Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party has cancelled its congress, scheduled for Sunday, and has instead declared a national day of mourning following the coordinated, ISIS-led terrorist attacks in Paris, which left at least 128 dead in the French capital. As well, the Orbán government has announced new, stricter national border controls and a military presence on the streets of Hungarian cities, […]
Tesco’s dominant presence in Hungary is perhaps both a curse and a blessing, when seen from the perspective of social justice. On the one hand, those on the left who are vocal advocates for shopping locally, supporting local small business, buying eco-friendly and fair trade merchandise are often situated in the upper middle class and can actually afford shopping on […]
The Fidesz party mayor of Drávaszerdahely, a village of just 214 residents, is a very lucky man, and for this, he can give thanks to the Hungarian right’s archnemesis, former Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány. In 2006, Mr. Gyurcsány signed an agreement to open a natural gas distribution centre in the village, which provides gas to southern regions in both […]
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe are pushing for the European Union to invoke the ominous Article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty against Hungary, but the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) has spoken up strongly in opposition of this initiative. If invoked, Article 7 would temporarily suspend some of the country’s voting rights in the EU, as punishment for […]
An unpublished Ipsos opinion poll commissioned two weeks before a critical by-election in a traditionally centre-right Veszprém riding suggested that Zoltán Kész–the independent candidate supported by most of the left-centre opposition–stood a semi-realistic chance of beating Fidesz in a constituency that it had long held. The leaked poll found that Fidesz’s candidate, Lajos Némedi, was ahead of Mr. Kész by […]
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán didn’t have an exceptionally good day. He almost certainly could have avoided an embarrassing press conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel if only he would have taken the more pragmatic route of distancing himself from comments made last summer in Transylvania, about the possibility of turning Hungary into an illiberal democracy. Mr. Orbán was answering a question […]
While the radical left-wing Syriza was in the process of winning one seat shy of a majority in Greece’s national elections on Sunday, and as another fledgling, anti-establishment leftist party in Spain, called Podemos, is planning to do the same later this year, elderly conservative, liberal and a sprinkling of centre-left intellectuals sat down in Budapest for an academic and […]
András Schiffer, leader of Politics Can Be Different (LMP), a small green party, which just barely passed the 5% hurdle needed for representation in Parliament during national elections in April, berated the more prominent left-centre opposition parties and added that a decent opposition result in Sunday’s municipal vote was critical, if Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is to be ousted from […]
Tibor Szanyi, currently a Member of the European Parliament and one of the most prominent politicians in the Hungarian Socialist Party, reportedly entertained a group of far right-wing bikers in Brussels this summer. The story is so bizarre, that one would be inclined to think that it was made up by a talented political satirist. Mr. Szanyi, after all, is […]
The democratic opposition’s election campaign ahead of the October 12th municipal elections in Budapest is the very epitome of a political train wreck. It is certainly true that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s decision to completely transform the Hungarian capital’s electoral system a mere four months before the vote would have thrown a wrench into the plans of any political party, no […]
