Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has a new admirer just north of the border in Slovakia. The regional governor of Banska Bystrica (Besztercebánya in Hungarian) Marian Kotleba, sent an open letter to Mr. Orbán on July 28th expressing his support for Orbán’s “brave and effective steps aimed at saving European countries from an inundation of immigrants.” “I express full support […]
Politics makes strange bedfellows. And this may be the case in the unexpected alliance between former Israeli Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, Yona Metzger, and Hungary’s Orbán Government. In November 2013 Rabbi Yona Metzger was arrested in Israel on suspicion of corruption and the Magistrate’s Court ordered him to be kept in custody. According to investigators, Rabbi Metzger accepted bribes of an […]
Dutch political scientist Cas Mudde, the author of Racist Extremism in Central and Eastern Europe (Routledge, 2005), made a critically important point in an op-ed piece published Saturday in The Guardian. According to Professor Mudde, western journalists and activists who have been concerned primarily with, and focused almost exclusively on, the rise of the far-right Jobbik in Hungary have been wrong […]
Viktor Orbán warmed up his signature political dish today in the Transylvanian town of Tusnádfürdő (Băile Tușnad), where he gave his annual speech at a right-wing gathering of students, activists, politicians and policy-makers. Mr. Orbán returned to an old theme, and one which very successfully created a toxic environment for Hungarians both in Hungary and in the diaspora who were […]
Tad Stahnke is the vice president of a Washington, D.C.-based organization called Human Rights First, which has launched campaigns advocating for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, as well as for LGBT rights in Vladimir Putin’s Russia and for anti-human trafficking initiatives. This time, the group is speaking out forcefully against a major visit to Washington D.C. by Hungary’s far right […]
Since November 2010, Hungary’s Orbán government has spent over 571,000 euros to purchase highly sophisticated spying technology from an Italian firm called the Hacking Team, and the software is used to bug cell phones and hack into private computers, according to a report published by the liberal 444.hu news site. The data on the Hacking Team’s servers was stolen by a group of hackers this […]
You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last, But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast, Yonder stands your orphan with his gun, Crying like a fire in the sun Look out, the saints are comin’ through And it’s all over now, Baby Blue. -Bob Dylan Overview Man is a tool making animal […]
In stark contrast to the Obama administration, as well as key Republican politicians, and governments in western Europe, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet has expressed absolutely no concern in public about the authoritarian, illiberal and xenophobic politics of Hungary’s Orbán regime. In fact, since 2010, the Embassy of Hungary in Ottawa has placed a special emphasis on cultivating a […]
Inside the Boom-Box–The Technical Data on RCA Viktor’s 2015 Sound System How does Hungary’s ruling political Party, FIDESZ, use the language of political deception to get what it wants? How does Viktor Orbán’s government manipulate public opinion in Canada and around the world? How does it use the language of love and harmony, to generate applause, as it destroys the […]
Why is Canada a key test-market for RCA Viktor? Perceived acoustic compatibility is not the only reason why RCA Viktor chose Canada as the place to roll-out its sound-system. There are important historical factors behind RCA Viktor’s secret attachment to Canada. This 3rd section in a series on the language of political deception used by the Orbán regime in Canada […]
