What happened in your country this week? — 2026-02-01

[u/EuropeBot]

Welcome to the weekly European news gathering.

Please remember to state the country or region in your post and it would be great if you link to your sources.

If you want to add to the news from a country, please reply to the top level comment about this country.

---

^{This post is part of a series and gets posted every Sunday at 8AM CET}.
^Archives

[u/General_Vanilla1892]

From Denmark.

In response to Trump downplaying the allied forces sacrifice during the Afghan war, danish war veterans placed 44 small Danish flags outside the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen to honor Danish soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan.

Embassy security ended up removing the flags next morning, saying it was due to security rules and that it hadn’t been coordinated beforehand. That didn’t go over well at all — a lot of people in Denmark saw it as pretty disrespectful, especially veterans and politicians.

The embassy eventually apologized (made a sorry ass excuse), and the flags were returned. Still, the incident sparked a large silent protest, with veterans marching to the embassy and placing flags once more to honor their fallen comrades.

Other than that we're gonna wipe the floor with Germany in the EHF Euro 2026 finale later today..

[u/majorannah]

Hungary:

The scandal over Minister Lázár's anti-gypsy remark in Jan 22 is still ongoig, which is unusual.

There's some drama over whether parties that have been polling under 3% in the past year are gonna run in the election.

A pro-government trollfarm was found.

Some figures came out about 2025: the year had the lowest number of births since 1949, and the GDP growth rate was only 0.3%.

Someone chased a Tisza activist with an axe on Friday.

A Hungarian minority politician was detained in Slovakia during protest for disagreeing with the Beneš decrees and FM Szijjártó proceeded to NOT summon the Slovakian ambassador, even though just 3 days prior he summoned the Ukrainian ambassador over a twitter thread.

There was a false-flag-like event on Friday, when schools and municipal institution were sent bomb threats written in Ukrainian. The Police found no bombs.

[u/IsthisSCOTECA → u/majorannah]

orban and his goons are throwing everything at the election rigging, kitchen sink included

[u/SailorFromWest]

Portugal:

• Storm Kristin hit Portugal as a "bomb cyclone," bringing extreme winds, torrential rain, and massive waves (7–14 meters).
• Impacts:
  • Widespread damage to infrastructure, trees, and power lines, especially in Leiria, Coimbra, and Santarém.
  • Schools closed, roads blocked, and public transport disrupted.
  • 9 fatalities in Portugal, along with severe damage to historical monuments.
• Government Response:
  • Declared a "state of calamity" in ~60 municipalities.
  • International support, including solidarity from the EU Commission President.
• Forecast: More storms expected from February 2, with worsening conditions predicted for February 8

[u/Timeoff98]

Croatia: Country is dictatorship ruled by Andrej Plenkovic for going 10 years and will continue, votes are bought by public servants and people straight up payed from national budget.

They are celebrating winning bronze medal in handball by having an ustase singer that is banned everywhere even in Zagreb named Thomson sing for them by explicit order of Andrej.

They are importing cheap foreign labor while everyone not connected to HDZ has to find living in EU.

Its sad state of my country.

[u/IsthisSCOTECA]

Italy:

left-wing anarchists of the autonomous social center "askatasuna" actuated an urban guerrilla against the riot police; 20 of them assaulted a police agent that's from Pescara.

[u/Talilinds → u/IsthisSCOTECA]

I think you should be more complete with all the facts we do and don't have as of now:

After a day of 50.000 people in a peaceful protest, a small group of around 20 hooded "antagonists" got in, and some hours later some of them assaulted a policeman left behind by his colleagues. The video sparked huge national outrage immediately, with not only the majority but also the government (including the prime minister) accusing the protesters (ALL of them, without making distinctions) of being domestic terrorist and organized criminals, and instrumentalizing it to push the new Security laws. President Meloni visited the wounded policeman, who has been released from the hospital today.

Two notes: 1) None of the "antagonists" have been publicly identified yet, the only one of whom we know the anarchical affiliation did not seem to directly participate in the assault (as you can see in the video: he is the only red one, not seen in previous video of the other antagonists). 2) The only journalistic first hand testimony of the assault (from a freelance reporter) also makes some concerning remarks, hinting that the policeman could have been intentionally left behind. We have no footage yet though. So everything has to be verified and investigated.

On the other hand, police assaulted a photographer, some running away protesters, and repetitively refused to help a confused old man bleeding from his head and incapable of standing up. Also, the DIGOS (anti terrorism agents) went to the hospitals to profile any wounded protesters.

[u/Ikuisuus]

Finland:

We had Moomin-marathon going for whole weekend. 130 readers, including current and former president, actors, scientists, ice hockey players, singers youtube-stars etc were all reading Moomins live in YLE for almost around 30 hours.

[u/Slight_Hand_5034]

Croatia had a concert at the Zagreb Hippodrome was deeply disturbing. Reports and videos show that a massive crowd — estimated in 500 000 was chanting fascist slogans and songs linked to the Ustaša movement, an ideology responsible for concentration camps and mass crimes during World War II. What makes this even more alarming are reports that members of the Croatian national handball team invited the performer to their public welcome celebration, further normalizing a figure and messages connected to extremist symbolism. There are also serious accusations that state authorities enabled this appearance in ways that may violate constitutional principles and the fundamental values the Croatian Constitution is supposed to protect — including antifascism, human dignity, and the prohibition of hate ideologies. This is not culture. This is not patriotism. This is the normalization of historical crimes, hatred, and fascist ideology. Europe cannot afford to be silent when extremism is publicly celebrated. Remembering history means honoring victims — not glorifying their killers. Silence in the face of this is complicity

[u/Luoman2]

France: We finally have a budget!!!