Hungary

[AndyinPA]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... beat-orban

Márki-Zay, a conservative churchgoing father of seven, is the candidate for prime minister of six opposition parties, spanning social democrats to the former far right, who united to take on Orbán. “After 16 years it’s the first time the opposition has a real chance to win,” Róbert László, an election specialist at the Political Capital institute in Budapest, said.

Hungarians go to the polls in April or May in a contest that could bring down Orbán, whose 11-year experiment with “illiberal democracy” has resulted in Hungary becoming the first EU member state to be classed as only “partly free” by the NGO Freedom House.



So far, Márki-Zay has managed to unite the six opposition parties while keeping his distance. “The electorate – including myself – have put huge pressure on these opposition parties to unite and defeat Mr Orbán,” hesaid, underlining that he does not belong to any of the six. “So yes… it took them too long to understand this and to put aside disagreements.”

However, Daniel Hegedüs of the German Marshall Fund noted Márki-Zay has not yet boosted support for the opposition, with most polls showing a tight race. The situation is worse than opinion polls suggest, he adds, as the redrawing of electoral districts by Fidesz has given the ruling party an advantage. “The united opposition should win at least 3 to 5% more votes to get a majority mandate in the Hungarian national assembly. That’s a huge difference and we don’t see this advantage in the polls yet,” Hegedüs said.

“The political race isn’t taking place on an even playing field; it’s heavily tilted to Orbán,” Hegedüs added. The integrity of the 2022 election will be even worse than in 2014, or 2018, which were “free but not fair”, he said. “It’s already a dirty contest and it will be a huge task for the opposition to win.”

Here's hoping Marki-Zay can unseat Orban, but it's a long shot. I'd love to see Tucker spin this, if it happens. Also, this should be a big lesson for us. DFO would love to be in Orban's position. And will be if he ever gets back in the White House.

[raison de arizona]

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/news/news-q5g69sht2a0

[AndyinPA]

[pipistrelle]

I know some People capitalize Nouns, which I think is a German Language Convention. But Adjectives? (“Complete”) He’s Unhinged.

[AndyinPA]

After Russian missiles began falling on Ukraine in the early hours of 24 February, much of Europe’s media reported the bloody details of Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked all-out attack.

In Hungary, however, the state news agency, the Hungarian Telegraph Office (MTI), took a different line. Instead of using the word “war”, it described a “Russian military operation”, wording close to the Kremlin-mandated phrase special military operation. During the first five days of the war, the influential agency referred to a “Russian military operation” (orosz hadművelet) 431 times, according to Zsuzsanna Wirth, a journalist with the investigative media outlet Direkt36, who has studied how the government controls MTI.

Only after criticism, did MTI begin to use the word “war” in its coverage.

For years Viktor Orbán’s government has been Vladimir Putin’s staunchest ally in the EU, with Kremlin talking points relayed across Hungarian state media. Now the Hungarian government faces a stark choice between Moscow and the EU, although it appears Budapest is trying to have it both ways.



Two days before the invasion, Hungary angered other EU member states when it was not ready to sign up to sanctions against Russia. At a meeting of senior diplomats, Hungary’s representative neither supported, nor opposed the sanctions, pleading the need for further talks with Budapest. “To consult with [the] capital is a pretext of face-saving vis-a-vis the EU and ass-saving vis-a-vis Russia,” one diplomat commented acidly at the time.

After a half-day delay, Hungary fell into line. Orbán was said to be touched by a dramatic appeal for support from Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, at an EU summit. Speaking over video link, Zelenskiy told the leaders it might be the last time they saw him alive. “He [Orbán] is not pretending, he was touched by what is happening. Of course he is not super happy to have to do this, but he is not blocking,” said a senior EU diplomat.

He's facing a well-contested election next month. I hope this helps the opposition.

[AndyinPA]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... =operanews

Viktor Orbán has won a fourth successive term as Hungary’s prime minister, capping a campaign dominated by his controversial stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a speech that appeared to mock Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian leader.

Ecstatic chants of “Viktor, Viktor” greeted Orbán as he addressed supporters of his Fidesz party outside its election headquarters on the banks of the Danube in Budapest as results made the scale of his victory apparent.

With nearly 86% of the vote counted on Sunday night, Fidesz was on course to increase its parliamentary majority by winning 135 seats in the 199-member parliament, crushing a six-party opposition bloc that united to form a common front aimed at unseating Orbán.

