Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel Israel Katz visited Hungary recently for the first time since he took up office. He met with President of Hungary Tamás Sulyok, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, and the leaders of the Hungarian Jewish communities. The main aim of the visit was to determine, with Hungary soon taking over the presidency of the EU, how Budapest and the Union would take action against anti-Israel efforts in the next six months.
Examining the performance of the first five months of 2024, Hungary also ranks among the top in the spread of clean and quiet vehicles. From January to May, nearly one and a half times more purely electric cars were registered in Hungary compared to the same period last year.
After a 3–1 loss to Switzerland and a 2–0 loss to Germany, Hungary sits pointless at the bottom of Group A at Euro 2024. However, they can still advance to the Round of 16, if they manage to beat Scotland by multiple goals on Sunday.
The famous Hungarian ice cream and gelato chef, winner of the Gelato Festival 2024, runs the Fazekas cake shop in the 16th district of Budapest. He was placed #2 in the same ranking in 2022.
Fitch Ratings confirmed Eximbank’s investment-grade rating. The bank’s senior unsecured bonds also received a ‘BBB’ rating. The bank’s international rating matches Hungary’s sovereign rating due to EXIM’s statutory full faith and credit guarantee provided by the Hungarian state, as noted by the agency.
According to the graphic shared by the Prime Minister’s political director Balázs Orbán, Hungary’s slogan will be ‘Make Europe Great Again,’ or ‘MEGA’ for short, for the upcoming presidency of the Council of the European Union. This is an obvious allusion to US President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan ‘Make America Great Again,’ which he is using for his presidential campaign as well.
Nándor Németh excelled in the second heat of the 100m freestyle with an impressive time of 48.05 seconds. Németh’s performance was only surpassed by Romanian star David Popovici, positioning Németh third, and Olympic champion Kristóf Milák fourth.
Gergely Kovács, the newly elected Budapest 12th district mayor of the Two-Tailed Dog Party, has vowed to remove the statue of the mythical turul bird located in the vicinity of the mayor’s office. He cited the monument’s connection to Nazism as his reason—however, not many other people see that connection.
Speaking to Hungarian journalists the day after an informal working dinner of EU leaders, Balázs Orbán pointed out that European voters made one thing clear in the European Parliament elections: they are not satisfied with the direction Europe has taken in the past five years, and they are not satisfied with the policies of Brussels bureaucrats and elites.
The new law was adopted on Tuesday, with restrictions coming into force in Hungarian schools as of 1 September. The legislation has created a unified regulation regarding items that cannot be brought onto school premises and those that can be brought in but whose use is restricted. The range of items in question will be regulated by a subsequent decree, but the law primarily concerns smart devices and mobile phones.
On 27 May 2024 the Bulgarian President paid a visit to the Hungarian capital to meet with the President of Hungary, Tamás Sulyok, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. These meetings have resulted in the commitment of both sides to develop economic and cultural cooperation, keep the current arrangement in natural gas transit from Bulgaria, and the support for the Hungarian agenda for its upcoming presidency over the Council of the European Union.
Orbán seems to have reached a compromise with exiting Dutch PM Mark Rutte about the latter’s NATO SecGen candidacy. But as for nominating von der Leyen again as next Commission President, Orbán, did not mince his words last night. He declared on X that ‘the will of the European people was ignored’ on Monday evening, and stated that the EPP eventually teamed up with ‘the socialists and the liberals’.
Péter Szijjártó held a joint press conference with his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz this Monday, where they discussed the horrific attack on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas on 7 October 2023, as well as the subsequent increase in antisemitism in the West.
The 9 June, Sunday European Parliament and municipal elections in Romania resulted in a historical success for the Hungarian ethnic minority, with the best results achieved in twenty years. As RMDSZ President Hunor Kelemen put it, the mandates RMDSZ won are not just numbers; they also send the message that there is a strong, viable Transylvanian Hungarian community that wants to shape its own future and plans on staying in its homeland.
