Hungarian Conservative

All MPs for the ruling Fidesz-KDNP coalition, as well as some for the left-wing opposition, were absent from the extraordinary parliamentary session called for Monday, thus the vote on Sweden’s NATO membership did not meet the threshold to be legally binding. US Ambassador David Pressman was also present, but then left the House disappointed.

The American Conservative contributor Catesby Leigh wrote a lengthy article in the major American paper The Wall Street Journal, praising the beauty and majesty of the word-famous House of Parliament in Budapest.

Arriving for the two-day EU summit, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary’s position is very clear. ‘When we talk about enlargement, the Hungarian stance states that it is a merit-based, sophisticated, legal procedure,’ he explained.

Talks with Ukraine on possible EU membership ‘right now are absurd, ridiculous, and unserious’, and the government will not support them. Right now no one knows what Ukraine’s accession would entail or how much territory or population would be integrated into the bloc, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in the debate of the ruling Fidesz party’s draft resolution on Ukraine’s accession talks.

The fate of the motion was uncertain right up until the votes in the House were tallied, as many members of the governing Conservative Party faction indicated their inability to accept the proposal, deeming the suggested legislation insufficiently radical. In the event of the proposal’s failure, several members of the Tory faction’s right wing signalled their readiness to initiate a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Geert Wilders has reached the peak of his 25-year political career. However, the Party for Freedom, which does not even have a quarter of the seats in parliament, will need to find several coalition partners to win a majority. Can it be done?

According to the Commissioner for Human Rights, both the draft legislative package submitted to parliament and the government’s parallel proposal, which seeks to integrate the new office into the Fundamental Law, are ‘so ambiguous that the proposed office could be used as a weapon against anyone considered an adversary.

‘It seems clear that both federalists and sovereigntists agree that the current treaty framework isn’t up to the task of addressing the crises in the European Union and its Member States. To tackle these issues, it’s evident that new treaties need to be crafted.’

The Sovereignty Protection Office will operate independently from all Hungarian constitutional bodies. Its primary objective will involve identifying and probing actions related to disinformation and attempts to influence the decision-making processes of the state and society on behalf of foreign nations, bodies, or organizations. Additionally, it will scrutinize entities whose activities, funded from abroad, aim to sway elections or manipulate the preferences of voters.

In a fast-track procedure, the left-wing governing majority of Germany has recently amended the electoral law in force since 1949. The biggest loser of this reform may be the current opposition: two opposition parties (CSU and The Left) could be dealt a fatal blow by the new legislation. Until now, this kind of procedure has been a real taboo in German political culture, which has always advocated for the need of consensus on every issue. The opposition is appealing to the Constitutional Court and will fight with all its might to abolish this new electoral reform.

The Zsolnay family’s tireless effort to innovate made the company one of the most successful manufacturers of the Astro-Hungarian times and Zsolnay ceramics and tiles continue to adorn buildings across the country to this day. The brand is not past its prime: Zsolnay products in fact sell for record prices these days.

On the European level, the representatives of Poland and Slovakia often share concerns and vote together with Hungary, especially Poland—at least, it did so until now. While Bratislava is most likely to develop even closer cooperation with Budapest with Fico’s victory, Warsaw will most certainly cease to be the staunch ally it used to be.

Hungary marks a solemn occasion on 6 October: the nation remembers the courageous military leaders of Hungary’s anti-Habsburg revolution and war of independence who were executed on this day in 1849.

According to the Center for Fundamental Rights, while Orbán argued for the defence of Hungary’s political, economic, and cultural sovereignty in his remarks, it became apparent from the words of the former prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsány that defending the nation’s self-determination is not a political goal for him—which was his downfall after 2006 as well.

More than a hundred 12- to 16-year-old students and adult volunteers from the Zaporizhzhia region were hosted by the Körmend Law Enforcement Technical Institute last week. The Ukrainian guests ‘took part in unforgettable programmes,’ the school shared on their social media page.

Mária Ádám-Haszonics, Zoltán Lomnici, András Patyi, and Réka Varga have all been confirmed to the Constitutional Court by a two-thirds majority vote in the parliament, replacing the four term-limited former justices on the 15-member panel. The Court has the power to strike down legislation if they find it incompatible with the Fundamental Law of Hungary.

The 2022 opposition prime minister candidate announced the official establishment of his new Mindenki Magyarországa Néppárt (Everyone’s Hungary People’s Party). At the scarcely attended press conference, he revealed that they plan on not taking any funding from the central government, and operating on donations alone; as well as eventually joining the European People’s Party.

The American actor, who played drug enforcement agent Hank Schrader, the brother-in-law and nemesis of Walter White in the iconic series, posted about the family holiday on his social media accounts last week.

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 events of the 1990s are becoming part of history everywhere, including in Hungarian politics. It has been a quarter century since Viktor Orbán formed his first administration in 1998, which was then followed by four more after 2010.

The documentary is narrated by Hollywood actress Ema Horvath, who also worked on the prequel series to ‘The Lord of The Rings’.

According to Slovakian Hungarian-language website Új Szó’s information, Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová officially announced on Sunday afternoon that she would entrust the management of the country to a technocratic government until the early elections, following a meeting with Speaker of Parliament Boris Kollár and outgoing Prime Minister Eduard Heger.

The Hungarian parliament will be in sessions for two weeks as of today. Important legislation will be discussed and debated, including regulations related to the asset declaration of politicians, to the judiciary and the conditions of declaring a state of emergency in the country.

Katalin Novák sent the whistleblower bill back to parliament for reconsideration, as she found that it fails to give the fundamental rights of Hungarians an elevated level of protection, as it states to do. She also shared her concerns about the potential violation of freedom of expression rights.

The new law just passed by the National Assembly provides additional protections to whistleblowers; as well as ascribes duties to create confidential abuse report systems to private companies of a certain size and institutions in the public sector.

The MEP reacted to Ferenc Gyurcsány’s statements made in a radio interview. Deutsch declared that the Democratic Coalition President had publicly admitted that as opposed to his and the European Commission’s claim that there were legal problems between Hungary and the European Union, or that the European Union development funds owed to Hungary had been withheld due to legal issues for years, was a lie.

State Secretary Péter Takács stated that by obstructing the new on-call system, the chamber endangers the healthcare of Hungarian citizens, violates the fundamental rules of its democratic and public nature, and disregards its own objectives.

Hungarian Ukrainians are grateful to everyone who helps them in these difficult times.