The struggle for artistic freedom in the theater world hasn’t yet been resolved, and those who really matter in Hungarian political life have remained quiet on the subject. Vidnyánszky’s fate remains undecided, at least this is what observers presume.
For the moment, we are witnessing a lull, a kind of intermission in a drama that most people think might mark the onset of a new beginning, because this is the first time that students and professors stand side by side and assert that they have no intention of compromising on the essential issues, like the person of Vidnyánszky or the autonomy of the university. The notion of solidarity is an alien concept for most Hungarians, who fail to realize that what happened to Index or SZFE can happen to them tomorrow or the day after. If Hungarians would recognize the strength of collective action, Viktor Orbán wouldn’t feel so confident as he currently does.
Another editor-in-chief loses his job
The reporters of Index left their desks at midnight on August 31, and a day later another editor-in-chief was fired, this time at the independent weekly 168 Óra. Péter Rózsa, the man in question, was relatively new at 168 Óra but had a long and distinguished career at both Magyar Rádió and Magyar Televízió until 2012, when the Orbán government cleared the decks at the so-called public broadcasting stations. His last job was with Klub Rádió.
The alleged reason for Péter Rózsa’s firing was his approval of an article titled “Családi álca” (Family mask), for which the editors chose an old photo of the Orbán family, which the prime minister himself used on his Facebook page a few years ago. The CEO of Telegráf Kft., the parent company of the weekly, found the publication of the photo unacceptable and morally troubling because it shows the prime minister’s under-aged child. “The photo was used as an illustration for text unrelated to the prime minister’s family,” the CEO explained. “Children, regardless of their parents’ role in public life, should be protected, not used for political messages and made a target of hatred.”
Magyar Nemzet got hold of Rózsa, who didn’t want to talk about the circumstances of his dismissal but said only that that he “didn’t notice any political influence in the life of the paper.” To accompany its article, Magyar Nemzet chose a photo of Rózsa accepting a prize for journalistic excellence awarded by the Free Media Foundation of MSZP. I guess Magyar Nemzet wanted to make it clear that Rózsa’s politics might have had something to do with his use of an Orbán family photo. HVG learned from a journalist working for 168 Óra that there are plans underway to make the paper less radical and that Rózsa’s dismissal is part of the transformation of 168 Óra into a more centrist paper.
Viktor Orbán’s priorities
Gábor Iványi’s Magyar Evangéliumi Testvérközösség (MET) maintains several kindergartens and schools in the poor regions of the country as well as in Budapest, financed for the most part by charities. However, the government added 190 million forints ($627,000) a year as a grant. This year, Iványi was informed by the undersecretary in charge of education in the ministry of human resources that, as of the beginning of this school year, MET will receive only 95 million forints and that, from the following year on, the government will not support MET’s schools for disadvantaged children at all. If Iványi doesn’t like it, he can always offer the schools to the state. The explanation for the decision was that MET didn’t send enough “non-compulsory assessments of family backgrounds,” and therefore “the ministry couldn’t compare the results with those of other similar institutions.” Moreover, the decrease in support was necessary because “the ministry had to spend some of its resources on epidemiological control.”
The same thing happened to Nóra L. Ritók’s Igazgyöngy Alapítvány (Real Pearl Foundation), which takes care of 600 students in mostly Roma regions of Békés County. The foundation received 17 million forints (approximately $56,000) a year, but, just as in the case of MET, the amount will be halved for this academic year. According to Ritók, “the notification uses the pandemic to justify the reduction, and at the same time it suggests that, if we cannot maintain the school, there is the possibility of handing it over to the state.”
It didn’t take long for the Real Pearl Foundation to receive the missing amount of money from private sources. As Ritók told HVG, “there were acquaintances and strangers, old supporters and new ones who sent smaller sums or even larger contributions. We also received quite a few angry messages that helped us to process all of this emotionally.”
While support allegedly had to be taken away from the poor and the downtrodden because of the pandemic, the Orbán government can be very generous in supporting projects that are closer to its heart. For example, over the past couple of years it has spent 55 billion forints (approximately $181.7 million) on the “Egy a természettel–One with Nature,” an international hunting exhibition to be held in 2021.
And then there is the 2.5 billion forint grant to save the Hungarian Tennis Association, which in the last few years managed to accumulate 3.5 billion forints worth of debt, a shortfall that is currently under police investigation. The government had to dip into its emergency reserve to save the association.
