During the last ten years we have become numb to the rude, offensive, aggressive, outrageous statements of the leading and not so leading Fidesz politicians. We have often speculated about what these characters are actually thinking beyond what they publicly express, what their sectarian, inbred world looks like, but we rarely have the opportunity to get a first-hand account of their world.
Now we have been given such an insight, compliments of the investigative journalists of Magyar Narancs and some Fidesz members.
Here it is from the horse’s mouth: “Touring the area, talking to Fidesz members, I was shocked by the fear and dread I witnessed among them. Many stated that they did not dare to express their views publicly on this matter, due to the existential and physical threats by György Simonka. It is amazing that 30 years after the change of regime, an elected representative uses the methods of the Rákosi period, known to us only from history.”
Márton Ruck, President of Fidesz in Medgyesegyháza, wrote these words in a letter to the Chairman of the Fidesz County Organization, the latest salvo in the internal war among the ruling party’s South Békés branch. He called for the expulsion from the party of György Simonka, a Fidesz member of parliament, former mayor of Medgyesegyháza, and the local party strongman. In Ruck’s opinion, the expulsion of Simonka is “absolutely justified.” “Such a person has no place in the family of our party.” The proposal is supported by “several times the number of signatures needed for the expulsion,” claimed Ruck.
Although Ruck expresses his adherence to “the Fidesz set of values,” he informs his party comrades in the letter that he will not send the proposal for expulsion to the Pusztaottlaka organization, of which Simonka is still a member, since he does not want to expose the signatories and their family members to “the risk of losing their jobs, the destruction of their businesses, or the physical abuse of their family members.”
The Fidesz city organization president signed his letter about the Fidesz MP for his region with the following dramatic sentence: “As a Catholic Christian believer, I conclude with the words of Pope John Paul II. Fear not!”
Before anyone starts speculating about the authenticity of the letter and the veracity of its statements, note that Magyar Narancs got in touch with Ruck, who confirmed the authenticity of the official letter and said he stands by all of its contents, “I have described everything, everything has been justified, and I do not want to say anything else for the time being,” he said.
In view of the above statements about “Rákosi methods,” fear, intimidation, and threats among the party “family,” one can’t help musing about that “Fidesz set of values” and where they are to be found, since intimidation and fear are widespread throughout the entire organization. Moreover, the criminal acts have not been confined to small town or county Fidesz organizations but have gone all the way to the top of “the party and state leadership,” to use the term of the earlier communist regime.
I’ve included the above photo of the Godfather with the small capo to highlight the fact that, upon the initiative of Simonka, two laws were amended to practically facilitate what was known to be and what has now been formally prosecuted as criminal activities, confirmed by the Chief Prosecutor himself.
For those who missed earlier reports in Hungarian Spectrum or don’t know Hungarian, let me add some notes about the “Simonka case.” Starting in 2012, our local strongman built a network of companies and foundations, all of which invariably won state grants for projects in fields from road building to media, even to a peacock farm. Relatives, party comrades, and clients managed those entities, none of which grew into a real competitive business. Typical for the new “national capitalists,” largely a fiction touted by Fidesz.
By 2015 there were obvious signs of the ever more brazen corruption thinly disguised by unfeasible and fictitious projects, estimated to have burnt between 7 and 16 billion HUF in the roads to nowhere projects alone.
Simonka (center) with another Fidesz “luminary” Gyula Budai (right).
The illegal watermelon cartel episode brought the Simonka name to national attention.
Things went as usual in these cases, but here the brazen misappropriations, embezzlement, or whatever you want to call it, were accompanied by aggressive methods and arrogance, as noted by the local Fidesz organization president, which obviously surpassed the “standard” Fidesz methods.
The signs of serious trouble for Simonka & Co. began in 2017 when an investigation was launched into some of their projects. At the beginning of that year, charges were laid against a group of 33 defendants for fraud (költségvetési csalás) committed within the framework of a criminal organization (bűnszervezetben), for which the prosecution asked a 8.5 years jail sentence for our protagonist (but watch this space).
