V4 Perspectives

While in the middle of the 2010s, it seemed that as a result of the cooperation of the “Visegrad” countries ––Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia–– a new Central-European political pole was about to be born within the European Union, today, we are experiencing the excruciating agony of this partnership. In the last few years, Czechia and Slovakia have taken a liberal turn, which alienated their new elites from the Hungarian and, in part, the Polish political leadership. Besides that, the traditionally delicate Budapest-Warsaw axis has also become heavily burdened due to their different approaches to the Russian-Ukrainian war. The spectacular victim of these difficulties is the Visegrad Group, which, especially after Brexit, could have had the chance to become a conservative European counterweight to the fierce forces of European Union progressivism. It is not an exaggeration to claim that early elections in Slovakia will decide not only the republic's future but also Visegrad's prospects.