László Sólyom served as President of Hungary–a largely ceremonial role–between 2005 and 2010. Mr. Sólyom, an environmentalist who was well respected among conservatives and many liberals as well, was Viktor Orbán’s ally at the time. He was elected President of Hungary by Parliament–which at the time had a left-centre majority–thanks to the strategic machinations of Fidesz, then in opposition, and […]
I have written about Zsolt Bayer before in the HFP. Our readers may recall that he is a co-founder of the ruling Fidesz party and a prominent pro-Orbán publicist who recently asserted that the Syrian refugee crisis was a manufactured racial war, launched by “invisible hands,” in order to exterminate white people. I did not think that Mr. Bayer could […]
Péter Tarr is the deputy director of the right-leaning HírTV cable television news network, which was established in 2003 as Hungary’s first 24/7 news channel. Back in February, the station’s owner, Lajos Simicska, had a very public and profanity-laced falling out with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and after that happened, HírTV journalists and staff, once the media darlings of the […]
Readers of the Montreal Gazette will likely notice András Göllner’s column in this morning’s paper. The founder of the Canadian Hungarian Democratic Charter explores Pope Francis’ approach to compassion, diversity and inclusion, contrasting this with authoritarian political leaders, most notably Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Prof. Göllner’s piece is worth a read and most certainly worth sharing here […]
Many right-wing Hungarians were pedalling the idea during the entire refugee crisis that volunteers were somehow unmoved by the suffering of ethnic Hungarians living in poverty. Well, I was walking along Népszínház Street and Köztársaság Square the other day, and I have to conclude that the Hungarian homeless were better off while there were still refugees. Now all I see […]
Hungary’s Fidesz government has long been an admirer of the Israeli right, and of the Likud party in specific. This is an open secret in Hungarian right-wing circles. Despite the Fidesz party’s occasional antisemitism — aimed to placate the more extreme elements of the Hungarian right –Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his inner circle is quite fond of the language, […]
András Stumpf is a prominent thirty-something conservative publicist, known most for his self-assured, sometimes aggressive and always irreverently outspoken style. He sometimes reminds me of a young, rigid, right-wing libertarian, who hasn’t come to understand that the world is full of nuance, and that these complexities require some sensitivity. Mr. Stumpf, who once worked for the Heti Válasz weekly, but […]
Based on the results of the recent Tapolca by-election (although no longer concentrating directly on this vote), one can argue that this is yet another sign that Fidesz has lost its political buoyancy. And it’s possible that the party, in this current form and in this construction, won’t ever be able to get it back. If it searches for different avenues, […]
I stumbled upon the so-called Common Sense Society and its blog, “Paprika Politik,” completely by accident. A friend and prominent Hungarian civil rights activist, Eszter Garai-Édler, drew my attention to this youthful, cheerful, well-dressed group of thoroughly respectable young professionals, who enjoy research grants and write English-language articles, all about how Hungary finally crossed the Rubicon in 2012, when the […]
This week’s issue of Heti Válasz, a right-wing print publication that is apparently going to be spared the purge that is currently unfolding in the world of pro-Fidesz newspapers, television stations and news sites, confirmed that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is looking to build a broad alternative media base to that currently offered by mogul and Fidesz oligarch Lajos Simicska, […]
