János Lázár, the Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office, tried to find a silver lining in the 16-point landslide defeat that the ruling Fidesz party suffered on home turf–in the solidly conservative town of Hódmezővásárhely. Before congratulating the united opposition’s candidate, Péter Máki-Zay, Mr. Lázár kept repeating that Fidesz had not lost any votes in this elections. With 9,468 votes […]
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 […]
