Orbán’s Balkans hopes may be dashed, after all

I think I should return to Brussels today because the fate of Olivér Várhelyi, the new Hungarian nominee for the post of commissioner in charge of neighborhood policy and enlargement, is far from settled.

Today a lead article in Politico by Lili Bayer reinforced information I reported on yesterday about Várhelyi’s unpleasantness as both a superior and a colleague. Moreover, in the interim new concerns were raised about the wisdom of turning over the EU’s relations with the Western Balkans to Viktor Orbán’s Hungary.

Orbán’s bid for the enlargement post, … Read the rest

If Fidesz can’t win honestly, there are always dirty tricks

24.hu introduced a special section on their internet site called “Battlefield,” which is not an exaggeration when it comes to describing the municipal election campaigns being waged in Hungary at the moment. In fact, it is far too kind a way of portraying what is going on in Budapest and in those larger cities where the opposition has a chance of defeating the current Fidesz administrations.

The word “battlefield” conjures up a scene in which two sides, weapons in hand, fight valiantly until the stronger one wins. This is not … Read the rest

Viktor Orbán’s new nominee has quite a reputation in Brussels

Today I will look into the aftermath of the rejection of László Trócsányi, Viktor Orbán’s original nominee to be Hungary’s commissioner in the new Von der Leyen Commission.

In order to understand the details of this rather complicated story, I will have to go back in time, to December 20, 2018, when Fidesz revealed that László Trócsányi would be heading the Fidesz EP list and some commentators surmised that Trócsányi was Orbán’s choice for the Commission as well. B1.blog.hu wrote that “Orbán will kick out Navracsics and Trócsányi will follow … Read the rest

In times of trouble Viktor Orbán seeks loyalty

After a relatively quiet few weeks, we are suddenly in the thick of things. For days, we have been preoccupied with László Trócsányi’s candidacy to become enlargement commissioner. It was only today that it was finally determined that Viktor Orbán’s nominee had been rejected by the committee on judicial affairs, a serious blow to the Hungarian prime minister. Hungary will now nominate Olivér Várhelyi, its top EU envoy in Brussels.

While that drama was going on, Viktor Orbán’s favorite Austrian party was dealt a serious blow at the national election … Read the rest

Orbán sets conditions for a rapprochement with Brussels: Keep your nose out of here

Fidesz today held its 28th congress, which again reelected Viktor Orbán as the chairman of the party. His reelection wasn’t exactly a surprise. Of the 26 years between 1993 and 2019, 23 times the congresses voted for Viktor Orbán, often without a single “nay” vote. In 2007, after Fidesz lost the election for the second time, 28 brave men or women had the guts to vote against him. Otherwise, the votes were unanimous.

Between 2000 and 2003, when in three years the party had three different chairmen, it was … Read the rest

Climate strike in Budapest: “What do we want? Climate protection! When do we want it? Now!”

Although I wrote several times about the Orbán government’s indifference toward environmental and energy issues and their mistaken notions about climate change, today I would like to return to the topic in light of a large demonstration that took place yesterday as part of the international movement began by the 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, called “Fridays for Future.” It looks as if the government completely misjudged Hungarian sentiment on the issue of climate change. They expected only a handful of demonstrators, and instead at least 10,000 people gathered to join the … Read the rest

Another look at the election campaign in Budapest

According to the more reliable opinion polls, Gergely Karácsony, the opposition candidate in the Budapest municipal elections, is steadily gaining ground on current mayor, István Tarlós.

About two weeks ago, in Závecz Research’s survey, Tarlós was leading by five percentage points over Karácsony. Publicus’s poll, published a few days later, found that the difference between the two had shrunk to three percentage points. Today, Republikon came up with the neck-to-neck result of 35% for Tarlós and 34% for Karácsony. Róbert Puzsér, who claims to be a critic and … Read the rest