Six days ago, I was writing this post when we lost power. Since we were expecting a storm (though not of such a great magnitude), I carefully saved my 400 some words, but since then so many days have gone by that, when I sat down to my computer after the power was restored late this morning, I wasn’t even sure what my next thoughts would have been.
During my enforced “vacation,” when I wasn’t venting about the sorry state of American infrastructure (and I did a lot of that), I read several fascinating books about Hungary in the 1970s and 80s. Where relevant, I’ll weave some of my new-found knowledge into subsequent posts.
♦ ♦ ♦
The Orbán government’s appointment of Attila Vidnyánszky, director of the Budapest National Theater and professor of dramatic arts at the University of Kaposvár, to the post of chairman of the five-member board of the foundation that from here on will determine the fate of the University of Theater and Film Arts (SZFE) caused quite an upheaval in the theatrical world as well as in the independent media. A few professors resigned in protest and the university’s student union (HÖK) has refused to accept the appointment.
The resignations of a couple of instructors and some student demonstrations will not, of course, be able to prevent the takeover of SZFE by Attila Vidnyánszky. On the other hand, as we have seen, the joint action of approximately 100 journalists pretty well put an end to the functioning of Index, Hungary’s leading internet news site. The only hope of foiling the hurriedly devised plan of the government would be a near-unanimous decision, arrived at by the teaching staff and the student body, to boycott the university come September. Whether SZFE, with the support of the theater world, is ready for such a drastic move only time can tell.
Ferenc Gyurcsány, chairman of Demokratikus Koalíció, has made sure over the years that Hungarian society is aware of his party’s unrelenting opposition to the Orbán regime, with which not even dialogue is possible. As we know, Gyurcsány as a politician is anything but cautious, a quality that in the past has gotten him into major trouble, for example when in 2006 he admitted that the MSZP-SZDSZ governments had lied to the electorate by not divulging the hard realities of the Hungarian economy.
A couple of days ago, at a special session of parliament which Fidesz-KDNP refused to attend, he called the present government profligate. A few hours later on his Facebook page, after complaining about the disappearance of free art and culture, he called for “preparedness” after Viktor Orbán and his regime are gone. “Vidnyánszky and his friends will stay as long as Orbán does. After which they will be gone. More than that, they will become outlaws [földönfutók] in all meanings of the word. There won’t be any burying of the hatchet. A confined world is waiting for those who killed freedom in this country. And this is how it should be. Calmly, rationally, firmly. Those of you who are still swithering, it is time to find yourselves, to wake up, to live! You either fight for the homeland or you will be a collaborator. Either-or.”
I assume I don’t have describe the government media’s reaction to this Facebook note, but criticism also came from the left. Origo’s headline read: “Gyurcsány threatens Vidnyánszky with confiscation of property.” Bálint Borbács, a regular at the paper, quoted Dániel Deák, perhaps the most vacuous pro-government “political scientist” and a favorite of Mária Schmidt, who believes that both DK and Momentum are showing signs of radicalization, whose source is “the overseas radical, far-left movement which is ready to use violence, claiming many lives every week.” These two parties, Deák claims, want to have violent demonstrations similar to the ones in the United States, where “blood flows, garbage cans burn, windshields are broken, party headquarters are detonated.” Origo then called on the usual pro-government spokesmen like Zoltán Lomnici, Jr., an expert from Századvég, who described Gyurcsány’s Facebook note as “a certified case of political crime,” and Bánk Levente Boros, director of Médianéző Központ (Media Watch Center), who pointed out that Gyurcsány threatened not only Attila Vidnyánszky but also practically everyone who did not support him.
From the opposition, TGM, who likes to express contrary opinions, argued against Gyurcsány’s categorical views on the fate of those who were party to the massacre of Hungarian democracy. As you know, there is a widespread belief among those who would like to see an end to the Orbán regime that the political structure Viktor Orbán has created cannot be altered by democratic, constitutional means. Thus, true democrats are at the mercy of the current semi-dictatorial political setup. Their hands are tied. Even if Fidesz loses the election, the new government will not be able to function for the simple reason that all other political institutions, the constitutional court, the whole prosecutorial hierarchy, the ombudsman’s office, and hundreds of other vital establishments are in the hands of Fidesz loyalists.
