Seventy-three year-old former Attorney General and friend of the Orbán government, Jeff Sessions failed to reclaim his old Senate seat. He lost to former Auburn University football coach, Tommy Tuberville in the Alabama GOP runoff. It was a bitter defeat to Sessions a native Alabaman; Tuberville just recently moved to the state and will face incumbent Democrat Doug Jones in November. This was the first […]
PBS NewsHour is one of the most widely watched news program in the US. In the July 8 program the host, Nick Schifrin asked – among others – Hungary’s ex-Ambassador to the US, Réka Szemerkényi about foreign perception of the US during the coronavirus pandemic. Here are Szemerkényi’s responses from the edited transcript. We publish them without any further comment. […]
Steve King of Iowa, one of the most controversial members of Congress has lost his bid for re-nomination. King, a nine-term Republican suffered one of the biggest defeats of the 2020 Republican primary season. The defeat will most likely end his political career. 71-year-old King is openly racist. He has befriended European far-right leaders, among them disgraced far-right Austrian politician, […]
Large crowd demonstrated against racism and police brutality in Liberty Square (Szabadság tér) in front of the US Embassy in Budapest on Sunday. Participants declared support for the Black Lives Matter movement and pledged “to stand together in solidarity with all victims of racism globally, for justice and unity, for systemic radical positive change.” David Cornstein, US Ambassador to Budapest issued […]
Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s young minister of foreign affairs & trade is responsible for purchasing protective gear for his country’s fight against the coronavirus epidemic. Szijjártó organized an air bridge to China and over 100 WizzAir flights brought back gear for the “battle,” as he calls it. According to government sources Hungary has so far received over 131 million masks, 1,928,695 protective […]
In a speech on the Day of Victory over the Nazis, in the city of Uzhhorod (Ungvár in Hungarian) Ukraine’s young and photogenic president sent a not so subtle message to Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Volodymyr Zelensky talked about the “expulsion of invaders” from Zacarpathia, a clear reference to the illegal 1939 occupation of the area by Hungarian ruler […]
Carl Schmitt, the influential fascist German philosopher of the last century wrote that it is a waste of time to conduct politics through discussion, civilized debate and negotiation. That is a “liberal idea.” Schmitt believed that politics is a realm of struggle. As he phrased it, “political actions and motives can be reduced to the struggle between friend and enemy.” […]
Oh boy! This kind of mano-a-mano fistfight is rarely seen even in the murky and often tumultuous politics of Central Europe. Donald Tusk ex-Prime Minister of Poland is the current Chairman of European People’s Party (EPP). Tusk in an interview to Der Spiegel called Orbán the follower of Nazi philosopher, Carl Schmitt. He said “We have seen many times in […]
Although the Coronavirus pandemic in Hungary has not yet peaked and with 2,284 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 239 deaths, the Orbán government announced that it will be prepared to begin re-opening the economy soon after May 4th. On April 29th, the government intends to announce its plan on re-opening the economy. The current model predicts that the coronavirus will […]
Secretary Michael R. Pompeo’s Remarks to the Press (from the official transcript) 04/07/2020 02:34 PM ED Washington, D.C. QUESTION: How concerned are you about leaders using coronavirus to weaken democracies in their countries? There is this specific example of Hungary, which the State Department has commented on. Are you seeing that elsewhere, and what tools does the U.S. Government have […]
