Not too many tears were shed when the public learned that Zoltán Balog, Viktor Orbán’s spiritual mentor, had thrown in the towel and had chosen no longer to lead the gargantuan, unmanageable ministry of human resources. The Hungarian Reformed minister, unlike his boss, realized that the ministry in its present configuration was close to non-functional. When Orbán refused to take at least healthcare out of the ministry’s portfolio, Balog resigned.
His decision to retire from government service was soon followed by his announcement that he was planning to return to his original vocation and would again be the minister of a church serving the tiny German community in Budapest. Soon enough, however, plans changed. As the president of the Fidesz foundation Polgári Magyarországért Alapítvány (PMA), he was given a new role: to preach Viktor Orbán’s gospel to the people of the European Union.
First, a few words about this Fidesz foundation, which upon closer inspection turns out to have been pretty well dormant for years. Its activities, which are described at some length on the website, are in fact nonexistent. The only things it does are (1) to organize Viktor Orbán’s yearly appearance before his fans every February when he delivers a speech on the state of his domain and (2) to organize and, I guess, pay for the yearly Fidesz picnic in Kötcse in September.
But now it seems that Viktor Orbán has given it a new task designed to advance his grandiose plans to take center stage in European politics. The scheme came to light during an interview with Zoltán Balog on ATV’s early morning program Start. The Hungarian government is planning to establish offices in the more important capitals of the European Union in addition to Brussels. They will spread the gospel of Orbán’s views and his designs for a reformed European Union. Balog and his associates will inform Europeans about the Fidesz regime’s stance on globalism, migration, and Christian values. The idea is to have a broad-based propaganda campaign prior to the European parliamentary election, aimed at changing the composition of the body in favor of the extreme right. The reporter bluntly asked Balog whether these plans include “the spread of hate,” which the Orbán government has perfected in the past three years in its fight against the migrants. Of course, according to Balog, what the government has been doing is just simple self-defense. Its propaganda is not propaganda, only a necessary information campaign.
The opposition parties, with the exception of the tiny Hungarian Liberal Party, didn’t react to the announcement, which is par for the course because they are normally slow on the uptake. The liberals perhaps reacted faster than others because the Orbán government has recently been preoccupied with the vilification of the leader of the liberals in the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt. The communiqué said that the liberals want to know more about the task of these propaganda offices and the nature of the campaign. Is the Orbán government planning to export the hate campaign that it inundated the Hungarians with and to do it on Hungarian taxpayer money? The party wanted “to warn Brussels and the people of Europe against Fidesz’s manipulative and hateful propaganda” that is awaiting them.
In addition to the warning of the liberals I found only one editorial responding to Balog’s announcement. Péter Németh of Népszava wrote an article yesterday titled “The soul of Zoltán Balog.” As you can imagine, the portrait is not favorable. It turned out that the interview on ATV’s Start took place on October 17, which is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. In Németh’s opinion, the good pastor could perhaps have talked about poverty or the plight of the homeless, but instead he is planning to head a hate campaign against those who try to find shelter from war and a better life from poverty-stricken countries. He wants to convince Europeans of the irrevocable danger that the immigration of non-Christians poses. “He will be exporting Viktor Orbán’s politics of hate.” He will dump “the incredible tsunami of lies he unloaded on the Hungarian people on the citizens of other countries.”
Indeed, this is all very worrisome since the propaganda had already begun with a misleading and hateful video campaign that is being spread on the internet. This time, a short video shows George Soros accompanied by Guy Verhofstadt and Judith Sargentini. Of course, their words are twisted and falsified. Verhofstadt, however, is not the kind of man who leaves such charges unanswered. He made himself crystal clear on the subject in several tweets, and only a few days ago he gave an interview to Marianna Biró of 168 Óra.
Let me state at the very beginning that, within the European Union, perhaps no one knows better what’s going on in Hungary than Guy Verhofstadt. As we found out from one of his many speeches dealing with Viktor Orbán’s regime, he came to know the young Orbán in 1989-1990 when he was still parading as a liberal. He has been watching Hungarian developments since 2010 with growing concern and finds the Hungarian government’s policies a disaster for the European Union, which must therefore be stopped. He is an activist in the sense that thinks that what’s going on in Hungary shouldn’t just be ignored but loudly protested and fought against. He is convinced, and he is correct, that Orbán is neither a Christian nor a democrat and that therefore “EPP should distance itself from him and send him and his new populist friends to where they belong: to the dung heap of politics.”
