After Donald Trump had won the U.S. presidential elections in 2016, the world focused on France and their bet went to the right wing candidate Marine Le Pen and her 44-year-old party, the National Front. Not many people gave one single thought to a newly founded party; not even a year old at the time; and its 39 year-old founder […]
Károly Makk was a Hungarian film director and screenwriter of international stature, comparable to Miklós Jancsó or Péter Bacsó, who brought postwar Hungarian cinema to European and western audiences. Károly Makk died at age 92, on August 30th, 2017. At the time of his death, he served as the president of the Széchenyi Academy of Literature and the Arts. Born […]
Outgoing Dutch ambassador Gajus Scheltema’s suggestion that the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán creates enemies along the same lines as Islamic terrorists sparked a political firestorm in Hungary. Mr. Scheltema said, as part of a response to journalists from the 168 Óra weekly on the risk of terrorist attacks, particularly after Barcelona: “A car attack can occur anywhere in […]
On August 28, at the invitation of Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán, the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin will visit Budapest to take part in the opening ceremony of the World Judo Championships. Bilateral meetings are also planned and the University of Debrecen will award Mr. Putin the title “Civis Honoris Causa” – Honorary Citizen of the University in […]
The University of Debrecen in eastern Hungary announced that it is awarding Russian President Vladimir Putin with the distinction of Civis Honoris Causa. Only two other people have been awarded the honour before Mr. Putin, namely György Habsburg, the former president of the Hungarian Red Cross and the son of Austria-Hungary’s last crown prince, Otto von Habsburg, and Rudolf Schuster, […]
Fili is the nickname of the Children’s Philharmonic Orchestra from Szentegyháza (Transylvania, Romania). The orchestra and choir recently toured Canada to honor the country’s 150th anniversary visiting seven cities and giving 11 concerts. The musical group was founded 35 years ago in the ethnic Hungarian-speaking community and gained fame under the direction of Sándor Haáz. In the last decades the […]
According to Paul St. Clair[1]’s report dated 2007, about the Migration of Hungarian Roma to Canada (and back), In comparison to about 5,000 Czech Roma, close to 25,000 Hungarian Roma made Refugee Claim in Canada, between 1997 and 2002. In contrast to the Czech, the Hungarian Roma migration had a much more fluid form. This was mainly because there […]
I. I first met Mr. S in the early spring of 1997 at a Hungarian cultural event. The organizer of the event brought him to my attention, as a newly arrived Roma from Hungary, claiming refugee status in Canada. I asked him if he had a lawyer to represent him, and he said with a confidence that he was planning […]
Michael Regenstreif is the editor of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin. In the August 21, 2017 print and online version of the Canadian publication, he writes about attempts by political leaders to de-legitimize the media in both Israel, as well as in the United States. As readers of the Hungarian Free Press know, this important institution of democracy has been under […]
The newly appointed Hungarian Ambassador, László Szabó, has put the blame squarely on the US State Department for the poor relations between the two countries. According to Ambassador Szabó the State Department has a major problem: “The vast majority of the staff members of the US State Department, where tens of thousands of people work, still have ties to the […]
