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The locations of planned demonstrations on February 3rd, 2016 by Hungarian teachers and school administrators.

Hungarian teachers’ revolt gathers steam

More than 27,000 individuals and 500 institutions have signed an open letter launched by teachers at the Herman Ottó High School in the eastern Hungarian town of Miskolc, calling on the Orbán regime to re-think the chaotic, highly centralized and authoritarian educational system that it created. Teachers are not only upset about their low wages, but perhaps even more so […]

by · February 1, 2016 · Politics
Vladimir Tismaneanu and Marius Stan.

Orbán-Mussolini parallels in academic analysis at UC Berkeley

Viktor Orbán’s Hungary has become a favorite seminar subject at North American universities; numerous talks and articles analyze the country’s sudden authoritarian turn. On January 21, Vladimir Tismaneanu and Marius Stan gave a talk at the University of California at Berkeley entitled Orbanism, Putinism, and the New Onslaught on Liberal Democracy. (Details here.) Mr. Tismaneanu is a Professor of Politics […]

by · January 31, 2016 · Politics
Hungarian researcher Dániel Gazsó. Photo: Facebook.

Dániel Gazsó and an unethical government study on the Hungarian diaspora

Dániel Gazsó is a researcher and employee of the Budapest-based Research Institute of National Policy (in Hungarian, the Nemzetpolitikai Kutatóintézet – NPKI). In November 2015, Mr. Gazsó–a cultural anthropology graduate of the Universidad de Granada–contacted hundreds of Hungarians living in diaspora communities, who happened to volunteer for local Hungarian-language radios, television broadcasts, newspapers and news sites. Mr. Gazsó asked those engaged in […]

by · January 30, 2016 · Diaspora
The Publicus poll, conducted for the Vasárnapi Hírek weekly, shows declining Fidesz and Jobbik support and modest rise in MSZP's popularity.

New poll: Fidesz, Jobbik support drops, while Socialists gaining

The far-right Jobbik continues to slowly bleed away support, while after six months of increased popularity, the governing Fidesz party is also seeing a modest decline in its numbers. The boost in popularity that Fidesz experienced during the refugee crisis now appears to be waning, as that issue begins to recede. A new poll produced by Publicus for the Vasárnapi […]

by · January 30, 2016 · Politics
Visegrád 4

Orbán and Visegrad: Hungary repurposes an old alliance

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán certainly found his groove in the last few months, since the refugee crisis and the election in Poland of the populist Law and Justice Party, headed by Jaroslaw Kaczynski and his ally, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło. The ruling Fidesz party went from an increasingly tired clique that had been in power too long and one which […]

by · January 29, 2016 · Politics
Ákos Hadházy. Photo: Lajos Soós.

Clear evidence shows that Hungary’s Fidesz abuses EU funds

The small Politics Can Be Different (LMP) green party has decided to air new, concrete information on corruption within Hungary’s governing Fidesz party each week, and the first such example of the misuse of funds was presented on Thursday, complemented by a secret tape recording, as evidence. Ákos Hadházy, a former municipal politician in the town of Szekszárd, left Fidesz […]

by · January 28, 2016 · Politics
The leader of the Hungarian Socialist Party, József Tóbiás (middle) with his wife, Tímea Rába.

Ákos Gergely Balogh: Of mothers and daughters, and the villainy of anonymity

Earlier this week, the pro-Fidesz 888.hu news site stooped to a level perhaps never before seen in Hungarian politics (so we’re talking pretty low) and published a series of completely nude, pornographic images of the wife of József Tóbiás, the leader of the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP). The photos date back to the nineties when Tímea Rába was a model and contestant […]

by · January 27, 2016 · Politics
Mapping corruption: the deeper the red, the greater the scope of corruption. Hungary is marked with "HU" and is orange in colour. Source: Transparency International.

Corruption in Hungary increases significantly, according to Transparency International

Hungary is now the fifth most corrupt country in the European Union, behind only Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Romania, according to statistics released by Transparency International on Wednesday. The organization’s corruption perception index (CPI) measures trends within the public sectors of countries around the world. While the CPI for 2015 shows an improvement in both Greece and the United Kingdom, […]

by · January 27, 2016 · Politics
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with his wife, Anikó Lévai, visiting Tatarstan.

Viktor Orbán, as Hungary’s lord of life and death

The title of this article might seem overly polemical, but I can’t think of a more accurate way to describe plans that were leaked this week to lay off 20% of  the civil servants working in key national public institutions in 2016, followed by a further 10% in layoffs in 2017. This year’s 20% reduction will put 6,000 Hungarian civil […]

by · January 26, 2016 · Politics
Lajos Bokros addresses the protesters in front of Parliament on January 24th. Photo: Zsolt Szigetvári / MTI.

Opposition protests Orbán’s dictatorial “state of terror” legislation

Over a thousand protesters took to the streets of Budapest on Sunday, to protest the Orbán regime’s proposed amendment to the Fundamental Law of Hungary (the new constitution introduced by Fidesz in 2011), which give sweeping powers to the government and completely sideline parliament, whenever authorities decide that a “state of terror” is imminent. According to the proposed amendment, Prime […]

by · January 25, 2016 · Politics