All posts tagged: Hungarian

Orbán breaks silence after Hungarian election defeat – POLITICO

Orbán breaks silence after Hungarian election defeat – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Orbán, who has led Hungary for 16 years straight, took a somber tone throughout the interview, describing the aftermath of the election in personal terms. “I felt pain and emptiness,” he said, adding that he has been throwing himself into his work as “occupational therapy” to cope with the shock. “Even I thought we were going to win,” he admitted. Magyar has already begun signaling a break with Orbán’s nationalist-populist rule, pledging to relocate the prime minister’s office from Budapest’s Carmelite Palace. Orbán will also skip next week’s informal European Council meeting in Cyprus, according to an EU official who spoke to POLITICO, emphasizing how quickly his long tenure is drawing to a close. Orbán didn’t duck responsibility for the defeat in his interview. “It’s me. I am the president of the party,” he said, adding that he took the outcome “100 percent on myself.” He acknowledged Fidesz had failed to connect with the electorate: “I have to admit that the opponent’s message was stronger,” he said, referring to Magyar’s promise of change centered on …

Magyar to relocate Hungarian prime minister’s office in shot at Orbán – POLITICO

Magyar to relocate Hungarian prime minister’s office in shot at Orbán – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Hungary’s premier-elect Péter Magyar said he would relocate the prime minister’s office in Budapest once he is sworn in. “Under the Tisza government, the Prime Minister’s Office will not be based in the Carmelite Palace in the Castle District, which Viktor Orbán had set up for himself, but in one of the ministry buildings near parliament,” Magyar wrote on X on Thursday. The baroque Carmelite Monastery in Buda, on the western side of the Danube, historically served as a Catholic monastery and later as a theater before being converted into Prime Minister Orbán’s office in 2019 at a cost reported to be more than €50 million. Hungary’s parliament building, one of Budapest’s most iconic landmarks, is located on the eastern bank of the river. The move marks another effort by Magyar to distance himself from his predecessor, after he appeared on Orbán-affiliated state television to announce that he would suspend their operations. In an interview Wednesday, Magyar described the broadcaster as a “factory of lies” and said he would “immediately suspend the false news service.” Magyar’s …

Pro-EU Hungarian PM-elect Magyar vows to bring in ‘new era’

Pro-EU Hungarian PM-elect Magyar vows to bring in ‘new era’

Published by Sam Flores

From Madrid to Helsinki, many hope that Hungary’s premier-elect Peter Magyar’s win will help unshackle the 27-nation European Union as it faces hybrid warfare attacks from Moscow, an antagonistic Washington and Beijing’s economic pressure. EU leaders had been increasingly frustrated with Orbán over his takeover of democratic institutions and vetoing of strategic action like a 90-billion-euro loan for Ukraine. It remains to be seen whether those hopes will be fulfilled, as FRANCE 24’s Europe Editor Armen Georgian reports. Source link

How Orbán lost the Hungarian election – POLITICO

How Orbán lost the Hungarian election – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Here’s how the Hungarian prime minister lost his grip after 16 years in power. Orbán lost the public’s trust Orbán’s decline began in 2024, after the government pardoned the former deputy director of a children’s home who had been convicted of covering up child sexual abuse. The resulting scandal prompted Magyar — then a mid-level civil servant and Fidesz member — to stage a public revolt against the prime minister, leading thousands of protesters into the streets. His media blitz included the release of an audio recording of his wife, Judit Varga, who had just been forced out as justice minister, describing alleged government interference in the case. The accusations shattered Fidesz’s image as a protector of children. It caused “a moral crisis of a moralizing government,” said Péter Krekó, director at independent political consultancy Political Capital. “Since then, we can pretty much perceive that whatever the government does, whatever the government says, it resonates less with the public.” Orbán lost the ground game Magyar used the 2024 clemency scandal as a springboard for the …

‘Undeterred’: Hungarian investigative journalist faces threats and espionage accusations from Orbán – Spotlight

‘Undeterred’: Hungarian investigative journalist faces threats and espionage accusations from Orbán – Spotlight

