East

RMDSZ billboard in Nagyvárad (Oradea).

Romania’s elections: Hungarian party beats expectations, while Social Democrats score major victory

Romania’s Social Democratic Party (Partidul Social Democrat, PSD) won in a landslide in Sunday’s legislative elections, garnering 45.44% of the vote–far ahead of the National Liberal Party (Partidul Național Liberal, PNL) at just 20%. The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (Romániai Magyar Demokrata Szövetség – RMDSZ) came in at fourth place with 6.25% of the vote, sending 16 representatives […]

by · December 12, 2016 · East
Ofir Gross

Ofir Gross, Israeli man brutally murdered in Hungary in April. They thought he was a migrant…

The disturbing story of an Israeli man’s brutal murder in Hungary earlier this year made headlines in the independent Hungarian media, but had little coverage in the international English-language press. Yet the murder appears to have been racially-motivated and this story is linked to the state-led hate campaign against Syrian refugees and migrants. HFP’s György Lázár shares this story with […]

by · December 1, 2016 · East
A sea of Szekler (székely) flags at a protest.

In defence of Transylvania’s Szekler flag – A letter to the editor from the American Hungarian Federation

Mr. György Lázár: Normally we at the American Hungarian Federation would not respond to the kind of posting you made on September 22, “Exploiting the naiveté of Hans Klemm, the US ambassador to Romania,” but we are making an exception in this case since you have gratuitously defamed not only an outstanding career American diplomat but our organization as well. The tactics […]

by · September 28, 2016 · East
Mayor Antal (far left) and US Ambassador Klemm (next to him) are posing with the Szekler Flag.

Exploiting the naiveté of Hans Klemm, the US ambassador to Romania

The U.S. ambassador to Romania, Hans Klemm, recently visited the Romanian town of Sfântu Gheorghe (in Hungarian Sepsiszentgyörgy), which has a majority ethnic-Hungarian population. Mayor Árpád Antal, an ethnic Hungarian himself, asked him to stand behind a flag to make a photo. The flag is the so-called Szekler flag which is controversial in Romania; it is illegal to fly on […]

by · September 22, 2016 · East
Péter Szijjártó, Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs, speaking on Saturday in connection to the failed coup in Turkey.

Hungary seeks deeper ties with Erdogan after failed coup in Turkey

Authoritarian Turkish President Recep Erdoğan could have hardly asked for a better coup. Apparently launched by a faction within the military at night (an odd time to launch a putsch in a country where these have, in the past, usually happened in the morning and involved the arrest of political leaders), the coup was put down within about five hours; […]

by · July 16, 2016 · East
Homa Hoodfar

Concordia University professor arrested in Iran

This week, Homa Hoodfar, my professor emeritus colleague at Concordia University (Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.) was arrested by the notorious Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and denied the protection that all members of the United Nations, who are signatories of the 1947 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the government of Iran, have sworn to uphold. My colleague […]

by · June 9, 2016 · East
KOD Polonia USA in Chicago.

Polish-American community leaders speak up against illiberalism and threat to democracy in Poland

In stark contrast to the silence of the organized Hungarian diaspora community when faced with the demise of the rule of law in Hungary, one of the largest Polish-American organizations has spoken up in protest against the growing threat of authoritarianism in their country of origin and heritage. We are sharing their letter, addressed to Hillary Clinton, with our readers. […]

by · May 28, 2016 · East
Andrej Kiska

Liberal democratic values are not self-explanatory–We must talk about them

Andrej Kiska, President of the Slovak Republic, gave a speech at a forum called GLOBSEC, held in Bratislava this past weekend. The international symposium serves as a platform for European policymakers, especially those based in Eastern Europe, to address issues of global and regional security. It is now the largest regular gathering of foreign policy and security experts, as well […]

by · April 19, 2016 · East
Béla Bugár

Slovakia’s Hungarian party may join coalition with racist anti-Hungarian extremists

In a macabre turn of events, the disastrous results of Slovakia’s parliamentary elections mean that the country’s main Hungarian party, called Híd (Bridge), may end up in an unruly right-wing coalition government with none other than the anti-Hungarian and racist Slovak National Party (SNS – Slovenská národná strana). We provided an analysis of the disturbing results of the Slovak elections […]

by · March 8, 2016 · East
Marian Kotleba. Photo: Új Szó.

Slovakia’s nightmare election

Following Saturday’s parliamentary election, Slovakia faces a badly fractured parliament, an almost impossible task of building a functional coalition government, the decimation of the country’s two Hungarian minority parties and, perhaps worst of all, the entry into parliament of an openly neo-Nazi movement, which makes Hungary’s Jobbik pale in comparison. Slovakia’s current Prime Minister Robert Fico and his populist centre-left […]

by · March 6, 2016 · East