Hungarian Politics

[Grey Fox]

Man with sweaters tighten to their waist lose all credibility.

[Tamas]

Man with sweaters tighten to their waist lose all credibility.

I disagree.

[Admiral Yi]

I'm with Tamas.  Anything is better than holding it in your hand.

[HisMajestyBOB]

They're wearing masks, so they must be antifa leftists paid by George Soros to promote the coronavirus hoax.

[Sheilbh]

So this is arguably more a European issue than a Hungarian one. But the EPP Committee on Fidesz basically stopped their work, former Chancellor Schussel more or less accused this just being cancelled by Tusk.

So the chair of the EPP Committee on Fidesz and former President of the Council, Herman Van Rompuy, as issued a statement clarifying the situation:

This is simply a wrong presentation of events. The Evaluation Committee did not manage to agree on what has to happen in Hungary - even though our work conducted over the months clearly showed that there were many critical issues to be addressed in the areas of the rule of law, freedom of the media, science and culture. Our common conclusion was that no sufficient progress was made since the decision on the suspension of Fidesz. Because of the disagreement in the Committee on a common approach, it was me who proposed to end the work of the Committee. It simply made no sense to continue this work.

This feels like a characteristic statement of the issues the European centre-right has had dealing with Fidesz - even though it's related to very critical issues. So while suspended, Fidesz remains in the mainstream family of centre-righ parties in Europe

[Syt]

Wolfgang "if we come 3rd in the election, we go into opposition" Schüssel

Of course when they came 3rd they ended up in a coalition with the second strongest party, FPÖ, with him as chancellor (leading to Austria being shunned/embargoes by the rest of the EU). And when the BZÖ under Haider split off from the FPÖ, instead of calling new elections he just switched to his coalition over to the BZÖ splitters.

Fuck that guy, only thing he's notable for is being a manipulative tactician.

[Tamas]

In 2019, as part of an international investigation, the Peruvian ambassador of Hungary was arrested in Peru, after police found 19 THOUSAND images of child pornography on his computer.

He was shipped home by the Hungarian police to face trial.

Whic has just concluded. He is getting 1 year in prison suspended for three years, following his admission of guilt. 

His lawyer pointed out that ex-ambassador, Gabor Kaletta, is a "deeply religious, practicing Christian" who "led an exemplary life of an attorney". Kaletta himself also pointed out the plight of his fate as he lost 60 pounds and his family has been harassed by anonymous phone calls.

The poor guy, such a victim.


Apparently the judge said that since the prosecution asked for this suspended sentence in case of admission, he cannot give a harsher one. Also he said the court agreed with the prosecution that considering the extenuating (must be his Church-going nature) and aggravating circumstances they found no need for that harsher sentence.

[Syt]

https://insighthungary.444.hu/2020/07/02/hungarian-ambassador-receives-one-year-suspended-sentence-for-possession-of-child-pornography

Hungarian ambassador receives one year suspended sentence for possession of child pornography

Former Hungarian ambassador to Peru Gábor Kaleta was sentenced by a Budapest court on Thursday to a one year suspended prison sentence for possession of more than 19,000 pornographic images of minors.

A judge suspended Kaleta's sentence for two-and-a-half years, and ordered him to pay a fine of Ft 540,000 (€1,500). If the former ambassador does not commit a crime within that time period, he will serve no time in prison.

Kaleta's lawyer argued that his client had "lived an exemplary life as a lawyer in which he entered a diplomatic career and served his country. He is a deeply religious person that regularly practices his faith." Kaleta has lost 30 kilos since being implicated in the crimes, and the case has deeply affected his family, the lawyer said.

In the spring of 2019, Hungarian secret services were informed by an American cybercrime unit that it had been monitoring Kaleta's online activities as part of an investigation into an international pedophile ring. The ambassador was then escorted from Peru to Hungary by Hungarian authorities, but the case was kept quiet in Hungary, reportedly at the request of US authorities who feared publicity could jeopardize their ongoing investigation.

