Two elections this week at the Council of Europe will determine the institution’s future orientation. On Tuesday, 25 June the new Secretary General of the Council of Europe will be elected for a five-year term. On Wednesday, 26 June three new judges for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will be elected for a nine-year term. Senior Research Fellow at the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) Nicolas Bauer points out the risk of a leftist takeover.
The European Union will support arms shipments to Ukraine using a portion of the frozen Russian assets. The foreign ministers of the Member States decided on this issue on Monday, excluding Hungary from the decision-making process. Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó described the decision as a ‘shameless disregard of European rules’.
Pro-Palestinian gender studies students disrupted the graduation ceremony of the Central European University (CEU) in Vienna. The students accused the university administration of supporting the genocide allegedly perpetrated by Israel. These events mirrored the pro-Palestinian protests observed on US campuses.
In a hard-fought match, Hungary consistently appeared closer to taking the lead, with the opponent being saved by the goalpost once in each half. In the last moments of the ten-minute extra time, following a quick counter-attack, substitute Csoboth scored the decisive goal from a pass by Roland Sallai, keeping Hungary’s hope of advancing to the round of 16 alive.
‘Is it any surprise that the recent Dutch national elections were won by Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party? Is it surprising that the Dutch are fed up with uncontrolled—and, frankly, uncontrollable—immigration? Who would want to live in a country where there are about three bomb attacks every day? Who would want to run a business or open a shop in such a country? Make no mistake: this is the future from which Orbán is trying to save Hungary.’
According to Prime Minister’s Political Director Balázs Orbán, the EU presidency is an opportunity that can be utilized to make Europe stronger and to represent Hungarian national interests as effectively as possible at the EU level.
‘A successful republic, according to Machiavelli, is characterized by laws that are lived by rather than frequently amended. While no system of governance can achieve absolute perfection, a stable republic can achieve a functional balance. For him Rome serves as a historical exemplar of such a system, where laws were respected and adhered to, placing communal benefits above personal gain, thus prudently managing both public and private affairs.’
‘Before the term “liberal” became ideological, it referred to much more general, non-political characteristics: open-mindedness, generosity, and the like…Liberalism, however, marked the triumphant beginnings of modernity, which aimed to create a political morality called “the conception of rational choice as the generator of political order”.’
‘According to the main line of progressivists, the struggles of history lead to a just or more just society, just as science eventually overcomes “superstition”. Ironically, today’s supporters of the ideology of progress are often those post-Christian materialists who believe that religion…is also nothing more than a kind of “superstition”, even if this superstition is somewhat more complex, has moral lessons and has contributed constructively to “the democratic roots of Europe”. On the other hand, we can find many explanatory arguments as to why the idea of progress in a general sense applied to the human world or human nature can actually be considered a superstition—that is, a contra-factual idea that is completely opposed to the self-image of modern natural scientific thought.’
The Gospels of Abba Garima, an illuminated gospel book divided into two volumes discovered in 1950, were originally thought to be composed just after the first millennium, or at least centuries after the death of the itinerant monk Garima. Yet recent radiocarbon dating carried out at Oxford University suggests a date between 330–650 AD, thus opening the possibility that they were actually formed by Abba Garima himself, which would pre-date the then earliest illustrated scriptural manuscript of the Rabbula Gospels (c. 586 AD, Laurentian Library, Florence) from Syria.
To address the housing shortage, nearly 1 million dwellings were built under the housing programme between 1961 and 1975, 300,000 of them in Budapest; and a large part of the country’s population still lives in the apartments built during that period to this very day. Despite the difficulties and the negative aspects, anyone who has lived in or visited a prefab will never forget it. Public housing cannot be said to be entirely negative or positive, can be loved or disliked, but it is a legacy from the past that defines who we are.
‘Although the Pechenegs have no visible identity, they are part of the Hungarian nation to this day: their medieval history may have ended, but they have played an important role in Hungarian ethnogenesis. Great clans of Pecheneg origins, like the Tomaj, rose to high nobility, exemplifying self-sacrifice when it came to defending the country from foreign invaders.’
‘Is dominance good or bad? What is the relationship between dominance and democracy? What are the main reasons for dominance? Concerning the last question, the authors argue that—besides the already investigated causes, such as the electoral system—five aspects explain Fidesz’s dominance: the view of the past, the image of the nation, the perception of democracy, leadership, and the party’s role in the party system (and in relation to the opposition). The central part of the book elaborates on these five aspects, focusing on Fidesz and two additional international examples of dominant parties in each chapter.’
Ambassador Orsolya Zsuzsanna Kovács, who has been serving as the diplomatic envoy of Hungary in Warsaw since 2017, has been awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta Commander’s Cross by President Andrzej Duda of Poland.
The staging of the musical version of one of the most popular young adult fiction works ever written in Hungarian, titled Be Faithful Unto Death, was a major undertaking and a dream come true for the initiator of the project, Bernadett Csizmadia. The show was performed on the 50th anniversary celebration of the Széchenyi Hungarian School and Kindergarten of New Brunswick, NJ.
A film drama about taxi hyenas; a documentary about one of the greatest masters of Hungarian animation, Attila Dargay; a feature film about a doctor working in an intensive care unit; and an experimental short film titled Flódni have received production support from the television committee of the National Film Institute (NFI).
‘“There is not enough money in the world for us to put our children and grandchildren into the hands of LGBT activists,” said Orbán earlier this month. We are all in a very bad place when basic moral sanity like that is an act of uncommon courage…It is unlikely that Orbán will show up at the American ambassador’s queer picnic. In civilizational terms, the prime minister will be missing a tea party on the deck of the Titanic.’
Trading first started on the Budapest Stock Exchange on 18 January 1864, but the exchange was dismantled by the communist regime in 1948. After the regime change of 1989, securities trading restarted at last on 21 June 1990, exactly 34 years ago today.
Popular anti-government actor Ervin Nagy has been named as a high-profile donor for Magyar’s demonstrations, yet some question if Nagy’s financial support is sufficient to cover the expenses of photographers, stages, audio and other electronic equipment, not to mention the honoraria of advisors and the costs of travel and accommodation. Trying to clarify the situation Magyar also cited micro-donations from ordinary Hungarians as the source of funding for his campaigns. He also promised to make his asset declaration public back in April, following a rather high-profile breakup with his ex-wife, the former Minister of Justice Judit Varga, but he has not done it so far.
According to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Hungary will gain significant economic benefits by participating in the transformation of German industry. He believes that both Germans and Hungarians have a vested interest in the interconnectedness of the global economy.
On Thursday Minister for National Economy Márton Nagy held a special meeting with representatives from SK ON Hungary and CATL Debrecen, two of the largest and most influential high-tech battery industry companies. The parties reviewed the international situation of the battery industry related to the electric vehicle sector, with particular emphasis on its European context, as well as the challenges facing the sector and the opportunities within the green transition.
Among the Hungarian wines entered, the jury awarded one Best in Show title, four platinum medals, thirteen golds, fifty-six silvers, and sixty-seven bronzes.
Barna Pál Zsigmond went on Hungarian public media to talk about Hungary’s upcoming presidency of the Council of the European Union. He named restoring Europe’s economic competitiveness and advancing the Western Balkan nations towards EU accession as the administration’s two major agenda points for the six-month presidency.
The Gloster Group announced on Wednesday that it won BMW’s €15 million industrial software development contract through a multi-round international tender.
The 35-year-old suspect, apprehended in Vértesszőlős, Hungary never physically handled the drugs, he only acted as a middleman on the dark web, making a profit from a turnover of around 100 million HUF (€250,000), which he used for buying property.
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.