Undersecretary Menczer lies about Sweden to justify why Orban does not support Sweden's bid to join NATO. His video about…
September 15th, 2023
ho would have thunk??? Hungary is among the last 6 in the EU's IT index: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/desi
The Train to Nowhere ... The Chinese can't finish Budapest-Belgrade, and it could cost us tens of billions more https://telex.hu/gazdasag/2023/09/22/budapest-belgrad-vasutvonal-meszaros-v-hid-kina-biztositoberendezes
Hungary is under economic, cultural and political attack, says Kocsis, and therefore Fidesz is forging a new arbitrary law against…
The good news there is that now everybody in the EU jnows that you can't trust Poland and Hungary. Of…
Hungarian churches
(Remark: the 2022 census data are still not published !!)
1% voluntary contribution from personal income tax
(2022 tax year, data as of September 8, 2023, published today)
Churches:
Catholic:: 803,070
Calvinist : 348,482
Lutheran : 92,581
Reverend Ivanyi’s Protestant Church
(continuously persecuted by the Orban regime): 73,381
Baptist : 56,294
Faith (Hit) Evangelical Church: 36,108
Jehovah’s Witnesse: 14,672
Salvation Army: 5,916
Unitarian : 4,644
Krishna Hindu: 86,005
Largest Buddhist community: 33,566
Second largest Buddhist: 24,377
Third largest Buddhist: 9,396
Neolog Jewish: 12,612
Chabad: 2,549
Orthodox Jewish: 353
2 Reform Jewish: 905 (=375+530)
https://nav.gov.hu/pfile/file?path=/ado/szja1_1/kimutatasok_elszamolasok/technikai-szammal-rendelkezok/felajanlasban-reszesultek-2023/szja-1-os-felajanlasban-reszesult-technikai-szamos-kedvezmenyezettek_2023.pdf
Budapest Demographic Summit: does anyone know why on a meeting supposedly about fertility rates they put on a show straight out of Logan’s Run carousel scene (which is about euthanasia)?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M2vx_RCwSs
It’s the over-dramatized style of far-right nationalism.
Demographic conferences are held in many regions/countries at regular intervals, but Fidesz and their allies turn the event into a grand propaganda production, playing on proven emotional historic symbolism, pushing the hidden buttons of fear and prejudice.
And let’s not forget that all the many exaggerated and costly events which take up headlines and tv- coverage in Hungarian media – CPAC, Turks, Sports, Hunting,etc. mainly serve to keep up an image of an internationally successful leader, for the Hungarian public..
Over-dramatized indeed! I suppose that’s also why the irredentist monument on Kossuth tér is a downward slope ending in a cul-de-sac, and the Museum of Ethnography’s shape is that of a building which collapsed in the center…
Everything about the Orbán regime is a scaled-down version of Putinesque/Trumpist populism.
That’s why we call him …
Little Trumputin
Pici Putin has a better ring to it …
There are some MAGA areas (areas that vote consistently for Trump)in the USA with good public schools, but others where many children attend private religious schools are part of a movement called home schooling.
Even in areas that support Trump with higher incomes the schools have very conservative curriculum.
Teaching of the history of slavery is presented as an artifact with little connection to the 1960s civil rights movement.
All of our foreign wars are presented as necessary and patriotism is emphasized.
I am not sure if Trump supporters got their vision of education from Orban or Orban got it from Trump. Basically Trump gives his supporters riddles instead of policies. Orban does the same with his “illiberalim.”
That sounds very much as if the US is losing its grip on itself.
Is it really that bad, or are you focussing on the rotten spots, ignoring the rest of the apple?
I have several friends and family on the coasts (not in the central) who tell me a different story.
September 15. Thousands of students demonstrated against Orban in Budapest.
They are the heroes.
While the EU discusses what to do, the migration continues, relentlessly.
Did you read about that Gymnasium (private??? high school) where during school hours the police arrived to throw everybody (teachers and students) out?
Seems the building had been sold or the school went bankrupt …
https://www.facebook.com/hoffer.geza.56
A really good opposition site – with lots of pictures, very sad – or funny, depending on how you look at them amd whether you are affected.
Back to reality in Orbanistan:
While Fidesz honchos are claiming that the Hun education system is the best my wife was just told by her granddaughter who’s in 6th grade that their teacher doesn’t have/use a computer and of course they have to bring all materials – including soap and toilet paper.
And for that they get their brains washed. Unless a real estate salesman breaks into class with a whispering bag and says everything sold – out – soap and toilet paper is the property of Progressive Hungary.
We all know how the Hun school-system works for the government.
Believe it or not in some low income public schools in Chicago, basic things like soap and a roll of toilet paper were sometimes put on the start of the school year supply list.
By the 6th grade in some Chicago public schools children are using school provided laptops and even what are called smart boards that can interact with the laptops where teachers post outlines and assignments that are downloaded to the laptops.
At other CPS schools that is not happening. So children are given computer classes that look very much like 1950s and 60s typing classes. In Chicago public schools in various high income areas the families raise funds to have better integrated classroom technology, in low income areas the families can’t do that and do not have laptops for each child.
In higher income areas teachers hired are expected to be fully computer literate and low income schools the standard is much lower basically happy to have an appropriately certified teacher in the classrooms. In areas that are the worst and of course the poorest gang infested teachers without proper certificates have to be used because more qualified teachers will not work at them.
In 2011, Trump had called on Obama to release his school grades in an interview with the AP news agency. After he claimed that Obama was a terrible student and too bad for Harvard.
In the WP it was reported that the Military Academy had made sure that Trump’s grades did not get out to the public. I guess they weren’t that good. Orban did not shine with academic success either – on the contrary. So there are parallels between the USA and Hungary.
Only that an enforcer clears a high school in Soroksár during school hours is “impressive”.
Trumps old military academy (New York Military Academy ) was so weak it went bankrupt. (See https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/new-york-military-academy-closing-donald-trump/1091333/#:~:text=The%20126-year-old%20New%20York%20Military%20Academy%20–%20once,good%20last%20Monday%2C%20despite%20promises%20of%20remaining%20open.)
That’s funny 😀 but somehow an omen for the future for Hungary not funny right?
That makes me think of an episode of “Columbo”: “By Dawn’s Early Light”.
Peter Szijjarto refuses to admit Sweden to NATO because it does not want to kiss the Hungarian stinky boots. 😀 Man are the Hungarians losers …
There are stern diplomatic letters—and then there’s the one received on Sept. 14 by Sweden’s foreign ministry, addressed to Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom. The petulant letter is written by his Hungarian counterpart, Peter Szijjarto, and informs Billstrom that unless Swedish politicians and the country’s national public radio stop criticizing Hungary’s democracy, Hungary won’t ratify Sweden’s NATO accession.
There is news in Germany that the Polish PiS party has sold 350,000 visas to “illegal” migrants for up to 40,000 euros, making it the largest smuggling gang in Europe. Probably closely followed by the Fidesz smuggling gang. Inhumane parties like Fidesz and PiS of course also commit crimes against their own population. With Hungary it goes further downhill the voters have decided, 50% of the teachers have voted for Fidesz. Cheers no pity.
Daniel Freund says about EU money – So the real bite will come on the first of January. But Orban could continue to incur debt and disguise it as special assets, or not?
“… – What do you think when the EU funds will arrive to Hungary?
– The moment Viktor Orbán does the necessary reforms, starts repairing the rule of law, and he starts fighting corruption, then this money can flow. If you ask me right now, do I see a real willingness on his behalf to cary out those reforms? No, I don’t.
For now the answer is that lots of money is on ice, but the actual effect so far has been quite limited. Right now all those construction sites that you see in Hungary with the sign “funded by the European Union”, that is all money from the last budget. That will continue until the end of this year.
So the real bite will come on the first of January. That’s when construction companies, for example, will not have the follow-up project when social projects will not have the follow up funding from the European Union.
Erasmus-students are already feeling right now that they are no longer part of this great exchange happening between all Europeans. Hungarian universities and Hungarian students are excluded from that already, so they are the first ones in a way to feel the effect. But the wider effects will be starting to arrive basically early next year. That’s when it will really be felt. …”
Hungary is being invaded by Extraterrestrials!
7 UFOs were seen flying in formation all over Hungary!
All Hungarians are terrified – or at least all Fideszniks should be …
https://dailynewshungary.com/hungarians-terrified-due-to-seven-ufos-spotted-at-night-flying-in-formation/
Just in case that you’re too lazy to click on that link:
Those were Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites …
Or maybe they really were UFOs, possibly scanning for Kryptonite, camouflaged as satellites?
Such “news” have great procrastination potential!
Orban’s problem is that a news channel in Sweden [Media Freedom] published a video describing Hungary as a country where democracy is eroding. Orban obviously wants the Swedish government to ban such media. Otherwise they don’t see eye-to-eye, if I understood correctly.
“Viktor Orbán said that Hungary and Sweden did not see eye to eye on issues of patriotism …”
„… On Sunday, parliament speaker László Kövér, a close ally of prime minister Viktor Orbán, said that Hungary and Sweden did not see eye to eye on issues of patriotism and therefore did not belong in the same alliance. “
I think that Hungarian patriotism is somewhat overused, especially when it is based on instincts.
It’s the usual (and cheap) way Orbánistan plays the gallery.
Fidesz just hitches a free ride in the back of Erdogan’s wagon.
Yes it is about extortion revenge enrichment; you start Erdobaci.
So just like Fidesz left the EPP before they would have been thrown out – Hungary should leave the EU )and NATO)?
Good riddance!
As we say in German:
Niemand weint Euch eine Träne nach …
My feeling is that many non-voters are also quite at peace and those who are in opposition to Orban’s policies carry their patriotism shield in front of themselves and thus serve Orban as the first. In addition, many arguments are not seen or do not want to be seen because they have to be patriotic – however you may interpret that.
There’s a long way from being a nation to acting as a people.
Perhaps fear of losing the (highly decorated) national self-image to facing a less glorious reality, makes people shun the civil responsibilities of a positive democracy. Hard-right politics thrive in such a situation.
The biggest idiot from Tübingen Boris Palmer was almost thrown out by the Greens but then went voluntarily like Orban and the EPP, thinks the German government should change so that the Orban regime can talk again with the federal government in Germany. He thinks both are right just like Trump to the right-wing radicals who drive cars into demonstrators.
In an interview with the right-wing nationalist smear sheet Budapest newspaper. This guy is an insufferable loudmouth.
Boris is really crazy and/or likes to provoke peple.
Seems his best friend now is Putin’s friend Sahra Wagenknecht, formerly a figure in the Left party who might found a new party – and cooperate with the AfD???
Boris and Wagenknecht the same wood they seem much smarter when they keep their mouths shut. They won’t stand out in the AfD. 🙂
János Martonyi former Hungarian Foreign Minister who once lied in Karlsruhe Germany for two hours at a time only to defend Fidesz has published a new book “Nation and Europe”. 😀
https://ungarnheute.hu/news/nation-und-europa-ein-neues-buch-des-ehemaligen-aussenministers-janos-martonyi-77608/
Things are tightening up in Polish-Ukrainian relations, after Zelenskyj accused Poland of indirectly supporting Putin, by denying Ukrainian grain export through Poland.
This prompted Premier Morawiecki to announce a moratorium on arms support to Ukraine.
Western observers see this as a consequence of the Polish PiS’s election campaign, where fortifying Poland against Russian agression is the key issue, and national interests amount to intense paranoia.
It’s not militarily logic, at this point in the war, for Poland to give up supporting Ukraine and prepare their national borders for attacks, they are in Nato and the biggest current threat, is very far away from there.
It seems ironic, if not bizzare. The UN talks about “opening the gates to hell” about climate-politics.
Back in ’69, I was part of a High School project on the greenhouse effect, supported by the data processing of the time. It was a recognized climate-factor, and we combined documented observations in order to make a prognosis.
It wasn’t difficult to document accelleration, but the predicted climate-effects were rejected as “fantasies and guesswork”.
Today, we know a lot more, but too late.
Zelensky’s comments at the UN on the grain embargo by Poland have now created a crisis. All Polish weapons and munitions shipments to Ukraine have been halted as of several hours ago.
Now if Germany and others would halt cheap Polish imports …
How would the PISsers react?
Regarding the EU etc they are like the Hungarians:
We’re only in it for the money!
And to think that they want more of their Balkan brother states like Serbia as EU members and are so angry that many in the EU don’t want more of those little ***expletive deleted***.
