Focus

Constitution Protection Office headquarters in Budapest.

How Hungary’s intelligence agency tried to intimidate a journalist into becoming an informant

A Hungarian journalist, known only as “G,” was heading to work in December 2015. As he approached the offices of his media firm, two men suddenly came up to him and flashed identifications indicating that they were agents of the Constitution Protection Office (Alkotmányvédelmi Hivatal – AH). The internal intelligence agency, which bears an uncomfortable resemblance in name (and apparently […]

by · September 7, 2016 · Focus
Káosz / Chaos. Source: Pieris.hu -- Hungarian Interactive Portal of Contemporary Art / Artist: "sin of god"

Bell Canada — The collapse of Sympatico email and how corporate irresponsibility left Canadians in the lurch

Thousands of Canadians have found themselves suddenly without email access, isolated from family and friends, and their small businesses or freelance careers in peril–thanks to an astounding level of irresponsibility by Bell Canada. I am one of many Canadians impacted by the apparent collapse of Bell Canada’s webmail program, the dearth of candid updates from the Canadian telecommunications giant and […]

by · August 26, 2016 · Focus
Mária Schmidt (left) with Desmond Child (right) at the Budapest House of Terror.  Photo: MTI.

Hungary’s recycled Desmond Child song an embarrassing start to 1956 anniversary

American songwriter Desmond Child’s piece Steps of Champions should have been a major media coup for Hungary’s Orbán government. After all, Desmond Child–an American-Hungarian dual citizen who had worked with music legends such as Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Cher, Bonnie Tyler, Ricky Martin and Kiss–had been successfully enlisted by Hungary’s government to write the official anthem of the sixtieth anniversary commemorations […]

by · August 20, 2016 · Focus
János Zuschlag: From Party Headquarters to Prison.

A review of János Zuschlag’s book From Party Headquarters to Prison (Part 1)

János Zuschlag was only 21 years old when he became a Member of Parliament for the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) in 1998 and the country’s youngest MP. Nine years later, he was charged with fraud and received an eight year prison sentence. He spent six years behind bars, before being released in 2013. In the middle of the 2014 national […]

by · August 18, 2016 · Focus
Budapest's Living Memorial in Freedom Square. Photo: Christopher Adam

Budapest Living Memorial – An interview with Eszter Garai-Édler and Balázs Horváth

As a continuation of the presentation of the work of the Living Memorial group in Budapest, Eszter Garai-Édler and Balázs Horváth provide insight behind more than two years of activism and almost four hundred public forum sessions. The interview was conducted by Katalin Szlukovényi. * K.S.: What were your personal motives for joining the Living Memorial? Eszter: I got involved […]

by · August 15, 2016 · Focus
Living Memorial activists. Photo: jeumag.com.

From Memory to Presence — Hungary’s Living Memorial

There are no conflict-free communities. But it is literally a question of life and death how communities address their common issues and whether they can learn from previous mistakes. Inescapably, this question came into the foreground two years ago, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Holocaust in Hungary, full of commemoration events all over the country. The […]

by · August 14, 2016 · Focus
A Hungarian worker at the Audi plant in Győr, Western Hungary.

Hungary’s labour shortage reaches critical level

The shortage of skilled labour in Hungary is gaining pace, as Hungarians in the northwest of the country not only opt to work in neighbouring Austria for higher wages, but more recently in Slovakia as well. Not too long ago, it would have been pure folly to imagine that Slovakia would become a desirable destination for Hungarian skilled labour. According […]

by · August 3, 2016 · Focus
Budapest in Montreal / Hungarian Cultural Week in Montreal

Hungarian Cultural Week in Montreal – An exercise in hypocrisy

The Orbán government has teamed up with the Ville de Montréal and Air Canada to organize quite an extravagant week of Hungarian cultural programs in Montreal, with the aim of presenting Budapest — and by extension Hungary — as a hipster, avant-garde, inclusive and welcoming place of free-flowing and uniquely rich cultural expression. Anyone who has visited Budapest recently will […]

by · July 30, 2016 · Focus
Noémi's children have been taken away from her and put into foster care. She lives in a shack in the forest, from where she goes to work every morning to a local Tesco.

Evictions in Székesfehérvár: How the Roma Parliament is handling a housing crisis in Hungary

Residents of Székesfehérvár—largely Hungarian citizens of Roma ethnicity—have turned to our organization for assistance in confronting their housing crisis. In three meetings in July, a total of thirty families asked for the Roma Parliament to represent them and advocate for their legal rights and interests. According to the families, there are at least 60-80 households, or about 500 individuals, currently […]

by · July 29, 2016 · Focus
Mr. Matolcsy, Mr. Orbán and Mr. Varga - they failed to reduce Hungary’s sovereign debt.

Hungary’s sovereign debt trap

The Hungarian government’s financial policies have failed miserably. After coming to power in 2010 Mr. Viktor Orbán’s primary policy objective was to reduce the public debt. His government emphasized the importance of the “debt freedom-fight” and the struggle to liberate Hungary from Western financial domination to “regain the country’s national sovereignty.” Orbán’s government inherited an almost catastrophic debt situation. Public […]

by · July 15, 2016 · Focus