Introduction “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to process what was happening, only by going on living my life and being afraid of gypsies” explained Péter*, who had been bullied and beaten as a child for being an excellent student. So his story goes, Péter didn’t understand why these Roma children… Continue reading “Conversations with Members of the Hungarian Radical Right”
Radical right governments are exploiting COVID-19 as an excuse to expand their power. There are few worse culprits than Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. In his televised 9 April Easter message, the Catholic Church’s spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Bucharest, Father Francisc Dobos, said that the disciples of Jesus ‘feared the Jews, and here in the bracket… Continue reading “COVID-19 Could Be A Harbinger Of Authoritarianism”
The Hungarian far right envisages agricultural alternatives to Viktor Orban’s populism. Balint is a 30-year-old PhD student from northern Hungary, with expertise in organic farming and environmentally friendly agriculture. Well educated and fluent in English, Balint talks with passion about his daily work at an organic farm, hiking and spending time in nature. An expert… Continue reading “What Hungary’s Nationalist Farmers Have Against Orban”
Hungary has taken its leave of democracy and has transformed itself into a dictatorship. Since Viktor Orbán was returned to the office of Prime Minister of Hungary in May 2010, he and his party Fidesz – Magyar Polgári Szövetség (Fidesz-MPSZ; Hungarian Civic Alliance) have transformed the political system of Hungary in a sustained way. Democratic… Continue reading “Hungary and the End of Democracy”
In what has been a blow to the gut of many Hungarians, the radical right Fidesz party has won a third term in power. Fidesz-KDNP won by a large plurality of the vote, up to 48.51% from 44.87% in the 2014 national elections. On 14th April, it was announced that Fidesz had kept their two-thirds… Continue reading “Hungary’s Fidesz secure another term with two-thirds majority”
Ahead of Hungary’s national election on April 8, the far-right Jobbik party has drastically changed its image. Jobbik (Movement for a Better Hungary), where jobbik is a play on words in Hungarian, meaning both “better” and “more to the right,” first arrived on the Hungarian political scene in 2003. In 2005, Jobbik joined forces with… Continue reading “Jobbik: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?”
