New hope for the opposition, and a potential spoiler
The civic organizers who were the foremost promoters of holding primaries expressed their strong belief, from the very start, in the beneficent nature of the enterprise. They hoped, as it turned out...
View ArticleFidesz likely to lose the entire city of Budapest in 2022
A few days ago, HVG published a detailed list of the opposition candidates, broken down by supporting parties, in all 106 electoral districts. A link attached to the article takes us to an impressive...
View ArticleMessage for Hungary on World Press Freedom Day: No help is coming from the EU
The Hungarian independent media is up in arms. Věra Jourová, deputy president of the European Commission in charge of transparency and values, after years of postponement, admitted to Euronews today,...
View ArticleIs Ferenc Gyurcsány jumping the gun by talking about the 2022 national election?
Ferenc Gyurcsány didn’t waste any time. On January 2 he reminded his approximately 250,000 Facebook readers and fellow politicians that it is time to think about the 2022 national election. It is in...
View ArticleA good possibility of a rearrangement of the opposition forces in the next...
I think it is almost inevitable that political configurations among the opposition will change considerably between now and 2022, when a new national election will be held. It will be a slow process,...
View ArticleDissatisfaction with the Orbán regime is gaining momentum
Although pessimists were certain that enthusiasm for street demonstrations could not be maintained, although because of the holidays there was a hiatus of almost two weeks between demonstrations in the...
View ArticleFidesz’s latest victim: Márta Demeter of LMP
Fidesz has been known for its doggedness when it comes to keeping alive a subject the party deems important. It matters not how petty and immaterial the issue looks to us, those who got the job of...
View ArticleAfter LMP’s implosion, it’s now Jobbik’s turn to self-destruct
At least two opposition parties, LMP and Jobbik, are in the process of self-annihilation. I spent a great deal of time on the events that led to LMP’s fracture because when two leading personalities...
View ArticleNews of the day: Szél leaves LMP and Orbán confirms years of corruption
The imminent demise of LMP Bernadett Szél has finally left LMP. It is not an everyday occurrence that both of a political party’s co-chairs resign in the course of three months. Ákos Hadházy threw in...
View ArticleBernadett Szél at a crossroads
Let me start with the latest news, fresh out of Brussels. Katalin Halmai, Népszava’s correspondent in the Belgian capital, reported last night that LMP’s membership in the European Green Party might be...
View ArticleThe brilliant strategy of LMP’s Péter Ungár: defeat Viktor Orbán by agreeing...
One of the first Hungarian-language articles I read this morning was from the notorious government-financed Origo. The quality of journalism exhibited in that piece was among the worst I have ever...
View ArticleWhere will it end? Bernadett Szél resigns her posts
With recent opinion polls showing overwhelming support for the government party, we are apt to forget that a slight majority of the electorate voted for the opposition parties on April 8, 2018. A good...
View ArticleAnother day at Tusványos with the assistance of the so-called opposition
Today I am returning to the annual Fidesz extravagance in Băile Bálványos/Bálványosfűrdő because this time there is plenty to report, due largely to the willingness of three opposition parties to...
View ArticleLMP’s sharp shift to the right
I would really like to forget about LMP, but its politicians won’t let me. Two weeks ago I wrote a post titled “LMP’s moral superiority crumbles in front of our eyes,” when I felt that LMP couldn’t...
View ArticleLMP’s moral superiority crumbles in front of our eyes
At the end of May I wrote an article about the sorry state of LMP which, after the election, was showing signs of disintegration. In that post I briefly summarized LMP’s history between 2009 and 2018,...
View ArticleFidesz and Jobbik pass “Stop Soros” bill on World Refugee Day
Here are the bare facts about the passage of the “Stop Soros” legislative package and the 7th amendment to the Hungarian constitution. There was never any doubt that whatever the government decided to...
View ArticleAndrás Schiffer on politics
Today I looked at five recent interviews with András Schiffer, founder of LMP, who retired from active politics in the summer of 2016 and about a month ago left the party altogether, claiming that he...
View ArticleDoes László Toroczkai’s departure open new avenues for Jobbik?
With the expulsion of László Toroczkai, the nominal head of Jobbik’s radical wing, a new chapter began in the history of the party. It is too early to predict the final outcome of what is an open...
View ArticleWhither LMP? The prospects are anything but bright
The reputations of all opposition parties suffered as a result of their unexpectedly poor election performance. Although these smaller parties could never have withstood the propaganda machine of the...
View ArticleA look behind the election results
Former German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who currently holds the position of president of the Bundestag, according to MTI expressed his belief that because Viktor Orbán received “very...
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