Central Europe’s Nationalist Paradox
Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, a nationalist? On the contrary. Would he then sign partnership agreements with large foreign investors? And Slovakia’s Robert Fico picking up right-wing voters and thus shifting toward nationalism? Hardly, or he wouldn’t be dedicating so much energy to saving the country’s largest private employer, the U.S. Steel ironworks in Kosice, which the [...]
Hungarian prize revoked
On 15 March, Ferenc Szaniszló won the Tancsics prize, Hungary’s most prestigious award for journalism, causing a national and international outcry. The journalist and television presenter Szaniszló has fallen into disrepute for spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and anti-Roma comments on the broadcasting station Echo-TV, which is closely affiliated with the Orbán admistration. In 2011, the [...]
Revolution (Again) in Hungary
From revolution to revolution, I have watched Hungary evolve over the past half-century. The more dramatic of the two revolutions took place in the autumn of 1956 when a beaten, starved and humiliated subject people of fewer than 10 million souls managed to stare down the brutal might of the Soviet Union. The more triumphant [...]
Wiesel returns 2004 medal
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel returned the Grand Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary he received in 2004 in protest of the government “encouraging the whitewashing of tragic and criminal episodes in Hungary’s past, namely the wartime Hungarian government’s involvement in the deportation and murder of hundreds of thousands of its [...]
Let’s Give Fico a Chance
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who took the helm of his second government in April, surprised his critics after his landslide victory in the March parliamentary elections by behaving in a measured fashion: he communicated with the media and convened meetings with various social groups. Slovak caricaturists went overboard in portraying Fico as a hooded [...]
Book Review: Hungary: Between Democracy and Authoritarianism, by Paul Lendvai
Orbán Über Alles: Hungary at a Dead End “All this amounts to the re-establishment of authoritarian rule under a paper-thin veneer of democracy in the heart of Europe.” - Paul Krugman Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party won a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections in April 2010. There can be no doubt that Orbán’s successful “revolution [...]
Orbánomics
International pressure on Hungary mounted as the country faced sanctions over its budget deficit and a damning new report over judicial independence. EU finance ministers in March voted to suspend €495 million in aid to Hungary from 2013 unless it makes progress in reducing its public deficit by June. The decision is unprecedented, as 23 [...]
Democracy in Decline in Central and Eastern Europe
Democratic and market institutions have regressed in 13 out of 17 Central and Eastern European countries in recent years, according to a new report by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, a German social research institute. Surveying 128 developing and emerging countries between 2009 and 2011, the institute’s Transformation Index 2012 highlights Eastern Europe and Latin America as [...]
Viktor Orbán and Wolfgang Schüssel
“We do not need the unsolicited assistance of foreigners guiding our hands,” declared Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on 15 March, the country’s national day. “We are more than familiar with the character of unsolicited, comradely assistance, even if it comes wearing a finely tailored suit and not a uniform with shoulder patches.” It was [...]
CommentaryJuly 11, 2012No CommentRead More