TGM disagrees with the pessimists. Instead, he depicts an ideal world after the fall of Viktor Orbán. “If Hungary has a more decent, more democratic government than the current one, Attila Vidnyánszky will not be an outlaw but a theater director. If his troupe and his university choose him, he will be the director-in-chief and a department head because a decent, democratic government will not meddle in the affairs of the National Theater and the University of Kaposvár. There is one thing he will not be, the president of the board of the University of Theater and Film Arts, because it will not have a board and a foundation. The whole network of universities will return to the bosom of the Hungarian democratic state, which will grant them autonomy just as the Hungarian Academy of Sciences will regain its network of research institutes.”
Basically, on a personal level, all will be forgiven. Although the alternative “absurd research institutions” will also disappear, no harm will come to those who are “the betrayers of the Hungarian intelligentsia and culture, the Bodolais, the Szilárd Demeters, the Tamás Freunds, the Miklós Maróths, the László Palkovicses and their ilk who brought shame on themselves and their friends in the dark days of the Orbán regime.” TGM doesn’t cover the thousands of economic crimes that have been committed by Viktor Orbán and his enriched supporters, but I assume that he would not be so generous with them as he is with the gravediggers of historical research, literature, education, and many other facets of intellectual achievement.
The saying that “Hungary is a country of impunity” has become commonplace, and I have encountered many Facebook comments indicating that, with the next political change, people would like to see a reckoning, starting with opening the files of the secret police and investigating illegal business activity over the past ten years. But holding people accountable is a complicated matter, with many levels of “sinfulness,” on which there must be consensus when the time comes.
Nice to hear that you’ve got power again, Eva! My in-laws are still without power in Connecticut.
So happy to hear Professor Balogh that you have power back on, let alone you are safe and sound. Thoughtful post on the plus and minus of holding the regime leaders and their Quislings accountable. Perhaps the Spanish transition from fascism may be relevant . Hopefully, the audience for this blog will have a respectful and calm discussion on this important topic
Quid rides? Mutato nomine et de te fabula narratur . . .
In the United States as well. Purge, once Trump is deposed, or smear away the record with a reconciliatory sponge — and re-create dirty, dishonest “solutions” like those of post-war west Germany and France ?
There will be a cleansing sometime. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the Rote Armee Fraktion — a generation sick of being gavaged with lies eventually turned both Germany and France upside down. Will that play out in the United States as civil war ?
What’s coming toward us is not funny, and I’m not laughing.
In the US…institute term limits (3 maximum) for Congress, and rid the political system of lobbyists.
That’s the right beginning.
(And barring the Republican Party would help, too).
Prime ministers are not elected. No term limits apply for that
@ Julius G.
You must be confused: in Congress, senators and reps are elected for 4 years.
US Senators have 6 year terms and US members of the House have 2 year terms. See Article One of the US Constitution there is no term limit provision for either Senators or members of the US House of Representatives.
Your use of the word “reckoning” worries me, as I associate it with the punishment of those involved (actually, allegedly or who simply failed to distance themselves from participants) in the 1956 uprising, and the threat of another “Bolshevik purge” if Fidesz lose power is the kind is just what Orbán & co need to keep their foot-soldiers in line
Corrupt Fidesznik politicians who abused their power for years, who rigged elections in so many ways, who stole untold billions of euros from Hungarian taxpayers might have to face legal procedures in the unlikely event Fidesz lost power somehow.
But we can’t have that, this would be red terror! This would be a Stalinist purge, no less! Same old commies, nothing changes.
Sigh.
Welcome back!
Have you ever thought about the purchase of an emergency generator? I bought one of these after I had to throw away an entire freezer’s groceries.
Perhaps Prof Balogh has indeed taken the hint that season after season of downed trees and power lines, summer and winter, has offered her. A few jerricans of petrol and enough electricity to keep the milk fresh . . .That might not help with the internet connection, though.
