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Tag: Hungary

  • Hungarian Justice Minister denounces German media bias on Frontex withdrawal

    Hungary has every right to defend its territory from “crowds of migrants overrunning Europe, Justice Minister Judit Varga said in response to international — mainly German — media allegations that it is illegally sending migrants back to Serbia.

    “There is news circulating in the German media, according to which Hungary, contrary to the ruling of the CJEU (Court of Justice of the European Union), is pushing migrants back to Serbia,” Varga wrote in a Facebook post.

    As we reported earlier, Frontex is suspending its activities in Hungary. The decision came after claims that Hungary was refusing to implement the European Court of Justice’s ruling of Dec. 17, which declared, among other things, that Hungary was illegally forcing migrants back into Serbia.

    “We already knew that German media does not cover Hungary in a balanced way, but, in the name of the freedom of the press, we were hoping to be asked for our reaction and to have it published. Our requests, however, were not even answered by the media,” Varga wrote. She then proceeded to enumerate the facts:

    “Hungary has so far fulfilled and complied with all rulings,” she wrote. “Ironically, while European countries are fighting and closing their borders to protect their own citizens against a thus-far unknown pandemic, they expect Hungary to idly let crowds of migrants overrun Europe.”

    Varga also pointed out that by international standards, Serbia is a safe country, meaning that illegal entrants to Hungary sent back there are in no danger whatsoever.

    “Serbia is not simply a safe country but an EU-candidate, with which we are conducting talks for full membership. In these hard times, when people’s lives are at stake, objective and unbiased reports are especially needed,” Varga wrote, concludng her post with: “Our goal is to protect our country.”


    Title image: Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga. (source: Facebook)


     

  • Frontex pulls out of Hungary over claims that migrants are pushed back to Serbia

    Frontex will suspend its activities in Hungary, confirmed Chris Borowski, a spokesman for the EU border guard Frontex, news portal hvg.hu reports.

    The decision from Frontex came after what he claimed was Hungary refusing to implement the European Court of Justice’s ruling of Dec. 17, which mandated, among other things, that Hungary was illegally forcing migrants back into Serbia. 

    According to the December verdict, by forcibly escorting the applicants to the other side of the fence a few meters from the Hungarian-Serbian border, the Hungarian police authorities are deporting them on a strip of land where no infrastructure is available, within the meaning of the EU’s “expulsion” directive.

    In doing so, the ECJ ruled that Hungary is violating EU and international law, as in practice the migrants have no choice but to leave the territory of Hungary and depart for Serbia without the possibility of legal remedy. The Hungarian government has not yet done anything to repeal or amend provisions in relation to EU law. If Frontex continued to be involved in border protection activities in Hungary, it asserts that it would run the risk of engaging in a practice contrary to EU law.

    “After December’s European Court of Justice ruling demanding Hungary stop pushbacks into Serbia, the suspension of Frontex border operations in Hungary is welcome” European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson tweeted.


     

    Warsaw-based Frontex is helping the member states guarding the external borders with border protection, and strengthening the organization is one of the European Union’s priorities, increasing its staff from the current 1,000 to 10,000.

  • Hungary readies new anti-censorship law against global tech giants

    Hungary will draft a bill forcing global technology giants to implement more transparent operations that conform to rule of law criteria and ensure freedom of expression, Justice Minister Judit Varga told daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet on Tuesday 

    “We have consulted with the relevant state institutions this morning, we will start work in the Ministry of Justice, and we would like to submit a bill to the Parliament in the spring,” Varga said, adding that the new law will have three distinct goals: guaranteeing that the rule of law can also be enforced online, a transparency requirement, including the right to a fair trial and third, the freedom of expression and opinion of Hungarian citizens must be protected.

    “It is obvious that the domestic regulator can only examine domestic practice. Our goal is to hold the constitutional framework accountable to techies working in Hungary,” Varga said.

    Varga said that the committee had been investigating for a year, gathered significant experience, took into account citizens’ opinions, and received a lot of feedback from the Office of Economic Competition, the National Data Protection and Freedom of Information Authority, and Hungary’s Ombudsman. The committee’s work has also examined cross-border issues, with Varga referring to regulations in Germany and France, the new proposal in Poland to protect freedom of expression, and an EU proposal that has been in the pipeline since last December.

    “In cooperation with the international community, we are also working on the development of a good international regulation framework, but we cannot wait to pass domestic legislation either, because anyone can be switched off at any time and the legal remedy is opaque,” Varga said. “It is important to avoid the emergence of pseudo-legal systems or parallel legal systems, tech companies cannot act as states simply because, through their services, they are able to influence the broad masses of society through their algorithms. This is incompatible with the rule of law and, in this, I see the EU as a partner.”

    When asked how much the technology giants will take into account the regulations that are being prepared, Varga said the bill’s primary goal is not necessarily sanction, or punishment but instead making these companies interested in behaving lawfully. While she stressed the importance of dialogue, she also pointed out that “technology giants make a profit from their services through community use, so if they do not follow the legal system of a given member state, they will discredit themselves among their users.”

    Following the banning of former President Donald Trump from Twitter and Facebook and Google, Apple, and Amazon’s coordinated takedown of the free-speech social network Parler, world leaders, including those that might be defined as left-leaning, have reacted with outrage. There is now an increasing consensus in much of Europe and beyond that the power of the unaccountable tech companies needs to be checked. 

    Title image: Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga. (source: Magyar Nemzet/Árpád Kurucz)

     

  • Hungary’s left-wing oppositions press rails against Russian vaccine

    As soon as Hungary’s acquisition of 2 million doses of Russian-manufactured Sputnik V vaccines was announced, the country’s opposition media raced to question its effectiveness, people’s trust in the Russian product, and the approval process itself. Although the health regulator responsible for the decision had protested the politicization of a strictly medical and professional decision, attacks on the Orbán government’s acquisition of a product outside of the EU mechanism had continued to attract criticism despite other countries like Germany showing interest in the Russian vaccine as well. 

    The largest Hungarian financial periodical, HVG, known for its anti-government sentiments, had published an opinion by health-policy expert Gabriella Lantos, claiming that the Hungarian National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition’s (OGYEI) emergency licensing process, which had shortened the approval process down to two months, had made a politically-motivated decision. She claimed that even though the European Medicines Agency (EMA) itself had also shortened the usual 210-day approval period, it is impossible that OGYEI should allow a medicine for nation-wide distribution within two months. She had also called the approval of the Oxford-developed AstraZeneca vaccine within such a short period a sign of “showing-off”, and had pointed out that the EMA is only planning to approve it on Jan. 29.

    The “rushed pace of the approval process will hurt the reputation of both OGYEI, as well as that of the vaccine itself,” she claimed.

    Another anti-government news portal had gone as far as claiming that the new Russian vaccine will not be subject to Hungarian clinical tests at all. The news portal did admit though that a Hungarian team of medical scientists will make a decision based on the Russian results of the vaccine’s tests, for which they have travelled to Russia to confirm. To support their allusion to a deficient approval process, the authors of the article have pointed out that one report from the so-called phase three trial was missing, although this has later been supplied by the Russian health authorities and that there were some quality concerns, which were also later positively remedied by the manufacturers.

    The article had also pointed to the fact that the AstraZeneca vaccine will be licensed in Hungary based only on the results of British trials. Only in the last sentence did the portal finally admit that the Russian vaccine will in fact have to pass Hungarian trials performed at the laboratories of the National Citizen’s Health Center’s (NNK), without which no medicine can enter into circulation in the country.

    Another economic news portal quoted the results of their own polls, according to which fewer people trust the Russian vaccine than those manufactured in the West. According to the poll, 15 percent of Hungarians surveyed said they were willing to be vaccinated by the Russian vaccine, while the AstraZeneca variant, which has equally been licensed based partly on British medical trials, received 41.1 percent. Of those surveyed, 94.7 percent said they would accept a vaccination from the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine. However, the Hungarian government is aware of varying vaccine preference in the population and had already announced their plans to allow their citizens to be vaccinated based on the variant they prefer as long as it is available.

    Stefan De Keersmaecker, European Commission health spokesperson, has in a statement spoken against individual EU countries approving the AstraZeneca vaccine prior to EMA’s licensing decision. He also warned that member states will be responsible for any issues with vaccines that have been licensed outside the European mechanism. On the other hand, he has not specified who will be held responsible for the EU’s failures to pre-order the vaccines and the significant delays in the manufacturing process that had resulted in EU member-states falling well behind other developed nations in protecting their citizens’ health and their economies against the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Mátyás Szentiványi, the director of the National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition (OGYEI), had emphasized that the decisive factor is not where the vaccines are coming from but what their effect is. He had reassured citizens that the licensing process has been rigorous and that there are internationally renowned Hungarian doctors involved in the approval process. He had also reiterated that the OGYEI is an independent professional institution. Despite this, Szentiványi said that “especially with regards to the Russian vaccine, it has come into the crosshairs of politics, even though there is only scientific work performed at the institution. Those who claim the contrary, are not speaking the truth”.

    On Jan. 22, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had announced the construction of a Hungarian vaccine manufacturing facility in the town of Debrecen.

    “No serious country can afford to go scrounging for vaccines during such an epidemic… The government had ordered the building of a vaccine factory in Debrecen that is going to be large enough to produce sufficient quantities of vaccines when our scientists have succeeded in developing one.” In Orbán’s view, “if the vaccine does not come from Brussels, then it’s got to come from elsewhere… It is not excuses but vaccines that Hungarians need,” added Orbán.

     

  • Hungary’s Central Bank governor: Corner and overtake 2.0

    While Hungary failed last year to use it chance to “overtake while cornering”, the race is far from over, Central Bank Governor György Matolcsy writes in his influential column on business portal Novekedes.hu. The article is a follow-up to a similar one published just about a year ago:

    In a contemporary context, Hungary fought three wars in 2020. There is a political struggle for the future of Europe, a health system fight against the epidemic and a war against the economic downturn. On the first front, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán won a decisive battle with the support of Poland and Slovenia. After the victorious battle, the war between the visions of a Europe of nation-states and the United States of Europe continues. However, the significance of the former’s victory is similar to the 1956 Hungarian revolution. Whatever the battles of the future bring, the construction of the European empire has stalled and by 2030 nation-states could already have a possibility of winning.

    The fight against the epidemic was successful in 2020 because despite the two waves, the virus did not break through. Society, healthcare and government have stood their ground well. Hungarian epidemic management was at the forefront of Western countries last year.

    Economic warfare has yielded mixed results. It excelled in job protection, performed well in maintaining consumption levels, and was reliable in the running of the financial system. However, crisis management is more a failure than a success in expanding investment, including public investment.

    We missed our chance and were unable to overtake while cornering last year. According to the final data, the decline of the Hungarian economy will be in the mid-range among EU member states. True, due to the second wave in Hungary, it was not possible to maintain the 2019 GDP level. However, others — Germans, Poles, Romanians — were better at investing, building, and sustaining community consumption. We could have achieved better performance if we had been able to increase the level of public investment by a fifth, as well as the performance of construction and especially housing.

    But the race is far from over: the brunt of it is still ahead. The bend is longer and the terrain more rugged than it first seemed. It can be seen that, like the Spanish flu epidemic that raged between 1918 and 1920, the bend could last for years. So, there is still the possibility of overtaking in the coming years.

    One of the most important achievements of 2020 is that we know much more about the conditions of overtaking than before.

    Firstly, it turned out that we have accumulated very significant reserves between 2010 and 2019 and are able to mobilize them in times of trouble. The net financial wealth of families, savings in government securities, the 850,000 new jobs created, the confidence of domestic and foreign investors, re-industrialization, and many more positive trends protected us in 2020 like so many concrete walls.

    Second, the government, the central bank and the financial system have stood the test again. The government introduced a 9 percent budget deficit, the MNB a 17 percent balance sheet expansion, and the banking system introduced the digital switchover into the common financial safety net, which worked well.

    Thirdly, we realized why we were not ahead in 2020: because of investment. It turned out that a completely new, accelerated, centralized public investment model with immediate access was needed. Furthermore, the business sector and families must be given the opportunity to latch onto large-scale public programs with their own investments.

    The bend is still going on, the overtaking time window is still open.

    Title image: Hungarian Central Bank Governor György Matolcsy. (source: MTI/Zsolt Szigetváry)

  • In the shadow of Obama

    The liberal elite is celebrating, hoping that the election of Biden’s presages a return to the Obama-era style, a state of affairs the left-liberal hegemony regards as normal.

    The order of the world is being restored, the four-year Trump presidency, which for them was full of unexpected twists and turns, unpredictability, and often unpleasant surprises, is finally over. It was unsettling that Trump does not think in the liberal framework and, unlike them, he did not lecture and threaten, but supported Viktor Orbán while talking about issues such as national sovereignty and Christianity, not their rainbow-colored dogmas.

    And they were particularly disturbed by the fact that, through Trump’s election, he felt re-represented, re-honored, a non-negligible part of American society that liberals mock and despise in both the media and the entertainment industry.

    After his inauguration, Biden was not idle for long, signing a series of executive order decrees, some of which were strongly pro-immigration. Republicans said he was turning in the very wrong direction from day one. For example, Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, reminded Biden that his election victory was not a vote for the far left.

    The Democratic president would grant citizenship to 11 million illegal immigrants already living in the United States. Another regulation, also received with mixed feelings, is about allowing children and adults to use the toilet according to their chosen gender. Biden also announced via executive order that men who identify as women would be able to play women’s sports. It is worrying in itself that gender ideology is so important to Biden that he makes it one of his first actions, and the section on sports is an obvious threat to female athletes.

    Two days after Biden’s inauguration, we received another unpleasant reminder of what the foreign policy of the Obama administration was like. Last Friday, Russian foreign affairs spokeswoman Marija Zaharova demanded an explanation from the U.S. embassy in Moscow why it made public the route of unauthorized demonstrations in support of opposition politician Alexei Navalny and why the idea of ​​a “march against the Kremlin” was thrown into the public consciousness.

    Zaharova said the US diplomatic mission’s action — while they say it was for the protection and warning of their citizens — was in fact a direct intervention in Russia’s internal affairs. They could have guessed this in Moscow, as an expert had already told the TASS news agency on the day of Biden’s inauguration that Biden could launch aggressive, ideological rhetoric against Moscow to divert attention from domestic problems. And there are plenty of them, with not only Russian experts making such claims. American society is severely divided, and Russia is “the anti-example,” a symbol of everything Biden and his left-liberal team are fighting against.

    So the question remains unchanged In addition to solving the United States’ own problems, Biden will have less time for foreign affairs, according to several Western press reports, but that does not mean he will be idle, as he again nominates proponents of ideological lecturing such as Victoria Nuland. Hungary has been on this difficult path before, and it is in our interest to have a pragmatic relationship with Washington, despite all the ominous omens. It would be good if those currently occupying the White House learned from Obama’s mistakes.

    Title image: President Joe Biden answers questions from reporters in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex, Monday, Jan. 25, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

  • Can Hungary’s pro-family policy help save Japan from demographic disaster?

    There is a growing interest in Hungarian family policy measures worldwide, and Japan is no exception, daily Magyar Hírlap reports.

    In a significant part of Asia, the problem is not population decline that is plaguing Europe, but that of overpopulation, however, the island nation of Japan has long faced severe demographic challenges. It is the fastest aging society in the developed world, with almost a third of its population over the age of 60. In four years, 30 percent of the population is expected to be above retirement age.

    However, the desire to have children is declining rapidly, with the fertility rate at 1.42 in 2020, representing a decline for five consecutive years. The number of marriages has also dropped dramatically in the last 20 years.

    Due to this perilous development, Japan’s attention was drawn to the Hungarian model, which is considered a growing policy point worldwide, and Hungary is among the first to turn theory into good practice. According to Japan, it is worth examining the initiatives taken by the Hungarian government over the past ten years to curb unfavorable demographic developments.

    The problems affecting the Far Eastern country are not unknown in Hungary either. In 2010–2011, the desire to have children and the number of marriages had reached a low point. The decade then, which saw a range of pro-family policies implemented by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government, appears to have justified family-friendly measures: the desire to have children has increased by twenty-six percent, with the largest increase among EU member states between 2010 and 2018. The number of marriages is at a forty-year high and the number of divorces is at a six-year low. The government is spending two and a half times more on family support than in 2010.

    Recently, the online business magazine Japan Business Press dedicated a lengthy article to Hungary’s family policy measures. According to the paper, Hungary spends 4.7 percent of its GDP on family policy, compared to only 2.55 percent in OECD countries.

    “Comparing the ratios, the Hungarian expenditure is six times that of the Japanese [family] budget. As a result, ten years after the election of the Orbán government, the population decline since 1981 came to a halt,” the article points out. The Japan Business Press itemized measures such as the personal income tax exemption for mothers of four children, three years of paid parental leave, a tax and borrowing allowance to help newlyweds, a home-creation allowance, the waiver and reduction of student loan debt, and free infertility treatments.

    The author of the article pointed out that Hungary wants to deal with depopulation without immigration, and Japan also shares this view.

    “Japan is one of the countries facing serious demographic challenges and their current government has decided to put the fight for childbearing on its flag. Even though we are geographically far away, we can learn from each other,” Minister without Portfolio for Family Affairs Katalin Novák commented on the article on her Facebook page.

    Japanese Ambassador Otaka Masato paid an introductory visit to Katalin Novák and called the Hungarian family policy measures very brave and proactive. He said despite consulting with others around the world, it’s not easy to come up with a formula that really addresses demographic issues effectively.

    Other countries have touted Hungary’s model as a potential solution for their own country. For example, French philosopher Eric Zemmour called on France last week to solve its demographic issues with Hungary’s model. Czech columnist Martin Maňák also made similar calls last year.

  • No, Péter Szijjártó shouldn’t resign as Hungary’s foreign minister

    Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó should be replaced, according to a former secretary of state for Foreign Affairs and leading figure of the now-defunct liberal, free democrats (SZDSZ). Szijjártó symbolizes a Hungarian government that stood by Donald Trump and his policy until the very last moment. In addition, the foreign minister previously accused Joe Biden’s son of corruption, adding that his father, now US president, had also intervened to try to cover it up.

    If you do not know what liberal Hungarian foreign policy was (and would be) like, read the thoughts of their foot soldier who spoke to Hírklikk. You will find in it all the basic elements of servility and arrogance.

    According to Szent-Iványi, the Hungarian-American relationship was so damaged that it could hardly be repaired quickly and perfectly. And not only because of our foreign minister’s statement about Biden, but also because Szijjártó is a kind of symbol of the Hungarian government’s policy to open up to the east.

    In addition, our tense relationship with Ukraine can also be linked to him — at least according to Szent-Iványi. Although (this would be an irony) the government could easily eliminate this problem. It would only have to abandon the intimidated Hungarians of Transcarpathia deprived of their rights to their own fate.

    And when asked whether Orbán be invited to the White House, Szent-Iványi replied with a smile:

    “I would venture to bet a large enough amount that I will not see that in the near future.” It’s as if the benchmark for a prime minister’s performance is whether he gets an invitation from the US. president.

    I am just saying: as prime minister, Viktor Orbán has been to the White House three times already — invited by Clinton, George W. Bush and Trump. I think that piece of information did not fit into the structure of the article

    Title image: Former liberal deputy foreign minister István Szent-Iványi.

  • French public TV pays bonuses to journalists who promote the EU and diversity

    In France, public television channels and radio stations belonging to the France Télévisions public media group have been among the most vocal critics of their Polish and Hungarian counterparts under the rule of conservative governments of Law and Justice (PiS) and Fidesz, which they have often accused of clamping down on the freedom of the press and turning public media outlets into pro-government propaganda channels.

    Yet, after the French Secretary of State for European Affairs Clément Beaune told the National Assembly last Sept. 17 that it was necessary to “reinforce the mechanisms which will make our public channels talk more about Europe”, and that the government and its parliamentary majority should “seek all possible means of constraint or pressure to achieve that goal”, it appears that the management of France Télévisions was quick to obey its orders.

    According to left-wing Le Monde daily newspaper, “a few months ago” chief editors at France Télévisions were told that the variable part of their salary will now depend on how much they promote “diversity, visibility, overseas departments and territories, and Europe” (meaning the EU).

    After Le Monde revealed the new financial mechanism put in place at France Télévisions to promote a vision which is close to that of President Emmanuel Macron and his government, Clément Beaune cheered on Twitter about such an “excellent initiative of the public service @Francetele”

    True, he added that “to talk about Europe covering all the diversity of opinions is a democratic necessity”, but you can seldom hear euroskeptic voices on French public television channels and radio stations. No surprise then that those who do not share Macron’s and Beaune’s views on “Europe” and “diversity” have expressed their concern at France Télévision’s new means to apply pressure on editorial boards.

    Charles-Henri Gallois, the leader of the Generation Frexit movement, called the move the “European Union’s propaganda ‘en marche’”, with ‘en marche’ meaning “on the move” and clearly a reference to the name of Macron’s political party “La République En Marche!”

    Former Vice-President of the National Front and current leader of the euroskeptic Patriots Party, Florian Philippot, wrote that France Télévisions’ talking about Europe simply means broadcasting propaganda in favor of the EU. According to a press release published on Jan. 20 by the National Rally (i.e. the former National Front), “the license fee pays for pro-EU propaganda. Today, our fellow citizens discover that their taxes are also used to pay a bonus to reward ideological zeal.” It also denounced bonuses for those who support “European federalism, mass immigration and racialism”.

    France Télévision’s CEO Delphine Ernotte was appointed last year for a second mandate at the head of the public media group. When she was appointed for the first time in 2015 by the CSA, the French media regulator, journalists’ unions at France 2 and France 3 criticized the “opaque and undemocratic” procedure used by the Socialist-dominated CSA for her nomination.

    The French media authority is made of members who are appointed for six years by the speaker of the Senate, the Speaker of the National Assembly and the President, with one third of the CSA being renewed every two years. In other words, the management of the public media in France is no less influenced by the governing political parties than their Polish and Hungarian counterparts.

    It should therefore not be surprising to anyone that just as Polish and Hungarian public media outlets now favor conservative views, French public media outlets address their audience with overwhelmingly leftist-liberal views. Arguably, Hungary has a far more pluralistic media environment than France overall, representing a diversity of opinion. 

    One of Ernotte’s first measures when she was appointed in 2015 was to promote racial and sexual diversity in the public media, and she even said overtly that she intended to put an end to a public television made up of “White men over 50”.

    Just two months after Ernotte was appointed CEO of France Télévisions, the head of France 2’s weather forecast service Philippe Verdier — a 47-year-old White man — was fired because he had just published a book titled “Climate Investigation” in which he criticized the links between scientists, politicians, economic lobbies, and green NGOs, and also because he had written an open letter to socialist President François Hollande saying that the COP21 Climate Conference that was going to be held in Paris would be useless. Hollande’s government at the time was led by then Prime Minister Manuel Valls while Macron was the minister of the economy.

    There is little doubt that France Télévisions will halt its lecturing Poland Hungary about freedom and independence of journalists working for the public media, but it is right to assume that this arm of the media is simply projecting its own behavior on to its political rivals. 

     

  • EU summit tackles vaccine shortage, joint inoculation database

    Thursday’s online summit of the European Union member states’ heads of government focused on boosting vaccine supplies to the continent and the potentially even more thorny issue of a joint vaccination/immunity database, according to press reports.

    Ahead of the summit, Britain’s Daily Express reported that a major source of conflict could be the fact that Hungary approved the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine before the European Medicines Agency (EMA) did so. As Remix News reported earlier, Hungary was the first among EU member states to approve both the Sputnik-V and the AstraZeneca vaccine.

    The conflict, however, did not materialize. On the contrary, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a press conference on Thursday that “Germany is offering support to Russia for the European Union approval of its Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine”.

    Furthermore, Merkel also said that the German institution in charge of federal vaccine approval, the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEU), is ready to assist Russia to secure the EMA approval for their vaccine.

    “If the EMA approves this inoculation material, we can also talk about the joint production or usage of the vaccine,” Merkel said.

    Besides Russia, the vaccine has so far been approved in Algeria, Argentina, Belarus, Bolivia, Serbia, and Venezuela. The Russian producer claims the vaccine has a 91.2 percent efficacy.

    At the initiative of Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, three member states (Austria, Denmark and Greece) have urged the EMA to approve the British AstraZeneca vaccine as soon as possible.

    The summit also discussed the issue of a vaccination passport. While most summit participants agreed that such a document — or at least a common vaccination database — would be needed, some expressed fears that any such measure could create the impression that even if indirectly, the vaccine is compulsory.

    EU leaders postponed the issue saying that the solution will probably have to come from a “higher level”, which could only mean the World Health Organization (WHO). Meanwhile, the International Air Travel Agency (IATA) — in cooperation with Estonia — is already working on its own “Travel Pass Initiative”.   

    Before the EU summit, the heads of state of the Visegrád Four Group consisting of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia held a separate video conference to coordinate their positions.

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  • Hungary’s luxury property market shows no signs of slowing down

    The Hungarian property market is showing signs of a rebound after a temporary slowdown as compared to the previous year. This is due to the construction industry being severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic on the one hand, and the collapse in international buyers on the other. The one segment that had proved to be most resilient to the negative effects of the pandemic is the luxury property market centered largely in Budapest.

    According to reports, the Hungarian luxury segment which is focused mostly around the leafy parts of Budapest, shows no signs of slowing down, with demand exceeding previous years. Unusually for a European capital, the main customers for the market are local Hungarian buyers, who have no qualms about forking out astronomical sums for a well positioned high-end apartment or villa.

    The most popular parts for luxury investments still prove to be the central, historic parts of the Pest side centered around the Parliament building, while on the other side of the Danube river, in Buda, the leafy hill-side parts have seen prices rising even during the financial recession brought about by the global pandemic. Although after the second wave of the virus international buyers have all but disappeared from the Hungarian market, demand had stayed steady in the form of affluent local investors.

    At one of the largest real estate investments in Budapest, the ongoing redevelopment of a former hospital built in 1868 into luxury apartments in Buda’s Lipótmező district, prices range from 1.7 million, to 2.6 million Hungarian forints per square meter (1 US dollar = 295 forints, 1 euro = 350 forints). More than half of the yet to be converted apartments has already been sold, and developers expect a “full house” by the time building works finish.

    Buyers in Budapest are now willing to pay over 3 million forints, or €8.350, per square meter if the apartment meets the highest standards. This still lags behind average city center prices in other major European cities such as London, where you would have to fork out nearly $16.000 per square meter, or Paris with over $14.000 per square meter in a city center apartment, but for most Hungarians, whose average salary is around €1,100 a month, these prices are well beyond their reach.

    Only the real estate market near Lake Balaton was able to keep pace with the Hungarian capital, where in the largest towns, such as Siofok or Tihany, people were willing to pay over an average of 1 million forints per square meter in order to escape quarantine conditions in their inner-city apartments. The freshwater lake, that is larger in size than Lake Geneva, is traditionally a popular destination for the Hungarian working class, and lake-side apartments in the area have a huge rental potential during the summer months.

    Despite the economy suffering because of the quarantine and a lack of tourists, property prices are still rising due to a shortage of available new developments. Although in Western European capitals such as London, super rich investors from the Middle East and Russia dominate the top segment, in lesser-known Budapest, local businessmen and entrepreneurs are still able to compete with foreign buyers. The Hungarian upper class is steadily growing in numbers and financial resources and are able to afford a portfolio of luxury properties.

    International companies headquartered in Hungary are increasingly opting for a top management made up of local professionals whose income is slowly catching up with their Western counterparts.

    It is difficult to say what the European property market would look like without the effects of the pandemic today, but according to the Eurostat survey, prices rose by 5.2 percent in the EU during the third quarter of 2020, compared with 2019. Due to the increased number of people working from home-office, there has been a trend for upscaling and a rising demand for houses in the outskirts. In an annual perspective, only two European countries have seen a fall in prices: Cyprus (1.4%) and Ireland (0.8%).

  • Hungary first among EU member states to approve Astra-Zeneca and Sputnik-V vaccines

    The Hungarian authorities have approved the British AstraZeneca and Russian Sputnik V vaccines for COVID-19, meaning that Hungary will be the first member state of the European Union to start vaccination with them, news portal Origo reports.

    Both the AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines work on the same principles. The former, also called Oxford, is already being used in Britain, but EU pharmaceutical authorities are only expected to authorize it at the end of January.

    The vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford and the AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company, is both cheaper and much easier to transport than the Pfizer/BioNTech one, which must be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius during transport, while the British vaccine can be transported in ordinary refrigerators. The British and Russian producers have been negotiating some form of cooperation since Dec. 8.

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin over the phone last week and asked Russian authorities to submit Sputnik V to the EU for approval. However, this process will only start in February.

    AstraZeneca has already produced 200 million doses by the end of 2020, and the volume has grown further since then. The company could ramp up production to 200 million doses per month provided it receives EU approval.

    The vaccine is based on a safe, well-known method: an adenovirus that infects chimpanzees but is completely harmless to humans, introduces the coronavirus spike protein, which identifies and develops antibodies against it.

    AstraZeneca, for example, has already developed another vaccine against malaria based on a chimpanzee adenovirus vector, and this has achieved very good results.

    The basis of Sputnik V is also that the DNA of the virus protein is introduced into the cells of vaccinated people with a modified adenovirus, and this triggers the immune response. Already 1.5 million people have already been vaccinated with it in Russia, and it has already been registered in six countries while a further nine countries have indicated they are preparing to do so in January.

    Experts from Hungary’s National Institute of Pharmacy and Food and Health (OGYÉI) have found that the Russian Sputnik V vaccine is effective, Hungarian new channel M1 channel reported on Wednesday.

    OGYÉI general director Mátyás Szentiványi said that the usually long licensing process has been completed in a record two months. On Wednesday, OGYÉI issued a temporary permit for the usage of the Sputnik-V vaccine valid for six months and may be renewed once for another six months.

    Every new batch of the approved vaccine will be further tested by the National Center for Public Health (NNK).

    Title image: Nurse Gustavo Rodriguez carries a cooler of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for COVID-19 which he will administer to fellow health workers at Dr. Pedro Fiorito Hospital in Avellaneda, Argentina, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

  • France’s demographic policy should follow Hungary’s pro-family example, says French philosopher Zemmour

    Last year, the majority of France’s natural population growth occurred due to migration rather than births in the country. In order to reverse this trend, the country should follow the Hungarian example, said popular philosopher and author Eric Zemmour on the evening political talk show of CNews television channel.

    “The number of births has never been so low in France. The reasons are the economic and social conditions, family policy and the decision of the socialists to abolish family allowances for better-off people … And the dominant ideology,” Zemmour said, adding that the prevalent social trends since the 1990s also played a major part in the natural population growth.

    “Since the 90s and 2000s people have been praising the individual, feminism, and gender theory. The dominant ideology destabilizes traditional benchmarks. And the lengthening of abortion periods is a problem and all of this leads to a drop in the birth rate,” he said.

    He referred to statistics which showed that in 2006, the natural population growth was 306,000, half of which consisted of immigrants. In contrast, by 2019, the natural growth dropped to 163,000, while the number of immigrants entering the country rose by 191,000.

    Other statistics point to even higher rates of immigration into France, with National Rally MEP and party deputy Nicholas Bay pointing to numbers that showed a net of 400,000 migrants entering France every year, a figure which does not even represent illegal migrants.

    Answering the moderator’s interjection that these immigrants are also French, Zemmour said, “I know that at the border these immigrants get a French identity card, but that does not solve the problem. From the moment they assimilate, the are French, but if they don’t, they still have a French identity card, and it causes a demographic problem that cannot be denied.”

    “One sees in Europe policies like those of [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orbán, who have the same problem. They have established a fairly vigorous demographic policy, with plenty of [state] money distributed, dissuading people from divorce, and this is a strong policy of persuasion.”

    Hungary began a strong demographic policy based on increasing birth rates instead of immigration in 2016, offering tax breaks, housing support and early pensions for families with more children. The country now spends €6.8 billion a year on its pro-family policies, which has delivered steady progress. 

    Zemmour, who is Jewish, is a strong opponent of mass migration, and has said in the past that it is a “crime against the European people that will end in bloodshed”. 

    Title image: French philosopher and author Eric Zemmour on the CNews television channel. (source:cnews.fr)

  • Polish property prices are rapidly rising

    Over a five-year period, property prices have risen the most in Hungary (80 percent) whereas Poland’s figure over that period is a more modest 37 percent, but Poland’s figure is rapidly rising, according to Eurostat.

    Jarosław Sadowski, an analyst for “Expander”, highlights that the rise during the pandemic has been in properties already built (10.6 percent) rather than those being constructed (4.2 percent).

