I know it is insulting to Asterix the Gaul, but the Viktor thinks he is like Asterix. Viktor Orbán: While…
Hungary versus UNESCO?
Updated post
The Fertő is a steppe lake Hungary shares with Austria, where the larger part is situated and its name is Neusiedler See. It has a surface of 285 square kilometres, an average depth of 1 meter and the deepest point reaches 1.8 meter only, and it has no natural drainage. In Europe we only have very few steppe lakes, while Hungary has besides the parts of the Fertő also the largest steppe lake in Europe, the about as twice as big Balaton. While the Balaton is very touristic and has not a lot of natural stretches left, the Fertő is much more natural. The wildlife as well as the flora is extraordinary rare and diverse, the UNESCO made it 2001 a world heritage site on both parts of the border. Austria has limited future land use at the banks to already existent non-natural parts, while in communist times the nearby Austrian border made it for Hungarians difficult to recreate there, the only Hungarian resort was for the party elite and a few people were allowed to erect pile houses in the lake in the late 1960s.
Today Hungary’s state party elite again discovered the Fertő. The owners of the pile houses were told to demolish their houses – the ground of the lake they stood on was state owned – and a huge tourist area was planned. A yacht harbour, a luxury hotel, swimming pools within the lake, sport facilities, and a lot of additional infrastructure with not less than 880 parking spaces should be built instead. The party elite obviously did not make enough profit by collecting tourist facilities around the Balaton, the next lake should be theirs. It has with Vienna a wealthy city nearby, just above an hour by car and offering facilities that mustn’t be built any more at the shores of the Neusiedler See. The outcry in Hungary and Austria did not help, the building project continued.
At the end of 2021 happened something unexpected. The fast tender for the constructions was cancelled suddenly on December 11th, 2021 ►HU. There was pretty much relief that gigantomania FIDESZ style would not reach the Fertő. But as always as when dealing with Orbán and his NER system: Expect the worst you can imagine and you will be disappointed, because they definitely will do something even worse. This rule was not broken in this case as well.
The tender was opened again as usual tender, officially because they were unable to answer so many questions in so little time. It was not mentioned that the project has been enlarged as well! Now are planned:
- Two motels, one with a useable floor area of 1 490 square meter and the other with a useable floor area of 1 593 square meter
- A water sports building with 682 square meter
- Pools with a floor area of 3 638 square meter and a water surface of 2 556 square meter
- A single-storey bathhouse with a useable floor area of 131 square meter
- Beach pavilions with a total area of 12 117 square meter
- 1 reception building with a surface of 1 014 square meter, 1 service building of 1 224 m and 37 bungalows
- A sailing club building with a useable floor area of 1 951 square meter
- A sport centre with of 1 501 square meter and 2 facility buildings
- 26 holiday houses with a useable floor area of 3 419.93 square meter
- An eco-centre with a total usable floor area of 2 298 square meter and a capacity to accommodate a maximum of 299 visitors, with a green roof of 1 394 square meter
- A hotel with a useable floor area of 6 734.75 m, 95 rooms with a 300-portions-serving kitchen
- A beach (with outdoor fitness area) and serviced and self-serviced catering building, including a restaurant and visitor centre with a 300-portions-serving kitchen for up to 200 guests
- Access road, exploration road, bus stop, bicycle path, sidewalk, parking lots, pedestrian and road bridge, utilities.
All listed by atlatso.hu ►HU
Yesterday Greenpeace decided sue Hungary for this project, Katalin Rodics told the reasons: “Because the areas that have been tendered for in the public procurement for individual elements, are larger areas than in the original environmental permit that we (Greenpeace) were challenging, and plus there are new elements such as a 26-apartment building for which there is no environmental or building permit at all” on Euronews ►EN.
And as another player there remains the UNESCO. The protection of their heritage sites is always a major concern. The historic city centre of German Dresden lost the prestigious title, because the city government built a bridge outside of the centre, for disturbing the sight of the protected area in 2009 ►EN. Only 4 sites were de-listed ever. Venice was about sharing this fate, but the Italian government last year decided to ban huge cruise ships out of the historic centre to avoid. So the Fertő could become the 5th.