There is a lot of speculation about how the local Fidesz strongman came to the point of being charged with what we consider to be a routine practice in the grand corruption system of the Orbán regime. For lack of reliable evidence, I won’t go into these theories. Suffice it to say that this is as rare a case as a white crow. And in view of the damning evidence which was bound to come to light and embarrass the party and regime, it is quite inexplicable, to me at least.
In conclusion, I would like to return to the main point of this post—the methods and the environment of intimidation and fear even among the Fidesz lower ranks. One can hardly imagine how the powerless and often impoverished ordinary folks in the countryside feel, living at the mercy of the Orbán mafia, with God too high and King too far.
August 30, 2020
Thank you Observer the headline for me “one fool chases another” how could it be otherwise. Is it allowed to laugh … does Márton Ruck also read the news or can´t he read? My recommendation for him is to stick flags on a shashlik stick and pray the rosary. It is like US Trump he always has the “best” people.
No mask – you are a member of the RULING class:
Re: the No-Masks
Hello the in-training Luka’s…Big Luka and Little Luka. Next up after not wearing masks: AR’s on their shoulders. Just to let everybody get the message about ‘law and ordah’ around here. They seem to be like Fidesz. Nothing is below them to use in keeping themselves in corrupt power.
Orbán closed the borders for ordinary citizens, went abroad and met the Slovenian PM – with handshake and without mask of course
OT: Montenegrin elections
We’re still awaiting a final result, but it looks like President of Montenegro Milo Đukanović’s party the DPS has lost the country’s parliamentary elections. Đukanović has been in power since 1990.
For those of you who say Orbán can’t be defeated at the ballot box, look southward for a counter-example.
(Note: Đukanović remains president, but his power has been greatly curtailed)
The preliminary result is definitely a slap in the face for Djukanovic. However, his Democratic Party of Socialists won the greatest number of seats (29) and may be able to cobble together a coalition by offering enticements to ethnic-minority Bosniak and Albanian parties.
As far as Montenegro serving as an example for Hungarians, let us not forget that the DPS always ruled in coalition with other parties and never had a supermajority in parlaiment. Unlike Orban, Djukanovic has never been able to singlehandedly write his own constitution or shape the electoral laws to ensure his party’s perpetual grip on power. So the situation in Hungary is far less amenable to a change of power.
Like Orban, Djukanovic de facto controls vast swathes of the economy, which allows him to apply coercive pressure on people. While it appears many Montenegrins are tired of Milo’s antics, the majority of Hungarians approve of Orban’s performance, according to polls. And Montenegro has a credible opposition.
Also, just to offer you a small correction, Djukanovic has not ruled the country uninterrupted since 1992. He was neither PM nor president for brief spells in 2006-2008 and again in 2010-2012.
95% reporting:
Đukanović 34.8%
Pro-serbian, pro-Russian ZBCG: 32.7%
anti-Đukanović & pro-European MNN: 12.5%
State Electoral Commission:
Đukanović: 35.1%
Pro-serbian, pro-Russian ZBCG: 35.5%
anti-Đukanović & pro-European MNN: 12.5%
It is actually 32.5% for the ZBCG with 99.75% of votes counted:
https://rezultati.dik.co.me
Thank you for correcting me.
Đukanović:is still popular in the core of the Montenegrin state, in Cetinje.
Languages:
I lived in ex-Yugo for nearly three years and worked in Montenengro for a period of time. Trust me, it’s all the same language, except for Albanian. Anyone who tells you differently is either poorly informed or has a political agenda.
A.
I think the map is based not on language (my second mistake!) but on ethnic self-identification. Bosnians also speak the same language as Serbs, Croats or Montenegrins.
B.
Nobody could explain to me in the former Yugo:
which dialects pronounce
ć as ty and which ones as ch ?
C.
The taxi driver in Montenegro (3 years ago) started to blame Soros for everything bad. Poor Soros, every dictator blames him for all the misery in their countries.
HA! You’re lucky the taxi driver did not start in on the Rothschilds or the Group of 300. They are popular too.
I have never heard of a ć vs. ty vs. ch debate. Ć is very similar to ty (like the Hungarian tyúk) – it is pronounced something like the first “ch” in “church” or an upper-class English person saying “Chuesday.”
