Archive for August, 2014

Solidarity with Ukraine protest in Budapest on August 30th, 2014. Photo: Együtt-PM

Pro-Moscow government silent while Hungarian opposition organizes Ukraine solidarity protest

While the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ parliamentary secretary, Péter Szijjártó, tries to discourage any further European Union sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the Együtt-PM liberal-green opposition party took to the streets of Budapest, in order to protest the second Russian invasion of Ukraine this year. Demonstrators marched to Russia’s embassy in the Hungarian capital and the protest included key […]

by · August 30, 2014 · East
Photo: Paula Slier

Hungarian Foreign Affairs offers milquetoast words on Ukraine

Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued to issue milquetoast statements on the deepening crisis in Ukraine, following confirmation by NATO that Russian forces were operating in the Donetsk region of the country, and had helped pro-Russian rebels open up a second front in the southeast (along the coast of the Sea of Azov) against Ukrainian forces. “We are closely monitoring […]

by · August 29, 2014 · East
Vidar Helgesen. Photo: nrk.no.

Orbán builds “spiritual iron dome” over Hungary, according to Norwegian minister

Norway’s minister in charge of European affairs, Vidar Helgesen, is calling upon European leaders to take more decisive action against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s growing authoritarianism, noting that the country’s leader was busily building “a spiritual iron dome” and was turning his back on the West. Mr. Helgesen published his thoughts in the form of a letter to the editor, […]

by · August 28, 2014 · Politics
KDNP

Christian Democrats deny teaming up with fascistic Jobbik party

Hungary’s Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP) has been exploring possible local alliances with the openly antisemitic and fascistic Jobbik party ahead of municipal elections. The liberal news magazine hvg.hu wrote this week that KDNP’s local association in the town of Szigetvár was cooperating with Jobbik to support an independent candidate acceptable to both parties, rather than backing the Fidesz candidate. Hvg.hu wrote that […]

by · August 27, 2014 · Politics
Fr. Szabolcs Licskó and Júlia Ciamarra

Montreal Hungarian community remembers victims of internment

On August 22nd, 2014, one hundred plaques commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the internment of Eastern Europeans by Canadian authorities between 1914 and 1920 were unveiled in communities across the country. Our Lady of Hungary Parish in Montreal unveiled one such plaque, remembering the victims of wartime xenophobia, some of whom were of Hungarian origin. Among those present were […]

by · August 26, 2014 · Diaspora
A plaque placed in Montreal recalls victims of Canada's first national internment operations. Photo: C. Adam.

Canadian Hungarian Democratic Charter Welcomes Canadian Government’s Decision to Acknowledge Historical Injustice

The Canadian Hungarian Democratic Charter welcomes the Government of Canada’s statement on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the country’s first national internment operations between 1914 and 1920, in which more than 8,600 innocent men, women and children from the lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and elsewhere in Eastern Europe were unjustly interned as “enemy aliens” in 24 internment […]

by · August 25, 2014 · Diaspora
Photo: Szilárd Koszticsák, MTI.

Orbán takes hardline with his ambassadors

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán spoke to Hungary’s ambassadors today at a talk given to employees of the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is an annual affair, usually held each August, and just as the summer holidays begin to wind down. Mr. Orbán highlighted the fact that he places pragmatic considerations far above lofty ideals any day of the week and while […]

by · August 25, 2014 · Politics
Stephen Harper (Photo: PMO).

Statement by Prime Minister Harper in remembrance of interned Eastern Europeans

Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued the following statement in remembrance of thousands of Eastern Europeans interned during Canada’s first national internment operations, between 1914 and 1920:“A century ago, as a result of fear generated by the onset of the First World War, thousands of new immigrants of European origin were interned during the First World War even though there was […]

by · August 25, 2014 · Diaspora
Opposing view: One does not subvert a regime through house painting!

Opposing view: One does not subvert a regime through house painting!

HFP reader István Zöld responds to our piece on “Kádár kocka” architecture: This is beyond ridiculous. For a start, these houses are not cubic. Then their architecture has nothing to do with the Kádár era. They are typical East European rural homes, and they were around well before World War II. So it’s wrong to imply their structure was somehow imposed […]

by · August 24, 2014 · Culture
The Leninplatz statue before 1992.

Lenin’s head goes missing in Berlin

A statue of Vladimir I. Lenin that stood in East Berlin for over two decades and which was dismantled and removed in 1991 was thought to have been buried in pieces in the Köpenick Forest, located to the southeast of the German capital. The monument’s 3.5 ton granite head was believed to have been buried there as well, but when a […]

by · August 23, 2014 · East
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