Tag Archives: Zoltán Kovács

World Hunting Exhibition, 1971 vs. today

If you have a burning desire to learn about trade shows on hunting and fishing during 2021 and 2022, you can learn that during these two years there will be 19 of them in Europe, including Great Britain, Russia and Turkey. One is the much-touted Hungarian Fishing, Hunting & Arms International Exhibition, allegedly opening shortly as part of the “One With Nature” World of Hunting and Nature Exhibition. “Special game species, legendary hunters, Hungary’s largest exhibition aquarium, hunting dog shows, a cultural festival, FeHoVa Plus (the International Weapons, Fishing and Hunting Exhibition) and OMÉK (the Hungarian Agriculture and Food Industry Exhibition and Fair), all combined with fairs and a walkway that guarantees an unforgettable gastronomic experience: for anyone who loves nature, the year’s largest nature event is the place to be!” The event will allegedly be open between September 25 and October 14, 2021, at HUNGEXPO Budapest.

In the Hungarian media, FeHoVa Plus is called a “világkiállítás” (world exhibition), but this designation is incorrect. It is instead an “international exhibition,” which doesn’t have the same prestige. On the other hand, the 1971 Hunting Exhibition was a true worldwide event, lasting 35 days and with 53 countries represented, from India and Kenya to the United States.

You can often hear from Zsolt Semjén, deputy prime minister and passionate hunter, who is the mastermind behind the project, that, despite the enormous amount of money spent on this exhibition (allegedly ten billion forints), it will be extremely profitable because, in 1971, more than 2.3 million tourists visited the country. Well, that was then….

The Széchenyi Zsigmond Vadászati Múzeum, which has a permanent commemorative section devoted to the 1971 event, claims that “our country,” by accepting the challenge of staging the event, “assumed the role of a ‘bridge’ between the western and eastern empires.” Indeed, one reason for the popularity of the show was that it was held in Hungary, behind the Iron Curtain.

Just like in 1971, there will be several public displays highlighting different aspects of hunting and fishing. The first one, which opened to the public yesterday in the lobby of the Agricultural Museum in Városliget (City Park), is on “Hunting and Hunting Weapons in Hungary.” 444 sent László Szily to take a look, and he was not impressed. It seems that some of the art was below par. In 1971, there was a special fine art exhibit at the Műcsarnok (Kunst Halle), where classical and modern art works by 165 artists from all over the world were on display. It is possible that higher quality work might be shown in a separate art exhibit, although I wouldn’t bet on it given the artistic taste of this regime.

But let’s return to the world of 1971. Even then, the Hungarian government designated a special government commissioner to oversee the preparation for the great event. He was László Földes, deputy prime minister, who it seems was a better organizer than the current commissioner, Zoltán Kovács. There was another significant difference between the two. Földes was an experienced hunter who, under the pseudonym of István Szuhai, wrote stories about hunters and hunting. Kovács is relatively new to the game, although he is already editor-in-chief of Nimród, the paper dealing with hunting.

It is difficult to tell whether it took three or five years before the Hunting Exhibition of 1971 could be opened. But the effort was well rewarded. As György Kozma wrote in Nimród, the organizers said they would measure the success of the project by the number of participating countries and would be satisfied if at least “twenty-five flags would be flying on opening day.” As we know, more than double that number of countries participated. They hoped to have one million visitors and a modest 60,000-70,000 foreign visitors. That also turned out to be an underestimation of the actual figures.

As opposed to 50 years ago, Zsolt Semjén and Zoltán Kovács are suspiciously quiet about the number of participating countries. Before the arrival of the pandemic, Kovács talked about “at least a dozen” countries exhibiting at FeHoVa Plus. But, by now, “One with Nature” seems to be primarily a Hungarian affair.

Telex, in an excellent article, points out that in 1971 the hunting community was enthusiastic about both the idea and the result, as opposed to the present situation where interest in the exhibition is scant. In fact, Telex claims that many members of hunting clubs would prefer that it be cancelled. “Nothing around the event has played out as it should have, and we fear that it will end in a meltdown, even stirring up anti-hunter sentiment in society.”

Fifty years ago, the whole country was in a state of feverish preparation. Nimród regularly devoted a full page exclusively to news related to the exhibition. Tourists were already buying tickets from other European countries as well as from overseas. “Hungarian industry” was prepared to produce items using furs and animal skins. Dog breeders were working on programs for lovers of competitive dog events, like an international greyhound race. Horse shows and horse races were organized.

Once the exhibition opened, newspapers were full of praise from foreign politicians about the excellence of the program. Magyar Hírlap reported on August 29, 1971, that foreign countries were represented by high-level politicians. Just to mention a few, Sweden was represented by a minister without portfolio, Belgium by the deputy prime minister and by the minister of agriculture, and West Germany by the minister of agriculture. There were a surprising number of foreign tourists. For example, three chartered planes arrived from Stuttgart, and at least 50 tourist groups came from Austria.