The č is a regular “ch,” like “cheeseburger.
The main debate is: Serbs say Bosniaks do not know the difference between ć and č. This is not really true. What is true is that cities were mostly populated by Bosniaks while Serbs were mostly country folk. Urbanites somewhat lost the differentiation between ć and č, while villagers kept it.
When I was learning Bosnian and had problems with ć and č, my translator told me “Just speak in a Travnik accent. We pronounce them the same.” She was from Travnik, an industrial city in central Bosnia.
The proper conclusion is from Orban’s point of view: Dukanovic was complecent and lazy, he deserves his fate.
Orban and his minions, however, are much harder working, more paranoid. They are workaholic, ambitious lawyers, just as hungry as they were 30 years ago. They literally plan (with several options available at any one time) for decades ahead, always updating their plans.
Orban’s people already rigged the system in a 100 more or less obvious ways so the likelyhood of any kind of defeat of Orban is negligible. In Orban’s mind only weak, clueless politicians get defeated and those who do deserve to be eliminated.
Orban’s not planning to leave, that’s for sure just as Putin doesn’t. “Defeat is for losers” and they are “winner types” which is one of the reasons why people like them.
People identify with the leaders because essentially they are the protagonists of the political spectacle people watch (ie. the protagonist of a story is essentially the reader, cinema-goer him/herself).
Average voters identify with (because they want to be like) Orban and Putin not with Bertalan Tóth or Ferenc Gyurcsany or Klara Dobrev or Andras Fekete-Győr. Who wants to be like Bertalan Tóth? C’mon.
“The proper conclusion is from Orban’s point of view: Dukanovic was complecent and lazy, he deserves his fate.”
How do you know this? Did Orbán call you or something? As usual, you’re just making things up and passing them off as truth.
The point is that political parties in Montenegro got smart and banded together on joint electoral tickets, and it worked. If you think that can’t happen here then you have been very deluded by Fidesz propaganda. People are manipulated by propaganda every day and you are a prime example of that.
Nope shoopy, you are too naive. An autocrat will not leave just because people voted against them. Do you seriously think that Putin would ever leave (as a loser defeated by an opponent)? Or Lukashenko? Or Erdogan? Or Orban? You seriously don’t understand the mind of corrupt, power hungry people. You still don’t get that Hungary is an autocracy and is a vigorous one at that. Try not think as if you were living in a democracy. The Hungarian opposition can be as smart as it wants to be but the system is so rigged in so many ways that the opposition cannot win, or – in the unlikely case of it winning a slim majority (like landing on water which happens once in a 50 years) – it cannot govern, cannot undo the Fidesznik policies and cannot hold fideszniks accountable. Orban would just bide his time and return in a year or two with a vengeance (look at the Rajapaksa brothers in Sri Lanka etc. etc.). The system is much more entrenched in Hungary than you think, partly because many people actually like it. You apparently have no idea how much stronger as a party and power-network Fidesz is… Read more »
Marty, you say that “many people like the Fidesz mafia system”. Maybe they are hoping that they or their children will somehow be a part of it some day?
I’d understand this if they knew nothing else like before 1989 but nowadays many go abroad (mainly to the West), and there are tv programs from all over the world, so they (should …) know. At least the young people growing up in internet days …
Of course for older people the first time you come to a democratic society must be a kind of shock – like when I took my new girlfriend (now my wife) to Germany, Italy, Britain, … and in the end to the USA.
But nowadays?
