Budapest Mayor Karácsony reveals candidates for deputy positions
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony has proposed councillors Ambrus Kiss and David Vitezy for the deputy mayor posts, according to the agenda of the municipal assembly meeting set for Wednesday.
Budapest has been without a deputy mayor for almost two months now, as neither the inaugural meeting nor the first ordinary meeting could find a candidate or candidates who would pass a vote in an assembly.
Gergely Karácsony is in a minority and heavily dependent on Fides and the Tisza party. Of his former deputies, he would have liked to keep Ambrus Kiss, but Fidesz and the Tisza Party do not support this.
In any case, one of the 32 deputies has to be selected from among the 32 assembly members, which is how Vitézy came into the picture, who is also not accepted by the parties.
If elected on Nov 27, they would take up their post on the same day.
According to the mayor’s proposal, the deputy mayors would be entitled to a monthly salary of 1,350,000 forints, which is 90 percent of the mayor’s salary.
Dynamic wage growth expected in coming years in Hungary, Orbán cabinet believes
The minimum wage will grow by 9 percent, 13 percent and 14 percent in the next three years, and the minimum wage for skilled workers will increase by 7 percent next year, so wage growth will be dynamic alongside the projected 3-4 percent inflation, Sándor Czomba, the state secretary for employment policy, said on public Kossuth Rádió on Sunday morning.
Real wage growth also expected increasing consumption
Real wages are also expected to increase, he added, and that will be reflected in consumption and households. The fact that the three-year wage agreement was concluded in the current uncertain global economic conditions “has a very important message” for the market, the economic, employees and households, he added.
Czomba said employers initially offered an average ten percent increase of the minimum wage, while employees wanted a twelve percent raise on average. With both paths, it would have been possible for the minimum wage to reach 50 percent of the regular gross average wage by 2027, but the wage dynamics can only be maintained and increased with the higher figure, he said.
Minimum wage can be around EUR 1,000 by 2028
The aim of achieving a minimum wage of “around 400,000 forints [EUR 970]” by 2028 “seems completely rational” with the second path, Czomba said, as this amount will be achievable from 2027 to 2028 with an eight percent minimum wage increase. For this to be feasible, employees wanted some kind of guarantee and assistance from the government.
Therefore, employers with employees on a minimum wage will have to pay the increased social contribution tax “on a sliding scale”, that is to say they will have to pay the tax based on the previous year’s minimum wage, not on the rate applicable for that year, the state secretary said.
There are currently around 211,000 people earning the minimum wage in Hungary, and about 330,000-340,000 workers are paid the minimum wage for skilled labourers, Czomba said. Overall, the minimum wage increase directly affects around one million people from the labour market of 4.7 million employees, he said.
Read also:
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Featured image: depositphotos.com
Opposition leader Magyar banned from Hungarian children’s homes, welcomed by crowds in “Fidesz’s capital”
Péter Magyar, the leader of the opposition Tisza party, said that the government had admitted that many children’s homes are operating under “unacceptable circumstances” by banning him from visiting such homes.
In a statement to MTI, Magyar said he had received a letter from Attila Fülöp, the state secretary for social affairs, letting him know that he had been banned from institutions providing care.
With that step, “the government has openly admitted that gravely traumatised children are living in unacceptable circumstances, and that there is a dire shortage of work force due to humiliatingly low wages,” Magyar said in the statement.
MEPs have the right to information pertaining to their work from state institutions, just as children have a fundamental right to protection and care for their welfare, Magyar said.
Fülop’s letter “is simply lies and fearmongering,” he said.
“You can’t ban an MEP from children’s homes, especially not in an email. A real ban must be made through a public administration decision, against which legal remedies are in place,” Magyar said.
He said the party will revamp the bathrooms of a children’s home in Miskolc, which he said was in a state “not fit for human use”. “We will do this instead of the government, which has been unable for years to allocate 5 million forints to reconstruct the mouldy, wet bathrooms,” he said.
Liveable, successful rural Hungary key to future, says Magyar
There is no Hungarian future without a liveable, successful rural Hungary, Magyar said in Hajdúböszörmény, in eastern Hungary, on Sunday.
Speaking of the party’s plan to develop rural Hungary and the agriculture, Magyar said rural development would receive an independent ministry in “the Tisza government”, along with health care, education and environmental protection. The party would work to “save rural Hungary”, he said in a statement.
He slammed ruling Fidesz for “betraying its old supporters, farmers, family entrepreneurs and the senior citizens and youth of rural Hungary.”
While Hungarian youth are leaving their rural home towns, “the Orbán government is trying to supply the work force demanded by multinational companies with Asian economic migrants.”
Magyar vowed that Tisza would use the 220,000 empty buildings in rural Hungary to ease the housing crisis.
The party would also launch a comprehensive village rehabilitation programme and a land reform “to provide good opportunities for young farmers rather than oligarchs to buy farmland,” he said.
Further, Tisza would also develop the infrastructure of small localities, “and stop the mindless centralisation of the Orbán government”, he said.
Read also:
- Spontaneous euroisation continues in Hungary, expert says EUR 1 will cost HUF 500 soon – read more HERE
- Opposition Tisza Party: Key to Hungary’s sovereignty is ending Russia energy dependence
Hungary proud on scientists, increased R+D sector funding significantly
Hungary has created a model showing its commitment to research and development, and raised funding for the R+D sector threefold in the past decade, the minister of culture and innovation said on Saturday, at the closing event of the World Science Forum.
“The number of research and development professionals in Hungary has doubled since 2010, that of students in graduate studies doubled in five years, and some 30 percent of them are international students,” Balázs Hanká said at the event held in Parliament.
The government is supporting the sector by creating a company-friendly environment with the lowest corporate tax, 9 percent, in the EU, and tax cuts for R and D, investment and for employment, he said. Further, it set up a National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, and is supporting joint R and D programmes. “We support the growth of science campuses and technology transfer companies to bolster innovation.”
The government is focusing on cutting-edge sectors such as digitalisation, the green transition, healthy lifestyle and security, he said. Noting the Nobel Prizes awarded to biochemist Katalin Kariko and physicist Ferenc Krausz, Hankó said Hungary was proud of its scientists. “I am convinced that Hungary is one of the best places on earth to organise scientific conferences as well as to conduct scientific research.”
The conference was attended by Azzedine El Midaoui, Morocco’s minister of higher education, research and innovation, Patricia Gruber, science and technology adviser to the US Secretary of State, Lidia Brito, the UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, and Sudip Parikh, the CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), among others.
Later on Saturday, Tamás Freund, the head of the organiser Hungarian Academy of Sciences, announced that the next World Science Forum will be organised by Indonesia in 2026.