However, even after the US investigation was closed, Kaleta's case was kept secret by the Hungarian government and prosecutor's office for more than a year before first being reported on by Index.hu. He was reportedly immediately stripped of his diplomatic rank after being taken into custody, and charged in November of last year.

Kaleta served as the ambassador to Peru from 2017 until his arrest, and was earlier the press officer for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2012.

That rather seems like a slap on the wrist.

[Tamas]

I just posted about it yesterday :p

The regime works like organised crime. They want obedience but if you are loyal you get protection from the outside world.

A similarly disgusting case was when several years ago a gynecologist, nephew of a prestigious party member mutilated his ex-girlfriend by pouring some base liquid on her private parts causing severe burns and, how to put it nicely, unable to get pregnant the regular way.

The guy ALMOST got away with it. He assaulted the woman in a mask but he used an injected anaesthetic to knock her out for the mutilation that not only was a type used in his hospital but also police found a syringe with the stuff in it in his trunk. Plus some witnesses could place his car at the scene but I dont remember all the details. There was a lot of things that made it evident it was him.

Despite all that, once the police figured out who he was, they wanted to drop the case for lack of evidence. The victim had to tour the media and bang up a scandal to have the case reopened.

What she earned was years of torture as the legal process was dragged out as long as possible. I remember she had to testify in front of the court repeating the details and he nature of her injuries several times, I think the last one was fairly recently.

The guy ended up being sentenced to jail but it is only now, after about a decade that he will actually start serving it.


At some point, a pro government TV (might have been the state TV I don't remember) even ran an interview with him where they worked hard to portrait him as the victim.

[Tamas]

https://insighthungary.444.hu/2020/07/22/indexhu-editor-in-chief-fired-amid-fears-of-takeover


This really has been going on for a decade now. In fact, 444.hu that I just linked above was created by one of the Index.hu founders after the first exodus of journalists, when the first fairly gentle nudging and censoring started.



I guess it's hard to explain to a foreigner the implication and size of this. For around 20 years now Index.hu has been THE Internet news source of Hungary. Their market share and number of visitors are staggeringly high. There are lots more content than just politics, and what is probably the most important to the Footballer God King Dear Leader is that due to old habits, a huge number of his supporters also visit the site regularly. Which, at this point, make it the ONLY source of non-Orban approved news to reach those people.

Over those 20 years there was just one semi-competitor to Index, it was a similar site called Origo. It ended up being owned by the German T-Systems company and they ended up handing it over to government oligarchs in exchange of some punitive taxes dropped. It has now become a cesspit of ridiculously vile propaganda, not even a shadow of what it was.

The plans for Index are probably more soft-handed then that. A turn away from political news, heavy censoring of those could see the site retain its viewers while showing a more serene, happy and prosperous country. Will see. The sort of paper-based equivalent of Index, a long-standing leftist paper called Nepszabadsag was also acquired by Orban's oligarchs years ago, and then abruptly closed down with laughable excuses of financial troubles (was pretty much the only newspaper left turning a healthy profit) after they did some investigate journalism on the shady dealings of one of Orban's lieutenants. So I guess the question is if they want to set an example with Index or not.

[Tamas]

https://index.hu/english/2020/07/24/editorial_board_of_index_resigns/

[Tamas]

Seems like almost the entire staff is following the editorial board, as 80 people have resigned.

That's very brave of them and deserve respect for the gesture, as I am not sure if even a dozen similar job openings can be made in Hungary for online content creators or journalists where they can avoid being howling government dogs.

Also, a few thousand people are marching to Orban's office (meaning the Buda castle) in protest. It's a pre-announced protest and the police have given permission for mask wearing, as that is forbidden by law on protests (since a year or two) normally.

