a cry for help and awareness from all Europeans for Hungary...
/jd
ORBAN’S GOVERNMENT HEADS TOWARDS ARBITRARY RULE
»»» Download the pdf: https://www.amnesty.hu/data/file/4241-update-developments-in-hungary_hhc-hclu-ai.pdf?version=1415642342
‘After Fidesz’s overwhelming electoral victory in April 2018, many observers believed Prime Minister Orbán would curb his voracious appetite for turning Hungary into an illiberal state. These expectations were grievously miscalculated.
An illiberal state is nearing completion in Hungary.
Hungary remains part of the European Union (EU), but its actions contradict the core values of the EU. Although constitutional institutions do exist, they no longer act as checks and balances on executive power but merely facilitate its operation. Over the past years, legal reforms have weakened independent institutions and independent media, universities, human rights and civil society organizations have been under attack.
Now, backed by its parliamentary supermajority, the government has turned to dismantling the last remaining and independent defenders of pluralism and of the rule of law by enacting new constitutional reforms and laws. Again independent institutions and voices are the first targets of this renewed attack.
We are at the moment when rule of law ends and arbitrary rule begins…’
»»» Download the pdf: https://www.amnesty.hu/data/file/4241-update-developments-in-hungary_hhc-hclu-ai.pdf?version=1415642342
Orban’s EU-funded hobby train ran empty for 10 days in the past year
‘Since it began operations in April 2016 the Vál Valley Light Railway has accumulated a total of 39,500 euros (12.3 million forints) in losses. This light railway operates in prime minister Viktor Orban’s home village of Felcsút. In the last year, its net losses totalled 27,000 euros (8.2 million Hungarian forints). This is exactly twice as much as the loss it accrued in the first 14 months of its operation.
In 2015 Atlatszo first reported that the Orban government decided to spend nearly two million euros (600 million forints) of European Union funds on the light railway. It runs for 6 kilometers from nearby the soccer stadium built next to the PM’s house. Some Hungarians nicknamed the light railway the prime minister’s own ’hobby train.
[….] According to the data provided to us by the foundation, 31,899 tickets were sold during the 12 months in question. Their best day was December 2, 2017, the second day of the local three-day Santa Claus celebration.
In May and June 2018 there were 10 days when not tickets were sold and the trains were running empty…’
I have heard for years now from Hungarian liberals that Orbán is a stupid man, during that time he has been building in international profile to the point were he is now a european leader. Soon we will have Euro elections and the 'liberal-Left' has (again) no vision of what they want Europe to be, but Orbán does. What a disaster :-/
/jd
‘…The Italian interior minister, Matteo Salvini, and the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, have said they are “walking down the same path” after discussing the formation of a common anti-migration front they said would oppose the policies of the French president.
“We want to change Europe’s commission. We want to protect our borders. We are going to fight pro-migrant policies supported by [Emmanuel] Macron and [George] Soros,” Salvini said after the pair met in Milan.
[….] “European elections are coming. We have to change a lot of things,” Orbán said on Tuesday. “There are two sides at the moment in Europe. One is led by Macron, who is supporting migration. The other one is supported by countries who want to protect their borders. Hungary and Italy belong to the latter.”
[….] “Hungary has shown that we can stop migrants on land. Salvini has shown migrants can be stopped at sea. We thank him for protecting Europe’s borders,” Orbán said…’
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/28/matteo-salvini-viktor-orban-anti-migrant-plan-brussels
Milo Yiannopoulos and Steve Bannon spoke in Hungary — it cost $60,000, seemingly in taxpayer money
‘The cost of getting Milo Yiannopoulos and Steve Bannon to Hungary for hourlong speeches in Budapest in May was upwards of $60,000 — including a $20,000 speaking fee for each, or nearly the equivalent of four years of low-skilled labor in the Central European country — according to contracts obtained by Mic. And some of the funds came from Hungarian taxpayers.
The contracts created for Yiannopoulos’ and Bannon’s appearances were given to Mic by the head of Hungary’s opposition party and via an information request, respectively. The documents detail the agreements between the two men — key figures of the so-called alt-right who were formerly affiliated with Breitbart — and the Public Foundation for the Research of Central and East European History and Society, or PFRCEEHS, a publicly funded organization whose website says it performs “government tasks related to the protection of educational and the cultural goods.” The foundation is led by Mária Schmidt, an ally of Hungary’s newly re-elected Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is often described as an autocrat.
Bannon and Yiannopoulos were each slated to be paid $20,000 for hourlong speeches by the organization, which promised to pay “the costs associated with appearing at” their respective speeches. These costs included roughly $12,000 for Yiannopoulos’ and an associate’s plane tickets, and roughly $12,000 more for the costs of Bannon and his staff to stay at a five-star hotel for four nights, along with various food and catering charges, according to invoices from the Kempinski Hotel Corvinus in Budapest provided to Mic as a result of the information request.
The over-$60,000 total does not include the price of plane tickets for Bannon and his staff. Hungarian authorities told Mic the PFRCEEHS did not pay Bannon’s airfare, although the contract does state the foundation will pay for “two first-class and two business-class one-way airplane tickets with priority passes.” The documents do not reveal the cost of Yiannopoulos’s accommodation, either, though he and his associate were promised “3 nights in a 4 (four) star hotel … including breakfast.”…’
read the rest at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/samuel-salzborn/hungary-and-end-of-democracy
Punishing tax stops refugees studying at Hungarian universities
‘…Dozens of refugees will not finish studies after Hungary’s anti-migrant government imposed a punishing university tax.
[….] In June, parliament overwhelmingly passed a package of legislation known as the “Stop Soros” bill that would allow for the imprisonment of anybody aiding migrants, despite pleas from international bodies including the European Union and United Nations not to do so.
[….] “Unless EU institutions make it clear to the Hungarian government that taxing and criminalising work with asylum seekers, migrants, and refugees is unacceptable and an affront to EU laws and values, we may see more valuable programmes and projects fold,” Lydia Gall, an Eastern Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch, wrote on Wednesday.
The bill has also been criticised for being intentionally vague, forcing CEU to close its migrant programme while it seeks tax advice, the university wrote in a statement on August 28…’