Update January 11th, 2022
The authorities have asked Greenpeace to pay a fee of 25 000 000 Forint (69 450 €) for working on their complaint. This is not the fee for juridical review of a tender where partially not even a building permit exists and that is against the nature protection rules of Hungary and the EU, but the fee for the review of granting a tender to another bidder ►HU.
CPACK started in Budapest! An illustrious group of right wingers was greeted first by some priests (and rabbis ...) and…
As I am not part of any Catholic denomination or doctrine, there is no way I can relate to whatever…
Since Melania and Donald formally met with the Pope I suspect her transgressions may also have been forgiven.
Melania Trump is a Slovenian Catholic, but it is unclear if she attends mass at any parish. It is clear…
It makes you wonder what the development around Balaton was worthwhile. Building luxury complexes everywhere is a non-sense: there are obviously not enough guests for all this infrastructure. The only reason for this building frenzy must be in the amount of funding required to build the hotels, restaurants, marinas which leads to bribery and corruption, I don’t see any other explanation.
BTW, I noticed how Hungarians tend to forget any new project not only requires funding to be built but also to be maintained. How many sites haven’t I seen where once finished, things were left to start decaying, repairs having not been taken into account. My recent trip to Budapest allowed me to see a new playground/park being built on the Danube banks in Békásmegyer – this park runs on a total distance of 1,7 km!!! I am wondering how the place will look like in 2 years time; most likely a lot of the furniture will be destroyed, the sand banks and beach volley court full of dog poo (they did not think of installing fences around sandy areas…), the grass full of weed. Building several smaller sites would have made more economical sense in my opinion.
Unfortunately these projects are a playground for the rich and famous (the self-appointed “elite” close to FIDESZ), who believe they “own” the country and can do whatever they want with it. They already have somewhere to meet up at Lake Balaton and want their own little place at Fertő-tó.
It reminds me a little of the renovation of the castle in Tura about 45 km from Budapest a couple of years ago – this place is owned by Orbán’s son-in-law Tiborcz, and if you can’t make the long 45 km journey back to Budapest, rooms here start at just over 100,000 HUF (280 €) a night. Previously it was possible to visit the castle and tour the gardens for a small fee, but now it’s exclusively used by the top 1% (all financed through public funds of course)
https://botaniqkastely.hu/hu/kastely/
I read on some independant HU news website that in order to drive on some roads near Mészáros’ property, you need a permit even though these are supposed to be public roads. The police is enforcing this rule and fines people who are not supposed to be there – totally illegally.
I hadn’t heard about that, but it wouldn’t surprise me, the inner circle certainly behave like the country belongs to them…
https://24.hu/kozelet/2022/01/07/szel-bernadett-meszaros-lorinc-maganut-rendorseg/
Wow, if you go to Google Maps / Street View, you can see how the castle looked like before renovation; needless to say the investment required to bring this building to its current state must have been enormous. Can we expect it was renovated with EU subsidies only to be used as a private business after? And while the hotel looks prestigious, I cannot help but wonder who would actually go spend time there, Tura looks like a very average Hungarian town in the middle of nowhere…
The castle was in a state of disrepair and needed a huge amount of funding to be restored, but if the funding was public it should be at least available to the public
According to this index.hu article from 2018, the budget for the renovation was 4.5 billion HUF and it was carried out by a private company, BDPST Zrt., which was owned by Tiborcz
https://index.hu/gazdasag/2018/09/04/turai_kastely_tiborcz_istvan_bdpst/
“Hogy honnan van a 4,5 milliárdos forrás a felújításra, arról sajnos nem szól a másfél oldalas közlemény” = there is no information available on where the 4.5 billion funds came from. However, the article says this was Tiborcz’ first major real estate project .. Any ideas where a young man who married into Orbán’s family might have found 4.5 billion HUF?