Guy Verhofstadt / Photo: European Parliament
The Orbán government accuses Verhofstadt of being a promoter of unlimited immigration into the European Union, which is far from the case. As he said in the 168 Óra interview, “What I have always supported was supervised and legal opportunity for foreigners to come and live in Europe, adding to the economic achievement of the continent.” For him this means allowing the most talented to settle in an organized fashion. And that requires the creation of an immigration policy, which currently doesn’t exist in the EU.
Government attacks on Verhofstadt have been going on for some time, and they naturally intensified after his speech in support of the Sargentini report in the European Parliament. But the 168 Óra interview really added to the government media’s hatred of Verhofstadt. Magyar Idők published a short opinion piece titled “The case of Verhofstadt with the dung heap.” All of these editorials are similar in structure. First, the author misidentifies Verhofstadt’s stand on immigration and blames Hungarian liberals for providing him with false information. According to the young journalist, Verhofstadt, like a parrot, repeats what he hears from Hungarian liberals. The example he cites is Verhofstadt’s claim that “on the channels of MTVA Fidesz created a parallel reality” by falsifying news. In the limited horizon of the author, this information must be coming from liberal critics of the regime. It never occurs to him that a responsible politician who wants to know the state of the Hungarian media will simply ask native speakers to watch the state media’s practices and report back to him. Surely, hundreds of hours of such monitoring must have taken place in preparation of the Sargentini report.
But what really got the Orbán fans’ goat was that Verhofstadt “dared to insult the Hungarian prime minister” by saying that he should be sent to a dung heap. The Hungarian answer is: “Well, Mr. Verhofstadt, watching international tendencies, it is much more likely that there is a nice warm spot set aside for you already where you and your kind will end up in that dung heap.”
The plan to influence the political composition of the European Parliament in the hope of sending such liberal politicians to the dung heap is now being facilitated by Fidesz’s latest international campaign. Personally, I doubt that these offices in the capitals of member states will make an appreciable difference in the outcome because Hungarian propagandists will find themselves in less friendly surroundings. It is unlikely that they will be able to cover European cities with anti-migrant and anti-Soros posters, as they did in Hungary. And even if they could, there is simply not such fertile soil for this kind of propaganda in Western Europe as there was and is in Hungary. Yet I’m sure the European campaign will go ahead unabated because by now Orbán is absolutely certain of the success of his strategy.
Also it is a part of Orban’s game plan to modify Hungarian election law to include votes from EU (ie Hungarian) citizens who live outside the EU. In this case it would mean importing ~80000 votes from Ukrainians who have been given Hungarian citizenship practically in exchange for votes for Fidesz. Curious how the EU will react (I have no idea how much freedom member countries have to tweak rules in their governing parties favor)
Well that may be a theoretical issue, it is not really a practical one. The votes outside the border decided at max 1-2 seats in the national election (of 199 seats), and iirc. Hungary has some 14 seats in the EU parliament, so these votes will be even less consequential.
sunyilo
I think this is primarily a cover allowing them to digitally add xxx number of favorable votes as they did, I suspect, in April (and as Putin did earlier). Easier this way.
