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The Orbán government’s spy network against George Soros. Part I
I’m returning today to the attempted entrapment of Hungarian NGOs with the assistance of a private Israeli agency whose members are former Mossad operatives. I covered what we knew about the affair two...
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Politics and football: From Brussels to Kazan
After a nine-hour marathon session, the 27 member states of the European Union hammered out an agreement on the migrant issue. There has not been enough time to study and evaluate the results, but it...
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The Orbán version of Macedonian reality
Around noontime the Parliamentary Committee on National Security was in session to learn more about the government’s intentions concerning the political asylum requested by Nikola Gruevski, prime...
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Fidesz reaction to the demonstrations
The determination of the demonstrators remains unabated. According to media reports, the crowd today was as large as if not larger than on the two previous days. Today’s police presence seemed to be...
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What’s wrong with the West? Everything
Zsolt Bayer, one of the founders of Fidesz and a good friend of Viktor Orbán, has a regular column in the new-old Magyar Nemzet, which was introduced by its editor-in-chief as a classically...
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Mirror, mirror on the wall: The distorted Hungarian self-image
Attila Ballai, the new editor-in-chief of Magyar Nemzet, published an editorial titled “Our reputation in the world.” He borrowed the title from a 1943 exchange on the pages of Magyar Csillag. That...
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Fidesz is trying to explain away its poor report card
Today is one of those days when there is an embarrassment of riches as far as news from Hungary is concerned. There are many fascinating topics to sample, including a Századvég conference titled...
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The “revolutionary” Viktor Orbán in 1989
“Thirty Years of Freedom.” This is the name of yet another memorial year, this one celebrating the 30th anniversary of the reburial of Prime Minister Imre Nagy and five of his fellow martyrs....
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A new enemy: The “Neo-Bolshevik” Greens and climate change
It is almost a cliché that Viktor Orbán’s political success lies, in large part, in finding or creating enemies whose alleged purpose in life is to destroy the Hungarian nation and its sovereignty...
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László Kövér, the unvarnished voice of Fidesz
As the municipal elections approach, it is becoming more evident that in certain cities there is the possibility of a breakthrough for the opposition. No, it is not going to be a landslide victory, but...
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The newly insecure pro-government media in Hungary
The media scene in Hungary may be changing. Today, a woman phoned György Bolgár at Klub Rádió to tell him that, during a visit to a private hospital, she noticed that the background entertainment in...
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“We are of the same blood,” the prelude to virulent anti-Semitic comments
One often has the distinct feeling that half of the Hungarians have lost their senses. At the moment we are witnessing a surge in madness which has consumed the Hungarian right. But why exactly now? I...
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Sajtóklub’s messages are not an aberration but part and parcel of the Orbán...
Ever since I finished my post last night on the latest falsehood about George Soros, I have been carefully going through the Hungarian government media for its reaction to the official denial by...
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Another attempt to capture the younger generation: Indoctrination camps
Opinion polls that measure party preferences according to age group have noticed in the last few years that Fidesz support is weakest among the youngest voters. Medián’s poll in April 2018 showed that...
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László Kövér calls members of the opposition compradors in the pay of the...
It is almost inevitable that, at appropriate intervals, a government publication or television station has a long interview with László Kövér, the president of the Hungarian parliament. It is also...
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Judit Varga’s encounter with the president of the European Union
On May 14, the Council of Europe and the European Commission will present a statement on the “Emergency legislation in Hungary and its impact on the rule of law and fundamental rights” before the...
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Hungarian government media on the upcoming U.S. election
Donald Trump has had a few rough days. Just when he was hoping that the conservative majority of the Supreme Court would support him and his decisions, he lost two cases close to his heart. On June 15,...
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Unfounded myths from the early years of Hungarian democracy
Among the many alternative “research institutes” the Orbán government established is one with the long title of Research Institute and Archives of the Regime Change (Retörki). Its director-general is...
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The Orbán government’s strange zero tolerance of anti-Semitism
I must say that I welcome the downsizing of the two national holidays, March 15 and August 20, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have been spared all the historical nonsense that politicians spout on...
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The mad world of Orbán’s Hungary
Magyar Nemzet’s attack on Gerald Knaus, the director of European Stability Initiative, is part of a larger campaign being waged by Viktor Orbán and his closest advisers ahead of this fall’s likely...
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