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Orbán cabinet sticks to economic neutrality, refuses to join blocks, finance minister Varga said
With the policy of economic neutrality and the government’s strong mandate, Hungary will be able to stay out of the economic cold war despite external pressure, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said at an event in Zalakaros, western Hungary, his ministry said on Saturday.
The finance minister said Hungary had consciously followed the path of connectivity since 2010, which has yielded its results by now.
Thanks to the work-based and open economic model launched a decade ago, one million new jobs have been created, real wage growth has been around 60 percent since 2010, and economic growth has more than tripled, he said.
Varga said these results have been possible because the government recognised in time that it was not enough for the Hungarian economy to look in one direction, other markets were also needed, and thus the policy of opening to the East was born.
It is thanks to this, among other things, that Hungary’s foreign trade doubled over one decade and three-quarters of our products are exported, Varga said.
He warned that all trade data show that the West cannot exist without the East, and therefore the isolation of Europe is not only a dead end, but in reality it is not even possible.
Economic neutrality key
On economic neutrality, Varga said it is also an important element in Hungary’s financing as the structure of the state debt has been radically transformed since 2010. The share of Hungarian families has been increased from 3 percent to over 20 percent while the share of foreigners has been reduced from 65 percent to below 40 percent, while external sources have been diversified, involving China, Japan, and also Qatar into financing the state debt.
To sum it up, Varga said Hungary is of the position that cooperation, rather than the formation of blocs should be the norm, and efforts should be made to ensure that Europe also returns to this as soon as possible.
Mutual understanding essential for successful EU, EU minister said
Mutual understanding among European Union member states is essential for the success of the bloc, János Bóka, the EU affairs minister, said on Friday, adding that the work done by researches contributed significantly to this understanding. Apart from the specific tasks it comes with for the government, Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union also provides scientific communities, professors and experts with research topics, Bóka said on Facebook after the studies on Hungary’s EU presidency compiled by the Central European Academy’s (CEA) international research groups became available.
He said knowledge of the current research studies was crucial in order to understand the complex economic, social, cultural and political trends that come with European integration. Bóka said that in 2023 the CEA set up international research groups comprising foreign and Hungarian professors and researchers to analyse the priorities of the Hungarian EU presidency. The researchers approached the presidency’s priorities from the perspective of the central European scientific communities, he said, noting that multiple conferences were organised and papers published.
Of the more than 120 studies carried out by the central European research community, five volumes were put together, which mainly dealt with the supranational interpretation of the rule of law, economic governance, demography, migration and the common security and defence policy.
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Trump appoints former PM Orbán advisor Gorka as his counter-terrorism chief but Orbán can’t be glad
Sebastian Gorka served in the previous Trump administration as a Deputy Assistant to the President for seven months. Born and educated in London, he spent more than a decade in Hungary working for the rightist government and background institutions. Allegedly, he was PM Orbán’s advisor in the 1990s. He failed a national security clearance in 2002, and his appointment caused outrage in the USA even now.
A committed supporter of Trump
Trump’s former national security advisor, John Bolton, said Gorka was the ‘worst cabinet appointment in recent American history’. Leftist Hungarian media refers to him as a “political adventurer”. Gorka is a big supporter of Trump and an influential defender of his policies and as an anchorman. Even though many question his expertise, he runs as a national security expert in the USA. Trump appointed him Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism.
He was born in London to a father who helped the British Secret Service in the second half of the 1940s when Hungary was part of the Soviet block. Paul Gorka was arrested but rescued by freedom fighters during the 1956 Hungarian revolution. He and his family left Hungary, Sebastian was born in London and was educated in the British capital. He obtained his MA and PhD at Budapest’s Corvinus University.
Gorka failed a national security clearance in Hungary
In 1992, he returned to Hungary and started working for the rightist Antall government in the Ministry of Defence. Later, he became a fellow associate of the background institution of the Zrínyi Miklós National Defence University. Before the 1998 general elections, he became a national security advisor of Orbán and Fidesz. Allegedly, he remained an advisor of the prime minister after Fidesz’s 1998 victory.
However, in 2002, he failed a national security clearance, so he could not participate in the committee monitoring PM Medgyessy’s state security past. Some say that his relationship with the British and Americans working for their countries’ intelligence services was too good.
In 2008, he suddenly moved to the USA with his American wife and became a naturalised American citizen in 2012.
Gorka slammed PM Orbán and his Fidesz for corruption
In an interview with Válasz Online, Gorka said President Putin was afraid of Trump, so he did not dare to launch wars against its neighbours during the Trump presidency. Consequently, when Trump enters office, the war will end because Putin is scared of Trump. He also expressed determined support towards helping Ukraine with intelligence, arms, ammunition, and money. However, he highlighted the importance of financial clearance because corruption in Ukraine is brutal.
In the interview, Gorka slammed Orbán and his methods to gain power. He said he worked for Fidesz in the 1990s because he hoped the “conservative” block would not become as corrupt as the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party. “I was wrong. It is enough to look at Lőrinc Mészáros” (Mr Mészáros is the wealthiest Hungarian who gained 99% of his wealth after PM Orbán came back into power in 2010 by winning countless public procurements).
He concluded the interview by saying that he would be happier if his American conservative friends were more aware of the true nature of Fidesz.
The interview was published last August, so he probably did not change his mind and may not advocate for a closer relationship between Trump and Orbán despite his Hungarian origins.
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Considerable financial support for Hungarians living in Ukraine, says Speaker Kövér
The biggest challenge for Hungary in respect of the war in Ukraine is to help the Hungarian community in the Transcarpathian region survive and retain and protect the community’s institutions, László Kövér, the speaker of parliament, said in an interview published by online business magazine Az üzlet on Friday.
Speaker Kövér: government continues to provide subsidies
In terms of Hungary’s policy towards ethnic Hungarian communities, “the greatest change has been the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine… The Transcarpathian Hungarian community is fighting for its survival, and the mother country must help them,” Kövér said.
Thanks to the Hungarian government’s subsidies and effective organisation in Transcarpathia, Hungarian institutions have not collapsed, Kövér said, adding that “deputies of the Hungarian parties continue to carry out their jobs in municipal governments despite difficult circumstances.” Church and civil organisations are also active, while Transcarpathian schools have reopened “after the initial shock”, Kövér said, noting that the third academic year had started amid war circumstances.
The government is continuing to provide subsidies for church-run schools, educational and cultural organisations, as well as the II Rákóczi Ferenc college in Transcarpathia.
In 2024 more than 7,500 low-earners received a one-off payment, and over 4,000 children in kindergartens and primary schools have been given daily meals, he said.
