Post Tagged with: "Fidesz"

Péter Márki-Zay on election night in Hódmezővásárhely.

A small Hungarian town exposed the fallacy of the Orbán regime

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 […]

by · February 26, 2018 · Politics
Péter Márki-Zay on February 25th.

Uprising in Hungary — Orbán regime suffers historic defeat in its most loyal bastion

Viktor Orbán’s party knew Sunday morning that it was in serious trouble, and of all places in its most loyal bastion, the town of Hódmezővásárhely (population 47,000). This is a city that has been ruled by Fidesz or the right since 1990. Péter Márki-Zay, the independent candidate for mayor supported by the entire opposition, bumped into his rival for the […]

by · February 25, 2018 · Politics
Závecz Research

Polling data: Fidesz support drops slightly

A new Závecz Research poll shows that Fidesz support is down by one percent, while the number of Hungarians who would like a change in government rose by three percent, from 40% to 43%, based on polling data gathered in February. It’s worth noting that this was the last poll conducted prior to the official launch of the election campaign. […]

by · February 21, 2018 · Politics
János Lázár. Source: lazarjanos.hu

Will János Lázár be sacrificed in the Orbán family corruption scandal?

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 […]

by · February 18, 2018 · Politics
Viktor Orbán debates then Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány in 2006. The experience was so jarring for Mr. Orbán that he never again engaged in debate with an opponent.

Forcing Viktor Orbán to debate his opponents through legislation

Hungary has gone through two national election campaigns (2010 and 2014), in which Prime Minister Viktor Orbán refused to engage his opponents in televised debates. Ever since performing poorly against then Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány in the 2006 election debate (an election that Mr. Orbán lost to the Hungarian Socialist Party – Alliance of Free Democrats coalition), Mr. Orbán has avoided […]

by · February 13, 2018 · Politics
Mr. Tiborcz pours Mr. Orbán some pálinka.

How the European Union enriched the Orbán family

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 […]

by · February 12, 2018 · Politics
Page 3 of Lokál's January 30th, 2018 print edition.

An inside look at the Fidesz propaganda machine

This morning, a friend from Budapest sent me a digital copy of a print newspaper entitled Lokál, distributed free of charge at metro stations, train stations, public places in Hungary and also delivered to private homes. Lokál was established in 2015 by Árpád Habony, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s strategic adviser, and the print daily has a national circulation of 1.16 million […]

by · January 30, 2018 · Politics
Gergely Gulyás. Photo: MTI.

Fidesz to boycott Hungarian parliament’s special debate on immigration

As our readers will know, the government of Viktor Orbán quietly accepted the European Union’s migrant quota and provided refugee status to 1,294 people in 2017, despite all the apoplectic rhetoric and anti-migrant national consultations to the contrary. Jobbik, the Hungarian Socialist Party and the Politics Can Be Different party united to collect the requisite number of signatures within opposition […]

by · January 29, 2018 · Politics
László Domokos, former Fidesz politician, currently president of ÁSZ.

The Hungarian State Audit Office’s assault on democracy

Perhaps nothing sums up the state of the rule of law in Hungary better than the Hungarian State Audit Office’s (ÁSZ) selective enforcement of regulation aimed at penalizing opposition parties (and likely driving one of them into bankruptcy), whilst dismissing the same rules when it comes to the ruling Fidesz party. The head of the State Audit Office is none […]

by · January 9, 2018 · Politics
Gergely Karácsony in the Spinóza theatre. Photo: MTI.

Gergely Karácsony — Without an absolute majority, the Orbán regime will collapse immediately

Gergely Karácsony, the Hungarian Socialist Party’s candidate for prime minister answered questions at Budapest’s venerable Spinóza Ház, a generally liberal-minded club, theatre and coffee house which has welcomed politicians from across the spectrum to sit down with journalist Katalin Rangos. Mr. Karácsony answered questions on a broad range of topics ahead of the April 2018 national elections, but none elicited […]

by · January 8, 2018 · Politics