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The Quaestor scandal
I have been remiss in the last few weeks in not following up on the collapse of a number of Hungarian financial institutions. I did write about the bankruptcy of the Buda-Cash Group, which owned...
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Gathering clouds: The opposition parties take a common stand
This afternoon the leaders of the democratic opposition parties held talks in the wake of Viktor Orbán’s announcement yesterday that he was the one who ordered the ministers of his cabinet to withdraw...
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The European Union has had enough: No money for a 110 billion project already...
Not only does Quaestor’s collapse and the government’s involvement in this scandal weigh heavily on the third Orbán government. Viktor Orbán just heard officially that the European Union is refusing to...
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Romanian-Hungarian relations: Ethnic strife and corruption
The first Orbán government, between 1998 and 2002, managed to alienate practically all of its neighbors, so the past five years can be viewed as something of an improvement. Budapest now proudly claims...
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The last five years of the Orbán government, fact and fiction
It caught everybody by surprise, including some of the highest office holders of the government and Fidesz, that today “around noon” Viktor Orbán planned to give another speech on “the state of the...
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The leader of the Hungarian Roma community under scrutiny
In the last few days several investigative articles have appeared about the growing scandal at the Országos Roma Önkormányzat (ORÖ), the representative of the Hungarian Roma minority. Although Ákos...
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Further restrictions on freedom of information in illiberal Hungary
The Hungarian government has been dissatisfied with the current provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. Already in 2013 the government tried to limit ordinary citizens’ access to public...
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The chief of the Hungarian tax office resigns
Today’s been a busy day in Hungarian politics. In the last week or so it was hard to find timely topics, perhaps because Viktor Orbán was on a secret vacation on Croatia’s Mljet Island. He went to the...
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U.S. AMBASSADOR COLLEEN BELL DELIVERED WASHINGTON’S MESSAGE TO THE HUNGARIAN...
You may recall that on October 20 I wrote a post with the title “Entering a new phase in U.S.-Hungarian Relations?” in which I expressed my belief that “Washington will soon be more active than it has...
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Transparency International: Systemic government corruption in Hungary
It’s time to recall what U.S. Ambassador Colleen Bell had to say about corruption in her much discussed speech: “Corruption stalls growth, stifles investment, denies people their dignity, and...
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Highway robbery made lawful
A few hours ago Nyugati Fény (Western light), a relative newcomer on the Hungarian blog scene, published an outraged post about a well-hidden change of wording in a bill that allows close relatives of...
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The corrupt Roma organization and its former chairman have Viktor Orbán’s...
I have written at least two posts on the scandals surrounding the Országos Roma Önkormányzat (ORÖ/Nationwide Roma Self-Government) and its former chairman, Flórián Farkas. I devoted one post to the...
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Colleen Bell on corruption; Fidesz on Colleen Bell
It is not easy to be the U.S. ambassador to Hungary, especially not since 2010. The Orbán government is outright antagonistic toward the United States, and some of the cabinet members make no secret of...
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It’s not corruption. It’s national interest
“Political thinkers” are a dangerous lot at times. There was Gábor G. Fodor, the modern-day Macchiavelli of the Századvég Institute, who almost a year ago described Viktor Orbán’s political career as...
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Guide book to embezzlement of European Union subsidies. Part I
Today and tomorrow I will look at three recent corruption cases in Hungary, all of which involve money received from the European Union. Two Hungarian politicians are currently spending a lot of energy...
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THE FIDESZ CRIME SYNDICATE: INTERVIEW WITH ÁKOS HADHÁZY
This is a translation of an interview with Ákos Hadházy (LMP) that originally appeared in Magyar Narancs (February 4, 2016) under the headline “Who betrays Fidesz helps the country” (Aki a Fideszt...
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The new Hungarian aristocracy: Wedding at the National Museum of Fine Arts
For well over a week the Hungarian media has been full of stories about some highly irregular activities of László Baán, director of the Hungarian Museum of Fine Arts. They are not calling into...
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The scandal of Viktor Orbán’s secret estate
Until now the personal excesses of Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary, could be summed up in one word: “Felcsút,” a small village where, just like Romania’s former dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, he...
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Viktor Orbán in full armor: a knight or a liar?
Before I begin this post on the Brussels summit and Viktor Orbán’s role in the proceedings, I would like to call attention to a story I read in HVG about a little girl and her ethics teacher. It...
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Citizenship for sale for the benefit of private individuals
It was in 2013 that the Hungarian government introduced a program aimed at boosting investment in government bonds. Like many other countries, they embarked on “selling” Hungarian citizenship to...
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