With the frequency of power outages, I really only thought of the groceries. That way, a few dollars / euros are gone every time.
The Internet? ! The world will keep turning even without us. Can wait. Good eating and drinking is more important isn`t it?
Good eating and drinking is more important isn`t it? No …
“You must not only eat with your mouth, but also with your head, so that the sweetness of the mouth does not ruin you.” (Friedrich Nietzsche)
Wolverines are not born, but educated to do so (have a look at O1G)
I see nothing which suggests violence in what Gyurcsany has said.
What he means is that Orban and hs mafia friends will not take defeat lying down, and will do everything to wreak havoc to disable any opposition government. That is all, and that is enough, as is evident by the withdrawal of funds from Karacsony, in order to impede his work as Budapest’s mayor.
Orban is nothing if not vindictive, and if he loses,the world will witness an ex-leader more or less having one apoplectic fit after another, seething with rage and, as in a Shakesperian tragedy, making mischief, seeking revenge and wreaking havoc and mayhem wherever he goes.
All based on his greed, malice and, fundamentally, his desperation for love and approval from his father. But the saddest thing is not Orban himself – there have been orbans before and there will be more just like him – but that the world sits by and lets it happen.
So what Gyurcsany says is right – either you stand up and object or, if you do not, than you are colluding with Orban’s regime of corruption.
@2bits4free, 1:54 am
Exactly. Well stated.
When Orban is finished politically, he’ll move to a south seas island…
Beware what you wish for!God help Hungary if Gyurcsany ever gets hold of power.He is a lying git.
Vilmos, you are really funny …
Did you have too much vilmos pálinka? Who`s the biggest liar In Hungary?
Who has destroyed democracy here?
And don’t even think about all those business decisions like giving a monopoly for tobacco to the Fidesz honchos – or the highest VAT in Europe …
PS and a bit OT:
We’re just discussing on a forum a German family’s holiday in Bp – and how strange they found some things there. Hadn’t expected this in a European city – or as the Fideszniks claim “Central European Capital” 🙂 🙂
“how strange they found some things there”
which things?
Like many run down houses, lots of garbage and dirt on the streets and below in the underpasses.
People especially men being dressed rather shabbily.
All this contrasting with some really exclusive (and expensive …) places – though you have this probably in all major capitals.
Gyurcsàny is an angel compared to Orbàn who had hardly missed an issue to lie about, from the 1990 surveillance allegation through “protect” the private pensions to yesterday’s “migrants bring C19”. Lying is Orbàn’s form of political life, so carefully …
Happy you’ve got the public power back and remained full of power yourself.
“Dániel Deák [OV’s “political scientist”]: “[DK and Momentum’s source is] the overseas radical, far-left movement which is ready to use violence, claiming many lives every week.””
Always “funny” when Hungarians try to compare cases and situations in their country with the elsewhere in the wide world, of course they prefer to take the “greatest” as their reference.
Well in this case no need to go overseas [and oceans…], they just should go overland some 1000 km north-east and look around there. The current happenings in Belarus seem a much better reference point…
The main question is if OV, the Hungarian Serial Democracy Killer, dares to go as far as Lukashenko… and that within the EU…
And this is how the Hungarian 1Party-State-“public”-Media M1 Hirado [“news”] in its main ca.55min “news” program is covering Belarus:
–in between other longer items [Russian vaccine, migration, Chicago] it “informed” the people in Hungary in 30 seconds about “all they needed to know” regarding the happenings in Belarus…
Source [incl.video cuts]: https://444.hu/2020/08/12/alig-fel-percet-szant-az-m1-hiradoja-a-feheroroszorszagi-helyzetnek
Orbàn/Likashenka
I bet Orbàn will do the same, except for live ammunition use, which may be left to Kövèr to muddle the issue, claim misunderstanding and ultimately shirk responsibility.
“These two parties, Deák claims, want to have violent demonstrations similar to the ones in the United States, where “blood flows, garbage cans burn, windshields are broken, party headquarters are detonated.”