Kövér said Hungary’s policy was aimed at reaching out “to as many Hungarians as possible”. The survival of Hungarian communities hinges mostly upon their retaining their national identity, therefore the policy aims to ensure that young people have access to Hungarian culture and they can cultivate their traditions, Kövér said.
Kövér hopes the Hungarian community in Slovakia will also show unity
The speaker highlighted the government’s Határtalanul (Without borders) Programme, through which over 500,000 Hungarian students can visit communities outside Hungary and the Rákóczi Association‘s camping programme offering holidays to an annual 15,000 Hungarian students from the Carpathian basin and the diaspora.
Speaking about the foreign ministry’s economic promotion programme designed to finance developments by ethnic Hungarian entrepreneurs, Kövér said the scheme promoted regional business cooperation under which “being a Hungarian businessman in another country is now an advantage rather than a drawback.”
Meanwhile, he said “ethnic Hungarians can rely on support from the mother country amid all circumstances… Hungarians in Transcarpathia can feel the active solidarity of not only the people in Hungary proper but in other ethnic Hungarian communities.”
Concerning the Hungarian community in southern Slovakia, Kövér said the community would benefit “from a level organisations such as that of Transylvania or Vojvodina Hungarians” to participate successfully in the next Slovak elections. “Let us hope that the Hungarian community in Slovakia will be able to show such organised unity,” he said.
Hungary provides support worth over HUF 98 bn to Ukraine since outbreak of war, says government official
Hungary has provided 98.5 billion forints (EUR 239.8m) worth of funding to Ukraine over the past one thousand days of the Russia-Ukraine war and the refugees arriving from the neighbouring country, the state secretary for religious affairs at the Prime Minister’s Office said at the Beregsurány border crossing on Friday. At a press conference, Miklós Soltész highlighted the enormous contribution of six charity organisations which have delivered 5,500 tonnes of food, clothing and medical equipment in aid worth a total 13 billion forints to Ukraine.
Hungary has so far catered for 1,437,000 refugees in a massive collaboration, Soltész said, adding that at the five aid centres operating at the border 673,000 people have been received. In its largest ever humanitarian operation, Hungary has provided support to refugees in the form of accommodation, meals, clothing, medical care, employment, education and free transport and free vacation to families, the state secretary said.
He noted that Hungary also gave help to Ukraine in the energy sector in the form of electricity transmission. Soltész said Hungary will continue to cater for refugees, regardless of whether they are of Polish, Ukrainian or Hungarian origin.
Read also:
- Ukrainian county inhabited by Hungarians, Transcarpathia, under Russian attack!
- Transcarpathian Hungarians at risk: Russian strikes threaten secret Ukrainian facility just 12 km from Hungarian border
Hungarian researchers’ new methodology for replacing GDP: the sustainability turnaround
Hungarian researchers have worked out a methodology for replacing GDP with a “sustainability turnaround” indicator showing the negative effects of economic activity while providing additional data needed for effective intervention, János Áder, the former president of the republic, said on Friday at the plenary session of the World Science Forum (WSF) held in Budapest.
“The Hungarian proposal is a combined application of three methodologies: sGDP, a sustainability performance indicator, and the well-being indicator beyond GDP for interpreting the sustainability turnaround,” he said.
This gives a bigger picture for understanding economic, social and environmental processes and for aiding decision-making while reducing risks, Ader, who is president of the Kék Bolygó (Blue Planet) foundation, said.
At today’s WSF plenary session, scientists, politicians and representatives of international organisations discussed the results of this autumn’s UN Summit of the Future and the implementation of the Pact for the Future adopted by world leaders.
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Russia’s vision for Ukraine in 2045 might include Hungary – What’s the endgame for Moscow?
The Russian Ministry of Defence has outlined an ambitious strategy extending to 2045, which not only addresses the ongoing conflict in Ukraine but also seeks to fundamentally alter the global balance of power.
According to Portfolio, Moscow intends to engage US leadership in initiating discussions to reconfigure global politics. A central component of this strategy is the dismantling of Ukraine as a sovereign state—a move that could upend the post-Second World War international order. On the platform X, a map has already been published illustrating how Russia envisions dividing Ukraine, effectively splitting the country into three parts.
Proposed partition of Ukraine
According to Portfolio, the plan envisions a division of Ukraine into three distinct parts:
Eastern Regions Annexed to Russia:
The regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk—already partially occupied by Russia—would be permanently annexed. Moscow has held so-called “referendums” in these areas, though their legitimacy is widely disputed.
A Pro-Russian Puppet State in Central Ukraine:
Central Ukraine, including Kyiv, would fall under the control of a pro-Russian government. This region would encompass significant cities such as Odessa, Kharkiv, and Dnipro, though its political and economic autonomy would remain tightly constrained by Moscow.
Western Ukraine Divided Among Neighbours:
The western regions—spanning eight provinces—would be distributed among Poland, Hungary, and Romania. Such a proposal not only violates Ukraine’s sovereignty but also risks destabilising Central Europe, with far-reaching geopolitical consequences.
The scenarios also discuss the potential global order under various outcomes. In the event of a Russian victory, Moscow envisions a world divided into spheres of influence shared among major powers. A less structured scenario foresees regional powers rising as global structures weaken, resulting in increased instability. One scenario assumes Russian defeat, consolidating the dominance of the United States and its allies. Another outcome predicts Russia’s defeat, with China emerging as the dominant global power, both economically and politically.
Redefining the World Order
At the heart of these plans lies Moscow’s ambition to supplant the US-led post-Second World War global order, which it criticises as favouring Western monopolies on political and economic power. To this end, Russia has reportedly convened several meetings in 2022 and 2023, exploring ways to dismantle the US-dominated global financial system.
This vision threatens not only Ukraine’s sovereignty but also risks destabilising Hungary and other Central European nations. The redrawing of borders could trigger significant political and social upheaval, with implications far beyond the immediate region.
Moscow’s plans reveal that the conflict in Ukraine extends well beyond local or regional disputes—it is part of a larger ambition to redefine the global order. The proposed dismemberment of Ukraine and the shift in global power structures pose profound challenges for the international community, raising questions that will shape geopolitics for decades to come.
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Orbán cabinet announced considerable wage rise in this sector
The government will implement changes in the operation of law courts to increase their efficiency and “significantly” raise the salaries of staff members under a recent agreement with the National Judicial Office, the Judicial Council, and the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, the justice minister said on Friday.
Bence Tuzson told a press conference that the changes were aimed at helping Hungarians to access “fair and efficient” court services and aiding a faster ruling process. The minister said the agreement between the government and judicial bodies had been preceded by substantive talks.
