A far larger proportion of Hungarian citizens have partial Jewish origins than the residents of any other country in the world, with the exception of Israel — this, according to a study conducted by statistician Daniel Sztacki, the Jewish People Policy Institute and the MyHeritage website. Based on DNA test results submitted by 4,981 residents of Hungary, fully 7.6 percent came back showing […]
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Clare Humphreys’ recent commencement address at Corvinus University, Budapest
Ms. Clare Humphreys is a recent graduate of Corvinus University, Budapest and she gave a remarkable graduation speech on July 23, 2019. We decided to publish the full text of her speech with a brief bio...
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Bizarre US Embassy Independence Day extravaganza with 800 guests in Budapest
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...
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Republicans discover that Orbán is an unreliable US ally
According to Nancy Goodman Brinker, the former US Ambassador to Budapest, Hungary is now a “former ally.” In a recent opinion piece at the über-conservative media site Newsmax.com, Brinker, a 72-year-old...
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New World Record in 200m butterfly from “Milák from Hungria”
The reporter was so excited that when he announced the new World Record in 200m butterfly, he said that the winner was “Milák from Hungria.” This is an almost unbelievable achievement. Hungary’s...
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Whitewash — Assessing Robert Mueller’s Testimony Before the House Committees
On Wednesday. July 24, 2019, tens of millions of Americans and others around the world were given an opportunity to hear directly from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the man in charge of the investigation into the relationship between the Trump Campaign and Russia. Thanks to his 5 hour testimony, we now know that crime pays in America. Mr. Mueller agreed […]
Fidesz columnist Tamás Pilhál declares hunting season on the Hungarian opposition
A small group of Hungarian democratic activists in Toronto, Canada, are trying their best to share the true nature of the Orbán regime with English speakers. Recently, they translated a truly horrendous article from Fidesz news site Pesti Srácok, written by Tamás Pilhál. Mr. Pilhál advocates that members of the Hungarian opposition are, in fact, enemies of the Hungarian nation […]
Ágnes Heller, Hungarian philosopher and patriot is dead at 90
I met Heller about five years ago in Budapest. This tiny woman was probably the most effective international campaigner against Orbanism. In conversation she was sharp and domineering and to my surprise she said that she knew who I was because she had read some of my pieces at Galamus, a now defunct portal edited by the excellent Zsófia Mihancsik. […]
Letter to the Editor on Fascist Souls and Father András Kun
I am grateful for having received a fascinating newspaper clipping from Tomas Korper, in response to a piece appearing in HFP entitled The Genocidal Priest — The Last Interview with András Kun. The letter writer’s father, trying to survive the Holocaust by posing as a military officer, was captured by Kun in Budapest and was brutally beaten by him and […]
The Kodály Center at Holy Names University
In 1868 six women of the religious order Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary arrived to California from Montreal, Canada and founded a teachers college called Holy Names University. The campus today is located high above the San Francisco Bay and has stunning views. The Catholic university provides a program for music teachers and has become a […]
“Hungarian speakers only” summer camp in Wisconsin paid by the Orbán government
A couple of weeks ago a children’s summer camp was held at Phantom Lake, Wisconsin. The organizers invited children between 8-14 years of age with one precondition: they had to speak the Hungarian language. The Hungarian Government generously supported the week-long fun-filled event. It was advertised only in Hungarian in the US and was called “Diaspora School Camp.” According to […]
Joe Eszterhas has found God and Viktor Orbán
Joe Eszterhas does not mince words. At the 2016 National Republican Convention in Cleveland, his hometown, he called Hillary Clinton a “criminal” and Trump an “a**hole.” Now he has found a new political hero – authoritarian Viktor Orbán. The 74-year-old writer poses in an Orbán T-shirt giving an enthusiastic thumbs up to the Hungarian Prime Minister. I used to like […]
The use and abuse of participatory governance by populist governments
Ágnes Bátory and Sara Svensson both from the Central European University Budapest co-authored a remarkable paper about public consultations. They analyzed Viktor Orbán’s national consultations in Hungary, these are probably the most wide-scale consultative exercises in contemporary Europe. Some of our readers might not know that the Orbán government repeatedly sent questionnaires to every household in the country in some […]
Gloria Vanderbilt and the Széchenyi family
Gloria Vanderbilt, the American fashion icon died on June 17th in New York. She was 95. She was born wealthy; her father Reginald was an heir to the Vanderbilt railroad fortune. Gloria, a talented painter, writer and fashion designer, was related (by her aunt’s marriage) to the Széchenyi family, and also to “the greatest Hungarian,” István Széchenyi. In 1945 she […]
University students victims of violent hate crime in southern Hungary
The Pécs District Prosecutor’s Office has charged two young Hungarians with assault causing bodily harm motivated by hate. The young men physically assaulted two citizens of Yemen, one of whom was enrolled as a university student in Pécs, while the other studied in Szeged. The attack occurred in front of a commercial establishment in Pécs last summer, but it took […]
