Articles by: György Lázár

Hungarian-born Agnes Gibboney is running for US Congress in California

Hungarian-born Agnes Gibboney is running for US Congress in California

A 66-year-old Republican, Agnes Gibboney is running for the Congressional seat in District 31, Rancho Cucamonga, California.  Gibboney is an Angel Mom who supports President Trump and has appeared with the President on several occasions. (Angel Moms: a group of mothers whose child was killed by an undocumented immigrant.) Gibboney speaks Hungarian and travelled to Budapest to appear on Zsolt […]

by · October 23, 2020 · Politics
Trianon Conference at the University of Toronto

Trianon Conference at the University of Toronto

On October 15, 2020 the University of Toronto, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy organized a Zoom conference entitled European Conflicted Heritage: New Reflections on the Treaty of Trianon 100 Years in Perspective (1920-2020). According to the brief description the Treaty of Trianon was signed 100 years ago yet its impact is still being felt by Hungarian minorities and the diaspora alike. […]

by · October 18, 2020 · Diaspora
President Trump and Prime Minister Orbán met in Washington in May 2019  (TV news screenshot)

President Trump called me in the kitchen…and other tales

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 […]

by · October 5, 2020 · Politics
Viktor Orbán – the Coolest Hungarian

Viktor Orbán – the Coolest Hungarian

Blikk is a popular Hungarian language tabloid and Prime Minister Orbán recently gave them an “exclusive” interview about the importance of wearing the mask.  Hungary has a serious uptick in Covid19 infections. “I always have a couple masks in the car and in the office, these are medical grade,” he explained.  Orbán says that the masks are inconvenient and uncomfortable […]

by · September 19, 2020 · Politics
Ms. Réka Pigniczky (left) and Ms. Andrea Lauer Rice

Cold Warriors – a documentary film about right-wing nostalgia in America

Réka Pigniczky has made an important documentary film based on the “original idea” of Andrea Lauer Rice.   The film was released in 2017 and now it is available on the Web. Cold Warriors is about the friendly shooting reunion of small group of aging Hungarian immigrants on a rural farm in Pennsylvania. In 1960 they were members of a militia […]

by · September 8, 2020 · Culture
Margit Bokor – the tragic life of the Hungarian American soprano

Margit Bokor – the tragic life of the Hungarian American soprano

As part of our series on lesser known Hungarian Americans we introduce Margit Bokor the celebrated soprano of the Metropolitan and the New York City Operas. Margit Bokor was only 49 when she died of cancer in New York City. The singer was born as Margit Wahl in 1900 in Losonc, Hungarian Kingdom (today Lucenec, Slovakia) in a Catholic family.  […]

by · September 1, 2020 · Culture
Steve Bannon (far left) with Viktor Orbán (far right) in the Hungarian Parliament.

Steve Bannon – Orbán’s advisor and former White House chief strategist has been arrested

Steve Bannon has been arrested.  He and three associates were indicted in the U.S. Southern District of New York and charged with defrauding donors through a campaign called, We Build the Wall.  The group raised “more than $25 million to build a wall along the southern border of the United States” and it is suspected that hundreds of thousands of […]

by · August 23, 2020 · Politics
Orbán refuses to condemn his friend, Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko

Orbán refuses to condemn his friend, Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko

Hungary’s corrupt “Viktatorship” is still stable at this moment, but you never know.  Political winds can shift on a dime in Budapest, just like they have in Minsk where 200,000 people demanded the resignation the country’s dictator, President Lukashenko. A couple of weeks ago Hungary’s strongman had a friendly visit with Lukashenko and Orbán called it an “honor” to be […]

by · August 17, 2020 · East
Mr. Zsolt Németh (left) and US Representative Andy Harris, Republican Co-Chair of the Hungarian-American Caucus in Congress

Hungary’s new foreign policy – US is a competitor

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 […]

by · August 11, 2020 · Politics
"Free Country - Free Press" Hungarian demonstration for press freedom in Budapest on July 24.

The collapse of Index – Orbán is dismantling independent media

Hungary’s authoritarian regime is showing its true intentions. The government has declared zero tolerance against independent media outlets voicing criticism of government policies. In 2016 Orbán engineered the shutdown Hungary’s largest broadsheet newspaper, Népszabadság. The official story was “declining sales” and the ruling Fidesz party beamed that the shutdown was “a rational economic decision.”  Népszabadság was not in immediate financial danger and got […]

by · July 27, 2020 · Focus