[Sheilbh]

Incredibly grim

[Sheilbh]

Thought this was a compelling, strong piece. About Bulgaria but I thought there were a lot of similarities: tepid condemnation of an EPP "family" party/ally, failure to really do anything on justice, but ongoing corruption from structural funds:

EU's credibility is at stake over Bulgaria, says reformist leader
Hristo Ivanov says Germany and the Commission have sold themselves too cheaply to ensure Borissov's loyalty.
By Christian Oliver   
8/10/20, 7:00 AM CET
Updated 8/11/20, 9:44 AM CET


The EU's credibility as a custodian of the rule of law is on the line over its failure to respond to a spiraling corruption crisis in Bulgaria, according to a reformist party leader whose anti-graft crusade has helped drive major street protests every night for almost five weeks.

Hristo Ivanov, a former justice minister who now heads the anti-corruption Yes Bulgaria party, insists that Brussels and Berlin have to take responsibility for helping deliver the Bulgarian judiciary and other key institutions into the clutches of an oligarchic mafia.

By going soft on supervision of judicial reforms, while simultaneously stoking the corruption with European funds, the EU has a lot to answer for, he argues.

"If the EU is unable to guarantee minimal standards of rule of law in a member state as weak ... as Bulgaria, what is it good for?" Ivanov asked in an interview with POLITICO.

He added that the European Commission, which is supposed to act as a guarantor of the EU treaties, "wilfully closed its eyes to what is happening in Bulgaria," even though European funds are the mafia's lifeblood. "This level of state capture in Bulgaria was only made possible by the easy drug of EU funds," he complained.

Over the past few months, Ivanov and other campaigners have stitched together an unprecedently clear picture of how a cadre of oligarchs has effectively established a parallel state in Bulgaria that exerts power through business, the judiciary, the media, police and security apparatus. Bulgaria's mafia has its origins in the Communist-era spy service, and has seized on the powerlessness of EU judicial oversight to extend its reach via time-honored tactics of menaces and kompromat.

European leaders are conspicuously silent about the mounting evidence that an EU country is brazenly flouting the bloc's democratic and legal norms, and have failed to criticize Sofia over police brutality against anti-corruption protesters and attacks on reporters.

Ivanov argued that Brussels and Berlin turn a blind eye to Bulgaria's mafia because Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, whom the protesters see as a facilitator of the abuses, is a crucial ally of the Christian Democrats of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the EU stage. Brussels and Germany also see the burly former bodyguard as dependable in handling relations with Turkey, Ivanov said.

"It's a very typical thing: An empire is at its point of eclipse when it allows its border policy to be handled by local warlords," he said. "The thing is that the unequivocal support of Germany and the European Commission for Borissov is selling the credibility and political capital of Europe and Germany too cheaply. They could have gained the same level of cooperation without being so unprincipled and without demoralizing the Bulgarian public."

Ivanov stressed that the Bulgarian public's main expectation of Brussels was not EU cash, which Borissov often boasts of securing. Instead, he said people wanted the EU to help rescue the country's hijacked justice system by demanding genuine progress against corruption in return for funds.

Ivanov argued Borissov had, however, charmed Merkel through his unwavering loyalty to her European People's Party, and by acting as the endearing "simpleton" at European Council summits. He quipped that Borissov must remind her of the accommodating attendants that East Germans met on their socialist-era trips to Bulgaria's beaches. "He's obliging as a bellboy, with that specific Balkan charm."

A spokesman for Borissov's political party, GERB, insisted there was "no tolerance for corruption in GERB and the government. Prime Minister Borissov has repeatedly declared that he will not protect anyone accused of corruption."

Indeed, Borissov is keen to cast himself as the clean pair of hands who kept EU funds running after corruption in a Socialist Party government caused them to be cut in 2008. He is particularly proud of the motorways built with EU money during his mandates.

While Bulgaria's parallel state is a complex web, Ivanov and the protesters are focusing their attention on the role of two prominent behind-the-scenes power brokers from the country's ethnic Turkish party: Ahmed Dogan, the party's former leader, and media mogul Delyan Peevski.

Ivanov triggered the current round of protests — the largest in seven years — through a video stunt that illustrated how Dogan was illegally occupying a stretch of coastline as his headquarters, and was guarded by state security, even though he has no public role. Since Ivanov's beach landing in a rubber dingy on July 7, Dogan and Peevski have had to give up their bodyguards, and the top general of state security had to resign.