In 2015 the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project declared Milo Djukanovic, Prime Minister of Montenegro, as OCCRP’s Person of the Year for his work in promoting crime, corruption and uncivil society. So let’s not discuss Montenegro as if its really a functioning democratic county. Djukanovic has made Montenegro a safe haven for a slew of controversial and organized crime figures over the years, including Darko Saric, Stanko Subotic, Naser Kelmendi, Safet Kalic, Brano Micunovic and others. When a state bank was privatized, it went to his family, and his government put huge amounts of the state’s money in it. Then they used it to launder money for organized crime and give big loans to organized crime, themselves and their friends. Also to discuss this election without noting even in passing the huge gang war involving Mafia groups that has been raging in both Serbia and Montenegro mostly over the Cocaine trade is absurd. It is truly amazing that the crook Djukanovic almost won yet again. Really what that shows is the extent of Mafia power in Montenegro and how many in that country have ties to these criminal networks. On the gang war I would recommend this article https://www.occrp.org/en/balkan-cocaine-wars/a-war-between-montenegrin-cocaine-clans-engulfs-the-balkans… Read more »
Speaking of gang wars, I was woke from a sound sleep last night by semiautomatic gun fire. I thought it was immediately outside our house in a higher income enclave on the Northside of Chicago. I went outside to see if there were wounded and my neighbor a retired South Vietnamese officer was outside too. He saw me and yelled over, Cũng giống như ngày xưa (just like the old days!). We both went back to bed, the sound must have carried from a half mile away, because that is where the sound of police cars came from minutes later.
There is an English language news show out of Malta that often discusses organized crime in Malta and in this show also crime and corruption in Montenegro see https://youtu.be/zpvTjeKkU9g (aired on July 25). At minute 20:10 one of the experts is talking about organized cross border Mafia linked crime and admits the EU is not effectively dealing with the interfacing of criminal gangs and the banking systems.
Eva will be pleased to know that Montenegro has adopted clean energy and created a massive wind farm with the help of the EU and bankers in Malta. Then the energy company in Montenegro massively increased the electrical rates to the extent many people can no longer afford service. Rates were cheaper with Putin’s oil companies than with clean energy. Really energy corruption is global.
A few weeks ago, BLM called looting in Chicago “reparations”. For now it is just retail stores. If more and more of those shut down as a one-two-three punch (Covid-Looting-Amazon) knocks them out of business, I guess residential properties and belongings within will be claimed as “reparations” next. Perhaps it is time to move out of town?
Zolidiot, rabid loonie – anything to say on the topic discussed, or at least on Hungary?
Or just study US history and try to find out how many innocent black people were lynched …
Wolfi, Zoltán the multiple migrant and serial colonist is supporting every single hate. His ideology doesn’t know innocent blacks, he considers not being white as a crime.
It was not a response to the article in this case, but to Chicago Istvan and his comment on Chicago.
As for your last comment, am I to understand that you agree with looting being “reparations”?
Ah, my Marxist friend! Who wins in all this? After Covid shutdowns, countless small businesses being shut due to violence in neighborhoods, or damaged or looted in the past months are shutting down. Amazon stock keeps going up even as more and more businesses are being shattered, especially now that they are already vulnerable. How is it that Marxist initiatives always talk social justice in one form or another, but for all practical purposes the Amazons of this world get to win as a result? How will black people benefit? Do they all own Amazon stock? I am sure Soros does!!! Perhaps that is why all those prosecutors he helped elect are letting looters and vandals walk free so they can get out and destroy some more shops.
You should try to read and understand – much of the looting (and the shooting …) was done by extreme right wingers/fascists like you.
Just think about that 17 years old guy with his AR15 who came to “help” …
Wow!!! You really are deeply indoctrinated, beyond any hope at all!!!
I agree with the fascist assessment. Antifa have been involved in looting, vandalism and violence and are actually fascists in their approach and behavior!!!
In Portland they just executed a Trump supporter.
But there are surely some people in Montenegro who said the same thing as you just a few years ago. And they were wrong.
All I know is, we just have to keep fighting the regime here everyday in whatever way we can. It will definitely come to an end. I don’t believe Fidesz is as strong as its propaganda wants you to think. It has more weaknesses than they are willing to admit.
It’s a shame that you have fallen for this government propaganda and choose to repeat over and over, but unfortunately propaganda works on simple-minded folks and such people are easily manipulated
I meant the party infrastructure. Public support for any party surely changes over time etc.
But the infrastructure which is made up of 100 different elements (how well, without infighting and with discipline, can you campaign, send delegates to the over 10k electoral precinct committees, how you benchmark regional, local bosses and get them to focus on results, how well can select, test candidates, ability to know how your voters feel, your ability to know what your competition does, your ability to communicate, to follow a unified playbook, segmentation, ideology, clothing during campaign etc. etc. etc.) are infinitely better than those at all the opposition parties put together.