The image of the Hungarian democratic opposition putting down their lattes and croissants and battling the Orbanists on the streets is….one which is hard to imagine 🙂
And actually it is what our obese dictator would want if he felt his power was ebbing because it is exactly the scenario which would energise the nazi and rural inbred scum which form the backbone of the Fidesz vote.
What frightens Fat Vik and his apparachiks the most is the democratic opposition refusing to play his game next election, boycotting and refusing to play stooges to his fascist regime.
I have no doubt there is love (amongst the nazi and rural wooden planks already mentioned) for Orban but in terms of the guys that really matter, the oligarchs and the various gangster godfathers,
I suspect there is very little love for blubberchops and as soon as they see that his powerbase is starting to weaken they will turn on him pretty sharpish.
Great to see you online again, Éva!
As for post-Orbán Hungary: I keep thinking of what a good old Estonian colleague said in 1988, when the end of the Soviet regime was suddenly turning into a realistic plan. “I don’t want to see a witch hunt on every petty collaborator”, said he. “Only the really big crooks must be punished, those with blood on their hands.”
Everything should be published, all criminal deals brought into daylight. That would, of course, need lots of journalistic investigations and free media. And a critical audience for that… I’m basically an optimist, but just now, a post-Orbán Hungary seems like an unrealistic dream. (But then, so did the end of the Soviet Union back in the 1980s.)
I have been saying this for years: Orban will leave office in one of two ways: 1) He decides it is time to retire and let Rahel take over; 2) In a pine box. Anyone who thinks he can be defeated in a democratic election is tilting at windmills.
Good to hear your voice again, Alex Kuli!
Seconded.
Good to have you back Eva. Life has not been the same without you!
A slightly unusual counter to TGM.
I don’t think that restoring the Academy of Sciences network of Research institutes in their previous form after a change of government would be a good idea. That is because it was a seriously outdated model which needed reform -just not of the sort the Orban government is inclined too.
The location of the best researchers within MTA institutes rather than university departments is one (of several) reasons for the very poor score of Hungarian universities in world comparative rankings. Hungary presently does not have a single world top 500 university.
Yes, it’s a real shame!
Once, many, many years ago Hungary was famous for its scientist, its culture, its artists – nowadays?
About the only thing in culture that remains is US and other movies and TV series being produced in Budapest.
I wonder if and when the exodus of every special talent will end or at least be reduced …
‘scientists and artists’….they were mostly jews and have left the teepee. No sense waiting for the free train rides to sunny Poland.
Congratulations, dear Eva!
I was already worrying – almost a week without power?
And I’m sure everybody here is really happy to have you and your valuable insights into Hungary back.
No point discussing the regime’s bullhorn media. Any public discussions on next political system are academic now, but we can indulge in some daydreaming. TGM is wrong, as usual: 1. As 2bits noted the Orban mafia state is staffed with his capos and party soldiers and they are not going to lay down and take it, eg. Orban tries to unseat the gov by riots in 2006 from an incomparably weaker position. Can TGM llist the dictators in full power who had stepped down after lost election (I know of Jerry Rowlings). Orban proclaim a revolution, which turned out a counter-revolution restoring the dictatorship; why not have another one sweeping the putschists and the mafia around them. 2. TGM views the arts institutions, but as Eva noted, the heaviest crimes, easier to prove were, are being committed in the economic, business sphere, although many actions of the state administration, the Prosecution Office, the HNBank, and other independent by statute organizations would be found criminal by any impartial court. 3. I am sick and tired of the wet dreams and high theories of philosophers and intellectuals with seemingly no knowledge of history or in denial of the latter. Where is their… Read more »
And just a reminder how Orbanistan treats its intellectuals:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/much-teachers-around-world-where-100300817.html
Hungarian teachers’ salary are lowest of the 30 countries considered.
Pusztastranger on facebook has a newer stats – Hungary is still last (!!!) of all European countries!
