She will probably discuss trade and investment opportunities related to Italy, not the whole EU.

This is potentially the worst possible outcome for this whole debacle. This way the austrian conservatives earn points because they managed to restrict the percieved illegal immigrant flow from the east. Also the current governing parties in romania get to keep their crooked border staff, through which they siphon hundreds of millions of euro, as well as earning some electoral points. This partial agreement will also make sure that further schengen talks can be put on the back burner. And in the end the true beneficiaries of a schengen accord - romanian/bulgarian businesses that ship by truck - will get the shaft. Oh, and this whole scandal plays right into russia’s hands, as this will fuel serious anti-eu sentiment in romania.

As usual CNN is making out of this a bigger deal than it actually is. These are slovak parliamentaries, so it’s not FPTP, therefore he didn’t “win” ( yet, anyway ). This seems to be just the social-democratic party’s growth from 19% in the last election to 23%, which would be in trend with growing conservative sentiment in europe. Besides, PS also grew from 8% to 18%, but that doesn’t generate as many clicks as “SLOVAKIA IS NOW PRO-RUSSIA!” so it’s barely a sidenote. Key takeaways are that they will have to seek coalition if they really want to pose a challenge to NATO policies.

People keep giving the swiss as an example but it’s not the same context. Mainly because in Switzerland all men go through mandatory military service and that builds some discipline when handling a gun. Also they still have to get ( strict ) permits for those weapons, even with the accompanying training.

It is my impression ( and I apologize for the generalizations ) that in the US they’re essentially handing out assault rifles to any rando with some cash on him.