But as I repeat, there is nothing special in this. By definition the opposition in any autocracy is a ragtag group of coopted, corrupted, infigting, clueless bunch.
I know the difference first hand, unfortunately.
Do you know why the opposition (none of the 6-7 parties) doesn’t say a single serious word about the truly insane purchase of mostly useless medical ventilators for some EUR 1bn? (The worst deal in Europe.)
Because they got pathetic crumbs, all of them. And that’s enough to pacify them. They are cheap and amateurish.
“The worst deal in Europe”?
No, the best deal of his life! At least for somebody….
Marty
WRONG or lying.
The issue has been on since March and got into the news again after EU information became available (less is revealed by the Hu regime).
Here’s Hadhàzi, but I’ve heard several discussions on the price rip off:
http://www.jovotv.hu/2020/06/27/hadhazy-akos-szerint-a-lelegeztetogepek-miatt-emberek-bortonbe-fognak-kerulni/
Éva covered the topic as well and pretty early compared to Hungarian press, of course mentioning the opposition:
https://hungarianspectrum.org/2020/06/30/hungary-the-ventilator-superpower/
“Orban would just bide his time and return in a year or two with a vengeance (look at the Rajapaksa brothers in Sri Lanka etc. etc.).”
I can’t imagine him “biding his time”. If he loses, then he,the neo-nazis who form the backbone of his regime and (possibly) also the oligarchs would move very quickly and violently against the democrats and the majority of the population if needs be.. That is why all this talk of electoral pacts and coalitions seems a bit superfluous.
I don’t think the oligarchs are that tough. Orban would use the Ferencváros security brigade which is completely under Fidesz’s and domestic intelligence’s (loyal to Fidesz of course) control to do the fighting. (Also it is a big question mark to whom the police and the intelligence would be loyal to.) Compared to them Orban would be the sound of reason, the statesman, who respects the results you see but if the people on the streets really want him back, he has no choice but to serve the nation. But it could also be a decision to perhaps see what the new government can do. If the economic situation is bad, all Orban would need is a few restrictive policies from the government (after Bokros and Bajnai the lefties would mercilessly skin the average joes for the third time as Orban would be warning during the campaign) and then with the superior media operations he controls Orban would just wait until the coalition would in due course fall apart due to becoming unpopular pretty soon. This opposition would happily do the job for him: taking the tough economic measures (liberals love too be unpopular impressing their former professors) and then… Read more »
“Who wants to be like Bertalan Tóth? C’mon.”
And most Hungarians won’t be like Orbán! Just that too many believe his ugly propaganda. And even among FIDESZ voters a huge percentage is aware that Orbán is leading a corrupt gang.
Sure, Orbán will never leave. If an united opposition would get 100 MPs or more in 2022 by some “miracle” in counting Orbán would get the majority. Just more invalid votes for opposition, just another 100 000 votes found in a consulate in Ukraine…. Lukasenka “got” 80% and the same way Orbán will “win”. Again and again as often as we allow him to cheat.
But Orbán has nothing to do with a lawyer. He is just greedy without any respect for law or any moral limitations. Good lawyers know what not to do as well.
Is it possible that, according to Fidesz, Ruck is the undesirable? And not Simonka?
@ “One can hardly imagine how the powerless and often impoverished ordinary folks in the countryside feel, living at the mercy of the Orbán mafia, with God too high and King too far.” Totally agree. One must also note that the current prosecution (despite the insane amount of stealing with unpredictable results) of Simonka has nothing to do with the opposition or with the media. They are completely powerless and irrelevant these days. As usual in such cases, this is entirely an internal issue of the local Fidesz chapter. A Békés county prosecutor (as well as the judge, let us add) is just as fidesznik as Simonka or Antal Rogan or Laszlo Köver are. In fact, the entire traditional rural elite is fidsznik (local police head, prosecutors, judges, teachers, etc.). As a rule of thumb, all prosecutors are fidesznik, especially outside Budapest. Not just because they have really been selected for loyalty to Fidesz for many years (basically for two decades now as Peter Polt entered the service as chief prosecutor much earlier than Fidesz’ 2/3s in 2010) but the very culture of the militaristic prosecutorial organization and the traditional recruitment base of it are such that only highly militaristic,… Read more »
“just like in any feudal system”
Marty, I have to agree with you – but the question remains:
Why are the average joes in Hungary so happy with this feudal system?
