Nicosia, Cyprus, July 2025

Instead of pretending to be tough but fooling no one, the Commission should suspend these funds over the broader rule of law and democracy concerns regarding the Vučić regime – but it won't 🤷‍♂️

This is pure political theater from the European Commission: Serbia has already pledged to revise the controversial judicial reform to align it with whatever the Venice Commission will find, which could happen in a matter of days.

www.politico.eu/newsletter/b...

🤣🤣🤣

I would ask Politico to provide a single instance – literally just one – where someone claims Magyar’s win as a “liberal victory.” Totally made-up straw man argument

The markets are stupid, desperate to believe this sh*t 🤷🏼

Brussels, Belgium, April 2026

She talked about better comms 🥴

Side note: I don't usually make fun of spokespeople because the Commission spokes are all real pros and to the extent they don't make sense it's because the underlying policy doesn't make sense. But this is a good example where muddled policy leads to muddled comms – a word salad worthy of Trump.

...from the EU with our interlocutors from the Israeli side, and the High Representative is engaging on a regular basis with her Israeli interlocutor.

audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/media/vid...

...State of the Union. This incentive has been quite activated because it is still on the table and has never been put off the table. In terms of diplomatic engagement, it means something. It means that this is being regularly addressed in the open channels of communication that we do have...

Yes but before you go all negative consider this:

00:02:21,020
Because diplomacy is all about incentives and disincentives. In this case we speak about an incentive – which one? The one that has been put on the table by the President of the European Commission at the last...

The 27-Year-Old Diplomat Waging Trump’s Cultural War With Europe

Baffled by this article referring to this little punk as a "diplomat" not once, not twice, but four times, including in the headline.

There is no evidence he's a diplomat. Working for the State Department makes you a diplomat in exactly the same way that working for a hospital makes you a doctor.

Apparently the European Commission has a "multidimensional toolbox" to deal with Israel's aggression against its neighbors, per today's midday briefing.

Oh but those are facts and I don't think Brussels Signal cares about those

I can report that the epic nervous breakdown over at the far-right Orbanista mouthpiece “Brussels Signal” is in full swing, with undisguised racism coming to the fore

Also topical right now:

This is kinda funny. Let's do imperialism but on the cheap

In what world is MCC Brussels a "think tank" – as opposed to a rabidly partisan advocacy outfit – and a "leading" think tank at that?

Ah that's right, the world inhabited (or hallucinated) by Politico Europe.

www.politico.eu/article/hung...

🤡

If you have nothing better to do this morning, head over to the far-right propaganda outlet Brussels Signal to see how they're going bathsh*t crazy over the ouster of their patron saint Orbán

I guess they'll all have to look for new jobs once the money from Budapest dries up

And of course no Economist piece on European politics would be complete without the claim that far-right policies are simply a reaction to being overrun by migrants

Baffled by this – is The Economist seriously suggesting the EU has figured out how to arrest democratic backsliding in candidate countries?

Asking for a friend in Serbia

www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

Seriously, I haven't eaten better anywhere than in Syria and Jordan

All of this tacitly endorsed by the European Commission, one should add

Agree, and I didn't mean to be flippant about the shift in tone, which is an important development coming from the Times

Things are so bad and so in your face that even the Times feels the need to call a spade a spade

Our blog post explains that Hungary's turn away from far-right authoritarianism is an opportunity for the EU to strengthen its democratic resilience. Alas, personally I'm sceptical this will be taken up – the pull of business as usual is near-irresistible

Grabbing some popcorn to watch Orbán’s state-funded influence network implode

You know, people like Furedi and Goodwin and all the MAGA grifters in Budapest

Anyway, well done Hungarians, we’re proud of you

“Standing up for democracy”