    The high figure for 2020 as a whole is also accounted for by a steep rise in prices in January and February 2020 and by lowering of interest rates leading to the cheapest mortgages in Poland’s history.

    Lower mortgage repayment rates encourage investment in the property market by those with capital to spare. It is interesting to note that in EU states where interest rates did not fall, there was not an equivalent rise in property prices.

    According to Expander and Rentier, property prices rose in 14 out of 15 Polish cities researched during 2020. The pandemic only slowed down this trend.

    In 2019, the property price rise averaged 11 percent, for 2020 it is forecast to be 6 percent.

    Bartosz Turek, chief analyst for HRE Investments, observes that Poles have not stopped purchasing property during the pandemic. Those banks which limited their mortgage lending now regret their move.

    “Developers are having to move faster in starting their construction as client demand forces their hand. The reduction in interest rates and the government’s support for employment have facilitated this process. The rate of return on savings in banks has fallen 20-30 fold when compared with the profitability of renting property and mortgage rates are a bargain,” concludes Turek.

  • Hungary, Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia’s economic clout is on the rise

    In ten years, the economic performance of the Visegard Four (V4) region — the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia — has almost doubled, and the region, with a population of more than 60 million, is projected to be an increasingly important market player within the European Union, financial journalist Csaba Szajlai writes in a column in daily Magyar Nemzet:

    In recent years, growth in the V4 countries has exceeded the European Union average. While the average growth in the Union was 2.4 percent, that of V4 countries was 4.3 percent, which clearly shows the region is catching up. Thanks to better performance, the economic weight of these countries has also increased, with the economic growth of the V4 countries rising between 16 and 24 percent within the EU over the past decade. While the southern European member states as well as the British are suffering from a severe recession, a lack of reforms, a sluggish budget deficit, and high public debt, the prospects for the Central European group of countries facing the “east wind” are fundamentally encouraging. What characteristics of the region are helping underpin this growth?

    In a nutshell: with the exception of Slovakia, we all use our own money, thereby taking advantage of monetary freedom and room for maneuver, which helps support our export-oriented approach. At the same time, the role of the domestic economy is also becoming more and more important. The geographical and logistical location and proximity of the region to the core of Germany is a key element, while foreign trade relations with Austria are also very good. Both economies are highly developed in both a European and global comparison and are the best market for the V4. Banks and financial service providers also settled here from the middle of Western Europe, taking advantage of a common set of values.

    The Central European region has developed a lot since the fall of the communist regime. The Czechs have regained their traditionally outstanding level of economic performance that they obtained before the communist world, followed by us Hungarians. After a long time, we managed to bypass Slovakia and then Poland. However, roughly based on the EU as a whole, the region reached a level of 75-percent development in 2019, which, while still below the average level of development in Italy and Spain, is catching up at an astonishing rate compared to the 30-35 percent it was at in the 1990s. And the future promises to be encouraging: all major economic analyses estimate that the V4 member states will be able to expand beyond the EU growth average.

    The wealth of Austria and Germany is also due to their strong SME sector. Although it is difficult to compare a Hungarian company with a large Western European multinational, companies operating in the V4 countries can be compared. For example, the V4 countries produce 15 percent of foreign trade turnover in Europe, so Slovak, Polish and Czech companies are in a good position in this area. We Hungarians still have a lot of potential to grow in this respect.

    The legal-political-economic background of the cooperation between the V4 countries was given. As far as we know, the stakeholders signed a memorandum of understanding in Budapest in 2018: the declaration also raised the industrial policy coordination of the four countries to a higher level. In global competition, Europe needs a new industrial policy that strengthens innovation capacity, promotes the faster introduction of new technologies and encourages entrepreneurship, thus ensuring that the V4 region remains the engine of growth for the European Union.

    Continuous coordination and advocacy on budgetary and other major policy issues within the community can make Budapest, Prague, Bratislava, and Warsaw bigger than their respective parts. After the crisis and the recovery, the scope of cooperation needs to be expanded, and we do not strive for a “mini-EU”, but a level of cooperation that has characterized the Franco-German axis in recent decades. This has already been recognized and the era of construction has already begun.

    There are periods when everything favors this region. Go, Visegrád Four!

    Title image: Škoda factory in Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic. (source: skoda-storyboard.com)

  • EU nations begin taking steps to regulate social media giants

    The social and political need to regulate the operation of social media providers has emerged in public discourse from time to time, however, the recent permanent banning of the Twitter and Facebook profiles of outgoing US President Donald Trump suddenly made it clear to much of the international community that the tools currently available for countries that adhere to democratic rule of law only provide an extremely narrow framework to control the activities of Silicon Valley technology giants, Magyar Nemzet writes.

    This is evidenced by the fact that, as a result of the events of recent days, more and more countries around the world have put the long-standing issue of regulating social media platforms back near the top of the agenda. Many EU member states have also decided not to wait for the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) presented by the European Commission last December to enter into force. 

    Polish law expected to arrive soon

    Last Friday, Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro unveiled a bill making it more difficult to block internet community accounts to ensure freedom of expression for Polish internet users.

    According to the proposal to be discussed in the right-wing government, the intervention of the owners of the social sites could be reviewed by an elected Polish council of experts, the so-called Freedom of Expression Council, whose members would be elected by a three-fifths majority in the Polish lower house. Users of blocked, suspended accounts could file an appeal with the board after the owner of the social site had a negative response to the complaint within a set 48-hour time limit.

    Authorities have also called for large fines, reaching up to €2.2 million, for social media companies that remove legal speech from their platforms. 

    Paris overtakes Brussels

    The accountability of social media platforms is suddenly becoming more important than ever for French President Emmanuel Macron — at least as can be seen from the fact that the French government last weekend almost completely copied the EU DSA into a recent legislative proposal. At the national level, they will be discussed in the French National Assembly this week and are expected to be adopted in the coming months, years before EU legislation is approved.

    Paris calculates that EU law will not enter into force before December 2023, but the move has already sparked another controversy, with Brussels indicating that France is trying to put pressure on the EU institutions to occupy the Paris version of the bill.

    Germany is leading the way

    Last Thursday, the German parliament already adopted a reform proposal to amend national competition law that would make Germany the first country in the world to have its precedent rules tailored to offset the market power of large digital platforms. Hastily moving forward with new restrictions on technology giants, Berlin will also increase its own influence in the European Union, as the German reform proposal is very similar to the European Commission’s legislation on digital markets.

    As Remix News reported earlier, Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga has also indicated that Hungary is moving in a similar direction:

    “Due to the systematic abuses, however, we may need to step up sooner. That is why I convened an extraordinary meeting of the Digital Freedom Committee. and this week I will also consult with the President of the Hungarian Competition Authority on the possibility of sanctioning unfair commercial practices,” Varga wrote in a Facebook post.

    Due to the differing political climates in each country, it is unclear in what manner these reforms will affect speech on different social media platforms. Conservative Poland and Hungary are definitely concerned about the censoring of voices on the right across social media platforms whereas Germany and France have in the past taken a hard line against hate speech, which has given rise to those who claim that the countries are trying to censor speech critical of their governments, including their relatively lax migration policies. The EU police force, Europol, has conducted anti-free speech raids in the past of people who posted content that authorities classified as hate speech, including one user insulting a female politician. 

  • New CDU leader Laschet: EU needs both Hungary and Poland

    The first signs indicate that the change at the helm of Germany’s ruling center-right Christian Democratic Party (CDU) will not affect the country’s pragmatic attitude towards Hungary, news portal Mandiner writes.

    Before the electoral congress of the CDU, Manfred Weber, the Bavarian CSU faction leader of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament, said that the first task of the new CDU president would be to decide in Brussels whether to expel Fidesz, which has already been suspended. However, no radical change is expected in this area based on experience to date and statements on the subject from newly-elected CDU Chariman Armin Laschet.

    Laschet told ZDF public service television he expected difficult negotiations in the long-running conflict.

    “I think we need both Hungarians and Poles in the European Union. I don’t want them to drift towards the radical right. However, the European People’s Party has clear conditions. We will demand these from Viktor Orbán,” Laschet said.

    Hungarian prime minister congratulates Laschet on his election as party chairman

    “I am convinced that the cooperation between Fidesz and the CDU, which has a long tradition, has greatly contributed to the development of Hungarian-German relations and the outstanding economic success of our countries over the past two and a half decades,” Viktor Orbán wrote on his Facebook page, adding that he is looking forward to working together and ensuring Laschet that “you can count on the support of myself and Fidesz in continuing our pragmatic cooperation based on mutual respect”.

    In any case, Donald Tusk, the president of the European People’s Party, has high hopes for the new CDU president in the Fidesz case, writes Politico.

    “It’s time to boldly defend our values,” said Tusk at the CDU electoral conference before the results of the vote were announced. Tusk has long wanted to exclude Orbán from the EPP.

    However, Politico also notes that the reorganization of the CDU is already the first thing the EPP has said they have yet to wait for a decision on Fidesz. This was the case for the EU budget in December and the European Parliament election in 2019, so the paper’s journalist Florian Eder does not expect a decision to exclude Fidesz either.

    Title image: New party leader Armin Laschet (L) and Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó at a previous meeting. (source: Facebook)

  • Hungarian Justice Minister Varga speaks up against ‘shadow bans’ by social media

    Following Poland’s announcement that it has plans to begin taking anti-censorship action against social media companies that ban lawful content, Hungary is now seeking ways to curb what Justice Minister Judit Varga called “shadow bans” by social media giants.

    “‘Shadow ban’ means the act of social media providers secretly, for political purposes, restricting the visibility and access of our user profile without our knowledge about it,” Varga wrote in a Facebook post. “Tech companies thus violate all those fundamental democratic legal norms that form the basis of Western-type culture.”

    “We could not only learn about the system-wide practice of shadow banning from a voice recording of the now-leaked Twitter CEO,” she added.

    Varga wrote that in order to reduce their reach, Facebook also limits the visibility of Christian, conservative, right-wing opinions, and pointed out “I also have personal experience of that.”

    She wrote that “the Ministry of Justice contributes to the EU regulation of global tech companies with the work of the Digital Freedom Committee.”

    “Due to the systematic abuses, however, we may need to step up sooner. That is why I convened an extraordinary meeting of the Digital Freedom Committee. and this week I will also consult with the President of the Hungarian Competition Authority on the possibility of sanctioning unfair commercial practices,” Varga wrote.

    Last week, Polish Justice Minister Zbingiew Ziobro announced that his country will draft a “freedom of speech protection” bill, also establishing a freedom of speech council which would have the authority to order social media platforms to restore deleted content or unblock a user’s account.

    Speaking to German financial newspaper Handelsblatt, European Commissioner for Values and Transparency Vera Jourová said recently that a “moment of truth” regarding the true power of digital conglomerates arrived when Twitter and Facebook suspended President Donald Trump’s accounts in the wake of the Capitol protests, saying that “their power exceeds even that of the U.S. President.”  

    Social media censorship is not only of grave concern to conservatives, but free speech activists and even a small minority of those on the left are raising concerns that Big Tech monopolies wield so much power. Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Glenn Greenwald has pointed to the coordinated takedown of social media free-speech competitor Parler as a chilling abuse of power. The fact that Apple and Google removed the Parler app from both their app stores and Amazon Web Services cut Parler’s hosting represent a coordinated attack from monopolistic entities in an action that has broad implications for the future of freedom of expression the web, argues Greenwald. 

    Title image: Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga. (source: Facebook)

  • Hungary reportedly defying EU court ruling, continues to deport migrants to Serbia

    Despite a European Court of Justice ruling, Hungary continues to deport migrants to Serbia, SCEPTR reports.

    According to the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, Hungary continues to expel people. Hungary has warned in the past that despite the top EU court’s ruling, it would continue to defend its borders. 

    “The Fidesz-KDNP parliamentary majority and the government will do everything in its power to maintain the [border] fence, live military and police patrols and keep the transit zones operational,” said Hungarian State Secretary of the Defense Ministry Szilárd Németh in May of last year. 

    Pro-migrant groups are signalling their outrage that Hungary continues to stop illegal migration flows despite Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán being elected on platform that emphasized strong border security and strict immigration controls. 

    “The fact that the Hungarian border police are still deporting people a month after the ruling of the European Court of Justice is a clear violation of the law. It is scandalous that this continues,” says Andras Lederer of the non-profit organization.

    More than 3,000 migrants have not been allowed to apply for asylum in Hungary and have been deported to Serbia, writes Het Laatste Nieuws.

    On Dec. 17, the European Court of Justice wrote that due to its strict policy concerning migrants who try to enter the European Union without valid documents, Hungary renounces its European obligations.

    Among other things, the court criticized Hungary’s policy on granting international protection and the return of migrants.

    For example, the judges in Luxembourg consider the Hungarian return policy to be contrary to EU law. Hungarian police officers transferring migrants across borders is, thus, viewed as unlawful, with Hungary violating the EU return policy.

  • The EU rewards communist China with massive trade deal while lecturing Hungary and Poland on liberal values and democracy

    Let’s do a thought experiment.

    First, let’s imagine Hungary decided to imprison its Muslim population in labor camps, systematically destroy every mosque in Hungary, and implement reeducation programs to erase Islam as a religion. While we’re at it, let’s also pretend Viktor Orbán officially installed himself as “prime minister for life” and abolished democratic elections.

    We all know what would happen. At the very least, Hungary would be expelled from the EU, world headlines would blare about a new form of Nazism stalking Europe, and mass protests would break out in European cities calling for Orbán’s head. On the web, Twitter would be abuzz with hashtags — some perhaps even threatening violence against Hungarians — but nevertheless these threats of violence would probably be allowed to still trend.

    The nations of the EU, including German politicians of all stripes, would not only roundly condemn Hungary, but may even send “peacekeeping forces” to topple the Hungarian government if it continued on its path.

    Liberal Europe would not tolerate such behavior.

    In case you don’t see where this thought experiment is going, China is actually — in real life — imprisoning one million Uighur Muslims, destroying their mosques by the thousands, and “reeducating” them into compliant communist citizens inside prison camps, thus erasing their culture and even their will to resist.

    This is not conspiracy theory, the liberal media gatekeepers such as the Guardian and the BBC, which are the type of publications that nearly all the liberal MEPs in Brussels read, have confirmed all of this. In fact, satellite imagery confirms that a minimum of 8,500 mosques have been destroyed as of 2020 in Xinjiang province and another 7,000 damaged.

    That is not a typo. Literally 8,500 mosques have been erased and many more damaged. On top of all of this, the Associated Press has also reported on programs to sterilize Muslims and use abortions to reduce their population.

    Yet, there will be no peacekeeping force from Europe to “liberate” these Muslims let alone sanctions placed on China for its actions.

    Instead, the EU just rewarded China with a historic trade deal — a trade deal which will only strengthen the already virtually omnipotent communist Chinese leadership. That is the same leadership that installed Xi Jinping as “president for life” after removing term limits, the same crime that the EU would most likely expel Orbán from the EU for.

    What can the EU’s trade deal tell us about relations with Hungary and Poland?

    Last year marked a major turning point in the EU’s campaign against Hungary and Poland. The European Parliament and the German president of the European Council pushed for rule-of-law sanctions against the two Central-Eastern European countries, claiming that they are not following democratic norms as well as abusing human rights with their anti-migration policies.

    Germany and France, which both played major role in the push for a sanctions mechanism that was clearly directed at Hungary and Poland, also happened to be the primary driving forces behind the trade deal with China. Angela Merkel reportedly scored numerous favorable clauses for German industry, including a coveted mobile phone license for Deutsche Telekom, a first for a foreign phone company, which helped seal her unequivocal support.

    Why the double-standard?

    It is worth reiterating: If Hungary imprisoned Muslims by the tens of thousands in forced labor camps to build cheap electronics and then bulldozed mosques en masse, it would probably mean war, and most certainly would not mean a triumphant Orban touting a supercharged new trade deal.

    So, why the double-standard? Why does the EU take the cudgel to Hungary and Poland, two countries with real democracies, and treat communist China like a country that isn’t actively participating in ethnic cleansing?

    For one, despite all the window-dressing about human rights and democracy the EU likes to preach about, power matters. Germany’s export economy, along with many other European nations, are highly reliant on China. China knows this and acts accordingly. Hungary and Poland, on the other hand, are still weak from decades of Soviet-style communism — at least in comparison to China — and this weakness has left them vulnerable to political attacks.

    Second, countries like Germany — and to a lesser extent France — have created a powerful image of themselves as defenders of human rights, liberty and democracy. Merkel has tremendously high approval ratings in her own country and abroad and is generally seen as the most powerful politician in Europe. That gives Germany cover to pursue contradictory policies, including trade deals that benefit autocrats, especially if there is little reason if it will turn public opinion negative.

    Third, there are powerful actors in Europe who favor countries that support issues like LGBT rights, abortion, and perhaps most importantly, mass migration. These powerful groups, including NGOs supported by George Soros, left-wing politicians, and their allies in the media, are willing to overlook a whole host of other policies as long as certain criteria is met. If Merkel was against open borders, it is fair to say that her push for the China trade deal would almost certainly have received far more negative press, as that policy alone is enough to turn much of the media against a country’s leader.

    Another part of the problem is that Chinese repression of the Muslim Uighurs raises a vexing problem for the White liberals and leftists that make up most of Europe’s ruling elite and its educated professional class. It represents a conflict in which one race is oppressing another race, but neither which is White. This creates a level of uncomfortable cognitive dissonance for White MEPs, NGO workers, and authorities in the Commission and Council in Brussels. This set of people buys more and more every year into the increasingly fashionable ideas that have gripped the West — White privilege, White fragility, White colonialism, systemic racism, and so on.

    The conflict in China does not adhere to the aforementioned fashionable ideas or the neat boxes that liberals would like to define the world in. The conflict between the Han Chinese and the Uighurs is colonialism, but not European colonialism, it is about ethnic power, but not White power, it is about supremacism, but not White supremacism. If one were to really ponder the implications of this type of Asian colonialism, it could even open the door into rethinking Europe’s entire colonial past, another fashionable topic for the educated liberal set in Europe.

    That is why the hatred for Orbán will forever exceed that of China’s Xi for this liberal and leftist elite and their followers on Twitter.

    We also do not have to render a judgment on Xi to say he is an unelected autocrat who has implemented a massive surveillance state, crushed democratic protests in Hong Kong, and is set on erasing minorities that represent a threat to communist rule. Those are just facts.

    Will this change anything?

    Despite the media devoting some coverage to the Uighur issue, there is no fundamental visceral liberal outrage over the issue. Most liberals, including European ones, much preferred devoting their outrage to Donald Trump over the last four years and there is little reason they could muster the same ire and hatred for a truly authoritarian government in China. In fact, much of the business, political and even military elite of the West still call for maintaining close ties with China, with some growing exceptions in the United States and minor politicians in countries like the Czech Republic.

    Within the public, most Europeans are probably unaware that Uighurs are facing mass imprisonment in China or even know what Uighurs are.

    Unfortunately for the Uighurs, they have the wrong group of people persecuting them. If they want to reach the public consciousness, I have some public relations advice for them: simply start claiming that it is not truly China behind the repression, but in fact, Orbán and Poland’s Kaczyński, working hand in hand in a secret deal with China over a “shared hatred for Muslims”. That is a storyline that might catch the attention of powerful officials in both Germany and the European Commission along with the blue checks on Twitter. If the Uighurs can convince the world that it is really Orbán as the mastermind imprisoning them, sterilizing them, and destroying their places of worship, then countries like Germany start growing concerned about “rule of law” in countries like China as well.

    The reality is that if the media was “fair and balanced”, then Germany, France, and other EU powers would be made to look ridiculous choosing money over values in the case of China only to launch an all out attack on Hungary and Poland over so-called illiberal practices.

    So, the next time you hear NGOs attacking Hungary’s stance on migration or hear politicians from Angela Merkel’s CDU harping on about rule of law in Hungary, someone should point them to the EU’s trade deal with China.

    Ask them why, instead of propping up China’s massive economy, the EU isn’t slapping China with sanctions?

    They will deflect, they will say, “Stop changing the subject”, but they will know that the real answer is that China has power and Hungary has very little of it.

    Those facts, as crystal clear as they are, will not make liberals or leftists even question for a second why they hate Orban more than Xi. Many of them, while vaguely aware of these facts, simply cannot wrap their head around feeling a visceral hatred for Xi,.

    It would also not be politically expedient.

    Those same NGOs and politicians do not lose any sleep about what is happening to the Uighurs. In fact, they don’t even think about them. They are persona non grata worth of nothing more than a toothless press release a few times a year while exports and imports continue to flow between China and Europe.

    But the Uighurs’s tragic fate, all the way on the other side of the world, should serve as a valuable lesson to those critical of those who try to occupy the moral high ground in the halls of power in Brussels.

    They are just as phony as you suspect they are.

  • European Commission’s slap in the face for Europe’s indigenous minorities

    In another sign of disregard for Europe’s indigenous minorities, the European Commission has rejected the recommendations of the Minority Safepack initiative (MSPI), that was designed to safeguard the rights of people who are indigenous to Europe, but for historic reasons are members of linguistic, national or religious minorities in their own countries. The initiative was started by the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) that has more than 100 member organizations in 35 European countries, and is the largest European umbrella organization of autochthonous, national minorities in Europe.

    The main impetus for the initiative had originated in long-standing grievances of some ethnic groups living within European Union member states, as well as EU candidate countries. The worsening situation of some of these national minorities means that they are today facing targeted discrimination and in some cases, threats and acts of violence.

    As the MSPI proposal states “despite the fact that, of all international bodies, the European Union has by far the biggest influence on the daily life of European citizens…, a consistent minority protection policy at EU-level is still lacking… While the respect for the rights of national minorities is a part of the set of political criteria an accession-candidate must fulfill at the time of accession, no such criteria apply for states that are already members of the EU. This results in a situation of double standards.”

    Although the initiative has gathered 1,123,422 validated signatures of support, the European Commission flatly rejected any changes to its currently valid legal protection of native minorities. In a statement Vera Jourová, the vice president of the European Commission, had showered words of praise at the initiative, yet the Commission’s conclusion is that “no further legal acts are proposed”.

    Over 10 percent of Europe’s population belongs to a national or linguistic minority, thus over 50 million people could have benefited from the new protective measures proposed by the Minority Safepack initiative. It is no secret that the Hungarian government was particularly active in promoting the initiative in view of the worsening situation of Hungarian minorities especially in Romania and Ukraine, where they face institutional discrimination resulting in financial penalties, ban on using their language in public, and in some cases violence and arson.

    FUEN had reacted in a press release stating that “the EC had rejected the petition of those for whom the preservation of European linguistic and cultural heritage is not merely a slogan but an everyday challenge. The shoulder-tap reply from the EC is not enough, the 1,123,422 citizens who have signed the initiative expect deeds…”

    According to FUEN, the European Commission’s decision discredits the institution of European civic initiatives, as this is the fifth time that it has failed to accept the recommendations of a successful civic initiative. Instead of drawing closer to its citizens, it ignores initiatives coming from its rank, which is a sign of the EU’s democratic deficit. The European Commission also ignores the European Parliament’s call for a change in legislation that has been accepted by a three quarters majority, stated the press release.

    Former Hungarian MP and the special envoy to the Hungarian Prime Minister, Katalin Szili, had reacted to the statement by saying that the European Commission had shown its true colors by rejecting the Minority Safepack. She had pointed out that the Commission’s decision refers to generic rules protecting gender, Romani or LGBTQ rights, rules that are too flexible and are thus difficult to enforce, while they are entirely inadequate for the protection of indigenous minorities. The Minority Safepack initiative was meant to remedy precisely this deficit, said Szili.

    Lóránt Vincze, MEP for the Romanian-Hungarian Democratic Union, had also stated that the “EC had turned its back to Europe’s autochthonous minorities, among them the Trans-Carpathian Hungarian community… Sadly it was not elected officials who have made the final decision in our cause but Brusselite Euro bureaucrats, who have in fact put obstacle after obstacle in our way right from the outset,” said the MEP.

    Balázs Hidvégi, MEP at the European Parliament for the Hungarian Fidesz Party, had stated that “when it comes to the rights of other minorities such as migrants or those that are only a minuscule part of European societies, Commissioner Vera Jourová is the loudest protector of minorities and constantly lectures member states as well as other MEPs. However, when it comes to such a significant question that affects over 50 million people, and when she should make a decision with regards to an initiative signed by over 1.1 million people, she simply says ‘no’.”

  • Orbán and Macron are the new European axis

    Despite all appearances to the contrary, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and French President Emmanuel Macron share many views and policies, Swedish economist and author Fredrik Erixon writes in The Spectator in an opinion piece entitled “Orbán and Macron, Europe’s new power couple”.

    Erixon writes that in a Europe characterized by the waning power of Merkel — and consequently that of Germany — that Macron has, in Orbán, found himself an ally “who is far more influential than people give him credit for”.

    “Macron and Orban aren’t political twins. But Macron, perhaps sensing which way the wind is blowing, has come a long way since 2017, when he was saluted as the antidote to the nationalism of Brexit and Donald Trump,” Erixon writes. “Just as Orbán and his Fidesz party turned their backs on their founding liberalism and identity of youthful revolt, there isn’t much liberalism left in Macron.”

    He goes on to say that both leaders “have a monastic attitude to power”, meaning that neither is accepting restrictions on their powers and both believe that there is “a single orthodoxy that everyone must observe”.

    While Orbán is a devout Christian as opposed to the deeply rooted secularism of Macron, their actions against Islam are not that different, despite their individual rhetoric. Despite Erixon’s claims, there is some skepticism about the extent of Macron’s true feelings on immigration and Islam. Some critics see his lurch to the right as a sign he is trying to stem the electoral threat from his right from Marine Le Pen rather than a true shift in his core beliefs.

    “Macron too is uneasy with Islam and has set out a route to make Muslim practice a matter for state regulation,” Erixon writes. “He has asked Muslim leaders to agree to a ‘charter of republican values’ as part of a broad clampdown on radical Islam.”

    Furthermore, the two leaders’ economic policies are also growing closer as both Paris and Budapest have a “desire to relax stringent rules on competition and state aid”.

    But even more importantly, despite their remaining differences, as Erixon puts it, “Macron and Orbán aren’t political twins” but “in Brussels they often end up on the same side”.

    He concludes his article with the opinion that Orbán and Macron have gained a lot from the Brexit talks, given that they both want to weaken European rules on trade and competition.

    “Europe’s new power couple will make it difficult for Britain to build renewed links with Brussels,” Erixon opines. “With Britain out, nationalist economic policy — each European nation for itself — is reasserting itself.”

    Title image: French President Emmanuel Macron (R) welcomes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (L) prior to their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Friday, Oct. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

  • Hungary drops income tax for citizens under 25 to stop youth emigration

    Taking a leaf from its Polish allies’ economic policy, Hungary’s ruling conservatives plan to exempt under-25s from paying income tax, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Friday.

    “We have decided on this tax reduction because it will strengthen cooperation between people, while the tax increases preferred by the left is choking [economic] performance,” Orbán said Friday morning in his regular weekly interview on national station Kossuth Rádió.

    Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) introduced income tax exemption for under-26 employees earning less than 85,528 zlotys on Aug. 1, 2019.

    Analyzing the economic and social impact of the measure, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said on Sunday on news television HírTV’s Bayer Show that the main motivator was demographic.

    “The most important issue for the country is still demography, encouraging, helping and supporting childbearing,” Varga said. “As a result, we have long been looking at the question of how to give as much support as possible to the younger generation, whether for a job, for studying, home-building or employment, as much depends fundamentally on how many children will be born in this country in a year.”

    “After a thorough analysis, we believe that we have an opportunity to give [them] a tax break similar to the full income tax exemption of mothers with four or more children,” Varga said. Commenting on the opposition’s criticism of the planned measure, he added that the tax exemption — limited to the average income in Hungary — is a decision that will impact the lives of some 280,000.

    “When the left-wing media raises its voice in the name of groups of a few dozen people, I am quite surprised that they would dismiss several hundred thousand people with a wave of the hand,” Varga said. “This is a very important generation, and they are in the life stage when such a support could be quite welcome.”

    He said that while the measure is expected to cost the budget about HUF 100 billion (€277 million) in lost tax revenue, the social impact is a much more pertinent consideration.

    “I say again, tax revenue is a small aspect of this, an important aspect of course, but only a small aspect, since the long-term goal is for a young person to feel connected to their own country, find their place here, in this economy, and hopefully have children.”

    Title image: Hungarian Finance Minister Mihály Varga (L) on the Bayer Show on January 17, 2021. (source: Facebook)


     

  • The Hungarian shadow coalition of nothing much – commentary

    While Hungary’s opposition parties have formed a common platform against the ruling conservatives, their agenda mostly consists of empty phrases, publicist István Krómer writes in daily Magyar Nemzet.

    The many beautiful commonplaces and cheap promises (social peace, free press, science, education and art, environmentally conscious society, free and high-quality healthcare, education, social care and culture, fair public burdens, Hungarian wages equal to Western Europe’s, European and patriotic government), proclaimed by the opposition parties as the principles of a hopeful joint government, either have nothing to say about the important problems facing Hungarian society, or their ideas extinguish each other, so they could not have come up with them together. The most telling, however, is perhaps what they have been silent on.

    [Far-right] Jobbik, whose history may have predestined it to do so, was not allowed to talk about the declining population threatening the future of the nation or the future of Hungarians living across the border, or perhaps these are no longer priorities for the party; the others are (at best) not even interested in such matters.

    Instead, Jobbik speaks about social peace, which can even be seen as a kind of penance, since they were the ones who have recently done perhaps the most in inciting hatred against certain social groups. Tímea Szabó [Dialogue for Hungary], did not get a chance to come up with her party’s trump card, universal basic income; instead, she was tasked with promising all the good things regarding public services, the financing of which would be shaken by the very introduction of a basic income.

    The pipe dream of Hungarian wages catching up with Europe — previously a theme of Jobbik — was given to [Socialist co-chair] Ágnes Kunhalmi, and in addition to curbing tax increases, she mentioned fair economic competition (whatever that means). The most original (or perhaps the bravest) was Erzsébet Schmuck [the green LMP party], who not only represented the main strategic goal of LMP, the issue of sustainability, but also tackled the sensitive issue of immigration, specifically promising action against illegal migration and human trafficking. (True, no one else would believe this. Anyway, could Elizabeth Schmuck become interior minister?)

    As for the liberal side of the Rainbow Coalition, Momentum and DK said pretty much nothing. Freedom and Europe — empty, blank ideological phrases. These smaller parties prone to leftist propaganda have been allowed to make general promises — something like this is inevitable and even useful in a campaign. However, they themselves have been steadfastly silent on any economic or social issue, while, if they maybe get there, three decades of experience tells us there is a good chance they will try to control these areas (too).

    There wasn’t even a hint of their economic strategy. Our fellow citizens, who are trying to honestly explore public alternatives, can gaze into the vague obscurity of what the anti-government opposition thinks about business incentives, strengthening the internal market, the role of the middle class, housing policy, managing foreign productive and speculative capital, employment policy, work issues, rural development, the Carpathian Basin economic space, public finances, and so on.

    They did not even bother to suggest, or even faintly hint to at least a slightly different direction than previous left-liberal governments that were a disaster. Thus, any thinking citizen may have reason to believe that he should expect the same old performance on the new stage now being erected.

    [Note: Hungary will next hold general elections in the spring of 2022.]

    Title image: Socialist MP and party co-chair Ágnes Kunhalmi in Parliament. (MTI/Lajos Soós)

  • Hungarian foreign minister blames EU for slow vaccination progress

    Coronavirus restrictions cannot be lifted in Hungary due to the European Commission’s “scandalously” slow procurement of vaccines, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said at a press conference in Budapest on another topic on Thursday.

    Szijjártó said that the problems of last year had not disappeared this year either, and even at the beginning of the year — contrary to expectations — the “euphoria” fell short.

    “Everyone expected, based on the belief in Brussels, that vaccination will be launched at a tremendous rate in the European Union at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, which will then be able to lift existing restrictive measures and restrictions in European countries,” he said.

    Szijjártó added, however, that all this was lagging behind because of the European Commission, while vaccination is taking place at “stormy speeds” across the EU, in the United States, Britain and Israel.

    According  Szijjártó, the vaccine from the EU-supported vaccine development is the slowest to reach the EU.

    “This has simply created a scandalous situation, especially as the European Commission has for many months been attacking countries like us that wanted to buy vaccines from other sources,” he said. According to him, it was the right step to start negotiations in the East as well, as it is rumored that large Western European countries or companies are negotiating with the Russians on “some kind” of vaccine development or production.

