SPECIÁLNÍ ČÍSLO/SPECIAL EDITION

22. prosince, 2025 redakce RUBRIKA Starší čísla, Visegrad project 2025

CONTENT

Editorial
- A historical test (Tomáš Fošum)

Czechia
- The Czechs are afraid of someone getting something for free (Tomáš Fošum)
- Russia has been written off by Czech businesses, but they can’t do without Ukrainians (Petr Zenkner)
- Yellow and blue have gone out of fashion in Czechia (Tomáš Fošum)

Hungary
- Between the Trump tornado and the Eastern wind: smooth sailing for Viktor Orbán? (Júlia Lilian Szabó)
- Across the divide? Hungarian responses to a war next door (Péter Bori)
- Orbán courts Putin while clashing with the EU — and the Hungarian economy bears the costs (Júlia Lilian Szabó, Péter Bori)

Poland
- How the war in Ukraine is changing Poland (Dorota Niedziółka)
- There’s no going back to the life before the war (Kaja Puto)
- The most emotional ally (Olena Babakova)

Slovakia
- Cognitive failure in Slovakia, or a cultivated feeling of irresponsibility? (Michal Vašečka)
- The war in Ukraine has put Slovakia to a historic test (Dávid Bořuta)
- Attitudes towards Ukraine as a polarizing factor in Slovakia (Michal Vašečka)

Visegrad Group
- Visegrad after 35 years: the end or a new beginning? (Vít Dostál)
- The Visegrad Group’s ups and downs (Péter Bori)
- How the war and Viktor Orbán have changed Poland’s view of the Visegrad Group (Dominik Héjj)
- Central Europe, the interests of the V4 states and the end of the Kundera’s myth (Michal Vašečka)

This special issue of Demokratický střed magazine was created within the framework of the project Reflections of the War in Ukraine in Visegrad Countries. The project is co-financed by the governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from the International Visegrad Fund. The Fund’s mission is to promote ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. In addition to Demokratický střed magazine, the Bratislava Policy Institute and The College of Eastern Europe (Kolegium Europy Wschodniej), the publisher of the Polish online portal Nowa Europa Wschodnia, also participated in the project. Hungarian authors Júlia Lilian Szabó and Péter Bori, who work at the CEU Democracy Institute, also contributed.