László Trócsányi, minister of justice between June 6, 2014 and June 30, 2019, has moved on to become a member of the European Parliament. If confirmed, he might be the Hungarian representative on the European Commission. His reputation in Brussels is not exactly sterling because in the last four years he was responsible for introducing legislation that trampled on both the independence of the Hungarian judiciary and the laws of the European Union. Despite this, his legal career was impressive. By contrast, his successor’s judicial experience is thin. A year ago Judit Varga (39) was merely a political adviser to Fidesz MEPs in Brussels.
Her name surfaced as the most likely candidate for the job about three weeks ago. Because she spent nine years in Brussels in a low-level job, she is not well known in Budapest. She still doesn’t have a Wikipedia entry even though it was more than a year ago, in May 2018, that she was appointed to be one of the two undersecretaries responsible for European affairs in the prime minister’s office. From a lowly political adviser to minister of justice in just over a year can be called a “meteoric rise.”
Varga was born in Miskolc, a city that fell on pretty hard times after the collapse of the one-party communist system and, with it, the heavy industry that was concentrated in and around the city. From what I gathered from an interview she gave to a local paper, she is very attached to her birthplace and chose to remain there for all her studies, including her law degree. In high school she was nicknamed “the scholar.” No one doubts that she is sharp, but many people who know her find her arrogant, hubristic, insolent, presumptuous, and a “programmed robot” who parrots every word Viktor Orbán utters. From here on, some people claim, we will know exactly what is on Orbán’s mind; it will be enough to listen to Judit Varga. As for her ability to move easily on the international scene, she is able to negotiate in at least in three foreign languages — English, German, and French.
In addition to her smarts, she has other qualities that most likely appeal to Viktor Orbán. One is her athletic ability. She was captain of the basketball team in her student days. And, more important, she is a good football player. In her last year in Brussels she was on the Saint Michel’s women’s football team. She can juggle a soccer ball 37 times. As someone jokingly said, let’s hope that this isn’t better than what Orbán can do nowadays. And, saving the best for last, she is the mother of three boys.
Given her spectacular rise to the ministerial level, one’s first question is: who is her godfather? It didn’t take long to find out that Varga’s husband, Péter Magyar, is a childhood friend of Gergely Gulyás, the minister in charge of the sprawling office of the prime minister. The two friends attended high school and law school together, from which they graduated in 2004. Two years later, during the 2006 autumn disturbances, the two Fidesz supporters were already politically active, offering legal help to victims of police brutality and organizing demonstrations to precipitate the downfall of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, Viktor Orbán’s political opponent. Once Gulyás offered her a position in the prime minister’s office, she was primed for the ministerial slot.
Judit Varga and the young godfather, Gergely Gulyás
Varga is unstintingly loyalty to Viktor Orbán. And she knows how to stand her ground in negotiations. She will not give an inch from the position she is supposed to represent. She doesn’t know the word “compromise.” Predictably, she has very definite opinions. For example, she is convinced that “the Brussels elite doesn’t believe in anything; the only thing they want is power.” She said in an interview a few days before the EP elections that “there is life outside of EPP.” Of course, that was when Viktor Orbán was still convinced that there would be a far-right landslide.
Varga will keep her current job as an overseer of European affairs, which will be carried out under the aegis of the ministry of justice. The idea almost certainly came from Viktor Orbán, who is convinced that the ministry’s workload in the next few years will revolve around the Hungarian government’s legal battles with the European Union. She told members of the parliamentary committees before which she appeared that Orbán had specifically asked her “to help him win the debates with the European Union” and “to represent the sovereign European politics.” Otherwise, she thinks that it is high time to close those debates over the rule of law. The Sargentini Report is an old broken record that no longer has any relevance.
She was greatly annoyed by the few questions opposition members addressed to her, which reminded her of foreign criticisms of the Hungarian government. “It is quite obvious where our foreign critics get their information from,” she said. To which Bernadett Szél sarcastically said after the hearing was over that “her boss calls us Soros hirelings, so she didn’t have to hold herself back.” When she was asked about charges of corruption, she turned to Szél and said: “you can send an SMS to Strasbourg or anywhere else where they are waiting for it.” It’s no wonder she is considered to be arrogant.
When it came to questions about the Orbán government’s refusal to ratify the Istanbul Convention, which was a Council of Europe agreement aimed at preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, she claimed that “the position of women in Hungary is in the best shape. Women don’t have to choose between work and family, and the government stands firm against domestic violence.” Of course, we know the truth. Even the state television reported in 2018 that one in five women suffers abuse in Hungary and that one woman dies every week as a result of domestic violence. Protection is practically nonexistent.
Everything is also perfect with Hungary’s environmental policies, another lie since the air quality in Hungary is dangerously unhealthful and Hungary is practically the only country in Europe that has no separate ministry dealing with the environment. Questions about the terrible conditions that exist in the transit zone where refugee families are waiting for months were brushed aside. She claimed that “the state of hygiene and education is way above average” in the facility. Another obvious lie. In just the past few months, the Court of Human Rights at least seven times had to order the Hungarian authorities to feed those families whose first asylum request had been denied but who are still waiting for the results of their appeals.
Judit Varga will fit in well in a government where loyalty is the primary job requirement.
Speaking of SMS: “We will help you. Stay in your house in any case. If your husband runs out of beating, switch to other houses! The Minister of the Interior. “
Hello Judit V. your Victory looks like
…”she is convinced that “the Brussels elite doesn’t believe in anything; the only thing they want is power.” Whoever is advising Orbán and Fidesz on tactics, it is clear they told Orbán kft. to simply turn all criticism around and repeat the same back at their accusers. As we all know that Orbán doesn’t believe in anything except power, his loyal adherents have now been told to say the same about their opponents, as Judit Varga has just demonstrated. I suggest that the opposition starts playing the same game, by pronouncing that Judit Varga is a member of the Fidesz elite, and doesn’t believe in anything, except power. As for her arrogance, well, a friend who was here from Los Angeles for a while, doing work on filming said, as she was leaving, that she could not believe how arrogant and unpleasant many Hungarians are! And she is not the first visitor to say so, so on the world stage, this is how, thanks to Orbán, the world sees Hungary now. And certainly not just as the cute folksy place with Goulash and spicy dances. Judit Varga, might be clever, but nobody likes arrogance, apart from her employer and boss… Read more »
Apropos Orbán kft. …
https://magyarnarancs.hu/belpol/polgari-ertekeket-vallo-egyetemistaknak-hirdettek-60-ezer-forintos-osztondijat-121188
t4c, that’s a funny coincidence!
When I read this my first thought was that there’s a mistake here, it should be:
“the Budapest/Fidesz elite doesn’t believe in anything; the only thing they want is power.
Of course there’s something missing at the end of this sentence: … and money!
We visited our young ones in Bp again this weekend and they told us stories about living and working there …
Hungarians don’t need Orbans help to be arrogant and unpleasant.
The only joy I get out of Orban hiring these nobodies is how spectacularly his regime will implode, once he dies or becomes incapacitated -because everyone around him is just a parrot without any skill or backbone.
It is sad but worth remembering that obviously intelligent people such as Ms. Varga can also be dishonest and stupid. One might guess that in her case, the connection is through faith and a desire for power and influence to justify that faith. Ms. Varga’s faith is directed towards the infallibility of her idol, Viktor Orbán, whose politics she is clearly ready to defend through lies, lies and more lies.
She is just the appointee as Minister of Justice that this sad country needs – slavishly dishonest, utterly partisan and a complement to the prosecution service under Mr. Polt. The European Union still faces a significant challenge from the “Boil on its Backside” – the Hungarian Government. Let us hope that the new leadership has the courage and determination to deal with the dog-in-a-manger, nay-saying, just-give-us-the-money mafioso.
Bimbi
Chris
This is a perfect example how such dictatorships slide down into disfunction, and consequently oppression (to keep the lid on the resulting discontent): by filtering all cadres and actions through the sieves of obedience and loyalty (and corruption in Orbàn’s case) the regime becomes an ever thicker brew of mediocre or worse sycophants, ever more impervious to feedback, criticism or realities and incapable* of corrections. Such regimes go wayward and down in ever deeper crises – eg. N.Korea, Venezuela to mention two current disasters.
* incapable, because even shy attempts to act rationally, eg. Pokornyi, Navracsics in the EU, are discouraged or cut down by the system.
Sic transit gloria Hungarie (of the “merry” Kádár times). Sad, very sad indeed.
Bimbi, your comments are excellent i.e. this appointee is clearly very intelligent and yet she is “slavishly dishonest, utterly partisan…” I am in Hungary at the moment and clearly there are many intelligent voters for Fidesz, no matter that Fidesz is bankrupt as to ideas and/or ethics. So you are on point to remind us how intelligent people can be bankrupt as to ideas and ethics. Of course, something similar has happened before with both fascism and communism etc.
Ms Varga within the context of Hungary has been handed a great opportunity for a level of self enrichment and has taken it. If she is reasonably smart she will cleverly slip money regularly into Malta and elsewhere to protect her future for the time when Orban decides she is no longer of use. Really the trick for team Orban is offering really great deals for his Fidesz colleagues to acquire property and investments within Hungary thereby fully trapping them in his web.
If Ms Varga is truly smart she will make it appear that she has fully fallen into the web, but will ship out of Hungary as much money as she possible can.
Istvan
It’s not like this. She’s employed on a lavish salary and benefits, but that’s it. The big money is ripped off through the public work contracts awarded to selected mafioti/businessmen, who channel to or hold for the real owners the lion’s share of the loot.
A good example that our young ones in Bp gave:
The guy who developed those well known music festivals all around Hungary (Volt in Sopron, Sziget festival in Bp, another one at the Balaton …) sold his business to a Fidesz honcho some times ago and now lives abroad.
He probably was afraid of getting an offer he couldn’t refuse …
As we know Fidesz heavies are offered deals on Budapest homes at very preferred rates, also county homes, and even homes for their parents in some cases . That is part of the Fidesz web also Observer, and wealth is a relative thing. Orban has complete control over them beyond just their salary, they also get sucked into Hungarian investments. Even MPs from outside Budapest get such deals. This is the case with some relatively light weight Fidesz MPs from the KDNP wing that I have met in Esztergom though my family. They know of all sorts of deals for me to invest my money in, all in Komárom-Esztergom county. Its the web of corruption based on insider dealing and its not always big money either. As we know wealth is a relative thing to where one lives, in the USA I am not particularly wealthy. In the U.S., one out of seven households have over $1,000,000 in net worth according to Forbes magazine. I am one of them, and of course my extended family is well aware of that. There is little doubt they talk about that with others too. My total assets by Hungarian standards are really high… Read more »
Istvan, all true. But also the 90% owning officially 54% of the wealth are also nearly completely living in their own houses. Most of these properties are not financed and after the crash 2008 even impossible to finance (yes, of course, there is a bubble in Budapest and to lower extent in other big cities, where banks are glad to finance, but this is no more than 1/3 of real estate). So these 90% have hardly anything more than their home, not so long ago I read that for 75% of us it is a financial disaster if they need a new washing machine. So it is still even way worse than just the numbers you well interpreted tell us.
There are few women in the Orbàn “elite” and those are for show or short lived tools for a particular task (although everyone is only a tool for O1G).
My hunch is Gulyàs or someone presented Varga as the one to win against the “Brussels bureaucrats”. With the new EU leadership and with steadily increasing rumble about Orbàn’s corruption and trouble making, Judit Vàrga may turn out to have an impossible mission and won’t last in her job very long.
If Ms Varga she acts the way His Highness Sultan Vizier Orban wants her to be which is close to a barking female rottweiler she might want to keep away from mirrors. She just could get real exhausted shoveling up the shards of cracked glass. It could get tired revisiting this one…
‘Mirror mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all?’
Ms Varga may want a stipulation in her contract: Need extra mirrors For occupational hazard.