But 50 years have gone by, and the world has changed a lot in the interim. In some ways, even the organizers realized that “nature conservation” is a much more important issue for mankind than the hobby of a relatively few. So, to pay lip service to nature conservancy they dubbed the event “One with Nature: World of Hunting and Nature Exhibition,” even though nature seems to be represented in name alone.

The two chief hunters might fall on their faces. Some people might not shed any tears, but unfortunately another 10 billion forints were spent on a useless project while a lot of businessmen close to Fidesz became even richer than before.

August 25, 2021

Blog posts by Eva S. Balogh also appear in Hungarian at https://ujnepszabadsag.com/

Orbán has abandoned the idea of regulating Facebook; he will rely on his internet hussars instead

I don’t believe that too many of our readers know about the Megaphone Center, established last summer by István Kovács, strategic director of the Center for Basic Rights, a government-financed legal think tank.

The aim of Megaphone is “to find and amplify national voices on the net.” To that end, it offers formal training to volunteers that will introduce the latest trends and teach people how to use social media most effectively. And if someone needs help establishing a video blog “to reach more people,” the center will be there to lend a hand.

Kovács claimed that the initial capital needed for this new enterprise came from “conservative businessmen,” which is unlikely. In the last few years the Center for Basic Rights has received more than one billion forints from Antal Rogán’s “propaganda ministry,” and the investigative journalists at Átlátszó suspect that the 56 million forints Megaphone received two months after its establishment came from the same source. Just as with the Center for Basic Rights, Megaphone has a nonprofit company behind it. It is brazenly called Megaphone Digital Incubator, which indicates that Kovács and Company aren’t bothering to hide the fact that they are training pro-government “internet hussars,” as Átlátszó calls them.

Megaphone announced some of the “instructors,” who happen to be Fidesz media personalities, such as Philip Rákay, the man responsible for the organization of Fidesz mass rallies, Dániel Bohár, presenter at the far-right Pesti TV of Pesti Srácok, and Dávid Filep, the author of an adventure novel. But Kovács said that the center was looking for others who are willing to help. Since then, Zsolt Bayer announced that he will join the “instructors of propaganda” that have gathered around Megaphone. Dániel Deák, the “leading analyst” of Mária Schmidt’s Institute of XXI Century, will also be a new addition to the illustrious faculty.

The first rumblings in Fidesz circles about the ill treatment of the “national side” occurred in May 2019, when Magyar Nemzet announced that Facebook had banished the advertising accounts of some newspapers and news sites of Mediaworks Hungary Zrt. The paper suspected that the reason for the decision was ideological and political even though some of the media outlets, like Nemzeti Sport and Mindmegette, a gastronomical website, have nothing to do with politics.

Actually, the Orbán government wasn’t as innocent in this story as Magyar Nemzet made out. A month earlier, HVG published an article titled “Fidesz has made a killer campaign machine out of Facebook and is now afraid of losing it.” Its campaign was met with international indignation, and Facebook promised to filter political ads just before the EP elections in May 2019. Most of the Hungarian ads were about the threat of an African and Middle Eastern invasion, and they went as far as to falsify some of the photos and videos. This HVG article, richly illustrated with photographs, shows the enormity of that propaganda, which cost Fidesz nothing but whose impact was considerable. So much so that Emma Graham-Harrison and Shaun Walker of The Guardian devoted a whole article to Hungary, “a crucible, where Facebook’s ability to police its network is being tested.” Although Facebook’s approach to the problem was muddled earlier, by 2019, the Orbán government was facing increased scrutiny. As a result, it started to contemplate how to make Facebook a toothless tiger.

It seemed to be just a question of time before the Orbán government would “regulate” Facebook, especially since at the beginning of this year it became known that Poland was planning to make “censoring of social media accounts illegal.” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki compared the decision of social media companies to remove accounts with Poland’s experience during the communist area. Since it is no secret that the Polish and Hungarian governments work hand-in-hand, with the Polish announcement Hungarian commentators began to fear a similar move in Hungary. This seemed especially likely since Justice Minister Judit Varga had reported her suspicion in December 2020 that both Facebook and Twitter were using “shadow banning,” a practice of blocking or partially blocking a user from an online community in such a way that it will not be readily apparent to the user that they have been banned.

The reason for her suspicion was the large drop in the size of her followers. A similar charge was made by Zoltán Kovács, whose propaganda activities take place on Twitter. Varga was joined by Katalin Novák today, when she claimed that Facebook doesn’t even tolerate comments on support of the family. A couple of days ago, István Hollik, the director of communication for Fidesz, announced that followers of “right-wing Christian Democratic members of parliament, ministers, and undersecretaries have radically decreased while left-wing comments appear as abundant as before.” It doesn’t seem to occur to Hollik and others that perhaps the popularity of their politicians has dropped precipitously because of their handling of the pandemic.

