For years Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been able to control his Fidesz party with an iron fist. Sharp exchanges remained within the walls of Fidesz offices while the leadership always showed a unified front to the public. His recent attack on the George Soros-backed Central European University (CEU), and the Lex CEU law which was approved by the […]
Viktor Orbán’s authoritarian government plans to turn the Budapest International Book Festival (April 20–23) into a political propaganda event. The festival is supposed to be for book lovers. It is an annual four-day extravaganza with panel discussions, book signings, readings where thousands of newly published and older books can be purchased. (Click here to see this year’s program of the […]
Tens of thousands rallied in Budapest to protest a law that could force the US-accredited Central European University (CEU), founded by George Soros, a Hungarian-born billionaire, to move out of the country. The attack on academic freedom has attracted worldwide criticism, including from North America where hundreds of academics, including dozens of Nobel prize-winners, signed letters and demanded the law […]
To be honest, I didn’t know that in the last decades Yevgeny Yevtushenko lived here in the US, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He died at the age of 84 due to heart failure. Born in 1933 in a tiny Siberian outpost near Irkutsk, he was a descendant of Ukrainian exiles. As a young and good-looking poet Yevtushenko had pop-star status in […]
In 2012 when former New York Governor George Pataki became a member of the Central European University (CEU) Board of Trustees, university founder and Honorary Chairman George Soros held a reception at his Southampton, New York home. Pataki was grateful for the appointment. As a trustee, Pataki was instrumental in selecting Michael Ignatieff, the Canadian professor and liberal politician as […]
The Hungarian Consulate in New York City does a fabulous job of informing the public about every event, visit or meeting conducted by their diplomats in the Big Apple. The Consulate’s homepage, personal internet pages, tweets and Facebook pages report every little happening. On March 16th, sixty alumni and friends attended the Central European University (CEU) Alumni Reception at the […]
It was still dark last Tuesday morning at Szent István Park, Budapest, when the trucks arrived. At dawn as the first light appeared workers dismantled the György (Georg) Lukács statue. They were quiet, fast and efficient and it seemed that they had lots of experience. In a short time the statue of the renowned Marxist philosopher was gone. There is […]
It was President Trump’s first major political defeat. Last week GOP leaders yanked their bill to repeal “Obamacare” off the House floor when it became clear it would fail. House Speaker Paul Ryan told President Trump that he was unable to convince fellow republicans and the bill would not pass. The Freedom Caucus, a group of influential conservative congressman played […]
This is the fourth installment of a series of articles appearing in HFP on the meteoric rise of Sebastian Gorka, President Trump’s counterterrorism adviser. Recently questions have been raised about Mr. Gorka’s competence and his connection to anti-Semitic groups and individuals. (See: Part 1 & Part 2 & Part 3 ) Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary, wants to […]
This is the third installment of a series of articles appearing in HFP on the meteoric rise of Sebastian Gorka, President Trump’s counterterrorism adviser. Recently questions have been raised about Mr. Gorka’s competence and his connection to anti-Semitic groups and individuals. (See: Part 1 & Part 2.) Hungary’s far-right movement is pro-Iranian, in fact, according to press reports the Iranian […]