Concerning the wage rise, Tuzson said the judicial system would only work well if judges and staff, including secretaries and assistants, were “properly” paid. He said wages will be raised in three steps in January 2025, 2026 and 2027. The average judge will benefit from a rise of 48 percent, secretaries and assistants will receive 82 percent more, and other staff members 100 percent, he said. Judges therefore will make a monthly 2,250,000 forints (EUR 5,470), secretaries and assistants 1,125,000 forints and lower-level clerks 850,000 forints, he said.
Structural changes to the court system will make procedures faster and facilitate an even distribution of cases, the minister said, adding that online procedures would be promoted with “clients and lawyers attending hearings online”.
University students will also be provided an opportunity to follow hearings online and get acquainted with court procedures
, he added. Tuzson said several components of the plan would facilitate simpler bureaucratic procedures for companies.
Read also:
- Median wage shockingly low, half of the Hungarians get less than EUR 875/month net – read more HERE
- Official: Minimum wage in Hungary to rise in 2025
Featured image: depositphotos.com
Hungarian foreign minister outrages for US sanctions against Putin’s Gazprombank
The inclusion of Russia’s Gazprombank on a United States sanctions list is an intentional step to jeopardise the secure energy supply of countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a post on Facebook on Friday.
“If anybody wants to jeopardise our energy supply security, either with sanctions or by shutting down transit deliveries, we consider it an attack on our energy sovereignty,” Szijjártó said. “We reject any attacks on our sovereignty; we will not bow to pressure and will not give up our national interests,” he added.
Szijjártó said Hungary was working with its partners on a solution and would meet with the energy ministers of Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria and Serbia to discuss the situation in Istanbul on Friday, adding that consultations with Slovakia were also underway.
Regional cooperation condition for ensuring secure energy supply, says FM Szijjártó
Hungary must closely cooperate with Serbia, Bulgaria and Turkiye to find a solution to ensure secure energy supply amid external pressure, Szijjártó said at the Istanbul Energy Forum on Friday.
In a statement issued by his ministry, Szijjártó said secure energy supply was a matter of national security and sovereignty, but also about physical reality, removed from politics or ideologies. He added that energy mixes were for every nation to decide and any interference in that area was politically or economically motivated.
Endangering a country’s secure energy supply with sanctions or by blocking energy deliveries is an attack on national sovereignty, he said. “We reject all such initiatives which are especially heinous when they come without prior notice,” he added.
Szijjártó noted that the United States’ outgoing government had placed Russia’s Gazprombank on a sanctions list, which could pose a challenge for some countries in Central and Southeastern Europe.
“Therefore, we, the countries of the region, must and will closely work together to find a solution to ensure the secure energy supply of our countries amid the changed circumstances, regardless of any external pressure and attacks,” he said. He praised Serbia, Bulgaria and Türkiye for being dependable transit countries for energy deliveries. “We are not ready to swap dependable partners, especially if we haven’t got any better offer,” he added.
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The National Bank of Hungary cooperates with Chinese university
The National Bank of Hungary (NBH) has signed a five-year cooperation agreement with the PBC School of Finance of Beijing’s Tsinghua University, one of the top institutions of higher education in the world, the central bank said on Friday.
The agreement, which renews an earlier one from 2017, was signed during the NBH’s Eurasia Forum.
Budapest Metropolitan University and Neumann János University of Kecskemét, partner universities of the NBH, also joined the cooperation. Working together, the sides aim to contribute to establishing a competitive education system, while paving the way for further chances to cooperate.
Professor Jiao Jie, the dean of Tsinghua University PBC School of Finance, was invited by NBH governor György Matolcsy to address the Eurasia Forum.
Hungarians have to prove themselves in international competition, says Orbán
Hungarians have to “prove their excellence” not just in their own micro-communities, but also in international competition, Balázs Orbán, the prime minister’s political director and chairman of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC)’s board of trustees, said at the opening of the MCC’s new centre in Subotica (Szabadka), in the north of Serbia, on Friday.
Hungarians believe that in addition to its “beautiful thousand-year history and beautiful present, Hungary also has a glorious future before it”, Orbán said, adding that it was important that students, teachers and researchers also contribute to the Hungarian community’s prosperity.
He said that one of MCC’s goals was to aid the political and interest representation groups in northern Serbia’s ethnic Hungarian community by training the next generations of intellectuals.
The MCC is now represented in 31 locations across Hungary and the Carpathian Basin and works with some 8,000 students, he said.
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Hungarian far-right Mi Hazánk protests against inviting Israeli PM Netanyahu after ICC arrest warrant
Opposition Mi Hazánk protests against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s decision to invite Benjamin Netanyahu, “his friend”, to visit Hungary after the International Criminal Court’s issuance of an arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister on war crime charges, the party said on Friday.
In a statement, the party said that Orbán had withheld the fact that the court had also issued an arrest warrant against the leaders of Hamas.
“Viktor Orbán would normally not be this tough with various other international tribunals when the matter concerns Hungary’s interests,” Mi Hazánk said.
“Despite all the show of strength, Hungary keeps paying compensation to criminals released from prison if the Strasbourg court so rules,” the party said.
Here’s the reaction of Netanyahu
Orbán is inviting Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Hungary, the PM said in an interview to public radio on Friday. Referring to an arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister issued by the International Criminal Court on Thursday, Orbán called the move “outrageously brazen and cynical”, amounting to “interference in an ongoing conflict in legal disguise” and motivated by politics.
Orbán said this was in itself wrong and would completely discredit the reputation of international law and could “add fuel to the fire”. He said he had “no other choice but to oppose” the ruling. Referring to the invitation, Orbán said he would guarantee that
the ICC ruling would not be applied in Hungary, adding that “we will not follow its provisions”.
“We solely consider the quality and state of Israel-Hungary ties … Israel’s prime minister will be surrounded by suitable security to conduct substantive talks in Hungary,” he said.
Netanyahu on Friday afternoon thanked the Hungarian prime minister for the invitation, saying: “I thank Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for the warm support for me and the State of Israel”.
“Against the shameful weakness of those who have lined up alongside the outrageous decision against the State of Israel’s right to defend itself, Hungary – like our friends in the US – has shown moral clarity and steadfastness on the side of justice and the truth,” he said.
Anti-Semitism, violence emerged in W European cities alongside migration, Orbán’s secretary says
Anti-Semitism, violence and the threat of terrorism has emerged in western European cities alongside migration, the “brutal and terrifying” consequences of pro-immigration policies, Balazs Hidveghi, the parliamentary state secretary of the prime minister’s cabinet office, said on Thursday.