Borissov has been reluctant to challenge Dogan and Peevski, and the protesters are calling for his resignation partly because of his ties to the duo. Ivanov describes the power-sharing arrangement of the state as: "Borissov is king by day, Peevski is king by night." The spokesperson for GERB insisted, however, that the government and the ethnic Turkish party were not working as a coalition.

The biggest single concern is the justice system, as increasing testimony emerges about how the judiciary has been weaponized as a tool for threats, extortion and state takeovers. The tens of thousands of protesters packing the streets of Sofia and other cities are calling not only for Borissov's resignation but also for Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev to quit. Both men are making it clear that they are not budging.

Ivanov stressed the EU could not pretend that Bulgaria's rule-of-law failings were a domestic concern, especially since the country was in such a mess thanks to the failure of the EU's Cooperation and Verification Mechanism on judicial reform. The Commission has lately given Bulgaria strangely rosy reports, while testimony now suggests a mafia takeover was deepening.

"This is not a domestic question, because the biggest, easiest corruption concerns European funds," Ivanov argued, adding that Bulgaria's unaccountability within the EU had significant ramifications for the single market, particularly when coupled with problems such as smuggling, organized crime and terrorism.

"[Bulgaria's corruption] is a matter of financial interest and national security to every European citizen ... You can come on vacation to Bulgaria and become the guest of our lack of rule of law; you can have a business in Bulgaria, and it can be stolen from you."

Ivanov resigned as justice minister in 2015 when his attempts to force through judicial reform in a Borissov government were thwarted, but he also stressed that he received no support from the EU. "My decision to become a minister was not based on the illusion that Borissov wants reform. I wanted to see, if there is a real reformer in the ministry of justice, would there be enough European support for me? My conclusion unequivocally was there was none from Mr. [Frans] Timmermans, who was responsible, as first vice president of the Commission.

"We have a lot of experience of trying to draw the attention of the competent institutions to euro-fund abuses, and they are extremely generous with Bulgaria. Somebody in Berlin is making a cynical calculus: a billion more or less, who cares? As long as you buy the good favors of Borissov and you keep him stable ... who cares about some 'tips'?"

Responding to Ivanov's criticism of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, the European Commission said Bulgaria had made "sufficient" progress on judicial reform, in line with its commitments upon joining the EU, but still needed "continued" implementation of reforms on "judicial independence and the fight against corruption."

Ivanov is now pushing for another shot at judicial reform through an election, next spring at the latest, which he hopes will center on a legal shake-up.

In a backdrop to the protests, a full oligarch-versus-oligarch war appears to have erupted. Geshev and the prosecutors portray themselves as taking down corrupt tycoons, while the oligarchs and other businessmen they are targeting are going public with tales of extortion with menaces. In an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the protest movement, the judiciary camp accuses the moguls they are probing — like the casino baron Vasil "The Skull" Bozhkov — of funding the demonstrators.

To Ivanov, this mud-slinging among the elite is a sign that the oligarchic system is reaching endgame.

"The system is reaching a point where it is unraveling."

[Tamas]

It is quite interesting, in a terrible way, how an EU program meant to uplift poorer regions ended up triggering the renaissance of East European feudalism.


IDK how far along they are in Bulgaria but the decisive thing for Orban has been the EU grants I feel. It meant he and his vassals gained such a powerful financial position over the rest of the economy, that they simply could buy most of the things they could not take. Case in point Index.hu above. Sure, they channel out Hungarian taxpayer money as well to themselves as much as they can (a latest thing I remember is major power plant that was modernised while in public ownership, sold to a henchman for pennies, he quickly ran it into the ground financially, then the state bought it back to "save it" for some ridiculously high price), but it was EU funds that gave them the edge over other power blocks in the country.

What makes it extra painful of course is that these funds could have made a major difference but if you spend them properly it is harder to steal most of them, so it is one more generational opportunity wasted. It is little consolation that it is far from being the first in the country's history.