Fear of a Coward

  • March 18, 2022
  • István
  • 16 Comments

EPPO, the European prosecution office, has proven yesterday that they are not fearful. Yesterday evening Boyko Borisov was arrested, for 12 years PM of Bulgaria, until people have voted him out last year. He is accused of corruption concerning EU funds. His minister of finance, the chairman of a parliament’s committee and a media adviser were arrested together with him. Borisov is investigated against in 120 corruption cases ►EN.

Of course Orbán was exactly afraid about this, that EPPO one day would arrest him, the coward in the Várszínház. I can’t even begin to guess how many corruption cases he is involved in. He is not living as a monk, he has not taken the vows of poverty, although he tries to convince us by calling the Várszínház to be a carmelite monastery (what his office building has been used for a very few years only centuries ago, the address is Theatre Street 1 – 3) or falsifying his asset declarations. Only to mention the Habsburg manor Hatvanpuszta, in the 19th century the rural seat of the Imperial governor of Hungary, he extensively renovates. While Orbán tells the people that it is the grange of his father and that there will be agricultural use. Purchased on a buy-to-lease construction involving Orbán’s friend Lörinc Meszáros the legal owner is Orbán’s father indeed, but since land registration in Hungary is publicly visible for each and every property it would raise many questions how Orbán can afford it, if it would be in his own name. “Luckily” Orbán has abolished all inheritance tax for children inheriting from their parents. Fact is that the PM personally ordered how the construction works have to be done, hvg reported last year him having ordered to break away recently constructed elements of the library, because they don’t fit his taste. So much Orbán’s statement that he is not allowed “to meddle in his parents’ affairs.” RTL had a video how “daddy’s farm” looks like now ►HU, even if you don’t understand Hungarian it is worth watching the differences between 2016 and today. Further we only can guess to which extent the gas fitter Lörinc Meszáros or the son-in-law István Tiborcz for example are keeping stolen values for Orbán secretly, what his share in the Hungarian gas trade through Swiss MET AG is, and so on.

Since the Hungarian prosecutor general Péter Polt regularly refuses to investigate against top figures of the regime – and if he does only very reluctantly (see the Völner case, who got bribes of at least 83 000 000 Ft) – his good friend Orbán is safe. We just need to see how Polt dealt with the Elios case, where the European anti-fraud authority OLAF collected proves and did what they as investigators have to do: They gave the results to the prosecutor. Polt practically immediately decided that there was no crime committed at all. Ákos Hadházy (independent) succeeded recently that the OLAF investigation results were published, so we all know that the crime happened. And yes, fraud is a crime according to the Hungarian penal law as well (BTW Orbán introduced a completely new penal law – fraud and corruption still are crimes in Hungary.) This refusal of Polt may be regarded as the initial spark for founding EPPO.

Now we have the situation that the EU is a union of sovereign states. All complaints of Orbán that the EU would limit Hungary’s sovereignty are ridiculous. Every member state needs to agree on every detail where sovereignty is exercised in a shared way. Bulgaria agreed in participating in the common European citizen’s sovereignty regarding prosecution of EU connected crimes. Orbán obviously was right in his fear and refused participation in EPPO. The concerns raised at some points that EPPO could only prosecute crimes committed after Hungary joined EPPO are not true. While the crime can’t be punished if it wasn’t considered being a crime when it was committed, there is no right to be accused by a prosecutor in office at that time. And it would be Hungarian penal law applicable. So Unity for Hungary’s announcement to join EPPO is a way more dangerous sword against Orbán’s crimes than all measures possibly used against Polt – and for joining another international treaty the majority in parliament is already enough. We may now consider the arrest of Borisov as being another incentive for Orbán to stay in office.