“Jews and homosexuals” in Germany are told by the police to avoid Arab neighborhoods in Berlin “for their own safety”, while Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam were recently attacked “brutally”, he said, adding that order was restored only after several days.
The Brussels and left-wing pro-immigration policy “is ruining Europe irretrievably”, he said, adding in the video that “they want to install a puppet government in Budapest”.
He referred to “self-confessed Soros agents” who would “betray the Hungarian people and allow migrants in at any time”.
Hidveghi said the public can insist on Hungary’s right to opt out of the acceptance and distribution of migrants by responding to the National Consultation questionnaire. “Only this way can we preserve our country’s security,” he added.
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Hungary’s EU presidency will lead Romania, Bulgaria into the Schengen Zone – Orbán supports both states, UPDATED
European Union interior ministers will vote on Dec 12 regarding a Hungarian proposal to allow Romania and Bulgaria to join the Schengen agreement, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said after talks with Romanian counterpart Marcel Ciolacu.
From 2025, the Schengen Zone will include Romania and Bulgaria
Orbán told a press conference that important talks had been held and were still under way in Budapest, with the interior ministers of Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania discussing the enlargement of the Schengen area to include Romania and Bulgaria.
European Union interior ministers will vote on Dec 12 regarding a Hungarian proposal to allow Romania and Bulgaria to join the Schengen agreement, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said after talks with Romanian counterpart Marcel Ciolacu.
Hunor Kelemen, the President of the Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), wrote in a Facebook post that border control will end between Romania and Hungary from 1 January:
Orbán told a press conference that important talks had been held and were still under way in Budapest, with the interior ministers of Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania discussing the enlargement of the Schengen area to include Romania and Bulgaria.
Orbán noted that Hungary was currently fulfilling the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. “When we last held talks with the prime minister in Bucharest, we were in agreement that the Hungarian presidency must be definitely used to speed up the process of Romania’s Schengen accession,” he added.
Current situation unjust, says Orbán
Orbán said the current situation towards Romania was unjust as the country had made serious efforts to meet Schengen conditions in recent years and had done so for quite some time.
Orbán welcomed the fact that during Friday’s talks, the approach through illegal migration had been chosen. The interior ministers discussed in Budapest that illegal border crossings must be reduced significantly and the fight against illegal migration must be strengthened, he added.
Orbán said that the participants at the talks established that both Romania and Bulgaria had made “fantastic progress in this regard” and the Hungarians, the Austrians, the Romanians and the Bulgarians were in agreement that all obstacles were removed that had prevented Romania’s Schengen accession.
He added that it had been agreed at Friday’s talks that all four countries would work on enabling Romania to become a full member of Schengen, not only by air but also over land, from Jan 1.
The decision requires the assent of all interior ministers of the EU, and it will be made in Brussels on Dec 12, Orbán said. The Hungarian presidency will make a proposal on the previous day based on today’s meeting, he added.
Bilateral economic ties with Romania “fantastic”
Orbán said he expected Budapest” to be famed’ for hosting the talks “that removed the last obstacle” and paved the way for the formal decisions.
If all goes to plan, drivers will not be required to stop at the Hungary-Romania border, he said, adding that “it’ll be a great moment for us all”.
The prime minister said he had also discussed bilateral issues with Ciolacu. He called bilateral economic ties “fantastic”, with bilateral trade “continuously increasing both in volume and value.” The two parties also agreed that investment in the other country was crucial; they will further support that Romanian goods are sold on the Hungarian market and Hungary exports its products to Romania, Orbán said.
Economic cooperation and Romania’s Schengen entry are especially important for communities on either side of the border, Orbán said, adding that the situation for those people was “unfair”. “Local communities there will at last be in a position to build their ties as required by the natural order of life,” he added.
With Romania’s Schengen entry, several roads crossing the border, so far used at weekends only, will open, Orbán said.
Meanwhile, the prime minister thanked ethnic Hungarian party RMDSZ for its efforts towards Romania’s Schengen accession.
Illegal border crossings must be reduced significantly
Orbán noted that Hungary was currently fulfilling the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. “When we last held talks with the prime minister in Bucharest, we were in agreement that the Hungarian presidency must be definitely used to speed up the process of Romania’s Schengen accession,” he added.
Orbán said the current situation towards Romania was unjust as the country had made serious efforts to meet Schengen conditions in recent years and had done so for quite some time.
Orbán welcomed the fact that during Friday’s talks, the approach through illegal migration had been chosen. The interior ministers discussed in Budapest that illegal border crossings must be reduced significantly and the fight against illegal migration must be strengthened, he added.
Orbán said that the participants at the talks established that both Romania and Bulgaria had made “fantastic progress in this regard” and the Hungarians, the Austrians, the Romanians and the Bulgarians were in agreement that all obstacles were removed that had prevented Romania’s Schengen accession.
He added that it had been agreed at Friday’s talks that all four countries would work on enabling Romania to become a full member of Schengen, not only by air but also over land, from Jan 1.
The decision requires the assent of all interior ministers of the EU, and it will be made in Brussels on Dec 12, Orbán said. The Hungarian presidency will make a proposal on the previous day based on today’s meeting, he added.
Last obstacle removed
Orbán said he expected Budapest” to be famed’ for hosting the talks “that removed the last obstacle” and paved the way for the formal decisions.
If all goes to plan, drivers will not be required to stop at the Hungary-Romania border, he said, adding that “it’ll be a great moment for us all”.
The prime minister said he had also discussed bilateral issues with Ciolacu. He called bilateral economic ties “fantastic”, with bilateral trade “continuously increasing both in volume and value.” The two parties also agreed that investment in the other country was crucial; they will further support that Romanian goods are sold on the Hungarian market and Hungary exports its products to Romania, Orbán said.
Economic cooperation and Romania’s Schengen entry are especially important for communities on either side of the border, Orbán said, adding that the situation for those people was “unfair”. “Local communities there will at last be in a position to build their ties as required by the natural order of life,” he added.
With Romania’s Schengen entry, several roads crossing the border, so far used at weekends only, will open, Orbán said.
Meanwhile, the prime minister thanked ethnic Hungarian party RMDSZ for its efforts towards Romania’s Schengen accession.
Interior minister Pintér: Schengen accession of Bulgaria, Romania ‘one step closer’
The full Schengen membership of Bulgaria and Romania is “another step closer”, Sándor Pintér, the interior minister, told a press conference of interior ministers on Friday.