This must be really motivating for those people …
Dream on of a normal future with people who hate everything … Hungary is not alone. Orbans Friends … this is what the future of Hungary looks like! “Belarus: Lukashenko wins election with 80% of vote, election commission says However, the main challenger has rejected the results and demanded Lukashenko “hand over power.” Exit polls on Sunday sparked protests throughout the country, with opponents saying the vote was rigged.” https://www.dw.com/en/alexander-lukashenko-wins-belarus-election/a-54506718 Voter fraud with loyalists and the police? “Seems like too many people voted for Tikhanovskaya already. The number of ballots doesn’t add up because of early vote rigging. Police had to bring a ladder and commission members are climbing out of polling station with full bags” https://twitter.com/i/status/1292395572595392517 9. Aug. That’s it! Election Day in Belarus. Right now in central Minsk Facebook (incl. Messenger), YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, Viber are all blocked via mobile internet. Two major grassroots-driven platforms Онлайн-платформа Голос and ZUBR are also blocked. App Store is also blocked! https://twitter.com/franakviacorka/status/1292367129010941952 Trump torpedoes the postal votes in US “Lawmakers from both parties want Postal Service to undo changes that are slowing mail lawmakers are increasingly focus on the Postal Service, which is reeling from mail delays and financial problems as record… Read more »
Try before you trust! Topic art and theatre the EPP group has something to say …
“Law enforcement crackdown and #Belaruselection falsification must have consequences. We call for targeted #sanctions against President #Lukashenko. We also call for EU help programmes in support of the Belarusian civil society. @ManfredWeber @Kalniete https://eppgroup.eu/newsroom/news/ ”
Isn’t that ridiculous? Manfred Weber has something to say…
The #Belaruselection was not free and fair. We demand the immediate publication of the real election results and the release of the protestors. President #Lukashenko is fully responsible for the bloodshed in the streets of Minsk. Read our full
@EPPGroup statement here
https://twitter.com/ManfredWeber/status/1292868591122092033
Anyone who now believes that EU values have anything to do with democracy is an incorrigible and dangerous loyalist. The values of the EU are just money, sound and smoke!
You cynic. The EU is planning a report to addtess the Belarus “issue” as we speak. Due to be issued in 2024 and it will scold Lukashenko in the “strongest terms possible”.
D7 what as early as 2024. Not typically for the EU that would be 2044 with luck – it is necessary to sweep first in the EU before they want to sweep in Belarus. It sounds cynical just because it is cynical. We have the same thing in Hungary and how did the EPP and Orban work well together? Orban moved the borders and the EPP, not Germany as some confused people write, wagged their fingers while others were already on the tables. The EVP is cynical!
I no longer have any confidence in the EU as a custodian of democratic values.Also no longer any confidence that the fascists will walk if they lose at the ballot box. Hungarians will have to get up of their backsides and take a risk to get rid of this regime and at the moment that seems unlikely.
But who knows? Fatboy has read “his” people perfectly so far but it just takes one serious mistake or history to change in an unexpected direction and well, remember how Mussolini and Ceausescu met their ends.
Whatever, I have promised myself, I will dance on his grave either metaphorically or literally.
Power restored! ☝️ With Fidesz and the opposition at loggerheads the people one day soon may have to make a choice and that is either acting for themselves and their ideas or continuing to believe they need to be ‘cared for’. There’s too much strife in the country both personal and political. The ‘left out’ and the top dogs on the ‘right’ indicate the battle. And the latter do not seem to want to entertain the idea of giving up power. The possibility of it getting worse could increase if invective and insult is the form of talking to each other. How are two sides to meet then and discuss the problems of the country? Revenge is pretty much guaranteed to ride under all the rhetoric. Machiavelli knew this was a great problem in the rough and tumble of politics. Fidesz right now controls the electoral machinery. Bad thing about this is it provides a false reality of ‘winning’ when it just makes it look like they’re a bunch of crooks moving the levers. The reckoning: it could come hard if the temp in the pressure cooker rises even with a society comfortable with all the sports , entertainment and… Read more »
Quote of the day..