We have seen last Tuesday how much divided the population is. The hard core of the FIDESZ voters felt heavily attacked when someone quoted Orbán, just because these quotes were 14 years old and from the time before Orbán became a submissive Putin admirer. These demonstrators quite sure did not even understand that they were booing against their own idol’s words. It would have been easy for Orbán to say something about good economic co-operation, but it can’t be tolerated that Putin started the war. Far most states have had done business with Russia and had no problem to condemn Putin. As today Orbán has never mentioned Putin as aggressor. But his speech on the “peace” march that only Unity for Hungary would be interested in this war, has been shown 9 times within the 24 hours on state TV’s station M1 only! Pro Russian propaganda is spread from the regime media all the time. But even here is sand in the gears. Vice chairman of the FIDESZ delegation in parliament Zsolt Németh got a lot of applause even by Unity for Hungary politicians. This exceptional reaction was caused when Németh, famous for his extensive use of emojis, put the short note “Ruszkik haza! Legyen béke!” (Russians go home! It should be peace!) on facebook ►HU. Péter Márki-Zay answered: “I am glad Zsolt that your conscience has awakened against Viktor Orbán. It’s never too late.” All the reactions are showing remarkable that the love for Russia Orbán tried to create is not rooted deeply. Something I personally experience again and again, especially the elderly, who experienced the Soviet occupation as adults and are now very much on the FIDESZ side, are anti-Russian.

And as time passes by it seems that the 2 big parties on the ballot are polarising. The small parties make less chances, the party of porn mogul György Gattyán, who recently claimed to get 2/3 in parliament for example is among “others” only, Mi Hazánk and Kutya Párt below threshold. Besides the main players with FIDESZ in advance, but within the margin of error, there is a significant part saying to know what to vote for, but not telling. In a country where voting on the state party is expected, often a condition to avoid disadvantages, voting for FIDESZ is nothing to hide, but to promote. The question is whether they are afraid of voting for Unity for Hungary, not being taken serious for voting for the dog party, or ashamed for voting for Mi Hazánk, something we quite often can see in Western Europe at least concerning the nazi parties there.

With all that polling we mustn’t forget that FIDESZ got in 2018 most of their seats not by percentages voting on their party list, but in the districts, where the plurality decides, not majority. They won 91 district seats and 42 list seats. And FIDESZ only got in 47 of the 106 districts the majority of votes, the parties of Unity for Hungary in 2018 got in 52 districts together more votes than FIDESZ, but won only 15 districts for running candidates against each other. With other words repeating the relative good results of 2018 (the 2nd best in history) won’t enough to stay in power for Orbán. So the regime thought it is time again for pushing the fake parties. Every single vote on a candidate of such a party taken away from Unity for Hungary is a win for FIDESZ, since it lowers the risk to lose plurality. After the most recent changes Orbán introduced to make it impossible for the opposition to run with 2 lists, which was thought about for making it easier for the voter to vote on a left of centre and a right of centre opposition list according to the individual political attitude every list needed at least 71 district candidates spread through the country. This made it difficult to let fake parties run as well. Even the small ones not only employing a closed facebook group as party structure had difficulties in running, so FIDESZ helped a bit, for example FIDESZ activists were signing for Mi Hazánk as here in Fót ►HU. However, the regime relaxed employing the rules a bit. Quite a lot dead peoples’ signatures were accepted. Parties not giving back all signature sheets, including the empty ones, have to pay a severe fine for each of them, but this is only one rule one risks punishment for. Also state aid needs to be returned if a minimum of votes is not met just to avoid fake parties, but the FIDESZ controlled authorities allowed that repayment remains unclaimed. After the 2018 elections 716 847 419 Forint (more than 1.9 million Euro) of fines are still unpaid ►HU.

This morning quite a disturbance happened in the Bulgarian parliament, representatives of Borisov’s party GERB are quite upset that their former PM has to answer before court for his corruption ►HU. It would be great if some FIDESZ representatives will have the chance to be upset as well!

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Istvan (Chicago)
Istvan (Chicago)
March 18, 2022 14:59

I thought the post about the detention of Boyko Borisov was very insightful as it relates to the future of Orban. I would actually take it a step further Istvan. This reality of the legal actions being taken against Borisov for his role in an organized conspiracy to steal EU funds after being removed from power indicates Orban has to remain effectively in power for life or eventually face jail time. Moreover if Russia implodes due to the war in Ukraine his option of flipping over to the evil empire ends. My guess is Orban discounts that possibility in Russia, but it is clearly no longer impossible.

Like you Istvan, I am sure Orban is aware of these possibilities. My conclusion is that Orban will in the contest against MZP use every legal and illegal method to stay in power. I also assume Fidesz and Orban will if Fidesz wins in this coming election continue to change laws effectively creating a dictatorship in a manner similar to Putin’s method in Russia. As I have said before this election is the last chance for Hungarian democracy.

Putin is now apparently jailing in their homes some of the leadership of the FSB and apparently removing some of his military leadership too. Putin is a student of Stalin and understands that he died in his own bed because he repeatedly took preventive action against any possible attempts on his own life within his leadership that could in any way even be suspected. One reason why Putin’s government banned the British comedy The Death Of Stalin in 2018 was because it revealed publicly in a very funny way that there were people in the leadership of the Russian Communist Party who were in terror of Stalin and wanted him dead for there own survival. There is a lot of evidence that this was in fact true and the story line is based on reality.

Putin also had to get rid of International Memorial, a nongovernmental Russian organization of national memory and Russia’s oldest and most prominent civil society organization, in the words of Putin’s legal system of the need to protect “the right of citizens to access reliable information” and prevent the “creation of a false image of the USSR.” Memorial had opened up some of the actual archival history of Stalin and his terror to public view in Russia. For Putin this was very close to home since he is himself a follower of Stalin.

Orban while not in such a complex situation as Putin with his ideological legacy, is largely seen within NATO and the EU as a Russian Trojan horse more and more. The polarization that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has created has a fall out effect on Orban in a growing manner. Orban is now a dangerous man who must be removed or the consequences for the Hungarian people will likely be huge.

Istvan (Chicago)
Istvan (Chicago)
March 18, 2022 15:13

Here is a nice photo keep sake of the three EU criminals together.

th.jpg
Wolfi7777
Wolfi7777
March 18, 2022 16:39

Hi – I’m back, still in bed after I hurt my back.
So it’ll take me some time to catch up.
Thank you all for keeping up the spirit of democracy in poor Hungary!

theestampe
theestampe
March 18, 2022 17:50
Reply to  Wolfi7777

I was just wondering about you, glad to see you’re back Wolfi!

Michael Detreköy
Michael Detreköy
March 18, 2022 20:00
Reply to  Wolfi7777

Here’s a nice little video to help you pass the time 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7aAxm5Z2yU

Last edited 2 years ago by Michael Detreköy
Ferenc
March 19, 2022 18:06
Reply to  Wolfi7777

Get well soon Wolfi, meanwhile enjoy this song written by one your favourites when having to stay in bed [with flu]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jREf47BPe5w

Pantanifan
Pantanifan
March 18, 2022 16:52

I just received a pdf version of an opinion piece in today’s New York Times, with some interesting reading on the political situation in Hungary, but can’t attach it here, so for subscribers only https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/18/opinion/hungary-viktor-orban-opposition.html