sunyilo12, The answer is simple, it won’t matter on the account of illegality. As the EP election is that, an election in the entirety of the EU, even citizens of the EU living outside of it can’t vote. With that, you can conclude that a regulation decided by Europe cannot be and will not be overruled by one single country’s electoral system. If Fidesz hopes that votes come in and only after will it be examined where the voter lives, they’re in for a disappointment. EU citizens can only vote for the country that gave them citizenship, but even in the case of a dual one, the voter MUST choose beforehand which MEP to vote for. Fidesz can play a trick of using a foreigner’s dual citizenship…. if they’re more brave than logical. Take the ongoing conflict with Ukraine, if the dual citizens decide to vote for Hungarian MEPs, I don’t put past Ukraine to probe into their citizenship on the grounds of allegiance. Before the rave party of the Fidesz comes with the accusation that that’s undemocratic, cool your jets, ’cause one requirement to lose the American(!) citizenship is by showing disloyalty in the form of either taking part… Read more »
You’ve one vote, if you live in another EU country either where you live or according to your nationality, even if two you only may vote once. The countries have seats according to their inhabitants, not according to their number of voters. Voters from Ukraine will falsificate the results of FIDESZ within Hungary, but they aren’t that many that they might get an extra seat – only in very narrow results they might change the results. All of course without any other election fraud. Anyway less than 50% won’t result in more than 2/3 FIDESZ MEPs from Hungary as the EU rules don’t allow this Hungarian kind of calculation, in this case we have a representation according to the official percentage of the results, so less than 50% will result in less than 50%.
István is right re one vote:
Since I’m registered as a resident in Hungary I got a letter asking whether I wanted to vote here – then they’d inform the German authorities so I couldn’t vote there too.
Of course I preferred to vote for the Greens in Germany since Hungary has no equivalent party.
However I read somewhere that an Italian with residence in Germany proudly proclaimed that he voted twice (illegally of course).
And he’salso right re the (un)importance of those extra voters from outside Hungary – maybe one extra seat for Fidesz (and one seat less for the other parties).
Btw the number of seats for Hungary was already reduced from 24 to now 21 – Hungary has less inhabitants and is getting less important all the time. Without immigrants this process will continue – immigrants count as inhabitants as soon as they become citizens …
“….the European campaign will go ahead unabated because by now Orbán is absolutely certain of the success of his strategy.”
Orbán is certain of success because as we all know by now, the EU allows him to do more or less as he likes, despite numerous reports about corruption, including the latest by Sargentini.
Guy Verhofstadt seems to be the only one in the EU who understands the seriousness and the threat to democracy itself, posed by the likes of Orbán.
As for triggering article 7, it is too little and too late. The billions of forints earmarked for schools and hospitals have already disappeared into Cayman islands and Maltese bank accounts and subsequently into Orbán pockets. None of the Fidesz gang care a hoot about threats and criticism from the EU, since it clearly does very little of any consequence other than continuing to fund a corrupt regime in its midst.
So now Orbán plans to punish the entire EU for daring to criticise him, by setting up his hate offices all over Europe. Seriously?
Why is he allowed any office space in foreign capitals, in the first place?
time4change,
We shan’t run so much ahead. I’d like to remind you of the Fidesz’s dead on arrival idea of propagating movies and TV shows with subtitles so people learn a better command of foreign languages.
As of now, the thick natural accent of many Hungarians is but a dwarf star compared to the gas giant of a horrible command of foreign languages.
While the EU has 25 languages, Hungarians mostly speak two on a very high level, and when they say they plan to open offices outsides Brussels, they can only mean big cities, so the probable language of communication will be English.
Never before in history has any Hungarian party has tried such an outreach, therefore the phenomenon known as Hungarian is mostly unknown (don’t worry, most don’t even know we’re EU and Schengen Zone members). The uphill battle is theirs to fight, and it’s a very large hill.
In effect, they won’t mostly reach people but MTVA will heavily feature the “outreach”, who knows, maybe some AfD politicians will pop in again to praise the “good work”.
Hungarians speaking a foreign language (well) is still rare:
In 2006, only 25 percent of Hungarians spoke at least one foreign language whereas their proportion in 2011 was 37 percent.
https://dailynewshungary.com/more-hungarians-speak-foreign-languages/
and an article describing the reason why:
https://dailynewshungary.com/surprising-facts-foreign-language-learning-hungary/
My wife’s son told me about the horrible quality of language education – from personal experience!
Orban’s much desired euro-right-wing mission is just at its public fledgling point. If he is going to be as effective as he is at home, he is going to SWEEP Europa lock stock and barrel.
Once a pirate – always a pirate !
Hes got the technique DOWN PAT.
Like Trump he manges by leading a vocal and potential violent MINORITY of people easily tricked into believing falsehoods and twisting logic.
Europa, potentially a substantial mionority will be ready for his bullying. The disenfranchised and threatened classes will be tricked by appropriate easy slogans to get on his bandwagon.
Orban’s mission is to win at any cost and over time to further substantially increase his wealth… and sense of self-importance…
Fascinating article!
https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/10/17/liberals-need-a-new-approach-to-immigration
There Is nothing fascinating about this article (with the above leadoff foto) in the ECONOMIST, one of the holy mouthpieces of capitalism. Its unnamed author acknowledges that all countries consider immigration a positive, with the caveat that it be controlled.
The author posits a chimera, liberals who (supposedly) favor massive open immigration, then says that the ensuing backlash is understandable. The author takes liberals to task for their reactions to the backlash, which (accordinng to the author) has been labeled xenophobic and racist.
Concluding, the author says that “liberals need to try a bit harder to understand the views of those [KOTS: Kaczyński, Orbán, Trump, Salvini who are] unlike themselves”
The reality is that LIBERALS GET IT. They know that immigration needs control. They also know the KOTS (and those who genuflect before them) stink, even as the KOTS stench themselves with the cologne of propaganda.
MAGYARKOZÓ
A bit OT:
I just realised that your acronym KOTS is (in German at least) pronounced like Kotz. 🙂
Kotzen means in English: To throw up!
And that’s exactly my reaction when I read about the activities of these four apocalyptic horse-asses!
PS:
On the other hand I find it really funny when the loonies call Mrs Merkel a Liberal when she represents the conservative CDU …
For them anyone who is not a fascist is left wing or liberal – it’s obvious that they have no idea of what these terms mean!
How to describe the KOTS:
To the right of us is only the wall!
Zuben, I don’t know what liberals think, as a conservative I may tell you that we need immigration, otherwise nobody will be able to keep our economies on the level of today. Today here in Hungary we can’t get anyone for doing work any more, after everybody young and well educated emigrated to the West. Who cares what colour of skin somebody has or what believe? Be qualified and don’t be scared away by living in Hungary!
Istvan,
And what makes you think that in this globalised economy, “the young and well-educated” new migrants won’t leave after they become citizens for those countries, who offer them better wages. The borders are open in Europe, are’nt they? I don’t believe that any decent Hungarian is worried about the colour of the migrants’ skin, the problem is much deeper than that.
Zuben, it is not all about wages. It is also about life quality for example. If all together is fine for that individual he will stay, if not leave. This is true of course for every job, even for two jobs within the same street. But anyway, there will be fluctation and what is wrong with it as long as we haven’t such an exodus as we have in Hungary today?
“I don’t believe that any decent Hungarian is worried about the colour of the migrants’ skin.” Please explain why Orbán is so extremely in his propaganda against black Africans, even against the christians among them? Either you describe Orbán as sombody, who is not decent at all (okay, I agree so far) or you should really explain the “much deeper problem”.
Istvan,
I’m not a spokesperson for Orban, but I don’t think he’s concerned about anybody’s skin colour. His government wants Hungary to remain Hungarian, the Africans to remain Africans etc. There is nothing wrong with wanting to preserve and respect your own culture. You can’t just mindlessly bombard nations and force your ideology upon them. Or, can you?
Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer to the unfortunate side effects of Globalisation.
just let’s paraphrase:
One can’t just mindlessly bombard one’s “own nation” and force one’s own ideology upon it’s people.
Or, OV think he can?
… and MZ supports…
Ferenc,
The majority of the Hungarian people voted for Orban. Orban did NOT force the voters to choose him. They weren’t sold on the idea of Open Society/open borders. Period.
Idiotic lies again, village idiot MZ!
Never did O get 50% of the votes – even in Hungary there are not that many bunko paraszt.
And you’re obviously too stupid to remember the time when Fidesz wanted a vote on something and less than 50% of the voters turned up – so the thig was invalid and useless. Try to find out the details yourself – it was discussed here
1.a big minority!
2.my question: free and fair voting (like in e.g.Australia)?
before you reply, be so kind to first check all info at https://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/hungary/373603
The majority voted again against Orbán. He paid voters, he pressed the közmunkas, he made opposition votes invalid, he organised double voting… But no, he didn’t force violently. Anyway the relative largest part of the population didn’t vote at all. Read any local newspaper, watch any news and you get known all the lies of the regime. If you are bombed with this all day long, what do you expect? Now you may write period.