What Varga had in mind wasn’t at all clear. In January she announced on her Facebook page that her ministry was working on a proposal that would be discussed in parliament sometime in the spring. “We want to achieve nothing more in the case of the tech companies than legal, transparent, and verifiable operations. Nothing more than that which applies to other companies, large companies or small entrepreneurs,” she wrote. Hungary will work together with the European Union on regulation, but “recent events have shown that we need to move faster to protect people.” Sure, the Orbán government must hurry to restrict the social media before the national elections next April or May. From this description, one had the ominous feeling that the Orbán regime would not be satisfied with the Polish solution that would allow an absolutely free flow of political messages on Facebook and Twitter.

At this point, Tamás Szele wrote an opinion piece titled “Farewell to Facebook.” Having had the pleasure of listening to Varga’s interview on the subject on the notorious Pesti TV of Pesti Srácok, he expected the move against Facebook within a couple of months.

Szele, luckily, was overly pessimistic. Telex learned today that the government has abandoned the idea of tampering with Hungarian social media and that no substantial change will occur before the national election. On March 28, Judit Varga, on a long question-and-answer video, said that EU Commissioner Thierry Breton (in charge of the Common Market), who is responsible for “the prevention and countering of disinformation and fake information online, while preserving freedom of expression, freedom of the press and media pluralism,” had asked the Hungarian government not to rush ahead but to wait for the law the European Union is preparing at the moment. Varga announced that the “Hungarian government will partner” with the EU in working on this matter.

Thus, it seems that opposition politicians and critical commentators of the Orbán regime who anticipated the nightmare of governmental censorship of Facebook and Twitter can relax a bit. At least Orbán & Co. have been persuaded not to close the door to free communication on social media before the election. Now they’ll simply have to ramp up their efforts to get their message across and drown out voices from the opposition. They have a gigantic megaphone at their disposal.

April 13, 2021

The “World” Hunting Expo, an expensive attempt to jump start tourism in Hungary

Viktor Orbán has a soft spot for any international event which, in his estimation, adds to the prestige of the country and attracts tourists. If such an event is related to sports, he is ready to jump. For instance, he agreed to host the Aquatic World Championship, promising to organize the events in a ridiculously short time at an immense cost to the Hungarian taxpayers. The opening extravaganza and the swimming events didn’t bring half a million visitors to Budapest, as was optimistically predicted. In fact, the number of tourists dropped during the competition, most likely because people wanted to avoid the inconveniences that sporting events can bring. The government was also eager to offer a venue to the Maccabean Games in 2019.

More recently, Budapest was the scene of several international football games in the brand-new stadiums built with such events in mind. Since the pandemic was raging in Europe, the number of tourists was negligible.

The next major sport-related event that Hungary is scheduled to host is the so-called World Hunting Expo in 2021. A year ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit Europe, Zoltán Kovács, the wizard of “international communication” who, in addition to his regular job, is also government commissioner in charge of the expo, announced that “one million visitors are expected for the event to be held in September-October 2021.” I think that his estimate was far too high even under normal circumstances, but unless COVID is contained by summertime and people confidently resume travel, the expo, if held at all this year, will most likely be a financial disaster.

Zsolt Semjén, deputy prime minister, is an avid hunter. In 2015 he convinced Viktor Orbán that holding the expo in Hungary would be a bonanza for tourism. Knowing the Orbán family’s business interests, most in some way connected to tourism, the prime minister didn’t need much convincing, and Semjén began planning for the event, which became more and more ambitious. It turned out that in order to hold the expo in Budapest, Hungexpo, Budapest’s largest complex for hosting such exhibitions or fairs, needed major “revitalization.” The already existing five pavilions will have to be spruced up and two new ones built. In addition, a large congressional center will be erected. According to a newly published article by Átlátszó, although the government insists that the expo will not be postponed, the work is behind schedule.

This ambitious undertaking is extremely costly. In fact, Semjén jokingly admitted in February 2018 that he hadn’t had to courage to show Finance Minister Mihály Varga the projected cost. In November 2018, it was estimated that the expo might cost Hungary 50 billion forints (about 138.7 million euros). This figure might actually be too low, judging by the lessons learned from similar large projects. The organizers of the Aquatic World Championship initially were convinced that 25 billion forints would be plenty to cover costs. By the time the Hungarian government was finished with the project, Hungarian taxpayers paid 137 billion for a swimming center used primarily by top-notch athletes involved in aquatic sports.

Although about 75% of the cost of the World Hunting Expo involves Hungexpo’s refurbishing, there are several other big-ticket items. The government gave away a hunting lodge in the city of Hatvan to the Hungarian Association of Hunters. In addition, it cost 225 million to renovate and move a hunting lodge that once belonged to Frigyes Habsburg, which will serve as a pavilion for exhibiting the life cycle of the buck found in the Gemenc region in Tolna County. The organizers spent 250 million forints on the logo of the expo and 750 million for gift items.

