Transparency International Hungary (TIH), a non-governmental organisation that is part of the worldwide movement to combat corruption, has warned on several occasions that corruption in the country remains an emerging threat to public welfare and democracy. Anti-graft not up to snuff In a comprehensive analysis TIH has assessed Hungarian state institutions’ transparency and accountability. From… Continue »

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz-Christian Democrat government has come in for some serious criticism abroad since it took office in May 2010, culminating this week in the harshest censure yet from the European Union. The floodgates opened a year ago after the introduction of a restrictive new Media Act just as Hungary assumed the presidency of the EU. This was followed by further controversy, not least over a new Constitution drafted by a government-appointed committee. There is considerable sympathy in Hungary, however, for the view that strident criticism, or “attacks”, in the international media is politically motivated and rooted in misrepresentation by members and supporters of the left-wing and liberal opposition. This is certainly the line that has been taken by the government throughout its 18 months in office. Here, the Budapest- and Paris-based freelance reporter and blogger Anat Kálmán takes that side of the argument  Continue »

In functioning democracies it is the task of the opposition to criticise those in power if they provide reason to do so. However, there is a limit that should not be overstepped by the opposition, regardless of whether it is left-wing or right-wing: the good reputation of the country must not be trampled on, nor the spectre of dictatorship conjured up to serve party political interests. That is especially true at a time when a governing coalition that never made a pact with the successor party of the communist dictatorship is guiding the country’s fate. Continue »

The final chapter from My Squandered Country by journalist, political commentator and Fidesz critic Paul Lendvai. In the April 2010 general elections Viktor Orbán and his party won a landslide victory. It is indisputable that Orbán’s triumphant “revolution at the voting urns” has put an end to the liberal democracy in place since 1990 and paved the way for a populist autocracy tied to his person. Continue »

A Rubik’s Cube, a hologram, a ballpoint pen and a dynamo: what may sound like a list of some of the most important inventions involving Hungarian scientists from the past 100 years is actually a gift set for members of the EU delegations during the Hungarian EUâ€?Presidency. EU state secretary Enik? Gy?ri had the rather awkward task of presenting the goodie bags as the result of a selection process aimed at “dispelling stereotypes”.  Continue »

Representatives of the Hungarian government and the European Commission are scheduled to hold talks in Brussels this Monday over the controversial media law enacted by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s conservative government. The government issued a lengthy reply last Monday to a request from the Commission for “clarification” of several contentious points of the law.  Continue »

There is every indication
that the governing parties see a minority government as the solution to the
post-referendum political situation. What this really means is that nothing
will change apart from certain formal elements.  Continue »

The EU’s Viennese mirrorIf an EU bureaucrat travelled to turn-of-the-century Vienna, he would be surprised at how closely the empire it governed resembled today’s Europe. Like the EU, Austria-Hungary was a vast experiment in supranational engineering – a patchwork of kingdoms and nationalities knitted together in search of a common geopolitical destiny. Continue »