Hungarian Politics

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Although I have been living in the UK for over a month now, I just can`t stop reading up on the stuff back home.

Huzzah!

[Tamas]

How fucking disgusting.

In NE Hungary, there is apparently a big, military barracks-like institution for the mentally impaired (if that`s the correct translation), with horrible living conditions.
A lot of them would be able to take care of him/herself alone or with minimal supervision.

The country got a shitload of EU money to improve conditions for them, and as a result they wanted to build 40 homes for the ones who can be moved out of the institution, a small town nearby.

Helped with their (FIDESZ) MP, they have been working hard on preventing that, and now all nearby towns and villages are gathering petitions from their residents -and succeeding magnificently- in an effort to stop the poor sobs be moved to their towns.

The organization of parents with mentally impaired children is trying to convince people on behalf of the patients of the institution, but they are growing desperate in face of all the scare and ignorant fearmongering.

A fucking disgrace.

[Grey Fox]

NIMBY is a powerfull force.

[Barrister]

How fucking disgusting.

In NE Hungary, there is apparently a big, military barracks-like institution for the mentally impaired (if that`s the correct translation), with horrible living conditions.
A lot of them would be able to take care of him/herself alone or with minimal supervision.

The country got a shitload of EU money to improve conditions for them, and as a result they wanted to build 40 homes for the ones who can be moved out of the institution, a small town nearby.

Helped with their (FIDESZ) MP, they have been working hard on preventing that, and now all nearby towns and villages are gathering petitions from their residents -and succeeding magnificently- in an effort to stop the poor sobs be moved to their towns.

The organization of parents with mentally impaired children is trying to convince people on behalf of the patients of the institution, but they are growing desperate in face of all the scare and ignorant fearmongering.

A fucking disgrace.

To be fair Tamas that story could (and does) happen in any number of western countries.

[The Brain]

How fucking disgusting.

In NE Hungary, there is apparently a big, military barracks-like institution for the mentally impaired (if that`s the correct translation), with horrible living conditions.
A lot of them would be able to take care of him/herself alone or with minimal supervision.

The country got a shitload of EU money to improve conditions for them, and as a result they wanted to build 40 homes for the ones who can be moved out of the institution, a small town nearby.

Helped with their (FIDESZ) MP, they have been working hard on preventing that, and now all nearby towns and villages are gathering petitions from their residents -and succeeding magnificently- in an effort to stop the poor sobs be moved to their towns.

The organization of parents with mentally impaired children is trying to convince people on behalf of the patients of the institution, but they are growing desperate in face of all the scare and ignorant fearmongering.

A fucking disgrace.

Yes, I see it now. Property values collapsing is a good thing. How silly of the locals not to embrace it.

[Syt]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24347061#FBM291485

Hungarian homeless law bans sleeping rough

The Hungarian parliament has passed a law which aims to clear several thousand homeless people off the streets of Budapest and other towns.

The government says the law is designed to help the homeless, and that there are enough places in homeless shelters.

But critics deny that, and say the law criminalises the homeless, who could face community work, fines or even imprisonment.

The law is due to come into force next week.

Those caught sleeping rough in urban areas can be sentenced to community service or a fine, if they either refuse to move on when requested to, or are caught in the same area again.

Those who live in shacks in the woods are especially alarmed by one provision in the new law, which allows for those who build such structures without permission to be imprisoned.
'Enough places'

Several hundred protesters gathered outside parliament when the law was passed on Monday evening.

"Homeless people have always been harassed by the authorities," says Tessa Udvarhelyi, an activist of The City Belongs to Everyone, a civic group in Budapest.

"The difference is that this government... is codifying the fact that homeless people are stigmatised, harassed and criminalised."

She estimates that 10,000 people live on the streets of the capital, or in shacks they have built for themselves in the forests on the outskirts.

There are just under 6,000 places in hostels in the Hungarian capital. She says they are overflowing, especially in winter, leaving another 4,000 people to fend for themselves.

These figures are fiercely disputed by the government.

"There are plenty of places for daytime, and for night-time shelter," says Ferenc Kumin, a spokesman for the right-wing government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

"We believe that [they are] almost 100% covered."

The question is becoming especially acute as an Indian summer turns into the first cold days of autumn.
New hostels

The new law is actually an amendment to a 2012 law on "misdemeanours", which came into force but was then struck down by the Constitutional Court, only to be embedded in an amendment to the constitution passed in March this year.

The Fidesz party came to power on a tough "law and order" ticket, and some local Fidesz mayors in the capital have led the way in proposing a crackdown on the homeless.

The government has introduced a number of measures, from new hostels to a "heated streets" project, designed for the drunk and mentally disturbed who might not get a place in a normal shelter. There are also some places for couples and those with children.

But the demonstrators complain that most hostels offer little privacy, and take them away from the survival networks they build up in certain parts of the city - people who regularly bring them food, or money.

"I live in a tent in the outskirts. All I ask, from this or any government, is the chance to live decently," said Betti Fetter, 50, who has lived on the streets of Budapest for 23 years.

[The Brain]

Clean teh streets!!!111

[Sheilbh]

I saw this on Hungarian public opinion, made me think of this thread

[Admiral Yi]

Jew lovers. 

