Hungary in the news - via HVG
Right-Wing Extremism: Back by Popular Demandon Feb 12, 2010 via HVG While the far-right is indeed ascendant in several Eastern European countries, its threat is decreasing in Western Europe. That?s the conclusion of the Political Capital Institute?s Demand for Right-Wing Extremism (DEREX) Index.See details
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TGM's view of the Charter and our editor's responseon Feb 09, 2010 via HVG Gaspar Miklos Tamas (TGM) defends the Hungarian Democratic Charter in an e-mail to hvg.hu. He claims an article in last week's issue of HVG attacked the charter unfairly. Below, we publish TGM's article and a response by Richard Hirschler, the editor of hvg.hu.See details
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MDF campaign: a CD, but no manifestos?on Feb 09, 2010 via HVG People are describing the MDF bugging affair as the biggest scandal in Hungary since the regime change, and there have been calls for a parliamentary commission of inquiry to be established to investigate the affair. But it would be a shame if the shock discoveries about the role of the security services were to overshadow the core of this issue: a failed campaign for the presidency of the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), according to Ervin Csizmadia, the director of the Dignity Political Analysis Centre.See details
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The summit of pointlessness?on Feb 09, 2010 via HVG It's easy enough to predict that Ferenc Gyurcsany announce serious spending cuts at Saturday's National Summit, citing the "crisis" as a reason, and it's just as predictable that the opposition will, citing that same crisis, dismiss all his proposals. Meanwhile, followers of both camps will attack each other, a couple of committees may be set up, and then everyone will go home. There will be no consensus.See details
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Laszlo Lengyel: Gyurcsany's virtual worldon Feb 09, 2010 via HVG Ferenc Gyurcsany wanted to save the country long before he knew what was wrong. He was write to withdraw the budget and the new tax laws, though the decision came too late. But from that point on he should have focused on technical decisions, not on making statements. He has called a wholly unnecessary national roundtable, where no work will be carried out and no decisions will be taken. Most of the people who attend will have no economic expertise.See details
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Cuts after the rescue packageon Feb 09, 2010 via HVG Hungary needed a global crisis to commit itself to taking serious steps towards meeting the requirements for euro membership. Under better global economic conditions, this could have been achieved with far fewer sacrifices.See details
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The beginnings of a civil campaignon Feb 07, 2010 via HVG Some 50 Hungarian, Slovak and Slovak-Hungarian intellectuals met in Bratislava on Friday evening. They discussed a kind of campaign whose aim would be to say: "Can't we just behave normally?" What did they conclude?See details
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The golden age is over in the financial sectoron Feb 07, 2010 via HVG Finance players make money both when things are going badly and when they are going well. But the crisis has brought an end to abundant money, and many believe that the golden age will never return. But what is in store for the financial services sector? We spoke with Chris Pickles, in charge of marketing for BT's global investment bank clients, who previously worked on the directive that regulates the EU's financial markets.See details
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Peter Tasnadi: The media says everything's going wrongon Feb 07, 2010 via HVG "When I applied to places, I used to say that I'm not Peter Tasnadi, but not *that* Peter Tasnadi," says the 52-year-old mayor of Pecs when discussing his approach to building relationships.See details
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Pirates to buy government debt?on Feb 07, 2010 via HVG Pirates of the world, unite! Somalia isn't your true haven, and Citigroup isn't the big deal - Hungary is! Hungarian 'pirates' want to buy Hungary, and Hungarian debt. In the midst of a political war, a motion that appears to sanction money laundering as a state activity appears to enjoy five-party support, writes Andras Mozer in his newest editorial.See details
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Simor: without reforms the country will fall behindon Feb 07, 2010 via HVG Andras Simor, governor of the Hungarian central bank told the Association of Employers and Manufacturers (MGYOSZ) that the current crisis was creating an opportunity for the country to confront its mistakes.See details
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Corruption in the Jewish Quarteron Feb 07, 2010 via HVG Two years ago Laszlo Hoffmann, legal representative of the Protection Group (Ovas) made a complaint to prosecutors about illegal building privatisations in the Jewish Quarter. For a long time, Ovas has been saying that something is amiss in the rehabilitation of the historic city centre.See details
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The NBH worried more about Bacsfi than about kuruc.infoon Feb 07, 2010 via HVG For three years, the National Security Office's (NBH) official yearbooks said not a single word about far right groups, even though there was a time when both far right and anti-democratic left-wing groups had their place in the NBH's publications.See details
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Vanished French student was unaccompaniedon Feb 07, 2010 via HVG A French student who disappeared this week was captured on security cameras along her route to the Lanchid, the daily Nepszava has reported. The recordings show that she was alone along her entire route - nobody was following her and nobody tried to approach her.See details
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Solving the Hungarian-Slovak conflict abroadon Feb 07, 2010 via HVG Hungarian-Slovak relations could be rebuilt from the ground up, but for as long as the Magyar Garda acts as cultural attache to our northern neighbours, and as long as Robert Fico and Jan Slota form our picture of the Slovaks and their thinking, then results are going to be scarce. And nor are people abroad very sympathetic to our position, argues Zoltan Novak, head of research at the Dignity Political Analyses Centre.See details
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Peter Hack's route out of the chaoson Feb 07, 2010 via HVG The last two presidents had good reason for doing what many are now demanding of Laszlo Solyom. They agreed with the leaders of the various parliamentary parties on candidates for nomination to state offices. The approach Laszlo Solyom is taking to nominations is fine in legal terms, but in practice it doesn't work. But there is a way of dealing with this chaos.See details
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A Budapest Olympicson Feb 07, 2010 via HVG No serious leader can take seriously the idea of Budapest holding the 2020 Olympics: given Hungary's budget and global financial conditions, it would simply be an impossibly expensive prestige investment. The idea is probably being floated because a project on this scale makes available vast sums of money to the government that happens to be in power, money that can be distributed and spent on creating jobs and self-promotion. Politicians can use that money to keep their clients happy.See details
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"I hope Terezvaros's law enforcement authorities will start investigating"on Feb 07, 2010 via HVG Zoltan Illes, head of Fidesz's Terezvaros branch, and a professor in the environmental protection department at the Central European University, has brought a private prosecution against Terezvaros district council. Illes and his partner in the private prosecution, Zsofia Hassay, said at a joint press conference that "there are much more suspect property transactions in the sixth district than in the seventh district, and there is a suspicion that there was an attempt to cover this up." We asked Zoltan Illes for his opinion of the affair.See details
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The crisis was caused by human deficiencieson Feb 07, 2010 via HVG The politician was talking at a meeting held in memory of St Thomas Becket, at which Rene Roudaut, the French ambassador, the historian Miklos Kun and Zsolt Becsey, a Fidesz MEP contributed to a discussion of "Christian values and Europe". The conference was followed by an ecumenical mass in the St Thomas Hill chapel.See details
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Hungary, 500 top companieson Feb 07, 2010 via HVG After the stabilisation package, before the recession: Hungary's 500 largest companies were only barely able to grow above the rate of inflation in 2007, according to a survey by HVG and Creditreform.See details
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