Spain

VIDEO: here is how illegal migrants get past the Hungarian border fence

Hungarian border fence

A video shows how migrants get through the border fence set up on the Hungarian-Serbian border to stop them. You can clearly see that there are dozens passing the fence in just a couple of minutes, but the Hungarian border guard do not show up. 

The footage was taken in 23 October. The Facebook does not allow to embed it but you can watch it by clicking HERE.

Hungarian foreign minister afraid of new global migration waves

Europe must work closely with north African and Middle Eastern countries to prevent the emergence of more illegal migration waves on its borders, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Thursday, arguing that the combined burden of the war in Ukraine and migration would be “too much” for the continent.

Though the armed conflict in Ukraine is a regional one, its effects are felt on a global scale, and the top priority right now is preventing the war from becoming a global one, the foreign ministry cited Szijjártó as saying at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the European Union and the Southern Neighbourhood countries in Barcelona. “This requires that everyone finally start working to achieve peace,” the minister said. Europe, north Africa and the Middle East all have an interest in peace being achieved as soon as possible, the minister said.

The food crisis caused by the war is hurting countries that are already in a difficult situation the most, where the risk of instability is greater, Szijjarto said. “So the most important thing right now is to prevent the global food crisis from triggering new migration waves, because they would be headed for Europe and Europe is not strong enough to confront two security-type challenges at the same time,” he said.

Hungarian police Syrian man crime map
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Because Europe has to prevent the emergence of illegal migration waves, it has an interest in establishing the closest possible forms of cooperation with the north African and Middle Eastern countries, he said. This, Szijjártó said, required supporting the countries of those two regions, which he said could act as a “European line of defence” when it came to stopping migration waves. It also requires Brussels to change its “pro-migration policy”, he added.

Szijjártó said it should be made clear as soon as possible that those who come to Europe could only do so legally, and that the breach of borders was a crime. He said this made the NGOs operating the migrant rescue vessels on the Mediterranean people smugglers against whom proper action should be taken.

burnt van ügyészség.hu
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Budapest to purchase new trams

Tram Budapest public transport

The Budapest Transport Centre (BKK) has signed an agreement with Spain’s CAF on the option to extend a contract to purchase additional low-floor trams, BKK said in a statement on Thursday.

In line with the agreement, the option to buy 31 vehicles has been extended until March 18, 2023. The price would be comparable to 2014 prices, the statement added. Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony said on Facebook that “the good response to the cost-of-living crisis, the climate crisis and the energy crisis is to continue developing public transport”.

Traffic Budapest Chain Bridge
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International, Hungarian police investigation cracks down on financial fraudsters

police

Police from Hungary, Germany, Netherlands, Malta and Spain have cracked down on a network of financial fraudsters, Hungarian detectives said on police.hu on Tuesday.

Starting in December 2021, the gang’s members phoned German nationals pretending to represent a US investment house and offered investment opportunities with a high return against advance payment. Once the money was transferred, they disappeared.

Law enforcement of the five countries led by German police raided 38 sites simultaneously. Hungarian police raided five sites in the greater Budapest area associated with a gang member of German nationality living in Hungary, seizing documents and computers, police.hu said.

range rover hungarian company
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Wizz Air left 200 passengers in Madrid for a day

The Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air is famous, especially lately, for regularly abandoning its passengers at airports without any information, for various reasons. This was no different this time: instead of leaving on the evening of 24 August, a flight from Madrid to Budapest only left on the evening of 25 August.

Waiting for a whole day

A Wizz Air passenger has contacted Index.hu with a recent airport incident in which the airline has kept passengers waiting for a day to return home. According to the reader, they have not received any information for more than 20 hours about the flight, which eventually departed late on the 25th instead of in the evening of 24 August, after the midday take-off was delayed further and further.

The last time Wizz Air did not bring its passengers home from Paris. According to the airline, it is not at all impossible that such incidents will happen again, given the huge staff shortage.

Almost 200 people were left without information

Petra Nagy sent her detailed account of the incident to Index. According to her Facebook post, the plane was due to leave Madrid for Budapest on Wednesday evening with almost 200 people on board. Some of them were already on board, the others were in the corridor when they were led off.

After being removed from the plane, there was a four-hour wait, during which the airline did not inform its passengers why they had to leave the plane. They heard that the plane had been struck by lightning and was being repaired.

