Hungary in the news - via HVG
Theatricality: a better wayon Feb 04, 2007 via HVG Our government is dealing with daily complaints about the effect of budget cuts and price rises - so a distraction in the form of Fidesz's game on Kossuth ter is very welcome for the governing coalition. A little theatrical inspiration would have served Fidesz so much better.See details
|
Las Vegas on Danubeon Jan 30, 2007 via HVG Mordechai Zisser, chairman of the Israeli-owned company Plaza Centers, has big plans for the Hungarian market. He was behind the vast Arena Plaza on Kerepesi ut and the "Hungarian Las Vegas" being built on Hajogyari Island. His company was behind Duna Plaza, built 12 years ago, and has since built 15 others around the country. hvg.hu spoke to Zisser in Jerusalem.See details
|
Sebestyen Gorka: new parties on the horizont?on Jan 30, 2007 via HVG The idea arose a few weeks ago, and now it's an acknowledged fact: major changes are brewing on the Right; even new parties may emerge. I have been living in this nightmare country for long enough to know that the most startling bits of news tend to be baseless. But things are different this time.See details
|
At the centre of poweron Jan 30, 2007 via HVG Ministers' private offices and the cabinet heads who run them are now more influential than ever. The cabinet head at the Defence Ministry, Peter Szeredi, has a job description running into 53 entries on the ministry's internal rule book. He is responsible for the Military Air Affairs Office, but also for employment levels at the ministry. The importance of his position is shown by the fact that the chief of staff runs not just the minister's private office but five other important units, running to 109 people, in a ministry with just 499 official posts.See details
|
Setting a bad exampleon Jan 24, 2007 via HVG He was banned from teaching in secondary schools, imprisoned on charges of conspiracy and later 'pardoned' before becoming the father of tax reform in the 1980s. For two years following the regime change he served as finance minister. He founded the Centrum Party before announcing this year that he is to turn his back on politics. hvg.hu spoke to Mihaly Kupa about his life, political economy and the government's forced reform agenda.See details
|
At home in Europeon Jan 22, 2007 via HVG How is student life in western Europe different from at home? HVG spoke to a few university students studying in the 'exotic West'.See details
|
Witness to dictatorshipson Jan 22, 2007 via HVG To whom does Arthur Koestler belong? A foreigner would doubtless say he belonged to all, or that a great writer and thinker, one of the most authentic witnesses to the twentieth century is the common property of all humanity, wherever he lived. But we are in Hungary, in Budapest, the city where he was born, and so we should be more careful. (Sz?ljon hozz?!)See details
|
Party split or an escape to the righton Jan 19, 2007 via HVG Fidesz may eventually split into a national liberal party and a Christian Democrat party led by Viktor Orban, but a putsch can be ruled out.See details
|
Spokesman denies Lendvai's claimson Jan 17, 2007 via HVG The spokesman for the Hungarian civilian secret services has denied to hvg.hu that he worked for the counter-intelligence agency in the 1950s. Peter Vajda was reacting to allegations made by the noted Austrian-Hungarian columnist Paul Lendvai, who told hvg.hu from Vienna that Peter Vajda had been a "a journalist-informer of the Stalin era known throughout the city."See details
|
Public serviceson Jan 11, 2007 via HVG Local services cost twice as much in the country's most expensive towns as in the cheapest regions. Both political and economic factors lie behind the variations in price.See details
|
Opinion: Geza Jeszenszkyon Jan 08, 2007 via HVG A leader in the right-wing daily Magyar Nemzet listed Hitler as one of US president George Bush's "great predecessors." The article spurred Geza Jeszenszky, foreign minister in the Antall government and former Hungarian ambassador to Washington, to respond.See details
|
Liars of 2006on Jan 08, 2007 via HVG We lied more than four years ago - this could have served as a slogan for all the parties in 2006's campaign(s).See details
|
Crises and emotionson Jan 02, 2007 via HVG The wounds dividing Hungarian society have grown deeper over the past 16 years, with no sign of their healing. Does this mean that the regime change has not yet come to an end? Do we need a new revolution?See details
|
They love me not?on Jan 02, 2007 via HVG Andras Lovasi, Marton Brady, Balazs Denes, Andras Schiffer and Pal Szombathy left the Szeretem Magyarorszagot Klub (I Love Hungary Club) on 20 December. The five public figures have decided the organisation is not carrying out the task for which it was created. In future, the five will not be attaching their signatures to the "veiled government propaganda" that they say the organisation is producing. Karoly Gerendai has said he regrets their departure.See details
|
Shenanigans in the waterson Jan 02, 2007 via HVG The Minister for Health has sacked the chief executive of the hospital in Heviz, silently, with immediate effect, and without any kind of justification. The minister signed the dismissal letter before the local authority had reached its own decision. No justification was given. However, a successor has apparently already been found.See details
|
Historikerstreiton Jan 02, 2007 via HVG A colonel general who was stripped of his rank following a conviction by a people's court in 1950 is to be reinstated posthumously, the Defence Ministry's Rehabilitation Committee has decided. The defence minister announced that Ferenc Kisbarnaki Farkas would regain his rank after a Supreme Court decision annulling his original conviction. The decision has shone a spotlight on Kisbarnaki Farkas's career, with historians disagreeing over the role he played in the Arrow Cross era.See details
|
Tons of blown alimenton Jan 02, 2007 via HVG There are many lessons of the growing food labelling scandal, but, in a state governed by law, there can only be one consequence: severe punishment. This is not about dodgy wheeling and dealing - this is the work of a well-organized criminal gang. Not with the best of wills can one accept the claim that there was no bribery involved in the deal. And it is strange that the company MEGA, whose owners several times failed animal health inspections, should be allowed to continue operations. If there is no corruption, then there is incompetence.See details
|
Looking for new orientation?on Dec 15, 2006 via HVG HVG online recently published a study assessing the situation and challenges facing the Hungarian Democratic Forum, intended by its author as a series of talking points for the party's leadership. The document was greeted with some disappointment, since it was little more than a string of commonplaces. If this is the intellectual level of the MDF, then Orban has little to worry about.See details
|
Storm in City Hall: interview with Andras Bohmon Dec 13, 2006 via HVG Andras Bohm, once a close colleague of Gabor Demszky, has been a member of the Free Democrats since 1990. Since 2002, he has been an MP and president of the Free Democrats' national council. Over 12 years until 2006, he was the leader of the Liberal group in the City Assembly. Relations between the two politicians broke down when the mayor reshuffled the Liberal group in the Assembly and chose new advisers. Since the local elections, their relationship has gone from bad to worse. (Sz?ljon hozz?!)See details
|
Hungarian police under siegeon Dec 11, 2006 via HVG The delegation of the European People's Party in the European Parliament has held a hearing on the events in Budapest on 23 October.See details
|
