When, only a couple of days ago, we were told that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán would be visiting Slovenia, we didn’t realize that he was heading to Bled for the 15th Bled Strategic Forum (BSF). Those who want to know more about the purpose of the conference must be satisfied with the explanation on the official website of BSF, which states that it is “a gathering of participants from various fields with diverse knowledge, encouraging them to exchange views and seek innovative solutions to present and future challenges. In addition, the Forum also offers a unique opportunity for meetings and networking with regional and global stakeholders.” In brief, one of those conferences leading nowhere.
This year’s highlight was an hour-and-a-half-long panel discussion on “Europe after Brexit and COVID-19,” during which presidents and prime ministers from Serbia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Poland, Croatia, and Hungary were supposed to present their views. Giuseppe Conte, president of Italy, and Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), joined the discussion by video. The moderator was Dr. Nik Gowing, an internationally renowned broadcaster and visiting professor at King’s College.
Soon enough, it became evident that the leaders of East-Central Europe who were present weren’t at all interested in the ideas of Conte and Georgieva, who warned them of the dangers of nationalism and dissension in times of difficulty. But the most interesting part of the discussion came at the end, with Nik Gowing’s insistent and probing questions about the state of the rule of law in some of these East European countries.
From the recording of the panel discussion one can see that the presidents and prime ministers of the new member states were not accustomed to the kinds of difficult questions they suddenly had to face. Andrej Babiš, prime minister of the Czech Republic, became irate and showed his ignorance by saying to Gowing: “I don’t know who you are, but your questions are based on fake news and articles from The Guardian and Der Spiegel.” In fact, Gowing is a much-respected former BBC TV reporter who, at the time of Princess Diana’s death, became legendary with his seven-hour reporting feat. He was also at the helm during the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. So, Babiš was just manifesting his ignorance. “Why are we debating the rule of law here? I am a businessman and a crisis manager. I have won elections several times. We have the best results in fighting the epidemic. Don’t read fake news,” Babiš suggested to the former diplomatic editor of the BBC.
Since the video of the panel discussion is available on YouTube, where the exchange between Orbán and Gowing can be seen, there is no need to summarize it all here. I would, however, call readers’ attention to the prime minister’s self-congratulatory smiles and quick glances at his fellow panelists to make sure that his witticisms were appreciated. And one remark, which immediately became infamous, cannot go unnoticed — that “Hungary is a boring parliamentary democracy.” This remark didn’t sit well with those critics of the regime who found it outright cynical.
444 came out with a witty but bitter little article that described the events of August 31, the day after the panel discussion in Bled, as one of those “average boring days” in Hungary.
On Monday, practically the whole teaching staff of the Színház- és Filmművészeti Egyetem (SZEF) resigned in protest over the government’s decision to convert it into a private university under the direction of a board headed by the director of the National Theater, Attila Vidnyánszky.
The assault on democracy on that day continued when the ministry of innovation and technology arbitrarily rewrote research projects recommended by three independent panels of experts. One of the leading scientists resigned in protest.
While in Bled, Babiš asked Orbán to change the existing law on closing the borders as of September 1 because of the growing spread of COVID-19. Right there, on the spot, Hungary’s autocrat agreed. If Czechs have two negative tests, they can enter Hungary without going into quarantine. Once the deal between Babiš and Orbán was sealed, I guess the other V4 countries complained. Thus, Orbán generously extended the privilege to the Poles and Slovaks as well. Again, without discussing the matter with experts on the pandemic.
On that same day, the government substantially reduced its financial support for Nóra L. Ritók’s Pearl Foundation, which looks after about 600, mostly Gypsy, children in a very poor area of the country. The stated reason for the cut was the additional expenses the government is incurring as a result of the pandemic. The amount of money the government is saving in this case is about $26,000. Whereas in the last two months various church projects received 6.4 billion forints (over $21 million) in financial assistance. The cost of the pandemic was just an excuse to slash support for the very successful Pearl Foundation. The Orbán government doesn’t tolerate any private social service initiative.
