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Gábor Demszky on the illegitimacy of the Orbán regime and on civil disobedience
With municipal elections to be held this Sunday, I decided to devote a post to the political reactivation of Gábor Demszky, lord mayor of Budapest between 1990 and 2010. After Demszky’s fifth term...
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Post mortem: election results of the Hungarian municipal elections
Now that I’ve had a good night sleep and listened again to all the speeches by the various party leaders, I came to the conclusion that there are two points on which everybody agrees. One, that Lajos...
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The Hungarian socialists at a crossroads
While Fidesz and the Orbán government are busy hatching their latest plans to further restructure the Hungarian state and Hungarian society we cannot do more than wait for the day, which should come...
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The Újpest election: A large gain for the left
Some people might argue that the socialist win in the parliamentary election that had to be repeated in Budapest’s 11th electoral district was a foregone conclusion and is not even worth talking about....
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The world according to László Kövér
Just when I think that Viktor Orbán and his fellow politicians must have exhausted their inventory of outrageous pronouncements comes another shocker. This time László Kövér, president of the Hungarian...
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Viktor Orbán no longer has the full support of his troops in parliament
For today’s post I picked three separate topics, all of which Viktor Orbán dealt with in his regular bi-weekly radio interview on Friday morning: his reaction to the loss in the Veszprém election, his...
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Demands for Viktor Orbán’s resignation
Today is one of those days that I have no idea what will happen between beginning to write this post and uploading it. One thing, however, I can be pretty sure of: I don’t have to worry that by...
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Hungarian mission in the fight against ISIS: Fidesz needed the help of the...
This morning the Hungarian parliament approved the country’s participation in the international effort against ISIS forces in northern Iraq and Syria. But before I break down today’s vote, I must go...
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What can we learn about U.S.-Hungarian relations from János Lázár?
A huge sigh of relief. Viktor Orbán’s speech in Tusnádfürdő/Băile Tușnad is not worth reporting on. Normally he tests out his latest vision for Hungary on this occasion, but this time there was nothing...
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András Schiffer and László Kövér see eye to eye
August is usually quiet when it comes to political news. Indeed, we are in the middle of the “silly season” or, as it is called in Hungarian, the “cucumber season.” So, in this environment, a public...
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András Schiffer’s departure is hailed on the left
The big news of the day is that András Schiffer, co-chair of LMP (Lehet Más a Politika = Politics Can Be Different), announced his irrevocable decision to retire from politics. He is resigning as...
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András Schiffer: From KISZ to neo-communism?
Just as I suspected, in one short post I couldn’t cover the departure of András Schiffer, the founder and leader of LMP, from politics as well as opinions of him that have appeared since his...
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Harmful politicians in the Hungarian democratic opposition
It’s time to vent my wrath against some of those politicians who allegedly want to win the 2018 election and free the country from a semi-autocratic leader who has introduced an illiberal political...
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The only good answer to Orbán’s referendum is a boycott
Ever since mid-July, if not earlier, a fierce debate has been going on about the best strategy for voters of left-of-center parties to follow at the forthcoming referendum. The question that will face...
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A possible opposition election strategy for 2018
Celebrations of the sixtieth anniversary of the Hungarian revolution against the Rákosi regime and the Soviet occupying forces have already begun, with apparently thousands of young people, torches in...
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The new constitutional court: LMP lends a helping hand to Fidesz
After 2010 one of Fidesz’s first tasks was to “pack” the Constitutional Court. The party’s two-thirds majority allowed Viktor Orbán to add four new hand-picked judges to the eleven-member court. It was...
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How not to pick a constitutional judge: LMP’s choices I
Parties of the democratic opposition are up in arms. They are outraged at the assistance LMP extended to Fidesz to score an important parliamentary victory, the approval of four new judges for the...
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Is LMP in cahoots with Fidesz?
On October 17 Egon Rónay of ATV’s Start interviewed Bernadett Szél, co-chair of LMP. The occasion was the demonstration organized by Párbeszéd (Dialogue), Együtt (Together), and LMP (Politics Can Be...
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The Hungarian opposition is still in disarray
I am returning to party politics today because, after an extended holiday season, opposition politicians and civilians active in politics have become vocal again. One after the other gives interviews...
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Blueprint for character assassination: The case of Ákos Hadházy
In a piece I wrote for the Christmas issue of Népszava I described Ákos Hadházy as “a very sympathetic man who unfortunately has chosen the wrong party.” It now seems that his colleagues in LMP, with...
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