Thanks for reassuring me that my first impression about France and Germany wasn't crazy. My paternal ancestry is Hungarian, and I've been very aware of the dreadful situation in Hungary.

Quasi-democratic seems that it might even be a charitable description for Hungary today given that it has virtually no free press and Orban used the pandemic as an excuse to suspend some of the remaining freedoms it had. At times it looks closer to "pseudo-democracy."

Poland looked almost as bad as Hungary a few years ago, but my sense was that it was improving, and it does have a better record on the Ukrainian refugees. In any case, I really appreciate your perspective. It's so frustrating to me that so many U.S. papers have shut down or drastically scaled back their overseas coverage that you really have to look elsewhere if you want to stay informed.