    According to the latest data, Hungary has so far vaccinated 97,000 people, almost exactly one percent of the population. In contrast Israel, which leads the vaccination rate in the world, has already inoculated two million people or 22 percent of its population.

    Meanwhile, the Hungarian government passed a resolution putting the foreign ministry in charge of vaccine procurement.

    Title image: Pfizer vaccine being used at the St George Hospital in Székesfehérvár, central Hungary on January 6. (MTI/Tamás Vasvári)

  • Fitch: Hungarian economy will boom in 2021-22

    The European Union’s recovery fund is expected to significantly accelerate the recovery of EU economies in Central and Eastern Europe from the shock caused by the coronavirus epidemic, especially next year, according to a study presented by Fitch Ratings in London on Wednesday. According to the forecast of the international credit rating agency, in 2022 Hungary’s gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by almost 7 percent – at the fastest rate within the group of countries.

    Fitch analysts point out that each of the 11 EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe will be a net recipient of free benefits from the €750 billion recovery fund announced as Next Generation EU, and that these economies will also receive new low-cost loans under the program.

    According to a study by Fitch ratings, the EU recovery program is already having a positive impact on EU economies in Central and Eastern Europe this year through concentrated use at the beginning of the period, but the additional growth momentum from the EU fund is expected to become even more significant in 2022.

    Based on this, Fitch’s model calculations show that the average economic growth rate weighted by the real value of the gross domestic product will be 3.8 percent in 2021 and 5.5 percent next year for the region as a whole.

    Credit rating analysts stress that their forecast for a strong recovery in the region this year is still largely based on the base effects of last year’s sharp decline caused by the coronavirus epidemic and their assumption that progress towards resolving the health crisis will improve growth in the second half of 2021.

    According to the credit rating chart, Croatia will be the largest beneficiary of the EU recovery program in terms of GDP.

    Fitch estimates that free benefits from the Next Generation EU fund will reach 11.03 percent of Croatia’s GDP generated in 2019. Croatia can also obtain cheap loans equivalent to 6.8 percent of 2019 gross domestic product through the EU program.

    In the case of Hungary, according to the calculations of Fitch ratings’ London analysts, the benefits of the recovery fund will reach 4.35 percent of GDP, and loans made available on preferential terms will be equivalent to 6.8 percent of Hungary’s gross domestic product.

    All in all, the credit rating company expects that the Hungarian economy will grow by 4.9 percent this year and by 6.9 percent in 2022, after a probable 6.2 percent decline by 2020.

    This also means that Fitch expects the fastest annual growth rate in the Hungarian economy in the region next year.

    The forecast assumes growth rates of 4.4 percent in the Czech Republic this year, 5.7 percent next year, 3.3 percent and 5.1 percent in Poland, respectively.

    Other large London houses have also made optimistic forecasts about the prospects for the recovery of the Hungarian economy.

    The Morgan Stanley Global Financial Services Group’s London Investment Division’s annual study for 2021 also writes that it is likely that the Hungarian economy may outperform the Central and Eastern European region, as its structure is more open than other economies in the region, and this feature offers the opportunity for a strong rebound this year and next.

    Based on this, Morgan Stanley’s London analysts expect GDP growth in the Hungarian economy to be 3.9 percent this year and 6 percent in 2022, after a 6.8 percent decline by 2020.

    Title image: Suzuki factory in Esztergom, northern Hungary.

  • Digital imperialism is upon us

    Following a wave of bans by the leading social media sites, Magyar Nemzet columnist Loretta Tóth takes a look at the birth of “digital imperialism”.

    Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells recognized in the early 2000s that network communication is the most important power in the world. He argued that power always derives from what people think and talk about, and nowadays this discourse takes place — not exclusively — but almost entirely on social networking platforms.

    He posits that whoever gains control over these networks will inevitably have power, and it follows directly from this that political and economic actors in the international relations system are now fighting for this network power, as only those who dominate the creation of meaning and reality can win on the front lines. With this power, they can effectively destroy the enemy’s possibility to counter narratives, especially once those narratives become overwhelmingly dominant.

    While Facebook and Twitter have conquered the world over the past nearly two decades, all while promising to expand freedom of expression, it was made clear last week that while all users are equal in the fight for networking capability, some users are more equal than others. And the final suspension of Donald Trump’s profile also highlights the futility of the power seen on these networks when it is all tied to an enemy-controlled platform.

    The president had 88.7 million followers on Twitter, while President-elect Joe Biden is currently followed by 23.7 million users.

    But that doesn’t mean anything because the owners of privately-owned Silicon Valley technology giants determine what actual opportunities we have to have a say in the space they control. And now they have also demonstrated that even the democratically elected — and still in office — president of the world’s leading power can be silenced in the blink of an eye if their interests so desire. But now they wanted it because the leaders of these tech companies, much like the Hollywood stars who also play a significant role in shaping opinions, are almost all the Democratic Party’s cronies, having proven their loyalties many times over.

    Just think of the self-evident natural ease in which these companies prevented the spread of news about Hunter Biden and his connection to corruption cases in Ukraine, published last year by the New York Post in the weeks leading up to the presidential election, which was both compromising and extremely unpleasant for the Biden family.

    The situation is different now, they say, as last week’s “Trump adherents” besieged the Capitol building, a symbol of American liberal democracy, and “there was a danger that the president would incite further violence”. It was an assumption that served as an excellent pretext to permanently deprive the president of the right to network and express his opinion and the associated power that comes with that. 

    They can do it, and no one can hold them accountable, as under current laws they have every right to shape the rules of the game as they see fit within their network, even if they openly do so for the benefit of those who fall under the “more equal” category. At the very least, this is evidenced by the fact that Kamala Harris was still able to rejoice all last summer as a vice-presidential candidate over Black Lives Matter even as the mob rampaged through cities, burning, looting, and even murdering innocents. Tens of thousands of American businesses were destroyed, but the power of these networks allowed Black Lives Matter to flourish despite its prominent role in the destruction. 

    The fact that Hillary Clinton questioned Trump’s election victory on social media for a long time after the 2016 presidential election was also amplified and actively promoted. 

    The leaders of digital imperialism have now made it clear that they will decide what is democratic and what is not – and this will also be an important lesson for Hungary, which is preparing for the parliamentary elections in 2022.

  • 100-year-old Hungarian Olympic champion receives congratulations from two prime ministers

    The prime ministers of both her native Hungary and her chosen second homeland, Israel, congratulated the world’s oldest living Olympic champion, Ágnes Keleti, on her 100th birthday, news and opinion portal Mandiner reports.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined the 63rd Athlete of the Year Awards ceremony via video link and Keleti was also congratulated by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Romanian gymnast legend Nadia Comăneci Conner, and U.S. Olympic champion Mark Spitz.

    Keleti, born Ágnes Klein in Budapest on Jan. 9, 1921, to a Jewish family, began training as a gymnast at the age of four and at age 16 became Hungarian National Champion. The intervening World War II led both the 1940 and 1944 games to be cancelled, thus preventing her from competing at the highest level in her prime.

    While Keleti found refuge in Hungary during the Holocaust, her father and other relatives died in Auschwitz, and her husband, István Sárkány, barely survived. Her first post-war chance came in 1948, when she qualified for the London games, but eventually missed it due to a torn ligament.

    Not one to give up, she continued training and reached the top at the 1952 Helsinki games, with one gold, one silver and two bronze medals at the age of 31 when most female gymnasts are long retired.

    But she exceeded that performance at the next Olympic Games in Melbourne, coming home with four gold and two silver medals. After the Melbourne Olympics she emigrated to Israel and returned to Hungary in 2015.

    She is the Israeli citizen with the most gold medals and is second on the list of Jewish Olympic Champions behind Mark Spitz.  

    Title image: Ágnes Keleti with her Olympic medals. (Index/Ferenc Isza)

     

  • Hungarian justice minister joins Angela Merkel in condemning Twitter’s ban of Donald Trump

    Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga shares German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s assessment that Donald Trump’s Twitter ban is “problematic”, she wrote in a Facebook post. “I fully share Chancellor Merkel’s view according to which she is concerned about Twitter locking Donald Trump’s user account,” Varga wrote . “It is not my duty to comment on other state’s internal policy, but sometimes it can’t be slipped over.”

    Deutsche Welle reported that when asked about Merkel’s position regarding the ban, her spokesman, Steffen Seiber said the ban was “problematic”. “The right to freedom of opinion is of fundamental importance,” Merkel’s spokesman said. “Given that, the chancellor considers it problematic that the president’s accounts have been permanently suspended.” In her Facebook post , Varga wrote about “digital imperialism”. “In the last few days, private censorship has reached a new level and has struck in an unprecedented way. In digital imperialism, it no longer matters whether one is an average user or the democratically elected president of the world’s leading power, since it has become clear that both can be silenced at the touch of a single button,” Varga wrote. “We have reached the point where virtual interfaces and communication channels, often built with tremendous work and financial investment, can be destroyed arbitrarily without any responsibility. All of this highlights how vulnerable we really are to global control of liberal social media.

    ” While opinion polls shows that the majority of Germans agree with Trump’s ban, some politicians, such as Social Democrat (SPD) MP Jens Zimmermann, have a more nuanced opinion. “We are talking about the head of state of a democratic country. Obviously, Donald Trump wasn’t very popular in Germany. But nevertheless, this could happen to somebody else who won an election,” Zimmermann said. Title image: Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga. (source: Facebook)

  • Hungary’s economy will play key role in 2022 elections

    The country’s economic performance will be the key issue at the 2022 general elections in Hungary, financial journalist Csaba Szajlai writes in a column in daily Magyar Nemzet. While the Hungarian government and the treasury have faced an unprecedented situation — a pandemic during an economic crisis — the “leaderless opposition” and the associated expert camp are demanding a more active fiscal policy to avoid a downturn.

    Decision-makers could counter that the state is not capable of everything, nor does it have enough financial leeway to compensate for lost production. In addition, we live in a market economy, where the market is omnipotent. At the same time, many may be confused by this communication, that is, the one which calls for greater state intervention. On the other hand, the truth is that the key factor in the 2022 parliamentary elections will be the state of the economy, and more specifically, whether there will be growth after normalization. We are looking at these aspects now. Those wishing for even stronger “central stimulus” are likely to forget that the country’s budget had a general government deficit of less than 2 percent in early 2021, when in fact it could have been around 9 percent last year. The reason for this is that unprecedented budget money has started to make the downturn smaller, and the sectors hitting the floor are tiding the hard months with non-refundable subsidies, soft loans and guarantee programs.

    Behind the run-off of the deficit is the fact that production has stopped, but public spending has increased. While the gap in the budget needs to be filled, the administration needs to be funded, pensions need to be paid and major investments could not be stopped. In addition to “Kurzarbeit”, the German policy term for reduced working hours supplemented with additional income, they also had to sacrifice job retention benefits. In addition, the financing of rising health care costs due to the coronavirus epidemic has also taken its toll on the budget. It was necessary, on the one hand, to purchase government securities from the central bank and, on the other hand, to involve external sources by issuing foreign currency bonds. Since Hungary is a good debtor, we have no problems in the international financial market either. So much so that we have to pay an unprecedented low yield on our foreign currency bond issued last year. More specifically, Hungary received external sources below half the market price. Those sounding emergency alarms can only be answered with a question: What else could the government have done? There are certain risk factors for fiscal policy. The government has gone as far as it could and sooner or later it will be necessary to bring the deficit and debt back to normal levels based on EU values.

    But let’s see what to expect in 2021! Recovery will be certain, although it may not be the quick rebound we hoped for last year, but a more gradual one. However, it is important to emphasize the risks. The forecast for 2021 is perhaps surrounded by greater uncertainty than ever before. It is not yet clear whether the pandemic will end — and if so, how it will end — nor how long the restrictions will hold back a return to normal. Meanwhile, sectors that performed poorly in 2020 — tourism, the auto industry, domestic consumption — must also be returned to competitive position. A big question is also how much permanent damage has been caused last year, and in particular, how many companies have gone out of business and in which sectors the demand for products or services will be permanently lower, or possibly higher. Market, research, and government expectations for economic growth are not far apart. For the most part, everyone is counting on 3 to 4 percent expansion. This also means that the Hungarian economy will not reach its 2019 performance level in 2021, but there is a chance that it will do so in 2022. The good news is that investment, exports and consumption are also projected to grow this year.

    Yet, there is encouragement and restraint in the macroeconomic forecast as well. But how does the average man feel about this? Above all, items in the average level of consumption — retail, fuel purchases, small business services, possible restaurant spending and holidays — may increase compared to last year, which could have a beneficial effect on GDP. In the case of the latter, the decline in the past year was caused by restrictions and changing household habits, and the decline in purchasing power may have played a smaller role, as unemployment did not increase drastically. And, perhaps most importantly, overall, there was a decline in investment last year, partly due to a lack of resources and partly due to the more uncertain economic situation.

    This year, however, investment can be expected to increase if the economic situation improves and the use of EU funds progresses well. The bad news for the critics of the government’s economic policy is that there will be growth this year. True, this growth will require real work. If, on the other hand, the election will hinge on this issue, one should not be afraid despite the many risks that arise. You just have to go back to the basics for economic growth.

  • Obama claims there is ‘strongman leadership’ in Hungary

    Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó refuted former U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent qualification of Hungary as having a “strongman leadership”. “One should not forget that in Hungary the position of prime minister is not won by lottery, but after having had won an election, meaning that people voted for him,” Szijjártó told commercial television channel RTL Klub, a subsidiary of the German RTL Group.

    In an interview with Daily Show host Trevor Noah, Obama said recently, “That conflict, that battle between a more democratic inclusive vision, and one that’s top-down, dominant-subordinate, that’s a contest that’s taking place here in the United States, and around the world,” adding that “it’s not going to be finished just because the election is over and Donald Trump was defeated because you see examples of this in the Philippines and Hungary, in a variety of countries, in Africa and Asia, and so that contest is going to continue.”

    Obama’s words echo Biden’s, who said during his presidential campaign against Trump that Poland and Hungary are ” totalitarian regimes “. The United States, which is a two-party system, is increasingly hurtling towards a one-party system dominated by Democrats due to rapid demographic change , a trend that has already been in place for some time in states like California . Democrats are now threatening to pack the courts, abolish the electoral college, and add entire states to the union , which will help them secure permanent majorities in the senate and ensure Republicans will have virtually no option to win a national election again. Such moves would dramatically shift the country towards autocratic rule — not through one man or woman — but through one party backed by a tech and financial oligarchy .

    Regarding Obama’s remarks, Hungary’s foreign minister points out that Hungarian people have spoken in a competitive and fair election. “This kind of qualification is also qualifying Hungarian leaders and the choice of the Hungarian people,” Szijjártó said. “It would be good, and we could talk about better conditions and relations in global politics if we would allow each country to decide its future from a position of respect.” During most of eight years of the Obama-administration (2009-2017) Hungary had a conservative government after now Prime Minister Viktor Orbán won the elections with a two-thirds majority in 2010. Due to the U.S. approach, that period brought a substantial cooling of bilateral relations, a trend only reversed when Donald Trump came to power. Title image: Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó speaking to commercial televiosn RTL Klub.

  • Hungarian archeologists unearth largest ever coin cache

    At the end of December last year, Hungarian archeologists unearthed the country’s largest ever cache of late Roman to medieval coins near the village of Újlengyel in central Hungary, experts of the Ferenczy Museum announced. An extended search began after in 2019, the same location produced a cache of 150 medieval coins, prompting the archeologists to extend their search. During the December archeological exploration they searched for additional coins with a metal detector and found the treasure on a nearby hill, a little further from the original site.

    The experts followed the trail of money and opened a 1×1-meter shaft from which a vessel was unearthed, the belly of which was torn out by a plow at some point, which scattered the coins. It is seldom observed in such detail how deep plowing destroys artifacts hidden in the ground. In the case of the treasure, the plow point broke the pot containing the coins in half and pulled them in a certain direction, so that the trace of the money lying in piles could be followed. The shattered pot could not be kept in one piece, so the coins in it were picked up on the spot.

    The team led by archeologist Balázs Nagy said that the ensemble consisted of nearly 7,000 pieces of silver coins and 4 gold coins: the earliest mintage was a silver denarius of Lucius Verus (161–169), a dozen denarii of Aquileia, while the bulk of the coins was from the rules of King Matthias I (1458–1490), Ulászló II (1490–1516) and Louis II (1516-1526) While the majority of the coins are fairly common for their respective periods, a very rare Vatican denarius issued by Pope Pius (1458–1464) was also found

    The archeological team said that the total value of the find would have amounted to about 74 gold forints at the time, the price of seven horses or a luxury car today. Based on the latest issued coins, archeologists say that the treasure could have been hidden by locals from the advancing troops of the Ottoman Empire. In 1526, the Turkish army, led by Pasha Ibrahim in 1526, moved from Buda to Szeged. Treasures of this magnitude related to the Turkish destruction following the battle of Mohács on August 29, 1526 — which marked the occupation of Hungary until 1718 — are rare in Hungary. Title image: Coin cache found in Újlengyel, central Hungary. (source: Ferenczy Museum)

  • Hundub: Hungary’s new social media network wants to counter left-wing Twitter and Facebook

    Web developers in Hungary recently launched a social media network called Hundub which seeks to provide an alternative webspace to netizens that’s free of the extreme left-wing political censorship which plagues social networks like Twitter and Facebook. The primary feature of the social network is that — unlike other social networks like Facebook and Twitter — there are no so-called “protected groups”.

    Creators of the social network say that any user is free to say essentially anything they want about the government or the opposition, COVID-19, or any minority or majority group. “We are Hungarian civilians who do not want to be public figures, but who do our best to build a Hungarian social network,” the developers behind the project say, Hungarian news portal Noizz reports .

    The new social network does, however, prohibit the use of totalitarian symbols or incitement to commit a crime which falls under the Hungarian penal code. Furthermore, developers of the network ask users to refrain from sharing images or videos depicting extreme violence, nudity, or any kind of sexual act. As of today, more than 40,000 individuals have signed up to use Hundub, which is significant considering the short amount of the time that the site has been operating and that the website is in Hungarian.

    Given the banning of President Donald Trump from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, conservatives, libertarians and free thinkers have been migrating en masse to other social networks like Gab and Parler, however, Parler currently remains offline after Amazon Web Services cut its housing for the site. “We understand that Facebook wants to dominate everything, but we believe in free competition. Our message to our detractors is the following: neither Orbán nor Soros are behind us. We want to run Hundub on our own with community funding,” the company wrote in a post. The funding behind the new social media startup is vague; however, it is known that one of the owners of Hundub Ltd. is an offshore company. “We do not seek to create trends or influence anyone or anything,” Csaba Pál, the founder of Hundub, said. The government of Viktor Orbán, which regularly speaks out against the extreme censorship of right-wing ideas that prevails in the West, thinks that through Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is essentially carrying out an undercover strategic communication operation.

    Justice Minister Varga on Dec. 14 accused Facebook of having made her personal page less visible to the public after she published a post which highlighted the highly decisive role that Zuckerberg’s social media giant will play in Hungary’s parliamentary election elections in the spring of 2022. Recently, the speaker of parliament, László Köver, said that powerful forces will be in set motion in Brussels and Washington D.C. in order to manipulate the outcome of the parliamentary election. Opposition MP Ákos Hadházy has made the baseless claim that Orbán and his political allies are behind the newly launched social network. “The government could follow the Russian model and prepare to shut down Facebook,” Hadházy claimed, adding that Hundub could be used as a new channel for the ruling Fidesz party to reach out to its supporters and collect valuable data in an election campaign.

    During his weekly interview on Kossuth Radio, Orbán said that under the ‘Soros Plan’ the European Union would like to give 34 million migrants housing, social benefits, and then citizenship . “If the Left in Europe give the franchise to 34 million people, then they will be able to rely on their votes and support for a very long time,” Orbán pointed out. Orbán told Kossuth Radio listeners that the left-wing opposition in Hungary are also seriously considering implementing the ‘Soros Plan’ in order to establish long-lasting electoral hegemony. “We cannot allow them to transform Hungary,” the prime minister stressed.

  • Hungary attracted €4.65 billion in foreign investments last year

    Last year, the Hungarian state investment incentive system managed an unprecedented 1,433 investments totaling 1,676 billion forints (€4.65 billion) to Hungary during the pandemic, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Sunday in an interview on national station Kossuth Rádió. Szijjártó added that before investing, companies consider aspects such as labor, political stability, financial factors, and the logistics and infrastructure issue.

    According to Szijjártó, the success is mainly due to the fact that Hungary features a uniquely stable political environment in comparison to other European countries, as a political force with a democratic mandate governs with a two-thirds majority, and that, additionally, the country has the lowest personal income and corporate tax rate in Europe — and both are flat rates. He emphasized that Hungary had strengthened its position in all four respects, as shown by the fact that the American investment magazine Site Selection chose Hungary as one of the 10 most popular investment destinations in the world for the third time in a row.

    In addition, he noted that the strategy of opening to the east was also correct. Similarly to 2019, in 2020 most investments came to Hungary not from a western but from an eastern country, in 2019 from South Korea, and in 2020 from China. He said that large-scale investment incentive programs provided support for the purchase of new machines and lines and the introduction of new technologies, so that Hungarian companies can now meet the market demand that has arisen due to changes in the world economy. The figures showing the state of the Hungarian economy in the second quarter should already have an impact on the large-scale investments that have now been made or are being made as a result of large investment incentive programs, said the minister, who indicated that they are currently competing for €13 billion of foreign direct investment to Hungary.

    Answering a question about the administration change in the United States, Szijjártó said, “We base our foreign policy on mutual respect and part of this mutual respect is that we do not comment on the domestic political relations of other countries… All we want is for each country to be able to manage its own internal affairs in the best possible way, we are in favor of all countries overcoming difficulties. It is in our interest that we can maintain the good cooperation we have had so far with the United States.” Title image: Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó. (source: Facebook)

  • Hungary begins inoculation of elderly home residents

    Vaccinations against the coronavirus have begun in Hungarian nursing homes, starting with the four largest residential institutions in the country, the National television channel M1 reported on Thursday afternoon. On Thursday morning, the vaccines also arrived at the retirement home on Pesti út in the capital, which was one of the biggest focal points of the pandemic in the spring.

    An M1 correspondent said that 479 residents and staff at the institution will be vaccinated on Thursday. Botond Sára, government commissioner in charge of the Metropolitan Government Office, also recalled that more than 300 people had to be taken from the home to the hospital in the spring, and 55 died of the infection.

    Vaccination of the affected persons was started at three vaccination points there. A total of about a 1,000 people applied for the vaccine in the two largest institutions in the capital, the government commissioner said, stressing that the vaccine is the only one that could end the epidemic. At the same location, Erzsébet Gy Németh, deputy mayor for humanitarian affairs and vice-president of the DK political party, called it important that the vaccination was launched. However, she also emphasized that the institution had been notified of the vaccination very late, at noon on Wednesday, meaning that they had less than 24 hours to prepare. Nevertheless, 70 percent of residents and workers were convinced that vaccination is in their best interest, he said.

    The deputy mayor added that at the same time, she would consider it important to notify the institutions about the vaccination earlier the next time. About 400 residents and about 75 percent of the employees of the Bánkút Street building in the capital’s Olive Branch home decided to receive the first round of the vaccination. Viktor Szirmai, the director general of the institution, spoke to M1 about the fact that with the restrictions and joint responsibility, the elderly have been protected from infection so far.

    At the same time, he emphasized that only vaccination will provide real security. At the same time, he added, strict security measures will continue to be maintained in the home. Data reconciliation and completion of the consent statement will be followed by a medical examination and, if all is well, the vaccine will be administered, followed by a half-hour observation. Vaccination also began in two social institutions outside the capital on Thursday. In Pécs, more than 70 workers and 23 elderly residents are vaccinated in the home of the Baptist Aid Service. The correspondent at the Autumn Sunshine Home in Miskolc said that the employees of the northeastern Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County Central Hospital are administering the vaccination there. In that nursing home, a third of both residents and workers have already contracted the infection.

    Now, 27 workers and 101 residents have applied for the vaccine. The correspondent also said that most of the residents there are immobile, unable to care of themselves, which means they need to be vaccinated in their room. In addition, vaccination of health workers is still continuing in Hungary. According to the latest data , Hungary, with a population of just under 10 million, so far had 334,836 coronavirus cases and 10,325 casualties. Title image: Nurse Enikő Beáta Nagy-Billa administers the coronavirus vaccine to Zoltán Kopasz at the “Autumn Sunshine” home for the elderly in Miskolc, eastern Hungary on Jnaury 7, 2021. (MTI/János Vajda)

  • Owner of Kosher poultry factory in Antwerp hopes to relocate to Hungary

    Following the European Court of Justice’s decision to uphold a Belgian ban on kosher slaughter, Wim van den Brande, owner of the Kosher Poultry Factory in Antwerp, was forced to fire his ten employees and close down the business. Now he plans to relocate to Hungary, the Jewish Telegraph Agency reports . The factory — one of Europe’s largest kosher slaughterhouses — was founded by van den Brande’s grandfather back in 1966, and it grew together with the rising Jewish population of the region and by the end of 2020 it was processing 80,000 chicken a month, JTA reports. Van den Brande — who, ironically, is not even Jewish — told JTA the Belgian ban and the subsequent decision of the ECJ was “an attack on traditions and an entire industry”.

    As Remix News reported earlier, following the ECJ’s ruling, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán joined the protests against the decision, prompted by a letter from Isaac Herzog, president of the Jewish Agency, in Jerusalem. “I believe this decision is not just an attack on religious freedom, but an attack on our Judeo-Christian heritage and Jewish communities in Europe. Consequently, my government quickly condemned this harmful decision, and we will do our utmost to raise our voice against it in all possible international forums,” Orbán wrote in a letter to Herzog. In daily Magyar Hírlap, Hungarian political commentator Péter G. Fehér wrote that “the Belgian liberal elite, which supports migration for the sake of political gain and popularity, hid behind the guise of animal protection and wanted to prove that it was adapting a different way of treating the country’s customs. With this, however, the liberals got into a camp with the radical right against immigration, and a similar political catastrophe was created as done by the current Hungarian opposition.” Nechemiah Schuldiner, the leader of the Shomre Hadas Orthodox Jewish community in Antwerp, told JTA that while the immediate consequences of the ban were less important, the message the decision sent was truly worrying. “On the ground, it makes little difference. We still have meat,” Schuldiner said “The problem is the message it sends. It tells Jews: ‘We don’t want you here’.”

    Title image: A Jewish boy walks past Belgian soldiers as they patrol during religious services in Antwerp, Belgium January 24, 2015. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

  • Hungary on pace to become one of the region’s most modern armies: minister

    Due to the record equipment purchases of last year, the Hungarian Armed Forces is on its way to becoming one of the region’s most modern armies by the middle of the decade, Defense Minister Tibor Benkő said. Based on the developments announced so far, the Ministry of Defense will spend 25 billion forints on small arms, 125 billion on helicopters, 525 billion on tanks and self-propelled howitzers and 700 billion forints on air defense systems, bringing the total to 1,375 billion forints or €3.83 billion at current exchange rates. It is important to note that the ratio of Hungary’s defense expenditures to GDP was only 1.12 percent in 2009, which dropped to a low of 0.86 in 2014. In practice, this meant that the country did not meet even half of its 2 percent commitment to NATO. The goals of the Zrínyi 2026 program, launched in 2017, included not only achieving the expected level of defense-to-GDP spending, but also closing the decades-long gap.

    While in the past, since 1990, there has been virtually no substantial development beyond the acquisition of the Gripen fighters and the Mistral missile systems, in the last two years almost every quarter brought new announcements of the development of the military. Csaba Krizsan/MTI via AP Guests surround one of the new tanks during the ceremonial handover of the first four Leopard 2A4HU tanks to the Hungarian army at an army barracks in Tata, Hungary, Friday, July 24, 2020. From September till the end of this year two Leopard tanks produced by the German firm Krauss-Maffei Wegmann will be delivered to the Hungarian defense Forces every month as Hungary buys 12 tanks of this type to replace Soviet made T72 tanks. With regard to the Gripen aircraft, it is worth noting that left-liberal governments from 2002 to 2010 did not systematize any weapons other than self-defense and air policing missiles for modern combat aircraft, while undoubtedly the new short-range Mistrals themselves also made little contribution to the protection of the country.

    Looking at recent events, in 2018, development for the Air Force began, with the acquisition of eight Zlin-type training aircraft. The next step was the purchase of small and medium-sized military transport aircraft — two of the latter categories were Airbus A319 and Falcon aircraft. The Airbuses have since also been prepared to perform air rescue missions. This was followed by the development of Hungary’s ground force,s with the country ordering two types of tanks. One package contains 12 Leopard 2A4s that have already arrived in Tata in several installments. These are not new, but refurbished, upgraded devices designed to enable the crew to move from Eastern technology to Western until the 2023-2025 arrival of the world-leading Leopard 2A7 systems. In addition, Hungary has purchased hand-held anti-tank equipment and signed contracts for the PZH-2000 self-propelled guns, anti-aircraft missile systems, anti-aircraft missiles, and the renewal of Gripen software. Very few old vehicles and technology of Soviet origin remain in the Hungarian system, but the few that do, such as the Mi-24 and Mi-17 helicopters, have also been completely refurbished in recent years. They will definitely remain a part of the armed forces until these can also be replaced. Sixteen H145M utility helicopters have landed at the Szolnok air base so far, and the larger H225s will arrive soon. Although the obsolete Soviet-made AN-26 transport plane has also been removed from the system this year, Hungary will purchase two KC-390 jet airfield transport aircraft to replace it from Brazilian Embraer. The selection of new weapons is part of a complex process, where it is also important that production also supports the economic development of the country. This is how the production of small arms of Czech origin came to Hungary, especially to Kiskunfélegyháza, but a similar process is taking place in connection with the acquisition of the Israeli Iron Dome radar system. Also very important is the factory established in Zalaegerszeg, where most of the Lynx armored combat vehicles purchased from Germany will be produced.

    Title image: Hungarian Defense Minister Tibor Benkő. (Magyar Hírlap/Péter Papajcsik)

  • EU and US failing to vaccinate their citizens, but Israel pulls ahead with 14% vaccination rate

    Following Wednesday’s decision of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to approve Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine, Hungarian business daily Világgazdaság looks at how countries used the supply that has been available so far. The stark conclusion is that with the exception of Israel, most countries have done a poor job of getting vaccines to their citizens. The EU’s vaccine rollout is not going well Moderna’s will be the second vaccine authorized in the European Union. The company promises to produce 20 percent more than previously planned, at least 600 million doses this year, but with the help of investments and borrowing, capacity could be expanded to as much as 1 billion doses.

    On Dec. 21, the EMA approved a vaccine developed by the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the German BioNTech, which has been used in the member states since last week, but vaccination is progressing very slowly. The German government and the European Commission are being increasingly criticized for delays in procuring and using vaccines. In the European Union, barely a few hundred thousand people have been vaccinated, but even the best-off Germany is far behind its target. Only 265,000 people were vaccinated by Monday while it has 1.3 million doses of the vaccine. In France, the situation is even worse. By the end of the week, barely a few hundred people had been vaccinated, and a few thousand on Monday. In Italy, only 178,000 people, the vast majority of them healthcare workers, have been vaccinated so far, even though they have 950,000 doses, and another 470,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived yesterday. In Poland, a scandal broke out after several public figures who would not be entitled to do so were vaccinated out of turn, including MEP Leszek Miller, a former head of government, as well as several actors. An investigation is underway.

    The US only has a 1-percent vaccination rate The situation is similar in the United States, where more than two-thirds of the 15 million doses of vaccine distributed by the federal government have not yet been used. The governors of two federal states — New York and Florida -— have therefore taken a drastic step, with the prospect of fines and cuts in additional supplies for hospitals that are not vaccinated fast enough. In New York, Andrew Cuomo gave a week to use existing stocks, which is especially important because a much more contagious English variant of the coronavirus has also appeared in the state. Hospitals managed by the municipality used only 31 percent of the available vaccines, compared to 99 percent at private health care facilities. In the United States, the delay is partly explained by the lack of a unified federal health care system that could coordinate the campaign, and the federal government and Donald Trump are still busy with the November presidential election, leaving all further work to states after vaccinations are distributed. Israel pulls ahead, receives $500 million in aid from US coronavirus bill In contrast, there are countries where the vaccination campaign is successful. In Israel, where the Moderna vaccine was approved on Monday, 14 percent of the population has already been vaccinated, and in Bahrain, the rate is 3.5 percent, while in the US it is only 1 percent. Israel reportedly paid approximately double for the vaccine than the US and the EU. The US woes getting vaccines to its population follows the country providing $500 million in aid to Israel as a part of the massive coronavirus relief bill passed by the US Congress, which was only one foreign country that received aid in the bill from US taxpayers, with the others including Cambodia and Pakistan. Israel, however, was by far the wealthiest country to receive funding in the bill.