Titanic feelings, 26-hour delay

On Thursday, they did not depart until 12.30 AM, and it was only after waiting at the airport in the middle of the night that passengers collected their checked baggage. The 200 passengers then had to queue for more than an hour to sign a paper stating whether they wanted to stay in a hotel for the night. The waiting didn’t end there either: by 2 AM, a bus could be ordered for the 200 people, which was only able to take them to the hotel in three or four rounds.

According to Nagy, women and children were the first to board the bus, which reminded her of the Titanic shipwreck. She said, “I was starting to get a bit of a Titanic feeling here”. Petra was able to check into her hotel room at a quarter past three in the morning. She found out that she could fly home at noon on Thursday.

That noon eventually turned into almost 11 PM. According to the latest information from Index, they were able to take off at 10.45 PM, a delay of more than 26 hours.

Refugee family Hungarian border
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Hungarian chess legend Polgár beats the Norwegian chess world champion!

judit polgár chess

During an unscheduled chess match, the international grandmaster from Hungary, Judit Polgár, beat the current chess champion, Magnus Carlsen!

The World Chess Champion Candidates Tournament in Madrid had a break on Saturday and an unscheduled match was arranged. Judit Polgár, the women’s world number one for 25 years, played against reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway. Polgár retired in August 2014 and is one of the commentators for this tournament.

Polgár and Carlsen, chess legends

Judit Polgár is a Hungarian chess player, international grandmaster, eight-time open chess champion, two-time women’s chess Olympic champion. She has been awarded the Women’s Chess Oscar seven times, including the Oscar for the female chess player of the century.

Magnus Carlsen, Norwegian chess player, grandmaster, five-time world champion in classical timed chess and world champion in rapid and blitz chess.

Polgár posted on her official Facebook page that she ran into Carlsen in Retiro Park, who was playing chess with club members. Since she was also there, they exchanged a game, which Polgár, who was playing with the light pieces, won.

Polgár beat Carlsen

As Telex reports, in a seven-minute commentary available on YouTube, you can see how Polgár made the best chess player of the modern era surrender by taking down his queen. Carlsen saw no point in continuing after 19 moves.

In total, Polgár has beaten eleven men’s world champions in classic or fast games. Between 2006 and 2014, she played 17 games with Carlsen, and she beat him in Mexico in 2012, when she played dark and the game was decided after 50 moves!

The World Chess Champion Candidates Tournament

The tournament continues on Sunday and concludes on Monday, with Hungarian participant Richárd Rapport having won once and lost twice in the 12 rounds so far. Russian Jan Nyepomnyasich is currently leading and is expected to challenge Carlsen, just like he did last year.

“Madrid is brilliant! 😊 I arrived and was immediately in the middle of a magical event,” posted Judit Polgár on Facebook. “The chess club in Retiro Park has a charming building, surrounded by lots of outdoor chess tables, where you can play chess until 2am 🤗 And who was playing there with the locals when I arrived? 📣 World champion Magnus Carlsen! He was amazing, super cool! Could it have been any better? Yes! Magnus and I played a quick game (3-3 minutes) and I won!😊 What a day!❤️”

demonstration budapest budaházy
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Passenger removed from Ryanair flight from Budapest

ryanair

An unusual case was reported by a reader of Utazómajom: on 28 June, Tuesday morning, they wanted to go from Budapest to Mallorca on a direct Ryanair flight. However, it turned out that there was one more passenger than seats.

The awkward incident

The Ryanair flight to Mallorca from Budapest was scheduled to depart at 9:25 AM, but was delayed by more than an hour and a half. That is the time it took for the crew to find out the root of the problem: the fact that there were one too many passengers on board than what they could carry, Utazómajom reports.

When the last passenger boarded the plane, they noticed that someone was not seated. The person was given a ticket for the seat that had already been occupied, as both boarding passes showed the same seat. Overbooking is quite commonplace in air transport, noizz.hu underscores.

Selling more tickets than the number of seats is common

If there is demand, airlines will sell more tickets than they can seat on the plane, assuming (on the basis of serious calculations) that not all passengers will show up at departure. The current case is quite remarkable, because if that is the case, it usually becomes clear at the check-in desk, or at the latest at boarding, but sooner than when everyone is already on the plane.

Money offered for someone to get off

The crew then asked passengers if anyone would like to volunteer to get off the plane, but no one came forward. Then, they offered EUR 250 to anyone who would get off the plane and agree to a transfer to Mallorca, arriving the next day. Otherwise it would have been EUR 400 by default, because the distance is over 1500 km.

