Fidesz party

LGBT community targeted in Serbia, Hungary, Romania

Following the dramatic uptick in digital attacks targeting LGBT communities in the region caused by the announcement of Pride parades in several Balkan countries, anti-LGBT sentiment and homophobic incidents have not abated.

The four countries of the bloc - Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia - have never developed a common foreign policy in the 31 years of the existence of the bloc, which emerged in 1991 to help facilitate the region's accession to NATO and the EU. Instead, especially at the EU level, they have tried to coordinate their positions on various EU-related matters.

The Hungarian government's attempt to scrap a concert to raise funds for Ukraine was foiled by an independent mayor, local media reported on Sunday.

Marki-Zay blamed government propaganda on the dominant state-run media channels for the defeat of the opposition. Orban's ruling Fidesz party argued during the campaign that the opposition would send young Hungarians to die for Ukraine and this seemed to have a huge effect on mostly undecided voters.

The leader of North Macedona's main opposition party, VMRO DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski, joined the celebrations marking Viktor Orban's victory in Sunday's Hungarian elections at Orban's Fidesz party HQ in Budapest.

Ljubljana – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is to make an official visit to Slovenia on Monday as part of which he is to meet his counterpart Janez Janša in Lendava, the newspaper Večer and TV Slovenija have reported citing unofficial sources. Janša’s office has not responded to the STA’s question about the visit.

Angel Dzhambazki speaking in the European Parliament. Source: Dzhambazki's YouTube channel

Dzhambazki allegedly made the gesture while leaving the chamber on Wednesday after a stormy debate on the rule of law in Poland and Hungary.

Socially conservative ethnic Hungarian politicians in Romania have proposed law changes aimed at preventing a Western-style "assault of gender ideology" on Romania by fixing a child's identity on the basis of their sex at birth.

The IPI report, titled "Hungarian Capital in Foreign Media. Three Strategic Models of Influencing the Neighbourhood", includes articles examining how, where and why Hungary has invested in foreign media in recent years.

Six months later, the findings are still to be published and, when they are, the NAIH says the public will see only a redacted version.

Data privacy experts are not holding their breath. Indeed, many are worried about what the episode says for the chances of NAIH doing its job when it comes to oversight of another emerging sector - the collection and monetising of public data.