The 250-million-forint logo

Zoltán Kovács, who since his lowly beginnings as a historian has become an aristocratic-looking huntsman decked out in an enviable outfit, needed a staff of ten to support his role as governor commissioner in charge of the expo. Last May, he wrote in one of his Facebook comments that “one mustn’t pay any attention to those loud scare-mongers on social media” who predict that the expo will have to be cancelled. “There will be a world exhibition!” He was convinced that jump starting tourism in Hungary needed such international events as the World Hunting Expo. I wouldn’t be so sanguine as Kovács, especially since the largest hunting exhibition, Jagd & Hund in Dortmund, has already been postponed twice.

Member of the new elite, Zoltán Kovács, the huntsman

Meanwhile, the expenses were growing, and in May 2020 opposition politicians discovered another 1.7 billion that was designated to cover extra costs incurred in connection with the World Hunting Exhibition. Tímea Szabó (Párbeszéd) observed that this money’s place is in the fund that is supposed to fight the economic consequences of the pandemic. Ágnes Vadai (DK) questioned the Ministry of Innovation and Technology about the “rationale of organizing an exhibit to which they expect a million tourists in the middle of a pandemic.” The political undersecretary’s answer was brief, just one sentence: “It is important for the resumption of life to hold world-class international events in Hungary.”

In November 2020 when another billion forints was given for the “preparation” of the expo, this time to cover the cost of communication, a private person started a petition demanding the immediate termination of the project. There is a good possibility that it will be the pandemic that will end this ill-conceived project, at least in the near future. I doubt, especially given the third wave of the pandemic that has hit Italy, Germany, and Austria in the last few weeks, that people will be eager to make international trips to admire the bucks of the Gemenc region in Hungary.

And finally, the World Hunting Exhibition, which was supposed to be held exactly 50 years after the one held in Hungary in 1971, turned out not even to be a world exhibit. The Bureau International des Expositions, which supervises international exhibitions, didn’t approve the Budapest expo as a world exhibition. Hungary has to be satisfied with the designation “One with Nature—International Exhibition of Hunting and Knowledge of Nature.” But as one of the organizers explained, “this is not a problem, because in Hungarian we will call it what we want to call it.” So, the Hungarian government again misleads the public. What else is new, one could ask.

January 17, 2021

Hard times ahead for East-Central Europe: COVID-19 and the Pact on Migration and Asylum

Before I move to the main topic of the day, the European Union’s new pact on migration management, I would like to take a quick look at the economic and political situation in some of the East-Central European countries, starting with Hungary, as a result of the pandemic. The forint is ailing; currently it takes 365.43 forints to buy one euro’s worth of goods. Inflation is high. Economists suspect that about 200,000 people are unemployed, without any financial support from the government. At the same time, the so-called second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is raging. Hungary is reporting around 1,000 new cases a day, and the number of people who are dying from the virus is also high. Slovakia has already announced the possibility of declaring Hungary a highly affected country which foreigners should visit only at the risk of quarantine. Several television crews have said that they will not be in the stadium for the UEFA Champions League Final, to be held in Budapest tomorrow. The Bavarian prime minister has asked fans of FC Bayern München to stay at home. Viktor Orbán, given the urgent discussion on the new migration pact in Brussels, can’t even attend the match he so fervently wanted to host in Hungary.

The Czech and Bulgarian situations are no better. While the first wave of the pandemic was kind to these East-Central European countries, the second round has hit them with a vengeance. A few days ago a three-member international team tried to find answers to “Why central and eastern European countries seem to be running out of luck.” Their conclusion was that, at the first sign of the virus, the populist leaders quickly imposed lockdowns and other strict measures, establishing themselves as responsible leaders. But then, they returned to their earlier restrictive economic policies, in addition to relying on public opinion as their guide.

We don’t know the outcome of the Orbán government’s secret polls, but Orbán has made references to the Hungarian people who made the decision to return to normalcy. The Czech results are public, and therefore we know Czech public sentiment on the issue: 20% of the Czechs supported strict public health measures in September, as opposed to 45% in April. The Czech Republic was unprepared for a second wave, and its government is now paying the price. During the first wave, Andrej Babiš’s party, ANO, gained supporters, but by now only 27.5% of the population would vote for his party. I suspect we will see a similar decrease in Fidesz’s popularity as well.

In addition to the fallout from the pandemic, other political perils might be waiting for those countries that have been the most forceful opponents of the EU refugee policy. Only a couple of days ago Viktor Orbán announced that “liberals and conservatives clash—and even engage in a life-or-death struggle—on the issue of migration.” We know that he is not ready for any compromise on the issue. Hungary’s position is that refugees should be enticed to stay at home and the Union’s borders should be fortified. He doesn’t mind if crazy liberals want to have non-Christian terrorists and anti-Semites, but the V4 countries, headed by Hungary, will continue to resist any attempt on the part of the European Commission to force them to assume any burden, including financial, in a common refugee policy.