It is all about the colour of skin in the governmental propaganda. And who is “mindlessly bombard”ing Hungary and “force your [his] ideology upon them”? Yes, Orbán is, he is doing his “best” to destroy Hungarian culture (no Ady, but Wass) and his ill ideology is the only allowed here and now. Try to learn at least anything about Hungary as it is today – Hungary made by Orbán.
István
The “we need migration” position is a simplistic and largely fallacious one as:
– the number of low skilled jobs is diminishing
– the pay for all, but the upper 20% or so is relatively diminishing
– dire demographics is dire, but today’s immigrants will soon become retirees bringing us back to square one, etc etc.
The economic future doesn’t look great, the problems are multifaceted and so must be the solutions.
VERY INTERESTING, if gloomy article on this:
Millennials Are Screwed – The Huffington Post
http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/poor-millennials
And don’t feed the Fid trolls on the propaganda theme of (the non-existent ) migration in Hu, least of all on the MZ level.
Observer, where did I say anything about the need of low skilled immigrants? Or old ones? I even don’t share the opinion that the economic future doesn’t look great, even if you include all periodic cycles the overall direction is positive, used to be and will be.
I doubt Orbán will be alone in this, his “friends” in power will probably support him, as well as the national “far-right” parties, that most likely know the local situation much better. And then there are the russians, who have been bankrolling extreme parties all over Europe. With all these, i would not play down the importance in this step, i highly doubt that they will just export the same hungarian propaganda to each capital. France in particular might even be fertile ground for such campaigns, as if one reads the news, it would seem like Macron’s popularity reaches new lows weekly.
I must admit that this makes me personally very sad. I’m sure there are quite a few barriers to him executing this plan outside of Hungary, as the laws and the media are not in his pocket there. But unfortunately there are just as many people outside of Hungary who are equally willing to swallow Orban’s simplified and black and white messages and solutions, whether they are lies or not. But of course, there are many more who will absolutely have no time for it and who will be able to openly oppose it, as Hungarians no longer can. I wonder if he’s received these orders, when he made the stop on the way to his football match. And supposedly he wouldn’t be able to finance a campaign as was put on in Hungary. But what if together with the instructions coming from his good friend, money to execute them was also handed over. Also, if the EU money is really in Cayman Islands and Maltese banks, could it be that a portion of that is earmarked for this purpose? Am I perceiving this too much as a disaster scenario? Is it too naive of me to think he can… Read more »
No you are not naive, and don’t forget that his best buddy Putin has no limit to financial resources, and would be only too pleased to assist Orbán in creating chaos and division within the EU….”Divide and Rule”.
But Orbán is not just interested in getting even richer.
He has two things in mind – to eliminate all criticism so that everyone in the whole world loves him and second, to make sure he stays in power because his fall would mean certain jail time. He now has no choice but to continue on the path he has constructed. Like the violinist in Stravinsky’s “The Soldier’s Tale”, the devil himself pulls Orbán’s strings and makes him dance to his tune.
I’d be very surprised if Fidesz didn’t win alone at least 60% of the votes cast at the upcoming EU elections.
That would be an improvement over its 50something figure reached during the April 2018 general elections.
There’s always room for improvement for an autocrat and Orban is taking the election game seriously, it’s great fun.
(Of course, despite voting Hungary is emphatically not a democracy, but it’s in everybody’s interest to keep pretending it.)
people now only venting their potential “not surprise” for future OV victories, seem not to try to organize with others against such and therewith (in)direct assisting OV’s campaign
stop blaming each other, start really working together
humor may be applied, but it’s no fun, it’s serious!