This is the way it is nowadays in some politics. Presented by the modern day ‘full of powder‘ Lucifers in the US and Magyarorszag. There’s a certain commonality with the two great ‘Angels’ on high.
’From hell’s heart I stab at thee , for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee’. Melville…
Eva, it is indeed great you are back to reporting. Opening your posts is my days’ best part. But Ferenc Gyurcsány’s phony radicalism was rightly criticized by TGM as toxic, and I hope it signifies a welcome step away from Tamas’s own, different version of empty radicalism. I agree with you that the depiction of Gyurcsány’s speech in the govt media as far-left is funny. For those propagandists, a “let’s eradicate Orbán’s ilk”-type of rhetoric should be most familiar. Regarding the U.S, it is resembling Trump’s sham anti-elitism, such as “lock her up” and “drain the swamp”. Regarding Hungary, TGM correctly warned that such demagogic instigations have consistently ruined our freedoms in the past. Reminder: It was Orbán who last time employed the manipulative rhetoric of revenge and has thrown away democracy’s procedures (by promising, of course, to do that for the “very last” time). Reminder #2: This kind of talk is especially spurious from Gyurcsány, Hungary’s main revolving door operator. He started the post-communist portion of his political career as the reconciliation guru of Prime Minister Péter Medgyesy! It is was Gyurcsány himself who in the early 2000s created the word “árokbetemetés” which he now castigates… Read more »
https://youtu.be/q9bo1C2KOPM
A song relevant in ‘89 as well as now. Especially now. Again democratic idealists are now the visionaries. They were tilting at windmills as well before and look what happened. That time and the place was ripe for a bit of belief matched with serendipity to help it seep in. Then unfortunately the foundations were a bit weak and then the ‘great pince’ opened up with a cave-in.
Democrats now are riding on their ‘Rocinantes’. It’s something that seems never to get old though if we think about it as there some always somewhere somehow who have a thing with the concept of what it means to be ‘free’. And right here at home we now have an off-the-rails Queens boy who forgot what country he was brought up in. Hopefully it will be in a calm state that the country can relieve him from office. 😎
Thank you for your contribution to this discussion. Given your long and eloquent resistance to tyranny of all types, I listen and read very carefully to what you say and write.
Fake anti-elitism is a political tradition in the USA. We can see it going way back to Andrew Jackson and Teddy Roosevelt, Trump is not new in that sense really. Jackson presented himself as the man of the small farmer/slave owner, Teddy Roosevelt was from the elite yet periodically denounced aspects of his own elite when it served his own political purposes.
Yes, I agree that fake anti elitism has long been part of US discourse, but I am uncertain of your point.
Gyurcsany is probably no radical, sure, but why is it that the left-wing/liberal intelligentsia already at this point (having zero chances of wining even a minimal majority in 2022) collectively want to forgive for Orban? We became a decade or more older; Hungary is now behind Romania in most metrics and is the perennial laggard in the EU together with Bulgaria; the minds of the ordinary people have been poisoned for decades with a vicious, unparalleled propaganda and ideological reeducational campaign; education and social services have been outsourced to churches; the elections have been rigged, engineered, were a sham; unfathomable amounts have been stolen; all of the government organizations have been packed to the hilt with fanatic and corrupt battle tested fidszniks; the “liberal” people have been literally tormented by the system (from the bogus legal procedure against the philosophers, to the driving away of CEU, to the killing of independent media and countless other instances), and then opposition intellectuals now want to forgive for Orban and his fanatic minions. This makes no sense politically for so many reasons. In fact this is insanity. People do want a resolution at the end of the movie, they want the good guy… Read more »
Miklós H
How was GyF Megyessy’s “reconciliation guru”? GyF didnt set MSZP policies then.
How was GyF “Hungary’s main revolving door operator”? Never heard that.
Your liberal SZDSZ party, systematically misread the political situation in Hu, kept pushing liberal ideas ill fitting the Hu society and quickly drove itself to extinction.