A few hours later, one of the undersecretaries of the foreign ministry explained that people are not really interested in Foreign Minister Szijjártó’s holiday on a yacht compliments of one of the richest Hungarian businessmen, who has extensive business connections with the government, because “they know that they have jobs because of him.”
Finally, the Hungarian media reported that in several schools teachers and parents have to disinfect the classrooms because either they don’t have a cleaning staff or they didn’t receive any disinfectant.
In the evening, the students of SZEF and their supporters demonstrated, and this morning they formed a human barricade in front of the building. They refuse to leave as long as Vidnyánszky remains the head of the university’s newly created board. Vidnyánszky doesn’t seem inclined to accommodate.
Photo by Péter Urfi, 444.hu
And, returning to the subject of borders in the time of COVID-19, let me quote Tamás Szele’s opinion piece titled “Orbán in quarantine?” which only semi-jokingly says that “there is no need for any EU reports to find out whether Hungary is a state governed by the rule of law and, if not, why not. If Viktor Orbán appears in Budapest without any problem [at the border], Hungary is not a state governed by the rule of law.”
While Orbán was in Bled, a government decree came into force which imposes a two-week quarantine on all Hungarian citizens returning from abroad after September 1. Surely, Szele wrote, Orbán is a Hungarian citizen, and therefore the decree applies to him just as much as to any of his fellow citizens, which in this case means that he either remains in quarantine for 12 days or he can have two tests, which means only 4-5 days of quarantine if he is free of the virus. If not, “the head of government himself proves that Hungary is not a state governed by the rule of law because its government decrees are not obligatory for everyone.” However bizarre it sounds, there is some validity to Szele’s reasoning.
The closure of the borders was ordered by a decree, not by a law of Parliament. Orban exempted himself and his friends when traveling on official business. They can spread the virus freely.
Government Decree 408/2020 (VIII.30), signed by Orban
Magyar Közlöny 2020. évi 195. szám
https://magyarkozlony.hu/
Biden – Trump 49% – 47% B
Mail-in voters: 67% – 28% B
Early voters in person: 49% – 50% T
Voters in person on election day: 37% – 57% T
Ages:
18-29: 61% – 34% B
30-49: 41% – 53% T
50-64: 47% – 51% T
65 & over: 55% – 41% B
https://emersonpolling.reportablenews.com/pr/august-2020-presidential-race-tightens-after-party-conventions
CoViD-19 in US:
Infected: 6.3 million
Dead: 0.2 million
Still sick: 2.6 million,
Recovered: 3.5 million
May 25: police kills black man in Minnesota
August 23: police kills black man in Wisconsin
Both states are considered battleground states in the election.
Try to think about this.
On election day, Trump would win 57 to 37. This is a staggering difference.
I mean OK, there are various ways to vote in the US, but the classic version is just going to your precinct polling station and casting your ballot, isn’t it?
Biden’s win would thus depend entirely on his gigantic predicted lead among mail-in votes, which is a bit strange to me. This suggests to me an inferior ground game, which is all the more strange because Clinton lost because of the Rust Belt outcome, so wouldn’t it be logical to strengthen that portion of the strategy?