[Neil]

It's disconcerting that so many Hungarians would accept Chinese spies into their midst.

[Tamas]

Two important happenings today!


1) I don`t want to spend too much time with describing the history of the opposition in recent years, but let me try to summarize. Note the characters, so you can keep track:

-2004-2009, 2006 election winner Socialist PM Gyurcsany is Evil Incarnate according to most people. After a brief power struggle after 2010, he is quite happy to leave the Socialist Party and form his own with some other Socialist MPs joining him
-after this, president of the Socialist party, young nobody Mesterhazy is safe in his power. Socialist Party (strongest opposition party) continues to survive on a loyalist electorate

-most people refuse to vote on either FIDESZ or Socialists. Two popular movements start to form in 2011 and 2012. New and inexperienced, but they seemed to gain traction, on a largely moderate left platform. Worth noting that only mass support to them comes in cases where the government cuts silly overspending, like ridicoulous police and fireman pension amounts.

-October 23 2012, these two new formations sort of unite, and got lead by Bajnai, PM of 2009-2010. He is an established successful businessman, and was basically a successful technocrat PM as well, but he had no other task then to keep to IMF regulations we had in exchange of saving us from bankruptcy. At any rate, in front of about 100k people, he declares a program of uniting everyone near the middle, left or right, to save Hungarian democracy. He vows to talk to all opposition parties, to form a common platform by 2014, since FIDESZ has changed the election law, seriously bending the table in their own favour. It is cooperation or defeat for others.
Much rejoicing.

-Intense character-killing campaign against Bajnai begins basically immediately by FIDESZ (sponsored by state money and aided by the state TVs of course), mostly by trying to make the "Bajnia=Gyurcsany puppet" argument

-Bajnai offers negotiations to LMP, the greens, only opposition party in Parlaiment beside MSZP, Gyurcsany`s, and neo-Nazi Jobbik. This causes a MAJOR divide within LMP. The bigger half of the party wants to go at the elections alone, the rest sees that it is impossible and serves only Orban. The latter quit LMP and join Bajnai. Worth noting that IIRC the leader of LMP, Schiffer, was at one time, an Orban protégée of sorts.

-After the meltdown with LMP, Bajnai is quickly out of options, and his total lack of charisma and force of character becomes apparent. Due to lack of any other viable options other than throwing in the towel, he starts negotiations with the Socialists. His formation`s popularity plummets in the polls.

-Much of 2013 is spent with Bajnai and Mesterhazy (remember him? the prez of the Socialist party) arguing over who should be Prime Minister candidate for their alliance which hadn't been made at the time. It is a grossly hideous affair, with the two formations biting at each other`s throats for spoils they are pretty far from having any chance of winning, since according to polls, FIDESZ has a comfortable lead

-They make a weird half-assed deal in mid-2013, name of PM candidate undecided. Bajnai`s formation continues its slide to oblivion, while Gyurcsany, BY FAR the most talented and charismatic politican of the lot, reactivates himself and starts campaigning heavily. Result? His party overtakes Bajnai`s by late last year in the polls.

-Bajnai facing potential disaster, and the Socialists smelling blood, and danger at the same time, they make a new deal, and draw in Gyurcsany as well.

Their final deal has just been made. Basically it is Bajnai`s almost unconditional surrender. His formation gives up a lot of districts to Gyurcsany`s party, while the Socialists do so with none. Socialist prez Mesterhazy is the PM candidate (why not? He has not done anything in his life apart from being dragged from a box to be the party`s face for the 2010 beating they were sure to have). For bonus, Eternal Political Survival Worm, social-liberal Gabor Fodor is also taken in to the deal for some reason, with his recently formed "Liberal Party", which is so unpopular and unexisting, that it fails to register in polls.

So at the end, Bajnai`s movement to rid the left of the dinosaurs who has plagued it since a decade has been chewed up and eaten by said dinosaurs. FIDESZ`s victory in such a setup is assured.

2) Orban went to Moscow suddenly today, and signed a GENORMOUS deal with Putin and Russian nuclear building company Roszatom to double the size of the Hungarian nuclear plant. Expanding the plant is a good idea, but it is the biggest ever investment in Hungarian history, entirely funded by a massive loan given by Roszatom. The entire deal, although not unexpected, was closed in quite the secrecy, so as of this moment it is uncertain just how much of a Russian vassal we have become.

[The Brain]

[Tamas]

The deal with the Russians also mentions the imminent signing of a new contract on our Russian gas purchases, so odds are that Putin is buying Hungary in exchange of letting Orban continue campaigning with decreasing utility fees (central, as in fact, only, element of their election campaign as of yet), Ukraine-style.

Also in the deal Hungary has renewed it`s commitment to uphold the 2008 deal regarding the Russian gas pipe project, Southern Stream or something like that. The 2008 deal, by the way, was very heavily attacked by Orban at the time (he was the opposition`s leader), terming it a "coup" and a "sellout" of Hungary to Russia.

[The Brain]

Well you ARE part of the Eastern Bloc. So it makes sense that you are ruled from Moscow.

[Tamas]

Well you ARE part of the Eastern Bloc. So it makes sense that you are ruled from Moscow.

I will not be, if I can do anything about it. Screw that.