The Direkt36 report follows on the heels of a growing international scandal over Hungary’s close ties with Russia and its intelligence agencies. The Washington Post reported last weekend that Hungary’s unusually Moscow-close foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, has been routinely informing his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov about EU Council meetings. The report also claimed that Russian intelligence, particularly the SVR, which is highly interested in keeping PM Viktor Orban in power, offered the Hungarian ruling party a list of campaign techniques, including a staged assassination attempt against Orban to “shift the perceptions of the campaign” from the economy to the security. Hungarian experts had already warned about the possibility of potential sabotage or staged incidents in the election campaign to rally voters behind the governing party. Szijjarto admitted speaking with Lavrov regularly but framed it as a part of normal diplomacy. “I talk not only to the Russian Foreign Minister, but also to our American, Turkish, Israeli, Serbian, and other counterparts before and after European Union Council meetings,” he said, dismissing the Washington Post claims as “fake news.” In Brussels, though, EU diplomats are already discussing ways to limit Hungary’s access to sensitive information.
Polish far-right MEP immunity removed; refugee support wind-down hits vulnerable
On Thursday, the European Parliament voted to strip Grzegorz Braun of his parliamentary immunity, clearing the way for further criminal proceedings in Poland against one of the country’s most incendiary extremist politicians. The move concerns two separate strands of allegations: Holocaust denial and the destruction of a pro-LGBT exhibition and an EU flag in the Polish parliament. It adds to a growing list of legal troubles facing Braun, a rabid nationalist and openly anti-EU, anti-Ukrainian and often pro-Russian political figure who has moved from the margins of Polish politics into the mainstream. He placed fourth in the first round of the 2025 presidential election, while his party, Konfederacja Korony Polskiej, has been polling as the country’s fourth most popular political force. The latest European Parliament immunity waiver follows a February request by Polish Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, who said Braun should face charges for denying Nazi crimes and the Holocaust – an offence punishable by up to three years in prison under Polish law. “This is a matter of historical truth, respect for the victims and responsibility for words,” Zurek wrote on X. Braun, characteristically, brushed off Thursday’s vote with a mocking post: “Which time is this already? I’m losing count.” The Brussels decision is only the latest chapter in what has become a near-permanent legal and political spectacle around Braun. He is already standing trial in Warsaw over seven charges tied to a string of public provocations: storming a Warsaw cardiology institute and allegedly assaulting its director, disrupting a Holocaust lecture at the German Historical Institute, vandalising a Christmas tree decorated with pro-Ukraine symbols, and, most notoriously, using a fire extinguisher to put out Hanukkah candles in the Sejm in December 2023. Even in court, Braun has treated the proceedings as political theatre – arriving to livestreams, surrounded by supporters, and trying to challenge the judge and prosecutor while casting himself as the victim of a state-led campaign.
Meanwhile, three weeks after Poland’s new refugee rules took effect, the first human consequences are starting to surface – not in parliamentary debate, but in oncology wards, care homes and welfare offices. Since March 5, Poland has been phasing out parts of the emergency support system it built for Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Temporary protection itself remains in place until March 4, 2027, but access to the welfare state has narrowed sharply. Broad automatic access to public healthcare has been replaced by a system that generally requires insurance contributions, while free treatment is now limited to selected groups, including children, pregnant women, war-injured people, victims of violence and some residents of collective accommodation centres. Earlier changes had also linked 800+ child benefit for many refugees to employment-related conditions. What is emerging is a picture of a system retreating fastest from those least able to cope. NGOs and social workers say they are seeing cancer patients turned away mid-treatment, elderly Ukrainians facing removal from care facilities, and single mothers or grandparents suddenly cut off from the small but essential support that had allowed them to stay afloat. Writing in Gazeta Wyborcza, Agnieszka Kosowicz of the Polish Migration Forum described hospitals, welfare offices and charities scrambling to interpret rules that many public institutions themselves appear not fully equipped to apply. What was presented as a technical narrowing of wartime protections is, in practice, proving hardest on those with the fewest alternatives.
