Despite the fact that thousands of refugees are arriving in Hungary, the average citizen hardly notices this crisis. Although one can see Afghans and Syrians at major railway stations, the majority of people are not faced directly with the problem. And this is quite simply because the majority of those arriving in Hungary end up leaving the country within a […]
Greek voters rejected the dictates of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in much larger numbers than initially anticipated. The decision was reasonable, understandable and, given the circumstances, it can certainly be appreciated. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government received a remarkable mandate to continue the country’s economic and humanitarian war of independence. The results of the referendum […]
In almost any country, except Hungary, publicist Árpád W. Tóta would likely be considered an ultraconservative for his rigid economic views. In Hungary, he’s a prominent opinion-maker of the left-centre opposition establishment. He sometimes reminds me of an enthusiastic member of an Ayn Rand college fan club, comprised of anxious freshmen who haven’t seen much of the world, beyond their suburban […]
There seems to be somewhat of a generational divide on the Hungarian left, when it comes to austerity and the debt crisis in Greece. While the mainstream left-centre opposition parties have remained largely mum about the increasingly dramatic stand-off between the Troika and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s Syriza government in Athens, and while some older, “big guns” of prior Hungarian […]
Hungary’s Magyar Nemzet daily newspaper believes that as Greece shut downs its banking system, introduces financial controls and teeters on the knife edge of default, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras may very definitively turn to Russian President Vladimir Putin for assistance. “Compared to this, Viktor Orbán’s flirtation with Russia will have been nothing at all,” adds Magyar Nemzet, in a clear […]
As Greece teeters on the brink of both default and a disorderly exit from the euro zone, the only political party in Hungary that has lent its support behind the anti-austerity government of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is the Balpárt (Left Party). The Balpárt translated Mr. Tsipras’s televised speech into Hungarian, in which he called a snap referendum for […]
Mathieu Labrèche is a corporate communications manager based in Toronto and a graduate of the Brussels School of International Studies. He argues in this piece that a Greek exit from the euro would have serious geopolitical ramifications and would strengthen Russia’s hand in Eastern and Central Europe.
On Sunday, I exchanged a couple of emails with Viktor Szigetvári, chairman of Hungary’s centre-left opposition Együtt party. (Együtt means ‘Together’ in Hungarian and the party was previously associated with Gordon Bajnai, Hungary’s former prime minister.) I was pleased to see his activists engaged in civil disobedience, by defacing dozens of the xenophobic government billboards that now dot the landscape […]
Dear Chancellor Merkel: I am impelled to write to you on the occasion of your impending visit to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary in February. I have no doubt that your able staff is more than adequately preparing your visit; however, I wish to add to that a point of view representing the Hungarian perspective. Surely, you are aware […]
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 […]
