It would be a tad hypocritical to lambaste the Hungarian government from across the pond in Canada, for what appears to have been a technical glitch resulting in a delay in pension and various social solidarity disbursements. Canadian readers will recall the Phoenix payroll debacle. Tens of thousands of federal civil servants were underpaid, not paid at all or in […]
What happened on Saturday morning to Deputy State Secretary for Higher Education at an exhibit in Budapest serves as another modest warning to the now inaccurately named ruling party, the Alliance of Young Democrats (Fidesz), that its previous hold on Hungarian youth has vanished. Zita Horváth was about to give a speech at the Educatio Exhibit in the Hungarian capital […]
I am compelled to reflect on a letter written by Béla Lipták and published in The New York Times. In response to an NYT article entitled “Hungary’s Autocracy Beneath a Patina of Democracy,” Mr. Lipták argued that Hungary’s slide towards authoritarianism and the embrace of anti-western rhetoric is caused by, and is indeed justifiable due to, a deep-rooted anger and a sense […]
Father Mihály Kardos has spent the last four years of his life in a medical facility for the homeless in Szeged run by the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta. With both of Fr. Kardos’ legs amputated, the elderly priest needs assisted living and care. Four years ago, he was given the option of living in a much […]
For the past several months, despite continuing to edit this journal, I try to keep to the principle of moderation when it comes to Hungarian politics and political news emanating from Budapest. I do that by actively tuning out for at least part of each weekend. For one, I am reading many more books than before (primarily literary fiction) and […]
Thirteen opposition Members of the Hungarian Parliament spent all night camping out at the headquarters of Hungary’s public broadcasting authority, with the taxpayer-funded television steadfast in its refusal to afford anyone except Fidesz-KDNP politicians air time. MP László Varjú ended up in hospital early this morning and his body is full of bruises from a physical altercation with security personnel […]
Thousands of enraged demonstrators, during the fourth night of angry protests over the past week, marched to the headquarters of Hungarian state television in Óbuda, in the hope that the taxpayer-funded Fidesz propaganda machine that pretends to be a public broadcaster would allow for the demands of the opposition to be read on air. Riot police outside the building tried […]
The new overtime law, roundly condemned by every opposition party, has brought disparate and often feuding factions of parliament together, alongside unaligned students, youth and others in the capital. Friday marked the third straight night of palpably angry and often aggressive demonstrations–the protest began early in the evening, in Kossuth Square, with the participation of every opposition party. But as […]
There is a clear difference between the protests from both Wednesday night and those presently underway in the Hungarian capital this evening compared to previous demonstrations over the past eight years. On the surface, the current demonstrations of around three thousand protesters are about the Orbán regime’s oppressive new labour laws, reportedly adopted due to pressure on the Orbán government […]
If it were not for lavish government subsidies transferred to pro-Orbán propaganda news outlets, not a single Hungarian right-wing newspaper or publication would survive beyond a couple of weeks. Publications like the main government daily, Magyar Idők, would almost certainly go out of business in a matter of days were it not for transfers from public coffers, mostly in the […]
