member states on fundamental rights... And lawlessness and impunity continues at Europe’s external borders.”

Dutch former gendarmerie commander Hans Leijtens took the Frontex reins with a vow to renew the EU border agency’s commitment to rights of migrants. With Europe’s leaders taking a hard line on migration, is he fighting a losing battle? Our latest BIRN investigation balkaninsight.com/2025/04/08/p...

💥🪧Happening right now in Budapest: 🇭🇺 Anti-government protesters have occupied four bridges, opposing Viktor Orbán’s crackdown on freedom of assembly under the guise of “child protection.” 🗣️ Though aimed at the Pride march, Orbán’s law threatens banning any kind of protests or rally.

One of the consequences of EU pushbacks. Stellar reporting from my BIRN colleagues balkaninsight.com/2025/04/02/b...

Two journalists from BIRN in Serbia were the targets of a failed attempt to install the powerful Israeli spyware Pegasus on their phones, a forensic analysis conducted by Amnesty International has confirmed. balkaninsight.com/2025/03/27/t...

Jeszcze dziś wieczorem rząd przyjmie rozporządzenie zawieszające prawo do składania wniosków o azyl. Tak jak zapowiadałem - bez chwili zwłoki.

In a challenge to Poland’s government, which has failed to legalise abortion despite its election promises, activists have opened a clinic in the centre of Warsaw where women can receive support when taking abortion pills. balkaninsight.com/2025/03/10/a...

Important to say that police are protecting the entrance of the clinic from pro-family protesters and asking the latter to immediately remove red paint they just sprayed on the sidewalk

Activists opened today the first abortion clinic in Poland, right in front of the Parliament. However, right now, any woman wanting to use the facilities has to face pro-family protesters & violent images & continuous baby cry

About that €800bn EU defence fund just announced €650bn of that - over 80% - is assuming Member States spend 1.5% of GDP more on defence over the next 4 years.* This is based on the (already announced) relaxation of the EU rules on budget deficits. But were fiscal rules ever the problem? (1/🧵)

Journos from Poland, a very good grant programme to do a v well researched long-story. 3,000 euros research grant plus cash awards plus editorial guidance at the most professional level. I did it back in the day, ask me questions and apply. balkaninsight.com/fellowship-f...

The release of today’s report by the Polish National Prosecutor’s Office is part of a wider effort by the current government to expose wrongdoing by the previous PiS administration. balkaninsight.com/2025/01/14/r...

By granting asylum to a former PL deputy minister and preventing his surrender to the authorities, the HU govt is doing precisely what it accuses the PL govt PL of: politically interfering in the judiciary balkaninsight.com/2025/01/13/a...

Hundreds protest at the Polish parliament against the Tusk govt announcement it would not arrest Netanyahu if he came to PL, thus defying an ICC arrest warrant

Angry at a corrupt, coercive system of military conscription, or simply unwilling to fight, many UKR men are paying their way past a ban on leaving their homeland, slipping into Moldova, Romania, Poland & Hungary. Our investigation by 6 journos in as many locations balkaninsight.com/2024/12/18/t...

The first Queer Museum in Central and Eastern Europe opened this December in the centre of Warsaw balkaninsight.com/2024/12/17/f...

While we wait for Macron, we think about Merz balkaninsight.com/2024/12/12/m...

Calin Georgescu just announced he will be trying to vote tomorrow morning in Bucharest, thus encouraging his supporters to show up at polling stations. Georgescu's campaign said he was "demanding state institutions to let people choose their own destiny". hotnews.ro/calin-george...

Looks like I'll watch some of this is unfold live at Christmas www.reuters.com/world/europe...

Queer Museum opens in Warsaw. First in Poland, one of first in the world. We have come a long way since LGBT-free zones 👏❤️🌈

The declassified documents, in PDF format, are available on the website of the Romanian Presidential Administration, in Romanian. www.presidency.ro/ro/media/com...

Zelensky suggests ending 'hot phase' of war in exchange for NATO membership without occupied territories; Ukrainian forces reportedly struck an oil depot in Russia's Rostov Oblast; and more.

The Romanian Constitutional Court has ordered the re-count of over 9 million votes in the next 24 hours. Ambitious but also curious because major concerns about the elections refer to how Calin Georgescu's campaign was financed not some irregularities at the ballot per se hotnews.ro/anularea-ale...

Putin said Thursday that Russia will continue “combat testing” its new Oreshnik missile in Ukraine and may target “decision-making centers in Kyiv.” He said a strike involving multiple Oreshniks “would be comparable to the use of nuclear weapons.”

But also excellent number crunching here from @politico.eu to understand Romania's voters better. 23.3 percent suffer from food poverty! Compare that to 3.5 percent in Poland. Deep poverty, inequality, public sector in ruins for real. www.politico.eu/article/roma...

Maybe there's a reason Romania's opinion pollsters got it so wrong ... www.theguardian.com/world/2024/n...

The U.S. government is reportedly urging Ukraine to revise its legislation and lower the conscription age for mobilization from 25 to 18 in order to quickly expand its armed forces for the ongoing war with Russia.

La responsabilité du PNL et du PSD dans cet échec collectif et démocratique est immense. Mais il paraît peu invraisemblable que la montée de Georgescu ces dernières semaines a été boostée artificiellement de l'extérieur. Nous sommes très faibles. Trop faibles.

"Buła", kompan Nawrockiego #PiS - był w gangu, który nie tylko wyzyskiwał i katował kobiety, ale też zajmował się narkotykami; - głosi słowiańskie pogaństwo rodem z Rosji i pomaga zbierać kasę na "miejsca kultowe"; - reklamuje biznes założony przez człowieka wywiadu wojskowego PRL.