I’ve read that many people even think that live was better under Kádàr – how is that possible?
Seems I was extremely lucky to find someone like my wife – there can’t be too many similar thinkers here.
PS and a bit OT:
Of course we have the crazies everywhere – have you read about the Corona demonstrations in Berlin, lead by the so called “Reichsbürger” who think that the whole Federal Republic of Germany is illegal?
This reminds me of the adoration of Horthy (not only) in Fidesz circles …
“Why are the average joes in Hungary so happy with this feudal system”
Because it feels natural. The rural world is different from the urban world, smaller communities, slower life, different behavior, values, principles. The liberal democracy is a very urban phenomenon and construction.
Secondly, people are in smaller communities are not independent. Even the elite, even the businesspeople ultimately depend on the state (ie. Fidesz). Let alone average joes.
Even if they wanted to they couldn’t behave, live in any other way.
But – as I said – they don’t really want to.
The problem with the opposition is that they are urban people who behave in a way and propose ideas that make the rural people distrustful, fearful and resentful; whereas Fidesz and its feudalistic discourse feel natural, indigenous, authentic, convenient to rural people.
Marty, I still don’t get it.
My wife was a lowly worker in the önkórmányzat in a small town in Eastern Hungary but she never agreed with Kadarism, the local church nor what happened after 1989, so …
What is it in Hungarians that makes them (at least a large number) as you are saying- genetic, education, experience, information?
And I grew up in Germany also under Clerical Fascists but like all my friends revolted against it.
Of course you always have a certain number of people like the tea party or the AfD and the Rechsbürger , the FPÖ etc in all countries.
But they usually are less than 10% – in East Germany around 20% and in the Balkan (including Hungary and Poland) 50%, maybe more in the rural environment. Why?
Afaik Czechia and the Slovaks are much more developed though they have a similar history.
And the French revolution against feudalism was over 200 years ago …
So what went wrong?
Re: Kadarism… Things relating to the country’s history really in a way started on the wrong foot when he checked out and ran to Moscow watching the tanks rumbling in to quench rebellion. Then when everything was wrapped up he came back and gave a ‘little freedom’ to the country. But it soon was appropriately described by a playwright as consisting of ‘weary compromise’. Being accused of being a traitor by some and coming back to take the reins of power in hindsight does show a lot of issues right there when it comes to integrity and legitimacy of future rule. And then we come to the ‘Tessek Valasztani’ (Please Choose) time where instead of Brezhnev locked in a kissing embrace with Honecker (the ‘comrade love’ business) Fidesz comes out with their ‘Fiatal Demokratak Szovetsege’ line with lovers getting in a sweet one in a pic with ‘Fidesz’ tagged alongside them. So much for the young moving on to better things as we apparently see a ‘Rakosi-light‘ despotism and political gangsterism afoot today. This seems to be the usual ‘back to the future’ history that always wants to be written. This period now in the cycle of Magyar history is… Read more »
Wolfi, Marty is widely correct about the social-economic aspects of country life. But he misses a few aspects as well.
To growing extent people don’t believe any more in the part of propaganda that tells them how much their lives improved. It just doesn’t match the reality they live in. Most of them just didn’t realise that all the other propaganda lies aren’t true either. With other words: Orbán is a liar, but the others are even worse. You might conclude that voting against FIDESZ would be an option, just because you saw that FIDESZ didn’t work out for you. A lot decided to turn away from politics completely instead. Bad education, never been abroad and made no experiences of the “bad world out there” on their own, inability to understand other languages, all might have some influence to these facts. I remember a video I also linked here on HS on 2018 election day: A woman was asked whether she voted for FIDESZ or another party and she asked “are there other parties besides FIDESZ?” An extreme example of course, but a lot of things went wrong for sure.