Just found this:
Poland has a right wing party even worse than PIS. They might get more than 10% at the next elections:
Opposed to immigration, abortion and lockdowns, Confederation’s co-leader, Slawomir Mentzen, 36, once said his supporters stood against “Jews, homosexuals, abortion, taxation and the EU”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/21/how-anti-establishment-parties-could-shape-europe-this-autumn?
All over Europe around 30% of the people seem to fall into the category “supporters of populist parties”.
Confederation’s rising popularity is the main reason for the appearent panic in PiS, who are very close to losing the coming election to the Civic Platform and Donald Tusk. Either way, a majority coalition will be necessary for the next government.
Where do you see the 30% supporters of populist parties?
If you add the votes for Fidesz, PIS, Meloni, LePen and those parties mentioned by the Guardian you get a number like this.
In Germany around 20% would vote for the AfD right now – and in parts of East Germany they are the strongest party.
Somehow all this reminds me of my time as a student – up until the late 60s the clerical fascists CDUCSU had similar laws re abortion, LGBT etc like today’s right wing.
Personally, I find the popularity of AfD the most worrying.
Juat look at this – no comment necessary:
https://hungarytoday.hu/they-want-to-silence-us-because-we-are-free-says-prime-minister/
He is the new Ceausescu, only a Hungarian one.
The somewhat cryptic comments from the Polish PM and govt. spokespersons, following Zelenskyj’s remark, have caused confusion.
There can be little doubt that this is cause for champaigne and celebration in the Kremlin.
Polish delivery of arms and services already agreed on, is not affected, but the Ukrainian-Polish relationship is being pressure tested right now.
That (media) crisis has been downplayed by the Polish President.
There are no indications of a Polish switch away from national interests regarding Ukraine is happening.
But the coming Polish election calls for extremely dramatic announcements in Poland. That’s perfectly normal in Polish politics, where life/death issues govern.
Since Fidesz is always whining about peace with Russia I have a great idea:
Why not make peace with Russia and leave them Eastern Europe while the USA and Western Europe continue to cooperate?
Maybe the Iron Curtain was a better idea than we thought?
These Eastern countries have so much in common – family (i e antiabortion), religion, nations, fight against anything strange like LGBT ideas …
By his UN-remarks on the Polish-Hungarian stance on the EU-Ukrainaian grain export deal, Zelenskyj poked a finger on a rotten spot in the EU – the Polish-Hungarian far-right alliance.
How the EU reacts to that is yet to be seen.
The political circus (my interpretation) in Poland, is key to any understanding.
The good news there is that now everybody in the EU jnows that you can’t trust Poland and Hungary.
Of course it would get worse if we admitted countries like Serbia eg so either nothing will happen there or the rules will be changed re unanimity.
It will be interesting to see how the far right manages the next elections – in several countries and then for the EP.
The worst thing that might happen is that they get so strong that they have to be accepted as part of the government – then good bye Europe!
Well, maybe it would be best for the world’s ecology if humans destroyed themselves …
Hungary is under economic, cultural and political attack, says Kocsis, and therefore Fidesz is forging a new arbitrary law against journalists, NGOs and opposition politicians. Hungary becomes a Putin state – who will fall out of the window or go to the Gulag?
https://telex.hu/english/2023/09/21/a-sovereignty-protection-bill-to-be-tabled-in-autumn-against-left-wing-journalists-pseudo-ngos-and-dollar-politicians-in-hungary
The Train to Nowhere …
The Chinese can’t finish Budapest-Belgrade, and it could cost us tens of billions more
https://telex.hu/gazdasag/2023/09/22/budapest-belgrad-vasutvonal-meszaros-v-hid-kina-biztositoberendezes
ho would have thunk???
Hungary is among the last 6 in the EU’s IT index:
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/desi
Undersecretary Menczer lies about Sweden to justify why Orban does not support Sweden’s bid to join NATO.
His video about the “bad state of” Swedish democracy:
https://www.facebook.com/menczer.tamas/
Fact: the population of Sweden is bigger than that of Hungary.
Murders in the “immigrated” Sweden in 2022: 116
Murders in the ‘ethnically clean’ Hungary in 2022: 238