History of Poland 1989–present)

When the populist PiS first gained power in 2015, it was able to pass controversial justice reforms literally overnight. But the new balance of power means it will have to sweat a bit more to pursue a strategy widely condemned as an attack on judicial independence.

The so-called Rywin affair — named after top film producer Lew Rywin, who was accused of arranging a $17.5 million bribe to influence a new media law, allegedly on behalf of the then prime minister's closest circle — ultimately toppled the government and sent Rywin to prison.

Britain will lose its influence in the world and become a "second-rate player" after leaving the EU, said Donald Tusk, quoted by Reuters.

Proponents of Brexit point out that the UK is the fifth largest economy in the world and argue that leaving the EU will open up new opportunities in world trade.

European Council President Donald Tusk will recommend the EU leaders to adopt a postponement of Brexit beyond the planned date of 31 October.

It is a decision of the European Council not to open membership talks with Northern Macedonia and Albania. The decision, which deeply compromises the EU, as an institution that can be trusted as much as Donald Trump, but also a decision that puts Croatia in a terribly embarrassing position, writes the author Robert Bajrushi.

The basic foundations of the Brexit deal have been agreed, said European Council President Donald Tusk, adding that everything should be clear in the next seven to eight hours, BTA reported.

"The basic foundations of an agreement are ready and theoretically tomorrow we could accept this deal with Great Britain,"  Tusk told reporters.

And in Hungary's local elections, the opposition retook power in Budapest and won mayoral races in 10 other cities.

The question now is whether these results augur a broader political shift in the region.

Poland's ruling Conservative Nationalist Law and Justice Party wins the parliamentary elections held yesterday.

Exit polls suggest that governing is likely to retain an absolute majority. Justice and Justice Jaroslaw Kaczynski received 43.6 percent of the vote and 239 seats in the 460-seat lower house of parliament.

European Council President Donald Tusk chastised Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday for threatening to send millions of Syrian refugees to Europe and blasted the Turkish operation in northern Syria as destabilizing the region.

The conservatives in PiS, however, put income redistribution to the fore of the public agenda, party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski even extolling people to read Capital in the 21st Century, the global bestseller by French economist Thomas Picketty that cast fresh light on the issue of inequality.