Slovak MP alleges coalition smear campaign; Pellegrini trip to Russia set up by Hungary
After being expelled over a week ago from Hlas, one of Slovakia’s governing coalition parties, MP and Kezmarok mayor Jan Ferencak this week faced the emergence of a video recorded in 2023 that appeared to show him handing over 45,000 euros in cash – described as a loan that was never repaid – to an unidentified man in a garage. In the same footage, he is heard saying that a further 75,000 euros, allegedly for the purchase of a project, would be transferred to a bank account. The video was published by a tabloid weekly seen as close to the governing coalition. The mayor, who is expected to stand in local elections later this year, has come to be regarded as a liability as he can no longer guarantee support for PM Robert Fico’s government. According to Ferencak, the developments amount to a coordinated attempt to discredit him. He has accused the Hlas leader and interior minister, Matus Sutaj Estok, of orchestrating a campaign against him. According to Ferencak, the police inspectorate – which operates under the Interior Ministry – was tasked with gathering information on him in Kezmarok. He further claimed the unidentified man seen in the video is cooperating with the police inspectorate. Ferencak, who was expelled from the party following a proposal by the Kezmarok local branch, has also alleged that police warned him to be careful while driving, suggesting he could be at risk of a staged car accident. In recent days, attention has also focused on Ferencak’s property holdings. According to the non-parliamentary party Demokrati, he owns up to 70 properties, with total assets worth nearly 3 million euros. Ferencak says he inherited many of them and suggests that Demokrati, which has devoted several press conferences to him, could be receiving information from the Interior Ministry. Police have secured three plots of land linked to Ferencak in Kezmarok over suspected connections to criminal activity. He says the land was inherited from his mother as agricultural property but has since been reclassified for development. Separate questions have been raised about plots tied to a local development project involving a company led by an associate of the mayor, which critics say has benefited during his time in office. Ferencak’s firm is also said to be involved in the project. Ferencak rejects the idea that he would abuse his post as mayor. Ferencak’s relationship with the coalition soured some time ago. At the end of last year he was removed as chair of parliament’s European affairs committee, before leaving the Hlas parliamentary caucus. He has since been viewed as a dissenter, having declined to support several key government measures. The PM refused to comment on the Ferencak scandal, despite the fact that losing the MP would result in an even more fragile majority in parliament.
An alleged transcript of a 2020 phone call suggests that Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, asked his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, to help arrange a pre-election visit to Moscow for Slovakia’s then prime minister, Peter Pellegrini (who currently serves as Slovakia’s president). The call was reportedly intercepted by a Western intelligence service and its transcript has now been published by Hungarian investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi. Szijjarto emphasised the importance of the upcoming Slovak election and expressed a preference for the continuation of the Smer-led ruling coalition, describing it as a “rational force” in the region. Days later, Pellegrini travelled to Moscow, where he met Russian PM Mikhail Mishustin just three days before Slovak voters went to the polls. At the time, he downplayed concerns about the official trip, framing it as a discussion on energy security. A year earlier, Pellegrini held a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The disclosure comes amid renewed scrutiny of Szijjarto following reports in The Washington Post alleging that he has for years shared EU-related information with Moscow. Szijjarto downplayed the concerns but admitted to the calls with Moscow and helping Pellegrini. Pellegrini has declined to comment on who facilitated the Moscow visit, insisting it was a routine diplomatic engagement. In a recent comment, he instead questioned why this information first appeared ahead of the first round of the Slovak presidential election in 2024, as well as similar disclosures ahead of the upcoming Hungarian parliamentary election. The opposition has criticised Pellegrini for the trip, while PM Fico said he sees no problem with the visit to Moscow and instead shifted attention to alleged interference in the Slovak 2023 parliamentary election by the UK. The 2020 vote ultimately resulted in defeat for Smer, with the opposition winning decisively – an outcome that Szijjarto had not wished for.
Arson attack in Czechia prompts arrests and questions; funding of public media in doubt
Czech authorities are investigating last Friday’s fire at the warehouse of defence company LPP Holding in Pardubice, about 120 km east of Prague, as a deliberate act of arson and a terrorist attack. No one was injured, but damages could be in the hundreds of millions of crowns, according to the company. A self-declared anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian group called The Earthquake Faction quickly claimed responsibility and said the attack was a result of LPP’s cooperation with Israeli arms manufacturers, which the defence company in response said never even took place. A few days later, the organisation threatened to publish LPP’s confidential internal documents if it didn’t sever ties with Israeli partners. Earlier this week, three people – Czech and US citizens, according to preliminary information – were arrested in Czechia and Slovakia in connection with the case and charged with terrorism and participation in a terrorist group, while Czech investigators hinted that more suspects may still be at large. Arriving at the Pardubice courthouse, one of the accused was heard shouting “Free Palestine!”. While the arson attack has prompted some finger-pointing over who was to blame for the insufficient security measures at the building, other questions remain. Given its unclear origins and questionable details, whether The Earthquake Faction actually exists or not is also in doubt, and Czech investigators are considering the possibility of a ‘false flag’ operation – when a state or entity uses another as cover. “We really don’t know anything more right now. It could be anyone,” said Jan Charvat, an expert in political extremism. Based on the timing, some suggested the attack was carried out by pro-Iran actors, while others pointed to a Russian-style sabotage M.O.
The future funding model of Czech public TV and radio continues to hang in the balance. The government of PM Andrej Babis has vowed to scrap the licence fees of the public service broadcasters and fund them directly from the state budget – a move that press freedom watchdogs have warned could put them in an even more precarious financial situation and ultimately lead to their politicisation. Earlier this week, far-right leader and parliamentary speaker Tomio Okamura said the coalition would move to cancel the licence fees this year for select groups of people, including seniors over 75 years and companies, before a more comprehensive overhaul in 2027. MPs are still “working on various options”, said deputy-speaker Patrik Nacher. Babis insists this isn’t an attack on public media: “The basis for wanting to abolish the fees is valid, but it does not mean that public media should lose money – there must be some continuity.” Czech TV and radio would lose 2 billion and 800 million crowns respectively if this amendment were to pass, the heads of both public broadcasters warned, putting them “in real danger of bankruptcy” and “creating pressure to undermine their role and importance in society”.