The new EU president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced at the very beginning of her tenure, however, that one of her priorities was a rethinking of the EU’s currently unworkable refugee policy. Almost a year has gone by, but the proposal is finally ready for discussion by the European Council and the European Parliament.

It is called a Pact on Migration and Asylum, which, according to the official release, “sets in balance the principles of fair sharing of responsibility and solidarity.” The European Commission’s position is that that, after creating “a complex internal market, a common currency and an unprecedented recovery plan to rebuild [the EU’s] economy … it is now time to rise to the challenge to manage migration jointly.”

For the time being, let’s concentrate on the most important provision of the Pact as it affects Hungary. Under the heading “Fair sharing of responsibility and solidarity” we learn that “Each Member State, without any exception, must contribute in solidarity in times of stress, to help stabilize the overall system, support Member States under pressure and ensure that the Union fulfills its humanitarian obligations.” What does this new “flexible contribution” entail? To put it in the simplest terms, it means that if a country refuses to accept refugees, it will be financially responsible “for returning individuals with no right to stay.” The appointment of a new EU Return coordinator’s job will be “to ensure consistency across the EU” in implementing this policy. If effective, such an overseeing body could perhaps end the pattern of arbitrary, uncooperative decisions by the Hungarian and other hitherto non-compliant governments.

So far, the only official Hungarian reaction to the proposed Pact came from Zoltán Kovács, the international spokesman of the government. Magyar Nemzet published a short announcement by the Hungarian Telegraphic Agency (MTI), according to which Kovács repeated the long-held Hungarian position that “the migratory pressure on the continent must be solved outside the borders of the European Union.” At the same time, he added that “Hungary doesn’t support compulsory distribution” but “defends the common border, for which it expects as much support as any other Schengen country.” That is, it expects to be fully reimbursed for the cost of the fence that the Orbán government erected in 2015.

While he was at it, Kovács attacked “the Germans’ sense of superiority and moral imperialism.” The German “moral imperialists” are indeed getting fed up with those countries that refuse to share in solving the present situation in Moria. Horst Seehofer, German minister of the interior, was quite blunt. If there is no cooperation, “Berlin will have to think about financial punishments.” Even the normally calm Angela Merkel lost her patience a few days ago when no other EU country was ready to take any of the refugees from Moria.

I doubt that, under these circumstances, Viktor Orbán will be able to arrive in Brussels with only venom in his briefcase. He will undoubtedly rail against the plan and will probably offer some alternative wording that would exempt Hungary from participating. But when the chips are down, he will most likely do what he normally does — vote for the plan. And then try to wheedle out of it.

September 23, 2020

In preparation for tomorrow’s EP debate on Hungary

Last night when I finished my post on Justice Minister Judit Varga’s diplomatic wrangling with the president of the European Parliament over the representation of Hungary at tomorrow’s EP debate on Hungary’s “coronavirus law” and the rule of law, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s reaction to EP President David Sassoli’s invitation to Brussels to present his case was still unknown, although it was suspected that Orbán had no intention of attending the session.

A couple of hours after I put the final touches on my piece, the word came down that the Hungarian prime minister had no time to attend the debate and still insisted on Judit Varga’s presence at the proceedings. His reasoning was that if the Council of Europe can be represented by a lowly undersecretary, then surely the justice minister of Hungary ought to suffice. Viktor Orbán’s obvious goal was to have Sassoli deny his request, which would leave the much-maligned Hungary without representation. That would give him the opportunity to claim unfairness and discrimination against Hungary.

For that reason, some people, including a few readers of Hungarian Spectrum, argued that the European Parliament should make an exception in this case and not allow Viktor Orbán the satisfaction of claiming after the debate that the process was undemocratic. I don’t share this view since I’m convinced that further appeasement will only encourage Orbán and his far-right allies in their efforts to destroy the European Union.

Judit Varga gave an interview today on Kossuth Rádió’s early morning program, in which she threatened the European Union with “diplomatic consequences” if she isn’t allowed to represent the country at the EP debate tomorrow morning. Well, bring the diplomatic consequences on. Jaime Duch Guillot, spokesman of the European Parliament, announced at a press conference this afternoon that, contrary to what Varga claimed this morning, an exception to the rule has never been made, and it will not be made now. Varga cannot represent Hungary.

Meanwhile, Viktor Orbán is not losing any sleep over tomorrow’s debate. His foreign minister indicated that the government is expecting the “customary accusations,” to which the Orbán government is inured. And the Hungarian government is making no attempt to mitigate the likely condemnation. On the contrary, it almost seems as if the Orbán government set out in the eleventh hour to demonstrate that the fears of EU politicians over the “enabling law” are well-founded.

