The Intermarium Brief
Here is the first issue of our additional weekly newsletter highlighting news about the Intermarium region!
Slovakia:
A new cabinet was sworn in, led by a former populist Prime Minister who opposes support for Ukraine. This cabinet aims to end Slovakia's military aid to Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict with Russia.
President Zuzana Čaputová refused to back Rudolf Huliak, a climate-change denier from the rightist-populist Slovenská národná strana (Slovak National Party, SNS), for the position of environment minister. This decision by the new Prime Minister Robert Fico to govern alongside SNS led to the suspension of Smer (Direction – Social Democracy) from the Party of European Socialists' ranks, along with its other coalition partner, the social-democratic Hlas (Voice).
Czech Republic:
Former MP Dominik Feri was sentenced to three years in prison by the District Court for Prague 3, on charges of two rapes and one attempted rape. The judgement isn't final, but an appeal to the Prague City Court is expected.
Czech Defense Minister, Jana Černochová, called for the country's withdrawal from the United Nations, expressing outrage at a UNGA resolution that did not condemn Hamas's attacks on Israel but instead called for an "immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce".