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 […]
On Tuesday, Hungary formally granted asylum to convicted felon and former Prime Minister of Macedonia Nikola Gruevski. Hungarian Foreign Ministry officials actively aided the disgraced former politician in escaping from Macedonia without a valid passport prior to the start of a two year prison sentence for corruption. The Hungarian Immigration and Asylum Office, according to a report in the pro-government Magyar […]
Hungary served as a key gateway to the European Union for a growing number of Russian spies, oligarchs and Kremlin political operatives, thanks to the sale of residency bonds between 2013 and 2017. A joint investigative report by the 444 news site, Direkt36 and Russia’s Novaya Gazeta, published in both Hungarian and English, shows that Russian citizens who should have […]
We’re told by confidential sources, that ever since Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, chalked up his third electoral victory in a row, on April 8, his Ambassador to Canada, Bálint Ódor, spends most of his nights tossing and turning in his bed, unable to fall asleep. The question that keeps Mr. Ódor awake is this: how is it possible, that […]
A joint investigative journalism project by the Direkt36 website and by 444.hu reports that since 2012, people believed to be stooges for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have received Hungarian residency permits. In at least one of these cases, Hungary welcomed a Syrian man believed to be involved in the trafficking of weapons, drugs and people, as well as money laundering, while […]
The scandal and mystery around Fidesz Minister Lajos Kósa deepened on Wednesday, with Magyar Nemzet reporting that in a notarized document from September 2013, the minister’s mother was promised a “gift” of 2.6 million euros from the woman in the town of Csenger, called Mária Matkó (Mrs. Gábor Szabó), who claimed to be the beneficiary of an estate worth 4.35 […]
Lajos Simicska, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s former college roommate and best-friend-turned-worst-enemy, has decided to air the ruling party’s dirty laundry in the weeks ahead of the national elections in April. The Magyar Nemzet conservative daily newspaper produced what it says is a notarized document showing that someone (the name on the document is covered) entrusted Fidesz MP and Minister Lajos Kósa […]
Viktor Orbán gave his twentieth annual state of the nation address this Sunday, but he made no mention of the corruption scandal engulfing his son-in-law, István Tiborcz, and tens of millions in EU funds that may have to be refunded. According to separate party sources speaking to the conservative Magyar Nemzet and Jobbik’s Alfahír, János Lázár, Minister of the Prime […]
Close observers of Hungarian politics are not surprised to learn that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a vociferous critic of Brussels at home, uses the European Union as a “cash register.” Any Hungarian entrepreneur would also know that winning major EU-funded contracts is a privilege reserved for a small circle of oligarchs close to the ruling Fidesz party’s inner circle and, it […]
According to a Medián poll released Wednesday, Fidesz has seen its support drop by 7 percent among decided voters. As the campaign ahead of national elections on 8th April heats up, the poll shows that more Hungarians are planning on exercising their vote–going from 52% in early 2017 to 56% at the end of January 2018. Historically, higher turn-out tends […]