Admittedly, the Hungarian economy will take a considerable hit from the pandemic. But an economic crisis reveals a government’s priorities and values, and the Orbán government is showing its true colors. And they aren’t red, white, and green, but black and blue (for the outsiders) and dark green, as in greed (for the insiders). Not an aesthetically, or morally, pleasing palette.
In a way it’s very simple:
Arts like everything here in Hungary are just tools of the fascist movemen/regime! Exactly like in Nazi times – I’ve read enough about those days and heard about them from my relatives …
“And then there is the 2.5 billion forint grant to save the Hungarian Tennis Association, which in the last few years managed to accumulate 3.5 billion forints worth of debt, a shortfall that is currently under police investigation.”
In these fraught times I know it is not priority question No1 but how in earth does a Tennis *Association* roll up 2.5 billions of debt??? It is the minority of minority sports, only the Fidesz scum, nouveaus in general and their assorted entitled brats that play the darned thing! 3.5 billion is a lot of paper-clips and diary’s…..unless, surely not? Corruption? In Orbanistan?
The summary on today’s blog is surely correct. Orbán owns Hungary. Hungary’s money is his money and he dispenses it as he wishes. Government finances are a huge money laundering scheme, as witness the funding to the $180 Million to the Fishing, Hunting and Arms “exhibition”. It would be useful to know how many of these USD have been siphoned into Semjén the Plagiarist’s commercial accounts. And how many Under Secretaries for this that and the other are there? Just another teat for the Fidesz Faithful. Hungarian society has been corrupted from end to end and from top to bottom by this criminal of a Prime Minister.
OT Kövér, who behaves like an emperor in parliament and constantly bans opposition members from speaking and fines them, distributes medals to like-minded people.
President of the Austrian National Council Sobotka –
On Wednesday evening the President of the Hungarian Parliament, László Kövér, presented his Austrian counterpart with the Hungarian Order of Merit – a high state decoration of Hungary.
Ambassador Andor Nagy commented on the shared history of the two countries and the ties to the “brother-in-law” Austria. Many difficulties had to be mastered together due to the neighbourhood, “environmental pollution, illegal migration, joint border management in times of a pandemic”.
The official reason given by Hungarian President János Áder for the award: Sobotka was honored for his promotion of Austro-Hungarian relations, especially parliamentary cooperation – as well as for his “effective activity for a broader perception of Hungary’s positions in European politics in Austria”.
The ÖVP politician had on several occasions campaigned against the exclusion of the Hungarian governing party Fidesz, which is particularly controversial in Western Europe, from the European People’s Party (EPP). Fidesz’s membership has been suspended since May 2019.
https://kurier.at/politik/ausland/verdienstorden-ungarn-zeigt-sich-bei-sobotka-erkenntlich/401019677
Sobotka is one of the old clerical fascists in the ÖVP, against immigrants (of course, if you look at his name …) and also was involved in corruption scandals.
On the other hand he’s a “Hans Dampf in allen Gassen”, held all kinds of political jobs, reminds me of Öttinger.
Kövér is travelling into that dirty and dangerous (Lázár) Vienna while borders are closed and tries to import some viruses? Sure, Szijjártó will have given him the right to return without quarantine or tests for this very important journey. But Kövér will be very angry, he heard from the Austrian speaker things that would end any political career in FIDESZ:
But, said the President of the National Council, referring to his Hungarian colleague, it is not just about not putting religion in the foreground, but about living the essence of this religion, “also when it comes to dealing with one’s neighbour and dealing with foreigners”
Said Sobotka … I mean very big theater and a very big throw … even if he had said it to himself in the mirror, I would have heard myself laughing. It is like preaching water and drinking wine. In this sense, God protect us from the faithful.
Sure, I don’t believe Sobotka either. Nevertheless here in Hungary any democratic MP would have been fined heavily for these words in parliament. Don’t forget how Kövér is used to silence people who don’t agree with the speaker of the boring parliament or he just don’t like by whatever reason (for example for being a MP with a personal number that starts with a 2). So Kövér won’t be amused at all – and this is amusing….
Does it not say Pack strikes itself, pack is compatible? It is amusing all times. Did Kövér sleep well? Surely he read Albert Wass before he went to sleep.