Since tappanch has taken this discussion into the US elections and our civil unrest in the USA I think it is important to discuss the Fidesz media’s presentation of our situation here in the USA to its supporters in Hungary. Tamás Belák has an article in Magyar Nemzet today on a killing of a far right wing militant named Aaron “Jay” Danielson in the US City of Portland, who was an apparent supporter of what is often called here an “alt-right group” the Patriot Prayer. Who exactly killed this militant is still in question, Fox news and Breitbart news in the USA, attributed it immediately to an amorphous entity called by those media outlets “Antifa.” The title of the Magyar Nemzet article translates to “They were hunted: Antifa + video killed for a cap” for those who read Hungarian it can be read in full at https://magyarnemzet.hu/kulfold/vadasztak-rajuk-egy-sapka-miatt-gyilkolt-az-antifa-video-8601045/. The news paper “The Oregonian” has reported that the police in Portland are looking for a suspect named Michael Forest Reinoehl who was arrested at an earlier demonstration in Portland with a loaded hand gun and is reported to be a leftist white supporter of Black Lives Matter. Belák’s article in Hungarian does… Read more »
NBC news had a very interesting opinion piece that relates to Trump’s promotion of the idea of a left wing promoted civil war in the USA. See https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-ingraham-interview-conspiracy-theory-could-help-him-these-ncna1239035
Professor Arlie Hochschild wrote a very important book (“Strangers in their own land: Anger and mourning on the American right” published before Trump’s election) which I already recommend.
She has this to say about Trump and Biden on Guardian.com today.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/02/donald-trump-strategy-republican-national-convention
Civil war is being promoted by the Repubs and the military-industrial complex that backs Trump. When the shit will hit the fan, the military will take over. For how long…is anybody’s guess.
The civil war is promoted by the military…
You might’ve seen that the troops seem to prefer Biden over Trump.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/08/31/as-trumps-popularity-slips-in-latest-military-times-poll-more-troops-say-theyll-vote-for-biden/
I am a subscriber to the Army Times on line so I also get the Military Times. I believe the poll data over represents officers because the pollers used the Military times active duty subscriber list as the basis for the poll. Officers have as I have said before on this blog have turned against Trump in a bigger way than enlisted men and women have, also NCOs. The article actually notes this stating “The splits between officer and enlisted views within the poll are notable. More than 59 percent of officers said they have a poor view of the president, with more than half saying they strongly disapprove. Among enlisted respondents, 47 percent said they have an unfavorable view, and nearly 39 percent a favorable view. Enlisted views of Trump’s performance in office have consistently been more favorable than those of officers in the poll over the last four years.” There are far more active duty subscribers to Military Times who are officers than enlisted personnel. But officers are more likely to vote than younger enlisted personnel. The reason for this is almost all US military officers are college educated and also take course work on international relations and strategic studies.… Read more »
Well the Trump as a primitive was known before 2016. And if it’s that easy to see why still-some military personnel choose Trump. Purely rhetorically seen …
This is distraction and disimulation. The military is with the madman.
People should see the movie “Seven Days In May”. It’s listed as having been made in 1964, but the story it’s based on came out in 1962, just before the Kennedy assasination.
Re: “faction of the left moving towards armed confrontation with rightwing militias are not supporters of Biden… “ok they dont wear biden stickers but they are definitely not trump voters and if voting is a form of support they are biden supporters. Also the dem mayors, governors and prosecutors not acting against the rioters are biden supporters. Also prominent dem officials like harris pooling money for bailing out the rioters are biden supporters. You almost got him this time but I think this single issue will cost you the 2020 elections.
$21 million to the Hungarian churches. Is there no separation between church and state in the Orban dictatorship?
There is a separation of churches in the Orbán dictatorship. Those who sustain the regime get extreme amounts of money, those who do not are stripped of both money and legal position.
In one short post, “Hungarian Spectrum” supplies a wide range of useful details about what is really happening in Hungary i.e. the ongoing assault on rule of law, which in Hungary has become the law of rule, the
war against the poor (defunding charity assisting Roma), the sad state of Hungarian schools, inadequate Covid-19 prevention etc.
The brave teachers and students in SZEF are modeling for the entire country (and perhaps other countries) resistance to this regime and/or similar regimes. Of course, the mafia states of eastern Europe will not fall quickly, but given the demise of communism, let alone other awful ideologies, the mafia regimes will fall.The real questions are when and under what circumstances. Hopefully, the Trump regime will be voted out in November; such an event may embolden other populations in countries such as Hungary.
