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Monday, 08 February 2010 |
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Vikor Orban, who is tipped to head the next government
after the April general election, said a vote for Jobbik, a radical
nationalist force which polls show is gathering strength, would be
wasted.
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Monday, 08 February 2010 |
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A forecast prepared by economic researcher GKI
and Erste Bank, suggests that the Hungarian
economy will be close to stagnation in 2010.
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Monday, 01 February 2010 |
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Rail ticket prices and fares on the state bus firm Volán will rise by about 15% on Monday, 1 February, while monthly passes will cost 10% more from 1 February, the transport ministry announced last week. The ministry claimed that prices have not risen since May 2007, while inflation since then amounts to about 16%.
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Monday, 01 February 2010 |
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Investigators last week concluded that a faulty gas heater was behind a blast on the top floor of a District V flat that killed an 80-year-old man and left three in hospital with serious injuries on 8 January. Three flats were blown up, rubble and masonry destroyed cars as it rained into the street, and the building had to be evacuated after being declared unsafe.
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Thursday, 28 January 2010 |
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The European Commission on Wednesday said Hungary had
taken effective action to correct its budget deficit, but added the
country needs to take additional measures to bring the gap below 3
percent of gross domestic product by the 2011 deadline.
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Thursday, 28 January 2010 |
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Although the gap of support between main opposition
Fidesz and the ruling Socialists has narrowed in January compared to
last November, Fidesz's lead over its main rival has remained
significant, according to a poll by Tarki released to MTI on Wednesday.
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Tuesday, 26 January 2010 |
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The number of foreigners residing in Hungary has
increased from last year, albeit slower than in the previous year, the
director-general of the Hungarian Immigration Office told the press on
Monday.
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The former deputy mayor of Budapest and Hungarian
Socialist Party (MSZP) MP Miklós Hagyó last Tuesday withdrew his
candidacy in the forthcoming general election and resigned his seat on
the city council. His move followed pressure from the party leadership
amid concerns over Hagyó’s proximity to a corruption scandal.
The fifth Torkos Csütörtök (Gluttonous Thursday), when
numerous restaurants throughout Hungary offer all dishes and drinks on
the menu at half price, is on 18 February. The promotion was introduced
by Magyar Turizmus in 2006 to celebrate the year of gastronomy and
wine.
Toyota is expected to recall 22,000 cars in Hungary as a precautionary measure, a company spokesman said on Monday.
The Merfelsz wine cellar was the guest at the WineTime
tasting event on Thursday, 21 January, held this time in the atrium of
the Hotel le Meridien.
In recent months there have been changes afoot on the
Budapest taxi scene. While in the last 10 to 15 years the same
companies dominated the market and determined prices, now several new
taxi firms are breaking out of the mould. Simply transporting people
from A to B is yesterday’s news, or at least that is the impression one
might get looking at the new companies on the Budapest taxi market.
Hungary's main opposition Fidesz party is ready to form
a "strong, responsible and proactive government" Fidesz leader Viktor
Orban said in his traditional state of the nation address at Budapest's
Millenaris Park on Friday.
What attitude will Fidesz and its chairman Viktor Orbán
take towards far-right party Jobbik in the election campaign? Will
Fidesz cooperate with Jobbik following the former’s highly likely
victory in the April general elections? Or will the party distance
itself from all forms of right-wing radicalism in the coming months?
These are issues preying on the minds of many democrats in Hungary
today.
“Disabled pensioners, get to work!” appears to be the
motto of Gordon Bajnai’s government, and a law aimed at encouraging as
many of them as possible to enter employment came into force at the
beginning of this year.
Greg Dorey, the British Ambassador to Hungary, launched
a major new fundraising appeal with an initial target of EUR 50,000, at
the 13th annual Budapest Burns Supper last Saturday.
Israel’s foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman called on
Hungary to bring in laws banning “hate speech” in a speech in Budapest
last Wednesday to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Police have raided and shut down an illegal porn studio
in a flat in Újpest, District IV police chief József Baranyi told
reporters last Wednesday.
