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 […]
In 1914, at the start of the First World War, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany famously promised that by the time the leaves fall from the trees, the War will be over. But when the signs of a bogged down conflict and a bloody stalemate became evident in December 1914, these words rang very hollow, indeed. Soldiers of Austria-Hungary faced the […]
Hungarian immigrants made important contributions to Hollywood; Michael Curtis, Adolf Zukor, George Cukor, William Fox and the Korda brothers were legends in the last century. “It’s not enough to be talented – you have to be Hungarian in Hollywood.” There is some truth to this myth; during the 1930´s some claimed that the California film industry was dominated by Hungarians. […]
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 — […]
The Toronto-based Jewish Tribune published an important and startling piece, based on an interview with Hungarian author Ákos Kertész, who was forced to flee from Hungary, following a series of brutal anti-Semitic attacks against him. Canada accepts very few refugee claimants from Hungary, but Mr. Kertész’s claim was approved. For some time, Mr. Kertész was not able to speak openly […]
András Göllner, Founder and International Spokesperson of the Canadian Hungarian Democratic Charter and Professor Emeritus at Concordia University, gave a live interview to Huffington Post, over Skype, from his home in Montreal. Professor Göllner spoke to the growing popular unrest in Hungary and the destruction of the rule of law since 2010. “Hungary has taken a wrong turn. It has […]
Tamás Wormser, a Montreal-based filmmaker of Hungarian origin, was featured in the Montreal Gazette today, in a piece written by columnist Bill Brownstein. Mr. Wormser, well-known for his “road doc” style documentaries, is having his film, The Wandering Muse, featured this Sunday at the Montreal International Documentary Festival (Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal). The fifty year old director, who moved to […]
In 1992 chess genius Bobby Fischer was warned against playing a $5-million match in Yugoslavia. The United States had prohibited all commercial dealings in the war-torn country, the tournament was illegal, and Mr. Fischer was cited for participating in the chess match with Boris Spassky. The erratic Mr. Fischer, 49 years old at the time, was known for bizarre behavior. He […]
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 […]