However, even despite the large amount of money, none of the passengers showed up and by then, the flight was already an hour and a half late. Understandably, the situation became tense, as no one wanted to be the one passenger who was the one to get off.

The final solution

Finally, after a telephone conversation with their manager, the crew drew lots for the unlucky person, a young man travelling alone, who was led off the plane. The reader of Utazómajom said it was both very distressing and reassuring to watch.

As Utazómajom sums it up, it can happen at any time that an airline denies boarding. In such cases, in addition to compensation, they must find a way to get the passenger to their destination. A more fortunate version of this is when, in the case of normal airlines, there is no more space in economy class and they upgrade to business class.

Budapest Airport departing passengers tax
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Spanish VOX party came to see how Hungary treats Ukrainian refugees

Spanish VOX party visiting Hungary

Hungary is willing to help all refugees arriving from Ukraine but must stay out of the war, the state secretary for church and minority relations said when visiting aid points on the Hungarian-Ukrainian border with a delegation of the Spanish Vox party on Saturday.

Miklós Soltész, who also heads Hungary’s National Humanitarian Coordination Council, and the delegation headed by Vox MEP Jorge Buxade visited aid points in Beregsurány, Lónya and Barabás and delivered donations to each.

Hungary has received some 550,000 refugees in the past 40 days, Soltész said, and praised the contributions of charity organisations and localities near the border.

Over 870 million forints (EUR 2.4m) in donations have flowed in from private citizens, he added.

Buxade said Spain was in solidarity with Ukraine and “tries to help Hungary too”.

He highlighted the importance of “distinguishing between refugees arriving in Hungary from Ukraine and those flowing as migrants into Hungary and other parts of Europe from elsewhere, as the latter continues to be a huge challenge for our continent”.

Katalin Novák President of Hungary
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New position of Spain on the Sahara issue and relationship with Morocco

flag-morocco
Spain considers the autonomy initiative presented by Morocco as the basis, the most serious, realistic and credible, for the resolution of the dispute” about the Moroccan Sahara.* 
 
In a message addressed to His Majesty King Mohammed VI, May God assist Him, the President of the Government of Spain, H.E.M. Pedro Sánchez, stressed that he “recognizes the importance of the Sahara issue for Morocco”. As such, “Spain considers the autonomy initiative presented by Morocco in 2007, as the basis, the most serious, realistic and credible, for resolving the dispute”. 
 
He also stressed “the serious and credible efforts of Morocco within the framework of the United Nations to find a mutually acceptable solution.  
 
In his message to the Sovereign, the President of the Spanish Government also stressed that “the two countries are inextricably linked by affections, history, geography, interests and shared friendship”. Mr. Sanchez said he was “convinced that the destinies of both peoples are liked as well” and that “the prosperity of Morocco is linked to that of Spain, and vice versa”.
 
“Our goal is to build a new relationship, based on transparency and permanent communication, mutual respect and agreements signed by both parties, as well as the refrain of any unilateral action, commensurate with the importance of everything we share,”
said the President of the Spanish Government in his message to the Sovereign. 
 
In this context, “Spain will act with the absolute transparency that corresponds to a great friend and ally”.
“I assure you that Spain will always keep its commitments and its word”,
added H.E. Pedro Sánchez.
 
In addition, in this message to His Majesty King Mohammed VI, May God assist Him, the President of the Government of Spain reiterated his “determination to face together the common challenges, especially the cooperation for the management of migratory flows in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, always acting in a spirit of full cooperation”. 
 
“All these actions will be undertaken with the aim of guaranteeing the stability and territorial integrity of both countries”,
concluded the President of the Government of Spain, H.E. Pedro Sanchez, in his message to the Sovereign.
 

Hungary’s Cordia expanding with luxury residential project Jade Tower in Spain – PHOTOS

Jade Tower Cordia Spain

Hungary’s leading developer is expanding its portfolio in Costa del Sol, Spain and opens up sales for Hungarian, Romanian, British and soon for Polish markets. Cordia expanded its portfolio with a new luxury residential project and a new location in the popular holiday destination of Fuengirola, Spain, and announces purchase option for Hungarian, Romanian, British and Polish buyers.

 Cordia, Hungary’s leading residential property developer and member of Futureal Group, one of the largest property developer and investor groups in the Central and Eastern European region has launched in four foreign countries – Hungary, Romania, the United Kingdom and soon also in Poland – the sale of Jade Tower, its first luxury residential real estate project in Spain.

