Péter Tarr is the deputy director of the right-leaning HírTV cable television news network, which was established in 2003 as Hungary’s first 24/7 news channel. Back in February, the station’s owner, Lajos Simicska, had a very public and profanity-laced falling out with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and after that happened, HírTV journalists and staff, once the media darlings of the […]
Hungarian society is terribly splintered, polarized and immersed in a poisonous public discourse based on fear. But can today’s news of the death of Árpád Göncz, by far the most popular President of Hungary, who served under three different governments and for a full decade, bring Hungarians together and put a brief damper on the spiteful political polemics? All the […]
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe are pushing for the European Union to invoke the ominous Article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty against Hungary, but the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) has spoken up strongly in opposition of this initiative. If invoked, Article 7 would temporarily suspend some of the country’s voting rights in the EU, as punishment for […]
Central Europe, a region that experienced deep trauma and transformation in the twentieth century, is today often perceived as being especially callous and unmoved when faced with the plight of Syrian and other refugees. A large handful of public thinkers, artists and former political leaders have issued an appeal, calling for the region to show compassion, humanity and put aside […]
Today, no American politician wants to be identified with Hungary; George Pataki, the 70 years old ex-Governor of the State of New York is no exception. His father’s family came from Hungary, while his mother’s parents were Irish and Italian immigrants. He even speaks some Hungarian! Last December at the annual Mikulás dinner of the Hungarian American Coalition, the organization’s […]
About 2 million of the 11 million diesel engines involved in the Volkswagen-Audi emissions scandal were manufactured at the Audi plant in Győr, in western Hungary. Mihály Varga, Hungary’s Minister of Economy, said that his government was already in talks with German car manufacturers to assess the potential impact on Hungary’s economy. (See the Reuters report here.) He has good […]
The Hungarian diaspora, in large part, has either been silent when faced with the refugee crisis unfolding in their homeland or, as was the case of nearly all organized Hungarian Canadian community groups, they mindlessly promoted the official line of the Orbán government. For an English-language example of this servility–and one promoted by the Embassy of Hungary in Ottawa on […]
Readers of the Montreal Gazette will likely notice András Göllner’s column in this morning’s paper. The founder of the Canadian Hungarian Democratic Charter explores Pope Francis’ approach to compassion, diversity and inclusion, contrasting this with authoritarian political leaders, most notably Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Prof. Göllner’s piece is worth a read and most certainly worth sharing here […]
Many right-wing Hungarians were pedalling the idea during the entire refugee crisis that volunteers were somehow unmoved by the suffering of ethnic Hungarians living in poverty. Well, I was walking along Népszínház Street and Köztársaság Square the other day, and I have to conclude that the Hungarian homeless were better off while there were still refugees. Now all I see […]
On Saturday, I watched the screening of the film The Érpatak Model at the Uránia movie theatre, in Budapest. Until now I assumed that Viktor Orbán’s rotten regime can’t come up with anything new for me. Was I ever wrong! The film depicts how in a community of 1,800 residents, a mayor–who appears to be visibly mentally ill–has essentially become the […]
