Country leaders of the Visegrad Group meet in Budapest to discuss migration and other European issues.

Spain’s leftist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, during a state visit to Ankara, affirmed his commitment to Turkey’s accession to the European Union, describing the country as an “essential ally.”

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said on Thursday that under no circumstances will the bloc negotiate with the Lukashenko regime over the future of migrants stranded along the Polish-Belarusian border.

Despite top officials within the French government having recently come out in opposition to the EU providing funds to Poland for the construction of its wall along the Belarusian border, President Emmanuel Macron claimed that France will push for action on the migration when it assumes the EU presidency at the beginning of next year.

After engineering a humanitarian crisis along the Polish-Belarusian border, President Aleksandr Lukashenko has called on Germany’s outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) to help rectify the situation by taking in 2,000 migrants.

Often referred to as “the most vaccinated place on earth,” the British-owned territory, which is situated on the southernmost tip of the Iberian peninsula, has witnessed the number of COVID-19 cases consistently rise throughout the fall months, leaving many questioning the vaccine’s efficacy in preventing SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

French author, polemicist, and potential presidential candidate Éric Zemmour recently weighed in on the events unfolding at the Polish-Belarusian border, applauding Poland for its strength and determination amid an onslaught of migrant attacks.

Political and military leaders in Austria have called for massive protests against the government’s new anti-COVID lockdown measures.

Speaking on the lockdown, Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) said that measures will be enforced by police on an “unprecedented scale.” Those who break the rules risk fines of up to 1,450 euros. 

The prosecutor’s office in Digne-les-Bains, a French commune situated in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of southeastern France, has opened an official investigation into an incident last Thursday which saw a group of individuals use rocks to smash the glass display of the memorial.

The incident, which according to police saw mainly nationals from Iraq and Syria captured and returned to the border area, took place on Sunday, a day after Poland accused the Belarusian regime of destroying its border barriers, arming migrants with tear gas, and blinding its security personnel with laser beams and strobe lights.

Official figures from the Spanish government have revealed that in 2020, year one of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 4,000 people took their own lives—the highest number recorded since records began in 1906.