He told the joint press conference with Austrian counterpart Gerhard Karner, Bulgarian counterpart Atanas Ilkov, Romanian counterpart Catalin Predoiu and Ylva Johansson, the European commissioner for home affairs, that in order to complete the process another joint package needs to be put together to ensure and enhance the security of the European Union and the two candidate countries. The package will be finalised on Dec 11 and 12, he added.
Part of the decision will involve jointly setting up a contingent on the Turkish-Bulgarian border with the involvement of at least 100 border police, he said.
Pintér said that Hungary will ensure that in addition to the full appointment of 100 border police, they will be supplied with sufficient equipment to effectively protect the Bulgaria-Turkyie border.
“It is clear that there is an opportunity now to conclude this matter by Dec 31, this year,” Pintér said.
Karner called Friday’s border protection package “a very important step”, and praised Romania’s and Bulgaria’s efforts over the last two years to bolster border protection. He said that ever since the Netherlands and Austria vetoed their Schengen membership in 2022, the number of illegal migrants apprehended on their eastern borders has dropped from 70,000 to 3,000. He added that under Friday’s agreement, Austria will uphold its border controls.
Ilkov said his country had allocated significant amounts of funding towards strengthening its border with Turkiye which has led to a significant drop in the number of illegal border crossings.
Predoiu said Romania had reached its goal with today’s Budapest agreement, and his country’s Schengen membership would boost the bloc’s security. Romania, too, had devoted significant personnel and financial resources towards meeting the Schengen criteria, he added.
The Romanian and Bulgarian ministers thanked Hungary and Pintér for supporting their Schengen accession process.
Johansson said Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen area in January was a realistic goal given the steps they had taken in meeting the accession criteria. The commissioner congratulated Pintér, saying that the success of today’s meeting was owed in great part to his personal commitment.
UPDATE: Full Schengen membership of Bulgaria, Romania fulfils a priority of presidency
Bulgaria and Romania’s full membership in the Schengen Area would fulfil a priority of the Hungarian presidency of the European Union, the minister for EU affairs said on Facebook late on Friday. At a “meeting of historic significance” in Budapest on Friday, the interior ministers of Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria reviewed the results of their joint fight against illegal migration, and “concluded that there is no obstacle to the full Schengen membership of Romania and Bulgaria,” Janos Boka said in a video on Facebook. The official decision may follow at a meeting of EU interior ministers on December 12, Boka said, “and we are all looking forward to the full Schengen membership of Bulgaria and Romania from January 1, 2025.”
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Hungarian minister proud that both German and Chinese battery plants are built in Hungary
As part of Hungary’s strategy of “economic neutrality”, German car and Chinese battery plants are being built side by side in Hungary, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign affairs and trade minister, said in Brussels on Thursday. “This is the way it is, whether people like it or not,” he said.
Szijjártó told a press conference that the government’s strategy based on economic neutrality was a success.
After a meeting of the European Union Council on trade matters, the minister said Hungary was now a hub for investments from the East and West, noting that German car companies producing electric vehicles relied on the Chinese supply of batteries and other components.
“Maybe some don’t like it ideologically, but that’s the way it is,” he said.
He said only 12 EU member states voted to levy tariffs on the Chinese electric car industry “yet the measures will come into force”.
Szijjártó said Europe was “not doing well” in the new world of the economy and politics, and that “connectivity” was preferable to “sanctions, customs duties and restrictions”.
He said Hungary’s embrace of Eastern and Western companies had led to the creation of “tens and hundreds of thousands of jobs” as well as cutting-edge investments in Hungary.
The minister noted that Hungary had entered into “many disputes with other member states and members of the European Commission” over its policy, and “these disputes are here to stay in the future. But, of course, we’ll fight them.”
‘Economic cold war’ would be against EU, Hungary’s interests, says FM Szijjártó
An “economic cold war” would be against the interests of the European Union and Hungary, Peter Szijjarto, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said in Brussels on Thursday, adding that sanctions and tariffs had never lived up to expectations, but instead hampered growth.
Szijjártó told a press conference after a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council that today’s global trends presented a realistic threat of the outbreak of an “economic cold war” and the re-emergence of geopolitical blocs.
“Over the past months the Hungarian presidency has been working and will continue to work to make sure that the coming period isn’t defined by the formation of blocs but connectivity, meaning … fair international cooperation,” Szijjártó said, according to a ministry statement.
He said this would guarantee the conditions for improving Europe’s “depressed competitiveness”.
“So we believe the European Union’s, and with it Hungary’s interests lie in the unimpeded operation of the global economy and global trade,” he said. This, he said, required free trade deals, adding however that the bloc had work to do in this regard, with talks having been ongoing on six such deals for 13 years on average and suspended on ten others.
“We believe that tariffs, restrictions and sanctions have never lived up to expectations and have severely hampered economic growth,” the minister said.
Hungary wants to keep the unanimity requirement
Meanwhile, he said several member states have called for the introduction of new tariffs against Russia and Belarus, adding that the European Commission has begun taking steps on the initiative. “We Hungarians consider this initiative seriously concerning and dangerous given that there hasn’t been any kind of comprehensive analysis of the impact of the 11 sanctions packages introduced so far,” he said.
“And we certainly don’t want any member state to introduce tariffs in order to bypass the requirement of unanimity which has to be met in the case of sanctions,” he added.
Szijjártó noted that member states have veto power when it comes to the introduction of sanctions in the event that a given sanction violates their national security or economic interests, and Hungary has exercised this right multiple times.
He warned that bypassing the unanimity requirement with the introduction of tariffs would be harmful, expressing concern over proposals to introduce tariffs on energy sources, which, he said, the Hungarian government considered “unacceptable”.
“We reject this sort of elimination of the unanimity requirement and ask the European Commission to consider each member state’s national security and economic interests when conducting the preliminary analysis of such a measure,” the minister said.
Meanwhile, he said the election of Donald Trump as the next US president created “completely new geopolitical and global economic conditions”.
“And if someone doesn’t realise this and buries their head in the sand and pretends that nothing’s happening, they can lose out big on such a huge change,” he warned.
“That’s why we think a new strategy is needed here in Europe as well,” Szijjártó said. “A new strategy is needed so that the European Union doesn’t end up as the loser in the triangle of the United States, the European Union and China.”
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Drugs situation in Budapest serious, leading politician says
Budapest has a serious drugs situation which must be brought to a stop, the head of the Fidesz-Christian Democrats group in the Budapest assembly said on Thursday.
Alexandra Szentkirályi said on Facebook that drugs had never been cheaper or easier to get hold of than today, and she added that the city council should play a key role in taking up the fight against drugs, yet it was doing the opposite.
She insisted that the city’s drugs strategy was not anti-drugs, but created by “pro-drugs activists” who lobbied for the freer and more comfortable consumption of drugs.