edit:
“BUDAPEST — On Tuesday, the day that the prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic and
Slovenia traveled to Kyiv to show solidarity with a besieged Ukraine, Viktor Orban, the prime
minister of nearby Hungary, trumpeted his neutrality at a sprawling rally in Budapest.
“We cannot get between the Ukrainian anvil and the Russian hammer,” he said. He accused the
Hungarian opposition of trying to drag Hungary to war, and vowed to send neither troops nor
weapons to the battleground.
State-aligned media — which, in Hungary, is almost all media — had been blasting out Kremlin
talking points for weeks, and it was easy to find people in the crowd who echoed them. An older man
in a traditional black Bocskai jacket described Russia’s invasion as “just” and Volodymyr Zelensky as
“scum” before blaming George Soros and the Freemasons for the war. A middle-aged woman
expressed sympathy for Ukrainian refugees, but accused Ukraine of provoking Russia by oppressing
Russian and Hungarian speakers. “You don’t wake a sleeping lion,” she said.
Hungary’s opposition — which appears, for the first time in over a decade, to have a shot at ousting
the authoritarian Orban — held a rally in Budapest on the same day, on the opposite side of the
Danube.
I’d met the opposition candidate for prime minister, Peter Marki-Zay, the mayor of the southern
Hungarian town of Hodmezovasarhely, the day before, as he worked on his speech. One of his central
points, he said, was that Hungary must decide between two worlds: Vladimir Putin’s Russia or the
liberal West. “Putin and Orban belong to this autocratic, repressive, poor and corrupt world,” Marki-
Zay told me. “And we have to choose Europe, West, NATO, democracy, rule of law, freedom of the
press, a very different world. The free world.

Recently, the political theorist Francis Fukuyama made a number of highly optimistic predictions
about how Russia’s war on Ukraine would play out. Russia, he wrote on March 10, faced outright
defeat, and Putin wouldn’t survive it. Further, he wrote, “the invasion has already done huge damage
to populists all over the world, who, prior to the attack, uniformly expressed sympathy for Putin,”
including Donald Trump and Orban. The Hungarian election on April 3 will be an early test of this
theory.
Just as Israelis from across the political spectrum united to get rid of Benjamin Netanyahu,
Hungarians of many different ideological persuasions are working together to defeat Orban, a hero to
many American conservatives for his relentless culture-warring.
Hoping to neutralize Orban’s demagogy against urban elites, the Hungarian opposition has united
behind Marki-Zay, a 49-year-old Catholic father of seven and a relative political outsider.
Marki-Zay, who lived in Indiana from 2006 to 2009, often sounds like an old-school Republican. He
favors lower taxes and a decentralized government. “We want to give opportunity and not welfare
checks to people,” he told me.
He believes in Catholic teachings on gay marriage, abortion and divorce, but doesn’t think they
should be law. “We cannot force our views on the rest of the society,” he said. “One big difference
between Western societies and certain Islamist states is that in Western society church doesn’t rule
everyday life.” Some on the left might blanch at the gratuitous invocation of Islam, but part of Marki-
Zay’s skill is using conservative language to make case for liberalism.
In the coming election, Marki-Zay is an underdog, but the fact that he’s even in the running is a
remarkable development in a country with a system as tilted as Hungary’s. Hungarian electoral
districts are highly gerrymandered in favor of Orban’s party, Fidesz. Gergely Karacsony, the leftleaning
mayor of Budapest and a political scientist, said the anti-Orban forces would probably need to
win the popular vote by three or four percentage points to achieve a parliamentary majority. (By
contrast, in the last election Fidesz was able to win a two-thirds supermajority with 49 percent of the
vote.) The opposition has had to contend with a near blackout in the mainstream media; Marki-Zay
said he hasn’t been asked to appear on television since 2019, while Orban has unleashed a barrage of
propaganda against him.
Fidesz, he said, has convinced its base that the opposition “will take away their pensions, will cancel
the minimum wage,” will send their children to fight in Ukraine and will “allow sex change operations
without the consent of parents” for kindergartners. These voters, said Marki-Zay, “are just frightened.
They hate. I meet such people every day during this campaign. People who are just shouting
profanities. You can feel the hatred, and you can see in their eyes how fearful they are of Orban losing
the election.”
But plenty of voters are still reachable via social media and door-to-door canvassing. Marki-Zay puts
his chances at about 50 percent, and while other analysts I spoke to thought his odds were lower, no
one wrote him off. A big question is whether the crisis in Ukraine will make voters prioritize stability,
or turn Orban’s relationship with Putin into a liability. In a recent Euronews poll, 60 percent of
respondents said Hungary has gotten too close to Russia and Putin, but that doesn’t mean the issue
will determine their vote.
Even if Orban wins another term, Peter Kreko, director of the Political Capital Institute, a Budapestbased
think tank, thinks his dream of creating a right-wing nationalist bloc in Europe is dead. The war
in Ukraine has driven a wedge between Orban and the nationalist government in Poland, which
favors an aggressive response to Russia.
And a history of pro-Putin sentiment has suddenly become embarrassing for some of Orban’s
European allies. Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Rally — who received a
nearly $12 million loan from a Hungarian bank tied to Orban — has been put on the defensive over
campaign fliers showing her shaking Putin’s hand. Matteo Salvini, the head of Italy’s right-wing
League party, was humiliated during a visit to Przemysl, a Polish town near the Ukrainian border,
when the mayor confronted him with a pro-Putin T-shirt Salvini once wore in Moscow’s Red Square.
There was supposed to be a Hungarian version of America’s Conservative Political Action Conference
this month, but it has been postponed until May. In Budapest, many speculated that American
Republicans weren’t as keen as they once were to be seen with Orban. “Right now, I think because
Orban has so much aligned himself with Russia, I think it’s detrimental to his international image as
well,” said Kreko. “And he might win one more round, but I think he just will not be able to fulfill all his
authoritarian dreams.”
At the opposition rally, which drew tens of thousands of people, a band played a Hungarian version of
Patti Smith’s “People Have the Power,” and Smith, who performed in Budapest last year, sent a video
greeting. Ukrainian flags dotted the crowd.
Bogdan Klich, the minority leader in Poland’s Senate, watched from backstage. He hoped that a
Marki-Zay victory would be a blow to anti-democratic forces in his own country. “There is a chance
that illiberal democracy, that was presented and unfortunately implemented by Viktor Orban here,
will be replaced by traditional European and Atlantic values,” he said. “I mean the rule of law, the
respect for human rights and civil liberties, independence of judiciary, etc. This is what we need here
in Hungary, and in Poland.”
Orban’s rise to power marked the beginning of the authoritarian populist era. If he somehow falls, it
might mark the beginning of the end of it.

