Hungarian and Romanian politicians, on both side of the border, often create and thrive on conflicts between the two nations. For example, this year on December 1, Romania will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the creation of modern state. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has already declared in a speech on Romanian soil (!), at Tusványos that “we understand why […]
Recently the Hungarian Academy of Sciences issued the statement: The dominant historical, archaeological, ethnographic and linguistic standpoints consider the Szeklers to be an integral part of the modern Hungarian nation in ethno-cultural terms. This is the latest in an ongoing debate about the Szeklers (Székelyek in Hungarian). In February 2013 demonstrators appeared in front of the Hungarian Consulate in the […]
Israel’s Prime Minister and leader of the Likud party invited Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to visit. Authoritarian Orbán is generally not a welcome guest in the EU or North America; President Obama and Trump have never invited him to the White House. Mr. Orbán is creating a new history for Hungary, a heroic one. His regime has decided to downplay […]
On June 24 the Hungarian section of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens celebrated its 80th anniversary. Cleveland has one of the largest Hungarian American communities in the United States. I visited the garden a couple of years ago and highly recommend it to those who are interested in nature or Cleveland’s history. The Gardens were created at a time when the […]
It seems that Hungary has intentionally insulted French President Emmanuel Macron. Here is the story. In a confidential memo dated June 18 and addressed to Macron’s office, French Ambassador to Budapest, Mr. Éric Fournier claimed that Hungary was a “model” for dealing with migrants and that accusations of populism against Prime Minister Orbán were media fabrications. Fournier wrote that the […]
Hungary’s government-controlled media is mum about a serious outbreak connected to a Hungarian food plant. Since 2015 there have been 47 cases of listeria infection and nine patients have died. The fatality rate is 19%! (Read the Guardian’s article about the outbreak.) The European Food Safety Authority has warned that the probable source of the listeria infection is a frozen […]
Last month Ms. Regina Zsigmond (42) and her husband Mr. László Kovács (45) were captured by US authorities at the Canadian border with their 2-year-old boy, Levente. The boy was separated from the parents and is currently being held in a Bronx shelter. The family entered the United States illegally and remain in federal custody. Their 2-year-old is in the […]
Poet and translator Sándor Kányádi has died at age 90. Kányádi was born in 1929 in Nagygalambfalva (today Porumbeni), in rural Transylvania. He moved to Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca) in 1950 where he completed his university studies and worked as a Hungarian language and literature teacher. He started to publish poems in 1955 in literary and children’s magazines and also became active […]
Gay bashing seems to be the official policy in Hungary. The Orbán Government has no openly gay members and there are no gays in the ruling Fidesz party either. Orbán loyalists have no gay relatives, not even gay acquaintances. Mr. Orbán’s cultural advisor Imre Kerényi wants to stop “the faggot lobby,” Budapest Mayor István Tarlós says that homosexuality as “unnatural […]
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has delivered a serious warning to Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó in Washington D.C. In Budapest the government-controlled media claimed that the meeting was a “significant success” and the parties had discussed the situation in neighboring Ukraine. Szijjártó assured the American politician that Hungary would “defend the Hungarian community in Ukraine,” and informed the […]