Published by Sam Flores

Gavin Lee is pleased to welcome Szabolcs Panyi, VSquare’s Budapest-based lead investigative editor in charge of Central European investigations and investigative journalist at Direkt36. His reporting into alleged ties between Hungary’s political leadership and Russian state actors triggered an unprecedented response: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán publicly accused him of espionage. According to Panyi, Orbán seeks to discredit independent journalism with false narratives of conspiracies against the government. His work examining communications between Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and Sergei Lavrov appears to have triggered an aggressive preemptive effort to undermine both the findings and the journalist behind them. This reflects a deeper transformation within Hungary: the erosion of press freedom, the instrumentalization of state institutions, and the increasing convergence between political power and informational control. Despite intimidation, surveillance, and threats, Panyi says he remains committed to his investigative work, not simply as an act of defiance, but rather as a necessary function of democratic accountability. Source link

Hungarian election tests Trump’s global reach as Orban fights for survival

Hungarian election tests Trump’s global reach as Orban fights for survival

Published by Sam Flores

BUDAPEST — In an election that has President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin rooting for the same outcome, Hungarians on Sunday will decide the fate of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the self-proclaimed champion of illiberal Christian democracy who is a darling of MAGA-aligned American conservatives, an ally of the Kremlin and a proud antagonist of European Union leaders in Brussels. Source link

How Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s hometown became a symbol of excesses : NPR

How Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s hometown became a symbol of excesses : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Pancho Arena, soccer stadium in Felcsút, Hungary. Rob Schmitz/NPR hide caption toggle caption Rob Schmitz/NPR To the outsider, the Pancho Arena, a massive soccer stadium built to seat 4,000 fans, seems out of place in the tiny Hungarian village of Felcsút. The village, nearly an hour drive from Budapest, Hungary’s capital, has a population that would only fill half the stadium. But the open-air architectural gem, made of curved wooden beams that jut dramatically upwards and resemble a cathedral, wasn’t built in just any village. Felcsút is the hometown of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and his family’s weekend home sits across the street from the stadium, which carries the nickname of Ferenc Puskás, Hungary’s most famous soccer player from the 1950s. As Hungarians head into a national election on Sunday, Orbán is facing a double-digit deficit in the polls, despite a last-minute rally in Budapest on Tuesday with U.S. Vice President JD Vance. The vote might bring an end to Orbán’s 16-year hold on power and could reshape the country’s role in Europe. The leader …

Viktor Orbán Could Actually Lose Sunday’s Hungarian Election

Viktor Orbán Could Actually Lose Sunday’s Hungarian Election

Published by José Betancourt

Viktor Orbán is the closest thing in Europe to a prime minister for life. He has served four consecutive terms since 2010, perpetuating his power with the ruthlessness of a royal. But ruthlessness may not guarantee him reelection. That became clear to me recently in Székesfehérvár, a small city in central Hungary where Orbán was born. Székesfehérvár lacks Budapest’s grand boulevards and baroque extravagance, but the city is not without luster. Hungary’s first king, Stephen I, built a basilica in Székesfehérvár that served as the coronation site for later monarchs. Rain was lashing the city when I visited one evening last month. It was dark and cold. But close to 1,000 people had gathered in the town square, all of them waiting for Péter Magyar, a onetime Orbán loyalist who broke with the prime minister two years ago and is now trying to unseat him in elections on Sunday. Most polls have shown Magyar’s party, Tisza, with a comfortable lead over Orbán’s Fidesz Party. But it’s not a given that popular support will translate into …

Younger Hungarian Voters Spurn Orban, Some Say They Will Leave if He Is Re-Elected

Younger Hungarian Voters Spurn Orban, Some Say They Will Leave if He Is Re-Elected

Published by Sam Flores

By Krisztina Fenyo, Marton Monus and Gergely Szakacs SZOMBATHELY, Hungary, April 6 (Reuters) – As Hungary heads towards a pivotal ⁠election, ⁠voters who came of age under Prime Minister Viktor Orban ⁠have emerged as a key group driving support for the opposition, with some saying they will leave the country if the veteran ​leader is re-elected. Orban, 62, a eurosceptic nationalist, is facing the biggest threat to his 16-year grip on power, with most opinion polls showing centre-right rival Peter Magyar and his Tisza Party on course to ‌defeat him in Sunday’s election. The media-savvy Magyar, 45, is ‌proving an attractive alternative for many younger voters disenchanted with Orban’s right-wing Fidesz party, sociologists and pollsters say. “Fidesz’s thinking no longer understands young people,” sociologist Daniel Oross said. Full-time university students are an ⁠especially key demographic, he said, ⁠noting that if they were to vote as a bloc they could lift a party above the 5% ​parliamentary threshold. The number of Hungarian emigrants has risen sharply since Russia’s 2022 invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, which had a …