    The payment in the coronavirus bill actually goes towards Israel’s missile defense program and is a part of the $38 billion in military funding former President Barack Obama promised in an agreement with the country in 2016. President Donald Trump had demanded that the foreign aid and other “pork” — a term referring to unrelated special projects politicians typically insert into spending bills — be stripped from the bill, and that US citizens be given $2,000 checks instead of the original $600 proposed in the bill. Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell appears to have killed the idea when he inserted bind a vote on the $2,000 checks with a bill to end Section 230 protections which shield social media companies from liability lawsuits, which is a proposal that Democrats refused to support. Title image: In this file photo dated Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2020, a bottle of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on a table before being utilized in Topeka, USA. The European Union’s medicines agency on Wednesday Jan. 6, 2021, gave the green light to Moderna Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine, a decision that gives the 27-nation bloc a second vaccine to use to fight the virus rampaging across the continent.(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, FILE)

  • 2021: the ‘two-faced’ year of national security and illegal immigration

    Many Conspiracy theories may not actually be real, but there is no doubt that the practice of conspiracy exists. In 21st century terms, the greatest of these conspiracies involve the striving of economic and political interest groups to influence spontaneous or consciously established processes while at the same time promoting their own views. They do this to further their exclusive interests, in many cases to the detriment of the majority society. No matter how hard we strive for it, no one can predict the future in exhaustive detail.

    There are plenty of attempts, of course. Social scientists come up with formulas that sort of orient the majority of people toward the right direction — or, quite often, the vision they think is right. These attempts are mostly revealed — of course only in retrospect — to use manipulative tactics and in promotion of the economic and political interest of a narrow group loosely defined as the “power in the background”. Whenever we suspect conspiracy, what we are often dealing with is money, profit, and accumulated capital being put to use to further the interests of a few. The first two decades of this century have been full of examples of what our future planned by the indicated interest group will look like. Of the more absurd, surprising, and self-destructive visions from this group is the elimination of a sense of security, but it is the first step in the attempt to conquer North America and Europe is to disable safety brakes, such as removing the inviolability of borders, tacit support for religious fanaticism, and questioning the security self-determination rights of nations. In the parlance of conspiracy, the goal is not to stabilize and bring about order, but to achieve a state of anarchy.

    Syrian refugees try to break the Macedonia border fence, as refugees clash with the Macedonian police at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Idomeni village. There is no shortage of news proving the above statements to be true. In troubled France, for example, a court order forbade demonstrations and rallies to be supervised with drones. With the decision, it was restricted authorities from taking action to ensure public safety in the case of disorderly conduct, violent assaults, and public disorder, nor can they find out afterwards due to the lack of recordings registered by the drones, what actually happened. When in 2020 almost everything about the world was about modern technology, it was a strange turn to ban drone surveillance for law enforcement. While mobile service companies are eavesdropping on us through our forgotten smartphones in our pockets — without retaliation or control — it is unacceptable to obstruct a judicial decision or the protection of public order.

    Illegal immigration is not only an example of eroding security, but also a lucrative business for some. There are camps where one person is billed about €35 a day to feed a person. This is paid for by the governments of the European Union and the countries that maintain the camps. The actual cost is €10 per person. In this way, €25 can be distributed between smugglers and politicians in the background, who maintain and support this opportunity. Perhaps it is not well enough known that those who support the illegal occupation and invasion of North America and Europe, including many in Hungary, are not only traitors but also common criminals. The principle of “everything for money” is alien to the rule of law. It is unfortunate that NGO funders do not put this on their flag for all to see because it should be declared that anyone involved in this illegal operation can be held accountable for a crime against humanity.

    After all, they are not only betraying Europeans with their actions, but they are also making victims of those who come here, many of them being forced into a life of crime. In order for the positive side of Janus’ face to prevail in 2021, it is important to understand the messages of recent years. Secrets of the future are easier to unravel if common sense dictates our actions. The human intellect is a gift that enables us to recognize good and evil. Even if we pay attention to political messages, let us not be manipulated by stupidity. Remember that like all years, 2021 will all start with a Janus face, and which side we will face is up to us, the majority. So, stay sober!

  • Hungarian PM Orbán joins protest against EU ban on kosher slaughter

    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is protesting the December decision of the European Court of Justice to ban kosher slaughter in a letter to Isaac Herzog, President of the Jewish Agency, in Jerusalem, press secretary Bertalan Havasi said Tuesday. The head of the Agency wrote to Orbán on Dec. 31, drawing his attention to this topic, which is “extremely important for the Jewish communities of Europe”. In his reply, Orbán wrote that in the last decade, his government has sought to ensure the security and well-being of the Hungarian Jewish community. “Thanks to our efforts, we have experienced a renaissance of Jewish life and Jewish culture in Hungary, characterized by such remarkable events as the Maccabi Games and the annual Jewish Cultural Festival,” he wrote.

    In the spirit of this, Orbán said that the recent ruling of the European Court of Justice, which allowed Member States to maintain the ban on kosher cuts, was a deep disappointment. “I believe this decision is not just an attack on religious freedom, but an attack on our Judeo-Christian heritage and Jewish communities in Europe. Consequently, my government quickly condemned this harmful decision, and we will do our utmost to raise our voice against it in all possible international forums,” Orbán wrote. He added that he believes in a Europe that not only guarantees religious freedom but also proudly stands for the Judeo-Christian heritage, traditions and values ​​on which our countries and societies are based. In a Dec. 17, 2020 ruling, the European Court of Justice upheld a ban on kosher ritual slaughter in Belgium. Herzog raised his voice against the ban on Twitter, writing that “t here’s been a campaign waging in Europe against freedom to uphold Jewish traditions – circumcision & Kosher slaughter. European Ct of Justice rejected appeal on Belgian Kosher slaughter ban. I urge European leaders to halt evil attempts to outlaw & end Jewish life in Europe. “

    Title image: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. (source: Facebook)

  • 506 illegal migrants try to enter Hungary on New Year’s weekend

    December brought a significant rise in the number of illegal entry attempts to Hungary which continued during the long New Year weekend, data from national Hungarian police showed . The week before Christmas from Dec. 14 to Dec. 20 showed the largest number of detected illegal crossing attempts, mainly on the Serbian border to the south and the Romanian one to the east. During that week, police and border guards foiled 1,326 crossing attempts and led another 1,490 people back to the country where they entered from, bringing the combined number to 2,816, compared with an average of around 800 per week during the entire year and a low of just three attempts and 23 apprehended violators in the third month of April, during the severe lockdown during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. police.hu Weekly illegal border crossing attempts into Hungary in 2020.

    During the long weekend leading into the New Year’s alone, from Jan. 1 to Jan. 3, police and border guards stopped 506 entry attempts, and while we are only halfway through the first week of 2021, the numbers continue to remain high. In the first minutes of Wednesday, police apprehended a minivan in the village of Nyírmihálydi near the Romanian border driven by a 29-year-old Romanian national, with 16 illegal entrants. All of them claimed to be Syrian, but had no documents to support that. The immigrants have been detained pending an investigation while the driver will be charged with people smuggling, carrying a sentence of up to five years, or even eight years given aggravating circumstances such as having been committed as part of organized crime activity. On Monday, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said that the pandemic and migration will be the biggest challenges of the year. “We will continue to defend ourselves against illegal migration both at the southern border and in Brussels,” Szijjártó said.

    Title image: 28 illegal migrants found in the cargo of a Turkish registration lorry in November. (source: police.hu)

  • Transylvanian vintner’s dry red wine wins top award of Hungarian Wine Academy

    Géza Balla, an ethnic Hungarian vintner from the Ménes/Miniş region of Western Romania, has won the best red wine of the year award of the Hungarian Wine Academy with his 2017 Fekete Leányka, made from a grape variety indigenous to Transylvania and the Republic of Moldova, Hungarian-language Transylvanian news portal Maszol reports . This grape — and wine variety — has no English name, only Hungarian (fekete leányka) and Romanian (fetească neagră), both meaning black maiden.

    The winery recommends it as a wine that is “subtle, soft and fruity on the nose, smooth on the palate with intense flavors of ripe plums and fresh red berry fruits combined with velvety tannins and hints of sweet spices. Elegant and easy drinking. Pairs well with beef, pork or venison stews with moderately spicy seasoning, potato tortilla and oven-roasted vegetables, gouda/cheddar cheese.” That is in fact the blurb for the 2018 vintage, as the now award-winning 2017 vintage is sold out. Balla (60) runs the vineyard at the foothills of the Western Carpathians, some 50 kilometers from the Romanian border. It has a relatively small vine area of 120 hectares and both the soil and the climate are best suited for red wines. Balla mainly makes kadarka (a full-bodied, dark red from Eastern Europe) and Pinot Noir.

    MTI/Zsolt Szigetváry Géza Balla (L) wins the Hungarian Wine Academy’s vintner of the year award in 2018. He was the first vintner from outside Hungary to be awarded the “Vintner of the Year” award of the Hungarian Wine Academy in 2018. He is an agricultural engineer by training specialized in horticulture and wine and teaches wine making at the Sapientia Science University in Marosvásárhely/Târgu Mureș. Title image: Vintner Géza Balla in his vineyard. (source: Géza Balla winery Facebook page)

  • Hungary seeks COVID-19 vaccines from other countries due to shortage

    In a Sunday interview on national radio station Kossuth, Orbán said that the government was now focusing on vaccinations at the pace allowed by the arrival of the available batches, with priority given to doctors and other healthcare workers, the ones most exposed to contagion. He added, however, that he was dissatisfied because of the scarcity of vaccines. “I am not satisfied with the pace (and) there are certain producers whose products were available in other countries before the European Union, but we are also looking at alternatives to the East,” Orbán said. He added that current indications suggest that a Chinese vaccine might be the first one available in sufficient quantities and that the Hungarian government is pursuing alternative sources to those provided by the European Union. “It is possible to have agreements outside of the EU quota. We have also sent out our agents, but without success so far.

    Everybody is negotiating for quotas above the EU one, this is not forbidden,” Orbán said. He also said that ideally, by March, 40 to 50 percent of the Hungarian population should be inoculated, and while the Hungarian distribution plan is in place, that remains subject to vaccine availability. “The question is the availability of vaccines. If these arrive quickly, we will inoculate many people and fast,” Orbán said. New Year’s press conference canceled Orbán also canceled his by now traditional New Year international press conference due to the coronavirus pandemic, his press secretary Bertalan Havas told daily Magyar Nemzet. “Due to the regulations related to the coronavirus pandemic, this year it will not be possible to hold the prime minister’s customary year-opening press conference,” Havasi said. In the first days of 2019, Orbán held the first such press conference in parliament, while last year it was in the prime minister’s office. The latter one lasted almost three hours.

    Title image: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the 2020 New Year international press conference. (Magyar Nemzet/Árpád Kurucz)

  • Hungary’s top challenges of 2021 are the pandemic and migration, says Foreign Minister Szijjártó

    Besides the coronavirus pandemic, immigration will remain the second biggest challenge this year, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Monday. This also means that the government will continue its fight to protect national interests and will not yield to any pressure, he added. The minister said Hungary is “still standing on two legs” on the issue of vaccine procurement, meaning that besides the European Union’s common vaccine purchase, it is also looking at available alternative sources. “For every vaccine development that promises success, we’re there, be it west or east of us,” he said, adding that if a safe vaccine is being tested somewhere in the world, the government will do its utmost to make it available to the Hungarian people as soon as possible.

    Migration remains key priority “We will continue to defend ourselves against illegal migration both at the southern border and in Brussels,” Szijjártó said. He expressed his firm belief that, in addition to the pandemic, illegal immigration will be the other major challenge this year. Brussels’ migration-friendly policy is continuing, which means the country must prepare for renewed migration pressure. Unfortunately, migration processes will no longer be only a cultural and security risk, but also an epidemiological one, he said. Therefore, the government will do everything possible to stem illegal immigration again this year. He said the country must defend both the southern border and its position in Brussels, asserting that no illegal migrant can enter Hungary.

    The cabinet will also continue to do its utmost to protect Hungarian workplaces, he said. “We are currently competing for 78 large corporate investments, and we will also provide another loan of more than 300 billion forints (€830 million) to Hungarian companies that are trying to take advantage of the opportunities arising from changes in the world economy and the world market,” said the head of the ministry. “We know exactly that the Hungarian economy is export-oriented: the more Hungarian companies can export, the better it performs. However, for the economy to perform well, people need to work, and this requires protecting their health and work,” said Szijjártó.

    Title image: Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó. (Magyar Hírlap/László Katona)

  • The most important fight of the 21st century is against globalism

    The deep state or, in other words, the global elite — whose outstretched fist, but not the only important player, is George Soros — owes its informal power mainly to its constantly, exponentially growing, astounding level of financial resources. This powerful group, made up primarily of financial-economic elites, is networking and exerting influence over others in the political, cultural, scientific spheres, as well as national elites. Its fundamental aim is to transform the way in which the three most important subsystems of countries — the market, the state and society — operate within national frameworks, embedded in the framework of a supranational world order, subject to the objectives of the global market.

    The balance of market, state, and society was originally based on the fact that all three spheres have their own logic and mode of operation that simultaneously balance and limit each other within a given nation-state framework — assuming capitalist economic and democratic political relations. It is the aspiration of the global financial elite that has unfolded over the last thirty to forty years to break up and radically transform this very balance in line with supranational goals. First, in the classical local (national) market, the actors keep the profits in the internal cycle, but the supranational market created by the global elite is already primarily and decisively generating profits for the global players and transferring wealth beyond national borders. Second, the global elite shifts the functioning of the state from the public good to the service of the “private good”. On the one hand, this is reflected in efforts such as the outsourcing of public tasks, inter alia in the form of public-private partnerships (PPPs). Put otherwise, the idea of ​​good governance is redefined, limiting the attributes of the traditional state as narrowly as possible, and increasingly transfers government tasks to market participants, companies and enterprises Thirdly, civil society is held together by norms, customs and community morals, which are also the pillars of a nation.

    The goal of the global elite in this field is to transform and turn the existing, centuries-old norms, human and family relations into the opposite of what they are, and through this to replace the cohesive, communal values ​​with individuality and the absolutization of individual freedom. If these conscious and planned transformation processes led by the global elite reach their goals in the 21st century, the system based on the balance of the subsystems of the market, the state and society will disintegrate, and at the same time nation-states and democracies will disintegrate, subordinated to a larger, supranational unity in which they lose their character, operational logic, and cohesive power. We must confront this with all our might; this fight is perhaps the most important challenge of the 21st century.

  • Joe Biden’s presidency could threaten the stability of Central Europe

    Let there be no doubt that Joe Biden and his team take the uncritical, senseless spread of liberal democracy and progressive politics seriously, and they certainly do not tolerate ideological differences, do not respect the specific culture of any nation, and do not favor sovereign governments. We should not expect to see only political debates on these topics, but also real attempts to divide our countries, and there will be especially serious attempts to alienate the Poles from the rest of Central Europe. There is undoubtedly a serious risk for division in Central Europe over our differing relations with Russia, the living situation of minorities living abroad and the instability of Ukrainian politics. And this is well known to the future leadership of America, as influential groups in Ukrainian politics already suspect.

    Biden’s presidency can upset the stability of the Central European region and easily sweep away the successes that Viktor Orbán’s government achieved so far. We must be prepared for that. The identity of the President of the United States and the composition of his government since World War I is not just a matter of that country’s internal affairs. Who owns the political and economic power (which emanates first and foremost from the United States) has always had an outsized impact on the world. This impact is sometimes smaller, sometimes larger, and has varied in the intensity of its influence both in time and place, but it has always been true that the “competence” of leaders elected by American citizens far exceeded the living space that American citizens occupied themselves. The Visegrád Four alliance has never been as close and as strong in the last thirty years as it is today. There are not necessarily ideological reasons for this, but practical reasons dictated by common sense. The nations living in the region and their leading politicians have come to the realization that regardless of their political affiliation, they need to stick together. The further strengthening of cooperation was brought about by the peculiar functioning of the European Union and the behavior of Western European politicians. The treatment of the region in Brussels as a secondary European region where democracy is “underdeveloped” has further strengthened relations between the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, and there is a chance that others will join.

    Throughout history, the great powers (and empires) have always sought to divide Central Europe, and have mostly been successful. The Trianon Treaty is a prime example , which left historical scars have not healed to this day. These historical divisions are of grave interest to the next US administration, and they know exactly what could be the key to developing schisms among Central Europe’s allies. Poland’s relationship with Russia and Ukraine is quite different from Hungary’s. This is the starting point. Among the countries on the borders of the Visegrád Four, the weakest link is Ukraine, where Democratic politicians have already shown how to destabilize a country and then pull it as far away from Russia as possible. Furthermore, let us not forget that the Biden family is familiar with the Ukrainian power structure, which includes the country’s web of business relations. The Biden administration could use the country as its second step towards its policy objectives in the region. Thus, after the breakdown of the Polish-Hungarian axis, which could occur under certain scenarios, Hungary will begin fragmented struggles with neighboring countries. Trianon provides a “good” template to foster these divisions. After Ukraine, it will be Romania, followed by Slovakia, which is subject to political blackmail, and so on. Divide and rule will be the strategy.

    Title image: President-elect Joe Biden leaves after speaking at The Queen theater, Monday, Dec. 28, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

  • Hungary says goodbye to recession and hello to the new year

    If we look at what the Hungarian government and the Central Bank have done in this unprecedented situation compared to others, there is no reason to be ashamed, as it is perhaps even more than we could have expected from our own strength. There is little room here to present all the measures, but it is worth recalling the fact that the level of budgetary “heating” of the economy in 2020 could reach a whopping 28 percent of the annual economic performance. Although critics of the government perceive economic policy measures as too few and not enough to bounce back if we compare decisions at the system level, domestic state interventions are also outstanding in Europe. And the government targeted measures where they needed to be: it focused on sectors that began bleeding right away, and future measures will also serve to rebuild sectors facing difficulty as soon as possible. This is facilitated by soft loans from state-owned banks, central bank projects and, of course, the credit moratorium, as well as measures taken in recent days, just to name a few. Of course, all the money in the world may be insufficient and the state can hardly go against the omnipotent market, yet we have reason to be optimistic. I would like to highlight an important sector that is the most decisive. According to recent figures, Hungary’s industrial performance has caught up with, and even slightly exceeded, the volume of 2019.

    This includes the fact that 60 percent of German companies operating in Hungary expect their business situation to improve in the next year, and half of the companies believe that their sales will reach their pre-crisis levels next year. And confidence in the Hungarian economy is indicated by the investments that German companies have started or are continuing despite the epidemic. To be more specific: BMW’s new plant in Debrecen, Audi’s solar park in Győr, FAKT AG’s processing and logistics center in Bezenye, Aldi’s service center in Pécs, the Schaeffler Group’s new plant in Szombathely, Lidl’s Eger center, Continental’s test track in Veszprém, and the developments of Güntner-Tata and Sick in Kunsziget, all reinforces the fact that there is momentum in the Hungarian economy. Of course, it all depends on when we will overcome the epidemic. There is also another element to consider. When experts who don’t sympathize with the government expect even more money from the state, they forget that deficits and public debt must be brought back to normal levels; you can’t spend without limits. From this point of view, it is reassuring that the forecasts of important, influential international organizations in 2021 are broadly in line with the expectations of the government and the central bank. But what can we expect? Well, the Hungarian economy may return to the 4 percent growth rate next year, which is due to investments, so the number of jobs may also start a slow recovery. Having said that, we must also note that for us Hungarians, the crisis has brought a lot of suffering and is taking a huge toll, for which no one could have been prepared.

    Finally, it is worth returning to the essential point. About 28 percent of Hungarian GDP is the amount mobilized in the economic protection action plan, which is intended to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus epidemic and to help prepare for the post-pandemic situation. And while the additional expenditures and budget revenues do not leave the budget as a whole untouched, the current crisis has found the Hungarian economy in a far better position than the 2008 global financial and economic crisis. Due to this, the government is able to provide coverage for crisis management from its own resources. At the same time, we say goodbye to the old year, but also to the recession!

    Title image: First shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is delivered to the Budapest Military Hospital on December 30, 2020. (MTI/Balázs Mohai)

  • PM Orbán: Weber has joined ‘elite club of the left’

    Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, struck a defiant tone in the latest statement he has issued in his ongoing battle with Manfred Weber, the German leader of the European People’s Party (EPP) in the European Parliament. Orbán, whose Fidesz party is a member of the EPP, accused Weber of joining the “elite club of the left” and putting his own political ambitions above the needs of the party’s member states. In his latest statement addressed to Weber, Orbán touted his government’s achievements, pointing to its success in reducing unemployment and state debt while increasing wages and household assets and its child support programs. Orbán then accused Weber of “resenting” Hungary, claiming that this stems from his party’s refusal to support Weber’s candidacy for the EC presidency in 2019. He further blasted Weber for allowing his point of view to “succumb to personal anger or even hatred,” saying that this is unbecoming for the leader of a political party. Orbán went on to state that Weber is now a member of “the elite club of the left,” and that from the perspective of someone such as Weber, all right-wing politics such as Orbán’s are understood as being “synonymous with fascism, Nazism, nationalism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia,” while all virtue lies on the left.

    The Hungarian prime minister indicated that it was this sort of intolerance that led the United Kingdom to leave the EPP, and finally the EU as well, pointing out that the EPP has grown more suspicious of conservatives while becoming more welcoming to liberal parties such as the Social Democrats and the Greens, which Orbán sees as “a slippery slope.” He claimed that in reality, Central Europeans feel the same revulsion for fascism that they do for Communism and then reiterated that the region will never “surrender its Christian values, national culture and our belief in the traditional – and, for us, the only – family model.” Orbán stressed that Brussels must learn to respect such beliefs as part of an “alliance of free nations,” as opposed to pursuing “the cultural, liberal homogenization of Europe.” “A politician with ambitions for high office in Brussels must never forget this,” Orbán concluded, claiming that it would be “a mistake” if Weber and his allies attempt to force the region to accept migrants or leave it “denied the existence of national sovereignty.” He further indicated that it would be an error for Brussels to change the European Parliament’s procedures to make decisions according to majority rule as opposed to unanimity, as some have suggested, which would suppress the wishes of smaller countries such as Hungary. AP Photo/Virginia Mayo German MEP Manfred Weber attends a session in the Plenary chamber of the European Parliament in Brussels, Tuesday, March 10, 2020. The dispute between the two leaders goes back to 2018, when Weber announced his candidacy for the presidency of the European Commission. After Orbán pledged his support for Weber’s candidacy, Weber snubbed Hungary by stating that he did not want to win the election if it meant gaining Hungary’s votes in the process.

    As a consequence, Fidesz withdrew its support. In the end, Weber was not nominated for the position, and Ursula von der Leyen became President of the EC instead. Since 2018, Weber has consistently echoed Brussels’ complaints that Hungary is guilty of various “rule of law” infractions, accusing Orbán’s party of establishing an anti-democratic monopoly over the media and restricting the judiciary’s independence in Hungary. Orbán has always responded that such attacks are the result of his government’s unwillingness to accept Brussels’ migration policies and its defense of Christian values as opposed to the more cosmopolitan values of Western European governments. Many politicians have backed Hungary’s view that the EU is applying double-standards , but given the large liberal majority in the European Parliament and the progressive values promoted by billionaire Georg e Soros which have gripped leading institutions in Brussels, Hungary increasingly finds itself at odds with an EU seeking to expand its power over member states. Earlier this month, Orbán accused Weber , a member of Germany’s Christian Social Union (CSU), of attempting to recreate the same political coalition in Brussels that already exists in Berlin, where the center-right governs in alliance with the left. While the EPP was once seen as a conservative party, it has drifted toward the left on many issues in recent years, including abortion and immigration. Weber has also supported Brussels’ attempt to attach EU funding to a “rule of law” mechanism that would allow the body to withhold funds from member states that were found to be in violation of such standards. Hungary and Poland exercised their veto over next year’s proposed budget earlier this month to prevent it from being put into effect.

  • Water polo dream team has three Hungarian players

    The water polo dream team of the last two decades (2000-2020) has no less than three Hungarian players — at least according to specialty webportal Total Waterpolo . For those less familiar with sport, the magnitude of the achievement is elevated by the fact that a water polo team has but seven players. The three Hungarian athletes included in the team are left side players Dénes Varga and Tamás Kásás, with Tibor Benedek on the right side. Other nations that made it into the dream team are three times Olympic medalists Vladimir Vujasinović and Filip Filipović from Serbia, Spanish center forward Ivan Perez and Croatian goalkeeper Josip Pavić. This theoretical dream team captain is Tibor Benedek, who sadly is no longer a living legend, having had passed away from an incurable disease this July at the age of 47. Benedek, born July 12, 1972 in Budapest, the son of a prominent stage actor, was member of the Hungarian water polo team that won three gold medals in a row at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics. He was also the head coach of the men’s national polo team from 2013 to 2016. He is ranked second on the all-time Olympic water polo scoring list with 65 goals and was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2016.

    Title image: Total Waterpolo men’s dream team 2000-2020. (source: total-waterpolo.com)

  • Poland signs four agreements for Via Carpathia transnational highway in 2020

    Poland has signed four agreements worth over €792 million to build 61.3 kilometers of road for the north-south European link for the Via Carpahtia project. Drivers are currently able to use over 75 kilometers of the Via Carpathia highway in Poland.

    The whole Polish project’s length is set to be around 700 kilometers and currently, 257.2 kilometers of the highways are in progress, 112.6 kilometers are in tender and a further 258.9 kilometers are being prepared. The General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) spokesman Szymon Piechowiak noted that the Via Carpathia section whose main element is the Polish expressway S19 will be the GDDKiA’s main priority for the upcoming years. “In 2021, we plan to sign an additional eleven agreements for the S19 section of a combined length of almost 170 kilometers. When it comes to the next completed sections, in 2021, we would like to make an additional 70 kilometers of road accessible,” said the spokesman. sejm.gov.pl Via Carpatia highway is planned to run through Europe from Baltic States to Bulgaria and Greece. According to GDDKiA estimates, the entire Via Carpathia section which runs through the eastern part of Poland will be almost fully complete by the end of 2026. One section, which will be completed in 2029, will require the construction of two tunnels; one of which will be three kilometers long. The cost of the whole route will be over €660 million.

    Piechowiak pointed out, however, that it is hard to approximate the cost of the entire investment due to the fact that a decision concerning the final course of some sections of the Via Carpathia has still not been made. The idea to create the Via Carpathia was initiated in 2006 in Polish town of Lancut by Lithuanian, Polish, Slovakian, and Hungarian ministers. The project was under the patronage of then Polish President Lech Kaczyński. The route is planned to run from Baltic States through Białystok, Lublin, Rzeszów in Poland and then from Kosice (Slovakia) to Debrecen (Hungary) and finally though Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Title image:The whole Polish project’s length of Via Carpathia construction is to be around 700 kilometers, source: GDDKiA.

  • Hungary may have fastest economic recovery in 100 years: central bank head

    Provided Hungary can achieve coronavirus immunity in the first half of the year, the country could be on track for the fastest economic recovery of the past 100 years, Central Bank Governor György Matolcsy told daily Magyar Nemzet in an interview . “In the last ten years, Hungary has successfully reversed its (economic) history, which started well at the beginning of the 21st century and was dramatically ruined between 2002 and 2010. The success is due to the fact that, for the first time in the last hundred years, we have achieved and maintained a lasting formula for economic growth and equilibrium,” Matolcsy said. He added that the key to the solution was to reform the labor market and thereby achieve full employment.

    Hungary lost more than a million jobs during the change of regime, to which no government was able to find an appropriate answer until 2010. Thanks to the renewed economic policy of the government since 2010 and then of the Central Bank after 2013, it was possible to increase employment by about 850,000 people until the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic. Thus, Hungary once again became one of the leaders in the region. Hungary’s economic development has risen from 66 percent to 74 percent of the European Union average over the decade, which is a huge achievement, putting the country ahead of Poland and Slovakia. Matolcsy also said that while initially the international opinion was highly skeptical whether any country could achieve the antithetical parallel goals of fiscal stability and economic growth, Hungary proved them wrong: “Initially, many found it difficult to absorb the success of Hungarian reforms. Over time, however, the facts have been difficult to argue with,” he said. “Incidentally, market investors voted for confidence first, seeing domestic economic stability and dynamism. This is also due to the fact that in 2013 we repaid the loan received from the IMF ahead of time, and in 2016 we also repaid our EU loans. Roughly from the middle of the decade, external critical voices faded, as indicated by the upgrades.

    Moreover, more and more people were interested in the Hungarian recipe. The inauguration of Chief Executive Officer Christine Lagarde at the IMF marked a historic turning point, as the IMF has since become much more open to new, innovative steps.” Matolcsy, as he also highlighted in his recently revised book Growth and Balance , stressed that a record rate of economic recovery has three prerequisites: sustained and high investment rates, replacement of the jobs lost during the pandemic with more efficient ones and not to be afraid of an increase in debt ratios. “First, the investment rate must be kept above 25 percent every year, and even increased above 27 percent from 2022, because investment is the basis for future economic growth. This will require both increased public investment and support for retail investment,” he said. “On the other hand, instead of the jobs lost during the crisis, at least the same number of jobs must be created, but more productive than before. Finally, credit-free recovery should be avoided because it is necessarily slow and protracted. Every business that wants to invest and develop and a greener family looking for a bigger home needs to be provided with cheap, affordable resources.” Title image: Central Bank governor György Matolcsy launching his new book Balance and growth.

    (source: Hungarian National Bank)

  • Anikó Lévai: Charities help keep the Christmas spirit alive

    Although this year’s Christmas will be a little different because of the coronavirus, we still need to look for hope, Anikó Lévai, goodwill ambassador of the Ecumenical Relief Organization, said in an interview with Vasárnap.hu. Lévai, Viktor Orbán’s wife, joined the Hungarian Ecumenical Relief Organization in 1998. She said charitable work had to be learned anew after 1989.

    Over the past 30 years, such work has become a profession, and they have learned a lot from aid organizations elsewhere in the world. Charitable work requires well-thought-out, serious planning and implementation adapted to the circumstances charities are facing. In addition, accurate and transparent accounting is essential, Lévai said, adding that thanks to the pioneering work, people are increasingly trusting aid organizations. “In recent years, in times of disasters, I have experienced much greater collaboration with NGOs working together, working effectively in trouble, sharing responsibilities with each other,” she said. Anikó LévaI has been active in charitable work for decades. She also said she never found her work to be futile, always felt useful, and believes there will be plenty of work and challenges for a long time to come.

    Lévai said heartwarming moments also occur during volunteer work. She pointed to the Sandzak province in the Balkans, which saw a sheep-breeding countryside community devastated during the Yugoslav wars. The Hungarian Ecumenical Relief Organization wanted to help a village where almost everyone was out of a job. Her organization wanted to buy sheep for them, but the young people told them to buy computers instead. “We bought both. And when we went back a year later, we saw the sheep breeding, and the young buying and selling wool on online exchanges. It’s the old story about giving a fish or a net,” Lévai said. When a Transylvanian village was hit by a flood, local leaders advised them to buy smaller animals, such as poultry, for those in need. The reason for this was that if people own a hen, then they will have something to do, which would keep them from becoming overwhelmed by depression, and better help them overcome a tragedy. While the Ecumenical Relief Organization has had to deal with several difficulties over the years, now the coronavirus epidemic gives them a different task, she said. According to Lévai, deprivation has several faces, but the task is always the same. “Our motto is, ‘FOOD for the hungry, HOME for the homeless, CHANCE for the disadvantaged!’ This shows that the December collaboration is not just about giving gifts or making the holidays more beautiful,” Lévai said, adding that the organization has been working for years to help people breakout out of poverty. At the same time, aid, while often essential, can also be a trap because it keeps people in poverty, she warned. “We must not give up hope, we must constantly work on putting forward new ways of working in order to be able to develop aid program models that do not keep those in need in poverty, but help them, or at least their children, to break out of it and thrive on their own,” she said. The 57-year-oldLévai, a lawyer by training, married Viktor Orbán in 1986. They have five children.

