@jess EU #Eurovision fans can avoid withdrawal by joining the #EuropeanElections fandom. 26 days to go, 27 countries, lots of far-right villains to defeat, 6 to 9 of June you get to give 0 points to fash trash, and LOADS of #eurodrama
@velobetty There are SO many water pipes tonight (Israel, UK and some others with a circle background). I choose to believe their choreographers are huge Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui fans.
@lorrden IF this is true, this is my favourite bit of #eurodrama yet, but... apparently they're now banning EU flags in the arena for Europe's biggest event. 🇪🇺 and 🏳️🌈 used to be the two exceptions to the "no flags of non-participant countries" rule. Yassssssss, we're finally political, baby! Imagine if in the maelstrom of outrage some of the clickbaiters find out #EuropeanElections2024 are happening in 27 days! 🇪🇺
Among these European #train lines to be improved, notice Vienna-#Budapest-Western Romania. Why not to #Bucharest?
It turns out that 20% of the population in Oradea is of Hungarian origin, and 8% of that of Arad.
This improved train line, proposed by the Hungarian Ministry of Transport, aims at better connecting Budapest with the #Hungarian communities in Romania.
1.1 million people living in #Romania are Hungarian. Welcome to "Hungarians in the Carpathians"
@rafa_font Orbán doesn't behave "undiplomatically", he full on spews out irredentist propaganda towards all neighbours, not just Romania, feeding failed empire nostalgia in an impoverished country he robbed blind.
@rafa_font I'm honestly no expert, but it's enough to see how he's been treating one neighbour (Ukraine) to understand what role his post-imperial nostalgia politics play in his kleptocracy. It's grift all the way down which is the angle under which I agree with criticism no.1. Of course, his problem re: no. 2 is that even if it were more than pure LARP, his cronyism and corruption have led to most EU neighbours leapfrogging Hungary in wealth and standing in the EU.
@rafa_font His once poorer (MUCH poorer in Romania's case) neighbours now laugh at him. He's going to change borders? Him and whose army? His wealthier neighbours have not only better economies but also powerful friends, some of whom have troops stationed nearby. They're at the table, while Orbán goes for potty breaks.
His impotent sabre-rattling for domestic consumption isn't all that impressive seen from abroad, is what I'm saying, though it's toxic in its own right for Hungary itself.
@rafa_font Thanks, that's a surprisingly interesting article for someone like me who can't stand stand-up. Ukraine is a candidate for EU accession, therefore undergoing the same process current EU members in the area did regarding minority rights. Romania manages to negotiate this topic with Ukraine without licking the Kremlin boot. I'd be wary of giving Hungarians a special totem in this respect because of "unity feels" across borders. That discourse doesn't appear organically, it has history.
@rafa_font Do the warm fuzzies uwu "unity" apply to my Hungarian friends in Belgium, Spain or Sweden who've had to flee a country Orban's made unlivable for them or is it reserved for his votes-for-passports (of what is now a poorer country than the one they live in) scheme for these types:
@rafa_font OK, but "he doesn't really mean it mostly because he can't do shit about it" doesn't mean that his Greater Hungary map bs is any less irredentist or acceptable in the EU towards EU neighbours.
We don't, as anyone who's ever stepped outside their navel-gazing, insular country and had to contemplate insurance for any length of stay in the US can tell the difference.
I look forward to hearing how the EU Commission has forced member states to make health care-were you trying to say competitive? Or indeed anything on health care, a national competence.
Without "any" drugs? And yet France manages to use and abuse and ingurgigate record quantities. 🤭
fabula murina (mouse story) LVII
ver appropinquat (Spring is approaching). Minimus et Silvius galanthos nivales inveniunt, ē bulbis germinantes (Minimus and Silvius find snowdrops growing from bulbs). #fabulamurina
Breve recordatorio: aunque el concierto de año nuevo sea un escaparate de clasismo y ranciedad al que acuden los ricos más asquerosos, Viena NO es así. Se puede ir a la ópera por 5€. El 43% de todos los hogares de la ciudad vive en vivienda pública con un alquiler reducido. #monoculos2024
@maprirol otro recordatorio quizás útil: se puede ver ópera gratis en toda Europa en #ARTE Concert, que ya sé que no es lo mismo pero si vives en un pueblo en los Alpes igual te sale mejor incluso que las entradas de 5€ en Viena.
Todos los grandes festivales de Europa y algunas producciones fuera del repertorio clásico, subtitulado en 6 idiomas.
@larsmb@jwildeboer
Are these more brainworms from the creators of: "debt is bad"/"spending is wasteful"/"state capacity is totally comparable to a Schawbian housewive's budget"? Genuine question as I don't want to unfairly jump to conclusions (though can't really think of what would justify neglecting flood defences...)
To me, Schwartzernull is faith-based macroeconomics and passes all 3 tests.
I'm not talking about mere policy mistakes, which everyone makes. Starving the EU of investments in a 0 rates environment isn't a: "Who could have known it would turn out to be a disaster?" scenario.
None of Viktor Orban's BS compares. The damage he causes might be systemic, but his motivations are anything but irrational.
Does some French BS compare? Probably, idk (though the consensus one might be tricky to clear, ahem...) Was De Gaulle irrational? Maybe. Was the vote against de European Defence Community in 1954 irrational?
@jmaris@abolitionniste@ashtime@OBabasch@pmroman
(I'm more interested in 21st century examples, because hindsight skews 3).
Poland refusing coalexit doesn't compare.
Ireland's (and Luxembourg, Netherlands etc) fiscal piracy doesn't compare.
Some British examples come to mind, but luckily they're history and as irrelevant for the above as whatever is going on with the Platform Workers Directive.
@jmaris@abolitionniste@ashtime@OBabasch@pmroman
Which the MEP herself explains quite clearly: Council doing Council things as a result of lobbying in Member States, duh.
Which is also not a unanimity decision and involves the following countries (in alphabetical order, you're not special!): 🇨🇿 🇪🇪 🇫🇷 🇬🇷 🇭🇺 🇱🇻 🇱🇹
@jmaris@pmroman@abolitionniste@ashtime@OBabasch
True, plus as much as this aspect needs more transparency, at least it's not a black box legislating behind closed doors.
This is still the 🐐 EU lobbying meme:
