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András Kósa: The speech of the chief, Őszöd ten years later, Part III
Gyurcsány’s attempt to interpret the speech in Őszöd as the beginning of a new era András Kósa, a well-known Hungarian journalist, recently published The Speech of the Chief: Őszöd after Ten Years, a...
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Miklós Haraszti: I watched a populist leader rise in my country–That’s why...
Miklós Haraszti, author and director of research on human rights at the Center for European Neighborhood Studies of Central European University, is a familiar name to readers of Hungarian Spectrum,...
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The past seven years: Hungary in numbers, 2010-2016
Máté Veres, research associate of Gazdaságkutató Zrt., published this study in Új Egyenlőség at the beginning of the year. The article was translated by “Observer,” who added the following notes: This...
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Maximilian R. P. Gebhardt: The Emperor Has No Clothes
Maximilian R. P. Gebhardt is a former US diplomat and Economic Officer for the Department of State, now working as a consultant to private clients. From 2013 to 2015 he served as the economic officer...
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Today’s extra: “Observer” on the enrichment of György Matolcsy & family
The corruption cases which grab the public attention are usually the big ones – the Quaestor broker firm with more than HUF 100 billion missing, the MET natural gas deals profits worth approx. HUF 150...
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A few gems from Viktor Orbán’s “strong and proud” Hungary
There are just too many topics that have piled up in the last few weeks that deserve at least a mention. So I decided that today’s post would be a potpourri. Lex Felcsút Hungarians like to use the...
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Viktor Orbán is losing his cool
Trump’s uncontrolled outbursts seem to be contagious. While in the past Viktor Orbán showed considerable restraint when giving interviews or answering opposition members of parliament, in the last...
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Financing of Hungarian sports: court rules it must be transparent
Even small victories can lift anti-Orbán hearts nowadays in Hungary. Thanks to the recent decision of the Kúria, Hungary’s highest judicial body, Viktor Orbán was rendered a defeat that must have hit...
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The spectacular business career of Lőrinc Mészáros
On January 2 HVG published a short article with the title “The new year barely begun, Mészáros already grabbed more than one hundred billion.” Of course, they were talking about the “fabulously...
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Ahead of the election: LMP and DK are off and running
In case you missed it, today is the official beginning of the election campaign, and two opposition parties, LMP and DK, gathered their troops to energize them. The keynote speaker for LMP was the...
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Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén and the Swedish reindeer
Today we’ll look into Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén’s reindeer hunting expeditions in Sweden. I must admit that I have always considered Semjén something of a fool, although when it comes to...
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Tightening noose or just wishful thinking?
Today an intriguing article by Miklós Hargitai appeared in Népszava titled “Tightening noose—The Microsoft scandal reaches the Orbán family.” I’m certain that relatively few people have ever heard of...
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Defending the “private lives” of politicians means hiding corruption
The latest constitutional amendments which, by the way, were dutifully signed by President János Áder on June 28, were accompanied by two draft bills that were submitted to parliament for consideration...
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European Union money for village tourism
It was in January 2012 that Viktor Orbán introduced the Ignác Darányi Plan, named after the minister of agriculture between 1895 and 1903 and again between 1906 and 1910. It was a ten-year program...
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Hungary as the “dynastic demesne” of the Orbán family
The story of the dirty diaper brought István Tiborcz, a tainted businessman, and his wife Ráhel Orbán, the eldest daughter of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, back into the limelight. And, by the way,...
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News 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...
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Viktor Orbán is not deterred–a private plane trip to London via Moscow
I never thought that one day I would be intrigued by aircraft, but Viktor Orbán’s cat and mouse games with the so-called “military” airplanes piqued my interest. I have already covered the purchase of...
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The Hungarian prosecutor’s office investigates
Today I will report on two corruption cases. The first is Microsoft Hungary, which was widely covered in the international press. The second is a strictly domestic affair, which involves a Fidesz...
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Ákos Hadházy: Earlier, Soviet tanks sustained a dictatorship, now EU money does
Comments by the translator: On October 23, 2018, the anniversary of the 1956 October revolution in Hungary, a demonstration took place in Budapest demanding that the Hungarian government join the...
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Is Viktor Orbán’s pillaging of the EU coming to an end?
Influential members of the European Commission and the European Parliament have finally taken the initial steps to tackle two interrelated problems in the EU: systemic corruption, especially with...
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