French transport infrastructure company Alstom would be willing to offer 42 subway cars – the equivalent of seven trains – for the city of Budapest as compensation for late delivery of its order, Mayor István Tarlós told radio station InfoRádió on Wednesday. “The city no longer needs trains for the M2 and the future M4… Continue »

The central prosecution service pressed corruption charges last Friday against Ferenc Juhász, defence minister under the Socialist-led government. Juhász, and one of his former state secretaries, are accused of abusing his position to acquire a state-owned flat at below the market rate, costing the Defence Ministry HUF 43 million (EUR 151,349). Juhász told left-liberal Népszabadság… Continue »

A leading rabbi this week rejected an invitation from the head of the far-right party Jobbik to publicly debate antisemitism. Slomó Köves, chief rabbi of the United Hungarian Jewish Religious Community (EMIH), told Gábor Vona that debate was pointless unless both participants agreed on certain basic axioms. He listed numerous prejudicial Jewish stereotypes that regularly… Continue »

Poker superstar and dollar millionaire Andras Koroknai from Debrecen has outwitted some of the most skilled players in the world and secured a seat in this year’s World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table. The Main Event is the largest and most prestigious poker tournament in the world, with players from over 90 countries.… Continue »

Bulgaria and Romania, the EU’s newest members and subject to continued monitoring by the Union, both came up for criticism on Wednesday as the European Commission issued two damning reports on their progress towards EU standards. But if the Commission noted Bulgaria’s need to step up efforts to root out high-level corruption and organised crime,… Continue »

Some photographs are burned in the collective imagination, the original piece of art on paper reproduced on bags, posters and notebooks. Their photographers are household names, whose exhibitions draw crowds of experts and amateurs alike. Others disappear into the archives of less-well-endowed museums and private collections. It is precisely the latter that the Hungarian House… Continue »

Demand for Hungarian office space dropped by 9 per cent during the first six months of 2012 on a year-on-year basis, figures released by Budapest property consultancy forum BIEF this week show. A poor first quarter is to blame for the drop as the second quarter saw an increase of 10 per cent. The overall… Continue »

There were 524,000 registered jobseekers in Hungary in June, a 5.2 per cent decline compared to June 2011 and a 1.9 per cent drop against May 2012, the National Employment Office announced on Wednesday. About 59 per cent of new workers were employed as part of a state-subsidised employment programme, the office noted. Continue »

Economic researcher GKI says that although the government’s job protection package could indeed save companies the expected HUF 300 billion (EUR 1.05 billion) hoped for, this will not substantially improve their situation because it is only 0.5 per cent of the corporate sector’s budget and companies will have to face the telecom and transaction taxes… Continue »