    Title image: Anikó Lévai lights the first candle on the Advent wreath. (source: Ecumenical Relief Organization)

  • The battle for the soul of the European People’s Party

    “A wise man does not take offense when he is offended, but only when it serves him.” Tamás Deutsch, the head of the Fidesz-KDNP delegation to the European Parliament, used this saying several times in connection with the trial he faced last week from the European People’s Party (EPP). With its attempt to disenfranchise an experienced member of the party, the EPP is hurting itself. As stated by Daniel Caspary, the head of the German Christian Democrat (CDU) delegation, an important factor was that Fidesz party members are working constructively in both the group and the commissions. Going back to Deutsch’s so-called insult , it was not even the insult of faction leader Manfred Weber that triggered the entire affair, but the Austrian Othmar Karas was the one who took the trouble to be offended instead. Karas, an old hand in the People’s Party, has been resolutely attacking the Hungarian government for many years, especially since the migration crisis. Karas is destroying the Hungarian-Austrian relationship without any particular shame. He does at least as much damage in this respect as the already failed Social Democratic Chancellor, Werner Faymann, who called the Hungarian government Nazis at the height of the migration crisis and referred to the Holocaust in connection with trains transporting illegal migrants to centers, faced little consequence for such remarks. Needless to say, those who are now hysterical about Deutsch’s remark were in deep silence then. In fact, they were competing with one another for insulting the Hungarian government for honoring its obligations and protecting the Union’s external borders.

    The European People’s Party has a loud minority that erodes the party family from within. They have long been non-Christian Democrats or Conservatives, constantly seeking the grace of their left-wing opponents, dissolving the party family that has seen better days. They are robbing the once unquestionably Christian Democratic, conservative party family of its identity and making it into a shapeless formation. Moreover, the party’s family and community character is killed by constant internal struggles and mockery. Let us not forget that the political and ideological distance between the liberal Finnish member of the party and Fidesz is the same from both directions, yet it is not the Hungarian party that would exclude the other. In a “people’s party”, many opinions can — or at least should be — accommodated if there was mutual respect and cohesion. However, the leadership of the party family is not seeking reconciliation, but is actually always on the side of the aggressors, stopping just short of giving them everything they want. In the end, no one is satisfied, and those who demand the exclusion of Fidesz never rest. They take every action they can to achieve their goal, and they do not shy away from lying or defamation to achieve their ends. However, ideological disagreement is not the only reason for the current tension. The Polish Civic Platform, which also gave the EPP President Donald Tusk, is openly advocating against Fidesz. This is not only an ideological difference, but a very tangible domestic political interest, as the ally of the Hungarian government is the Polish governing party, the national-conservative Law and Justice party, which beat the Civic Platform in several elections.

    Tusk has so far completely subordinated the People’s Party to the Polish domestic political struggle, and of course the Polish-Hungarian victory in the budget debate was just oil in the fire for the bitter losers. No matter how aggressive the likes of Karas are, the obvious fact is that, contrary to their claims, the silent majority of the People’s Party is not on their side. If that were the case, Tusk would have long ago called for a vote on Fidesz’s membership. But he doesn’t dare. Hungarians have allies and influence in the People’s Party. It is time for these allies to stand on the right side in the struggle for the future and soul of the party family.

    Title image: Fidesz MEP Tamás Deutsch.

  • Hungarian archbishop Erdő: Go into the light

    We have been singing about the birth of the Savior since ancient times in churches or even at home under the Christmas tree, and it feels almost natural that if Jesus was born at midnight, we will also have a midnight mass to commemorate exactly this event. This year’s Christmas was undoubtedly special. In many countries, midnight masses are not even held due to the epidemic and the curfew. Elsewhere, as in the Vatican, this ceremony has been in the evening for years. In Rome, eight to nine o’clock in the evening is not even late. But why does Christian tradition link the midnight date to the birth of Christ? First, in the Gospel of Luke — if we read not of the birth itself, but of its proclamation — it states, “Shepherds farmed in the open air, guarding their flock in the night”. And on the morning of the feast, we read in the Gospel of John: “The Word was the true light that came into the world to enlighten all men.” It is already clear from these two quotations that the first generation of disciples recognized the light — the light of divine truth and love — in the person of Jesus.

    Compared to him, insensitivity, selfishness, vulnerability, and brittle indifference, all appear as the darkness that overwhelms humanity. Very appropriate and very important — and in the language of the pictures and the visuals — the depiction of the Christmas scene with the glowing barn, the manger with the little Jesus, and Mary and Joseph and the shepherds standing out from the dark background is very eloquent. It was as if the light of the whole image radiated from the child. We also tend to put such pictures under the Christmas tree to remember who is at the center of Christmas, for whose sake the lights are on, even during the celebration at home. But why at midnight? Where does the tradition that Jesus was born at midnight come from? The answer is given in the Book of Wisdom. We read in it: “When a deep silence fell upon all things, and in the midst of the hasty journey of the night, his almighty word grew like a fierce warrior from heaven from his royal throne in the midst of a land destined for destruction” (Wisdom 18: 14-15). Since in this passage the author speaks of the word of God descending to earth with power, our Christian ancestors felt the reference to Jesus Christ was obvious. But there is an essential difference between the mysterious sentence of the Book of Wisdom and the message of Christmas. For the Old Testament text goes on to say that the divine word carries the command of the Almighty and fills everything with death. That is, it covers the whole of Egypt and, like a terrible epidemic, causes the sudden death of the firstborn. With this blow he gains the liberation of the chosen people. In the Gospel of Luke, on the other hand, the angels sing in the night of Bethlehem that there is peace on earth to the people whom God loves and for whom he wills. The angel’s first word to the shepherds reads, “Do not be afraid, I proclaim great joy to you.” In Jesus, the Creator God showed His goodness and charity (Titus 3,4). It is not a distant force of nature, not an unrecognizable greatness, but a good and omnipotent one who speaks to us and wants our good. Many have complained over the past year. Many have had a hard time imagining where in illness, the death of loved ones, financial hardships, and the failure of many of our beautiful plans, the infinite goodness is at such times. Yet, this year was an opportunity to reflect on our lives. We ask now what is really important and face what humanity needs to do differently if it wants to be long-lived on earth.

    The Ten Commandments require respect for parents from individuals and peoples as a pledge of survival (Exodus 20:12). And indeed, responsible love between the generations is the key to human life. Even the created world was not owned, only preserved and cultivated responsibly. We need to manage our resources so that future generations can live here. But we also experienced a lack of human relationships and felt the importance of being with our loved ones. The Creator Himself wants to be present with us in this human community. We celebrate this at Christmas. That is why we thank you. That is why we are asking this year in particular for the light to grow in and around us. Our lives will shine brighter and brighter again! I wish a peaceful, merry Christmas to all our dear readers! (Péter Erdő is a Cardinal and Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, the highest-ranking Roman Catholic cleric in Hungary)

  • The EU torched Hungary’s education law but willfully ignores Spain’s attack on private schools and push for sex education for six year olds

    There was a lot of fuss about Hungary’s higher education law, probably because the only university which found itself unable — or unwilling — to comply was George Soros’ Central European University. As could be expected, last October, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) sided with the European Commission and ruled that the Hungarian law enacted in 2017 infringed World Trade Organization (WOT) rules on trade and the European Charter of Fundamental Rights . Despite Europe’s top court ruling against Hungary, Brussels is turning a blind eye to a new education law from Spain, which will promote liberal sexual education, gender ideology, and place new hardships on private and Catholic schools. The two different cases in Spain and Hungary say much about the double-standards the EU applies to conservative governments like that in Hungary and liberal, pro-immigration governments like the one ruling Spain. The Hungarian law introduced two requirements for a university to have the right to deliver foreign diplomas in Hungary: First, the university should have tuition in its home country, and second, there must exist a bilateral state-level agreement between the university’s home country or state and Hungary.

    The reasoning behind the ECJ ruling against Hungary was tortuous and convoluted — and the ruling could hardly be seen otherwise after it struck down the normal, and rather standard, requirements imposed by Hungary. George Soros’s Central European University in Budapest was the only university that found itself in non-compliance with Hungary’s higher education law. Apart from the surprising invocation of WTO rules instead of EU law by the ECJ, its dubious reference to the Charter of Fundamental rights was all the more curious considering the charter clearly states that its provisions “are addressed (…) to the Member States only when they are implementing Union law”, and that “the Charter does not extend the field of application of Union law beyond the powers of the Union or establish any new power or task for the Union, or modify powers and tasks as defined in the Treaties.” Brussels’ different legal standard for conservatives? Although such provision was willingly ignored by the European Commission and the ECJ in the case of Hungary, it might be the reason why Brussels is now failing to intervene, and rightly so, in the case of Spain’s new education law, known as the so-called Celaá law. But more probably, the reason why the European Commission is turning a blind eye on Spain’s education law after having paid so much attention to Hungary’s higher education law is that Hungary has a right-wing, moderately conservative government while Spain is governed by a coalition made up of socialist, far-left populists and communists who profess the kind of progressivist, pro-social engineering, anti-national, and pro-immigration ideology close to the hearts of a majority in Brussels. As far as individual liberties are concerned, though, the Spanish law is much more dangerous than the Hungarian one. Protests against the new Celaá education law erupted in Madrid, Spain, on Nov. 22

    The Celaá law will make it much more challenging to create new private schools as it eliminates the criterion of “social demand.” It also introduces obstacles for local governments to cede land for the construction of such schools, and it deprives all non-coeducational (usually Catholic) schools of public funds. Given the importance of education in shaping the minds of young people, and to a broad extent their political leanings, governments across Europe and politicians in Brussels likely view education law as a powerful tool for gaining political influence over the long-term. This might be why other conservative governments, such as Poland’s, have r un afoul of Brussels when it comes to education laws. Spain’s new law promotes a strongly leftist ideology. Apart from favoring public schools at the expense of private ones, Spain’s Celaá law replaces the optional ethics classes that were meant for pupils who did not attend catechism classes with a compulsory course of “civic and ethical values” for all. WHO-style “emotional and sexual education”, which was reserved for 12-years-olds and older pupils up to now, will become compulsory for all children from the age of six. There is strong resistance of Spain’s left-wing government’s new education law, with tens of thousands protesters across the country gathering to protest Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government has also vowed to overturn laws passed in regions governed by the center-right, which allow parents to oppose their children attending classes and activities that are not part of the official curriculum or when they are run by external contributors, such as activists from LGBT organizations. The Spanish center-right and right-wing opposition, from the very liberal-centrist Ciudadanos party to the liberal-conservative Vox through the center-right People’s Party ( Partido Popular , PP), all see in the Celaá law a clear attempt at eliminating private schooling, which is very popular in Spain, and at indoctrinating all Spanish children with the “civic and ethical values” of the left. Opposition leaders call the new law “totalitarian”, and thousands of Spaniards have been gathering at protests, filling streets in their cars all over Spain several times in the course of the past weeks because of restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. The protesters’ and opposition leaders’ cries in favor of freedom of education have been met with disdain on the part of Education Minister Isabel Celaá, a socialist who is famous for having claimed that children do not belong to their parents but to the state.

  • PM Orbán says ‘All lives and all jobs matter’; announces stimulus plan to protect families and businesses

    Prime Minister Viktor Orbán over the weekend uploaded a video to social media where he announced the latest government measures which have been enacted to help Hungarian families and businesses cope with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In a video message posted to his Facebook page on Saturday, Orbán outlined four new measures which have been added to the government’s existing economic protection action plan aimed at minimizing the pandemic’s impact Hungarian families and businesses, Hungarian news portal 888 reports . The prime minister said that the moratorium on loan repayments for families and businesses will be extended for a period of six months, until July 1, 2021. Orbán also noted that borrowers who would like to continue paying down their debts could do so by contacting their respective banks. Orbán also mentioned that the government would subsidize two-thirds of payroll costs for businesses who have been disproportionately affected by the ongoing pandemic. These businesses include restaurants, catering services, hotels, and tourism companies, including privately-owned transportation firms.

    During the video segment, the prime minister also explained that the local business tax would but cut in half for sole proprietors as well as for small- and medium-sized enterprises beginning on Jan. 1. Furthermore, towns and villages with populations smaller than 25,000 are eligible to receive additional government support. Lastly, Orbán announced that families with one or more children or with a baby on the way are eligible to apply for a preferential home renovation loan as large as 6 million forints (€16,800), out of which up to 3 million forints can be deducted as soon as renovations are completed. The loan’s interest rate is capped at 3 percent. “The second wave of the coronavirus is breaking records all over Europe,” Orbán said, adding that Hungary’s healthcare personnel “are standing firm” against the “attacks of the virus”. The prime minister continued, saying that the government was providing all the medical equipment needed to mount a successful defense. “However, this virus does not only jeopardize people’s health; it has launched an attack on our families and jobs, too.” “For us, all lives and all jobs matter,” Prime Minister Orbán said in conclusion.

  • The meaning of being European

    Western Europe is taking Hungary to task in the name of values that this very country upholds most resolutely, Hungarian economist Károly Kiss writes in a column in daily Magyar Nemzet. Our prime minister, our government, and our country (or at least the part of Hungarian population that supports this government) is in constant debate with the European Union. The main contentious issues are the reception of migrants, otherness, disputes over identities, the conditionality of subsidies, and Europe’s transformation into a centralized confederation. The left-wing of the European Parliament is constantly questioning whether Hungary meets the criteria of the rule of law. Upon seeing the Hegymenet studies volume in 2017, I was amazed to see that the reason for our economic backwardness (more precisely our lack of catching up) and other troubles was unanimously explained by the fact that we deviated from Western values.

    Now, in connection with the Hungarian-Polish veto, this issue has come to the fore again, and I am amazed to see that the critics continue to accuse the Hungarian government of deviating from the European path and rejecting European values. In his historicizing article published in economic weekly HVG, István Riba writes that “the Orbán government gives outdated answers to the old dilemma of homeland or progress” and uses the term “declining West” in quotation marks. Several things need to be clarified. First, the third-way populists were right. Wild, Manchester capitalism failed after the war; In Western Europe, the welfare state, the system of the social market economy, has been established. Let me bring up an anecdotal personal story from the old days, the 1970s. I was a visiting a researcher at the University of Glasgow, and at the breakfast table was a visiting professor from India, who after learning that I had come from Hungary, asked, “Do you have a socialism like Britain’s?” I wish we had, I thought. The European welfare state was battered by monetarism, the Thatcher-Reagan attacks, but it survived. Critics turn a blind eye to one important thing (they probably don’t even know about it): there is no long-term catching up in the European Union. The level of development of the southern periphery — which includes the Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, and Greeks — is at the same distance from the more developed North-West, measured in terms of GDP per capita, as before. In the post-World War II world, catching up took place only in the Far East: first in Japan, then in the “little tigers” of Southeast Asia, and finally in China. It can be clearly shown that this is due to an active state economic policy. This activist economic policy, on the other hand, runs counter to the EU’s “values”. In fact, there would be a need for Eastern Europeans to be able to protect their markets and have the opportunity for certain protectionist measures until economic disparities are largely eliminated.

    The Hungarian government rejects the idea of ​​supranational integration. This is compounded by long-term economic considerations such as the one above, but the postponement of the introduction of the euro is also linked to this. Our 1,100-year-old history, statehood, and culture are just enough reasons to treat the plan of federalist integration with caution. By no means does this amount to a denial of Europeanness. Linking the unrestricted reception of migrants to European values ​​is also foolish. This is already a hot topic, but it is worth noting the latest developments. In Western Europe, a distinction has so far been made between ordinary Islam and jihadists, and only the latter has been labeled as a danger. President Emmanuel Macron and the latest bill from the French government, on the other hand, broke with this defeatist view. It assumes that not only militant Islam is a threat to democracy, but also peaceful Islam itself, which leads to the creation of parallel societies, and that government will no longer tolerate Islamic religious precepts that override republican laws. It is quite bizarre that a schizophrenic Western Europe accuses Hungary of professing and embracing traditional European values of Europeanness. But it’s even more bizarre that Hungary’s domestic opposition is joining this chorus.

    Title image: Europe seen from orbit. (public domain image)

  • Report explores how far George Soros’ shadow reaches into European institutions

    International organizations are under constant pressure from the largest non-government organizations (NGOs), including George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, which are using their financial power to achieve political influence. According to the report of the representatives of the European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ), powerful NGOs are financially supporting the largest international organizations, which has a substantial impact on influencing Europe’s largest political institutions and calls into question their independence. Using its financial might, Soros’ Open Society Foundation has won significant influence in a range of some of the biggest and most powerful institutions in Europe, and even has infiltrated the European Court of Human Rights. The Open Society Foundation is also strongly engaged in financing the Council of Europe, the United Nations and the World Health Organization. The report indicates that the Open Society Foundation has donated more than €1.5 million to the Council of Europe between 2004 and 2013. Powerful corporations have sought influence as well, with Microsoft donating around €950,000 between 2006 and 2014. An inquiry concerning how these funds have been used and the publishing of the documents connecting to the donations was sent to the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers.

    This issue does not only concern the Council of Europe. International organizations are under the constant risk of pressure from the side of “philanthropists” who try to use their financial resources to gain political benefit. Since 1984, Soros’s organization has invested $32 billion in the sectors of media, politics and human rights. Soros, in particular, has been known for donating to political organizations for decades. Since 1984, Soros’s organization has invested $32 billion in the sectors of media, politics and human rights. Much of his work began in Central and Eastern Europe, with Hungary one of his first ” testing grounds ” for his model for gaining influence and swaying government policy. The director of the ECLJ, Gregor Puppinck, draws attention to Soros’ power in key institutions, such as the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In Puppinck’s report he shows that 22 out of the 100 judges which presided in the ECHR between 2009 and 2019 earlier represented or cooperated with NGOs associated with the Open Society Foundation, which his report argues poses a serious conflict of interest, especially when some of these judges ruled in cases in which those same NGOs were involved. The highest ranking EU politicians also do not make much of an effort to hide their close relations with Soros. Among his closest allies are the Deputy President of the European Commission Vera Jourova and the Commissioner for Budget Johannes Hahn. These same politicians have directed a coordinated campaign against conservative governments in Poland and Hungary which have drawn the ire of Soros. Commissioner Hahn had previously publicly spoke about his joint efforts with Soros to “hasten reforms”. He also proposed the establishment of the “25 Fund” which would omit Poland and Hungary’s vetoes concerning the rule of law mechanism. Soros had suggested a similar solution just a few days prior, but through using other treaty tools. The director of Ordo Iuris Karolina Pawłowska stressed that the sums involved in financing the most important international institutions are alarming and lead one to question their independence. “Without transparency in this issue, it is difficult to speak about the fulfillment of the rule of law by these institutions,” she said.

  • Pandemic alert in Hungary may remain until end of 2021, PM Orbán says

    Hungary will probably only return to pre-pandemic conditions around the end of next year, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Monday when handing out the appointments to the leaders of the newly created National Hospitals Directorate. Before the end of 2021, “we won’t be over the crisis,” the prime minister stressed, adding that there may be easier stages after the first dose of the vaccine and then after the vaccine arrives en masse, “but by the time everything returns to normal, it will take at least a full year”. He called the duties of the Director General of the National Hospitals Directorate and his deputies “the pinnacle of medical, health management work”, and then thanked them for taking on the difficult, highly responsible task. In order for hospitals to function well, the heads of institutions and those who manage them must present skills that are not otherwise the strengths of the Hungarian public administration, said Orbán, who called the culture of cooperation the most important.

    The leaders of the National Hospitals Directorate must work together with the prime minister, the head of the operational staff, and the minister in charge of professional management, he stressed. He added that after the members of the government, it may be that the heads of the general directorate will have to work hardest in the entire Hungarian state administration. “In times of crisis, standing at such a difficult point on the dam as where you will be standing in the coming months is both a difficult but an honorable task. The trust of the whole country is in you… Don’t forget, all life matters, ”Orbán said at the event also attended by Minister of the Interior Sándor Pintér and Miklós Kásler, Minister of Human Resourcest. The leader of the new institution is Zoltán Jenei, who was previously the economic director of the Somogy County Police Headquarters, and later the chancellor of the University of Pécs

    Title image: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (L) appoints Zoltán Jenei as head of the National Hospitals Directorate on December 21, 2020 in BUdapest. (MTI/Szilárd Koszticsák)

  • ‘Jews can safely walk the streets of Hungary,’ Israeli ambassador says

    Hungary is one of the few countries in Europe where Jews can safely walk the streets, Israeli ambassador to Budapest Yacov Hadas-Handelsman told daily Magyar Nemzet in an interview . “I have been serving in Hungary for a year now, and I have been all over the county. I also know Europe well, so I can safely say that on the continent, Hungary is almost the only place where a practicing religious Jew can walk the streets freely without having to fear anything,” Havas-Handelsman said. The interview was occasioned by the recent scandal involving satirical party Two-Tailed Dog’s member and mayor of Budapest’s 9th district Krisztina Baranyi’s remarks about “stinking trash Jewish investors”.

    Havas-Handelsman said the less spoken about the incident, the better. “I do not want to waste a lot of words on this so that such expressions do not receive unnecessary publicity. It is very simple, this wording has no place in the 21st century public discourse — especially in Europe, of course not in Hungary either — especially when we are talking about a public actor who needs to set a positive example in this regard,” he said. Asked about German Minister of State for Europe Michael Roth’s allegations this summer about rising anti-Semitism in Hungary, the ambassador said the facts proved otherwise. “I like to base my opinion on facts. So let present you two facts. First of all, in the list of anti-Semitic attacks of the Jewish organization Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Hungary was in the last place among European countries. There have been a total of roughly 30 incidents in the country this year,” Havas-Handelsman said. “Of course, even a single case is one too many, but it does matter out of how many.” Regarding Iran’s hopes that as president, Joe Biden will likely resurrect the nuclear agreement with Iran, Havas-Handelsman pointed out that Iran cannot be trusted. “Take, for example, their missile program, the sole purpose of which is to attack Israel with a nuclear warhead. They already have missiles with which they could easily reach Budapest, and they are developing something with the help of North Korea that would put the United States in their crosshairs,” he said. “Here, of course, you can say that Israel is far away, this is not your problem. But I repeat, terrorism is expensive, so organizations linked to the Iranians, such as Lebanese Hezbollah, need a lot of money. And they do everything they can to get that money. Like ordinary criminals, they are involved in money laundering and drug trafficking, and these drugs can reach Europe, even your children.”

    Title image: Israeli ambassador to Budapest Yacov Hadas-Handelsman. (source: embassies.gov.il/budapest)

  • Hungary and Poland’s victory against globalism

    Looking back twenty years from now, it should become clear that what Hungary and Poland achieved at the Dec. 10 European Union Summit was a historic milestone, political analyst Tamás Fricz writes in a column in daily Magyar Nemzet:
    Moving away from the events of several days ago during the EU summit and removing the static and competing claims, we can confidently say that Dec. 10, 2020, was an important moment in the history of the Union — a day which saw the Hungarian and Polish governments achieve an outstanding success. If, in, say, twenty years from now, someone writes on the tumultuous history of the European Union, I am convinced that this day will have to be remembered as a highlight and historic turning point.
    But the basic question is: in what way can the victory of Viktor Orbán and Mateusz Morawiecki be quantified? Why is this a success and not a failure, as some of the domestic left-liberals claim who have divorced themselves from reality?
    We can talk about victory and success for three basic reasons. Firstly, the direct stake was whether the globalist liberal mainstream of the EU would be able to inflate the requirements of the rule of law or fill them with inappropriate content to such an extent that they could eventually punish “rebellious” Hungary and Poland — not only legally, but mainly financially.
    As I explained in more detail in my article on Dec. 12, “We Won, but the Fight Continues “, the rule of law is meant to guarantee a legal framework against arbitrariness, and keep politicians from formulating unilateral political, ideological and value expectations under any pretext.
    The rule of law guarantees that democratic functioning and ideological expectations and values ​​must be separated. It also safeguards against arbitrariness which can indeed be expected of members in a democratic community, while the question of how a given member state organizes its life within the rule of law is their sovereign decision.
    However, what Orbán and Morawiecki achieved is demonstrating that the clauses that the rule of law and the liberal, globalist values ​​have nothing to do with each other. Under the heading of the rule of law, member states cannot be required to accept migration as a human right, to receive and integrate migrants, to provide housing, citizenship, etc., nor can they be required to practice gender-based jurisprudence, allowing same-sex marriage and adoption of children by same-sex couples. All these are the internal affairs of a sovereign state. So far, the scope of the Union has not been extended, either in terms of the rule of law or in accordance with the current Lisbon treaties.
    But this is not just about migration and family policy. The mainstream of the EU, if we had let them, would have come up with more and more liberal, globalist-cosmopolitan demands in the future than just what the quasi-rule of law demands.
    For example, after a while, they would have “ideas” about institutionalizing the Muslim religion, then removing nation-state borders, pushing Christian symbols into the background, making gender theories mandatory in school curriculums, and last but not least, making it mandatory to set up gender-neutral toilets.
    Not to mention that the agreement also states that, from the point of view of the rule of law, member states can only be criticized and punished on the basis of concrete and itemized reasoning and facts, and precludes proceedings against member states on the basis of general systemic problems. This is a great achievement because it also rules out the possibility of pure political attacks.
    What this clause also does — at least for the here and now — is to shove back the spirit of globalist “values” back into the bottle.
    Title image: Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawieczki (L) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (R) meet in Budapest on November 26, 2020. (Prime Minister’s Office/Zoltán Fischer)

  • PM Orbán: Hungarian minority’s new role in Romanian government could improve bilateral relations

    The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania’s (RMDSZ) new role in the Romanian government could be instrumental in improving strained bilateral relations between Hungary and Romania, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and RMDSZ President Hunor Kelemen said after a Budapest meeting on Dec. 19, Transylvanian news portal Krónika reports .
    Orbán said that the regular Advent meeting between the head of government and Hungarian leaders across the border could not be held this year due to the epidemic, so this was partly replaced by Saturday’s one. At the meeting, Orbán and Kelemen agreed that, following the Hungarian electoral coalition, the government role of the RMDSZ made it possible for the Hungarian organization to play a serious role in domestic politics now due to its role inthe Romanian government.
    Orbán and Kelemn also said that with RMDSZ being part of the Romanian government will be a strong link between Hungary and Romania and can significantly improve bilateral relations.
    Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó — who also met Kelemen on Saturday — wrote on his Facebook page that Hungary has a vested interest in improving relations with Romania, “and now we will have a better chance than ever before. The role of the RMDSZ in government will, I hope, be a strong link between us, and we will be able to significantly improve our bilateral relations. This is in the interest of all of us: Romanians and Hungarians on both sides of the border,” Szijjártó wrote. RMDSZ — which won just over six percent of the votes at the Dec. 10 general elections — will have three ministries in the three-party government jointly formed with the National Liberal Party, and the reformist USR PLUS. These ministries are in development, environment, and youth and sports. The three parties are expected to sign the coalition agreement this evening in Bucharest.
    Title image: RMDSZ President Hunor Kelemen (L) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (R). (source: Facebook)

  • PM Orbán: Manfred Weber has insulted the Hungarian people

    German politician Manfred Weber, leader of the European People’s Party’s faction in the European Parliament, has insulted the Hungarian people who no longer believe him, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview with German Sunday paper Welt am Sonntag.
    In the interview, Orbán said he agreed with Weber at a meeting in Budapest two years ago to support his election as president of the European Commission, but two days later the German politician publicly said he did not want to win with Hungarian votes.
    “Everyone here asked what kind of person is that? Do you think we are second-class Europeans? This case was not about me, but about insulting the Hungarian people. We have lost confidence in him,” Orbán said.
    The Hungarian prime minister added that he found the allegations made about the media situation in Hungary in the ranks of the EPP ridiculous. He stressed that “objective studies show that government-critical media has a market share of over 50 percent”. Hungary features a diversity of political opinions in its media market , including Christian and conservative voices which have been minimized or even actively censored in Western European countries.
    Orbán said that the problem lies more with the EPP, as Weber wants the same coalition in Brussels as in Berlin, where the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) rule with the left-wing Social Democrats (SPD). Although the CDU was once viewed as a conservative party in the past, policies on immigration, social values and abortion mean that the party has made a strong leftward turn in the last decade, especially under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel. AP Images Under the leadership of Angela Merkel, Germany’s Christian Democrats have increasingly embraced left-wing politics. Orbán said that the alliance between the right and left in Germany is being replicated at the European level, with the traditional meaning of conservative disappearing in Brussels. According to Orbán, it means that “soon it will not be possible to distinguish between conservatives and socialists”.
    “It is not us who are leaving the EPP, rather they are leaving us,” Orbán said, stressing that the EPP party family should retain its “Christian-conservative character”.
    With regard to Brexit, Orbán said that with the departure of the British, the EU tipped out of balance, becoming “more and more ideological”, increasingly representing a trend towards higher taxes, more state powers and less competitiveness. Through the decisive influence of Germany and France, their economic policies are “increasingly socialist”, in which redistribution is more important than performance and modernization.
    He also said that while Europe is losing its edge in the global competition, “Brussels’ response is not to strengthen performance and competitiveness, but increasingly protectionism”.
    “We protect ourselves because we are becoming weaker. That is not a good direction,” Orbán said.
    About the loan-financed EU recovery fund, he said that Hungary has always been critical of the idea, but “since many southern states would collapse without aid, we agreed out of solidarity”.
    The so-called “Frugal Four” group of countries formed by Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden are also opposed to joint borrowing, but also criticize what they claim to be a lack of “rule of law” and alleged corruption in Hungary.
    In response, Orbán emphasized “the fact that we agree with certain countries in some respects does not mean that their company would be attractive to us”. He also pointing out that despite criticism too the contrary, “corruption is no more widespread in Hungary than in Austria, France or Germany”.
    Title image: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and current EPP faction leader Manfred Weber in Budapest on March 12, 2019. (MTI/Balázs Szecsődi)

  • The party is adrift- commentary

    The proposed exclusion of Hungarian MEP Tamás Deutsch ended up being a sanction , showing only that the European People’s Party has lost its way, publicist Levente Sitkei writes in daily Magyar Nemzet.
    Earlier this week, the faction of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament was to vote on whether or not Tamás Deutsch should remain a member of the group. There were roughly four different scenarios under which this was to take place. The line-up changed daily, rumors spread in the corridors, and the (Hungarian) domestic opposition apparently became members of the People’s Party as well, immediately praising what they thought were real conservatives.
    The aim was presumably for one of the factions of the European Parliament, which has seen better days, to punish the freely elected Hungarian member. But eventually, the goal vanished and there remained mere chaos.
    This is no wonder, as building an ideology-free ideological group is a really difficult task. The European People’s Party, once a representative of Christian Democracy, today represents nothing but the rule of law and democracy, which are just buzzwords today, like climate change and the importance of cooperation. And the devil is in the details, because let’s not forget that when the members of the European Council adopt the draft budget, the European Parliament will subsequently stamp the agreement, and the latter assembly will feel reduced to a voting machine.
    They (the Parliament) want to increase their influence, that is, to mow down, if necessary, the compromise that their own countries have reached. In their vision of the United States of Europe, of course, Parliament would be the arena of ​​decision-making; but this is the European Union, in which the member states have strong powers, so Parliament is more about dressing down those they really don’t like. They do not actually make any decisions; no, they rather negotiate, divide into factions, argue and admire their own importance in the mirror.
    Liberals in the European Parliament — and indeed, there are many of them, even most Conservatives — emphasize their principled attitude and European consciousness, while at the same time pushing what would be the right decision politically in their own national group. The small countries always ready for a verbal fight — like the Swedes and the Finns — are used by the big ones, the Germans, the French, the Spaniards, the Italians.
    Today, the faction — in fact, organized along national lines — decides what is in the interest of your country, that is, whether to squeeze the Hungarians a little more and prevent them from scoring in the parliament after their success in the European Council. In reality, each state uses the EP for its own ends and plays a role that is independent and European, democratic and climate-friendly, since this currently pays the most.
    So, a completely aimless but financially very lucrative party family, which considers its own values ​​important but cannot articulate them, goes after one of its own members to set an example. But, of course, they did so in a kind of European way, so it is not quite clear what the goal was. It is not clear who the family wants to deter from future rebellion, and whether the party’s top management is in fact negotiating in the corridor with the far-too-important Fidesz, which may not be a desirable ally but is simply too stable and too successful.
    Furthermore, it may be that Viktor Orbán’s diplomatic determination on the budget will set the path the European Union should take if it is to be successful and strong. And the big boys sending the poor Swedish and Finnish minions into battle may eventually realize that there is a purpose and meaning in working together if we can say what we want and who we are.
    But by then, they will be on their way to insignificance.
    Title image: Hungarian MEP Tamás Deutsch. (Árpád Földházi/Mandiner)

