Fidesz politician Lőrinc Mészáros, a plumber by trade and the mayor of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s tiny home town of Felcsút, has acquired a 49% share in Hungary’s MKB Bank–the fourth largest commercial financial institution in the country. Mr. Mészáros’ company, the Konzum Befektetési Alapkezelő, bought 45% of the bank’s shares and approval is imminent to acquire an additional 4%. […]
We can say with a degree of certainty that the governing Fidesz party’s downward popularity numbers, as seen in the polls of the past months, represent a clear trend in Hungarian politics away from Viktor Orbán, who faces a national election in spring 2018. According to the Republikon poll released this week, Fidesz has dropped by 6% in the last […]
Stephen Gergatz, ex-honorary Hungarian Consul in New Orleans and Sarasota, made news in Hungary and abroad earlier this year, when he was arrested on Casperson Beach, in Florida. This month, Mr. Gergatz was acquitted on all charges, yet Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to distance itself from the former honorary consul, who was asked to resign following the incident. […]
Fidesz Vice President Szilárd Németh is a fortunate man. According to János Hudák, a municipal politician associated with the Párbeszéd party, Mr. Németh’s private foundation, registered at his home address, will receive 2 billion forints in state subsidies to build a new sports complex, which will become home to the Hungarian Wrestling Academy. Curiously, but in keeping with how things […]
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Thursday, at the World Congress of Families, held in Budapest, that his government intended to increase the birth rate from 1.5 children per woman to 2.1 by 2030. Hungary’s low birth rate and the decline in population has been a pressing problem for the country since the early nineties and new statistics show that […]
This week started with embarrassment for Viktor Orbán’s regime and especially for Minister of Human Capacities Zoltán Balog, who experienced a thoroughly public snubbing by Washington DC on the on-going saga of the planned shuttering of Central European University. On Monday, Mr. Balog, whose gigantic and unruly ministry oversees the education portfolio in Hungary, told journalists of the Index news […]
According to a study released by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH), 370,000 Hungarians are likely to leave Hungary within the next couple of years, in search of work and a new life abroad. “A significant proportion of youth and middle aged Hungarians desire to leave the country and have already started planning their emigration,” writes the conservative Magyar Nemzet […]
One would be hard pressed to find a western government more openly and intrinsically opposed to the social teachings of the Roman Catholic Church than that of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. When we speak about Catholic social teachings, we refer to seven key principles, fundamentally dating back to Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical of 1891, entitled On the Condition of Labour (Rerum Novarum) […]
Many of our readers have probably never heard of Marymount University, a small Catholic school in Arlington, Virginia. A couple of months ago they announced that in May the commencement speech of the graduate program would be given by Hungary’s Ambassador to Washington, Réka Szemerkényi. (The location is DAR Constitution Hall, 1776 D Street NW Washington, D.C.) In the meantime […]
According to a Závecz Research poll conducted between May 7-14, 2017, the ruling Fidesz party has seen its support drop by 8% in Budapest and by 9% in larger rural towns. Meanwhile, the Jobbik party has seen its fortunes rise by 6% in these areas. All in all, a trend already detected by previous polls is continuing: Prime Minister Viktor […]