ferenc, there is a possibility to organize and do something about the municipal elections although note that the only reason they will be held at all is because Fidesz is set to win them too (as it is natural an in autocracy) . Otherwise the municipalities would’ve been transformed into entirely appointed structures. It’s still an option if for some unforeseen reason Fidesz popularity would decrease. I don’t think voters would mind the return of the communist tanács rendszer (that is appointed council system). But the EU elections are very close in time and LMP and Jobbik are in the state of disintegration. MSZP and DK are totally numb and silent. OK, DK somewhat less so but it is still very quiet. The whole Hungarian party system is a mess, again no surprise in an autocracy. And no party has anything prepared for the campaign whereas Fidesz is already preparing with revolutionary fervor (and loads of money). The EU elections will be a huge win for Fidesz because ideologically they have the best story (a very consistent one they’ve been pushing for years), Fidesz’ voters are super-enthusiastic (and have been for 15 years contrary to what Trotsky taught) and only… Read more »
your words are assisting again OV’s campaign
PS: if you wanna reply and overtop your 70% with 80%, just make it 99% proof of your unwillingness and/or unableness to really work together with others against OV’s EMIGRATION CAUSING bunch
I agree with Ferenc – and anyway what you wrote here is not generally true:
Fidesz’ voters are super-enthusiastic (and have been for 15 years …
In 2002 Fidesz lost a lot of voters – why?
Gyurcsany’s open words about politicians Hungarians couldn’t understand …
And in 2010 the bunko paraszt of course did not see the state of the worldwide economy but believed that it all was the Hun government’s fault.
Marty, I know, as a lawyer it’s force of habit to be level-headed, but here’s something to ponder over: the movement of 1968 Fidesz hates so much was grassroots exactly because the opposition was also invested in playing mute Europe’s dark past. Things went so far as the government wanting to censor major media outlets (Der Spiegel) and had openly supported Axel Springer who envisioned the rebelling students as cronies of the Soviets. The change did not come from Willy Brandt suddenly bursting in and declaring it’s clubber time… even though he was the same guy who went behind Adenauer’s back and visited Kennedy. Speaking of that… if I accepted your approach, Kennedy would have given up Berlin as he advised to do. Be the change you want to see in others is not a joke. The unforeseen reason for a Fidesz failure already happens before your eyes, it’s Lázár defying Rogán in not accepting his outer province position (a reference to the sultan punishing his men) and still trying to define local politics. There is such a thing as a critical mass and Fidesz is already ballooning over the other parties since 2014, waiting to burst. You’re not naive,… Read more »
Marty,
The opposition has plenty to say! If you read the comments on this blog, they are calling the Hungarian voters: “bunko paraszts (thick peasants), idiots, retards, useless primitive scumbags”, etc. What a great way to win votes!😂
And they are getting angrier and nastier by the day, wondering : how come the “useless deplorables” don’t take the bait?
MZ, bunko paraszt goes only for the 40% Hungarians who voted for O – not counting the external voters from Serbia, Romania etc who wouldn’t be allowed to vote in a real democracy like you …
Go back to holding your cross!
PS:
You wrote here once that you read the kuruc.info every morning – maybe that site would be a better platform for your silly comments?
PPS:
The Fidesz admin made it almost impossible to vote for Hungarians working and living outside Hungary – but very easy for foreigners who claimed Hun ancestry.
Ain’t that strange?
“The opposition has plenty to say!”
Where? In Australia? In Hungary the opposition represents the majority of the voters, but is not allowed to say anything by the regime as long as the dictator doesn’t allow.
There is no need at all to convince the hard core fascist voters, just convince those who want to live in a decent democratic country and not in a mafia state. And you anti Hungarian Zuben laugh about those.
I wonder who is advising the fideszniks in this campaign? Is Hanbury Strategy involved? I don’t know but one of its Hungarian partners went to the same high school as Szjjártó went to at about the same time (maybe even to the same class) so I guess he must be handling the Hungarian account which can only mean the Hungarian Government. The guys worked on the Brexit campaign for the Tories so the ideology would fit. I could be wrong though.
I find it very likely that they will use the help of extemist parties’ advisors.
As for their usual advisors, Habony has his own consultancy firm based in London that he co-owned with the late A. J. Finkelstein. If they cannot leverage their local connections, i think this firm will be involved.
Re: Magyar Idők
I’ve read now so many times MI, the newspaper close to / associated with OV’s government, or similar, BUT let’s make clear with which texts it portrayed itself on its first day 2015.Sep.01.
