Littering is frowned upon in Hungary, through much of Europe and in North America. Today, the Hungarian media is focusing on a story that is pretty mundane and even tawdry on the surface, but speaks perfectly to the sense of entitlement and impunity that exists within the Orbán family. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s eldest daughter, Ráhel, was photographed in Croatia […]
Hungarian diplomats in both Canada and the United States have engaged in a concerted effort to silence Hungarian Canadians and Hungarian Americans critical of the Orbán government and to have them removed from local Hungarian communities or ensure that they are otherwise isolated. The most recent incident comes from Los Angeles, where Hungary’s Consul General, Tamás Széles, demanded that the […]
On July 27 Deputy State Secretary Tristan Azbej tweeted his smiling photo with Jared Kushner. “Privilege to meet @jaredkushner, advisor (& son-in-law) to @realDonaldTrump and to receive acknowledgment for our program dedicated to aid the persecuted Christian communities. Mr. Kushner was supportive of the idea of joint US-Hungarian humanitarian action. #IRFMinisterial” Joint US-Hungarian humanitarian action? The White House has not […]
Henry Reichman, Professor Emeritus California State University, East Bay has published an article on the Academe Blog (the blog of Academe magazine) about the Hungarian government’s proposal that gender studies courses may no longer be offered in Hungary. The blog also published a protest letter addressed to Mr. József Bódis, Hungarian State Secretary. Prof. Reichman has raised some interesting issues […]
Árpád Szakács has just published the twelfth installment of a series of articles in the Magyar Idők government daily entitled “Whose cultural dictatorship?”. His series aims to highlight how Hungarian public institutions and agencies are still often willing to fund cultural projects that are spearheaded by artists, authors or thinkers not associated with the ruling party or those who are […]
Hungarian and Romanian politicians, on both side of the border, often create and thrive on conflicts between the two nations. For example, this year on December 1, Romania will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the creation of modern state. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has already declared in a speech on Romanian soil (!), at Tusványos that “we understand why […]
The Orbán regime introduced legislation to shut down accredited gender studies programs offered by universities in Hungary. Academics now have 24 hours to respond to the government’s plan. The ban will primarily impact students at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest (ELTE)–the only institution in Hungary, other than Central European University, to offer gender studies at the graduate level, and the […]
If István Tarlós, the 70 year old mayor of Budapest, decides not to run for a third term in the 2019 municipal elections, Fidesz is likely to eliminate the position of lord mayor (főpolgármester) altogether, rather than face the risk of losing the Budapest mayoralty to an opposition candidate. According to sources quoted by the HVG weekly, Fidesz believes that […]
Steven Béla Várdy, one of the most preeminent historians of Hungary and Hungarians in the West, has died. His university teaching career spanned half a century. Today we share the obituary written by John J. Dwyer, Chair of the Department of History at Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh, PA. It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Professor […]
It seems that an annual summer trip to Hungary has become something of a ritual for me. Initially, now well over a decade ago, I would travel back for archival research–first for my MA thesis, then for my PhD dissertation, or for the odd conference presentation. Then as I became more involved in the country’s public discourse over the past […]