The public funded projects are not abandoned, they are finished, even if unused. Since the owners are private there is no reason for the owners not to finish, some overpriced projects are always welcome with the friends and relatives within the NER. What you see unfinished is developed by private means (or not by lack of.) While there should be a quality improvement in tourism generally, the oligarchs build one first class hotel after the other, without even thinking about that Hungary attracts so many foreign low budget tourists, because there is a lack of mid class hotels. Building luxury hotels instead won’t make Balaton or Fertő a top destinations. A short look into other countries with a more successful tourist industry would teach that the luxury segment is very small. Instead the party elite is copying the Hungarian society: Either part of the tiny rich class or member of the masses in need of a budget destination. But this is not how tourism looks like, especially not when looking for foreign tourists. Maintenance is generally forgotten in Hungary, this is not limited to this business. Think about health care, where with EU funding expensive aperture is purchased, but the patients have to bring their own batteries to be able to use them.
Also a bit OT:
Some years ago we had visitors who wanted to see the Neusiedler See so we crossed the border (non-existent, nobody there) and went to Mörbisch on the southwest of the lake for a walk – very nice little town.
Our guests wanted to have a real Hungarian lunch however so we tried to get to Hungary along the lake – but by car this is not possible, only on foot or on your bicycle!
So we took a detour of almost 10 km and used the next available road to get back to Hungary – and had a very nice lunch somewhere.
It’s even on google maps!
Search for Mörbisch and then use the route planner to get to Fertörákos – by bicycle it will be around 4km but by car more than 10 – you’re not supposed to anger the FIDESZ mafiosi there.
And right now an advert at our local bus stop made my day:
The latest O1G-slogan, used often now on billboards is like “Vorwärts immer, rückwärts nimmer!” Always forward, never backward!
Forgot the Hungarian text however – and my wife won’t tell me because any Fidesz advertising is for her ***expletive deleted*** …
Now the fun side of this:
“Vorwärts immer, rückwärts nimmer!” was the slogan of Erich Honecker, East Germany’s ruler.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorw%C3%A4rts_immer!
There’s a crazy movie with the same title produced after 1989 which reminded me of the famous “To be or not to be” where the story happens in Warsaw.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Be_or_Not_to_Be_(1942_film)
Highly recommended!
What a pity that Ernst Lubitsch died so early.
Wolfi, sorry, but Orbán knows his communists better than you do! Long before Honnecker said his sentence – a few days before his political end – Hungarian communist leader Mátyás Rákosi did so, already in April 1946! http://www.huszadikszazad.hu/1946-aprilis/politika/rakosi-matyas-beszede-az-aktualis-bel-es-kulpolitikai-kerdesekrol
And some nice finds from the internet:
Alcohol dependent
Depressive
Panic
BALATON HOSPITAL!
István, you’re the greatest!
really hadn’t known that here again like in the pandemic the logic is:
Hungary first!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Don’t forget this one: The booster shot for our health and so that the country can function… It tells you where FIDESZ’s priorities are.
Sorry, but I never believed that Magyarország működik….
It looks like Fidesz has come up with something. 🙂
You see similar situations everywhere. In the village near the Balaton where we lived they also built a new playground/park which is never used and rotting away. One reason might be that.it’s located at the extreme end of the village, more than 3 or 4 km away for most people.
And there’s also a “bike path” through the hills where wine is planted (very nice environment by the way, we used to walk our dog there where I’ve honestly haven’t seen any bicycles. The biggest idiocy is the info computer screen at the start where the pictures on the LCD screen can’t be seen when the sun shines. And anyway usually the computer has broken down and you can’t start it locally.
What a waste of money!
All of this is accompanied by large billboards telling you how much the projects cost and how much money the darn EUSSR paid …
It obviously is the fault of Brussels!
Orban needs dachas for loyal vassals … was my first thought. The piece on the Hungarian side is quite small. From Wiki a satellite image of the lake at the bottom there is the border drawn.
Off topic. Tamás Pilhál has an essay in today’s Magyar Nemzet with the eye attracting title of “The CIA is their last refuge.” It is actually one of many Fidesz sponored stories relating to a comment on Klub Radio about a week ago made by Gábor Bruck, a former campaign manager of the old SZDSZ (https://hungarianspectrum.org/2018/11/17/remembering-szdsz/), later did work for DK, and currently works for Sawyer Miller Group Vezetői Akadémia doing seminars . His comments were not unlike many made over the years about how Fidesz uses the Transylvanian vote from Romania to help win elections. However then at least based on the transcription of the radio broadcast made by pro-Fidesz sources he ventured off into some speculation.