Instead, the ruling party has retained its two-thirds super majority, which has enabled it to reshape Hungarian politics and social policy during its 12 years in power.

I was so hoping that the coalition against him would win.

[AndyinPA]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -democracy

What now for the European Union’s most challenged and compromised democracy? The scale of Viktor Orbán’s fourth consecutive election victory in Hungary was crushing, comprehensive and unexpected. Faced for the first time with a united opposition alliance that put internal differences aside, predictions of a close race – or at least a competitive one – were confounded. On a high turnout, Mr Orbán’s Fidesz party actually won a greater number of seats than it held previously while Péter Márki-Zay, the opposition’s candidate for prime minister, failed even to win the local constituency he was contesting. Once again, resistance to Mr Orbán’s brand of authoritarian, conservative nationalism was largely confined to Budapest and other urban centres.

This is a result that will be mourned in Brussels and celebrated in the Kremlin. After pledging to keep Hungary out of the confrontation between the liberal west and Vladimir Putin’s Russia over Ukraine, Mr Orbán has a mandate to obstruct and disrupt EU attempts to impose further sanctions on Moscow. At a time when European unity is paramount, that is a problem that western leaders can do without. But at a still more fundamental level, the EU faces the acute dilemma of how to deal with a member state in which democratic norms have been flouted to such an extent that Mr Orbán’s autocratic rule appears unassailable.

Mr Márki-Zay did not fight a good campaign, as the opposition alliance failed to gel. But as he pointed out in a crestfallen election night address, this was anything but a fair political fight. During the course of 12 years in power, Mr Orbán has dismantled checks and balances to the extent that a proper hearing for opposition voices is now impossible in Hungary. Brazen gerrymandering of electoral districts – and a huge disparity in campaign resources – have grotesquely skewed the political map in favour of Fidesz. In 2018 the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe described the country’s elections as “free but not fair”.

Independent media have been forced out of business or taken over by government-friendly buyers, while state media barely go through the motions of presenting a balanced debate. Last month, one state television channel broadcast a 30-minute address by Mr Orbán nine times in the space of 24 hours. By contrast, Mr Márki-Zay was granted a total of five minutes’ airtime on state television during the election campaign. A corrupt clientelism, partly financed through EU funds, has made Mr Orbán’s friends and allies rich and entrenched his oppressive influence across civil society.

This could be our future. It's the republican dream.

[raison de arizona]

Security Council secretary: Hungarian authorities knew of Russian full-scale invasion beforehand.

NSDC Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin shared his plans to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine with Hungarian authorities.

[Volkonski]

[AndyinPA]

I'd ask how much worse can it get, but I don't want to know.

[AndyinPA]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... sts-fired/

Two top officials with Hungary’s National Meteorological Service (NMS) were fired Monday after severe storms they had forecast for the capital on the country’s most important national holiday did not materialize, instead passing to the south.

The forecast called for intense storms in Budapest around 9 p.m. local time, according to reporting from the Associated Press, leading organizers to postpone a massive annual fireworks display. The fireworks show celebrating St. Stephen’s Day, a holiday that marks the country’s founding, is usually watched by more than a million people.



Bob Ryan, former president of the American Meteorological Society, told The Washington Post that the firing sends a “chilling message” to professional scientists.

“I think it’s outrageous and now makes every forecaster working in Hungary frightened they may lose their job because of a wrong forecast,” Ryan said.

Wouldn't DFO have loved that power?

[RTH10260]

Sharpie-gate

[AndyinPA]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... o-feminine

Hungary’s state audit office has issued a report about the risks of the country’s education system being “too feminine”, saying it could hurt the development of boys and create demographic problems.

The report was issued last month but had not caught the public’s attention until a newspaper article was published on Thursday.

“The phenomenon called ‘pink education’ has numerous economic and social consequences,” states the report by the state body, which is seen as close to the nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán.

As in many countries, the teaching profession in Hungary is dominated by women, accounting for 82% of the country’s teachers.

“If education favours feminine traits” such as “emotional and social maturity” and “provokes the overrepresentation of women in universities, equality (of the sexes) will be considerably weakened”, the report concludes.

