Hungarian Politics

[Tamas]

It feels hard to blame the UK for wanting out of the EU if there seems to be no desire for Hungary getting kicked out.

Britain has made considerable steps into a populist right authoritarian direction based on English nationalism as well. Let's hope it does not continue going in that direction.

So what you are saying is, wherever Tamas goes becomes a right-wing populist shithole?

I have moved to England looking for a stable and predictable political situation. That sounds so funny now.

[Duque de Bragança]

It feels hard to blame the UK for wanting out of the EU if there seems to be no desire for Hungary getting kicked out.

Britain has made considerable steps into a populist right authoritarian direction based on English nationalism as well. Let's hope it does not continue going in that direction.

So what you are saying is, wherever Tamas goes becomes a right-wing populist shithole?

I have moved to England looking for a stable and predictable political situation. That sounds so funny now.

 

You had it coming. You were warned and advised instead to go to Austria, closer to your Vaterland and where Hungarians are not seen as a threat. Enjoy!

[Tamas]

The European elections have turned out beautifully.

It seems like the People's Party alliance doesn't need Orban's 13 seats, but they do need either the liberal or the socialist alliance to get the top job, and those two are probably not keen on agreeing with a party with Orban as a member.

This has been quite evident the last few days, because the Good Guy Orban scharade is full on. As it's latest act, the government has frozen the creation of the special courts, designed to judge over all cases involving public funds and such. This was their way of finally breaking the back of the juidical system that still has seen some people rallying around the idea of checks and balances.

[Tamas]

Good old Eastern Europe. The Romanian mayor of a godforsaken Romanian town in Tranyslvania, decided to flex some Dacian muscles.

There's a WW1 military cemetary 20 kilometers from his town, in a now abandoned village. It was a cemetery specifically designated for Hungarian and German fallen soldiers in 1927 by the Romanian government. So, there isn't a single dead Romanian in there.  The nearby Hungarians have been taking care of the cemetery for almost a hundred years now.

So, this mayor declared that a) this belongs to his town because of reasons and b) that it is from now a Romanian military cemetery, and he'll have a memorial for the Romanian fallen soldiers installed there, together with an Orthodox religious ceremony to Orthodoxy-fy the whole thing.

IIRC the Romanian courts judged this illegal, but that didn't really slow the guy down. So when his ilk arrived to perform this weird ethnic cleansing of the dead, a group of Hungarians went to protest and tried to block the entrance of the cemetery.

There was a bit of a huddle until some Romanian football hooligan types arrived, the police officers couldnt contain them (who knows how hard they tried) and beat up the Hungarian civilians, routing them.

Now the two governments are yelling at each other, and the Romanian ambassador in Budapest refused to appear when the Hungarian foreign minister summoned him.

[The Brain]

I don't think a conflict in the Balkans can spark a major conflagration.

[Tamas]

Ok this is awesome.


The main (as in, only) remaining liberal/leftist online newsite is 444.hu. They are quite gonzo, but do investigate journalism as well. There are small teams doing investigations and putting up stories but basically they seem to survive thanks to 444 publishing these as well.

Anyways, 444's office is in a flat in an apartment building.

Yesterday, the journalist recognised the man entering the flat next to their office. He was... Nikola Gruevski the former Macedonian prime minister who was sentenced to jail because of corruption, and about 6 months ago literally escaped Macedonia and made his way to Hungary with the help of the Hungarian consulates in Albania and Serbia. He has been living in Budapest since.

They tried to interview him when he left, to no avail of course. But due to the photographs they made they managed to piece a few things together:

Gruevski was meeting a secretary of the foreign ministry, a guy with lots of Balkan connections. The flat is on the name of a Chinese businessman, who got his visa via the controversial Settlement Visa program, where you buy a bond, and besides a nice return you get permanent settled status (and are free to move about in the EU of course).

Gruevski was driven to the spot in an SUV with a German license plate, driven by a guy who appears to had some holster on.


Nothing will come of this in Hungary of course, but it is funny to get a little glimpse of how shady deals are made, thanks to utter incompetence.

[Tamas]

Aung San Su Kji of the Myanmar ethnic cleansing fame stopped by Budapest on her European tour over the weekend, where she was praised as "somebody who is willing to work for her nation's interest even if it requires sacrifices".

[garbon]

Aung San Su Kji of the Myanmar ethnic cleansing fame stopped by Budapest on her European tour over the weekend, where he was praised as "somebody who is willing to work for her nation's interest even if it requires sacrifices".

Yeah, I saw that a couple days ago and it was like oh good, hatred of Muslims can unite bigots across borders.

[Malthus]

Aung San Su Kji of the Myanmar ethnic cleansing fame stopped by Budapest on her European tour over the weekend, where he was praised as "somebody who is willing to work for her nation's interest even if it requires sacrifices".

Yeah, I saw that a couple days ago and it was like oh good, hatred of Muslims can unite bigots across borders.

Bigots sans frontiers!

[Valmy]

Aung San Su Kji of the Myanmar ethnic cleansing fame stopped by Budapest on her European tour over the weekend, where he was praised as "somebody who is willing to work for her nation's interest even if it requires sacrifices".

Yeah, I saw that a couple days ago and it was like oh good, hatred of Muslims can unite bigots across borders.

I do think it is weird how there is this international alliance of right wing nationalists cheering each other on. They even have their own group in the EU parliament.

The international nationalistmen's association.

Let us come together to stop international cooperation so we can get back to being rivals other like the good old days.

[Tamas]

Aung San Su Kji of the Myanmar ethnic cleansing fame stopped by Budapest on her European tour over the weekend, where he was praised as "somebody who is willing to work for her nation's interest even if it requires sacrifices".

Yeah, I saw that a couple days ago and it was like oh good, hatred of Muslims can unite bigots across borders.

I do think it is weird how there is this international alliance of right wing nationalists cheering each other on. They even have their own group in the EU parliament.

The international nationalistmen's association.

I suspect that a lot of them are simply common crooks with very little actual convinction behind what they say. It must help.

[Tamas]

Pro tip: make sure you don't get into a serious accident in and around Budapest at the same time as 6 other people do too. Due to the chronic lack of funding (all those stadiums, palaces, foreign football clubs, Chinese railroad lines, shady business deals won't finance themselves, you know), all the traumatologies of hospitals in Budapest combined are now only able to treat/operate on a total of 6 patients with life threatening injuries/conditions. If you are the 7th, you are fucked.

[garbon]

[Tamas]

Allegedly, according to sources in both administrations, when Orban had his private meeting with Trump, he wanted to strike a deal: he'd not torpedo the Hungarian purchase of a SAM system from a joint Raytheon-Norwegian venture, if Trump helps him pressure Norway into allowing the Hungarian government decide which NGOs get funding from Norway's fund, instead of these funds being allocated independently of them, as they are right now.

Trump deflected it saying he loves Norway.

[The Brain]

He's not racist but he loves Norwegian immigrants.