“Budapest residents have never been asked about this,” she said, adding that the mayor, Gergely Karácsony, and his team “have set the task of ensuring comfortable drugs regulations for young people in clubs”.
Szentkirályi said drugs were inspected but then returned to users. “As a mother with a teenage daughter, how can I feel that she is safe in the capital if the City Council encourages consumption?” she added.
The Fidesz politician said the Hungarian capital was involved in concealed drugs liberalisation, using various means to support drugs users instead of helping prevention and fighting crime.
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PM Orbán talked about the the war’s end in Ukraine, invites Netanjahu to Budapest – UPDATED
The two most dangerous months of the Russia-Ukraine war “are ahead of us” and Hungary “must continue to pursue a sober kind of politics”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview to public radio on Friday. The PM also announced that he is inviting Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanjahu to visit Hungary.
Trump will bring peace but we have to wait for it, Orbán says
Orbán said that peace was within reach thanks to the election victory of Donald Trump, but it was clear that the outgoing Democrats wanted to leave behind a “more serious legacy” compared with the situation as it was when Trump won.
He said Hungary’s fate was directly at stake in this conflict, so it would act in a thoughtful, predictable and calm manner, Orbán said.
Noting that Ukraine is Hungary’s neighbour, he said the conflict was not escalating a distant part of the world and war developments in a neighbouring country were immediately palpable. Furthermore, ethnic Hungarians live in Transcarpathia, “so the threat is direct”, he added.
By now they have started using weapons that can easily reach countries outside the territory of Ukraine, primarily neighbouring countries, he said. “These reports concern us and are not just about international diplomatic conflicts; they are about direct Hungarian interests and Hungary being under the threat of war,” he added.
Commenting on Trump entering office on January 20, he said “dawn will arrive all of a sudden” but “we are in the darkest hour … and until then we are living in an even greater darkness than before.” The two most dangerous months of the war “are ahead of us”, he said.
Without the Americans Ukraine will collapse
The prime minister said the situation was clear in military terms: if the Americans stopped backing Ukraine, Europe would not have the slightest hope of successfully supporting Ukraine, not to mention the financial-economic consequences of a lost war, he added. Orbán said Hungary would be guided by this thought in the next two months, until Trump enters office: to survive by pursuing a smart and sober kind of politics, he said.
In response to a question about the threat of introducing heavy weapons, he said there were significant risks.
He noted that within 24 hours of the US presidential election results became clear, the German government collapsed.
“We Hungarians are not used to that; we are a country that pursues sovereign foreign policy, and regardless of how much the world cracks on all fronts, we’ll always make decisions based on our national interest, and we won’t tie our fate to other governments,” he said.
He said developments in America could have an almost immediate effect on the behaviour of “not-insignificant” western European governments and countries. This was because when the Americans made certain steps, then certain countries felt an obligation to follow the American directive, he added.
Empty talk and idling in western Europe
Orbán said the weapons that the Americans had allowed the Ukrainians to use were extremely complicated and reports suggested that the Ukrainians were unable to reach their target with them independently and without the involvement of US expertise. This was why the Russians had responded so suddenly and powerfully, he added.
Orbán also said that the weight and significance of remarks made in western Europe and in Russia were different, and western European decision-makers had not considered this seriously enough.
“There’s a huge amount of empty talk and idling in western Europe, with statements made that have no direct consequence. European leaders in important positions easily allow themselves to make tirades on geopolitical and military matters, thinking that these are merely a matter of communication, to make a domestic political point,” he said.
He added that the Russian system of communications was very different. “When the president says something, it has weight and consequence. When the Russians amend the doctrine on the use of nuclear force, it is not only a communications tool or trick,” he said.
Putin’s words are not tricks
Referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent statement under which Russia could consider as targets countries sending such equipment to Ukraine, Orbán said: “This isn’t a communications trick; we must keep our wits about us.”
He said Russia fundamentally made its policies and sought its place in the world based on military power. “With one of the strongest armies in the world and the most modern, most destructive weapons are crucial for its vision of the future,” he said, adding that “when they say something on this subject, it should be understood the way they say it.”
In the next two months, “the logic of war should be taken into consideration, carefully weighing each word and sentence and proceeding in line with common sense rather than on basis of the political rules based on western European communications,” Orbán said, adding “or else we’ll be in trouble.”
Orban said he supported that “the number and size” of current conflicts in the world should be reduced through every measure possible. “But international institutions in fact fail to act carefully in their decision-making,” he added.
Orbán said he is inviting Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Hungary.
Orbán outraged at ICC ruling
Referring to an arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister issued by the International Criminal Court on Thursday, Orbán called the move “outrageously brazen and cynical”, amounting to “interference in an ongoing conflict in legal disguise” and motivated by politics.
Orbán said this was in itself wrong and would completely discredit the reputation of international law and could “add fuel to the fire”. He said he had “no other choice but to oppose” the ruling.
Referring to the invitation, Orbán said he would guarantee that the ICC ruling would not be applied in Hungary, adding that “we will not follow its provisions”.
“We solely consider the quality and state of Israel-Hungary ties … Israel’s prime minister will be surrounded by suitable security to conduct substantive talks in Hungary,” he said.
According to Telex, the invitation received a warm welcome in Tel Aviv. The Embassy of Israel in Budapest wrote in a statement, that Hungary chose the right side of History in this case and PM Netanyahu appreciates Orbán’s gesture.
PfE is important player
Meanwhile, Orbán said the goal was to make the Patriots for Europe the most influential party family in the European Parliament by the end of the current term. He said that this required building alliances and using political tools within the European Parliament to increase their power, adding that he expected agreements and group alliances to significantly strengthen the Patriots’ influence on decision-making.
Orbán said that in international politics “you have as much influence as you have strength”. It was a good start, he said, when “we kicked in the door of the saloon bar of European politics”.
“The representatives of common sense turned up,” he added, which was enough to set up the third largest group.
The Patriots represented “occasionally raw but clear positions” that differed from the mainstream, the former centre, regarding migration and child and family protection, for instance, he said.
Orbán said the “period requiring behind-the-scenes deals in the European Commission” was over and it is now possible to return to “the period of clear, straight talking”. It is necessary to declare that they want to strengthen the group, he added.
Concerning Eurasian cooperation, Orbán said the subject had earlier been given “much less weight” in education than ties between the United States and Europe, whereas Europe has “the most organic ties” to the regions east of Hungary rather than “to the far side of the ocean”. Those regions, he said, included the Caucasus, China, India, Korea, and Japan “not just Russia”.