Although the outcome was not what Hungarian fans had hoped for, the national team’s first group match against Switzerland at the tournament in Germany was still exceptionally popular.
Ulsan HD and Hungarian National Team striker Martin Ádám has become the focus of international attention for his unusual physique after his brief appearance against Switzerland at Euro 2024. Thankfully, he has accepted his status in good humour, saying that he ‘usually gets a good laugh’ when he sees some of the memes about him.
Slovakia’s newly elected president, Peter Pellegrini (49), was inaugurated on Saturday, 15 June in Bratislava. This historical moment is not simply a change of guard but, after the 2023 parliamentary elections, it is the last step in a significant shift in the country’s political landscape, stirring anticipation and hope for a patriotic future in Central Europe.
Last year, the rental prices for centrally located properties in Budapest increased by 17 per cent compared to 2022, placing the Hungarian capital in the mid-range among EU capitals. The survey examined the rental prices of flats typically used by expatriates, that is, the prices of well-maintained, well-equipped central apartments, either built or significantly modernized in the past ten years.
‘Hungary is not providing money, weapons or soldiers for this cooperation, but it is not blocking it either’, the defence minister reaffirmed after the NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels last week.
According to a statement from the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, at the Ukraine peace summit on Sunday Szijjártó highlighted that he represents a neighbouring country to Ukraine, one that has lived in the shadow of war for nearly two and a half years, and has directly faced the humanitarian consequences of the conflict.
Hungary’s performance greatly improved in the second half, but it was not enough to level the scoreline, which ended 3–1 to Switzerland. In the group’s other game Germany easily beat Scotland 5–1 in the tournament’s opening match last night.
Manfred Weber, President of the European People’s Party, stated that the door is open for new opposition leader Péter Magyar’s party to join the European Parliamentary political group, but that he is not the sole decision-maker. The Hungarian Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP) has announced that it will leave the EPP if the Tisza party joins the group.
The recount, which was conducted publicly, and began this morning in the aula of the NVB headquarters, was concluded in the afternoon, but the members of the National Election Commission deliberated for hours afterwards, before finally announcing the result at around 8 p.m. It turned out there were indeed hundreds of ballots invalidated erroneously which should have been considered valid, as Vitézy and his team suspected. The recount established that ultimately Gergely Karácsony received just 41 more votes than Dávid Vitézy.
After being elected to the European Parliament, Italian Antifa Ilaria Salis walked free on 14 June, as Hungarian police released her from house arrest due to the immunity granted to MEPs. This news is both outrageous and terrifying, given the devastation Salis and her associates are believed to have caused, destroying the lives of innocent people in Budapest.
Green and progressive parties suffered major losses in the European Parliamentary elections. According to an analysis by the Climate Policy Institute, this was in part due to the green policies pushed by these parties that put most of the burden of the green transition onto the general populace.
Orbán criticized the European Court of Justice’s fine as influenced by Soros, and reiterated Hungary’s refusal to comply with Brussels’ demands on immigration. He underscored Hungary’s right to decide whom it allows within its borders, stressing that Brussels should not dictate Hungary’s immigration policy.
In his remarks at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium Donald Trump Jr stated that American conservatives regard the Hungarian Prime Minister as a great leader who puts ‘Hungary first’. In his address and the subsequent discussion the businessman touched upon the upcoming American elections, US domestic politics, and global issues, including the Middle Eastern conflict and the war in Ukraine.
The150th school has now joined the cadet training, launched in 2017. The Cadet Programme of the Hungarian Defence Forces is one of the most successful programmes in the defence sector.
Viktor Orbán exchanged views with his guest on the future of Hungarian-American relations, illegal migration, and the peace-making possibilities for ending the Russian–Ukrainian war, Bertalan Havasi said.
Before the decision, Karsai had a conversation with Gergely Gulyás, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office, who argued that, as a religious person, he could not support the taking of a human life.