Going by the Belarus situation, it may take another 16 years or so before things are “bad enough” for larger parts of the population to resist.
I worry sometimes that these mass resignations are not done strategically enough. There’s an army of wannabes who are only too happy to declare opinions that are not their own in order to get these positions without the effort, experience and knowledge the jobs require.
Misi ba
You reminded me of a joke:
A long drought is the subject of all discussions in the village pub as the peasants are becoming desperate. All of a sudden the 90 y.o. Peti bacsi raises and exclaims “It will rain, boys!” Tumult follows, all are terribly exited “He knows best! ..Thank God …We are saved..”, someone asks “And when Peti ba ?”
“Well … this I don’t know..”
Btw Giuseppe Conte is the PM, the President is Mattarella.
Good joke. Hopefully, the “rain” (and thunder) will happen before I turn 90!
OT
An explanation of how seemingly innocent trolls like Marty who pretends to be critical of VO but at the same time depicts the opposition as losers who don’t deserve people’s votes and that therefore the situation is hopeless and one shouldn’t bother, are operating.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8686723/Twitter-Facebook-suspend-accounts-linked-Russian-influence-operation.html
Twitter and Facebook suspend Russian-operated accounts linked to fake left-wing news site Peace Data – that was trying to turn Biden voters against the Democrat candidate
“It said in a report that the website pushed messages critical of right-wing voices and the center left, and in the United States ‘paid particular attention to racial and political tensions’, including civil rights protests and criticism of President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
(…) that ‘this facet of the operation suggests an attempt to build a left-wing audience and steer it away from Biden’s campaign.’ “
While I always maintained that Orban is in fact controlled by Putin, blaming Clinton’s or Biden’s (possible) loss on Russian or Chinese trolls is stupid and counterproductive. Guess what? Nobody cares about Russia in the US (other than the Democratic elite which wanted to deflect attention away from its long term failures by obsessing with Russia, as well as the establishment media which gained viewership by pushing the “Russian danger”). The Democrats did not gain a single vote by focusing insane energies on Putin and Russian trolls but they sure lost the ability to communicate something the white working class/middle classes actually would like to hear. (Let’s leave it aside that Trump and his people are more hawkish on Russia than Obama ever was.) The failures of Clinton and Biden (even if he wins, which I don’t think he will) do not depend on foreign agents (intruders into our cosy American way of life) but entirely on internal actors: the long term inability of the Democratic party to be attractive to the greater Rust Belt white, uneducated population. [NB: blaming the decline of the Democratic Party in many previous Democratic strongholds on foreign intruders is philosophically not much different from… Read more »
Well there you go again!
Do you get paid for this?
Or is it an obsessive compulsive behavior?
Michael, I’m not sure what your problem is with my comment, but as far as I’m concerned you may of course continue to blame the Democrats’ weaknesses in the Rust Belt on cunning Russian agents.
I suggested a scholarly book to a previous post but you might’ve missed it (see link again below). It’s quite good and completely mainstream. Also would be good if your read the NY Times article I linked.
https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Resentment-Consciousness-Wisconsin-American/dp/022634911X
Stop laying your words into my mouth!
Sure, if suggesting NY Times reports or Chicago University Press scholarly books (you couldn’t be more mainstream than these) is unbearable to you…
Read this again: “I’m not sure what your problem is with my comment, but as far as I’m concerned you may of course continue to blame the democrats’ weaknesses in the Rust Belt on cunning Russian agents.”
I hope you don’t get paid for posting such nonsense.
As long as he/she is being paid for his/her posts, he/she is unstoppable.
With one part of my personality I still naively believe (at least hope) that persuasion is possible, that rational arguments can work.
Of course with my rational part of my mind I know for a fact that this never works. People are people and so are the same humans whether they are hard line fideszniks or hardline opposition people. In other words, they tend to always ignore any critical arguments. No surprise here, princess.
