The National Alliance of Hungarians in Canada (NAHC), an openly pro-regime group founded in 2012 to defend the actions of Hungary’s authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his government, wrote a letter to the editor to the Globe and Mail earlier this month, after London-based correspondent Mark MacKinnon wrote two pieces in which he was critical of the governing party, and of […]
Accoring to polling data released this week by two reputable firms — namely Ipsos and Medián — Fidesz is continuing its losing streak and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s popularity has taken a hit as well. Both Ipsos and Medián had very similar findings: in under two months Fidesz support has decreased by between 10 and 12 percent. Medián’s director, Endre Hann, noted […]
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán knows that his government is in trouble. There is open in-fighting between Fidesz and the Christian Democrats (KDNP) over prospective changes to the church laws, which Mr. Orbán’s party initiated without first consulting with KDNP (or any of the churches, for that matter). And then, the forced Sunday closures of stores, the scrapped Internet tax, heavy-handed drug testing laws proposed […]
On paper, Hungary is obliged to eventually replace the forint with the euro. But somewhat like Sweden, which is obligated to do the same on paper, the Hungarian national currency is likely to stay around for some time to come, as the Orbán government has no plans to move towards the euro at any point in the near future. With […]
By a razor thin margin, voters in Moldova have chosen to give centrist pro-European parties a majority in the country’s parliament, according to results released by the country’s Electoral Commission. Although the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) came out on top, winning 26 seats in the 101-member legislature, their preferred partner, the Party of Communists of […]
Pripyat, once a model working class city built for the employees of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, is now the world’s largest ghost town. Crumbling socialist era apartment blocks tower over what remains of a city founded in 1970 and evacuated on April 26th, 1986. The city was once home to 49,000 residents, it boasted over 13,000 apartment units, 25 shops, […]
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has good reason to feel uneasy. On Sunday, the party lost a by-election in a left-leaning Budapest suburb by a 20 point margin (the governing party had at least expected a close race with the opposition Socialists) and then early this week two prominent Fidesz supporters announced that they may contest — as independent candidates — […]
Some 10,000 people took to the streets of Budapest on Monday evening (and up to 5,000 protested in a handful of other Hungarian and European cities) in what was dubbed a “Day of Public Outrage” against the taxes, systemic corruption and anti-western foreign policy of the Orbán government. The demonstrators called for nothing short of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s resignation. What was […]
Romania’s President-elect, Klaus Johannis, might want to send a thank you card to the 3 million Romanian citizens living and working abroad. And also to Transylvania’s Hungarian population. Without them, Prime Minister Victor Ponta would have been able to change political chairs and become the country’s new left-leaning president, replacing Traian Băsescu, who was completing his second and final term […]
There seems to be a distinct sense of confusion in Hungary’s foreign policy, a lack of direction and haphazard action, instead of a clear, coordinated strategy, and one which takes into consideration changing geopolitical realities and interests. On Thursday, the country’s largest daily paper of record – Népszabadság – observed that things may still get much worse in terms of […]
