Joëlle Stolz
Born in 1952, Joëlle Stolz is the Vienna correspondent for Le Monde and a noted contributor to other French media, including Radio France Internationale. She is also the author of several books, most notably the award winning Loin de Ghadamès, which was translated into English as "The Shadows of Ghadames."
Updated: 9 March 2012
Currently reserved for Hungarians, farmlands will be available for purchase by foreigners from 2014. But as this EU imposed deadline looms, PM Viktor Orbán government is doing all it can to delay it. Meanwhile small farmers are battling with wealthy candidates, often close to sources of political power, for the most attractive lots. 
Heirs to the Hapsburg Empire, Austria and Hungary have something else in common: an ambiguous relationship with history and a tendency to tolerate political excesses. Ten years after European sanctions against Vienna, why does the Budapest seem to be stuck in the 1930s? 
At a time when the EU has called on member states to make greater efforts to integrate Roma living on their territories, Viktor Orbán’s government, which currently holds the presidency of the European Union, continues to turn a blind eye to the ongoing campaign to intimidate "Gypsy criminals" conducted by far-right Magyar groups. 
In the prosperous Austrian state of Vorarlberg, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) has harvested more than 20% of the vote by brandishing the spectre of "an invasion" of Turkish migrants who would threaten "the social peace."