Page 47 - bne monthly magazine June 2024 Russian Despair Index

bne June 2024 Central Europe I 47
international media organisations. Fico's left-right government and politicians such as Blaha have also been criticised for spreading pro-Kremlin disinformation.
The opposition has mounted rolling protests against these media proposals, as well as its moves to take tighter control over the judiciary, and its planned legislation to expose NGOs with foreign funding.
Andrej Danko, leader of the far-right SNS, a junior coalition party on whose party list neo-fascist politicians
such as Tomas Taraba were elected, raised already strong worries among the journalist community about the government's plans for the media when he declared that “a political war is starting for the SNS at this stage” and that changes will follow concerning the media, adding that government politicians will not “sneeze” at them.
“The key question which now pre-occupies the minds of all sober- thinking people regardless of their stance on social issues is whether the radicalisation in [Slovak politics] will continue and its consequences will yet be more horrific, or whether it will stop in some way,” Stulajter said.
Stulajter said Taraba’s comments had also linked the shooting to the opposition “without any regard for facts”, adding that he is “a radical profiting on splitting and polarising society”.
“It will be very important what stance will Fico take towards this event” if he recovers and returns to politics, Stulajter continued. He explained that if Fico “will continue to back the radicalisation, which he is a specialist at”, then it will likely worsen, but if he undergoes “some self-criticism and will come to understand that this is
a road to perdition then I think the radicalisation could flatten, at least on some levels of the society.”
For the past 2-3 years NGOs and journalists following Slovakia have been ringing alarm bells about the state of
Central Europe nudges Ukrainian refugees to return home
bne IntelliNews
Central European countries that have been the biggest recipients of Ukrainian refugees are gently encouraging them to return, amid pressure from Kyiv for military-age men to come home and domestic discontent with the continuing costs of looking after them.
The Czech Republic is set to launch a pilot project aimed at facilitating the voluntary return of Ukrainian refugees, while neighbouring Poland plans to tighten benefit regulations for displaced individuals.
Czechia has the largest number of Ukrainian refugees per capita, while Poland has the largest number in aggregate after Germany.
Czechia has already curtailed the existing temporary asylum programme for Ukrainians fleeing Russian aggression. Under the programme, which is now in force until March 2025, emergency housing conditions are
now stricter.
At the end of April there were 339,000 Ukrainians under the temporary asylum rules in Czechia and about 133,000 of these are working Ukrainians were one of the largest minorities in Czechia already prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Some 59% of Czechs believe their country has admitted more Ukrainians under the temporary protection scheme than it can absorb, according
to a survey by the Centre for Public Opinion (CVVM), an affiliate of the Sociological institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, in April.
Under the new pilot initiative, scheduled to operate from June to November, assistance will be to Ukrainians desiring to return home, primarily due to health or family-related reasons. This project aims to offer support such as purchasing tickets and, in severe cases, arranging ambulance services, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In the first tranche Czechia will arrange for bus tickets to 400 persons and another 30 in complicated health condition will receive individual travel and health assistance for their journey back.
Meanwhile, Poland is preparing to introduce a new system enabling authorities to verify the residency status of Ukrainian refugees and promptly suspend benefits for those relocating to other countries.
Poland has granted temporary protection status to some 950,000 Ukrainians, the second-largest number after Germany, according to Eurostat data. Most of them are women and children.
All told, there are around 2mn Ukrainians in Poland, as many had been arriving in the EU member states for years before the war.
Nevertheless, both Czechia and Poland have so far resisted Kyiv’s call to send military-age male refugees home. Ukraine has been
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