I just met the in laws over the weekend who, as I mentioned here, although lovely folks are absolutely unwavering fideszniks. No amount of corruption or incompetence can change their mind (needless to say very few concrete cases reach them, but when they hear one, they just dismiss it based on one of the usual fidesznik ‘arguments’). They happen to know Varga’s family. Apparently, Varga was thoroughly vetted (as you can be sure with Orban). What I hear is that her (even extended) family is a “fanatic right-wing family” i.e compared to my in laws. There are always degrees in fanaticism. Varga was cast as (i) a Fidesznik with a human face who can dazzle foreigners (“why, she even speaks German and French”, “she has three children, who can she be so successful and wholesome looking at the same time, can you tell us your secrets?” etc. etc.) but she is (ii) utterly, unflinchingly loyal to her corrupt, deranged boss. It’s smart counter-programming because Western politicians expect some boorish, fat country bumpkin and she will positively surprise her counterparts – but she will be a merciless, fanatic fidesznik just as Orban expects. This is what Orban did in opposition when… Read more »
“Fooling vain and clueless Western politicians”
Well just give them all a copy of Varga’s opinion piece “EU’s Hungarian witchhunt”; she wrote it a few days before the voting of the “Art.7 – Rule of Law – Sargentini” report.
All with some brains will very quickly be able to judge her “competence”.
referred piece at https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-hungary-sanctions-witchhunt-budapest-viktor-orban/
The fact that she speaks French and German may impress the typical Fidesz troglodyte voter who struggles with putting two words together in their own language, never mind a foreign one…. but with regards impressing “the foreigners”?
I think not. A poodle who comes out with the kind of hilarious whinge highlighted in Ferenc’s link will be regarded as an unthinking, brainless lapdog at home and abroad no matter how many certificates and degrees she may wave.
I give her 6 months max before she joins the rest of the idiots in Orban’s “Gone and Forgotten” cupboard.
The fidesznik voters don’t care, but the German CSU members and Belgian or French bureaucrats do. They speak English but they value if somebody speaks their own language. It’s a plus, a sign of goodwill which they appreciate.
Managing expectations is key to success, the Western counterparts expect a triglodyte like Szilard Nemeth or whoever and they will get Varga quoting Voltaire. It’s much harder to be tough with a smiling lady. Basic psychology, Orban just knows how people behave.
Nobody is gone and forgotten at Fidesz, as you know very well. This is an ironclad rule: even the most idiotic and corrupt figures end up getting some well-paying job which (i) incentivizes them to keep silent and (ii) allows Fidesz to keep them under observation by certain colleagues.
It’s hilarious to read the commenters get their heat up
about the bunko Hungarians. That brings to mind the Democrats rambling on about the unsavory/idiotic supporter of Trump. Fact is, they’re not that stupid, just realistic: the policital system has brought them nothing, just an every enlarging bureaucracy staffed by pals. Of course, the Senate is just a private club to be staffed by family members. Knowing all this, the average ‘joe’ opts to be ‘entertained’…and that is what Trump is–constant entertainment. To boot, the commoners get to watch the elite and middle class go in a tizzy. So, the lower classes get no gains but with Trump they get endless entertainment.
Repeatedly we read comparisons of Pres. Trump and PM Orbán on this thread However, a little thought would show that their two cases are very different. No wonder Pres. Trump wishes he had Orbán’s Hungarian conditions in the US! Hungary is effectively hermetically sealed from the outside world, primarily through its language, while internally it is small enough so that the whole land can be fully controlled by one man (albeit with a willing band of helpers). Such conditions simply do not and cannot exist in the USA.
Secondly, as Mrs. May has just found out, Pres. Trump’s regime is haphazard and inept. PM Orbán’s certainly is not. He rules with great skill and with great control, fulfilling his twin ambitions of the complete exercise of power and continuing embezzlement of state funds. Trump may (or may not) have such ambitions – he has more power and money than Orbán can dream of – but he can never achieve the influence that Orbán has over every aspect of his state.
If we wish to read about Trump we can turn to the NY Times or the W Post. This blog is about Hungary. Please keep the focus there!
Ferenc
Tnx for the link.
The OP is very professionally written, in very good English and is full of lies and misrepresentations – the Fid virtual reality building. This is why JV was made minister of justice; for which she has no qualifications to speak of, and which would be a pretty domestic portfolio if it was not for the regime’s wholesale violation of/ deviations from the Western norms and institutions.
Note the gall, the arrogance of the piece, eg.
“We (Orbàn’s mafia state) represent democracy, the rule of law and liberty of thought — a real democracy, not a democracy of illusions…”. and
“There is a democratic deficit in Europe …Citizens want a more citizen-friendly Europe. “!
Yes, I’d say, and most of this deficit has accumulated in Hu, Pl and E.Europe.
There looks to be re-fashioning a word which is back in quite a fashion: the polgari. It should now be perceived as those existing beneath a sort of wobbly Fideszian wheel.
What we have now is a relentless crushing of initiative and diversity due to the incessant nationalistic impulse. A ‘democracy’ moving through and encased in cement. Leadership running around with heads of concrete.
Judit Varga is well-recognized as “Ms Attack Mode”:
“Sometimes attack is the best form of defence, as we see in the case of Hungarian EU minister Judit Varga defending her government’s fight against alleged EU illegality.” (Euronews 19 Feb 2019)
Ms Varga in action can also be sampled in her Euronews article, “Rule of law mechanism: a procedure without law? View” 23 Nov 2018”:
https://www.euronews.com/2018/11/22/rule-of-law-mechanism-a-procedure-without-law-view
The comments to this latter are also interesting…
Re: ‘attack mode’…
As they say the best defense is being ‘offensive’.
Trump, the V4, Vlad and the rest of the political ‘irascibles’ with chips on their shoulders perform it with perfection. And to note a recent commentator in a Foreign Affairs piece ‘Democracy Demotion’ at this time there’s been animosity to objective truth not to mention universal values. And ‘If there is no objective truth and no deeper moral value than power itself , then the biggest liar wins’.
Seems we have a number of offensive candidates who are certainly vying to be the biggest Fool /Tool of Mendacity in the world . Sometimes cleverness can look so dumb looking at those who conceive of themselves as the ‘best and the brightest of the most select’. Their awry association with ‘truth’ immediately dismisses their position as the guardians of rule of law. It makes a mockery of certain governments where it is now existing sadly as SOP…just ‘standard operating procedure’.
The ‘very merry-O’ barrack continues on the soporific descent into lassitude once again. But with a more vocalized nationalism on opoids now. It eases pain as a new pharmacy is open. The clever ones ride ‘high’.
Re Hungarian women:
A statistic was just published by the UN on women murdered by their partners, ex-partners or family.
The numbers for Hungary are almost twice as high as for other European countries!
https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/haeusliche-gewalt-137-getoetete-frauen-jeden-tag-uno-bericht-a-1276383.html
This is also available in English:
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/global-study-on-homicide.html
Re: ‘The numbers for Hungary are almost twice as high as for other European countries!’
Curious how some particular politicians reconcile those findings with the fact of the Fidesz platform focusing much on one of the pillars allegedly holding up the the Magyar state and that is the family. My hunch is they do not wish to recognize the problems physical violence generates on through the country’s society and culture. It’s as if there is no problem and it’s on ignore or deny.
There’s something to be said for intervention in family violence. Unbelieveable in how violence can be tolerated in what represents a needed cultural unit of cohesion as it contributes to the development of strong positive connections between itself and Magyar society. Certainly not a great image for a country to have a reputation of individuals worrying about being possible punching bags or wearing targets. It has to leave mark on those experiencing it both for the present and for the future.
Thank you for that wolfi. I looked at the paper and yes, Hungary has an astonishingly high rate of violence against women.
No doubt Orbán will instruct the heads of police departments to “adjust” the books, in regard to such tragic deaths, and present lies to the public, at which he is a master.
Very interesting, Wolfi! Only one European country worse than Hungary. Germany with “all these migrants” is way better off, France with such a huge quota of French Muslims since generations even better and the Netherlands, that is giving pretty easy passports to immigrants after a short while without regarding the believe or skin is second best in the ranking. So much about the hate propaganda of our regime.
VJ is OV’s SHS & KaC
Loved all your funny/sad cartoons.