Hungarian Politics

[crazy canuck]

Finally the true fans of van gogh are free to come out and be themselves

 

[Tamas]

Not sure if I mentioned it before but apparently this has been made into law in June: any member of the armed forces aged 55 or over can be ordered to work in any of the education districts (i.e. one of the state schools) where the educational district cannot deny them taking up the ordered role and must ensure that they receive fast-tracked training to able to perform it.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Interior (which rules over the police, education, healthcare, among other things, not internal secret services though, those belong to the Minister of the Prime Minister's Office) is making actual teachers' job even harder, in ever-increasing rounds of punishment for the (actually quite very limited) teacher's strikes and demonstrations earlier. This time introducing more mandatory training, and restricting teacher's use of mobile phones on school premises

[Tamas]

Hungarian foreign minister on official visit to Bahrein:

[Norgy]

A man of the people! 
Got to soak up that vitamin D when possible.

We visited Budapest just before the local and EU elections, and I liked the city. A river cruise on Danube, being overwhelmed by cheering Chinese because Xi was visting Buda castle just at the same time I decided to make the climb up there.
One thing I noticed, was the tourist board ads at the airport. "Hungary is a family-friendly country" with a typical straight couple and some kids. That was the most ominous.

[Tamas]

Yeah, family-friendly, with collapsing demographics after 14 years of rule.

Speaking of their successes there is such trust in their rule of the economy that they are struggling to increase consumption despite what data claims are growing real wages and savings.

They are even considering allowing or even incentivising the early unlocking of long-term savings (such as private pension funds) for the purpose of buying properties. That's going to end well. Hungary has seen insane property price hikes in recent years like most other countries. People burning their pension savings to keep that fire burning will... not end well. Then again that's not Orban's problem, his human wallet, and his son-in-law (not to mention other oligarchs) now "own" staggering sizes of wealth.

[Jacob]

What is the popular explanation for the drastic increase in property prices in Hungary?