Recently in the spotlight

Source: Migration Aid/Daily News Hungary

Hungary’s Migration Aid launches outreach to refugees from Ukraine

Hungary is at the centre of an unfolding refugee crisis, following Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Western Ukraine is also home to a community of more than 150,000 ethnic Hungarians, many of whom have close ties through family and friends to Hungary. While compassion always calls us to see beyond linguistic and national boundaries when it comes to […]

by · February 25, 2022 · East
File photo: the Záhony border crossing between Hungary and Ukraine. Source: MTI.

Hungary prepared to accept Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russian invasion

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, traditionally an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has finally condemned Moscow’s ruthless invasion of Ukraine. The Hungarian leader also announced that the country is ready to accept refugees from Ukraine immediately. The first Ukrainian citizens to seek refuge in Hungary crossed the border at Beregsurány and Záhony on 24 February. The average wait times […]

by · February 24, 2022 · Politics
Viktor Orbán refuses to condemn Putin even if Hungarians in Ukraine come under assault

Viktor Orbán refuses to condemn Putin even if Hungarians in Ukraine come under assault

The leader of Hungary’s united democratic opposition, Péter Márki-Zay, pointed out Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s deafening silence on the invasion of its peaceful eastern neighbour by Vladimir Putin’s Russia. He added pointedly that Mr. Orbán would avoid condemning his ruthless Russian ally even if the Hungarian minority in western Ukraine were directly threatened by the current war. “In 1956, we […]

by · February 24, 2022 · Politics
Wass Albert

Stop Hungarian glorification of WWII-era fascists in the US – a letter to Congressman Deutch

Congressman Theodore Eliot Deutch is representing Florida’s 22nd Congressional District since 2010.  His district is the home of many Americans of Hungarian origin in the State of Florida.  I called on the Congressman to condemn recent efforts of the Hungarian Government to promote WWII-era fascists in the United States. *** Dear Congressman Deutch, In 2015 you wrote a letter to Prime […]

by · February 16, 2022 · Politics
The Radical Vision of FreeSZFE at Yale University

The Radical Vision of FreeSZFE at Yale University

On January 27, Yale University Library held a Zoom conference on “Art, Education, and Protest in Hungary: The Radical Vision of FreeSZFE.”  In September 2020 the entire faculty and students of the Theater and Film University went on strike and occupied their building to protest the privatization of the University by the government, the transfer of national assets to a […]

by · February 6, 2022 · Culture
Cover source: Black Rose Books.

Journey to a Forgotten Revolution — An Interview with András B. Göllner

Introduction At the start of the new year, Black Rose Books and the University of Chicago Press announced the world-wide release of a new volume of essays on a revolution that threatened to derail not only the emerging world order after World War I but irritates to this day one of the most sensitive nerve endings of a people’s collective […]

by · January 16, 2022 · Focus
Remembering Éva Balogh (1936 – 2021)

Remembering Éva Balogh (1936 – 2021)

Éva S. Balogh, the singularly dedicated editor and main contributor of Hungarian Spectrum died on November 30th of cardiac arrest. For over a decade, she dedicated her life to reporting on and analysing politics, culture and society in Hungary for English-speaking readers, diplomats and civil servants throughout Europe and North America, and for many democratically-minded Hungarians too, especially in the […]

by · December 1, 2021 · Diaspora
Cziffra and his wife Soleika

The Orbán-regime rewrites the memoirs of pianist Georges Cziffra

Viktor Orbán and most of his Fidesz party leaders started their careers as promising young Communist leaders.  Today they are staunch anti-Communists and have rewritten their life stories.  Now they have also rewritten the life story of pianist Georges (György) Cziffra. The piano virtuoso was born one hundred years ago in Budapest.  Hungary allocated 500 million forints (EUR 1.4m) celebrating […]

by · November 17, 2021 · Culture
From left Hungary’s Ambassador to Washington Szabolcs Takács, Balázs Orbán with his book, Daniel McCarthy, Helen Andrews and Sohrab Ahmari

Orbán brings his anti-West campaign to the United States

Hungary started an unprecedented campaign in the United States to bring Orbán’s xenophobic, homophobic, racist and anti-Semitic message to US audiences.  His government is isolated in the US due to Orbán’s pro-Putin and pro-China stand.  No active American politician (republican or democrat) would support him publicly. Budapest now relies on a small, “fringe” group of conservative individuals and organizations to deliver […]

by · October 31, 2021 · Politics
The failed 1956 Hungarian Revolution – the Soviets blamed the West just like Orbán does today

The failed 1956 Hungarian Revolution – the Soviets blamed the West just like Orbán does today

Sixty-five years ago Soviet troops crushed the Hungarian Revolution. The Soviet Union started a propaganda campaign blaming the West for the uprising and the bloodshed.  Howard Norton, a journalist with the Baltimore Sun reported from Moscow that the Soviets had spread their version why Russian troops were fighting in Hungary.  Not surprisingly, they put the blame unequivocally on the West […]

by · October 23, 2021 · Politics