It’s not only Kadarsim, small communities are different from modern, competitive, diverse big communities (urban centres). Life is different in rural places and liberal ideology doesn’t fit that life. This is true for the Bavarian villages to rural Wisconsin to rural UP in India.
Re: ‘It’s not only Kadarsim, small communities are different from modern, competitive, diverse big communities (urban centres). Life is different in rural places and liberal ideology doesn’t fit that life’. Agreed. The interesting thing is the rural areas have been conditioned to bask only in a Budapest-Fidesz perspective. It’s like Rome controlling its provinces. Fidesz does one very good thing in its hold over the provinces. It’s noted in a letter by Cicero to his friend in how to win an election. He says, ‘’Ne exeatis’…’Don’t leave town’. In Cicero’s period it was making sure you did the campaigning and vote getting in Rome.That’s where the action was. And have the intention to stay. Fidesz just localized all that. Like Cicero suggested they go into a town and say ‘I am an outsider. I want to be a Consul’…(biggest man in ‘Babafalucsa’. Lo and behold they’re in for all time. Well we keep in mind Cicero’s ‘Rome’: ‘Our city is a cesspool of humanity, a place of deceit , plots , and of every imaginable kind……Amid such a swirl of evil, it takes a remarkable man with sound judgment and great skill to avoid stumbling, gossip and betrayal. How many… Read more »
Are we about to get Part II of “The Simonka Affair” tomorrow? I was sorry to read that there is virtually nothing that specifies misbehavior/criminality in today’s post so it is hardly possible to comment sensibly on it. Over the last decade there has been plenty of (even well-founded) rumour but without substantive support and that is the way the Dictatorship likes it – we do secrecy very well, thank you.
So what now?
The methods of the Orbàn regime is the subject here.
The misappropriation, embezzlement etc criminal acts of this (part of the huge) criminal conspiracy is another matter. There have been a many media articles on the case, but now we have to wait and see what will the court find proven.
“Touring the area, talking to Fidesz members, I was shocked by the fear and dread I witnessed among them. Many stated that they did not dare to express their views publicly on this matter, due to the existential and physical threats by György Simonka”
Heellllloo…..you and they (Fidesz members) knew exactly you were joining a criminal organisation when you enlisted. The mafia don’t control their boys and neighbourhoods by organising seminars and coffee mornings to “chat things through”.
You and all Fidesz voters are basically criminal scum to a greater or lesser degree. You and they can’t whinge then when your bosses do what godfathers traditionally do to maintain control.
Six days is a short time with COVID-19. Hungary lists 24, 73, 91, 132, 158, 292 over the last six days which correspond, of course with the end of the Croatian and Balaton holiday seasons. Looks as if they are keeping slot No. 666 warm for Coronavirus “Deceased” along with the list of contributing conditions after all. Time for another ,”We flattened the curve” announcement?
The dates correspond indeed with those holiday seasons, BUT the data doesn’t even correspond with those at the beginning of the epidemic! And now we’re 6 month in, so there should be enough knowledge to avoid such happening! So what’s going on here? Imho very poor testing system and on top manipulation in reporting of test results, i.e.positive results from the last 2-3 weeks were not officially reported and now thrown at the public within a few days. And this all happened after OV on Aug.21 warned “from 1 September we’ll be in a new world” and just last Friday OV’s government informed about their decision to close the border on Sep.01. [remember OV’s May.03 peak? well imho pretty similar manipulation with data] Here’s an interview with the mathematician, who is advising OV’s pandemic team, even he starts criticizing the testing in Hungary and states only 10% of the positive cases came from abroad, so border closing will help very little – https://www.portfolio.hu/gazdasag/20200831/figyelmeztet-a-jarvanyugyi-matematikus-a-koronavirus-terjedes-magyar-mutatoja-veszelyes-szintre-emelkedett-446626 PS: I challenge everybody to show me a country with a steeper increase in new daily positive Corona cases* than Hungary in the last six days! *that’s the officially reported data, which is not… Read more »
Bimbi, just compare it to some days in July:
2020. július 08. 5 new cases
2020. július 09. 10 new cases
2020. július 10. 3 new cases
2020. július 11. 6 new cases
2020. július 12. 5 new cases
2020. július 13. 13 new cases
2020. július 14. 11 new cases
2020. július 15. 5 new cases
Yesterday 292 new cases, 40-times more than the daily average of these numbers (today 178 “only”). If you had an idea how bad rules are followed-up since weeks you wouldn’t be surprised at all. Correctly worn masks? Distance? Forget it! Croatia plays a role, but Balaton even more.
