Authoritarianism

The death of liberal democracy has been announced prematurely. But without efforts to counter populism and pessimism, it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The enfant terrible of the EPP, Viktor Orbán has consistently crossed red lines set out by the Europarty. In order to salvage what remains of its credibility and stick up for the EU's core values, the EPP must cut ties with the Hungarian autocrat before it is too late.

Sooner rather than later [...] the EU must be able to prevent and correct breaches of Union values. We should create the powers to apply sanctions – if necessary including financial sanctions - that can act as effective deterrence.

With Weber’s selection, the EPP’s Faustian bargain with Europe’s leading autocrat Orbán is sealed.

Professor Krugman is right to be concerned given President Trump's ongoing attacks on democratic norms in the US and the Republican party's complicity in those attacks, but I don't agree that we are close to becoming another Poland or Hungary.

SZANYI: “I can only hope that finally the EPP leaders will prove to have sufficient political will, and leverage on Orbán to respect European values.” MOLNÁR: “I believe that the EPP should have launched the exclusion of Fidesz from its community a long time ago.”

European intervention in the Catalan crisis is unavoidable amid a systematic bias against secession in the interpretation of Spanish law, says an advisor to the European Parliament.