Hungarian Politics

[Sheilbh]

He also set a new standard by bringing flowers to a meeting with a female country leader. 

A bottle of wine would have been better? Chocolate?

Any wine or chocolates he brought would be roofied.

[Queequeg]

Corruption is on a totally incredible rate.

Orban's previous finance minister, Gyorgy "Hungarians and Japanese are related because their newborns have red spots on their buttocks" Matolcsy has been Central Bank president for a while now.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_spot

I'd be surprised if a lot of Hungarians had it tbh.

[Tamas]

Fidesz just lost their two-thirds majority in a by election

That's good news... unless they lost the MPs to Jobbik.

By-election was in Veszprem, a modern (by Hungarian standard) city that was a clear and dominating Fidesz victory in the elections in 2014.

I have read an analysis of the turnout compared to the regular elections. It seems everyone who voted opposition in '14 went and voted again, while a big number of Fidesz supporters from '14 didn't bother to show up.

The guy who won was an independent dude, member of a fresh supposedly classic liberal/libertarian group (I haven't checked them out), who got the official support of all leftist oppositon parties, except the greens (LMP).

Worth noting that president of LMP was photograpphed hanging out during election day in the restaurant used as campaign HQ by Fidesz...

But this was not a victory of a libertarian, that would never happen in Hungary, this was the defeat of Fidesz. They have lost a lot of support the last 6 months.

Why now? I think because their insane corruption is now coupled with quite open infighting, while their trademark sweeping arrogance toward everyone is only growing.

And I am quite convinced it is also a big part because of one of the two major terrestial TV channels (RTL) renouncing the quiet agreement of not dealing with politics in exchange of not being bothered by the government (in fairness, it was the government which broke it first). I mean, things like TV ratings wouldn't make you believe this is a main reason, but it cannot be a coincidence that a few months after a country-wide mainstream media outlet starts showing Fidesz controversies (NO such thing happening on that scale before, thanks to the media law of 2011), Fidesz-supports start to decrease.

[Tamas]

One thing regarding Fidesz' slip of popularity and power:

The trigger for that oligarch frenzy I mentioned here, was that Orban has removed all financial support from the private party media, aiming instead to replicate that function via the state television.
This is already in full swing, with number of channels expanded including a dedicated news channel, etc.

A journalist made a VERY good point about what this is revealing: this is a fine system, but what happens after they lose an election? Control of the state media will go to the new government (the state TV especially has a nice tradition of always being the PR team of the current party in power), while their own private media empire will be in shambles, basically cut off and eliminated.

There is only one possible logical explanation for this move: Orban has stopped calculating with an election defeat as a possibility.

Which is BTW, understandable, since the moment they lose grip on the prosecutors office and the judges, a lot of them will go to prison.

[Martinus]

Polish media reporting that the European Commission is looking into the Orban's atomic deal with Putin on account of it being illegal.

[Syt]

Polish media reporting that the European Commission is looking into the Orban's atomic deal with Putin on account of it being illegal.

Well, good thing then that Orban signed a law making the details of the deal secret for 30 years.

[Valmy]

Well, good thing then that Orban signed a law making the details of the deal secret for 30 years.

It has a secret clause giving Hungary Transylvania.

[Valmy]

There is only one possible logical explanation for this move: Orban has stopped calculating with an election defeat as a possibility.

Which is BTW, understandable, since the moment they lose grip on the prosecutors office and the judges, a lot of them will go to prison.

Well that doesn't make things unstable at all.

[Duque de Bragança]

Polish media reporting that the European Commission is looking into the Orban's atomic deal with Putin on account of it being illegal.

Proof that Brussels (EU/NATO) is worse than Moscow!

[Tamas]

There is a long article today on the biggest news site, detailing supposed inside informations from the diplomatic circles, many of whom have been layed off recently when Orban's protege and former press secretary (also major douchebag) took over the Foreign Ministry without any diplomatic experience whatsoever, unless you count being sent to eastern dictatorships to beg for money in the last year or so counts as such.

These guys claim that even while they were there, they had basically no influence on foreign policy. It was decided by Orban and his closest private circle and they only received instructions.
Also the layoffs prompted many embassy workers to apply self-censorship when reporting from their host country's reactions to certain things, so they think most of the initial backlash for the change toward Russia just completely blindsided Orban, and/or he ignored them, as -in classic autocratic style I may add- he didn't care for any hint of criticism.

Until recently, there is. These guys claim by the time Putin arrived, Orban already had second thoughts (which I think is just the good old "it is not the monarch, but the evil ministers!" reaction - Orban played the doormat without a sign of discontent). Hence his hurriedly organised mea culpa tour - before Putin he was in Kiev and Belgrade, then of course the Polish trip which was an utter counterproductive disaster.

So, assumption/rumor is that the Polish fiasco has finally sunk it in for Orban that he has isolated Hungary, and need to steer clear of Russia.


Well, maybe. Only problem is, that goes straight against his usual practice. Because in internal politics, when he runs into problems, he just switches a couple of gears up rams the wall again, being used to his internal enemies having less resolve to bring things to the brink than he does. I am afraid he will just follow that path in foreign policy as well and will go full retard.

[Tamas]

Current Foreign Minister of Hungary:

[Martinus]

He looks like a buff 16 y.o. 

[Syt]

Pff, Austria's looks younger.

[Tamas]

He looks like a buff 16 y.o. 

Here you go:



He is an avid futsal player, his futsal club has been receiving so many sponshorships that it puts top tier football teams to shame.

And he filled the ranks of the foreign ministry with his teammates.

[Valmy]

I have just learned two amazing new things.

First that there is a variety of football called 'futsal' and that there is a dedicated facility and futsal community in my own city.  Who knew?