Book launch in Budapest of John O’Sullivan’s collection of essays on Orban

Budapest, June 30 (MTI) – Budapest-based British columnist John O’Sullivan, who now heads the Danube Institute, spoke at the launch on Tuesday of a collection of essays he edited entitled The Second Term of Viktor Orban – Beyond Prejudice and Enthusiasm.

He said hostile studies were absent from the English-language volume though strongly critical voices were indeed present in it. The one-time advisor to Margaret Thatcher noted that the idea Hungary’s government had established an authoritarian regime and rolled back democracy had persisted for many years. But the government clearly wants to build up the country, and the accusation of attacks against liberal democracy stems from a profound misunderstanding, he added.

The one-time governor of Hungary’s central bank, Peter Akos Bod, said at the event that the Hungarian economy was in a relatively good state but, he added, it could not be said that the government’s innovative schemes were working well.

The jacket note says that the book is an attempt to deliver “a first draft of history on Orban and Orbanism” which includes “the rise of Viktor Orban, the political experiences that shaped him and the Fidesz movement in which he was the dominant founder…”

Contributors to the volume include former government office chief Andras Stumpf and two advisers to Orban, Andras Lanczi and Gyula Teller.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters