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 have covered professional Fidesz propagandist, Árpád Szakács, and his list of targets before. He is the singularly vindictive author of an on-going series of articles in the Magyar Idők daily, which aims to name and shame left-leaning or liberal artists, and then advocate for them to lose any public funding or support that they may receive. Some five-hundred Hungarian […]
If István Tarlós, the 70 year old mayor of Budapest, decides not to run for a third term in the 2019 municipal elections, Fidesz is likely to eliminate the position of lord mayor (főpolgármester) altogether, rather than face the risk of losing the Budapest mayoralty to an opposition candidate. According to sources quoted by the HVG weekly, Fidesz believes that […]
It’s certainly not the first time that Fidesz, Hungary’s ruling party, moves to criminalize homelessness. But this time the Orbán government is preparing to go further than ever before, by amending the country’s Fundamental Law, to make homelessness unconstitutional. The amendment would make it illegal for anyone to “habitually” reside in public spaces. Fidesz MP and Viktor Orbán’s former lawyer […]
We have been here before. Fidesz crosses what appears to be that proverbial line in the sand. Hungarian civil society protests. Hungarian columnists express outrage. A handful of European Union politicians demand a firm response from the EU and, in particular, disciplinary action from the European People’s Party, of which Fidesz is a member. And then the voices of protest […]
You might think Germany’s leading Christian Democrat parties have little to prove regarding their commitment to democratic values. But there is a serious gap: Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its closest coalition partner the Christian Social Union (CSU) have yet to vigorously challenge the rights-damaging policies of their ally, Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party led by Prime Minister […]
The author of this essay is a former journalist of Lánchíd Rádió, the conservative radio station that closed days after the April election, along with the Magyar Nemzet daily. The author, a former supporter of Fidesz and Viktor Orbán, contacted us this week and asked the Hungarian Free Press to use the pseudonym “blahalujza”when we publish this piece, as revealing […]
Jeppe Bjerre Trans is a Danish journalism student, finishing off his Bachelor degree at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in June. He was in Hungary in the beginning of April to report on the elections in the country, as part of his studies at the International Europe in the World program – a journalism program focusing on European politics. […]
Dear Mr. Lázár, Let me express my concerns and indignation to what you have written in your article of April 21, 2018 (The Hungarian American Coalition is honouring Orbán’s lobbyist in Ukraine, Ildikó Orosz) because it contains outrageous accusations and lies that are extremely harmful to Hungarians living in Transcarpathia. I find it profoundly disturbing that, observing the serious difficulties […]
Attila Chikán, the Minister of the Economy during the initial years of the first Orbán government (1998-2002), broke down in tears on live television Thursday night. He was one of hundreds of mostly private Hungarian citizens who were listed in the Figyelő propaganda weekly as being “mercenaries of Soros.” Barely 11 years ago, on the nineteenth anniversary of Fidesz, Viktor Orbán […]