Your “personality”? Accepting money from OV’s department of propaganda doesn’t leave you with any personality.
princess, this is ridiculous and just childish, just because I disagree with you I work for Rogán?
Do you know 444.hu? I’ve been supporting them for month (as am many other independent publications).
Marton Bede today wrote that”Az ellenzékinek tartott pártok többsége részben vagy egészben a NER érdekei szerint mozog, és a következő években nyilván egyre több olyan egyértelműen fideszes startupot fogunk látni a politikában, mint a Mi Hazánk.”
Everybody knows that the majority of the opposition is corrupt and works for Orban. (This is normal in autocracy). Just because I say this I don’t become a fidesz troll, but an independent,critical thinker.
I will write the story of my political activism during the municipal elections when the topic warrants it.
Some clubs in Budapest allegedly put up “ due to Covid pandemic, foreigners are not allowed… “ signs.
Let’s see if the managers of those establishments will update signs according to their Dear Leader’s new policies.
“ foreigners, except Czechs, Poles, Slovaks….”
My humble question to Hungarians is: “ what sort of country have you built? “
When you don’t have anything, and not about to get anything, the russky-orban strategy is to fill the low-level
Hungarian mind with the helium of hate. The more hate they pump in the greater the peanut-brained Hungarico feels.
And so too Trump and the Repubs.
Just a little correction to Éva’s list of travel restrictions. Czech citizens – and a little later also Polish and Slovak citizens – are allowed to enter with only one negative test made at home. Hungarians need to go in quarantine for 14 days, except we are tested negative twice. Foreign tests are not acceptable for us.
And Orbán is 100% legal travelling without quarantine, because Szijjártó may give him a permit for diplomatic travel. Of course he may do so – Szijjártó is our travel expert!
For the rest it is just mafia business as usual. Lies to rectify crimes, cutting spending where are people are in need and great gifts for those who preach Orbánism. That is the rule-of-Orbán, since he makes his own laws it is even the rule-of-Orbán-law.
I have fond memories of Bled, the lake and the island. We used to pass there often and stay a night or two on the campsite many years ago when it was still Yugoslavia.
This whole conference reminds me of the famous Davos conferences – just a special version for the unimportant Balkan countries who nobody wants to have in Davos. 🙂 🙂
PS:
Anyway the Hungarian government is showing again its lunatic behaviour, no logic at all, no knowledge of what’s really going on – just for the Fidesz honchos to have some fun.
They seem to know that the majority of Hungarians can’t afford to think about this all, just don’t have the time and the money …
PPS:
Any ideas how O1G and his court traveled to Bled and back? Did they use one of their private planes or a helicopter even?
Or was it a cavalcade of gigantic luxury cars accompanied and protected by a thousand soldiers? 🙂 🙂
Bled in French means godforsaken place, hole; it’s quite fitting.
aside from politics, Lake Bled is a really beautiful place, about an hour’s drive from Ljubjlana, definitely worth a visit, although I preferred the quieter Lake Bohinj
German “blöd” i e stupid is pronounced “bled” by us Schwabs so the first time I read about it …
I agree with Pantanifan, generally Slovenia. is underrated re tourism.
Rather OT:
I was fascinated when we went there more almost 50 years ago – it felt like Italy, nice and friendly people, good atmosphere, very good food.
And prices were less than half of Italian ones – at higher quality!!!
Obviously, none of the participating countries are interested in gaining influence through participation in the EU.
They only look at ways to cut the corners of democracy.
I’m afraid that feudalism is/was a terrible precursor for Democracy. The peasants want to get even, not negotiate.
Poor Nik Gowling was genuinely perplexed on Twitter as to why the various tinpot dictators in Bled had believed he worked for The Guardian. He forgot that he is no longer dealing with logical or indeed civilised people when he engages with the scum leaders of E/C Europe.
And that’s in 2020, and he is supposed to be a well-read person.
Eastern European dictators fool and handle these supposedly smart (in reality clueless, naive, vain) Western people like Horowitz played the piano.
