Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Large protests after annulled presidential election: “Romanians have chosen their president”

Published 14 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Photos from the protests in Bucharest.
2 minute read

In recent days, large-scale demonstrations have taken place in the Romanian capital Bucharest and other major cities.

The protests, which gathered more than 100,000 participants in Bucharest, target the incumbent President Klaus Iohannis and the current government, which the demonstrators consider illegitimate.

The demonstrations began after Romania’s Constitutional Court annulled the results of the first round of the presidential election, in which Călin Georgescu won with 22.95% of the vote. A second round was to have been held on December 8, 2024 between Georgescu and reformist leader Elena Lasconi, but this was stopped by the court’s decision.

We are more than a 100,000 Bucharest. Iohannis has to leave, shouted one of the protesters, adding: This usurper of a president, who has elected an illegitimate government, has to leave urgently!

Protesters demand that Călin Georgescu, who won the first round of the presidential elections, be recognized as the legitimate leader of the country.

– Romanians have chosen their president. We have to resume urgently round two of the elections and let the people decide who must lead Romania!

The court’s decision was motivated by suspicions of foreign influence, particularly via social media, which allegedly benefited Georgescu’s campaign. This has been met with strong condemnation from both Georgescu and Lasconi, who say the decision is a threat to democracy.

Parallel protests in Serbia

Meanwhile, demonstrations have taken place in Serbia, where discontent over the government’s handling of a collapsed train station in Novi Sad has led to widespread protests. Some protesters have shown symbolic solidarity with their Romanian neighbors by waving Romanian flags and tearing up EU flags, underlining a regional frustration with political abuse of power.

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Hungary: Brussels prepares for war – and Europeans will pay the price

The new cold war

Published 2 October 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó sounds the alarm: EU leadership under Ursula von der Leyen is sacrificing Europe for Ukraine.
2 minute read

“Brussels is preparing for war and they want Europeans to pay the price”, writes Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó in a harsh attack against the EU’s new seven-year budget.

He warns that the union’s power holders are prioritizing Ukraine’s military over Europe’s own and very urgent problems.

In the post, published ahead of the informal EU summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, Szijjártó emphasized that Europe’s security and economic situation has deteriorated sharply as a result of failed decisions in Brussels.

“Brussels is preparing for war, and they want Europeans, including Hungarians, to pay the price. The proposed budget for the next seven years is much more about Ukraine than about the European Union itself”, wrote Szijjártó.

He described the draft as “a Ukraine budget”, focused on arming the country and keeping its state structure alive, while Europe’s own urgent needs are neglected. Instead, Brussels should address declining competitiveness, secure energy supply, and rebuild the foundations for European growth, he argued.

“But instead, the European Commission wants to send European taxpayers’ money – including Hungarians’ money – to Ukraine, to finance the Ukrainian state and military”, the minister warned.

Wants to see “patriotic shift”

Szijjártó emphasized that Hungary rejects the idea that the country’s citizens’ money should be used for war efforts.

“We don’t want Hungarian taxpayers’ money to be sent to Ukraine, we don’t want it to be spent on war, and we don’t want it to cover the arming and operation of the Ukrainian military”, Szijjártó explained further.

The minister concluded by stating that the EU can only change course if a “patriotic shift” occurs in Brussels.

“Until then, Brussels will remain committed to pro-war, pro-migration, and pro-gender policies. But we don’t want war, we don’t want migration, we don’t want gender madness, and we don’t want Hungarians’ money to be siphoned off to Ukraine”, he wrote.

The day before Szijjártó’s statement, on September 30, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán directed harsh criticism at Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in a post on X.

“Dear Donald Tusk, You may think that you are at war with Russia, but Hungary is not. Neither is the European Union. You are playing a dangerous game with the lives and security of millions of Europeans. This is very bad!” Orbán emphasized.

Orbán: “We feel sorry for the Swedes”

Deteriorating safety

Published 18 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has on several occasions in a short period of time highlighted Swedish politicians as a cautionary example.
2 minute read

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is once again attacking Sweden’s government. In a new post on X, the Hungarian leader writes that he “feel for the Swedish people – trapped in disorder while their leaders spend their time pointing fingers”.

In his Wednesday post, Orbán lists figures to show the contrast between Hungary and Sweden. Hungary reportedly had zero bombings and zero illegal migrants during 2024, while 132 people smugglers were caught and 16,000 illegal migrants were stopped.

Sweden, on the other hand, according to Orbán’s sources, had 317 gang-related explosions during 2024, with 32 in January alone. 62,000 people are connected to criminal networks, 8,935 illegal migrants, and the firearm murder rate stands at 4 per million inhabitants – compared to the EU average of 1.6.

“Safe, orderly, under control”, Orbán writes about his own country, while describing Sweden as a country where “law and order collapses”.

The Hungarian leader also quotes Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who earlier this year admitted “that we don’t have control over the wave of violence is quite obvious”.

“Yet they lecture us about the rule of law,” Orbán writes, concluding with the words: “This chaos must not become Europe’s future, our people deserve better!”

Ongoing war of words

Orbán’s latest statement is a continuation of the war of words between him and the Moderate Party-led Swedish government. As recently as last weekend, the Hungarian prime minister attacked crime developments in Sweden and Swedish authorities’ inability to act, claiming among other things that “this is how a country collapses” and that “what remains is barbarism”.

During the political event, Orbán claimed that 284 underage girls had been arrested for murder in Sweden. However, the claim was incorrect – according to his source, German newspaper Welt, it concerned 284 girls between 15 and 17 years old who were investigated for various types of violent crimes, not just murder.