Gyrcsàny struggled with the treacherous elite of its own party, faced the most vicious and relentless character assassination campaign in Hu and against all odds built up from scratch the now largest opposition party. So, easy with the adjectives.
While GyF tough talk is of no conceivable benefit NOW, it is very much the antithesis of the dogmatic liberal philosophizing, which was once, and would be again a crucial issue in the eventual exercise of power, asbmany readers here see well.
Some individuals in SZDSZ may have “misread the political situation” in past, but Miklos Haraszti and Magyar Balint, both -as you know- former SZDSZ leaders continue to write some of the most important and relevant views of the Orban regime. They were and are models of honest politicians i.e. they never looted any thing.
Gyurcsany, every time he opens his mouth, delivers a gift for Orban. He just can’t control himself, looks as a personality trait.
Such a bellicose declaration only harden the Fidesz-loyalists. It makes them vividly picture how much is at stake for them in this game, and thus that they should not get complacent and sloppy but fight harder. Orban should hire him to tender his flock.
And yes, it is a whole system, “deep-state”, which Orban has been systematically building for the last 10 years. Assuming (fat chance but assuming) that Orban ever lose power, his people, now present in key positions at all levels in the state, will thwart, sabotage, the winner.
See how Trump has been sabotaged from day one by the system there.
@Invidious, 2:10 pm
“Assuming (fat chance but assuming) that Orban ever lose power…”
Ah, yes, Invidious dreams of the Dynasty of the Dumpy Dictator extending on through the 21st and into the 22nd century, the Great Guiding Hand for the long-awaited (but don’t hold your breath) economic resurgence of the EU led by the Magyar Fidesz engine… yackity, yackity, yack. Do you really believe all that crap?
Funny that you cannot see that your very assertion shows how deeply this country and its society has been corrupted in the last decade.
Ovi
Oh! We agree now – the Orbàn party soldiers “will thwart, sabotage” the elected government eventually; they already tried back in 2006.
It was/would be illegal, so GyF position is pretty actual.
Can’t people forget Gyurcsany? He’s a complete and utter liability and a deadwood, in so far as Hungarian politics progressively moving forwards is concerned…I agree that he’s fuel to the fire of the misguided F&d”sz loyalists…BTW Ovidiu I’m cautiously optimistic that the buffoon Orban will lose power sooner than later…I predict that a minor “discrepancy” will be a tipping point and the Magyar nation will awake from it’s slumber…I predict that this will happen within the next 18-months. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Apologies but to me it’s all so tiresome….why do the populous of the wonderful country, Hungary, buy into Orban’s shit…the people made a heroic stand stand in 1956 (and obscenely were deserted by the USA and the UK due to the Suez crisis, but to me that was no excuse and Hungary was betrayed) but what I see as an Englishman, in a 16 year relationship with a wonderful women from Veszprem Megye, is that in spite of this you’re all still on your knees…it saddens me greatly and I weep due to this situation…the passive acceptance of blatant corruption from that buffoon Orban’s regime (putrid scum – some of you make me sick for buying into his so-called illiberal democracy bollocks) by the vast majority of Hungary’s population) and the sad man’s snuggling up with Russia (how ironic is that after 1956 – do people not grasp the fucking irony of this!!!!!)…there’s no free press – the Index debacle sadly sums up the state of affairs with even more PASSIVE BLIND ACCEPTANCE…”Wake up” can’t you see that you’re being exploited and oppressed?????????????????????
You really should try to find at least a couple of Americans and Brits, willing to engage in yet another armed conflict in central Europe in 1956.
The desertion-myth, must be one of the biggest National self-deceptions of the second half of the last century.
“Even if Fidesz loses the election, the new government will not be able to function for the simple reason that all other political institutions, the constitutional court, the whole prosecutorial hierarchy, the ombudsman’s office, and hundreds of other vital establishments are in the hands of Fidesz loyalists.”
Sort of like Trump when he won the election and could hardly govern given that whole “Russiagate” fiasco, which we are learning more and more that it was a deliberate setup meant to mire his presidency in scandal and controversy, thus paralyzing it, thus nullifying the election results.