Politics

Tensions flare on September 19th, 2015, in the village of Beremend, on Hungary's border with Croatia, as over 5,000 refugees enter Hungary through its southern neighbour in the last 48 hours. On Friday, Hungarian authorities disarmed Croatian authorities and confiscated a train filled with refugees, with the Orbán government claiming that Croatia has violated Hungary's borders. Photo: Balázs Mohai/MTI.

Response to Ambassador Bálint Ódor: Hungary’s government displays callousness

Hungary’s ambassador to Canada, Bálint Ódor, used an article in the Montreal Gazette to try to rally Hungarian Canadians to defend the actions of his government in Budapest. There is no doubt that the unprecedented number of Syrian refugees transiting through Hungary was a serious strain for Hungarian authorities and especially for the charities and activists in Budapest who struggled […]

by · September 19, 2015 · Politics
Refugees throw rocks, water bottles at Hungarian police, who respond with tear gas at the Röszke/Horgos border crossing. Photo: Tamás Sóki.

Hungary refugee crisis descends into violence, chaos

Violence broke out at the Röszke/Horgos border crossing between Hungary and Serbia today, after several hundred refugees attempted to break through the gate and border fence erected by Hungarian authorities. Hungary’s police force responded with tear gas and water cannons, injuring dozens of refugees who were treated by Serbian paramedics arriving to the border. Hungarian media reported that two children […]

by · September 16, 2015 · Politics
Nearly 900 Hungarian police officers marched in Heroes Square in Budapest on Monday (as seen in this photo), and are being sent to the Serbian border. Photo: Viktor Orbán's Facebook page.

Canadian media on the refugee crisis in Hungary

Never has Canadian media followed developments in Hungary so closely since the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and the historic influx of 38,000 Hungarian refugees to Canada. And Canadian media organizations, like the CBC, Radio Canada or the National Post, are not copy/pasting Associated Press reports, but are actually immersing themselves in the tragic events unfolding in Hungary, especially as the country […]

by · September 15, 2015 · Politics
Zsolt Bayer speaks at the demonstration this past Sunday. Photo: Bea Kallos / MTI.

Fidesz founder says racial war being waged against whites in Europe

Zsolt Bayer, a co-founder of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, a long-time friend of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the right’s most prominent publicist, sees the current refugee crisis in Hungary and Europe as a racial war intended to annihilate white people. Mr. Bayer shared these thoughts at a rally in Budapest this past Sunday, attended by an estimated 1,500 people, […]

by · September 15, 2015 · Politics
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán...the self-proclaimed "guardian" of the EU's borders? Photo: Viktor Orbán's Facebook page.

The strange emergence of Viktor Orbán as the “guardian” of the EU’s borders

The ongoing refugee crisis has once again highlighted the mismatch between an ever-more-integrated union of 28 societies and a European political structure built primarily around the interests of sovereign states. In this political framework even an issue intimately linked to elementary human rights and European values is being transformed into a series of seemingly intractable distributive conflicts. The emergence of […]

by · September 14, 2015 · Politics
Ferenc Gyurcsány speaking in Budapest on September 13th. Photo: Noémi Bruzák / MTI.

Hungary’s former PM suggests Orbán made pact with the Antichrist

Two of Hungary’s left-centre opposition parties demonstrated on Sunday in Budapest against the Orbán government’s inhumane handling of the refugee crisis. The Socialists, however, have been relatively quiet on the issue of the refugees, probably realizing that this is not a topic that will win them many new votes. In contrast, political leaders in both the Democratic Coalition (DK) and […]

by · September 13, 2015 · Politics
Hungarian volunteers associated with the group Migration Aid bring some much needed normalcy to the lives of refugee children in Budapest. Photo: Migration Aid.

Hungary’s NGOs call for more humane treatment of refugees

A few of my friends and colleagues – some of whom are non-Hungarian, but have lived in Hungary – have complained that the coverage of the refugee crisis paints this relatively small Central European country and Hungarian society as a whole in a decidedly negative light. As every major international news network descends upon Hungary, from the Keleti railway station […]

by · September 13, 2015 · Politics
Viktor Orbán at the St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest. Photo: Facebook.

Viktor Orbán: Muslim majority in Europe coming soon

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave an interview to the German tabloid daily Bild, in which he predicted that Muslims will form the majority population within Europe “in the foreseeable future,” thanks to immigration. Bild once again has the situation in Hungary as its cover page story. “If Europe allows for competition between cultures, Christians will lose,” added Hungary’s prime minister. According […]

by · September 12, 2015 · Politics
Fence along the border between Hungary and Serbia. Photo: MTI.

Hungary’s fences and ladders

Hungary is spending billions of forints (millions of euros), using prisoners and soldiers, to build a 180 km (110 mile) long, 3-meter (10-foot) high fence along its border to protect the nation from the asylum-seekers that it is currently brutalizing. The fence is being constructed by 350 prisoners, who are being paid $117 per month each for their work. Ebay […]

by · September 12, 2015 · Politics
Mr. Fellegi and Ms. Kounalakis at the Hunnovators Conference in March 2015.

Former US Ambassador to Hungary says Orbán is a xenophobe

Eleni Kounalakis, who was the US ambassador to Hungary from 2010 to 2013, recently published a memoir about her service entitled – Madam Ambassador, Three Years of Diplomacy, Dinner Parties and Democracy in Budapest. The book contains critical remarks of the Orbán government. Now Ambassador Kounalakis has written an opinion piece in The New York Times calling Mr. Orbán a […]

by · September 11, 2015 · Politics