News archive of June 2023

The US State Department has approved the sale of F-35 fighter jets and related ammunition and equipment to the Czech Republic, the Pentagon announced yesterday, as quoted by Reuters.

The deal is worth 5.62 billion dollars.

Macedonians think of themselves as open-hearted - but phobias about foreigners, gays, the disabled - anyone who looks different - remain entrenched.

Hungary and Poland blocked the adoption of the European Council's conclusions on migration and left the matter to be resolved for a second attempt today.

This happened an hour after midnight on the first day of the EU summit in Brussels.

Evidently, Varga could not convince the EU Commission that Hungary has made enough progress and her resignation could be a sign that PM Vikor Orban has lost confidence in her. However, other factors might be in the background. The Justice Ministry was rocked by a major corruption and money-laundering scandal, as Varga's state secretary was selling lucrative bailiff positions for money.

After decade of EU membership, everyone agrees it was a good move -but also that Croatia could have done better.

The European Union gives more support to countries outside the bloc like Turkey to help them deal with migration than it gives to its own members, the Polish president said on Friday.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov stated that next year Bulgaria will achieve its goal of 2 percent of GDP for defense. In a joint briefing with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Alliance headquarters, he stressed:

Following Alexis Tsipras' resignation as the leader of the leftist opposition party SYRIZA, speculation has intensified about his successor. The 48-year-old's decision came in the aftermath of the party's heavy defeat in the May 21 and June 25 elections

Europe has an obligation to deal with the migration problem as it concerns the entire continent, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis insisted on his arrival in Brussels for the European summit on Thursday.

"Undoubtedly, the most important item on the agenda of the European Council concerns European policy on migration and asylum issues," he said.

The first question after this year's elections is where did Zoe Konstantopoulou, leader of Plefsi Eleftherias, or Course of Freedom, find the extra 90,000 votes in the May general elections? In the previous elections in 2019, 82,786 voters (1.47%) chose Course of Freedom; in May this year it jumped to 170,424 votes (2.89%); and in June it got 165,210 (3.17%).