Conservative parties

Hopes have faded for the opposition parties ahead of Sunday's elections in both Serbia and Hungary with longtime rulers Viktor Orban and Aleksandar Vucic poised to win.

Vrhnika – Prime Minister Janez Janša has announced that the government will continue to intervene as long as necessary to contain high electricity prices. The main problem, in his view, is the European formula to calculate electricity prices that takes into account gas prices, but the formula is about to change.

"I have always supported the V4 and I am very sorry that cheap Russian oil is more important to Hungarian politicians than Ukrainian blood. #SlavaUkraini," she tweeted.

The Czech defence minister added that with elections in Hungary imminent, "it is not right for me to take part in the campaign".

Government-allied pollsters regularly predict a comfortable 5-7 per cent lead for the government over the united opposition. Yet op-eds in the many government-loyal media outlets reveal proper anguish, if not sometimes even outright panic, in the Fidesz ranks.

For almost two decades, Orban remained faithful to his pro-European, anti-Kremlin stance.

The IPI report, titled "Hungarian Capital in Foreign Media. Three Strategic Models of Influencing the Neighbourhood", includes articles examining how, where and why Hungary has invested in foreign media in recent years.

Strasbourg – The European Parliament will take a vote on a resolution on the rule of law and fundamental rights in Slovenia at the plenary session in Strasbourg next Thursday, follows from the agenda endorsed by the parliament’s leadership today. The draft resolution is not available yet as the deadline for its submission has been moved from today to Friday.

Ljubljana – New Slovenia (NSi) met for a virtual congress on Saturday in preparation for next year’s general election where their leader Matej Tonin said this Christian democratic party should get the mandate to form a government in order to avoid the “inefficiency” of the centre-left and the “sharpness” of the senior partner in the current ruling coalition.

"I wish to have a government of experts, where not party loyalty but expertise and leadership skills would count," he tells BIRN, adding that he has no doubt that his position in the coalition as prime minister would remain solid.

Marki-Zay, or MZP as he's known more colloquially, was polling so poorly before the first round of the primaries on September 18-28 that it seemed highly unlikely he would be among the top three candidates to make it through to the second and final round held on October 10-16. But then he did, with only 21 per cent of the vote.