Last edited 2 years ago by Pantanifan
tappanch
tappanch
March 18, 2022 20:09

At the end of Putin’s Crimean annexation speech in Luzhniki stadium today, Putin mentioned that he started the war on admiral Ushakov’s (1745-1817) birthday,

Ushakov never lost a battle. First he fought against the Turks, then together wit the Turks he beat the French in 1799, occupying Corfu.
He was made a Russian Orthodox saint in 2001.

http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/68016
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septinsular_Republic

tappanch
tappanch
March 18, 2022 20:12
Reply to  tappanch

Putin used the word “operation” instead of war, of course.

Michael Detreköy
Michael Detreköy
March 18, 2022 20:32

OT – UN just published its Covid related World Happiness Report.
It has HU in the 51st place.
Scroll in the bar-graph to see the full list. The six-factor graph shows a few things too.

Happiness, benevolence, and trust during COVID-19 and beyond | The World Happiness Report

Last edited 2 years ago by Michael Detreköy
Phil_S_Stine
Phil_S_Stine
March 20, 2022 05:58

Yeay we’re 12th happiest …. but boo, hiss the bloody Kiwis are happier than us.

Pantanifan
Pantanifan
March 19, 2022 17:56

from Hadházy Ákos on facebook:

1) Financial penalty to Hadházy for helping animals while he had suspended his veterinary practice: 600,000 Ft.
2) Financial penalty to Kaleta Gábor (former Hungarian ambassador to Peru) for 19,000 paedophile photos found on his computer: 540,000 Ft.

Justice in Hungary?

hadházy.jpg
Ferenc
March 19, 2022 18:14
Reply to  Pantanifan

What comes in the afphabet after
NDK – Német “Demokratikus” Köztársaság – German “Democratic” Republic?

best answer: 
ODA – Orban “Demokratikus” Autokráciája – Orban’s “Democratic” Autocracy!