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Viktor Orbán’s first day in Brussels without his British prop
Today, after a meeting of the European Council sans David Cameron, several European leaders gave press conferences, starting with President Jean-Claude Juncker. From his brief summary of the meeting,...
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The Bratislava Summit: No “victory lap” for Viktor Orbán
I often stress that Hungarian Spectrum is a cooperative enterprise because we have readers who, in the comment section, carry on an active exchange of ideas. That in turn enriches my own contributions....
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The collapse of the united front of the Visegrád 4 in Bratislava
The Hungarian media hasn’t paid much attention to Viktor Orbán’s Friday morning interview on Magyar Rádió, which was aired on September 16 around 8:00 a.m. but was recorded the evening before. In it,...
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After the US election: Europe is anxiously waiting
Mother Jones published a funny article back in September about Trump’s hectic first day in office. On the basis of his election promises, the author compiled a to-do list of 21 items. Here are a few...
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The Hungarian government’s shameful treatment of asylum seekers
On Sunday, March 5, 2017, a report from Belgrade was published in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. It claimed that refugees “with visible traces of Hungary’s brutal policies” had told the Swedish...
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Viktor Orbán turns his back on the Polish government
Although Viktor Orbán’s press conference this morning was anything but upbeat, a few hours later both the Polish left and right in addition to the Hungarian government media were full of praise for the...
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Viktor Orbán stood alone at the EPP congress
Viktor Orbán has been headline news in the last few days. One reason for this sudden interest in the pocket dictator of Hungary is his determination to close Hungary’s best institution of higher...
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Was Orbán’s bout with the EU a “points victory”? We will see tomorrow
Viktor Orbán, along with the other prime ministers of the European Union’s member states, is in Brussels at the moment, where among other things they are supposed to come to an understanding on the...
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Fidesz votes for Manfred Weber and signs on to “liberal democracy”
The European People’s Party has concluded its congress. Its agenda included selecting EPP’s candidate for the position of “Spitzenkandidat” and pledging adherence to a “party program” of sorts, called...
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Rejecting Weber and Timmermans may have been a mistake
Viktor Orbán, in his quick interview right after the marathon negotiations over the European Union’s top leadership, said nothing about the new commission president’s political background and...
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Orbán’s “great diplomatic victory” and a possible exit from EPP
Today I will cover two topics that Viktor Orbán discussed in his regular fortnightly interview on Kossuth Rádió this morning. The first is Olivér Várhelyi’s becoming commissioner of neighborhood policy...
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Decrees that have nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic
In the dead of night, after parliament passed “On protecting against the coronavirus” and President János Áder signed it into law after two hours of “hard constitutional scrutiny,” Zsolt Semjén, deputy...
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Plenty of noise on the western front, but will action follow?
At the moment, one cannot complain about the lack of attention being paid to Viktor Orbán’s brazen attempt to establish an undisguised dictatorship where he, as prime minister, can govern by decree...
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The Orbán government is under fire in the European Parliament
Yesterday we heard the welcome news that four European Parliament political groups — the European People’s Party, Renew Europe (formerly the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats), the Alliance of...
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Viktor Orbán’s new enemy: Gerald Knaus of the European Stability Initiative, II
Yesterday I introduced Gerald Knaus, chairman of the European Stability Initiative (ESI), whom Magyar Nemzet fingered as the man responsible for Viktor Orbán’s being unfairly and undeservedly labeled a...
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Viktor Orbán’s battle cry against liberalism and the European Union
Viktor Orbán is frustrated. The pandemic “decimated” his opportunities to spread his message through his usual summer political workshops. “Parliamentary jostling” and “modern-day soundbite-driven...
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A lethal game of chicken?
The threat of a veto by Poland and Hungary of a “bold and widely welcomed leap in collaboration” has been widely condemned by most EU politicians as well as by the leaders of those countries that are...
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Introducing Tamás Deutsch, successor to József Szájer as leader of Fidesz in EPP
In my database I found close to 800 articles on EPP-Fidesz relations but practically nothing on Tamás Deutsch, who has been a Fidesz MEP for the last eleven years. The minimal interest in Deutsch is...
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Péter Márki-Zay in Brussels
When Péter Márki-Zay arrived in Brussels for a two-day visit, he was received with open arms by many influential EU politicians. Prior to his arrival, Timothy Garton Ash, the noted expert on East...
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