Recently, Szilard Demeter who is currently the pope (czar) of Hungarian literature (ie. similar to Vidnyanszky who is the pope of theatrical world) and who (Demeter) really calls himself a “fanatic”/”deranged” “Orbanist” (megveszekedett Orbánista vagyok) told a story. Orban appointed Demeter into this leadership position and Demeter was duly (and rightfully, in my opinion) criticized for a number of things. When Demeter next met with Orban, Orban asked Demeter how is he feeling about the attacks? Demeter answered that this is his job, he handles them all right. Orban’s reply: that’s not enough, “you must enjoy the attacks”. This is the thing: enjoyment. The liberal mind starts from rationality, a dispassionate mind (dispassionate administration) should be trying to be impartial, professional, even-handed, fair. But right-wingers know that people are humans, creatures who naturally seek enjoyment (it may be pleasure in pain, but it’s enjoyment nonetheless). Orban is doing what he is doing (tormenting intellectuals and outraging other people etc.) because he is enjoying it. Just as Vidnyanszky receives enormous enjoyment from claiming (despite his tons of official titles and positions in the Hungarian theatrical world) always to be the victim. Of course he also enjoys, just like Orban does, tormenting… Read more »
Marty
Playing politics is one thing, where there is quite a broad margin between slogans and reality, however, if the administration/government is not “dispassionate..professional, even handed..” then we end up with another version of the current regime. It has been realized since Moses ( who asked for laws) that justicia regnorum fundamentum, it’s indispensable. I’m no doctrinaire or naive or SJW, but one has to know when to stop justifying the means, cutting corners , etc and when to start returning to normalcy, to consolidate the victory even if there was some cheating there.
–“Orban’s reply: that’s not enough, “you must enjoy the attacks”.
This is the thing: enjoyment.”
Quintessentially Nietzchean: the spiritualization of hostility.
“It consists in a profound appreciation of the value of having enemies….Love your enemies because they bring out the best in you”.
I guess that Orban’s main frustration about politics is living among pygmies, that is : not having, or having so few, people around him who are also capable of living up his vision/spirit (not just parroting his talking points to secure some comfy positions in the system).
Maybe the next (5th post-Trianon) generation….
“Love your enemies because they bring out the best in you”????
You know, you’re talking about Orbán and his bunch of bootlickers! They have never ever brought out anything good, always way worse than a normal mind could imagine!
If Trumporban makes the best out of itself according to logic then there was nothing good in it.
Yes, let’s have fun! Commodus took at least part in venationes, but is also said having fought as gladiator. Why not throw Orbán in his own arena in front of hungry lions? Are those who don’t want to too cultivated “liberals”? Perhaps democrats have just another concept for living together than Commodus, Orbán or even Marty.
If someone would tell me that Orban is a sadist I would not contradict him.
He is, no question.
The PM working with intellectuals must be uncomfortable. He hasn’t the mind or inclination so he must pick pliable literary and artistic soldiers to go into battle and have his ideas forcibly put out onto a cultural battlefield. And the war of competing minds begins. It’s the battle of the ‘heads and the hammers’. And the hammers indeed want cultural order….now.
The overarching fear in the cultural war must be along the lines of succumbing to the intelligence of some intellectuals who for him work way way out in ‘outer space’. Mr. Nietzsche? What’s he a left-back? Is he good? Hear they say he’s what they call a ‘thinka’. Outer space is a dangerous atmosphere supporting ‘germs‘ that aren’t germane to the cultural stories that must be told. And that is three strikes against free inquiry in the Magyar state. The assault on culture is palpable and it’s good to see some refusing to sell off their thinking minds by supporting back-tracking illusions which in turn make lives to be lived in delusion.
Isn’t it like watching the same movie over and over again, only with a different cast? The number of victims changes in numbers and dress. The colors change from brown to red and back again to brown.
Does he enjoy inflicting pain on people? Undoubtedly. It actually (apart from the moral issue) is one of the major blocks from him becoming truly like his real dictatorial heroes who operate with a large dollop of pragmatism rather than Orban’s irrational hatred and small man syndrome
My bets:
– The SZFE will be subjugated without any meaningful compromises, maybe Vidnyánszky will be given another role in the structure.
– Watch the finances of 168 Óra, incl. advertising revenue (the ATV pattern).
– The charitable foundations would get their earlier subsidies only if they submit control.
Talking about several hundred million … over 1000 BILLION will be spend on the Bud – Belgrade rail link, which is of no perceivable benefit to the Hu economy (but offers a mountain of extra profits to the Orbàn mafia).
“the transformation of 168 Óra into a more centrist paper.”
Centrist in Hungary. Is that somewhere between democratic and orbánistic? “More centrist” means in this case a sharp right turn, away from a democratic point of view.