Check its first digital front page as archived by the WayBackMachine at https://web.archive.org/web/20150901053848/http://magyaridok.hu/
this is the original, by itself used, logo linking to subscriptions (elofizetes)
Magyar Idők – konzervatív közéleti napilap – A kormánypárti újság
Magyar Idők – conservative public gazette – THE government’s newspaper
the last line disappeared the next day (or at least not archived later on) from their digital pages
Relevant to Magyar Idők. I read this article today in Magyar Idők https://magyaridok.hu/kulfold/ujabb-nuklearis-alkut-mond-fel-washington-3597260/ Virtually every media outlet in Hungary has reported this story without explaining to the Hungarian public that the intermediate weapons treaty abandonment has really enormous implications for Hungary and that Poland has indicated repeatedly it welcomes basing US nuclear weapons in its country (see https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/06/poland-considering-asking-for-access-to-nuclear-weapons-under-nato-program ). I would add that the Magyar Idők article contains a very significant error when it claimed the INF treaty covered ground-based, medium-range ballistic missiles equipped with conventional and nuclear warheads, as well as robotic aircraft “valamint robotrepülőgépekről rendelkezett.” The treaty includes nothing on human controlled drones, Russia has claimed that the US usage of armed drones such as the MQ-9 Reaper also violates the INF Treaty. The USA rejects that interpretation, the Russians argue that drones are ground based cruise missiles which are covered by the treaty. The actual language of the treaty contains this: “The term cruise missile means an unmanned, self-propelled vehicle that sustains flight through the use of aerodynamic lift over most of its flight path.” The obvious problem with the Russian claim is that US drones are controlled by operators located normally at Creech Air Force Base… Read more »
This is really interesting coming from the Hun government – which always complains about foreigners meddling in Hungary’s internal affairs. 🙂
If the majority of Europeans are really on that level then it’s time maybe for a new fascist regime – it has to go to the bottom before it can get better …
But I’m still optimistic – one reason being that already the European fascists/populists are fighting among themselves.
Just look at Austria vs Italy re double citizenship for people in South Tyrol and Austria vs Hungary re less money for children not living in Austria.
Wolfi, look further ahead, as there are two MAJOR differences at play. One, we don’t just have the radio anymore. Interwar sensationalism and censorship were way bigger than today, so compared to the yellow press, Hitler sounded reasonable. Only today most of the time and the Verhoftstadt clip is living proof, a clumsy lie can be easily exposed. Hungarians ignore that except it’s on the internet in English to live as an eternal embarrassment. Two, and way more important. The interwar world still lived as colonial empires and countries aspiring to be one. It was believed that a) there’s no such thing as an economic downturn, it’s a freemason conspiracy and b) owning colonies always course corrects the motherland’s economy. We know for a fact from Mein Kampf and Hitler’s speeches that he drank his own kool-aid and believed the Lebensraum to be a cureall. Trade has largely replaced wars as a means to gain resources and colonies died out because by even Chamberlain’s time it has become obvious that this long distance relationship costs more than it was worth. So the old ideas of propaganda today only work on the poorest of the blue collar who’s pretty tribal, and… Read more »
More and more propaganda to compensate for the deterioration on the ground is to be expected, but this undertaking abroad was a surprise for me:
– There are the costs to be borne by a stagnating economy. Anybody seen budget figure?
– The success prospects are paltry (see Opening to the East, Trading Houses, Come back home Hungarian, etc. silly failures).
– There are Hu embassies, consulates, trade missions, lobbyists and propagandists already in many places.
It seems Orban/the regime is getting more crazy/silly respectively, the former believing he can convince someone with primitive props, the latter by serving any self delusional whim of this prick.
Totally OT – really the best joke about the Donald that I’ve seen so far:
Mike Pence bumps into Trump outside the Oval Office and says “Mr. President… I need to talk with you about the abortion bill.”
Trump sighs in exasperation and tells Pence, “Have Michael Cohen pay it, and also have her sign an NDA.”
And the point is that this joke probably could be applied to many of these socalled “Christian” politicians in Europe too, the “leaders” of the CSU, Fidesz e g.
Everyone of the Germans (Seehofer, Söder and the former CSU honchos too) has at least one illegitimate child – and maybe also forced abortions on their girlfriends who might have hoped that their partners left their current wives – as Donald did …
👍👍👍
And Donny practicing comedy….and the laughs keep coming.