The Constitutional Court rejected the new property tax
last Monday, citing doubts over its poorly-thought-through system of
self-valuation. The Socialist-backed government maintains that the tax
was “just”, as it would have been levied only on first homes with a
value of HUF 30 million (EUR 110,183) and would affect only the
wealthiest five per cent of Hungarians.
Chaotic scenes were witnessed at the Budapest
headquarters of an auction house last Wednesday when protesters tried
to interrupt the sale of 84 repossessed properties. Two organisations –
the militant Society for the Protection of Entrepreneurs’ Interests
(VÉSZ) and the Hungarian Society for the Protection of Homes and Values
(OÉMSZ), which campaigns against home repossessions – demonstrated
against the auction.
Satirist, artist and prankster extraordinaire, no one
has poked more fun at Hungary’s po-faced politicians than Gergely
Kovács since he burst into the national consciousness in 2006.
Describing himself as “one and a half tails” of the Two-tailed Dog
Party (Kétfarkú Kutya Part), Kovács has run an election campaign that
promised free beer, eternal life and lower taxes for all, organised
mass demonstrations to protest nothing in particular, and held a
purposefully dreadful exhibition to modest acclaim from the artistic
community, all the while raising the bar of Budapest’s graffitti
culture to the level of street art.
A bulletin issued last Monday by the EU’s number
crunching office Eurostat shows that only 12 per cent of Hungarians are
“at risk of poverty” – well below the average of 17 per cent for the
27-member bloc, indeed on a par with Scandinavian countries.
The leader of the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats
(SZDSZ), Attila Retkes, said in an interview with Népszabadság last
Monday that the new cooperation agreement that his party has formed
with the conservative Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) could win ten
per cent of the vote in forthcoming general elections. Retkes added
that he is also holding talks with other small, fledging parties of the
“democratic centre”, centring on the establishment of joint electoral
lists.
Budapest Municipal Court annulled last Wednesday an
official approval issued by the Hungarian Energy Office (MEH) over the
controversial sale of the gas trader EMFESZ. The firm promptly issued a
statement saying it will appeal the first instance ruling, which is not
legally binding and “will in no way affect the day to day running of
EMFESZ Kft”. The company, which controls around a quarter of Hungarian
gas supplies, was sold to a Swiss-registered firm called RosGas last
April, reportedly for a token fee of USD 1.
A tribute to the singular US pop singer Michael Jackson
ended in farce on 16 and 17 January when punters who had paid up to HUF
20,000 for tickets were treated to a mediocre Jackson impersonator and
risible choreography.
The Socialist-backed interim government last week began
an advertising assault with the claim that it has been up to “More than
just crisis management” in recent months, a slogan which it placed in
ads in national newspapers and websites.
The Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) last Thursday
presented its candidates for the 32 electoral constituencies in the
capital. Former Budapest deputy mayor Miklós Hagyó and Minister for
Culture and Education István Hiller will face the electorate.
President László Sólyom set the dates for Hungary’s
general elections last Friday: the first round will be on Sunday, 11
April, the second a fortnight later. As he promised in the autumn,
Sólyom chose the earliest possible dates. Although the electioneering
rhetoric had been in full swing since the start of the year, the
competing parties now officially have until 9 April to persuade the
electorate to vote for them, or indeed to vote at all.
Looking at the sterile, vacuum-packaged meat products in
shops, it is easy to gloss over the fact that they were once part of a
living pig or cow. To give city dwellers and tourists the chance to
experience the pig slaughters that are traditional in Hungarian
villages in the winter season, Róbert Papp organises pig killing tours
on the site of his restaurant Régi Idők Udvara Skanzen és Etterem, or
Skanzen for short.
The Elevenpark owes its existence to the children of the
man who runs it. “They kept asking why there aren’t such large indoor
playgrounds in Hungary as in Germany,” recalls Stefan Fritsch.
Hungary is still catching its breath from its
near-miraculous feat of finishing 2009 at the target budget deficit of
3.9% of GDP, but investor applause is muted. The lack of fanfare is
justified: Elections are just around the corner, meaning it's the time
for the ruling party to go on its traditional spending spree.