  • “Rules must be clear,” PM Morawieczki says in interview

    One of the most important elements of the agreement reached between Poland and Hungary on one side and the rest of the EU member states on the other is that clear rules have been laid down, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawieczki told Hungarian news and opinion portal Mandiner in an interview .
    “We assured each other that we would not make any arbitrary, politically motivated decisions. The rules must be clear,” Morawieczki said. “In addition, it is a significant achievement that the position of Poland and Hungary has received strong support in the EU. We have proven to be important partners who cannot be ignored.”
    He said that separating financial issues from the politicized rule of law of debate is the crucial element of the agreement.
    “It had to be made clear that the mechanism that is being set up to force member states to respect the rule of law is not itself in line with EU law,” Morawieczki said. “Such a solution would have provided an unprecedented opportunity to put pressure on the internal affairs of a member state. The EU treaties respect and protect the sovereignty of the member states, but the new mechanism would violate and severely limit it.”
    Asked whether the two countries were banking on the increasing pressure on the rest of the Union to begin distributing the coronavirus recovery funds, the Polish prime minister said that was not the aim.
    ” That is not the way I would approach the issue. What we have achieved is the result of a long series of negotiations with the German presidency. It was not our intention to run the clock, but we had a duty to properly represent our interests,” Morawieczki said. ” And above all, the agreement is important for EU citizens who are waiting for financial support to give a boost to their economic recovery following the coronavirus epidemic. We want to give them hope for a better future.”
    Asked about his personal relationship with his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán, Morawieczki said they have common views on many important issues.
    “Our positions are very similar. We agree on the values, we agree on the assessment of the geopolitical dimension of the EU, as well as on many detailed issues, practical issues such as cohesion or the common agricultural policy,” he said. “We both understood the need to develop a common European agenda in the areas of internal security, energy policy and border protection. And perhaps we also recognized the need for judicial reform; in our own country, we had to abolish post-communist customs that Western European countries with a different heritage did not have to cope with.”
    Title image: Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawieczki. (source: MTI/EPA/AFP/John Thys)

  • Military factory construction begins in western Hungary

    Hungary’s largest-ever military industry project began on Thursday in the western town of Zalaegerszeg, where the Hungarian Air Force, using a recently acquired H145M utility helicopter, laid the foundation stone of the factory that will produce Rheinmetall infantry fighting vehicles (IFV), defense portal Honvédelem writes .
    As we reported earlier, in August, the Hungarian government signed an agreement with German defense contractor Rheinmetall, according to which a joint venture will be established in Hungary for the production of Lynx infantry combat vehicles.
    In September, Colonel-General Ferenc Korom, Commander of the Hungarian Armed Forces, and Armin Papperger, CEO of Rheinmetall, signed a contract for the Hungarian Armed Forces for the production of 218 Lynx KF41 combat vehicles. The contract also stipulates that the vast majority of the vehicles, 172 units, will be manufactured at the factory in Zalaegerszeg.
    “Laying the foundation of the Lynx factory is the opening of a large-scale development that is important not only for the city and the region, but also for the country as a whole. Today, our NATO allies look up to us and see as exemplary everything that is happening here,” Defense Minister Tibor Benkő said at the ceremony. He added that the Lynx plant is neither the first nor the last military investment in the country. Hungary is exploring further long-term opportunities for the development of its military industry, which can also give an impetus to other industrial sectors.
    The factory in Zalaegerszeg is part of Hungary’s sweeping armed forces modernization program, Zrínyi 2026, launched in 2016; under this, the country has so far purchased transport aircraft, light and medium helicopters , main battle tanks , self-propelled howitzers , anti-aircraft batteries and small arms. The total cost of the modernization program is estimated at 3.5 trillion forints (€10 billion).
    The ceremony also included a demonstration of the capabilities of the Lynx IFV. The armored vehicle, capable of carrying up to 10 soldiers, can be equipped with an autocannon, machine gun and guided missiles, and its 1,140-horsepower engine can reach speeds of up to 70 kilometers per hour and cover 500 kilometers with a single tank of fuel.
    The Lynx project alone has a value of €2 billion ($2.38 billion).
    Title image: Lynx IFV demonstration in Zalaegerszeg, western Hungary. (source: László Kertész)

  • The end of prison lawsuit profiteering in Hungary

    The Hungarian Parliament has passed a new piece of legislation designed to prevent profiteering from lawsuits by convicted criminals, unscrupulous lawyers and human rights NGOs which have taken the Hungarian state to court numerous times on behalf of prisoners.
    In the past three years, courts have ruled against the Hungarian state in the range of 10 billion forints (€2.8 million) in cases where prisoners, with strong incentivizes from specialized law-firms, have lodged complaints about their living conditions. These complaints have ranged from overcrowding, insufficient sunlight in the cells, and inadequate facilities on premises. The prison lawsuit business has grown into an industry that had caused not only enormous financial losses to the country, but had also shaken society’s confidence in the justice system.
    The law, introduced by Justice Secretary Judit Varga, would first of all put an end to the enormous profits gained by law firms involved in these legal actions, but would also prioritize the financial compensation of victims of crimes instead of that of perpetrators. Victims of crimes, who have been awarded financial compensation, more often than not fail to receive money owed to them by criminals, either because the perpetrators have no means to pay or refuse to do so. Recouping such money in most cases has proven difficult or impossible in the past.
    At the same time, prisoners have been awarded sums surpassing the Hungarian annual salary multiple times, and were promptly compensated for what most observers would have described as relatively minor inconveniences.
    Prisoners have complained about a lack of sunlight. The Prison of Vac, pictured here, was originally built for the convict of the noble youth and been in operation since 1855. In one such case, the murderers of Hungarian teacher Lajos Szögi have received a multi-million forint compensation for a lack of sunlight in their cell. The murder was committed in the village of Olaszliszka in 2006, when an angry mob, reacting to a traffic accident, beat a teacher to death in front of his two daughters. The Hungarian public reacted with outrage upon learning that the perpetrators of such a violent act were being compensated.
    When the new proposal is passed into law, any financial compensation awarded by the courts will be withheld until authorities have determined that the debts and compensation claims towards the convicts are duly settled. Any compensation claims from the part of the victims will have to be settled first, and the remainder of the sum, if any, is then transferred to the prisoners themselves.
    Another major change to the present practice is that the money awarded will not be deposited on the bank-account of law firms, but will exclusively be transferred to the accounts of the prisons where the convicts are held. Only after the prisoners have left the institution will the money be transferred to a bank account whose exclusive beneficiary is the awardee. As legal expenses are paid by the claimants, this will clearly disincentivize most legal firms from taking up lengthy and expensive claims if they can potentially only be able to recoup their legal fees years after the proceedings have ended. It might also clearly be a factor that recouping money from convicted criminals might not be as trouble-free as simply deducting their own fees from a sum from their own bank account.
    The prison lawsuit industry also took on a political dimension, when human rights organizations, chief among them the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC), known for its strongly critical stance against the Viktor Orbán government, have started to shield the legal enterprise from any criticism under the guises of human rights.
    Reportedly , however, some of those legal firms or lawyers, who had actively taken part in these lawsuits have had previous ties to the HHC, such as Gergely Fahidi, or members of the Cech lawfirm, who have preciously worked at the human rights organization as interns. According to media reports , prominent lawyer and liberal political activist György Magyar had also profited from representing prisoners.
    Magyar, a high profile critic of Orbán’s government, has been instrumental in winning over €1 million of compensation from the Hungarian state by representing criminals incarcerated in prison institutions.
    According to Justice Minister Judit Varga, irregularities around payments have become so widespread that the government had in the spring decided to suspend the transfer of compensations to law firms’ and awardees’ bank accounts. According to her, the entire phenomenon was seriously affecting people’s sense of justice, as perpetrators of the most serious crimes were awarded millions, while their victims had often no means of recouping the compensation owed to them. The decision to suspend compensation payments to prisoners has been attacked by the HCC, which has filed a complaint at the European Council.
    Pál Völner, secretary of state for the Ministry of Justice, had emphasized that parliament put an end to the immoral “prison business” that had in the past few years developed into a multi-million euro industry. The new system will put victims first, said Völner, and will make sure that prisoners’ obligations towards society are enforced before they could benefit from any financial compensations.
    At the same time, he also noted that the government has made efforts to reduce prison overcrowding. In 2020 alone, the number of prison accommodations have grown by almost 3,000 units.

  • Hungarian public debt rises sharply due to COVID-19 but remains around the EU average

    This year’s pandemic will significantly increase public debt as a share of GDP in most countries, as GDP declines on the one hand and spending increases on the other due to economic protection measures. Domestic debt is also rising sharply, but the value in many European countries is much higher than others, daily Magyar Nemzet writes .
    The Ministry of Finance and the Public Debt Management Center, as well as the Hungarian National Bank (MNB), have recently reported on the economic developments this year and the expected development in the coming years. Based on these, it appears that the extremely favorable public debt-to-GDP ratio of around 65 percent reached last year will rise to close to 80 percent this year. This is very disappointing, as debt reduction started from roughly this level, but the fact that a significant reduction already took place left more room to maneuver in the unexpected pandemic situation.
    Many EU countries had higher debt levels, so this year’s burdens will affect their situation more severely.
    Before the crisis, at the end of last year, within the European Union, which then still included Great Britain, the public debt-to-GDP ratio of 10 countries exceeded the Hungarian level, and that of several countries was close to Hungary’s. The most indebted state was Greece, at 176 percent of GDP due to previous crises; it should be added that if the conditions of previous rescue programs are met in the longer term, some of the country’s debt is likely to be released over time. This year, the Greek level will rise to 192 percent, which means that the impact of the crisis is very serious in their case as well.
    In second place is Italy, where the ratio is expected to go from 135 to 157 percent. This is quite dramatic, as last year’s level was also difficult to manage; funding will now be difficult without the European Central Bank’s (ECB) assets purchase program. The rate is still over 100 percent in Portugal, where the level is rising from 117 to 132 percent; the role of the ECB is also crucial here, with the country’s 10-year government bonds now trading at negative yields.
    The debt level in Cyprus will hit 105 percent, up from 95; in Spain, we will see a rise from 95 to 115; in the UK, from 80 to 100; in Belgium, from 99 to 114; and in France, from 98 to 116. The Austrian level is already comparable to the Hungarian one, rising from 70 to 79 percent. Meanwhile, Ireland, Slovenia and Germany are still slightly lower than Hungary’s ratio.
    In the other member states, however, the level will remain below the 60 percent Maastricht criterion at the end of this year, in some cases two to three percentage points higher. Estonia is in the best position in the EU, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of only 8 percent, not expected to rise above 10 percent even as a result of the pandemic.
    The Hungarian debt ratio is thus in the middle of the European Union. Although it now substantially exceeds the Maastricht level, it cannot be said to be high in European terms. From this level, if the recovery starts and the government once again focuses on debt reduction, it will be possible to return to pre-pandemic levels in just a few years.
    Title image: Hungarian Central Bank Governor György Matolcsy. (MTI/Szilárd Koszticsák)

  • Villa of former communist leader Kádár given to Syriac Orthodox Church

    In a highly symbolic gesture, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán offered the use of the villa of former Hungarian communist leader János Kádár to the Syriac Orthodox Church on Wednesday.
    “The residence of the late leader of the anti-church-party state is being put to use by the persecuted Christian church,” Orbán said upon handing over the keys to Patriarch Ignatius Afrem II.
    The decision was made as part of the Hungary Helps program, which has been providing life-saving assistance to Christian communities persecuted for their faith for four years now and which also took the occasion to report on the results of its assistance to the Syrian Orthodox Church so far: The program has funded humanitarian projects in Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon; the renovation of homes damaged in the fighting in these areas; and the maintenance of one orphanage.
    Located in a prestigious area of the Buda hills, the history of the villa is a tiny capsule of Hungarian post-WWII history: Its builder and original owner, István Vértes, a member of the Independent Hungarian Democratic Party, gave up ownership in exchange for being allowed to leave the country in 1948; the then minister of interior Kádár took possession of it. He resided there until 1952, when in the Hungarian iteration of the Stalinist purge, he was sentenced to life in a show trial.
    When Stalin died in 1954, Kádár was rehabilitated and moved in again. After the failed 1956 anti-Soviet uprising, he became the leader of the communist party, which was relabeled the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, and remained its de facto leader for 32 years.
    After the regime change, the villa housed a children’s rehabilitation center until it was first leased then bought by an entrepreneur in 2002, who enlarged the building despite strict regulations concerning any changes to historic monuments.
    Title image: The villa of former communist leader János Kádár in Buda. (source: Google street view)

  • Another anti-Semitic scandal rocks Hungary’s opposition

    Hungary’s opposition parties, which have often voiced their own criticism against Viktor Orbán government’s alleged anti-Semitism, have been rocked by another incident in which one of their high-profile leaders have expressed unacceptable views against the Jewish community.
    Earlier this year in a scandal involving László Bíró, an MP for the Jobbik (The Right One) opposition party was recorded calling the capital city of Hungary “Judapest”, a veiled reference to the vibrant Jewish community inhabiting the city. Jobbik often forms a common election platform with the rest of the Hungarian opposition parties, who have been accused to be rather slow in taking a stance against such remarks from the ranks of their coalition partners.
    Now, in a voice recording of Krisztina Baranyi, a member of the Two-tailed Dog Party, she has been overheard using the word “Jews” as a swear-word when speaking about the development of the 9th district of Budapest, of which she is an elected Mayor. In the voice recording from an unidentified event, she has was heard talking about “stinking trash Jewish investors”. Although Baranyi had accepted that the recording is genuine, she denies any wrong-doing and has claimed that her words have been taken out of context. Instead, she had accused other members of the left-wing coalition that governs Budapest’s 9th district as being the ones who have used anti-Semitic undertones.
    In the meantime, the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (MAZSIHISZ) had condemned the mayor for her choice of words. According to them, she has brought the Hungarian public discourse into disrepute.
    Although Baranyi is a member of the left-wing anti-establishment Two-tailed Dog Party, that had entered the local elections as a political joke, she is in fact the joint candidate for all the Hungarian opposition parties that have formed a coalition called New Pole (Új Pólus) in the capital’s district with the aim of removing the previous mayor, a member of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz Party. These include the radical student movement Momentum, the main opposition party Democratic Coalition (DK), and the Socialists.
    Some of the members of the left-wing coalition have already distanced themselves from Baranyi. Andrea Jancsó of the far-left Momentum movement has made a statement in the name of the New Pole coalition saying that “the mayor’s anti-Semitic remarks were unacceptable then as they are now. We cannot accept a common platform with politicians who… made disparaging remarks about someone’s gender, racial, ethnic or religious identity.” It is notable, however, that to date none of Baranyi’s coalition partners have called for her resignation.
    One of the painful circumstances of this scandal is the fact that the 9th district, also known as Ferencváros, was the transport hub for the deportation of Hungarian Jews, and Jewish refugees from surrounding countries to death camps in the East during the 1940s. Their historic railway station, where these transports have originated from, is today a place of a remembrance with a large monument commemorating those taken away in transports to concentration camps, as well as Hungarians deported to prisoner-of-war camps in Russia.
    This week, in a speech in parliament, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accused the left-wing coalition of “inventing progressive anti-Semitism” in order to enable them to form a coalition with the right-wing Jobbik opposition party.
    “A progressive anti-Semite is one who hates this government more than our Jewish compatriots,” claimed Orbán.
    The prevalence of anti-Jewish sentiments or rhetoric within any particular society are only possible to measure by statistical perception surveys, however, there are more accurate records of violent anti-Semitic attacks in any given country. Within the EU, Hungary had seen relatively few violent anti-Semitic incidents, with two recorded in 2019. Even broken down per capita, this compares favorably against other European countries such as France or Germany, where in the same period there were 41 such attacks in each of them, or with the UK, with 122 recorded incidents in 2019.

  • Sakiewicz: We won all we could at EU summit in Brussels

    I do not share the super-optimism of those who believe that we have forced Europe to its knees, and Polish affairs in the EU will now be smooth sailing. I also do not agree with those who believe that Poland is threatened more today than prior to the EU budget compromise.
    That threat, a risk to our independence, was and continues to be real. However, we did everything in our power to minimize it. We could’ve completely eliminated the threat by leaving the EU. But then an even greater threat from the side of Russia would have appeared.
    Today, Poland would be weaker without the EU – it would not have funds for developing its army and would not be as attractive of a partner to the U.S. as it is now, being a gateway to the EU.
    Poland did not join the EU just to leave it but to be able to somehow expand the Atlantic community. Germany and France’s actions hinder this in vital ways.
    The EU itself will soon become an archaic project. It will not withstand the competition with the U.S. and China, and probably soon, India as well.
    Title image: Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, left, speaks with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán during a round-table meeting at the EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020, AP Images. In the EU everyone is a declared friend. This means that we should sleep with an axe in our bed and keep a gun in our wardrobe. But being in the EU is not always profitable. It is not worth it, when we’re not protecting our own interests. It does not bring benefits when we give up our independence. In the EU everyone is a declared friend. This means that we should sleep with an axe in our bed and keep a gun in our wardrobe. Otherwise, they will befriend our money and in the end accuse us of tolerating corruption.
    Germany’s proposals were an absolute breach of EU treaties. It did not actually withdraw from them. What it did promise as a deal with Poland and Hungary, however, is that it would break treaties in such a way, that it won’t bother us.
    Are these ironclad guarantees? They’re paper ones. But the threats are also paper ones. We could have continued the conflict and received no guarantees. The government chose an optimal strategy.
    Is this the end? Of course not. This is absolutely the start of the battle for the shape of the EU. For this we need the current United Right team, because no other will be able to execute those guarantees.
    Therefore, the German side will care about bringing this government down. By defending our independence we must seek to maintain the United Right’s survival for as long as possible.
    I myself am tired with this government’s awkwardness and slip-ups. But dealing with today’s reality is not meant to be as easy as organizing spa for virgins. On the other side, we are dealing with gangsters and we should not be surprised that our side sometimes breaks porcelain or accidentally treads on our toes. We should look at the whole, and the whole is simply better.
    And the most important thing: time works to our advantage. We have just won that time. Hopefully it will be as long as possible.

  • EPP sanctions MEP Deutsch but he remains in the faction

    Tamás Deutsch, MEP of the ruling Hungarian Fidesz party, has been sanctioned by the European People’s Party (EPP) by withdrawing some of his rights as a representative, but he will remain a member of the faction despite the letter signed by 40 faction members demanding his expulsion, the EPP said in a statement on Wednesday.
    “We therefore decide to […] withdraw with immediate effect from Tamas Deutsch all rights to speaking time in plenary on behalf of the Group, to nominations as a (shadow) rapporteur or other formal positions on behalf of the Group as well as to any position or post belonging to the EPP Group,” the statement said.
    As we reported earlier, a group of 40 EPP members led by Austrian Othmar Kas sent a letter to faction leader Manfred Weber demanding his expulsion for having likened the EPP leadership’s methods to those of the Gestapo and the communists.
    While no details emerged from the meeting as to how the expulsion motion was changed to one of curtailing his faction rights, it was obviously the result of a compromise. The motion was adopted with a yes vote from 133 faction members out of the 142 present, with three abstentions and three no votes, presumably from the other Fidesz members.
    “I am now a bigger enemy of mainstream European politics than Prime Minister Viktor Orbán!” Deutsch said in a live interview on Hungarian news television HírTV conducted during the meeting.
    More importantly, the last two points of the faction’s statement also raised the possibility of excluding Fidesz itself — an issue that has been brewing for a year.
    “[We] call on all Fidesz MEPs to reflect on whether their fundamental political convictions are still compatible with the values and core content of the EPP Group and to act consistently with these EPP core values or draw the necessary conclusions,” the statement said, adding, “[We] call on the EPP party to take a final decision on the membership of Fidesz immediately when health conditions allow this to happen.”
    Title image: Fidesz MEP Tamás Deutsch. (source: European Parliament)

  • All quiet on the Western front

    In a column in Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet entitled “All Quiet on the Western Front”, Justice Minister Judit Varga summarizes the joint Hungarian-Polish victory last week at the EU summit.
    The Hungarian delegation returned home from the European Council meeting with the heads of state and government last Friday having had achieved all its objectives. The unity of the European Union has been preserved because the European Council has reached a consensus on the still controversial elements of the new seven-year budget.
    European solidarity has been maintained, as aid can finally reach the member states where it is most needed. The constitutional order of the European Union has been defended because the new budgetary mechanism cannot circumvent the Article 7 procedure for the protection of the rule of law.
    We managed to defend Hungary’s sovereignty and constitutional traditions, because in the future no one can force political and ideological expectations on us with budgetary means. We have managed to protect the money of Hungarian people and businesses: the funds we owe will not be deductible for fabricated or abritrary reasons.
    The success is so obvious that even those actors who could not be accused of having the least bit of sympathy for the Hungarian government were forced to admit it. According to opposition politiciain Péter Róna, for example, Viktor Orbán achieved an amazing result and redefined the essence of the European Union. According to another opposition politician, Ákos Hadházy, the Union did not simply bow, but laid down before the Hungarian prime minister. Liberal news portal W24.hu assessed that “everyone won a bit with the EU compromise, but Orbán won the most”.
    The institutional reading of what happened is also instructive. The European Parliament has often been part of the problem rather than the solution. The heads of state and government had no choice but to find a solution that could neutralize the European Parliament’s unlimited and self-imposed institutional and ideological ambitions.
    Of course, the European Parliament is not famous for quietly swallowing a bitter pill. We can expect that, with the support of the European Commission, it will fight for the rule of law and open up new political fronts in the area of migration and gender.
    It has been spectacularly demonstrated that Hungary and Poland have entered a higher political weight group and are able to exert a decisive influence on EU decision-making in close cooperation. They have gone from being the recipients and adopters of EU policies to shaping them.
    This is not merely a matter of negotiation or the result of well-chosen political tactics. Behind Hungary and Poland are economic performance, a strong worldview, a clear vision, and the growing political influence based on them.
    The member states of the region are increasingly confident in their own responses to current challenges in Europe and the world. If this is no longer treated by Western Europe and the EU institutions as deviance, but as part of a self-evident European dialogue, then we can say that not only has the economic sphere of Western Europe been expanded, but that Europe has been truly reunited.
    This process is far from over, but Central and Eastern Europe has arrived and been put on the map.
    Title image: The Hungarian Parliament building. (Jakub Halun, Wikimedia Commons)

  • Hungarian constitution spells out that the mother is a woman, and the father a man

    The Hungarian Parliament approved on Tuesday an amendment to the constitution stipulating that the mother is a woman and the father is a man, daily Magyar Nemzet reports .
    The relevant paragraph reads “Hungary protects the institution of marriage as a cohabitation between a man and a woman, based on voluntary decision, and the family as the basis for the survival of the nation. The basis of the family relationship is the marriage and the parent-child relationship. The mother is a woman, the father is a man.”
    Deputies defined the concept of public money and also re-regulated the constitutional rules of the special legal order. Mentioning “exclusionary family policy”, opposition politician of the reformist DK and former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány did not take part in the vote.
    Both in her introduction of the law in parliament and her Facebook page, Justice Minister Judit Varga said the amendment was not aimed against any specific group or groups.
    “The aim is not to undermine the rights of certain social groups, but to protect the rights of our children. The guarantees included in the Constitution today provide a stable basis for Hungary to remain a strong, secure community in the future. Hungary first!” Varga wrote.
    The legislature passed the ninth amendment to the Constitution at the initiative of the government with 134 yes votes, 45 no votes and five abstentions. The constitution now stipulates that the mother is a woman and the father is a man, thus protecting the child’s right to self-identity according to his or her birth gender and ensuring that he or she receives education in accordance with the values ​​based on Hungary’s constitutional identity and Christian culture.
    Parliament has also amended the definition of public money, clearly defining the rules of public interest trusts performing a public task.
    The third change was the reduction of the cases of special legal order from a previous six to three, which are now refer to a “state of war”, “state of emergency” and a “hazardous situation”. In all three cases, the amendment gives the government the power to issue regulations, thus eliminating the regulatory role of the National Defense Council and the President of the Republic in times of emergency.
    According to the DK party, the amendment, instead of serving the protection of families “is in fact [intended] to put Fidesz’s hypocritical and exclusionary family policy in writing”.
    Title image: Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga. (source: Facebook)

  • Hungary and Poland won the battle, but the fight continues

    The Hungarian and Polish governments achieved a major victory at the EU summit in Brussels after standing up to liberals who were unfortunately joined by some from the center-right European People’s Party. Both Central European countries prevented the proposed rule-of-law mechanism from being used as a political bludgeon, political analyst Tamás Fricz writes in a column in daily Magyar Nemzet.
    We may have won this very important battle, but the war is not over yet. The attacks on Hungary and Poland will continue, and they will take other forms through the rule-of-law mechanism. That is why it is important to clarify, in theory and in the long run, what the rule of law means and how it is consciously distorted by liberal circles.
    We must make it clear at the outset what the European Union, and especially the European Commission and European Parliament, have done and intend to do with the rule of law, which is to abolish it and replace it with a liberal dictatorship of values.
    The rule of law (Rechtsstaatlichkeit) was originally the expression that those currently in power should be subject to the rule of law, thus protecting citizens against the arbitrariness of an absolute ruler. The rule of law is a liberal principle, the starting point of which is that all people have equal rights, which can be summed up as human and civil rights. In a state governed by the rule of law, individuals, parties, and governments that have gained power are also subject to rights, which prevents the establishment of arbitrary power, dictatorship, and the abuse of the majority’s dominance over the minority by a democratically elected government.
    The latter already demonstrates that the principles of the rule of law and democracy, although close to each other, are still not the same. While democracy focuses on popular sovereignty, popular will, and general elections, the rule of law protects citizens from the potential dictatorial aspirations of majority-acquired power and the arbitrariness of the majority.
    Based on these principles, we must also assume that the Union, although not a state in the traditional sense but a specific association of states with institutions (commission, parliament, and a court), also starts from the criteria of the rule of law for itself. If this is the case — and we have hoped so far that neither the Commission nor the Parliament imagines itself to be an absolute power above rights — then two very important conclusions follow:
    One is that the EU cannot abuse its majority power because, as we have seen, this is one of the fundamental criteria of the rule of law. It cannot be abused in the same way as specific governments within nation-states, which cannot ban opposition parties, imprison people arbitrarily, discriminate between groups of people, and prohibit elections. In nation states, the basic unit is the individual. In the Union — and not an absolute empire — the basic unit is the member state, and they all have equal rights. The EU was created on the basis of the equality and equal voting rights of the member states, it is not the Soviet Union or the Habsburg Monarchy.
    In short, the majority wanted to introduce new rule of law requirements in an anti-rule of law manner, as opposed to the EU treaties. But let us not be surprised at this (although we have every reason to be surprised), as their aim was obviously and still is to make a real change in the EU’s operating mechanisms by abolishing the veto and extending majority decisions, towards super-federalism, which may eventually lead to the end of the rule of law in the European Union.
    And this is no small paradox.
    One of the elements of this is the acceptance of migration as a fundamental human right, which consequently leads to the organization and facilitation of migration, along with the reception, support and integration of migrants. The key word here is solidarity , which is fundamentally a false value chanted by the liberal mainstream, in this case, which is increasingly being imposed on the member states as a “common EU value”, and which is expected to be included in a broad system of rule of law to make it a condition to offer financial support based on the formula presented by billionaire George Soros.
    At least as dangerous is gender theory, which advocates gender acceptance, and hence the requirement for special support for LGBTQ+ groups. A left-wing MEP named Helena Dalli has already submitted her proposal to make this law in the EU.
    In summary, the liberals wanted to deprive another concept of its original meaning, as they did with the word liberalism itself. So, we had to fight, and fight not just a political battle, but a linguistic battle as well. Make no mistake, they are working to making rule of law equal a dictatorship of values.
    And dictatorships must be fought against.

  • Echoes of support for Polish and Hungarian veto in French and Italian mainstream press

  • Kaczyński on EU budget deal: We did everything possible to protect Polish sovereignty

    The leader of Law and Justice (PiS), Jarosław Kaczyński, explained in an interview with Gazeta Polska that after the European Union summit, Poland now has tools to better protect its sovereignty than it would have had without a compromise.
    He said that everything that could have been gained was achieved.
    “On one hand we secured the position of our country within the EU and on the other, we strengthened the Polish budget and the economy with a powerful injection of funds,” he said.
    Kaczyński referred to claims that Poland should have demanded the withdrawal of the rule-of-law mechanism entirely from being tied to the EU budget. He pointed out that even if the mechanism was removed now, it could be introduced again in a few months and Poland would have no way of stopping it again.
    “I want to note that only a qualified majority would be needed and one would be found,” stressed Kaczyński
    The deputy prime minister also assured that the government was not naïve and was aware that the EU majority could break the compromise. He explained that the summit’s decisions give Poland strong arguments to fight for its interests. Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of PiS, deputy PM of Poland: We can all see what the EU is like, but our formation is the only one able to defend Polish interests in these extremely difficult and unfair conditions. What would happen if the Civic Coalition was in our place? They would agree to everything. “The compromise is like a sword, which we can use in the case of an attack. If we had not negotiated it and not led to such a precise formulation of the effects of our arrangement, we would be much less efficient. We still have control over the situation,” he said, adding that the European Commission had fulfilled its obligation and confirmed the negotiated text word for word.
    Kaczyński said that while he agreed that the EU currently was not the most reliable institution, he believed that it was better to have a weapon in hand in the form of the compromise than to be left without it.
    He also spoke in context of the stability of the United Right coalition following Zbigniew Ziobro’s announcement that his party Solidarity Poland will vote against the compromise in Polish parliament.
    Kaczyński hoped that common sense and care for Poland’s interests would prevail. The leader of PiS underlined that the United Right was a broad political camp and that there were highly differing groups within the coalition. All the groups were aware that it was the current government majority that could most efficiently reform Poland, develop it and defend its sovereignty.
    “We can all see what the EU is like, but our formation is the only one able to defend Polish interests in these extremely difficult and unfair conditions. What would happen if the Civic Coalition was in our place? They would agree to everything,” he said.
    Kaczyński stated that without the current government, there was no possibility to defend Polish sovereignty.