‘Let me tell you, I’m a really smart guy.”
One of these days the leader’s ‘smartz’ is going to put him where the sun don’t shine. More and more some statements of his bring him more and more into that realm where ‘intelligence’ will bring him to skirt the borders of impeachment down the line. His big mouth could wind him up as ‘Roseanne’ as he engages oh so hard to be the world’s ‘King of Comedy’ dying to make his audience laugh at others’ expense.
If he thinks we are in a ‘war’ well his loose lips just could sink the USS Trump. Just a lost steamer listing to disaster.
ORBÁN ON THE DUNG HEAP
It was amusing to read today that “what really got the Orbán fans’ goat was that Verhofstadt “dared to insult the Hungarian prime minister” by saying that he should be sent to a dung heap”.
But why such excitement when everyone here knows that Mr.Orbán is already on top of his very own dung heap crowing like a cockerel of his greatness, his (yuck, yuck) ‘christianity’ and his love of foci.
Game over. Nothing more to add. Now he will have to pull in his belt a notch and crow a bit louder if he is to reach the current 28 nations of the European Union. With holy-roller Balog he has chosen the right man to do it.
It happens the other way round I’m afraid: Orbàn got on top of the heap and now is turning it into dung.
Some contemplation below perhaps for the ‘good Christian pastor’ before he takes up his filled satchel to execute the ‘up to no good’ Fidesz pilgrimage.
One thing that is fairly evident in vocations with certain individuals or groups in the country is that there is more probability that they will do precisely the opposite of what their accepted manadate was to be. Nowadays Magyarorszag really puts the twist into ‘conversions’.
‘These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren’. Prov 6:16-19
Geeees! This time the Book predicted it spot on!
Most countries which can afford it have state supported cultural institutes with branches in other countries. They operate openly and their business is to acquaint people in other countries with their homeland’s language, culture and touristic marvels. Examples are the Goethe-Institut and Alliance Française. Some countries in addition spread political propaganda in other countries through disguised front organisations. I believe that covert operation will be the only option for Orban in his new endeavor. A Hungarian Cultural Institute spreading Orban’s doctrines in Europe will be a joke.
Hungary has such a cultural institute as well, called the Balassi institue.
Also, wasn’t this Polgári Magyarországért Alapítvány the same organisation Orbán used/tried to use to strengthen his support after he was voted out of government in ’02? (When he tried to organise the ‘polgári körök’ all over the country)
You might be interested in Csaba Kancz’s analysis he INF treaty and Orbán’s “foreign policy.” https://privatbankar.hu/makro/lottek-orban-ketkulacsos-politikajanak-tortenelmi-bejelentes-jott-322346
Thanks for the link Eva. I would say that Csaba Káncz and I have a similar assessment of the complexity for Hungary and NATO in relationship to the Trump declaration of exiting the INF treaty. I am glad he noted the official silence of the Hungarian government so far on this, because I kept looking and found nothing. But contrary to Káncz I do think that it could change the strategic environment (“ nem hogy a bejelentés megváltoztatja hazánk stratégiai környezetét”) Hungary finds itself in if Trump actually would place nuclear ground based warheads in Poland, Romania, or the Baltic nations at any of their requests. The Trump National Security adviser John Bolton would go for that type of an aggressive move to be sure. Richard Painter, the former chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration called Bolton not long ago a “dangerous man” and just days ago Bolton got in a screaming confrontation with General Kelly in the Oval Office over border security according to numerous press reports. I am all for being aggressive towards Russia, but the USA has to have Europe with us in any such strategy. There is no real evidence that… Read more »
Off topic: index.hu is reporting that a suspicious parcel has been found in George Soros’ home, containing a bomb, and the FBI is investigating it as a terror-related incident. Can’t wait to learn more on Hungarian state tv’s latest roundup of terrorist incidents around the world…
The NYT also reports it:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/nyregion/george-soros-explosive-device.html
Off topic: CEU chief Ignatieff has confirmed that the university will move to Vienna if there is no agreement with the Hungarian government by the end of the year, according to various sources (hvg, index, portfolio.hu)