Luboš Palata
Luboš Palata (b. 1967) is a self-styled “citizen of Central Europe” and a journalist at Lidové noviny. On the Czech daily’s international pages he comments on the political scene in Central Europe, especially in Poland and Slovakia. Ex-deputy chief editor of SME, Palata still writes for the Bratislava-based newspaper as well, runs a blog on its website, and contributes articles to the weekly Respekt.
Updated: 13 April 2010
More and more Poles are settling in the former East Germany, filling the void left by the flight of East Germans to the West following the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Lidové noviny is calling on Czechs to do the same, and so to help blur the borders of central Europe. 
The two main forces structuring Central Europe — the EU and NATO — might not go on forever. For this reason, Lidové noviny argues that the countries of the region should take action to heal the wounds left by the wars of the 20th century before they are once again caught in a geopolitical squeeze between Germany and Russia. 
The new government in Budapest wants to issue passports to all the ethnic Hungarians living in neighbouring countries. Slovakia, which is one of the main countries concerned, is none too pleased. The measure may prompt an increase in nationalist antipathy that could destabilise the EU. 
Neither a prey to Fascism nor the black sheep of Central Europe: the forecasts of a “black landslide” in the Hungarian general elections on 11 April proved somewhat too black. Viktor Orbán’s FIDESZ did indeed secure an absolute majority from the first round, but at least the Jobbik neo-Nazis failed to make the big breakthrough everyone feared, Lidové Noviny sighs with relief.