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6 I The Month That Was bne June 2017 Politics
Central Europe
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has accepted Ivan Pilny, the second choice nomination as finance minister from coalition partner Ano, defusing the country’s coalition crisis. Sobotka sacked Ano leader and finance minister Andrej Babis over his personal financial affairs, and refused Babis’ first choice of a replacement.
Czech Education, Youth and Sports Minister Katerina Valachova resigned after senior government and football officials were arrested in connection with a probe by the police into state subsidies.
The European Parliament adopted a resolution to trigger Article 7 against Hungary, accusing Budapest of a seri- ous deterioration of rule of law and democracy. The European Commission is moving forward on an infringement procedure against Hungary concern- ing its asylum legislation, and has also launched an infringement procedure over amendments to its higher educa- tion law targeting Central European University.
Hungary’s highest judiciary, the Kuria, ruled in favour of a company owned
by Lajos Simicska, an oligarch who
has fallen out with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The Public Procurement Arbitration Court said the government has unlawfully excluded Simicska’s company Kozgep from public procurement contracts for the last three years. Simicska can now request com- pensation.
The Latvian government approved guidelines for reform of the tax sys- tem. Key reforms assume the introduc- tion of a higher personal income tax
band of 23% for income of over €45,000. Corporates would pay 20% on distributed profit, but the plan would cut tax on rein- vested profit entirely. Overall tax revenue would rise from 29% to 32% of GDP.
Southeast Europe
Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov gave the mandate to form a new govern- ment to Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev on May 17, after almost six months of procrastination by the head of state, who is linked to the outgoing right-wing VMRO-DPMNE government.
Albania will postpone its general elec- tion by one week to June 25 and six ministers in the Socialist-led govern- ment will be replaced with technical ministers as part of a deal under which the opposition Democrats will drop their plan to boycott the election.
Bulgaria’s new government assumed office on May 4 after it was voted in by the National Assembly. It is a coalition between Boyko Borissov’s centre-right party Centre-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, or GERB, which won the early general elections on March 26, and the nationalist United Patriots.
Croatia’s coalition between the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Bridge of Independent Lists (Most) collapsed after Most ministers refused to back HDZ Finance Minister Zdravko Maric in a no-confidence vote over the collapse of retailer Agrokor.
Kosovan President Hashim Thaci scheduled early parliamentary elections for June 11 after Prime Minister Isa Mustafa’s government lost a no-confidence motion.
Eastern Europe
Russia hiked military spending by 5.9% in 2016 to $69.2bn, pushing Saudi Arabia, which saw a substantial decline in spending, into fourth place. Russia is now behind only the US ($611bn) and China ($215bn), according to a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The Council of the European Union has liberalised visas for Ukrainian citizens travelling to the EU for short- term stays, fulfilling a long-held promise the bloc had made to help cement Kyiv’s pro-EU orientation.
Interpol removed Ukraine’s ex- president Viktor Yanukovych, his son Oleksandr, and some high-level former officials from the agency’s wanted list. The move followed three years of luke- warm attempts by Kyiv to bring them to justice for crimes allegedly committed during Yanukovych’s time in office from 2010 until he fled to Russia in 2014.
Eurasia
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was officially declared the landslide winner of the presidential election in May, with some 23mn, or 57%, of the votes cast. Hardline opponent, religious judge Ebra- him Raisi, took 15.7m, or 37%.
Beijing is investing a massive $124bn into the One Belt, One Road initiative, a global project to invest into infrastruc- ture and trade networks across four con- tinents, President Xi Jinping announced at an international summit on May 14.
Uzbekistan took the unprecedented step of agreeing to work with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), bringing it into line with rest of Central Asia. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein became the first such commis- sioner to visit Uzbekistan, which is showing signs of opening up since the death of the late dictator Islam Karimov in 2016.
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