OTT and before any of Orban’s Brownshirts come round to my door to pull me away to jail for spreading “alarming news”, this is purely a personal observation…..from honestly not knowing anyone previously, even secondhand with the “virus” in the last 24 hours, a German colleague has revealed 4 out of her 5 friends have come back from Bp “positive”, a friend’s daughter has very likely contracted and more alarmingly, a doctor friend in Bp has reported the amount of people with “flu-like” symptons asking for tests has multiplied in the last four days. As I said, a purely personal observation but it seems to me that some kind of serious upsurge as begun. Blubberchops meanwhile is cavorting maskless in Slovenia insulting western journos.
Since the issue of the Belarus protests have come up several times on this blog. This story from the official government press agency in English is particularly chilling https://eng.belta.by/president/view/lukashenko-warns-europe-of-consequences-if-situation-in-belarus-escalates-132983-2020/ Using the Russia armed forces against an imaginary NATO threat to Belarus is openly discussed by Lukashenko. It is also being extensively reported in the western media that the Belarus KGB are arresting many organizers of the protests. On Saturday, Belarusian government stripped the press accreditation of many journalists covering the anti-government protests and deported some foreign journalists so the crackdown would not get coverage.
AP today is reporting that agents of Belarus’ State Security Committee, which still goes by the Soviet-era name KGB are occupying Belaruskali, a huge potash factory in Soligorsk and have broken a strike there arresting numerous leaders of the strike against Lukashenko. Effectively the workers are being supervised by armed KGB agents today.
Possibly soon these arrested leaders will be shot if terror can not be instilled in the population, using the classic Stalinist method to crush uprisings.
I don’t know if readers of HS know this site but it has one of the most fascinating series of investigative journalism ever done in press history.
Seriously, only the Pentagon Papers or Snowden’s revelations can be compared to these articles, though this is different.
There is a long running series of investigative articles in which the journalists identify individual GRU/FSB agents who perpetrated various attempted and actual murders and other shenanigans all over Europe (including the Skripal attempt or a recent Berlin murder etc.).
(A bit surprisingly to me Hungary has not featured in the articles even though Hungary issued tons of Schengen visas to Russians without any serious checks so one would expect some of them were used, but apparently not in these cases; maybe for other operations.)
The latest is this article (link below) but all of them (maybe there are 8-10-12 in total) are just staggering.
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2020/08/29/suspected-accomplice-in-berlin-tiergarten-murder-identified-as-fsb-vympel-officer/
Arbitrary ruler Orban just changed his mind: Czech tourists can still come to Hungary after September 1. Czechs only. He decided to please his friend Babiš. The decree has to be modified after a single day.
https://www.facebook.com/szijjarto.peter.official/posts/196062065219685
“decided to please his friend Babiš”
It’s for Czechs who had already booked thei staying in Hungary, so more likely OV is pleasing the Hungarian accomodations they will stay!
Should be checked by independent media in Hungary!
My [wild] guess is: Meszaros and/or Mr.LedLamp connected companies…
Read the comments on Szijjarto’s facebook page.
People are furious ! A Czech tourist can come to Hungary easier than a Hungarian citizen.
Well, Szijjártó can’t do wrong according his undersecretary: We don’t care about his yacht vacation, since we are thankful for getting our jobs by him (BTW I wasn’t aware of any of that):
https://444.hu/2020/08/31/kulugyi-allamtitkar-szerint-az-embereket-nem-erdekli-szijjarto-jachtozasa-mert-tudjak-hogy-neki-koszonhetoen-van-munkajuk
Orban extended his largesse to other countries as well. The Slovaks and the Poles can also travel to Hungary easier than Hungarians.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/szijjarto.peter.official/posts/