Hungary

On 13 February, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in front of the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest. The protest was organised by school teachers, but a number of other unions joined the initiative to express their solidarity.

Declaring Serbia a safe third country was the first of Hungarian repeated violations of human rights. Hungary turned the humanitarian crisis into a purely political issue. It seems that Europe too will choose to follow the politics of closed doors.

Xenophobia and efforts to turn public opinion against “social welfare migrants” are not a new invention. But the fact that every solution that comes from the EU is ignored – this is something new.

It remains to be seen whether the majority decision on the redistribution of 120,000 refugees was a clever move. In Central Eastern Europe, the voices against the “dictate of the majority” cannot be ignored.

A special EU summit of heads of state and government will take place on 23 September. After years of neglect, however, a solidary EU refugee policy cannot be elaborated in summary proceedings and under pressure. A commentary by Eva van de Rakt.

After images of Budapest’s Keleti train station illustrating the need for a fast EU assistance programme for refugees: the governments of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia reaffirmed their vehement “no” to refugee quotas.

From my hotel room in Budapest at the weekend, I followed the images of Germany’s Willkommenskultur, the country’s policy and manner of welcoming refugees and migrants. They have now been granted permission to travel via Austria to Germany.

For four days now I have been in Budapest, a witness to a drama that I would have considered impossible in an EU capital not long ago.

In June, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that his government would build a fence along the Serbian-Hungarian border to keep illegal immigrants out of the country.

There is probably no illiberal state without a comprehensive ideology – an ideology that justifies just about anything.

Since 2010 Fidesz has managed to win all parliamentary by-elections leading up to a resounding victory of Viktor Orbán at the parliamentary elections in April 2014 and easily won municipal elections in October 2014. Recently things have changed dramatically.

"We’d like to retain Hungary as Hungary", says Victor Orbán in January 2015. Xenophobia is significant in his country. How a multicultural and multi-ethnic society became a mono-ethnic and closed one.

Why the Russian regime and the Hungarian far right are in an intimate relationship. A new study by Political Capital and Social Development Institute.

Putin’s visit to Budapest in February 2015 was his first bilateral meeting in an EU and NATO member country since the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine. By inviting him Budapest has broken Europe’s tacit agreement on a united Russia policy, and is arguing for a normalisation of relations with Russia.

The recent terrorist attacks in Paris evoked strong reactions all around the world. The Hungarian government has reacted with proposals to restrict freedom of speech and by highlighting the problems of immigration.

On 2 February, Angela Merkel flew to Budapest to spend five hours in the Hungarian capital. This seemingly routine and uneventful flash visit was nonetheless much anticipated on the Hungarian side.

On 2 February, Angela Merkel visits Hungary. The German-Hungarian friendship has undergone fundamental changes in the recent past - and the rewriting of Germany’s Russia policy also entails reshaping its ties to Hungary.

How do you organise a drama festival with international guests on a 6,000 € state subsidy? Well, you need a lot of enthusiastic volunteers, as well as visitors, who are completely committed to the cause.

“We were born to the world to be at home in it somewhere,” wrote the Hungarian author Áron Tamási. Yet not only the feeling of being at home, but also that of homelessness may be a common denominator among people who live in the same space – in the same cyberspace.

According to its mission statement, Trafó House of Contemporary Arts in Budapest is a receptive venue unique to Hungary, where various genres are presented in an individual and authentic manner. An Interview with Managing Director György Szabó.