This means that customers from these countries can choose and purchase the most suitable properties with a Spanish sea view in the popular holiday destination of Fuengirola, comfortably and easily directly from and with the help of Cordia’s local sales teams.

Costa del Sol has been a favourite international destination for many decades, due to its 320 days of sunshine and an average temperature of 23° degree.

Next to the exceptional climate, easy accessibility is also a big advantage of the area. Thousands of tourists arrive every day on cruise ships to the Port of Malaga, and millions to Pablo Picasso International Airport from all over the world.  Fuengirola is a 20-minute drive from the airport and high-speed train connection is available too, which arrives to the city centre, only 8-minute walk away from Jade Tower.

Cordia’s luxury residential project in Fuengirola is being built on one of the last few free plots of the city’s coastal strip, only 100 meters from the Mediterranean Sea.

Jade Tower Cordia SpainJade Tower Cordia Spain

Jade Tower Cordia SpainJade Tower Cordia SpainJade Tower Cordia SpainJade Tower Cordia Spain

The complex will consist 116 high-end 1-, 2- or 3-bedroom apartments and penthouses with large terraces or private gardens, and uniquely all apartment will have its own storage and garage place.

“With Jade Tower we are happy to be able to open up an outstanding investment opportunity for Hungarian, Romanian, British and very soon also for Polish investors. This is a huge achievement for us and great chance for sophisticated customers as apartments of Jade Tower provide long-term value and comfortable, secure rental yields that exceed market averages” says Tibor Földi, Chairman of Board, Cordia International.

Jade Tower offers a unique lifestyle and luxurious living in Fuengirola: a selection of modern and smartly designed apartments beautifully integrated within the surroundings using the highest quality materials and appliances.

In line with the concept of luxurious living, Jade Tower will also give access to an array of first-class services and facilities: residents can use the exclusive health club which includes a full spa, gym, indoor and outdoor pools.

This is also the first project in the city that has coworking spaces from where resident can operate their business, they can entertain guests and family at the Gastro Bar, or even enjoy the comfort of having their own movie theatre by using the Cinema Room: in an acoustically isolated room, with a large screen, surround sound and large seats. 

The residential complex is also a sustainable, highly energy efficient building that will be constructed under the international seal BREEAM, the world’s leading sustainability assessment method for masterplanning projects, infrastructure and buildings. Its contemporary design is a pioneer in the use of the BIM (Building Information Modeling) methodology that guarantees, among others, to optimize the costs of conservation and future maintenance of the building. Moreover, as a commitment to innovation and technology, the residential complex will have its own smartphone app, that allows residents to use all the services offered by Jade Tower.

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budapest real estate
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Why is Hungary in the TOP10 most expensive places to rent cars?

Compare The Market Australia made a survey. While Hungary is among the most visited countries, renting a car in the country is extremely expensive.

The survey was conducted taking into consideration the standard rental of a car where there are 5 people and 3 luggage. The survey showed the most expensive and the cheapest countries as well, writes Turizmus Online.

According to the results, renting a car in Singapore is the most expensive, and Madrid is the cheapest. Budapest is in 8th place.

The most expensive cities where people can rent a car are Singapore, Fukuoka, Honolulu, Melbourne, Vienna, Jerusalem, Auckland, Budapest, Phuket City, and Tel-Aviv. The cheapest are Madrid, Lima, and Cancún. Among the cheapest cities are Cairo, Dubai, Moscow, Cracow, Rio de Janeiro, and Abu Dhabi.

The difference between the countries is significant when it comes to prices and expenses. In Singapore, renting a car costs 97 euros for one day. In Madrid, the price is only 12 euros on average, according to the list.

 In Budapest, the average daily price is 70 euros.

mol petrol station
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Another piece of interesting data regarding cars is about the number of thefts and which cars are taken most of the time. Telex writes that last year, 561 vehicles got stolen, among which 351 were passenger cars. The data, however, shows that the number of car thefts decreased over the past 10-15 years. In 2007, for example, 7,584 cars were stolen, but in 2015, “only” 2,414 stolen cars were reported.

Surprisingly, the vehicle that gets stolen most of the time is a Simson, which is a scooter.

