Eurotopics.net

As expected, anti-war activist Boris Nadezhdin has not been admitted to the Russian presidential election in mid-March. According to the Central Election Commission, 9,147 of the 105,000 signatures submitted were invalid. The fact that Nadezhdin was barely given a chance against the incumbent Putin has not mitigated the criticism in the opinion columns.

The parliament in Bratislava has passed a controversial judicial reform proposed by Prime Minister Robert Fico's government. Critics argue that the reform is an attempt by Fico's Smer party to have corruption cases from previous periods in government dismissed. For weeks, tens of thousands of Slovaks have been protesting against the reform. President Zuzana Čaputová intends to file a complaint with the Constitutional Court.

Hungary's President Katalin Novák has pardoned an offender who was an accessory in a case of sexual abuse of minors at a children's home. Justice Minister Judit Varga signed off on the pardon. According to the court dealing with the case, the perpetrator attempted to bribe the victims and persuade them to make false confessions. The affair is particularly embarrassing for the ruling Fidesz party, which used child protection as a justification for its discriminatory LGBT legislation.

The US military says it has attacked more than 85 targets in Iraq and Syria that are linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Iranian-backed militias. According to Iraqi sources, at least 16 people were killed. The strikes were Washington's response to the death of three US soldiers in a drone attack in Jordan. Europe's press sees an extremely dangerous situation developing.

After last summer's protests by mainly Eastern European farmers against cheap grain from Ukraine, farmers in Germany, France and other countries have been blocking motorways in protest at high fuel prices, new regulations and subsidy cuts in recent weeks. Brussels has now reacted by postponing a requirement to keep four percent of arable land fallow for environmental reasons. Europe's press discusses the farmers' situation and motives as well as potential responses.