President Katalin Novák met with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach at the IOC’s Lausanne headquarters last week. The German Olympic gold medallist fencer spoke with members of the Hungarian sports press after the meeting, discussing Budapest potentially hosting the Olympic games, as well as his plan to allow Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete in the next Olympics.
Before the ceremony at the Milan Cathedral, which begins at three o’clock on Wednesday afternoon, Silvio Berlusconi’s coffin will be briefly exhibited at the main entrance of the cathedral, and then placed at the main altar.
The 2024 budget is a defence budget because during times of war, Hungary needs a budget that guarantees its security, protects families, pensions, jobs, and reduces utility costs, the Hungarian finance minister stated in parliament on Tuesday.
Alex Soros will be heading the Open Society Foundations from now on, taking the position over from his 92-year-old father, George Soros. In a recent interview, the new chair claimed he is ‘more political’ than his father, and that he will make abortion and voting rights his top priorities.
During the announcement of Rolls-Royce’s new research and development investment, the minister highlighted that the company will design the tools necessary for the transportation of the future in its Budapest centre, including components for hybrid and electric aircraft and systems based on high-speed generators.
The organisation is doing everything to bring Pepsi back home. Balogh stated that the newly inaugurated Szentkirályi PET bottling line is capable of creating Pepsi products, but further investments are needed, such as establishing a water purification base and a syrup kitchen.
The collection of the Military History Institute and Museum will be housed partly in the modern exhibition space of the Bálna centre in Budapest, and partly in Székesfehérvár, ‘one of the most significant centres of Hungarian history.’ The Military History Archives will continue to operate unchanged in its original location.
During his recent talks in Tbilisi, the Hungarian Defence Minister stressed that Hungary strongly supports Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations, and highlighted the importance of Hungarian-Georgian military cooperation.
The Hungarian National Team’s 22-year-old captain has been valued at €73.8 million by the International Centre for Sports Studies’ (CIES) Football Observatory, making him the 50th most expensive player in the world. This is all amidst rumours about his move from RB Leipzig to the Premier League team Newcastle United.
Regarding healthcare salary increases, the minister said the government will continue its two-stage wage hike programme. In addition to the 18 per cent raise in July this year, 200 billion forints have been allocated for this purpose in the draft budget for next year. The funds for pharmaceutical subsidies, cash benefits in health insurance, and the procurement of ambulances will also be expanded.
The Russian Orthodox Church announced that, at the request of Budapest, several Transcarpathian soldiers who were held as prisoners of war in Russia have been transported to Hungary.
In a press statement released following his meeting with President Serdar Berdymukhammedov, Viktor Orbán said ‘we need energy to come to Europe from Central Asia,’ and for this, new sources, new routes, and new infrastructure are needed. Turkmenistan can be a ‘great partner’ for Europe and Hungary in this regard, the PM stated.
The MCC Budapest Peace Forum featured 70 speakers, 35 foreign experts from 20 different countries. Academics, public figures, and famed experts all took a stand for the importance of peace, and shone a light on the consequences of war from the different aspects of their respective expertise.
The Foreign Minister pointed out that the higher the risk of terrorism, the greater the chance of increased migration pressure on Europe, adding that Hungary is now among the first to face waves of migration, as the Western Balkan route has become primary. ‘Therefore, combating terrorism is a key issue for Hungary,’ he stated.
Highly respected experts, such as former Constitutional Court Justice István Stumpf, Gadi Taub, Senior Lecturer at the Federmann School of public policy from Israel, and James Allen of the University of Queensland in Australia, shared their views on the controversial concept of ‘rule of law’. Their lectures were followed by a discussion between State Secretary for European Affairs János Bóka and Ákos Bence Gát, head of foreign affairs at the Danube Institute.
The Hungarian President reached out to the local Hungarian diaspora organisations during her visit to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. She will also be one of the keynote speakers at the Swiss Economic Forum held on 8-9 June.
During the meeting held at the Carmelite Monastery earlier today, Viktor Orbán emphasised that although a ceasefire and peace would be paramount, intense fighting erupted in the Russo-Ukrainian war on Wednesday night. The security of Hungary remains the top priority of the government, the Prime Minister stressed.
Katalin Novák highlighted the inexplicable, brutal, and tragic attacks on civilians in Ukraine. She recalled that she had expressed her personal sympathy to the Ukrainian people, as the majority of her foreign counterparts, during her previous visit to Ukraine.
Hungary has spent 650 billion Hungarian forints on the defence of the southern border, the construction and reinforcement of the border fence, and its continuous protection.
Balázs Orbán opined that the economic competition between the Western and non-Western world is becoming balanced, thus the world is returning to a state of equilibrium. He recalled that in 1990, the Western world accounted for 50 per cent of the global economic power, whereas this year it is only 30 percent, and this loss of influence is visible in several areas.
Through the new Hungarian centre, employees can provide even more support for the adoption of AWS cloud services to organisations of various sizes in Hungary, including startups, businesses, and public sector organisations.
According to Fidesz deputy group leader in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Zsolt Németh the future of conservatism in Europe is bright, as right-wingers on the continent are ‘coming closer together’; and that therefore the slogan of the Budapest seminar could rightly be ‘Conservatives of Europe, unite!’
Viktor Orbán and Timotheus Höttges agreed that digitalisation is a crucial factor for maintaining Hungary’s and Europe’s competitiveness, and the Hungarian government and Deutsche Telekom continue to consider each other strategic partners in this regard.
Hungary’s goal is to advance to the top ten best-performing countries in the European Union in terms of digital economic and social development by 2030.
About a week after the Committee on Budgetary Control officially rejected her renomination, the European Parliament reversed that decision and voted in favour of another six-year term for Gáll-Pelcz on the European Court of Auditors. However, on the same day, the EP also passed a resolution condemning Hungary.
Viktor Orbán explained why his politics will eventually be proven right: ‘We were the only ones who said that borders must be protected during the migration crisis. Later, more and more EU member states realised that we were right. The same will happen regarding the war’, he underlined.
PM Orbán must have ‘run into’ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the meeting, as some Hungarian media put it. However, conspicuously, Viktor Orbán did not post any photos of him and the Ukrainian leader to social media, as opposed to prominently featured pictures with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in a Facebook post. In fact, no formal meeting has been held between the two leaders since Zelenskyy entered office. Although Orbán has been invited to Kyiv, the Hungarian government has made it quite clear that the Hungarian PM will not be travelling to Ukraine unless the rights of the Hungarian minority in the country are restored.
Following the results of the 2022 parliamentary election, the American NGO Freedom House decided to downgrade Hungary’s controversial ‘democracy index’ from last year’s report. Meanwhile, Poland’s and Ukraine’s have been increased.
The President of the Supervisory Authority for Regulated Activities stated that due to the complex task of shaping cybersecurity awareness, consciousness, and knowledge sharing, state organisations must take on an initiating and directing role, collaborating with market actors.
During his joint press conference with his Israeli counterpart, Eli Cohen, Péter Szijjártó said the cooperation between the two countries has always been characterized by mutual respect. Hungary has always supported the right of the Jewish state to self-defence and to guaranteeing its security, the minister nailed down.