He has lived too long in a democracy, thst is his weakness.
Re: Nik Gowing Well really one of the first things a speaker should note before getting up and talk to a group is know exactly who they are and what they are there for. Gowing could look a little like Moses was on the first day meeting up and having a chat with the Pharoah to let ‘my people go’. Pharoah: You think we’re stopping a good thing we got going here? C’mon man! Tell your story walking’. Now Gowing probably would have been really testing open mindedness to some listeners if he really let it all hang out on these topics of discussion occurring in very ‘flawed’ democratic states. Note there’s a continuum on that as some in the audience , the ‘democrat’ brick-layers they are , live in and are building them diligently each and everyday. In that universe no pyramids and not yet to have populations called ‘slaves’: rigging elections spreading false rumors, (today it’s ‘fake news’j how to construct bribes how to control opinion and debate studying the essence of how conspiracy theories work ..(false rumor sure but there’s more to it!) how to stoke nostalgia in getting people to do what they absolutely need to… Read more »
again M’s infinetly sweeping sipping bollocks!
Gowling was NOT fooled at all, he asked the right questions and some tinpot dictators [with OV at the helm] tried to bollock around with their answers, they didn’t succeed and therewith showed what they really are a bunch of incompetent *ssh*l*s!
PS: warning don’t put your words in my mounth!
“Hungary is a boring parliamentary democracy.”
We know this is a joke, but we are not amused.
Btw like everything about Orbàn, his humor is also very provincial.
“Btw like everything about Orbàn, his humor is also very provincial.”
But it goes down well with the rural, inbred, wifebeaters, who are after all who he is really talking to.
Felcsútia rules! What can I do?
At least our parliament is a boring voting machine.
Active cases of CoViD-19 in Hungary.
September 2 vs August 2: up 282.5%, 2100 vs 549
New cases are everywhere in Hungary.
The closure of the borders on September 1 is too late and ineffective. The virus was spreading in August while Orban & his friends were busy cruising the Adriatic sea.
Prediction: most schools have to be closed within a month.
Closing borders this way is ridiculous and has only one reason: Blaming foreigners and sustaining the ideology of hate. Those who know better told us that only 10% of infections came by returning from a holiday abroad. While now only a very few go onto a holiday this number would have been reduced substantially in any way.
Instead: Close borders to those countries that have high infection rates IN TIME (the traffic light system had only one disadvantage: selection of countries wasn’t made only based on infection rates). Make people to follow the rules. Do something against these events where many people stick on each other – including FIDESZ parties. Act fast where a problem occurs. But this would be a policy to protect the people, while power and wealth of a few has to be protected according to the regime.
Your prediction? I am afraid there is a good chance that you’re right.
Closing the borders was too late but perfectly timed to facilitate foreign tourists to visit Balaton during July and August. So whoever runs a business around Balaton received protection from the government. Are we surprised?
Closing down schools–not a bad idea.
Slowing down the pace of life–not a bad idea.
World-wide depression–not a bad idea.
Slowing car production in Hungary–probably a necessity as
car sales will plummet for the next while anyway.
Covid-19…the beacon of sanity.
European Commissioner Didier Reynders already wrote to the Hungarian government because closing Hungary’s borders to all but citizens of the V4 countries is discriminative and hence does not comply with fundamental principles of EU law: either the borders are closed to all or they are open to all (EU citizens in the Schengen area). Link
Well done. Why do Polish citizens enter Hungary easier than Hungarians? And a Greek not at all? Just since the EU is bound to the rule of law it will takes years until Hungary will be fined for this breach of law, a time when there will be a vaccination since long. We can only hope that this signal is bringing speed behind the rule-of-law clauses and procedures, since the regime shows again and again that it doesn’t care about law at all.
Orban says Hungary is a democracy like Germany … Bled Strategic Forum
https://streamable.com/wykchk
Did he mean Honecker’s democracy or Hitler’s?