Index.hu is already “centrist”.
It ridicules the opposition, gets famous people saying “you know both sides make stupid things from time to time, why can’t they just get along, why this tension?”.
And so on.
168 Óra, just like Klubradio, ATV or Népszava are owned by people close to Orban. They are not independent media.
Close to Orbán? András Arató of Klub Rádió? You’re not serious. Orbán considers the station his #1 enemy. After 2010, all of their frequencies outside of Budapest were taken away and the Budapest station was only saved thanks to serious pressure from the EU.
Gabor Udvardi, Slomo Koves’ confidant at EMIH, is currently a board member at Klubradio and Klubradio owes money to Brit Media (according to the last financial statement) and there is 15% shareholder besides the major shareholder which is indeed ultimately controlled by Arato, Stock and Soronyi (the 3 other board members). This 15% shareholder is currently unknown. This portion of the shares used to belong to EMIH’ media holding Brit Media but it sold its share to unknown shareholders. However since Udvardi remained as a board member, the shares may not be far from EMIH. So, the involvement of EMIH (Fidesz’ front in the media business according to everbody) is more remote than in the case of 168 óra or Népszava, I concede that. That said, the market’s view is that Klubradio is not really an opposition media. As Robert Winkler (from index) put it (who decided to stay with index.hu with his totalcar.hu sub-site) the goal of the takeover of index.hu (when Rogan’s confidant Miklos Vaszily stepped in a few months ago) was to make the index.hu like the ATV or Klubrádió (“elklubrádiósodás”). No real investigation, no real danger to the system but a valve through with elderly persons… Read more »
Marty
BS TOTAL BS
KLUBRàdio broadcasts half hourly short news about the latest misdeads of the regime and
many other programs analyze these in detail. whatever the ownership and the future faith of the station (broadcasting license expires early next year) there has been nothing “pacified” there.
from “not independent Népszava” today, titled “the holy family”
Istvan,
Népszava is like ATV, it deals with opposition topics for sure but its receives a lot and I mean a lot of state advertising (about migrants etc.) which no independent media does (444.hu, ÉS, Magyar Narancs etc. don’t receive anything even from state owned entities).
The point is that Fidesz wants to know about the gossips, interesting topics among the left-leaning journalists (the journalists themselves are still mostly left leaning) and want to control what gets in, and thus what gets to be read by the readers. Serious investigations and dealing with serious scandals will not take place in Népszava.
Népszava is now owned by Tamas Leisztinger who a decade ago was a left-wing oligarch.
Since then he learnt to love big brother and is very cozy with the system, invests in football etc.
He and his girlfriend Kata Tütto was involved even recently in various district 5 joint real estate deals with Antal Rogan’s friends.
In other words, Leisztinger works for Orban and if Rogan asks him to help own Népszava on paper, Leisztinger will. Népszava is not a free media at all.
Sadly, the system’s media and propaganda reach is bigger and smarter than you think.
Love that caricature, a very good likeness of Szijjarto – priceless! I often wonder if any of the higher placed Fideszniks read this blog, or even are aware of it’s existence?
Valasz online has found details of the “bad ventilator deal” and for who it was a great deal. I thought they would hide behind off-shore companies where the owner can’t be traced.
https://www.valaszonline.hu/2020/09/04/vereb-balazs-rahoi-zsuzsanna-fourcardinal-lelegeztetogep/
I think the Andras Bodis article on the ventilator scandal is investigative journalism at the micro level. I mean how can a journalist discuss the ventilator issue and corruption on September 4th without examining the possible over use of ventilators on Covid 19 patients internationally and Hungary specifically? There is a lot of evidence we went into a ventilator shortage mania globally and that numerous ventilators purchased or built on an emergency basis never were used. I worked at the height of the Covid 19 outbreak as part of the Chicago medical reserve at Stroger County hospital as a paramedic. We were seeing so many patients dead, and overwhelmed by reports from Italy and NYC of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in Covid 19 victims that our diagnostics were messed up and we were diagnosing ARDS far too frequently. While the Orban crew cleaned up on ventilators, so did people all over the world including in the USA. Billions were made during this panic and primitive ventilators were produced even by automobile factories that are now likely sitting unused because they do not interface with modern vital signs monitoring systems in hospitals internationally that are fully computerized. It was easy… Read more »
“There is a lot of evidence we went into a ventilator shortage mania globally and that numerous ventilators purchased or built on an emergency basis never were used.”