[raison de arizona]

Hungary’s PM Viktor Orbán on Tuesday criticized President Joe Biden’s actions vis-à-vis the Kremlin and said that a return of Republican Donald Trump to the White House would facilitate peace between Russia and #Ukraine.

Orban: 'The Hope for Peace (in Ukraine) is Called Donald Trump' - El American
"The hope for peace is called Donald Trump," Orban said at an event in Berlin.

So...it's hopeless?

[Volkonski]

Hungary’s Orban calls US a ‘friend’ despite sanction on bank

https://apnews.com/article/hungary-orba ... 0df0868a8f

Hungary’s prime minister sought to bring down the temperature on spiraling tensions between his government and the United States, declaring Friday that the U.S. is Hungary’s “friend” despite sanctions Washington imposed on a Budapest-based Russian bank.

In an interview on state radio, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that the International Investment Bank, a Russian-controlled financial institution which U.S. officials have argued could serve as a conduit for Russian espionage, “could have played a serious role in developing Central European economies.”

While the war in Ukraine had limited the bank’s effectiveness, Orban said, the U.S. sanctions against IIB and three of its top officials had “ruined it.” The Hungarian government withdrew its membership in the bank Thursday, the day after the sanctions were issued.

“(The bank’s) operations have been rendered impossible. It can’t serve its function,” Orban said. “We decided that under these circumstances, Hungary’s participation in the bank’s further work has become pointless.”

[Volkonski]

Jürgen Nauditt
@jurgen_nauditt
Nobody keeps Hungary in the EU: Borrell responded to Orban

“To be honest, I don’t see any similarities between the Soviet occupation of Budapest and what is happening in Berlamon [the headquarters of the European Commission]. I didn't see a single tank there. Nobody obliges Hungary to be a member of the EU,” said EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell.

Ps. Hungary - just go, or kick orban.

[AndyinPA]

[AndyinPA]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... ling-party

Hungary’s president resigns in unusual setback for ruling party

Katalin Novák stepped down after pardoning a man convicted of helping cover up sex abuse

The Hungarian president has announced her resignation over her decision to pardon a man convicted of helping cover up a sex abuse case at a children’s home as the controversy posed a challenge for Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán.

The pardon decision was made last year but only caught the public’s attention over the past days after a report by the local news site 444.hu, which was met with outrage, leading Hungary’s opposition to call for Katalin Novák to step down.

“I made a mistake,” Novák said in a televised address aired on Saturday, when she announced her resignation and issued an apology to any victims who felt she had not stood with them.

László Kövér, the speaker of Hungary’s parliament and another close Orbán ally, is expected to temporarily fill the president’s responsibilities until the parliament elects a new president.

The controversy posed a political headache for Orbán, who has campaigned on family-friendly policies and presented himself as an advocate for children’s protection.

[AndyinPA]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... aria-salis

As a far-right march commemorating Nazi forces in the second world war passed through Budapest on Sunday, a mural was painted on a wall imagining the death by hanging of the Italian anti-fascist activist Ilaria Salis. The 39-year-old, a teacher from northern Italy, has been held in prison in Hungary since her arrest last year and, last month, was brought into court in chains on charges of attempted assault.

Her father, Roberto Salis, told the Guardian in an interview that he feared for his daughter’s safety and emphasised the urgency of bringing her back to Italy as soon as possible. Her case has triggered a formal diplomatic protest from the Italian government and dozens of rallies in her home country demanding her return.

“The recent neo-Nazi demonstration in Budapest and that mural confirm my fears about the danger that my daughter continues to be in while she is held in Hungary,” he said. “We already know that on Telegram channels, far-right militants were saying they wanted to put Ilaria in a wheelchair.”

Salis, from Monza, near Milan, was arrested in the Hungarian capital in February 2023 after a counter-demonstration against a neo-Nazi rally. She was charged with three counts of attempted assault and accused of being part of an extreme leftwing organisation.

She denies the charges, which carry a sentence of up to 24 years in prison.

In a letter to her lawyer, she detailed the conditions she had faced since her arrest – cells infested with rats and bugs, not being allowed to wash for days on end, and a lack of urgent medical care.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights organisation, said her case had “brought the state of Hungarian prisons to international attention”. It said the routine use in Hungary of physical restraints on defendants in court was “against EU law and domestic legal standards”.

What's going on in Hungary ought to be a big red flag here, a glimpse into what some here would like our future to be.