Well, Adenauer’s clerical fascist ideas of 60 – 70 years ago came near – but even Adenauer was a kind of democrat at heart, though of course being a catholic …
Oh yes, of course there were all democracies. If I remember correctly, it used to be called the Republic of Hungary and under Orban the republic was deleted. Today it stands with invisible letters nation state instead of republic. Did you see the “intelligent” face Orban made? He is not used to getting critical questions.
Yesterday something wet temporarily wrong with my computer and as a result I couldn’t include these two videos. Here they are
https://streamable.com/j2p3qe
https://streamable.com/r99cls
When it comes to the question of democracy or not, Orban becomes visibly aggressive.
Orban believes that raising his volume of responses and dressing his generalised lies will fool his audience. On the contrary, he is only fouling himself… Perhaps if Nik Gowling would have brought up the issues of media freedom and the likes Orban couldn’t have sidestepped the issues as he has done with the topics in the conference ‘interview’. Thankfully neither Nik Gowling nor anyone else can be tricked by his rhetoric. The only memory that remains after watching the video clips is the bad taste of the words emitted from this fascist entity believing that he is a renowned statesman…
Clearly flaunting arrogant indifference and ignorance disguised as humor, in response to documented questioning, signals a decadent comfort in his power.
Raising his voice and applying involuntary but theatrical posture and mimicry when answering away from direct questions, is a sure sign of weakness under pressure.
Z’s Pox would have played the record over several times without blinking an eye.
Don’t put the computer in water…
I would, however, call readers’ attention to the prime minister’s self-congratulatory smiles and quick glances at his fellow panelists to make sure that his witticisms were appreciated
Seriously? What a pathetic little man he truly is.
Closing the borders of Hungary to foreigners was simply a propaganda exercise by Hungary’s Lyukashenka – the strong man flexing his muscles. It was timed to correspond with the end of the Fidesz Croatian vacation season (and the end of the Balaton season) and had no logical sense in terms of coronavirus infections. One might argue that it was done too late. The initial infection, imported from Iran multiplied much more slowly that the Fidesz-imported infections now from Croatia. The point is simply all in the gesture.
Orban is smartly manipulating the Westerners as usual (this time using Politico which is read by the Brussels decision making set).
Politico writes that perhaps the “Hungarian Parliament might not ratify” the new EU budget deal – as if the Hungarian Parliament would be an independent entity.
Orban could thus say, “look my hands are tied, that Parliament, see, they don’t want to ratify it, what can I do?”
Since everything depends on Orban in Hungary, not ratifying is simply saying no by Orban via the Parliament as a dummy.
However, instead of openly saying “no, I don’t accept the deal”, he will refer to the Hungarian Parliament claiming with serious face “they just don’t want to accept it, it’s really unfortunate, but I need to get a new deal from the EU, see, I just can’t go back to the Parliament with the same deal, you understand, right?”.
Blackmailing by Eastern autocrats usually works, though.
The Western politicians simply can’t stand tension and conflict for more than a few weeks, so they will give in as usual. Sad.
https://hvg.hu/gazdasag/20200902_orban_mentocsomag_eu_jogallamisag
https://hungarianspectrum.org/2020/09/01/one-boring-day-in-an-ordinary-parliamentary-democracy/#comment-196110
…OV is sMart(l)y…
Alexei Navalny poisoned by Novichok say the German government.
PUTIN THE POISONER, Orban’s puppetmaster, must have had some left over from the Salisbury job.
In any case, that particular formula is only available from Russian military laboratories.
OT: a very interesting interview with a young left-leaning pollster about politics.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/david-shor-cancel-culture-2020-election-theory-polls.html
Say what you like about Marty, you must admit he links to the most illuminating articles.
I’d just like to thank you Eva, for the link to the conference. I listened to several of the speakers and found the views expressed extraordinarily similar in respect of the Central European representatives.