I dare to go a step further:
Do you really think all these 15000+ [totals from table in valaszonline’s article] ventilators really exist in Hungary?
Especially the 3785+ ones “purchased” through Hungarian companies, some with ties to OV’s government!
I am very supisious about the whole ventilator business, and can imagine some are bought “double”!
I only can believe they’re all real, if confirmed by a reliable independent person, who has seen and counted them her/himself!
Charges Brought Against FM Szijjártó for Yacht Trip
Source: https://hungarytoday.hu/charges-brought-fm-szijjarto-yacht-trip-szijj-corruption/
No, this just “reporting an alleged crime to the police” (feljelentés).
The police will have to investigate (which it may refuse arguing there is no brach of law based on the report it received) and then after investigating suggest prosecution (may or may not) and the prosecution will have to decide to indeed prosecute (which it may or may not) and the court would have to convict based on the exact charge and evidence (if the prosecution is smart, only that evidence will be presented which is harmless and Szíjjarto gets a monetary fine of let’s say USD 1,500 if at all). And so on, it’s even more complicated.
If you know anything about the Hungarian criminal justice system you would know even the first possibility is inconceivable on so many levels.
So, don’t hold your breath; this is nothing.
This is great state theater something like this Fidesz must hold from time to time to calm the critics. For 10 years this program has been running always the same thing. When Szijjártó is seriously in the dock he has a fight with Orban.
OT The president loves the troops so much he thinks they’re “losers.”
https://twitter.com/i/status/1301694957170749441
Trump re-tests his level, how far down it goes, is there still room? With 47000 Ft. you can live well said Madman. If there are still members of the military who vote for Trump, it would be frightening.
End of last year I came across the mentioned Hunting etc. Exhibition, called “Egy a Természettel – One with Nature”. The “mission” of the exhibition was stated as “to demonstrate to the general public the value of the sustainable use of nature through forestry, hunting and wildlife management, fishing and water management”. Strangely, to me at least, hunting and fishing seem to be more than wildlife and water management! Also in typical OV&Co style a serious part of the budget went already to communication*: contract with the usual suspects [New Land & Lounge Design] for such works from 2019.May till 2020.Jun/Dec for 1027 million HUF [ca.3 million Euro], which earlier this year has been modified to 1035 million HUF because of inflation [the weakening of the forint] source: https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:249130-2020:TEXT:HU:HTML *note this contract is ending about a year before the exhibition itself, so this is not expected to be all spend on “communication” Also the whole thing seems a pet project of Semjen, but there are more involved, e.g.Kovács Z., aka.Z’s Poxies, was in 2018.Dec already appointed as Special Advisor to OV’s Government for this! He must have had some spare time and energy after all his mouthpiece works… PS: may… Read more »
OT But…
We know that corruption and self-interest are at the top of the Hungarian Prime Minister’s policies but you might like to check out this Alexei Navalny video (from 2016) on Russian Deputy Premier Shuvalov:
The link was given today in an article in the Guardian on the Navalny poisoning:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/04/for-the-russian-state-the-poisoning-of-alexei-navalny-was-simply-business
OK, Orbán is small beer by comparison (we never doubted it) but Hungary still has to suffer under his mafia criminality. Thank goodness his wife doesn’t breed dogs!
The second amendment, within 4 days, of the decree to restrict the crossing of the Hungarian border was issued today.
Hungarian citizens do not have to take both PCR tests inside Hungary to avoid the strict quatorzaine.
The first PCR test can be taken in one of the Schengen countries or Canada or USA.
Sportsmen and sports fans can produce a single negative test in order to enter Hungary.
Source:
Magyar Közlöny 2020. évi 201. szám
2020. szeptember 4.
Aug.31: OV’s border closed at 24:00 for all
Sep.01: OV’s border closed except for football players
Sep.02: OV’s border closed except for football players and diplomats
Sep.03: OV’s border closed except for football players, diplomats and Czechs
Sep.04: OV’s border closed except for football players, diplomats, Czechs and Slovaks
PS: on Sep.04 the Slovaks played a football match against the Czechs, next day Sep.05 the Czech football association wanted to cancel their next match [on Sep.07 against Scotland] because of Corona infections within their team, the UEFA [European football association] did not accept that and ordered the Czechs to play the match! [we’ll see on monday]
Note: on Sep.03 the Hungarian football team won in and against Turkey, and has to play tomorrow [Sep.06] at home against Russia [so far no rumours about infections there…]