One of the most worrisome provisions of the law on “the coronavirus epidemic” was the one dealing with fear mongering. The law reads: “Persons who under the extraordinary rule of law claim or spread a falsehood or claim or spread a distorted truth before the grand public that is suitable for obstructing or preventing successful protection commit a crime that is punishable by one to five years in prison.” Naturally, this provision spawned outrage in the international political and legal community. At the time, Zoltán Kovács said that “the proposed law would impose new sanctions against those who undermine the effort to protect the country against the spread of the virus.” In particular, the law would make it a criminal offense to spread false information that may cause unrest. “And what was the response from the liberal, mainstream press? Orbán is going to jail journalists!” According to Kovács, the international media is “like a well-rehearsed orchestra; they jumped on the story.” Surely, there is nothing to worry about. The Hungarian law is “creating sanctions against reckless speech that could impair or thwart efforts to protect people from the spread of the virus. We’re in a state of emergency, by the way. Lives are at stake. This gross distortion of the facts is biased and irresponsible.”

Well, let’s pick up the story right here and see whether there was cause for concern or not. In the last two days, the police acted in two cases. As the police website admitted, they are “constantly monitoring the internet and are taking necessary measures, including removing objectionable content or, in more serious cases, initiating criminal proceedings.” According to the police, “a malicious or ill-considered ‘share’ on the internet could constitute a crime.” It took them some time, but eventually they found what they were looking for.

Police are taking “András” away because of alleged fear mongering

A 64-year-old man in Borsod County was taken into custody yesterday because of a comment he posted on April 28. It was a musing about the government’s use of the word “culmination” which, in his opinion, was used incorrectly in a government communication. Viktor Orbán announced in mid-April that the “culmination” of the viral infections will take place on May 3, and therefore, on the very next day, the government will be able to loosen the restrictions on movement. Our man had some difficulty with this interpretation. He asked “our dear dictator, our dear leader” not to change the rules because the second wave of the virus may be more deadly than the first, just as was the case with the Spanish flu. “Unfortunately, we know that you are not interested in the fate or death of those who live here…. You are a cruel tyrant, but note, all dictators fail sooner or later.”

Obviously, “András” has a low opinion of Viktor Orbán, but otherwise he wasn’t “obstructing or preventing successful protection” of the population by his words. As he remarked, as far as he knows there is no “crimen laesae maiestatis” law in Hungary yet. Still, he was dragged out of his house at 6:00 a.m. after a house search and the confiscation of his computer. He was released after the prosecutor’s office deemed the action of the police unlawful.

The second case was even more bizarre. The man who was arrested is politically active in the city of Gyula. He is a Momentum member and a supporter of the group organized by Péter Márki-Zay, mayor of Hódmezővásárhely. He belongs to a closed chat group on Facebook called “uncensored chat group of Gyula.” He shared a comment by Ákos Hadházy and added one sentence to it: “They also emptied 1,170 beds in Gyula.” That was his “crime.

Although such cases will never be prosecuted, police activity in unearthing them will have a chilling effect on free speech. Even journalists complain that “it is darn difficult to write the news.” That’s where we are.

May 13, 2020

The metamorphoses of Věra Jourová

On April 9, Politico reported that Věra Jourová, commissioner in charge of justice, consumers and gender equality and vice-president of the European Commission, had expressed the commission’s concern over Polish and Hungarian COVID-19 measures. As she put it, “corona must be killed, but democracy must survive.” At that time, the Polish government was still insisting on holding presidential elections in the throes of the pandemic, and Hungary’s “enabling law” without a sunset clause had greatly upset the political leaders of the European Union.

Therefore, great was the surprise when a few days later, on April 20, Jourová in a discussion with Alexandr Vondra, member of the euroskeptic Czech Civic Democratic Party, allegedly said on Czech television that “although the European Commission has previously expressed concerns about the possible threat to democracy in Hungary, she had to admit that there is little basis to do so during the coronavirus crisis.” As a result, the author of the article concluded that “Jourová’s new take on the topic appears to show the EU has little choice but to acknowledge that Orbán’s state of emergency is in full compliance with European laws,” which strikes me as a less than precise formulation of Jourová’s message, especially in light of the additional information she provided during the same interview. She revealed that she had had a discussion about the Hungarian law with Justice Minister Judit Varga, during which she explained that the European Union is “particularly concerned about the unclear end of the emergency regime and the weakened role of the Hungarian Parliament.”

A few days later, in an interview with Euobserver, Jourová said that the Orbán emergency measures “do not warrant EU scrutiny yet.” However, she added that, seen within the context of Hungary’s democratic backsliding, “the emergency law is increasing concerns.” Moreover, she claimed that “we are following how the Hungarian government is using the law’s very wide discretionary powers.”

Great was the rejoicing in Budapest. The EU was obviously backing down.

MTI reported on April 21 that “it is not true that the Hungarian coronavirus law gives unlimited power for an unlimited time.” Moreover, the article continued, it is also untrue that the Hungarian regulations are not in line with European practice.” As a result of the machinations of opposition politicians “a concerted political attack” has been waged against Hungary, but now it is clear that the accusations were based on false information.

