The fledgling Momentum Mozgalom had the challenging task of collecting at least 138,000 signatures within just 30 days, in order to force a referendum on withdrawing the Budapest bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. On Friday morning, Momentum’s young leaders announced that they, along with some of the smallest opposition parties, had collected more than 266,000 signatures. Initially, the […]
Removing a statue of a philosopher? You may expect something like this to happen in Nazi Germany in the 1930s but not in Budapest in 2017. A couple of weeks ago the Budapest City Council decided that the statue of György Lukács will be removed from a Budapest park in the 13th district. The renowned philosopher’s statue is currently in […]
I just recently discovered how little is known in Hungary about Ernie Kovacs, the American comedic genius. This wildly popular American star spoke pretty good Hungarian and died tragically at the height of his career in 1962. Ernie Kovacs was born in a Catholic family in 1919 in Trenton, New Jersey. His father Andrew (András) was 13 years old when […]
The Momentum Mozgalom’s campaign to launch a referendum that would force Budapest City Council to withdraw their bid to host the 2024 Summer Games is heading into its final, critical stretch. According to the most recent statistics, Momentum–with the help of the Politics Can Be Different green party (LMP), the Együtt party, Párbeszéd (Dialogue) and some modest assistance from Socialist […]
One of the tricks used by Hungarian diplomats is to walk up to a prominent US politician, snap a photo as proof of their “close relationship” and distribute it with a misleading caption. A couple of days ago an American Red Cross charity ball was held at Mar-a-Lago, the sprawling Palm Beach, Florida, estate owned by Donald Trump. The President […]
A number of readers noticed Sunday evening that HFP had been hacked on two separate occasions. In both cases, György Lázár’s most recent article on opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin among some Hungarians was deleted and replaced with a note from a hacker, using a pseudonym which I will not repeat here, so as to not give him/her added […]
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his delegation arrived to Budapest on one of three identical planes, which left from separate locations at separate times. Putin’s Iljushin-96 presidential aircraft was escorted by Hungarian fighter planes in Hungary’s airspace – truly a presidential welcome. The security measures were extremely tight, almost unprecedented. Budapest’s streets were empty, police lined the intersections. No anti-Putin […]
Republican Congresswoman from Tennessee Marsha Blackburn is pleased with President Trump’s executive order to bar Syrian refugees and block citizens of seven countries, among them Iran, from entering the US. Rep. Blackburn considers Iran an enemy of the United States and two years ago she expressed strong concerns over Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal. She wrote that the Iranians were […]
Just over a year before the 2018 elections, a new poll suggests that the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) is seeing a modest rise in its popularity, while Jobbik is continuing a trend that has been apparent for months–the party that is trying to move away from its far-right roots is faltering. According to a poll released Sunday by the Publicus […]
Last Saturday, January 21, millions marched worldwide to protest the inauguration of President Trump. On the same day Hungary’s Ambassador to Washington, Réka Szemerkényi, organized a party to celebrate the inauguration of the new president. The Salute to Freedom Inaugural Brunch was held at the newly purchased Hungarian Embassy building in Washington DC. Salute to Freedom? Hungary, one of the […]
