Namedropping, exaggerating influence and political connections are hallmarks of Hungarian foreign policy. Let’s face it, Hungary is a small country with less than 10 million people; it is one of the poorest countries in the European Union with a GDP close to Cincinnati’s. Hungary’s political gravitas and strategic importance are insignificant. (And please don’t be offended.) Yet, according to its […]
Mr. Zsolt Németh, a founder of Hungary’s Fidesz party and leader of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee has published an unusual English-language essay entitled, Hungarian foreign policy after Covid-19. It appeared in the pro-government daily Magyar Nemzet and it seems that it is intended to be Hungary’s new foreign policy “manifesto.” (Read Németh’s thesis in English here) In the past […]
Large crowd demonstrated against racism and police brutality in Liberty Square (Szabadság tér) in front of the US Embassy in Budapest on Sunday. Participants declared support for the Black Lives Matter movement and pledged “to stand together in solidarity with all victims of racism globally, for justice and unity, for systemic radical positive change.” David Cornstein, US Ambassador to Budapest issued […]
Every year on July 4 the US Embassy in Budapest has a garden party with a couple of dozen invited Hungarian guests to celebrate Independence Day. This has become a decade-long tradition. It seems that Ambassador Cornstein likes to give big parties, I mean giant parties. On July 9 he invited 800 guests (yes, eight hundred) to a sit down […]
There was no announcement in Washington DC, nothing from the White House nor from the State Department; no news of an ambassadorial appointment. Yet, Budapest based pro-government Hungarian daily Magyar Idők has announced that President Donald Trump will send businessman David Cornstein to Budapest as the next US Ambassador. According to the paper they received this information from well-connected Hungarian […]