A couple days ago Magyar Nemzet published an editorial titled “The attack of the Soros network against Hungary failed.” From it we learn that on March 30 George Soros’s Open Society Foundations in New York issued an order for the international condemnation of the Hungarian government’s emergency law. Soros’s Hungarian network swung into action. TASZ, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, and the Eötvös Károly Institute all criticized the law. Important foreign NGOs followed the Hungarian lead, including Human Rights Watch, The German Marshall Fund, Freedom House, Civil Liberties Union for Europe, Civil Right Defenders, and the Swedish Helsinki Commission. The long list of culprits was followed by important media outlets, like The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The New York Times, The Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and Libération. But, at the end, the editorial triumphantly announced that “the coordinated action of the Soros network ultimately failed, as the law passed by the Hungarian parliament is in line not only with the Basic Law of Hungary but also with the values formulated by the European Union, as it was reiterated by Commission Vice-President Věra Jourová in late April.”

The volte face of the Orbán government was amusing because only a couple of months before this accolade, Jourová had been portrayed as a “Soros mercenary.” Origo wrote a lengthy article about Jourová’s unfair treatment of Hungary over the years. The paper claimed that between 2014 and 2019 Jourová met at least 18 times with George Soros. Thus, “we couldn’t expect anything else from the Czech politician, since it is obvious from her many years of public life that she is a committed follower of the stock exchange speculator, George Soros.”

Věra Jourová, second from the left, standing next to George Soros. Source: Origo

The rejoicing over Jourová’s change of heart was cut short today when, in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, she denied that she had ever said that Orbán’s “enabling law” was not in conflict with EU law. In fact, “if we look at what has happened in Hungary so far, the legislation is very disturbing. There are systemic changes in Hungarian politics that are leading to the unlimited power of Fidesz and Orbán.” She repeated her original claim that “there is no legal basis for initiating infringement proceedings for the time being,” but added that doesn’t mean there might not be reason to intervene in the future.

In fact, she continued, the European Commission is watching what kinds of decrees the Orbán government has adopted so far and how they are being implemented. We learned from her that the European Commission is in touch with Hungarian journalists, who are reporting on the 125 decrees that have been adopted so far. She advised Hungarian citizens to protect themselves but added that “they need to know that the EU is watching and supporting them.” At the end of the interview, Jourová reported that the idea of financial punishment of rogue states is becoming more acceptable among EU politicians.

Before Jourová’s April 20th television interview, she was seen as a Soros agent; after April 20, Jourová suddenly became an independent and fair commissioner. Then, a few days later, came the bombshell that Jourová is, after all, a Soros mercenary. As 444 put it, “the government entangled the Soros net until, at the end, it fell on its face.”

Judit Varga assessed the current Hungarian position in a bilingual comment on Facebook. “The cat is out of the bag again,” she begins her note. The liberals in Brussels didn’t know what to do with Jourová’s claim that the Hungarian COVID-19 law did not violate EU law and that there was no need for EU action against Hungary. “Of course, they could not tolerate this new voice and seemingly impartial process for long, so the network put even more pressure on the actors, the first result of which was Jourová’s interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.” A couple of hours later Zoltán Kovács chimed in, saying that “perhaps it would be time for Vice-President Věra Jourová and the European Commission to end the double talk and the constant attacks on Hungary. For example, it would be appropriate for the Commission to focus more on combating the coronavirus and mitigating the economic consequences. And we respectfully ask Mrs. Jourová to decide at last: are we fascists or socialists? Honestly, both statements are ridiculous, but we would expect more from a vice-president.” What in the world happened to our silver-tongued Kovács? The last two sentences make not the slightest sense.

May 10. 2020

The Hungarian government’s primitive attack on Donald Tusk

Fidesz-KDNP has been in turmoil over an interview Donald Tusk, president of the European People’s Party, gave to Der Spiegel on April 16. In it, Tusk expressed his hope that, as soon as the pandemic is over, EPP will expel Fidesz from his right-of-center group. He pointed out that Viktor Orbán uses the fear of the virus to expand his power, something Germans should be familiar with, and added “I’m sure that Carl Schmitt would be very proud of Viktor Orbán.” Tusk intimated a parallel between Orbán’s rule by decree and Hitler’s enabling act of 1933. Carl Schmitt, a conservative legal, constitutional, and political theorist, presented his theories as an ideological foundation for the Nazi dictatorship and a justification of the Führer state.

Interestingly enough, the first Hungarian response came from Lukács Ádám Petri, son of the poet György Petri (1943-2000), a once flaming liberal who became an ardent supporter of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz. Although in the ensuing debate over Tusk’s interview Tamás Deutsch, Fidesz MEP, insisted that any educated person should be able to interpret Tusk’s words as a portrayal of Orbán as a Nazi, Petri discovered an anti-Semitic strain in Tusk’s reference to Schmitt. With a remarkable twist of logic, Petri found “Tusk’s sentence immensely painful because it humiliates and nullifies the death and suffering of all who have been the victims of Shoa.” He then defended Viktor Orbán against claims of anti-Semitism.

