I start to think that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his inner circle have lost touch with reality. Police forces conduct anti-terror training exercises in other EU countries, but it is unprecedented that a night-time police drill is staged as a propaganda tool for a sitting Prime Minister. A couple of days ago Mr. Orbán invited journalists and politicians to […]
On Saturday, Hungarians were shocked to discover that the publication of Népszabadság–the country’s largest circulation political daily newspaper–was suspended indefinitely. The paper, with a paid daily circulation of 38,000 copies, no longer appeared in print, it’s rich online archive of articles and its dynamic website are all gone, journalists and workers have all been locked out of their offices, their […]
By: András B. Göllner As the Hungarian government’s anti-liberal, anti-refugee referendum campaign headed into its home stretch, liberal and progressive leaders from around the world, held their own rally in Montreal, under the patronage of Canada’s Prime Minister, The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau. The location for this gathering of global progressives was Montreal’s famed Ritz Carlton Hotel, and the Musée des […]
The Hungarian Forum of Ottawa is organizing an English-language talk with Ian Bradbury on Thursday, October 13th, 2016 at 6:30 PM on an international social justice initiative called The Stand. Those who follow the news closely in Canada will have come across Mr. Bradbury’s name in the media over the years. In 2015, both the Ottawa Citizen and the Toronto […]
This year we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and Freedom Fight. Pál Maléter was one of the most important actors in the events. He was unusual, complex and his intentions were often misunderstood by the revolutionaries. Some might even say that Maléter became the “accidental martyr” who is rarely written about in English. About 600 Hungarian […]
Synopsis Set in post-war Communist Hungary, in the fictional town of Hajdubékes, Never, Again is the story of seven-year-old Tomi Wolfstein, the son of Holocaust survivors who have never told him anything about their past experiences in the concentration camps of World War II. When the story opens, in the fall of 1956, the boy is about to start school. […]
In a series of tense exchanges in Parliament on Monday, after the government’s referendum opposing EU-wide “migrant quotas” was declared invalid, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán went on the offensive. His main target was Gábor Vona, President of the far-right Jobbik party, who had called for the prime minister’s resignation following the failed vote. Mr. Vona had cautioned the prime minister […]
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced after his anti-migrant referendum was declared invalid by the National Election Office that he intends to disregard the result and will bring forward a proposal to amend Hungary’s constitution. Mr. Orbán’s proposed constitutional amendment is “borrowed” directly and explicitly from Jobbik’s platform. The far-right party and its leader spent the entire referendum campaign criticising Fidesz […]
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s anti-migrant referendum proved to be the first major defeat suffered by Fidesz in a decade. Fidesz has won every election and referendum since fall 2006, including the 2006 municipal and regional elections, the 2008 referendum calling for the elimination of compulsory medical fees and university tuition, as well as the 2010 and the 2014 parliamentary and […]
Hungary’s Migration Aid, an NGO, which played a critical role in providing food, support and medical care to refugees in Budapest last year, issued the following English-language statement, after polls closed and it becomes increasingly clear that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s xenophobic anti-migrant referendum is invalid, falling well below the minimum 50% plus 1 participation threshold. This evening at 19 […]