The Hungarian leader argued that this development had been ongoing for fifteen years under different Swedish governments and that politicians had “relegated the country outside European civilization”.

— By the way, these are the Swedes who lecture us about the rule of law, he added as a final jab, referring to how the Kristersson government has directed harsh criticism at what it considers Hungary’s democratic backsliding and restrictions on LGBTQ rights and other civil liberties.

CDU wins in North Rhine-Westphalia – AfD triples its support

Published 15 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
AfD party leader Alice Weidel regards the preliminary result as a major victory.
2 minute read

The CDU appears set to become the largest party in the state election in Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. But it is primarily the national-conservative Alternative for Germany that has reason to celebrate after tripling its voter support.

When polling stations closed on Sunday, initial projections showed that the Christian Democratic CDU, led by former BlackRock executive Friedrich Merz, received around 34 percent of the vote. The Social Democratic SPD came in second place with 22.5 percent.

However, the biggest change comes from Alternative for Germany (AfD). The party appears to have received 16.5 percent – a significant increase from 5.1 percent in the 2020 election.

Sunday’s election was the first local election since the political upheaval in German politics earlier this year, and for AfD the result represents another step in the party’s westward expansion.

The national-conservative party has made historic gains in recent years and become the second-largest political force at the national level. The voter base has traditionally been found in eastern Germany but is now also growing in the west – as Sunday’s results in North Rhine-Westphalia demonstrate.

Strict opinion laws

Despite AfD’s growing support in both elections and opinion polls, the party struggles to gain actual political influence. The other established parties have consistently refused to cooperate and formed various coalitions to keep AfD out of power.

Several German authorities have gone even further and argued that AfD should be completely banned and classified as unconstitutional.

Germany’s strict opinion laws make many immigration-critical and nationalist positions criminal acts. While several neighboring countries have considerably freer debate, German authorities often use 1930s history as an argument to silence political opposition.

AfD’s recent successes have, however, raised the question of whether German opinion laws and attempts to isolate AfD actually work – or whether they instead drive more dissatisfied German voters to the party.

Von der Leyen’s media plans spark anger: “Pure George Orwell’s 1984”

Totalitarianism

Published 12 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Swedish EU parliamentarian Dick Erixon from the Sweden Democrats is not impressed by von der Leyen's speech about the EU needing to "protect" establishment media.
3 minute read

Ursula von der Leyen presented plans in the European Parliament for a new media support program and increased EU funding for traditional establishment media.

Sweden Democrats’ EU parliamentarian Dick Erixon calls the EU Commission President’s speech “pure George Orwell’s 1984” and accuses von der Leyen of wanting to stifle freedom of expression.

In her speech to the European Parliament, the heavily criticized EU Commission President complained about how traditional establishment media are struggling for survival and spoke about rural areas where the local newspaper has become “a nostalgic memory” while warning that this has created “news deserts where disinformation thrives”.

As a solution, von der Leyen presented a “Media Resilience Programme” that will actively support what she and other EU power holders consider to be independent journalism and media literacy.

She also announced that the EU Commission proposes to “significantly boost funding for media” in the next EU budget, but only certain media will be able to access EU citizens’ tax money.

“Wants to protect legacy media”

Dick Erixon, the Sweden Democrats’ representative in the European Parliament, is among several who are directing very harsh criticism at the proposals.

“Deplorable speech by Ursula von der Leyen: Wants state authorities to protect legacy media from source criticism. It was a particularly divisive speech we heard in the European Parliament today. Ursula spoke about freedom but wants to stifle freedom of expression”, he states.

He is particularly critical of von der Leyen’s statement that the EU should “protect” traditional media.

“The EU will protect (yes, ‘protect’) legacy media in a new media program. Since paper newspapers are just a memory, ‘news deserts where disinformation thrives’ are created. Therefore, citizens need journalism they can ‘trust'”, Erixon writes sarcastically.

Warned about autocrats

In her speech, von der Leyen also claimed that independent media are under attack from “autocrats” who want to take control of them.

“The first step in an autocrat’s playbook is always to capture independent media. Because this enables backsliding and corruption to happen in the dark”, she proclaimed dramatically.

“A free press is the backbone of any democracy”, she then claimed and promised that the EU will “support Europe’s press to remain free”.

Dick Erixon points out, however, that von der Leyen and her allies hardly have any interest in a truly independent media landscape and that her rhetoric is rather about citizens blindly trusting what establishment media say and write – while forums that EU leaders don’t control should be made suspicious and censored.

“For Ursula, critical source examination of power holders and the establishment is of no value. ‘Trust traditional media’ was her message, while she believes that social media serves the purposes of darkness and corruption. It’s pure George Orwell’s 1984”, he says.

Wants to limit social media for children

Von der Leyen also wants to introduce restrictions on children’s use of social media. She accused the platforms of using “algorithms that prey on children’s vulnerabilities with the explicit purpose of creating addictions” and announced that an expert panel will develop proposals for EU restrictions before the end of the year.

“Our friends in Australia are pioneering a social media restriction. I am watching the implementation of their policy closely to see what next steps we can take here in Europe”, von der Leyen said.

Von der Leyen gave no further details in her speech about how the media support program will work, what criteria will be used to distribute support, or how large a budget is planned for the program. She also did not specify who will define what counts as “disinformation” or “independent media”.

The EU Commission has also proposed using private capital to support certain media, without further explaining how this will work.

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