This line of argument was taken up by László Szőcs of Magyar Nemzet, who wrote an opinion piece yesterday in which he went even further. He pointed out that the Tusk interview took place on April 16, the day on which Hungary remembers the victims of the Holocaust. Whether Tusk was aware of that remembrance matters not, he wrote, because, either way, he must wear the label of insensitivity. So, in the end Tusk is accused of anti-Semitism or at least a total disregard of the sufferings of Jews by daring to draw a parallel between a historical German dictatorship and a Hungarian dictatorship in the making.

Official government and Fidesz responses were muted. Katalin Novák, deputy chair of Fidesz, went to the trouble of publishing a Polish-language tweet, reminding Tusk of his party’s defeat in the parliamentary elections. Zoltán Kovács, who is responsible for foreign propaganda, complained that Tusk, even during a crisis, still finds the time and place to take swipes at Hungary. Somewhat later, Foreign Minister Szijjártó wrote a short comment on Facebook in which he accused Tusk of doing nothing for the people of Europe, including Hungarians, in the fight against the pandemic. “How many ventilators, masks or protective clothing have you received in Europe so far? Well, as long as the answer to these questions is zero, more modesty would be justified on the part of the president.” In brief, they decided to ignore the gist of Tusk’s remark.

It was at that point that the mysterious V4Agency warmed up an old story from the 2005 Polish national election, which Jarosław Kaczyński of PiS won against Tusk’s Civic Platform. V4Agency included a couple of old photos in their story depicting a German soldier with a strong resemblance to Donald Tusk in the company of SS officers. Soon enough, the origin of these photos was discovered, and it was proved that they were fakes. Botond Bőtös related the stories of Józef Tusk’s brief stint in the Wehrmacht and the unmasking of the fake photos in a fascinating article in Átlátszó titled “Fidesz government propaganda attacked Donald Tusk with a fifteen-year-old calumny.”

As soon as V4Agency released its “great discovery” of the “Nazi” past of Donald Tusk’s grandfather, Origo and Pesti Srácok began their assault against Tusk, using the two fake photos as evidence. The first article in Pesti Srácok began with the claim that “Donald Tusk, the president of the European People’s Party, called the Hungarian prime minister a Nazi when his own grandfather was a member of the Wehrmacht, the army of the Third Reich, and a Nazi collaborator.” The unsigned editorial went on to claim that Józef Tusk “not only served those responsible for a global conflagration but also betrayed his homeland.” Pesti Srácok admitted that it is possible that the person on the photo is not Józef Tusk, “but that doesn’t change the fact that old Tusk was a collaborator.”

Híradó, the Orbán government’s official news service, published an article by two journalists working for Pesti Srácok with the intriguing title “Donald Tusk, the Gyurcsány Ferenc of the Poles—Story of a scandal in which tens of thousands were dispossessed.” The journalists got the information about an alleged pyramid scheme from Wpolityce.pl, a PiS site, which accused Tusk and his son of being involved in the fraud. The Associated Press published an English-language article on the same subject: “Tusk defends actions as former PM at Poland’s pyramid probe.”

One article after another appeared in these government propaganda rags until the Poles had finally had enough. Fakt, a tabloid with centrist political views, demanded an apology from the journalists of Pesti Srácok and Origo, who were not impressed. Instead, they composed a Polish-language letter in which they demanded an apology from “the Polish propagandists.”

An older photo: Radosław Sikorski, Donald Tusk, and Jarosław Kaczyński

A few days ago, Fidesz MEPs decided to enter the fray. Both Tamás Deutsch and Balázs Hidvéghi called on Tusk to apologize for calling Orbán a Nazi, which in fact Tusk didn’t do. In response, yesterday Népszava received the full text of an open letter to Tamás Deutsch by Radosław Sikorski, currently a member of the European Parliament and former foreign minister in the Tusk government. Here are the salient points of the letter:

I find it offensive that the Hungarian pro-government press used the tragedy of Donald Tusk’s family in Gdansk during World War II to harass a great patriot and European. Do you really want to remind us on whose side Hungary fought in World War II? Should we ask the question on which side your or Fidesz leaders’ grandfathers fought?

Instead of scribbling misleading letters to the members of EPP, you would do a greater service to the reputation of Hungary and Fidesz if your government stopped using the epidemic for political purposes because the decrees have nothing to do with protecting the population. It is far from my modern conservative views to close foreign universities, to launch hate campaigns against foreigners and the EU, and to suck up to Vladimir Putin. It is for these reasons and not for the misinterpreted words of Donald Tusk that we are parting ways. Those of us who have for decades considered ourselves friends of Hungary are aghast and sad, but this is your choice.

Good luck in the company of nationalists who hate the EU! I hope that you will be on the losing side again.

Harsh but truthful words, and unfortunately more than deserved.

April 25, 2020