The top 10 vehicles which get stolen the most often include Simson, Opel, Suzuki, Volkswagen, Yamaha, Aprilia, and Ford. Vezess.hu published the full list, on which it appears that after the aforementioned vehicles, Peugeot, Renault, Honda, Toyota, Fiat, Piaggio, Mercedes-Benz, Skoda, BMW, Audi, Mazda, Citroen, and Keeway are also popular targets.

The cars that get stolen often are Opel, Suzuki, Volkswagen, Ford, Renault, Peugeot, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Skoda, Audi, Fiat, BMW, Mazda, Citroen, Daewoo, Lada, SEAT, Volvo, Nissan, and Mitsubishi.

taxi in Budapest
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Jobbik MEP Gyöngyösi: This is how the illiberal party family failed to be formed again

orbán morawiecki
Jobbik deputy leader and MEP Márton Gyöngyösi said in a press release, travelling to Spain’s capital this time, Europe’s far-right, nationalist and illiberal forces gathered for their umpteenth attempt to form – something. Although the number of participants may suggest that a new party family was supposed to be born, the Madrid summit revealed something entirely different: it showed how these leaders, who keep going on and on about order and national confidence in their own homelands, become so clumsy when it comes to forming an actual organization.
 

Press release

Gyöngyösi said, the difficulty of trying to coordinate the far-right section of Europe’s political spectrum is clearly demonstrated by the confusion around the declaration adopted by the Madrid meeting: according to the first news, the parties even seemed to have agreed on condemning Moscow’s aggressive actions. ‘Did Le Pen and Orbán really sign something like this?’ you could hear the surprised reactions, but it soon turned out nothing like that happened, of course. Although the Madrid summit condemned Brussels, it did not condemn Moscow. ‘Morawiecki didn’t even condemn Moscow?’ asked many others who primarily viewed the grand far-right project from the aspect of Polish politics. Indeed, the diverse responses clearly show how little these forces have in common other than a few eloquent political slogans or their aversion to democracy and the rule of law.

There is no real surprise here: how could Russia-funded Le Pen cooperate in the international arena with such figures as Orbán, who shakes the hands of post-Soviet dictators, Morawiecki, who has a visceral antipathy towards Russians or the hardly pro-Russia Conservative People’s Party of Estonia?

How could Georgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini, who have been engaged in a fierce struggle for positions in Italy, suddenly come to an agreement for the sake of international affairs? How could Spain’s VOX, which strongly opposes regional national autonomy, come to terms with the separatist Vlaams Belang? (Fun fact: the event’s organizers raised the Belgian flag to honour the Flemish nationalists, something they feel no loyalty for at all.) And which of the participants would be ready to acknowledge their friendship with Germany’s AfD, thus openly declaring war on Berlin?

Perhaps the Romanians would offer the easiest challenge for this confounded company: for example, the Romanian participant, who currently strengthens the lines of the National Peasants’ Party, was able to successfully cooperate with the post-Communist Romanian social democrats when it came to his own parliamentary seat.

He’s likely to manage with others, too. On the other hand, what do you make of George Simion, a former football ultra and now Chauvinist and anti-Hungarian AUR party leader, who happily posted his attendance of the event and made a selfie with MEP Jorge Buxadé there? Surprisingly enough, the organizers claimed Simion was never invited, and even if he was, he was never allowed to enter, and even if he may have been allowed to enter, he was promptly thrown out. Either way, he still had the opportunity and the time to post a selfie and a tweet.

We expected better security from the “guardians of European culture”…

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán talks with Marine Le Pen
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PM Orbán Putin’s Trojan horse in Europe?

Putin Russian president Viktor Orbán

Two politicians of the united opposition called on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday to reveal his position in connection with ruling Fidesz’s “new ally” which they branded a “Hungarian-hating” party from Romania.

Jobbik deputy leader and MEP Márton Gyöngyösi said Orbán was “working towards entering a new coalition with Europe’s extremist and far-right forces”. He accused Orbán of carrying out Russian “President Vladimir Putin’s plan to weaken the European Union”. The Jobbik politician said French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen’s election campaign was being financed by a Hungarian bank instead of “the Russians”,

proving that Orbán was “Putin’s Trojan horse in Europe”.

Gyöngyösi said the latest meeting of this political grouping was attended by representatives of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), a party “well known for its

hatred of Hungarians”.

This, he said, showed that in an effort to cement his power, Orbán was “ready to join forces with people that are not only destroying Europe but also dividing the Hungarian nation.”

Jobbik politician Attila Fazakas, the united opposition’s policy expert on Hungarian communities abroad, said the favourite slogan of AUR’s leader was: “Rid the country of Hungarians!” He also said another AUR politician “gets his kicks from”

submitting complaints against ethnic Hungarian-led local governments for displaying the Szekler flat or for publishing official gazettes in Hungarian in localities with all-Hungarian residents.

Balázs Hídvéghi, an MEP of Fidesz, said that Gyöngyösi was “lying” and insisted that AUR had not even been invited to the Madrid meeting, and when its leader turned up,

“he was thrown out by the security guards”.

“Naturally, the idea of meeting him had not even occurred to Viktor Orbán,” he added.

Veszprém
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Orbán urges de-escalation, peaceful resolution to Ukraine-Russia standoff

Viktor Orbán Prime Minister of Hungary in Madrid 2

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Saturday urged de-escalation and a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine-Russia standoff.

After a meeting of right-wing party leaders in Madrid, Orbán told journalists that he had appealed to everyone attending the meeting to take a stand for a peaceful resolution and de-escalation.

Viktor Orbán Prime Minister of Hungary in Madrid 1
Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Fischer Zoltán

Orbán said Europe’s new security architecture was an important issue and “Europeans must be involved in some way”.

Meanwhile, prime minister insisted that European climate policy was a failure, adding that raising energy prices to protect the climate was “unreasonable”. Hungary, he said, was intent on preventing Brussels from imposing new taxes on car and homeowners.

Military Guns Fighting Rifle Pistol Katonaság Soldier Fegyver
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PM Orbán met with Marine Le Pen to discuss EU conservative cooperation

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán talks with Marine Le Pen

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has met Marine Le Pen to discuss forging closer cooperation between the European conservative forces.

Orbán met the French presidential candidate of the National Rally in Madrid on Saturday, the prime minister’s press chief, Bertalan Havasi, said in a statement.

The two politicians agreed that millions of European citizens who hold traditional Christian and national values have been left without proper political representation in the European Union.

It would be essential, they added, for Europe’s right-wing parties to forge close cooperation.

They also discussed ways to continue building a European alliance of conservative parties, a process which began last summer.

European right-wing parties’ leaders are meeting in Madrid today, after which Orbán will travel to Paris to meet former French president Nicolas Sárközy, the statement said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán talks with Marine Le Pen
Read alsoPM Orbán met with Marine Le Pen to discuss EU conservative cooperation

French, Serbian handball players dissatisfied with Hungarian Covid rules

Karabatic

The players gave short interviews to French newspaper Le Figaro, and just like last summer, the football players complained about their hotel and Hungarian Covid rules, so did handball players now.

Covid regulations and problems

Several members of the French national handball team were outraged by the local epidemiological rules after arriving in Hungary. Three-time Olympic and four-time world champion Nikola Karabatić, who was chosen as the best player in the world three times, complained that after Christmas and New Year’s Eve, time that they spent separated from their families (to prepare for the European Championship and not to catch Covid), they had to mix with unmasked guests in their hotel in Hungary where they could not even get separate meals from the other guests.

The goalkeeper of the national team, Vincent Gérard, was surprised by the Hungarian situation, compared to the measures of the two big 2021 handball tournaments, the Tokyo Olympics and the Egyptian World Cup. “It’s not necessarily respectful to players and staff members who really tried their best and worked really hard to arrive in a healthy condition,” reports hvg.hu about what the player said.

Federal Captain Guillaume Gille expressed a similar position of how he did not find it acceptable that there was such a difference between the rules of the international federation and those of the host country. However, Kentin Mahé, the French player of Veszprém, was not surprised by the Hungarian situation: “Knowing Hungary, I was not surprised. We know that the Hungarian government will make decisions later than its neighbours. Why? I don’t know, I’m not a politician.”

Last year, the French footballers also complained to the media

This is the second time in a short span of time that French teams came to Hungary because of the European Championship and did not like something. Last summer, the national football team was dissatisfied with the accommodation in Budapest as it was not luxurious enough for them.

That time, Hungary played a draw against the French team. You can see our article about the game in the Puskás Arena Budapest here: 

At the Hungarian-Slovak European Handball Championship, the French Olympic champions will be grouped with Croats, Ukrainians, and Serbs and will play all three matches in Szeged.

