The Future of Central European Cooperation — Will Populists Undermine the Region’s Future?

For many years now, when analysts discuss regional cooperation between the Visegrád Group (V4), they stressed that the alliance operated more as a “V2+V2” split, with Slovakia and Czechia on the one side and Hungary and Poland on the other.

The division was never entirely accurate, of course. In 2024, however, dividing these countries into two distinct camps is even less straightforward.

I have covering some of the politics of the region for some time now — as a Canadian-Slovakian citizen who has lived in Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia, I take great interest in the region.

So, I thought with the turbulence we have seen recently, it could be good to briefly go over where the Visegrád’s future might be headed. And I know a lot of you are interested, so here goes in a brief report.

Let me explain.

“There are a number of topics where we differ in opinion, but that shouldn’t prevent us from having a dialogue.” — Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala

Photo by William Zhang on Unsplash

A Brief Summary

To simplify, prior to 2022, it was possible to paint broad overlaps between Law and…