In May 2013, Slovakian teachers renewed their protests after the government of Robert Fico refused to commit itself unambiguously to increasing the budget of the Ministry of Education and raising teachers´ salaries. The argument of the Minister of Finance was that he would first like to see “structural changes” before he agrees to channel more funds to the Slovakian education system.
Miroslava Kernová
6. 6. 2013
The increasing numbers of lawsuits against journalists initiated by Slovak judges is sparking protests not only from the Slovak press, but also from international organizations. The compensation that the judges are demanding is intended to drive out of business those who media outlets that report on the questionable activities of the judiciary.
János Deme
3. 6. 2013
We gathered with friends in a remote settlement in the Great Hungarian Plain in 1988 to take ownership of our latest purchase, a Commodore 64 computer. It was high-tech. We connected the smuggled Western German hard-drive to a Soviet television and managed to install a homemade copy of the American game Raid Over Moscow. Then we simply had to take off with our fighter jets, fly over Soviet airspace in order to reach the capital of the Soviet Union and start bombing the Kremlin. We operated on 8 bits and repeated our action thirty times a day, at least. It was not an easy job but utterly realistic.
Martin Ehl
23. 5. 2013
History is usually considered grim stuff that is better left to older generations. Especially in Central Europe, it is considered more of a burden than anything else. Getting the attention of younger generations is harder and harder. That said, there is group of young professionals in Poland who have decided to look at history (especially museums and exhibitons) from a different perspective – not as a burden, but as an opportunity. This is not simply for philosophical or social reflection, but as a business opportunity by means of which they can make a living and contribute to public debate. “History is the reality in which we live,” says Lukasz Wróbel who teaches literary theory at the University of Warsaw and, at the same time, prepares scenarios, scripts, and concepts for different exhibitions and multimedia presentations in this new niche of business we might call “museum outsourcing.”
Václav Štětka
15. 5. 2013
The beginning of last year took many observers of the Czech media scene by surprise, when the owner of the largest agricultural and food processing conglomerate in the country, Andrej Babiš (whose wealth is estimated by Forbes magazine at some 1.4 billion dollars), announced a rather ambitious plan to launch the regional news weekly 5+2 Days, which would be distributed freely in over seventy local variations. What stirred debate more than the generous scope of this publishing project, which currently employs around 160 journalists and has a combined circulation of one million copies, is the fact that Babiš also heads the newly established political movement “ANO 2011” (Yes 2011), which aims to compete in the 2014 general elections.
Marcela Adamusová and Veronika Špricová
25. 4. 2013
When the European Commission proposed legislation to accelerate gender balance on company boards last year, it seemed that in the Czech Republic the end of the world had truly come.
Vassilis Petsinis
23. 4. 2013
There has much talk about the link between the economic crisis and the popularity of the far right in Europe. Most articles that deal with this topic revolve around such keywords as ‘party-systems’, ‘EU austerity measures’, ‘institutions’ and ‘protest voting’.
Elsa Tulmets
16. 4. 2013
Although the V4 never included other aspirants to its group, it has opened the doors for association via the Visegrad Plus format. Recently, the Weimar Triangle (Germany, France and Poland) started applying a similar model.
Zoltán Pogátsa
27. 3. 2013
In spite of all the talk about human development and happiness indices, for most people the single most important determinant of their standard of living is their income. More than two decades after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Eastern Europeans still earn much less than their Western counterparts.
Marta Jaroszewicz
8. 3. 2013
Visa and mobility issues are the EU’s most tangible incentive for its Eastern neighbors. Yet the EU conditions the loosening of restrictions on free travel by in-depth reforms in the partner countries. This has to change and the V4 could play a stronger role in the process.
Adam Balcer
28. 2. 2013
Despite certain undeniable achievements, regional cooperation in the Visegrad Group is definitely below its potential. The hard security sphere represents the most striking example of underperformance of the V4. Unfortunately, the likelihood of reinvigoration of cooperation in the security dimension is near zero because of a huge and ever-deepening gap in military capabilities and defense spending between Poland and other Visegrad states.