“It is time we talked more about Europe’s integral unity with Asia”
“Changing directions is not easy in Hungarian public thinking,” Orbán said, adding that he had three maps of the world in his study, one with Europe, the second with the US and the third with Asia at its centre.
“We Hungarians do not look at the world like that; we are accustomed to a single viewpoint … I think it is time we talked more about Europe’s integral unity with Asia, in education, in public discourse, and perhaps in interviews like this one,” the prime minister said.
Orbán said reorienting Europe and Hungary was an ongoing assignment that should happen according to “our own way of thinking” as well as in terms of economic, trade and investment policy.
The prime minister said those who opposed the government’s National Consultation survey were not “actually interested in people’s opinions” and saw no direct link between the will of the people and political decision-making. He called that attitude “a kind of disdain”.
Coarse and crude public language
“A negative and threatening tone arising from contempt” had emerged in Hungarian politics, he said, adding that politicians who were coarse and crude in their public language should “apologise and withdraw”.
He also said aggression arising from such verbal expressions should be prevented “because we don’t need a war in public life … we are a community, and we need to treat each other fairly.
Meanwhile, the prime minister said a key plank of the government’s new economic action plan was to increase the purchasing power of wages.
In Hungary, employers and employees come to an agreement on the minimum wage, he said, but the government puts its seal on the agreement. If the deal is beyond the reach of the two sides then the government “helps out”. He added that the government had stepped into the latest round to secure a three-year wage deal, and this would soon be ratified.
Accordingly, the minimum wage in 2025, 2026 and 2027 will grow above the rate of inflation, so the purchasing power of wages will increase rather than the opposite, he said. Inflation, Orbán added, was expected to be between 3 and 4 percent against wage growth of above 10 percent. “We want to maintain [this] momentum…” he said.
UPDATE 1: Foreign Minister Szijjártó calls arrest warrant issued against Israeli PM absurd
Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, has called the International Court of Justice arrest warrant issued against Israel’s prime minister and defence minister “shameful and absurd”. Commenting on a phone call with Israeli counterpart Gideon Sza’ar, in which he assured him that Hungary objected to the international court system being turned into a political tool, Szijjártó said in a Facebook post on Thursday: “This has now happened.” “This decision brings shame on the international court system by putting the prime minister of a country subjected to a diabolical terrorist attack” on the same footing as the terrorist leaders of that attack. “The decision is unacceptable,” he declared.
UPDATE 2: ICC arrest warrant ‘mockery of the law” Hungarian Jewish Mazsihisz says
The Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (Mazsihisz) has criticised the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Israel’s prime minister and defence minister as a decision that “makes a mockery of the law” and “tramples on justice”. Mazsihisz said in a statement on Thursday that it concurred with Israeli President Isaac Herzog that the warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant were “outrageous” and had been issued “in bad faith”.
They said neither the Israeli prime minister nor the defence minister were guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes, but were commanding the Israel Defence Forces’ fight in defence of the Jewish people in response to Hamas’s terrorist attack against Israel in October last year.
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Grandiose railway development plan announced concerning the Great Hungarian Plains
In the next two years Hungary’s government is planning on spending HUF 600bn on railway developments on the Budapest-Cegléd-Kecskemét-Szeged line, Construction and Transportation Minister János Lázár said on Thursday in Kecskemét (Central Hungary).
Lázár said the Szeged-Kiskunfélegyháza and Kiskunfélegyháza-Cegléd railway lines are being rebuilt because of the new automotive centre under construction in Szeged and in order to serve the automotive manufacturing base in Debrecen (East Hungary).
One reason for the development is labour mobility, so that commuters can get to their workplaces more easily, and the other reason is goods mobility, so that products can be more easily delivered to Western European markets, he added.
The minister said HUF 175bn will be spent on upgrading and converting the Szeged-Kiskunfelegyhaza line into a double-track railway. The Kecskemet-Dabas line will be upgraded for HUF 190bn and the Budapest-Dabas line for HUF 177bn.
The government will use European Union funds and credit to finance the projects, he said.
Kecskemét mayor Klaudia Pataki Szemereyné said around 300,000 commute to Kecskemét daily and the Kecskemét agglomeration area has 400,000-500,000 inhabitants.
In a Facebook post published this morning, Lázár said that his political community, Orbán’s Fidesz began to develop the Hungarian Great Plains after the Fall of Communism. Thanks to that, Kecskemét evolved into an industrial city, he added.
Boosting research, innovation a priority for Hungary presidency, says Minister Hankó
Boosting research and innovation with a view to enhancing the European Union’s competitiveness is one of the priorities of Hungary’s EU presidency, the minister for culture and innovation said at a special session of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) in Brussels on Thursday.
Hungary believes that in order to achieve a turnaround in competitiveness, the EU should focus not just on innovation and research but also on education, demographic indicators and identity, Balázs Hankó said in his address.
He warned of the EU’s declining share in the global economy and its dwindling performance in research and innovation. The EU, he added, accounts for just 5 percent of total global venture capital, while the United States accounts for 52 percent and China 40 percent.
“This is further evidence of the stagnation of average research and innovation spending in the EU, which remains at 2.3 percent of GDP, significantly lower than our global competitors,” he said, pointing out that only four of the world’s 50 largest tech firms are based in the EU.
The Hungarian presidency therefore aims to address multiple challenges, including the fragmentation of European research areas and reducing the innovation gap between European players and their global competitors, he said.
Hankó called for the EU’s innovation spending to be raised to 3 percent of GDP, underlining the importance of streamlining administration for innovators and guaranteeing the right business environment.
He noted that half of the research projects launched under the Horizon Europe scheme ten years ago were still ongoing.
The minister emphasised the importance of cross-border cooperation, pointing to the examples of joint projects with Western Balkan countries.
As regards financing, Hanko said large discrepancies remained between member states’ innovation budgets, noting that western European countries receive more funding for innovation than their central European peers.
Eszter Lakos, an MEP of the opposition Tisza Party, asked the minister when Hungarian university students and researchers could return to the Erasmus and Horizon programmes, insisting that the changes put forward by the government failed to meet the European Commission’s criteria.
Tamas Deutsch of ruling Fidesz called the exclusion of Hungarians from Erasmus and Horizon “discriminatory and unlawful”, saying that Hungary had passed the necessary legislative amendments to remedy the situation, but the EC had yet to respond.
At a press conference after the session, Hankó said the Hungarian government had met the EC’s requirements in connection with Hungary’s participation in Erasmus and Horizon, with the exception of the recommendations to exclude Hungarian professors and rectors from university foundation boards and allow international organisations to decide the composition of the boards.
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