  • PM Orbán: Europe woke up at the last minute

    Having lost the United Kingdom, Europe is in bad shape, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in the Hungarian Parliament on Monday, adding that while Hungary and Poland may have won last week, “difficult issues remain ahead”.
    In his speech before the agenda, Orbán also spoke about the end of a six-month series of talks at the European Council last weekend. He explained that Europe is in a bad place today.
    “We have lost the UK, which was one of the largest economies in Europe, and the coronavirus has also spread to the European continent,” he said.
    He recalled that half a year ago, Germany had taken over the presidency of the European Council, and the decision had been made to set up a recovery fund to modernize the European economy due to the coronavirus crisis. The German proposal involved European nations taking a loan together and using it to create a recovery fund called Next Generation. Orbán pointed out that every penny of the fund was in the form of a loan that needed to be repaid, and whichever country failed to do so would leave other countries responsible for those debts.
    “We weren’t happy about that, but we adopted the German crisis management concept because of the countries in trouble,” he said.
    Orbán said that between July and November, the Germans negotiated with the European Parliament and finally reached an agreement that would have tied the basis for recovery to clear political and ideological conditions , adding that political attacks on Hungary had begun.
    ‘We have won’
    “A senior German official said: ‘Now we will have a tool that will be very painful for Hungary and Poland,’” Orbán said, referencing that Hungary and Poland had then announced their opposition to the European Parliament and Germany’s presidency of the European Council’s agreement.
    “Eventually common sense prevailed last weekend. We defended the money of the Hungarians and the sovereignty of the country,” Orbán said, who thanked the Poles for their camaraderie and cooperation.
    “Overall, it is not an exaggeration to say that we have won,” he said, pointing out that this decision had succeeded in preserving the unity of Europe.
    “I have defended the European constitution, we have averted the danger of imposing immigrants on Hungary with budget funds, and we have protected the money of the Hungarians which Hungary deserves, and it will receive,” the prime minister said.
    According to Orbán, the results they achieved show that the EU can only function successfully as a community of nations.
    “The debate was about who will govern the European Union in the future: the elected heads of government, or George Soros,” he said.
    Awakening at the last minute
    According to the prime minister, at the last minute, European governments “woke up “and made unanimous decisions.
    “An important phase has been completed, but difficult issues remain open,” he said, mentioning the European Commission’s Migration Action Plan as one such difficult issue.
    “It describes the need to continue importing migrants and even give them housing assistance and the right to vote,” Orbán said, adding that 34 million migrants are mentioned in the action plan. He also said that if that were not enough, a gender action plan would also be on the table.
    “Hungary is right in opposing the migration and gender action plan with all its might,” the prime minister said, adding that “Hungarian families should be supported instead of immigrants, and the traditional family model instead of gender.”
    Title image: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán speaks during the plenary session of Parliament on December 14, 2020. (MTI/Tibor Illyés)

  • While Hungarian minorities are intimidated, European institutions remain silent

    Following Ukraine’s SBU launching a criminal investigation against local councillors of the town of Syurte for singing the Hungarian national anthem alongside the Ukrainian one after a meeting, the Hungarian government has condemned the government’s persecution of the Hungarian minority in the country.
    “The Ukrainian intelligence services have stayed true to themselves: they have launched an investigation against Hungarian councillors because they have sung the anthem after a council meeting… The Ukrainian state wants European integration in words only. In truth, they evoke methods reminding us of the darkest hours of Soviet times for the intimidation of their citizens” wrote Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó.
    The Hungarian minorities in the case have been charged with treason, violating the territorial integrity of the country, and for falsifying documents. In what is seen as the latest example of authorities’ attempting to intimidate and persecute its Hungarian minority in the Sub-Carpathian region, there are also questions raised about Europe’s silence on the issue.
    The criminal investigation comes as the latest development in a series of incidents, in which authorities have raided a number of minority cultural institutions and educational centers, accompanied by anonymous death threats and multiple arson attacks. A draconian piece of legislation prohibiting the use of languages of national minorities in education, public life and culture introduced in 2017, has also been strongly criticized home and abroad .
    In recent days, letters have been sent to Hungarian institutions and community leaders containing death threats and calling for the expulsion of members of minorities from the country: “You have one week to leave the country. Otherwise, you will be poisoned like rats. You are our hostages” read the anonymous message. AP Photo/Laszlo Balogh In this Friday, Oct. 19, 2018 photograph, farmers from the Hungarian minority in Ukraine attend a ceremony distributing agricultural subsidies from the Hungarian government in Beherove, Ukraine. A new education law that could practically eliminate the use of Hungarian and other minority languages in schools after the 4th grade is just one of several issues threatening this community of 120,000 people. Many are worried that even as Ukraine strives to bring its laws and practices closer to European Union standards, its policies for minorities seem to be heading in a far more restrictive direction. The instigators of the latest incidents are thought to be members of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, Vitalij Bezhin and Oleksandr Kornyijenko, who have allegedly requested the SBU to investigate the events at the October council meeting in Syurte.
    Zelensky, a former comedian, who came to power in 2019 on a strong anti-establishment and anti-corruption platform, has projected a youthful and Bohemian image, which had won him the youth vote and the sympathy of those who hoped for a resolution to the political and territorial conflicts tearing Ukraine apart. However, the new president has mostly rejected outreach and reconciliation. His party has been bleeding voters since they have assumed power, and in the October regional elections, they have lost most of their councils to local candidates.
    As a result of their hardline stance on Russia and the conflict in the east of the country, they were seen as increasingly reliant on radical ultra-nationalists, favoring the suppression of the language and identity of minorities currently living in Ukraine.
    As a sign of discontent among the majority population as well, the brutal persecution of minorities has also been condemned by Ukrainian members of the Transcarpathian District Council, calling it a provocation and political pressure.
    “It is shocking how far the government is willing to go in order to put their own people at the top of the district council,” they said on their webpage.
    Europe is slow to react when it comes to the Hungarian minority
    “The Council of Europe must call on Ukraine to fulfil its obligations stemming from its membership in the organization and to refrain from threats against the Hungarian community,” wrote Zsolt Németh, leader of the Hungarian delegation in the CE. However, European leaders have been slow to react to the undemocratic developments in Ukraine, let alone condemn attacks on its minority communities. The leaders of the country — which has been trying to become a member of the European Union and NATO — have been encouraged by the silence from Brussels which given them freer reign to intimidate and oppress citizens without any international political consequences.
    Ukraine’s leaders also appear to be exploiting their status as a buffer between Europe and Russia to implement their ultra-nationalist policies with impunity. At the same time, they seem to have interpreted the political discord between Brussels and the Hungarian government as an opportunity for political point-scoring on their own. The continued delay in any notable disapproval from Brussels may have temporarily vindicated the Ukrainian government’s strategy.
    This strategy mimics that of the Romanian government, that had often used the anti-Hungarian card that not only plays well with radical segments of their own population, but seems to be tolerated by the EU’s elite in order to portray the Hungarian government as one unable to protect its minorities abroad. Protests of Hungarian minority representatives against provocations such as the desecration of a military cemetery in Valea Uzului, in Eastern-Romania, continue to fall on deaf ears in European institutions that are otherwise quick to condemn human rights violations in other parts of the world.

  • A new faultline has replaced the Iron Curtain

    There is no other nation on the continent that has historically been more reliant on a common Europe than Hungary —a country that has lost many of its citizens to fighting, world conflagrations, and many who have been stranded outside its own borders. The people of Brassó, Pozsony, the Highlands, and those of Voivodina and the Szeklers — which are all former Hungarian territories now belonging to neighboring countries — can only experience their Hungarian cultural identity within the European Union.
    Who are those that fail to comprehend this? In the West today, second- and third-generation political decision-makers and media opinion-mongers sit in leadership positions who have not fought for but inherited their freedom. In contrast, the leaders of the former eastern bloc countries themselves seized the opportunity to uphold the rule of law. On this eastern side of the Iron Curtain, it was taboo to define and live a national affiliation under communism for decades. The international repression forced on Hungary by the Soviet Union existed only from Hanoi to Havana, in that so-called second world. It is therefore natural for the Hungarian soul to dislike the system in which they are told what is good and bad from a very distant capital — a system that features subjective rule along with censorship and border closures instead of the rule of law.
    The difference in the perception of migration
    The global financial crisis, symbolized by the downfall of Lehman Brothers, made it clear where the greedy intoxication that followed capitalism’s victory over socialism led to casino capitalism. Even when stock markets decline, brokers still stand to profit.
    However, Hungary has taken a different response to the global economic crisis: a work-oriented society, a return to a social market economy, and eco-conscious development. This, of course, contrasts with casino capitalism, where money produces money faster than decent work.
    These are two different worldviews. This also explains why the migration crisis has become such a conflict. Proponents of unrestricted and uncontrolled immigration are in the vast majority in the German parliament. In the Hungarian parliament, the situation is quite the opposite. Both legislatures were democratically elected. Hungarians do not want to have a say in how the German state works. It would be equally liberating if German politicians chose not to interfere in Hungarian affairs either.
    However, the conflict did not start with the issue of migration. Due to the different value preferences of both Hungary and the West, and their decision to embark on alternate paths, stark differences have emerged. These differences have already manifested themselves in the past as well, such Hungary’s effort to oust the IMF from the country as well as Monsanto when the Hungarians made it clear that they had no desire for genetically modified grain production , but there were also disputes over utility bill reductions, which led to smaller profits for western companies present in Hungary.
    Consensus is extremely important, especially on issues like migration. The European lesson following the break-up of civilization caused by the Nazis is that all anti-Semitic tendencies must be rejected and all European societies must guarantee that their Jewish citizens are not in danger. Their protection is not the task of the armed forces, but of society as a whole. It should be natural for someone to be able to go out on the streets wearing a kippah without being insulted. Budapest can be a positive role model for living Jewish culture for Brussels, Paris and Berlin.
    Title image: Hungarian-bornn pop star Leslie (László) Mándoki. (source: mannafm.hu)

  • PM Orbán: Europe has not surrendered to George Soros

    Governments of the European Union member states have woken up at the last minute and stood up against billionaire George Soros, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote in an article published on his official website.
    “George Soros sheds crocodile tears, but this will not return the money of millions of people, families and businesses looted by the speculator, but it does offer a modicum of satisfaction,” Orbán wrote.
    He was referring to Soros’ article entitled “The Costs of Merkel’s Surrender to Hungarian and Polish Extortion ” , published on Dec. 10 on the opinion website Project Syndicate , which is the same day the European Council reached a compromise in the budget vs. rule-of-law debate. Project Syndicate is partly financed by the Open Society Foundation.
    Orbán wrote that the most corrupt man in the world and his network have good reason to be disappointed because Europe has not surrendered, and Soros’ grandiose plan was blocked at the European Council.
    The spotlight is on the budget money, the recovery fund, and how it will be accessed. Orbán stressed that the money in the EU budget has so far been kept under strict supervision in all member states.
    The Hungarian prime minister wrote that the real issue at stake at the Brussels meeting was who would govern Europe in the future. Would it be governments elected by the citizens of the member states and their council, or would it be Soros and his effort to build his centralized Europe devoid of nation states?
    In the new power structure offered by Soros, Orbán emphasized that it would represent a network of NGOs disseminating liberal, post-national and post-Christian ideas, all supported by the mainstream left-wing and right-wing media to reinforce the ideas promoted by these NGOs. At the political level, Soros could expect backing from a significant group of MEPs, Soros envoys to the European Commission, and their tool to link rule of law with sanctions on individual nation states, Orbán wrote.
    “The plan is as simple as it is grand. At its financial center is George Soros, who funds thousands of NGOs, research institutes, analytical workshops, and activists who influence the direction of mainstream media. It buys and networks a critical mass of MEPs, putting people working for him in key positions such as Frans Timmermans and Věra Jourová. Finally, it adopts a piece of legislation that sets political preconditions on gender, migration, an open society, and liberal democracy in order for member states to have access to EU funds,” Orbán wrote.
    Orbán wrote that according to Soros’ plan, countries that insist on their national sovereignty, Christian roots and traditional family model, such as Poland and Hungary, should be hung on this “deliberately woven” rope. And reluctant people, like the better-off Central European countries and the renowned Scandinavians, need to be assigned to public penance to understand the essence of liberal reasoning, he added.
    Orbán also emphasized that European governments had woken up at the last minute. They had read the rule-of-law country reports written by Soros along with Timmermans and Jourová, and suddenly everyone understood that the verdict had been completed before the trial even took place.
    Orbán therefore considers the decision of the European Council to go against Soros’s attempt to take power as an open form of opposition.
    “Political issues cannot be linked to financial issues, subjective criteria cannot be the basis for financial decisions, and the legal procedure laid down in the Treaty on the European Union cannot be implemented based on what Soros demands,” Orbán wrote.

  • “D-Day was a success,” Hungarian PM Orbán says in video message

    In the past three days, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán posted no less than nine short videos on his Facebook page, chronicling the events of the European Union summit, the joint Polish-Hungarian fight against political conditions being tied to EU funds, and the two countries’ eventual victory. He ended with a video in which he said, “Hungary is a great nation, and we deserve to be treated fairly. That’s happened today.”
    The first video was posted by Orbán two days ahead of the crucial EU summit, in which he says, “We have a good chance for victory in the EU budget debate.”
    The second video set the stage, with Orbán saying, “I’m leaving for Brussels now. Preparatory talks today, D-Day tomorrow morning,” followed by a still image a few hours later showing the Hungarian delegation embarking on a flight to Brussels.
    In the subsequent video, posted on the day when the trilateral agreement between Poland, Hungary and the German EU presidency was presumably reached, the PM said, “The winning cards are in our hands. We hope to have a fine day tomorrow.” The next morning, when the Hungarian press reported the agreement based on a draft text obtained by conservative daily Magyar Nemzet, Orbán said:
    “We gathered all of our friends and neutralized our opponents. The final negotiation begins within minutes. We hope that the end result will serve the interests of Hungary, the interests of Poland and also the interests of the European Union as a whole. Hungary is a great nation, and we deserve to be treated fairly. That’s happened today.”
    Skipping to the last video of the series, a short excerpt from the two prime ministers’ joint press conference in Brussels, Orbán said the following about the agreement:
    “This is the strongest instrument in the European Union we use today. So, congratulations to Mateusz and a little bit to myself as well. But this is the story. I love my country, I love my nation, and if we reach any result, it’s just because we are motivated by good ambitions. That’s the reason we reach our targets, even today.”
    Title image: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (L) and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawieczki (R) at a press conference in Brussels on December 10, 2020. (Facebook video capture )

  • The EU Budget deal – a pyrrhic victory for Poland and Hungary

    The past two days had seen three events that have ended in a flaming disaster despite being described by their participants as a great success.

    At first we have saw Elon Musk’s Starship rocket going up in flames, which was followed by a celebratory tweet from its owner saying, “Congrats SpaceX team hell yeah!!… Mars, here we come!!”

    Then, we saw optimistic articles in the British press hailing a significant progress in Brexit negotiations, and signposting from politicians such as Michael Gove that a deal was near. When two days ago Boris Johnson had landed in Brussels though, this was proven to be based more on wishful thinking than facts.

    Now a third development, again from Brussels, threatens to add to the list of mishaps given a healthy dose of spin.

    The looming crisis over the EU budget being tied to a rule-of-law mechanism – which could have resulted in funds being cut to so-called violators of democratic principles – was averted by a preliminary deal reached between Poland, Hungary and the rest of the 27 member states. The two countries have been strongly opposed to such a conditioning of the budget and recovery funds, and given the numerous precedents in which they have found themselves in fundamental opposition to migration or gender policies championed by European Institutions, their fears that the mechanism will be specifically calibrated against them is not entirely unfounded.

    On Thursday night, some media outlets in Hungary have hailed a major victory for Viktor Orbán and Mateusz Morawiecki when news of a deal were starting to trickle in from Brussels. Unusually, even opposition news-sites, usually strongly critical of the Hungarian government, have not evaluated the deal as a defeat or climb-down from the Hungarian prime minister’s side. Hungarian MEP for Fidesz, Tamás Deutsch, posted on his social media platform saying: “We have won! Hungary has won, the Polish-Hungarian friendship has won, Europe has won! It is worth standing up for our country.”

    Despite such claims of victory, the fact of the matter is that the rule-of-law condition remains firmly in the text as a condition for receiving resources from the European budget, something that had prompted the two countries’ original veto. The only addition is a clause which allows the two countries to challenge the legality of the rule-of-law mechanism in front of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). This criteria cannot be applied until the official verdict of the court. Hungary and Poland have already signaled that they will mount such a legal challenge at the ECJ.

    Another concession is the agreement that the new mechanism will not apply to ongoing projects being drawn from the the EU’s last budget, but will only be applicable to the new one. This is important since Hungary still has not used up its full share of the European cohesion funds, over €10 billion are still at their disposal from the old budget.

    Furthermore, according to the new clause, the European Commission must create directives for the interpretation of the new mechanism. This should make it clear that the EU can only apply this mechanism in the interest of the protection of its financial stability, and only in cases that are within its legal competences. Before funds can be withheld from a member state, a dialogue must be conducted to find a remedy. This, according to the new addition, may involve the European Council as well, should the relevant parties require it.

    Thus, the key element in the compromise is the future ruling of the Court of Justice, however, during the debate preceding Thursday’s compromise agreement, European diplomats were adamant that the rule-of-law mechanism is entirely compatible with European legislation and treaties. The ruling on the matter can take many months, or even years, but if the decision goes against Hungary and Poland, the mechanism will move ahead with full force. Furthermore, if there was a change of government in either countries, a left-leaning coalition would almost certainly withdraw its challenge from the Court.
    One obviously cannot pre-empt the ruling of the court, especially in such a complex matter, yet there are certain precedents that can help in weighing up the possible outcomes of this challenge, such as the fact that the ECJ interprets European legislation in the spirit of the ruling European ethos – the same ethos which often prompted accusations of political bias from the supposedly unbiased institution.

    All things considered then, the only certain thing that has been achieved on Thursday night was a delay in the implementation of the rule-of-law mechanism. In case Europe will not change direction in its migration and progressive social policies, this fact will hang as Damocles’ sword over the two Central-Eastern European nations.

    Opinions differ on just how much time Poland and Hungary have won with this amendment, given that the ECJ’s rulings can take anything from a few months to many years. The crucial date, however, as far the Viktor Orbán’s government is concerned, is 2022, when Hungarian parliamentary election are scheduled. In case that Hungary, if Hungary were to be hit by financial sanctions under the new European budget distribution mechanism, this could seriously impact the present government’s chances to retain its power, especially during a time of double-digit recession as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

    Věra Jourová, the European Commission’s Vice President, has also already indicated that the decision will be fast-tracked at the court.

    “I expect the proceeding to go fast. In my view, we are talking about months rather than years,” she stated. Although such predictions from high-ranking EU officials do raise further questions about the procedural independence of the ECJ, this will put more pressure on the Hungarian and Polish government’s ability to create the necessary alliances shielding their countries against a possible blocking of European funds.

    If this interpretation is indeed correct, then the obvious question arises: Why did Poland and Hungary sign such a compromise despite their earlier strong opposition instead of sticking to their guns? The give-away is Orbán’s sudden trip to Poland on Tuesday.

    The unexpected will to compromise can, to a large extent, be traced back to Polish internal politics, more precisely, to tensions within the ruling coalition government. The ruling PiS party’s position has become precarious since the ruling of Poland’s Constitutional Court in the matter of abortion laws. According to some analysts, the ruling coalition may have lost as much as 10 percentage points in the polls over their support for the Court’s decision, which made them more reliant on their two smaller coalition parties. The recent vote of confidence against party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski did not help in strengthening the government’s position either. Yet, it was the behind-the-scenes negotiations between Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Gowin and some European officials that had prompted a preemptive action on the part of Viktor Orbán and Mateusz Morawiecki.

    If Gowin’s Porozumienie party were to leave the coalition, this would lead to the fall of the government and to early elections. Because of PiS’ precarious current electoral position, this is a development that not only Morawiecki, but also Viktor Orbán, was trying to prevent at all costs, even at the expense of their veto against the rule-of-law mechanism. This will, of course, leave the Polish government exposed from the side of their other coalition party, the conservative Solidarna Polska, that was very adamant on maintaining the veto.

    The current compromise, be it favorable or damaging for either of the sides involved, was absolutely necessary. From the point of view of the EU leadership, the continued blocking of the EU’s budget and emergency funds was untenable. From the Polish-Hungarian side, the gathering dark clouds over Warsaw have given them no other choice but to give up their hard-stance towards the rule-of-law mechanism and to shake hands with their European partners.

    As far as the two countries are concerned, given the circumstances, the compromise is the best possible option currently available on the table. It is certainly more than “more than nothing”. There is something they can bring home from Brussels and present it to their voters as a solution to the European impasse. Whether this is a “victory” or not, their voters will decide. The imminent budgetary crisis has, in effect, been traded for an uncertain future outcome. Whatever the ruling of the ECJ may be, and however EU member state will choose to interpret or implement it, this will without doubt define Poland and Hungary’s future EU membership.

  • Poland and Hungary surrender their veto: ‘Not everybody can be General de Gaulle or Margaret Thatcher’

    Poland and Hungary surrender their veto: ‘Not everybody can be General de Gaulle or Margaret Thatcher’

    “Not everybody can be General de Gaulle or Margaret Thatcher, those two leaders who, without a shiver, blocked for years the functioning of Europe,” French left-wing daily newspaper Libération ’s long time correspondent in Brussels wrote after Mateusz Morawiecki and Viktor Orbán lifted their veto against the EU budget and recovery plan. “Poland and Hungary fell into line at the European summit which opened on Thursday, without obtaining what they had been asking for,” Jean Quatremer further wrote.

    In equally left-wing Le Monde , readers were reassured that “the mechanism that conditions European funds to a country’s abidance by the rule of law (…) has not been modified.” Center-right Le Figaro had the same take, stating that the new rule-of-law mechanism has just seen its application postponed by a year or two, but it will eventually bring about a lasting change. Furthermore, as the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte demanded, it will apply retroactively to funds paid from January 1, 2021.

    The Spanish center-right daily newspaper ABC agreed : “The only thing Poland and Hungary have achieved is to obtain a guarantee they can turn to the European Court of Justice in Luxemburg and ask it to rule on the legality of the democratic conditionality mechanism.” Center-right El Mundo noted that “the interpretative declaration that will be included in the European Council’s conclusions do not change a single comma in the legal biding text which was on the table before the veto and obtained supported from the European Parliament.”

    Left-wing El País wrote about a “successful neutralization of the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Polish ally Mateusz Morawiecki”. According to El País, concessions made to Poland and Hungary were “minimal” and just enough to allow them to get out of this negotiation without feeling humiliated.
    “Poland’s and Hungary’s veto over the rule of law melted away like snow in the sun,” one could read in Il Giornale, an Italian right-wing newspaper which had published a number articles defending the Polish-Hungarian veto.

    It is true, as Morawiecki and Orbán insisted, that the project of declaration prepared by the German presidency of the Council contains answers to Polish and Hungarian objections to the rule of law mechanism. It says that the objective of the new regulation is to protect the EU budget and recovery plan, their sound financial management, and the Union’s financial interest. It also says that the application of the new conditionality mechanism will be “objective, fair, impartial and fact-based,” ensuring “equal treatment of Member States.” Moreover, the rule-of-law mechanism will only apply to the new Multiannual Financial Framework, including Next Generation EU, and not to outstanding funds from the previous Multiannual Financial Framework.

    So far, so good.

    However, as both supporters and critics of the new rule-of-law mechanism reckon, contrary to the regulation itself, the European Council’s conclusions will have no direct legal effect. Therefore, it will be for unelected judges of the European Court of Justice to decide on whether the new rule-of-law mechanism can stand in the light of the European treaties. The ECJ has a history of judicial activism in favor of a more federal European Union, and this was one of the essential points made by Brexiters in the run-up to the 2016 referendum in the UK, as the ECJ’s action makes the whole process of European integration very undemocratic. And there is indeed one more thing on which supporters and opponents of the rule-of-law mechanism agree on: the new mechanism holds the potential to be a giant leap towards more European uniformity (“integration”). And there should be no doubt the European Commission will use such potential to its full extent, as it has always done with other instruments in the past.

    Of course, it is said in the European Council’s declaration that the new rule of law mechanism will not be used to force certain policies or laws on member states in the fields of family or immigration. However, the regulation agreed on with the European Parliament in early November refers not only to a strict understanding of the rule of law, including the necessity to have an independent judiciary. It also refers to all values and principles listed in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union , which states:
    “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.”

    It is worth noting, for example, the principles of equality, respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities, non-discrimination, tolerance, and equality between women and men.
    In the eyes of the French secretary of state for Europe, who is said to have Emmanuel Macron’s full confidence (he used to be the French president’s primary advisor for European affairs), these principles would justify using the new rule-of-law mechanism against Poland if that country decided to withdraw from the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention, even though there is no obligation to ratify this convention under EU law.

    Secretary of State Clément Beaune made his coming out as a gay man last Wednesday when he said in an interview with the gay magazine Têtu that his homosexuality makes him feel even “more responsible” for fighting “state homophobia” in Poland and Hungary. He also plans a trip to Poland early next year to give support to those “who defend the right to abortion”, as killing a baby in the womb has now become a fundamental right in France.

    Thus, in the eyes of the French representative to the Council of the EU, even without questioning Poland’s family laws, there are many good reasons to sanction Poland using the new rule-of-law mechanism based on violations of his interpretation of principles listed in Article 2.

    In the light of the European treaties, hitting Poland with sanctions for any of those reasons would require unanimity among other member states. With the new rule-of-law mechanism, regardless of the European Council’s conclusions, a qualified majority in the Council of the EU will do.

  • Opinion: Dutch misers, not Central Europeans, are the threat to EU integration

    Commentators, such as Timothy Garton Ash in The Guardian , accuse Polish and Hungarian leaders of attempting to selfishly block funding for Southern Europe to protect their right to spend that money as they wish and without limits. He is of course referring to the dispute over the rule of law conditionality mechanism. It’s part of the stereotype of generous net payers from the West being faced with ungrateful net beneficiaries from the East failing to understand that he who pays the piper calls the tune.
    However, to argue that the Netherlands is chomping at the bit to transfer funds to the East is absurd. In reality, it was the “frugal four” (Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and Denmark) who fought tooth and nail to stop transfers from taking the form of grants.
    The “frugal four” wanted loans to be conditional on Southern Europeans pursuing austerity and internal reforms. Mark Rutte, the Dutch PM, had a mandate from his parliament to actually veto any such notion of a “give-away.” He did not have to use that veto, as a rule of law mechanism was instituted as leverage to be used against the beneficiary countries — a convenient instrument that could first be used against Poland and Hungary for political reasons before being used to discipline the South of Europe for economic reasons. The real division in the Europe of today is not between East and West, but between North and South. The real division in the Europe of today is not between East and West, but between North and South. The rule of law was just a pretext to show voters that solidarity has a price. The transfers are to be made, but the frugal states will gain some control over who gets the money and how it is spent.
    Back in the summer, the Dutch PM will no doubt have recalled how the Greek crisis nearly toppled his government when he agreed to aid packages for Greece, despite parliamentary opposition. He did not want a repeat of such scenes just three months ahead of a general election in March. The Dutch political scene has plenty of Eurosceptics who want the Netherlands to take Britain’s place in the EU as the country that stops excessive social spending from being tolerated by the Franco-German tandem that runs the EU.
    The Dutch Government is a liberal one, which believes that market-oriented policies account for their country’s prosperity and is thus irritated that Italians and Greeks do not want to follow suit.
    The Dutch are missing Britain inside the EU. Like the British, they see the EU as an economic project, a common market that should benefit them. In other words, they are behaving exactly the same way they accuse the Poles and Hungarians of treating the Union: as a source of funds. They want trade and prosperity rather than solidarity. They are fighting for their own interests and not for the rule of law or democracy. And they are trying hard to resist mutual debt, which is needed to make the Eurozone workable.
    Had Hungary vetoed the EU budget and recovery fund, the Dutch would have been pleased to have saved money. But they are also happy with a rule of law mechanism that could in the future be used to stop funding Greece and Italy. Any such attempts, however, would likely put pressure on a Union already being torn apart by the protectionist behavior of Western Europe, such as the posted workers directive and mobility pact, currently targeted to stop competition from Central and Eastern Europe. The rule of law mechanism is another attempt by liberals to regain control over a scenario that was to be “the end of history,” with the new member states becoming carbon copies of their Western partners.
    The mechanism is part of a change in the rules of engagement inside the EU. It is going to be increasingly difficult to build consensus and compromise. It will not help the wealthy North, the poor South or our own Eastern peripheries.
    Title image: Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020, AP.

  • Polish and Hungarian PMs claim EU budget victory, but ruling coalition in Poland is in danger

    Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki insisted that the rule of law mechanism could now not be used in a discretionary way to sanction countries based on political will and that the EC has been mandated to work accordingly. He believes that this ensures full transparency for the process and respect for EU treaties.
    According to the Polish prime minister, the conclusions of this summit have the force of European law, which will be hard to change. The conclusions, according to the head of the Polish Government, ensure that rule of law and the EU budget are kept separate in accordance with EU treaties. He was convinced that this settlement provides for far stronger guarantees that the mechanism would not be used in an arbitrary fashion than existed just two weeks ago. Viktor Orbán, Hungarian PM: I love standing shoulder to shoulder with Poles in a struggle. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that during his 30 years in international politics he had never seen anything like this and could not remember negotiations that had been so difficult. He jokingly pitied Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki for having the responsibility of leading the Visegrad Group during the process.
    “I love standing shoulder to shoulder with Poles in a struggle,” said Orbán.
    “Together we saved EU unity. This was not just a debate about the rule of law but the very future of the EU. The central question was where authority lies in the EU: the EU institutions or the nation states,” he continued. In conclusion, he said that the decisions taken on Thursday could only be changed on the basis of unanimity, “the strongest possible instrument inside the EU.” gov.pl The leader of a PiS coalition partner, Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, called the deal in Brussels a mistake against which his party had repeatedly warned. But Zbigniew Ziobro, current justice minister and the leader of a junior partner in the PiS coalition, believes that the two countries have not managed to secure a satisfactory containment of the rule of law conditionality.
    Orbán’s and Morawiecki’s arguments were not accepted by Ziobro, who says that the European Court of Justice has on repeated occasions ruled that conclusions of the European Council do not have the force of law. He believes that the rule of law conditionality mechanism will mean reduced sovereignty for Poland, a breach of EU treaties.
    “It will allow the European Commission to interfere in the activities of the president, parliament, government and even local governments in almost every field,” assessed the leader of Solidarity Poland.
    Ziobro concluded a social media post on Thursday night by calling the acceptance of the rule of law conditionality mechanism a mistake against which his party had repeatedly warned since July’s European Council and that his party would now have to meet to consider the implications of the decision not to use the veto.

  • “Pole and Hungarian brothers be” – commentary

    Taking into account that Hungary and Poland have won a major battle with the Brussels bureaucracy, maybe it is time for the West to take a good look at the two countries’ history of freedom fights, Magyar Hírlap publicist Péter G. Fehér writes .
    According to Brussels, rule of law is being undermined in Hungary and Poland, and based on this vague notion, the EU would have been willing to only pay the budgetary and epidemic compensation that would otherwise be legally due under the Treaty if the Community’s values ​​were respected.
    This primitive blackmail, the punitive plan concocted in the Brussels bubble, was dead on arrival. How could the Eurocrats think that any of the leaders of the two countries would commit identity suicide, as many Western European countries do today? Do you give up everything — the nation-state, Christianity, the traditional family model, sovereignty — that are the most important pillars of your future existence, and all for money?
    After some research, those in the capital of Europe might have realized what they should have learned a long time ago about the turbulent history of these two peoples: Another defining tenet of their survival is sticking together, even if it might look disadvantageous for one of them at the moment.
    Prior to the current EU summit, the several personal meetings between the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki were also a message to the people in Brussels. In spite of the feverish ideas of the EU and the reasoning of the café intellectuals, the friendship between the two peoples cannot be cut down, that is, they cannot be played against each other. They may say money can buy everything, but it turns out that there is no money — at least not for us — for which a thousand-year-old friendship would be sold.
    Here and now, I will only mention in passing the positive results of the events of hundreds of years of Hungarian-Polish historical relations. Let it be enough to recall the common struggle against communism in 1956. On October 23, students from Budapest took to the streets in support of their Polish counterparts, who protested in the big cities there over the suppression of the workers’ uprising in Poznań, the Soviet intervention and the rule of the Communist Party.
    The Polish events at the time laid the foundation for the regime change there. Today, the same person who was there in the summer of 1987 in Gdańsk is now the Prime Minister of Hungary. He made his third pilgrimage to the homeland of Pope John Paul, the Polish pope, and took part in opposition demonstrations. Viktor Orbán also wrote his dissertation on the topic of the Polish opposition movement, and then, during the change of regime in Hungary, he was the first to demand the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary in Heroes’ Square in Budapest.
    The Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, comes from a truly warrior family. His father fought against Communism as an activist in the underground Solidarity movement. He was imprisoned, then expelled from the country, escaped but was expelled again; even his passport was taken away, but he escaped again. Such is the family background of the Polish Prime Minister. Now, these two heads of government have successfully confronted the arbitrariness of Brussels and forced the payment of what they are legitimately due.
    In the EU bubble, they should have taken into account more than just the Hungarian opposition’s fake videos about the state of affairs in the country. With this and their campaign against the government during the coronavirus, the opposition parties caused severe damage to Hungary. And the Eurocrats have a historic lesson to learn, but it’s better late than never.
    Editor’s note: The title refers to a popular rhyme that has both Hungarian and English versions and reads:
    “Pole and Hungarian brothers be, good for fight and good for party. Both are valiant, both are lively, Upon them may God’s blessings be.”
    Title image: Poles and Hungarians by Johann Wilhelm Baur (Czartoryski Museum, Kraków)

  • Something is rotten in the state of Netherlands – commentary

    Western Europe has an obsession with criticizing Hungarian rule of law, but some of the most vocal critics, such as the Netherlands, completely ignore their own constitutional shortcomings, Dániel Horogszegi Szilágyi-Landeck, leader of the Foundation for a Civic Hungary’s Brussels representation, writes in a column on conservative news and opinion portal Mandiner.
    The Court of Justice of the European Union has recently ruled clearly that one of the main elements of the Dutch legal system, the situation of the prosecution, is problematic. The problem is caused by the fact that the prosecution is not independent enough, as it is or can be under the direct influence of the Minister of Justice. This position was reached by the panel in a relatively technical legal dispute, but this is far from the main concern of the Dutch Public Prosecutor’s Office. For example, the public prosecutor alone decides whether or not to take action against a particular crime. While in Germany, the prosecutor’s office is obliged to take action against crimes, in the Netherlands, the public prosecutor may also refrain from instituting proceedings in the case of clear offenses.
    This creates an opportunity for political influence, possibly blackmail, but even ordinary “laziness.” If that weren’t enough: the prosecutor’s office can also act as a judge. In the Netherlands, about half of the crimes are “convicted” in such a way that the court does not take part in or intervene, let alone pass judgment. In half of the cases, the prosecutor bargains with the accused until a sentence commensurate with both of them is agreed upon, either without a judge, without evidence or without witnesses.
    The Dutch are very proud of this because they consider this system to be cheap and efficient; there are few criminal proceedings, judgments are mild, hardly anyone is behind bars. The crime rate from this, of course, is not yet low, nor can this be considered appropriate from the point of view of the rule of law.
    As a result, many legal experts consider this system to be particularly problematic. Even the Social Democrat-led German state radio, the left-liberal Deutschlandfunk, produced a long special about it last year that had a critical tone.
    In the Netherlands, of course, this is by no means the only problem with the rule of law and democracy. There are many elements of the Dutch system, which can be problematic if we take these two terms seriously. The Netherlands is a monarchy, meaning that the head of state is not elected, but the king becomes the head of state by inheritance. But the Dutch King is not just a head of state; he is actually a member of the government. In addition, the government is appointed by him, without the formal involvement of parliament.
    If we consider that the Dutch Constitution never mentions that the Netherlands is a democracy, that there is no constitutional court, and that the constitution explicitly forbids judges from reviewing the constitutionality of laws, we are no longer surprised that mayors are also appointed by the government to head municipalities.
    The funding of Dutch parties is also very interesting. First of all, it’s completely secret. No one knows how much money each party gets nor from where. There is no transparency. This would be unthinkable in most European democracies.
    We do not need Dutch left-liberalism, and they are not asking for Hungarian conservative Christian democracy, and there is nothing wrong with that. But no one should think they can go on a witch hunt against Central European states based on their perceived superiority. The EU is built on member states of equal standing and rank. Without strong member states, there is no EU. Colonialism is over. Let the false accusations finally come to an end!
    Title image: The Royal Palace of Amsterdam is one of three palaces in the Netherlands that are at the disposal of the monarch by Act of Parliament. (Diego Delso, Wikimedia Commons)

  • Hungary and Poland claim victory in rule-of-law negotiations

    Following crunch talks, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki celebrated what they said was a victory in negotations over the rule-of-law conditionarly mechanism, which both governments feared would give Brussels control over policies regarding migration, abortion rights, gender issues, judicial reform, and much more in member states.
    Although the exact details of the agreement have not been finalized, Orban said that both Hungary and Poland had what they wanted.
    “We’ve won. In a difficult period of pandemic, economic crisis, there’s no time to continue political and ideological debates that prevent us from acting,” said Orban.
    A joint press conference involving Orban and Morawiecki held a presser. Orbán said that common sense prevailed and that they achieved three important goals during their negotiations with the EU.
    “We defended the European Constitution. We did not allow them to go around it,” said Orbán regarding the first goal, and regarding the second, he added, “”We prevented the danger of using budgetary measures to pressure Hungarians into taking decisions that we do not want.”
    “And ultimately, we defended the Hungarian funds, which will be needed in the coming years for economic development.”

    While the language regarding the rule-of-law mechanism has reportedly been watered down, the rule-of-law sanctions mechanism is still expected to be a potential danger for both countries. In fact, politicians who have pursued Hungary and Poland most aggressively, are also cheering what they view was the outcome of the rule-of-law debate.

    Manfred Weber, the chairman of the European People’s Party, which has suspended the membership of Fidesz, took to social media to celebrate along with Petri Sarvamaa, an MEP and a negotatior on rule of law.
    In the new deal, Poland and Hungary will have the right to challenge rule-of-law decisions in the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which could delay any negative judgements for months and even years. However, there are fears that both countries are just buying time until they face the inevitable fallout from tying their share of the EU budget to rule-of-law decisions, although the exact wording of the agreement has not yet been released.

    Polish Deputy Minister of Justice Marcin Romanowski, who is critical of the agreement struck, wrote on Twitter that the deal is not a good one: “The adoption of a regulation linking the budget with ideology is a consent to dependence on the political whims of the European establishment. However, the possible conclusions of the European Council are only a political resolution which cannot change the law, which is the regulation.”

    He wrote that the law will not change despite the claims of Hungary and Poland, as the European Council is simply offering a political resolution that will not have any real say on what the final law is.

  • A compromise over rule of law must not carry with it defeat

    What is currently at stake is much more than just the European Union budget and recovery fund. As a result of Germany’s intervention, the sovereignty of member states is now under threat.
    Poland and Hungary, two nations very sensitive and aware of their hard-won independence, are first in line to be tested in this new power grab.
    What emerged from Germany, the European Commission and the European Parliament was unacceptable . The veto had to be used to defend nations from an arbitrary rule-of-law conditionality mechanism.
    The threat was highlighted at Tuesday’s conference organized in Warsaw by the Institute of Justice on the link between rule of law, the EU budget, and the future of the EU. We heard how the mechanism was in reality a stalking horse for European federalism.
    According to a senior Law and Justice party (PiS) MEP, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, Poland has made a mistake in wasting time on trying to prove Poland is rule-of-law compliant when it should have been trying to prove that it is the EU which is breaking the principle of the rule of law by violating its own treaties.
    Participants were also critical of the idea proposed by Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Gowin who came back from Brussels last week arguing that it would be enough to adopt a protocol of interpretation. Experts felt that this was not enough, as such a protocol would not be equal in legal weight to the original text.
    The compromise which Poland and Hungary are discussing with Germany fortunately goes further. It would take the form of a declaration by the European Council that all member states retain the rights emanating from EU treaties and that rule of law conditionality is to be limited to issues involving fraud and corruption.
    German correspondent in Brussels Peter Kopern has posted a leaked copy of draft of the compromise worked out among the Berlin-Warsaw-Budapest line. According to him, this document is currently being discussed by EU member states. The key issue now is what exactly will be the legal force of such a declaration and whether it will really defend member states’ interests. According to diplomats close to the negotiations, the European Commission will be mandated to pursue the mechanism only in line with European Council conclusions and that should constrain the way it is used.
    However, it must be remembered that conclusions of European Council meetings have not been interpreted as a source of law. The rule-of-law mechanism is to be a part of European law. Therefore, the emerging construct is of one legal document being counterbalanced by a political interpretation of it, albeit at the highest possible EU level.
    The conclusions are to be strengthened by a pledge by all the EU’s players that this is how they perceive the rule-of-law mechanism. Another less formal settlement will be the promise that the mechanism will not be used until the European Court of Justice has ruled on its compatibility with EU treaties, a process which could take up to two years.
    This means that we will not know whether this settlement would be a success or a defeat until we test the strength of the European Council’s conclusion in practice. Only then will we know whether it was worth withdrawing the veto.
    Poland’s negotiators are playing for high stakes.
    Every word and comma will count. A good agreement is maybe within reach, but the threat of a defeat deferred in time but fundamental and painful in its consequences remains. And all that depends on member states agreeing to swallow such a compromise in the first place.

  • Hungarian press hails joint victory with Poland in budget over rule-of-law battle

    Hungary, Poland and the German presidency of the European Council have hammered out a compromise document in the two sides’ debate with regard to linking budget and recovery fund payments to rule of law conditions.
    Hungarian news outlet Magyar Nemzet, which has obtained the draft of the Hungarian-Polish-German agreement, claims it contains significantly more legal and less political criteria than a previous pact between the European Parliament and the German presidency.
    A clause has been added to the rule-of-law regulation, which explicitly states that the possible withdrawal of resources can only happen on the basis of certain criteria.
    The draft agreement states that the EU cannot use migration or family policy, nor differences of opinion about them as the basis for any sanction. This new text also states that the rule-of-law regulation can only be applied taking into account the national identities of the member states. The previous agreement between the German presidency and the European Parliament did not mention this before.
    “The application of the system of conditions will be carried out objectively, fairly, impartially and on the basis of facts. Ensuring the right to a fair trial, non-discrimination and equal treatment between Member States,” the new agreement reportedly says.
    Both Hungary and Poland previously used their veto to block the EU’s seven-year budget and recovery funds over its concerns over the new rule-of-law sanctions mechanism, which both countries feared Brussels would use to control migration and family planning in member states.
    EU basic treaty unavoidable
    The rule-of-law proposal, which already contains a closed list of sanctions, will only be applicable if other procedures laid down in EU law do not provide more effective protection for the EU budget.
    This was also an old argument of the Hungarian government, as the EU treaties include infringement proceedings as well as the so-called rule of law procedure under Article 7.
    The new agreement also states that it addresses the issue of the rule of law as a matter of priority, so Brussels would not set up another procedure to override EU law.
    Legal procedures instead of ideological cloud castles
    It is also a step forward that legal certainty and redress are more pronounced in the regulation. Member states may refer the matter to the European Court of Justice for a review of its legality. This could lead to many years of legal proceeding, and as long as the court is investigating, the European Commission cannot propose measures.
    Thus, in actions for annulment, the issue of the rule of law outlined will not be operational in practice for approximately two years. This is perhaps the most important point in the newly negotiated text, which was not previously in the European Parliament’s position.
    A similar innovation is that the EU’s top body, the European Council of Heads of State and Government, will play a greater role. If a member state refers the sanction taken to the European Council, the chair of the panel should put the issue on the agenda, with the aim of reaching a full agreement between the 27 countries.
    Hungarian and Polish success, with guarantees
    It is the unanimous opinion of government sources that Hungary has succeeded in adopting extremely favorable points for the country.
    If the agreement is approved by the leaders at the EU summit beginning today and then ratified by force by the European Parliament, it will mean a very strong political commitment, so the participants cannot back out. Should this happen, national parliaments could still withdraw from the final ratification of the package.
    Title image: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán meet in Sopron, western Hungary on August 19, 2019. (MTI/Szilárd Koszticsák)

  • Poll: Large majority of Hungarians reject Soros’ proposal urging EU to sanction Hungary

    Hungarian think tank Századvég’s new opinion poll whose results show that the vast majority of Hungarians reject George Soros’ proposal that Europe must stand up to Hungary and Poland and financially punish the two nations, which were suggestions featured in an article in the billionaire financier’s Open Society Foundation,
    Based on the polling research, a majority of the respondents (52 percent) were aware that Soros had suggested in his article that Brussels take action against Hungary and Poland, while 47 percent had no knowledge of it.
    According to the US billionaire’s interpretation, the rule of law mechanism in question is already in place, so the veto may result in the European Union’s budget expiring at the end of the year, but violators of the “rule-of-law” criteria will not be eligible for funding . The Hungarian and Polish governments fear that rule of law will be used by Brussels to abolish their national policies on immigration, abortion, traditional values, gender ideology, and a range of other conservative positions rejected by the liberals who dominate the European Union.
    However, the survey highlights that nearly two-thirds of respondents (63 percent) believe that Hungary is a free, independent country that Brussels cannot punish, while only 27 percent say Hungary should be sanctioned for violating EU rules and principles.
    The survey shows that 73 percent of respondents disagree with the Soros’ suggestion that all EU member states should be open societies and that each country’s legislation on migration and citizenship should be determined by the Brussels bureaucracy. In contrast, only 20 percent of them support Soros’ suggestion.
    The survey shows that 84 percent of respondents find it unacceptable for Brussels to demand the opening of borders and the admission of Middle Eastern and African migrants in exchange for economic aid, in line with the idea of ​​an open society, while only 7 percent would not object to such a move.
    szazadveg.hu Hungarians’ opinions about George Soros as a person. (red: negative) The research also looked at public opinion about Soros as a person. Three out of five voters expressed an unfavorable opinion about the American businessman (60 percent) and only a fifth were sympathetic (20 percent).
    Századvég concluded in a summary of the survey that in light of these results, it can be stated that Soros and his proposals aimed at punishing Hungary and realizing the vision of an open society are both rejected by Hungarians on a significant scale.

  • The EU has become a hostage of George Soros

    George Soros has been holding the Union in his hands for years, especially the Commission and, increasingly, the European Parliament.
    But this autumn, events have accelerated terribly fast, as he has apparently ran out of patience and wants to quickly take action, which means that he wants to sweep the country in which he was born in 1930 out of the way. (And, if necessary, the Visegrád Group with it, though he trusts that after the Slovaks and the Czechs, the Poles will yield before any further action becomes necessary. Unfortunately, his confidence at the moment is not entirely unfounded, although I still have unreserved trust in the Poles.)
    Soros had already written three articles on the pages of Project Syndicate in the past two months — a level of activity from the “Good Samaritan” that we have never seen before.
    His first article appeared in October, in which he explained that “the ruling of the European Court of Justice that Hungary violates European law is a victory for the fundamental values ​​of the European Union.” He concluded his piece by writing: “I call on the EU to take legal action against Hungary.”
    It was already here that he had begun to instruct the leaders of the Union, which he had never undertaken in such a tone before.
    In his second piece on Nov. 18, it is clear he needed a sufficient response filled with vigor when it became clear that Hungary and Poland had raised the possibility of a veto.
    At that time, Viktor Orbán felt that the best solution was to answer Soros’ amazing and biased column directly in Project Syndicate as well. The editorial board refused to publish Orbán’s response , and scandalously justified this by claiming they do not publish articles that do not meet their standards, which they say is writing which should advance dialogue on any particular issue. It is clear that more or less no matter what he wrote, he had no chance of being published.
    This is long beyond the question of freedom of the press: it is simply political revenge and political war.
    By the way, I would like to note here that it is worth mentioning that Project Syndicate is an important center of the infinitely complex world network created by Soros — and behind it the global elite. Launched in 1995, headquartered in Prague, it had 506 media connections in 156 countries as of 2019.
    Project Syndicate is, of course, supported by the Open Society Foundation, as well as the Zeit Stiftung and, quite interestingly, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. (The link between Gates and Soros, especially in times of a coronavirus epidemic and the launch of a worldwide vaccine, is the type of elite partnership that is unsurprising but alarming all the same).
    But now here comes the latest piece from Soros, serving as the third article in a row in less than a month. A few days ago, he suggested that the Hungarian and Polish vetoes could be overcome by the other 25 countries agreeing on an enhanced cooperation procedure on the distribution of money, and thus the two countries of Poland and Hungary will be left out of cooperation — which, if the EU did this, would, in my view, make our EU membership superfluous.
    And — what a coincidence — after the publication of the article, German politicians quite by chance proposed precisely this same solution to resolve the current crisis and stalemate. Surely these are wondrous coincidences, but somehow I can’t believe them.
    Rather, we are subjected to hellish blackmail along with the Poles. It is a shame that the leaders in Brussels and the heads of governments, including Angela Merkel, have succumbed to the will of the globalist elite at this level.
    But Viktor Orbán, Judit Varga and the others — like our famous poet Sándor Petőfi — do not bargain.
    This is our legacy, and our perpetual bond.
    Title image: Hungarian-born American billionaire George Soros.

  • PM Orbán: Hungary and Poland stand a good chance to win EU budget debate

    Hungary and Poland stand a good chance of winning the EU budget debate on the rule of law for the payment of community funds if things move in the right direction in the coming days, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in Warsaw on Tuesday evening after talks with his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morwiaczki.
    In an interview with Polish commercial news television Polsat News, the prime minister said that the positions of Hungary and Poland, as well as the German EU presidency and the governments of several other member states, are now closer than they were a few weeks or days ago.
    He stressed that “issues of the rule of law that have nothing to do with financial matters should be separated from budgetary matters”.
    He added that a situation in which financial sanctions could be imposed, for example, because a member state does not follow the European approach to gender or migration issues, should be avoided. He also said that “the debate is not about financial resources”.
    Orbán emphasized that there is an agreement between Budapest and Warsaw on all major issues, the interests of the two countries coincide, they consider it important to protect the provisions of the EU treaties, national interests and the financial resources of Hungary and Poland.
    He considered that the two countries together were strong enough to protect their financial interests, saying there is “no need to worry, they [Hungary and Poland] won’t lose a single penny”.
    Orbán also pointed out that maintaining a conflict situation and a budget veto is not good for Europe, nor is it in the interests of Hungary or Poland, so an agreement would be needed as soon as possible, which would benefit all parties.
    “The debate is not about financial resources, it is only a secondary issue that we are fighting for is the protection of national sovereignty,” he said, adding that “V4, Hungary, Poland are the future of the EU.”
    The meeting of the two prime ministers was held just two days ahead of the European Union’s Dec. 10-11 summit which will be the last chance this year to resolve the impasse.
    Title image: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (L) and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawieczki in Warsaw on November 30. (MTI/Zoltán Fischer)

  • Orbán-Kaczyński-Morawiecki talks in Warsaw ahead of crucial EU summit

    During a meeting in Warsaw on Tuesday, the leaders of the Hungarian and Polish governments met to agree on their next moves in the dispute over the rule-of-law conditionality mechanism ahead of a crucial European Union summit on Dec. 10 and Dec. 11.
    The first half of the meeting included Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Law and Justice (PiS) head and Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki
    According to an interview by TVP Info , Orbán insisted that the negotiations were on track, and he expected them to yield a good result for both Poland and Hungary.
    He said that “the real reason for the dispute is that some don’t understand what the rule of law really is and this is because they never had to fight for it, they have only read about it. They had democracy, rule of law and high living standards all served on them on a plate as part of their inheritance.”
    Asked about what had been agreed on during his meeting with Kaczyński and Morawiecki Orbán praised both by saying he would always come when invited by Kaczyński, Poland’s ruling party leader, whom Orbán regards as a “legend” as well as Morawiecki who heads the Visegrád Four group. Viktor Orban, PM of Hungary: Negotiations are continuing with the German EU presidency and I am optimistic that they will end in victory. The chances of reaching agreement this week are high. According to Orbán, the meeting solidified and fortified the Polish-Hungarian alliance. He felt that it was “more than 100 percent certain that the two countries would continue to work through their alliance”.
    The Hungarian prime minister did not want to talk about EU funding, which he viewed as being guaranteed for both countries. As for the recovery fund, he noted that it is a fund based on capital raised on the markets and was really not something Poland and Hungary needed since they could raise capital on the markets for themselves. He emphasized that the real issue was “sovereignty”.
    The conservative governments of Hungary and Poland fear that any rule-of-law mechanism tied to EU funding could be used by Brussels to dictate policies to national governments on issues such as immigration , traditional values, abortion rights , and multiculturalism. Orbán, in a letter to European People’s Party group leader Manfred Weber last week, outlined how the new rule-of-law mechanism is designed to target Hungary and Poland, and cited the words of EU leaders and politicians to back his assertion. TVP Info According to Viktor Orban the meeting solidified and fortified the Polish-Hungarian alliance. Orbán confirmed yesterday to TVP Info that negotiations were continuing with the German presidency in the European Council and said he was optimistic that they would end in victory. He regarded the chances of reaching an agreement this week as high.
    Ministers Gowin and Ziobro joined Orbán, Kaczyński and Morawiecki
    The Polish government’s spokesman Piotr Müller told reporters after the Orbán-Kaczyński-Morawiecki meeting that Poland and Hungary are maintaining their position that there is a need to decouple rule of law conditionality from the EU budget.
    “We need clear guidelines to separate the state from budget law, no question about this,” announced Müller.
    Müller confirmed that the two junior partners in the Law and Justice (PiS) ruling bloc, Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Gowin, who leads the Agreement party and Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who leads the United Poland party, attended the latter half of the meeting with Orbán, Kaczyński and Morawiecki.
    Gowin has been arguing that there should be a compromise over the EU budget and rule-of-law mechanism, whereas Ziobro has argued that any rule-of-law mechanism would be a violation of EU treaties and should be vetoed.

  • Hungary won’t lose EU funds due to its veto, says Justice Minister Varga

    Hungary does not have to worry about losing EU funds due to the veto, Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga told Magyar Nemzet in an interview . She said it is no longer a secret in the European Union that they would force the majority position on those states that do not join their ranks.
    The justice minister also spoke that seizing power is more important to the Hungarian opposition parties than patriotism, and shows the moral crisis of the left and proof that leftist rule would not be good for the country.
    “EU legislation allows for what we have proposed, and there may be such a plan in the committee’s drawers, just in case. Our proposed solution is legally feasible, there have been examples of similar constructions in the history of integration,” Varga said. “Of course, it may also dawn on decision-makers that if two countries do not participate in the fund, others may also back out. But this is not our problem. We did not put Europe in this situation. We only maintain the status quo.”
    There have been several cases in the history of the EU where, due to the resistance of a member state, there was no unanimity for decision-making, Varga said.
    “The French and Dutch, for example, rejected the EU constitution in a referendum. A veto is an option provided for in the treaties,” she said. “We have had our written proposal to regulate financial discipline since August, in line with the agreement reached by the heads of state and government in July. According to this, it would be possible to sanction member states in specific cases. That agreement does not contain vaguely worded principles.”
    She also said that the rule-of-law criteria are poorly defined, potentially leading to arbitrary decisions.
    “To take a simple example: the penal code does not consist of a single sentence for everyone to be a law-abiding person, but — in order for the principle of legal certainty to apply _ it regulates in precisely defined paragraphs what is punishable,” Varga said. “The rule of law varies from country to country. It would be difficult to define in general the language of the rule of law in order to prove that someone has violated the rule of law in general.”
    “Therefore, the EU proposal for the rule of law mechanism is legally nonsensical,” Varga said. “The European Union already has Article 7 proceedings to deal with breaches of the rule of law. If member states do not like this, intergovernmental conferences can be held in an attempt to define the indefinable. What is independent of this, however, is the existence of an EU budget with appropriate rules on how member states can spend it.”
    Varga added that it was also agreed at the July EU summit that a mechanism can be set up in the event of corruption regarding the spending of money. The current debate, however, is in the context of an abstract constitutional dialogue that should not be linked to a practical question. Despite the current issues, Varga thinks European Union member states should maintain mutual trust.
    “We must never allow mutual trust to erode,” she said. “Unfortunately, what we are seeing now is not a legal problem, but an ideological war, which already had a legal form in infringement proceedings.”
    Title image: Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga. (Magyar Nemzet/Zoltán Havran)

  • EU’s attempt to drive a wedge between Poland and Hungary falls flat

    Recent reports about a rift between Hungary and Poland concerning their united stance against the EU’s budget and post-pandemic recovery funds being tied to the rule-of-law mechanism have proved to be a media scuttlebutt. For those hoping that the European Parliament’s recent recommendation to reign in some EU members opposed to mass migration and multiculturalism via financial incentives or sanctions will come to fruition, a statement made by Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Gowin offered a glimmer of hope. Some news outlets have even announced that “Poland [is] ready to drop EU budget veto for EU summit declaration on rule of law.”
    Deputy Prime Minister Gowin had recently stated that “it is in the interest of all… to find a good compromise. Such a compromise is possible… through a binding declaration interpreting [the rule of law]… The interpretative declaration could be… a clear statement from the European Council that the conditionality rule would not be used to exert unjustified pressure on individual member states in areas other than the proper use of EU funds”. AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski The leader of the Polish ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynskileft, speaks to reporters alongside and the leaders of two junior coalition partners, Jaroslaw Gowin, right, in Warsaw, Poland. Such a move, however, albeit possible via legal loopholes in EU treaties, may violate the very principle it is claiming to stand up for, and may result in accusations of bypassing proper mechanisms of the rule-of-law within the EU itself. Apart from risking a loss of credibility as far as historic European treaties are concerned, it may also unwittingly start a process of the EU’s further disintegration.
    If an emergency mechanism should be agreed on with the exclusion of the EU’s two protesting members, Hungary and Poland could find themselves excluded from not only the disbursement of emergency funds, but would effectively be exempt from the long-term debt repayment mechanism as well.
    In the words of Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, the criticism his country is facing is hypocritical as there are parties that press the issue of the rule-of-law, who are themselves on route to violating EU treaties by taking away competences from Hungary that are guaranteed by international treaties.
    “It is clear that the rule-of-law debate will simplify to a point of who will accept migrants and who will not,” Szijjártó said.
    An indication of this is the so called post-Cotonou agreement between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. These negotiations have described migration only in positive terms without a reference to its security and health implications. They did not even mention the fact that some countries actually oppose mass migration, stated the Hungarian minister. Angela Merkel is reportedly taking a softer stance than Ursula von der Leyen The importance, but also the ambiguity, of the statement has been readily inflated by major European media outlets that have suggested that cracks may have appeared in the historic alliance between Hungary and Poland over the rule-of-law mechanism in connection with the EU’s €1.8 trillion budget and economic recovery fund. Although these conclusions have proven to be false, they have prompted some clarification between the two Visegrád Four allies.
    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, when asked about the possible change in the Polish stance during a radio interview , had reaffirmed that a common declaration between the two countries states that they will only vote for an EU budget proposal that is acceptable for both parties, and that both parties plan to respect the spirit of this agreement.
    Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller later also assured Hungary that Warsaw “maintains its position in its entirety” regarding the EU funds. “Only provisions consistent with the treaties and conclusions of the European Council are acceptable to Poland. This is also clear from the joint declaration of Poland and Hungary.”
    While there may be some behind-the-scene attempts to rock the Hungarian-Polish coalition and to force the two governments to accept the rule-of-law clause proposed by the European Parliament, a compromise seems to be so far removed from reality that currently this topic is not even in the official schedule for the EU leaders’ meeting in Brussels scheduled for Dec. 10-11.
    Although German Chancellor Angela Merkel had signaled that her government is willing to make some compromises in the matter, her former minister, Ursula von der Leyen, who is currently the president and the European Commission, prefers a harder stance to solve the dispute. She had proposed to bypass the veto mechanism by an agreement between the remaining 25 EU member states, that would allow the distribution of the €750 billion recovery fund.

  • Orbán has won the migration debate

    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán came in fourth in the “doers” section of Politico’s new power ranking due to, among other things, the debate on the EU budget and the so-called rule of law.
    As usual, of course, Politico is not very kind this time either, and their short description makes it clear that they think rebellious Hungary is on the bad side of the debate, the liberal EU on the good one, and in the end they even raise their little pipe dream about what it means for Hungary to remain in the Union — as if another exit would be so good for the European community.
    Putting aside the usual liberal malice, it is obvious that the Hungarian prime minister is indeed an unavoidable factor in the Union. It has been a left-liberal mantra for ten years that Orbán has become isolated in Europe, and is leading the country away from it, but the situation is that compliance is not the way to deal with the big EU countries.
    In Brussels, they do indeed want to see Central and Eastern European leaders who are looking to achieve greatness. Instead, the EU wants leaders who always want to be small and go against the interests of their country even without being asked to do so. The names of such heads of state and governments are not remembered by many, and they do not end up on the list of those whose opinions, like it or not, should be heeded.
    It is, however, an important admission — though not a new statement from the Brussels paper — that Orbán has won the migration debate.
    While more and more people across Europe are in favor of curbing immigration , more and more people are seeing the dangers of failed integration, Brussels seems to have failed to acknowledge this debate. Although Ursula von der Leyen has made encouraging statements over the past year, the European Commission she leads is constantly coming up with action plans that will set the debate back by years.
    Firstly, although the flexible solidarity invented by the Visegrád Four some years ago was only discovered by others in 2020, it was also formulated in such a way that the migration distribution quota was kept alive . This in itself is an infinitely irresponsible path, as it is an invitation to the millions of people who are putting their lives and property in the hands of murderous smugglers to reach Europe.
    If that were not enough, an integration action plan has recently been unveiled , the essence of which is to give food, accommodations and voting rights to 34 million immigrants. There is a complete political failure, resignation, and nihilism on the left-liberal side contained within this proposal – they will accept anyone in the name of realizing an ideology detached from reality. Instead of helping young people in Europe to start and grow their families, they will abandon them up and replace them with immigrants.
    In Western Europe, there have already been a number of elections which, with the votes of people with immigrant backgrounds have swung the outcome in favor of the left, and it is no coincidence that Joe Biden and his European ideologues also want to squeeze even more political benefits out of this growing voting bloc.
    The linking of EU funds to political conditions is reflected, among other things, in the migration debate described above. The rule-of-law conditions based on EU proposals echoing demands made in articles from George Soros could now be forced upon us.
    The fight is not over, the liberals were too early to celebrate last week, and Polish-Hungarian unity is still alive and well. Although they are trying hard, the two of us might be even more difficult to circumvent than they believe.

  • Hungary may not remain in the EU, hints Politico in its new power ranking

    The European iteration of US political website Politico ranked Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán fourth among Europe’s “doers”, but the capsule about his achievements is short on praise and long on criticism.
    In its “class of 2021” list, Politico ranks nine public figures each in three categories: doers, disrupters, and the dreamers which equals 27 picks, topping it with the overall most influential person in Europe to make it 28 in total. That last one is of course German Chancellor Merkel, in a class of her own within the class of 2021.
    Politico, while acknowledging Merkel’s huge influence on European politics for the 16 years she has been leading Germany, is mostly critical of her lack of initiative.
    “Nothing better reflects the state of European politics today than the fact that a lame duck is its standard-bearer,” Politico writes. “Inertia is her default status. Merkel, 66, doesn’t drive EU policy forward. She allows it to proceed when she withholds the veto.”
    With regard to Orbán — fourth among the doers behind Italian PM Giuseppe Conte, European Medicines Agency Emer Cooke and ECB governor Christine Lagarde, — Politico sums up Orbán’s activities as “having arguably won the argument on migration, the Hungarian prime minister has been busy creating a model for ‘illiberal democracy’ while avoiding any real punishment from Brussels.”
    The publication laments that Poland has blocked Hungary from losing its voting rights during past Article 7 procedures against the country but turns its attention to the topical issue of the moment, which is the Hungarian and Polish veto of the EU’s seven-year budget and coronavirus recovery fund. Politico points to the veto and hints that Hungary may not stay in the European Union much longer.
    “The crisis-inducing impasse may finally motivate Western diplomats to figure out a workaround to bypass Orbán on a wide array of key decisions. That, then, could prompt the question: What’s the point of Hungary staying in the EU?” asks Politico.
    The list of disrupters is led by Russian tech entrepreneur Pavel Durov, of Telegram app fame.
    “Launched in 2013 to compete with WhatsApp and evade Kremlin snooping, Telegram has long been on European governments’ radar as a tool for terrorists’ plotting and propaganda. Lately, it has become increasingly popular for organizing mass movements in the West and its immediate backyard,” Politico writes.
    Politico lists European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the top dreamer.
    “It’s hard to find an area of policy where the European Commission president hasn’t embraced an assertive stance — no matter how few tools she has at her disposal to actually enforce her ideas,” it says about von der Leyen.

  • ‘Polexit’ is fake news, says Spanish European affairs minister

    Juan Gonzalez-Barba, the Spanish minister for European affairs told Poland’s Rzeczpospolita daily that he believes a compromise can be reached with Hungary and Poland, but asserts that linking of rule of law to funding will remain in what could remain a dealbreaker for the two countries.
    “Polexit is a mirage, it’s fake news. Spain hopes that it will never happen because Poland for us is a key partner in the EU, and both our countries are united by friendship,” said Gonzalez-Barba.
    When asked if an agreement on the EU budget would be reached, the Spanish politician replied that he was cautiously optimistic and added that “the formula of linking payments to compliance with the rule of law cannot be changed. Everyone is now focused on how to meet the expectations of Poland and Hungary in a different way, so that even if these countries are not satisfied with the aforementioned formula, they would not use their power of veto”.
    Gonzalez-Barba said that if a formula could be found that would allow Poland and Hungary to abandon the veto without breaching the agreement, he was convinced that it would be approved by all EU leaders.
    Despite Gonzalez-Barba’s claim that the rule-of-law mechanism cannot be dropped, there are indications that the rule-of-law mechanism is illegal and in violation of the EU’s founding treaties . Some Polish commentators have also called for Poland to at least begin preparing to leave the EU given the current political climate. Juan Gonzalez-Barba, Spanish European affairs minister The most likely way of reaching a compromise lies in adoption of a protocol of interpretation which would ease Polish and Hungarian fears. He stressed that the continuity of the Union is dependent of the constant search for a compromise which is currently in the process of being forged. He feels that “the most likely way of reaching a compromise lies in adoption of a protocol of interpretation which would ease Polish and Hungarian fears”.
    The Spanish politician was asked whether the remaining 25 countries will conclude an intergovernmental agreement to create a reconstruction fund if a compromise cannot be found.
    “I am convinced that this will not happen, although I am getting signals that the European Commission is considering such a possibility. The Union cannot be condemned to total paralysis, and that is what would happen without agreement on the budget,” he replied.
    When asked whether Spain actually believes that Poland is a country without the rule of law, Gonzalez-Barba replied that such an assessment belongs to the European Commission. He also said that should Poland and Hungary take the issue of the rule of law conditionality mechanism to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Spain would oppose any action against them until the ECJ ruled on the matter.
    Title image: Spain’s State Secretary for EU Affairs Juan Gonzalez-Barba, right, speaks with Italian Minister for European Affairs Vincenzo Amendola during a meeting of EU General Affairs ministers at the European Council building, 2019, AP Images.