Here is my translation of the Fidesz transcription of that speculation by Bruck: “Orbán is weak, there is no innovation in him. They are being hit by the EU, we do not yet know whether America will enter or not. Trump is not America (anymore). Let’s say the FBI or the CIA is America in such a case, so we don’t know. In neighboring countries, however, it was done at a pretty good pace. My suspicion, but I know nothing about it, is that they are watching, watching, if the opposition is strong enough, they will step in. Information that is unhappy with someone who is currently in power will be made public. I think they know a lot about it, the question is whether they use it or not.”
Now this is totally unsupported speculation on a possible CIA intervention in the Hungarian elections to support the united opposition against Fidesz, and Bruck admits this. However Pihal goes further he brings in Eva’s friends Richard Field and Charles Gati arguing effectively that are Hungarian speaking CIA operatives living in the USA. Apparently both want to use the CIA’s vast powers to overthrow Orban.
Pihal’s conclusion to this strange essay is; “Their (the CIA) methods, their uninhibitedness, are well known. They can do anything. The left in Hungary would not be able to seize power on its own, but behind them is a network of terrible power. The full-fledged Western media, the army of octopus-like subversive (“civilian”) gangs, the nods of EU and international organizations who have bought a kilo – all help them. And the missiles are still being set on fire. But we also learned the lesson: “If the stakes are low, my mood is dark.” But now the stakes are huge, our country is at stake. Well, let’s be in a good mood, let’s hold on to all of them and distract the agents back to where they were sent from in April.”
Tamás Pilhál works primarily for Pesti Srácok (Eva wrote an essay on it https://hungarianspectrum.org/2021/05/30/investigation-a-la-pesti-sracok-laszlo-bartus-and-george-lazar/ ) and in a 2019 Eva in a post on the Spectrum demolished his complete fabrication of history in a post titled “THE REBIRTH OF IRREDENTISM WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE ORBÁN GOVERNMENT” at one point calling him an ignoramus on the history of Transylvania. Eva is gone but Pilhál continues his work of attacking liberal Hungarian Americans who oppose the Fidesz regime. I will agree with Tamás Pilhál and Bruck about one thing, the CIA is watching, there is probably little doubt that the CIA station chief in Budapest is indeed watching Orban and some of his Fidesz associates for possible connections to Putin’s own spying on NATO. Indeed that would be part of their job.
Intervening in the Hungarian elections is highly unlikely. My own opinion of the CIA based on my experiences with them while in the US military has not always been good particularly back in 1972 in Vietnam. But I give them credit for helping extract from South Vietnam some officers and their families who would have been sent to concentration camps during the collapse of South Vietnam for a good while, one lives across the street from me in Chicago to this day.
Thanks, Istvan!
Maybe this is a good sign:
The Fideszniks are getting really nervous and using all kinds of crazy tactics before the elections. My wife and our friends and family are already laughing when we drive by or walk by those silly billboards and eagerly waiting for the next idiocies.
Maybe someone should collect them and show them round abroad like I did with all those Soros/Junckers/Timmermans lunacies.
Just ask google for pictures of “Soros billboards” or “Orban billboards” – you’ll end on the floor laughing.
But it seems that there are (still …) enough ***expletive deleted*** Hungarians around who believe all that sh*te – reminds me again of the Trumpistas/Qanon/Proud Boys etc.
Honestly I can believe that Orbán is seen as seriously problematic by more than one Western intelligence service. That they want to know what is going on beyond the screens is really very likely. That interference in the elections is nonsense is clear as well, the regime has tightened everything so much that is seems completely impossible to do so. But who would be scared about, except the 2 million true believers? If from the rest someone believes it only would give him hope!
OT:
My wife who follows the pandemic closely just told me that Hungary has reached 40 000 Covid deaths.
Since I’m a mathematician she asked me to calculate/estimate how much money O1G saves from this – to give to his friends Mészáros etc and his family.
We shudder to think or speculate how this is going on – don’t people realize that it’s their friends and relatives who have to die because of the idiotic Covid policy here?