The Serbian coach on Twitter

Toni Gerona, the Spanish coach of the Serbian team, also complained. He wrote a Twitter post stating that the Hotel’s guests are in the same area as the players, the teams were not tested on time, several players have already become infected, posing the question: how could they play like this?

The Handball Association replied

The Hungarian Handball Association (MKSZ) responded to the objections of the French national team in a statement. They are stating that the European Championship is organised according to the regulations of the European Handball Association (EHF).

“Delegations from all participating countries have already visited the four-star hotels in the autumn, and no problems have been raised since then. In addition, the current legislation and the Covid protocol required by the EHF have been known to everyone and are being followed in the host countries,”

they write. MKSZ also adds that the organisers of the European Championship provided detailed information to the teams and gave thorough answers to all the questions that arose, which were accepted by everyone.

“We are puzzled by the statement of the French and Serbs. If there are still legitimate needs in the future, we are able and willing to settle them, and the appropriate contacts are available,”

says MKSZ, according to Telex.hu.

The Euro Championship starts on the 13th of January. There are three locations in Hungary: Budapest, Debrecen, and Szeged. The largest new handball arena in Budapest was recently completed, you can read more about that here.

The Szeged Arena was also completed recently. Pictures HERE!

Man wanted to open a Budapest-bound plane’s door: police investigating

Police plane
Budapest airport police have launched an investigation into the actions of an unruly Serbian passenger on a Budapest-bound flight last month, police.hu said on Thursday.
 
Citing press reports, the Airport Police Directorate said passengers had to restrain a Serbian man on a plane flying from Spain to Budapest on Nov. 11 after he accosted several other passengers and began throwing objects from the galley across the cabin.
 
After being ordered by the flight attendants to stop, the suspect tried to start a fight.
 
Because passengers were concerned he would try to open the plane’s door, several of them restrained him and tied him up. The incident caused the flight to arrive late in Budapest.
 
 
The 29-year-old man was detained upon arrival at Liszt Ferenc International Airport.
 
He told police he had had a panic attack on the flight and “couldn’t wait to land”. The Airport Police Directorate said the suspect claimed not to remember acting aggressively on board.

Given that the incident involves a foreign national on board a foreign aircraft, Hungary has no jurisdiction in the matter, the statement said, adding that the Airport Police Directorate has initiated a retrospective investigation of the case.
Budapest Hungary
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Watch out! Fake Chinese honey sold with Hungarian label

honey, hungarikum, food, acacia

After Spain, Hungary has also been affected in the European honey counterfeit case. Based on recent evidence found by the National Hungarian Beekeeping Association, cheap low-quality Chinese honey is offered on the market under an EU or sometimes Hungarian label.

The scandal originally broke out in Spain where several poor-quality Chinese imports are sold as EU and Romanian honey. Now, Hungary is also involved in the European honey counterfeit case.

Cheap, low-quality Chinese honey is also marketed in Hungary under an EU or sometimes Hungarian label.

According to the National Hungarian Beekeeping Association (OMME), the world’s cheapest lowest quality honey products always display a fake origin on their jar. In order to more appeal to commercial chains and consumers, the origin of the unsellable honey is removed and a more ‘sellable’ origin is indicated on the label. In the Hungarian counterfeit case, proof has been recently registered by OMME. They found 100% Chinese honey marketed in Hungary with a label that displayed a Hungarian flag and an “EU countries and non-EU countries” origin. The association has launched investigations into the matter.

As OMME reports, what is the most saddening is that neither advocacies nor the EU or national authorities have started to take actions against the increasingly popular counterfeit activity.

In addition to scamming consumers and market partners, this illegal market practice will destroy the future of EU beekeepers.

Read also: Is Hungarian honey in trouble?

As the Hungarian news portal Haszon reports, the first suspicious cases were observed in Spain. Despite being the largest honey-producing country in the EU, Spain imports a significant amount of honey from Portugal (6,000 tonne/year) and China (18,000 tonne/year). However, since the beginning of this year, cheap low-quality honey from China practically disappeared from the shelves of Spanish stores and has been replaced by Romanian honey.

The price of Romanian honey on the Spanish market is EUR 1.62/kg while its Chinese counterpart, being the cheapest in the world, costs EUR 1.27/kg. For one tonne of honey, this EUR 350 price difference is rather significant. It is highly suspected that this honey may be of Chinese origin just it has been relabeled as Romanian. Another scenario can be that the Spanish honey is mixed with the cheaper and low-quality Chinese and Romanian honey and then offered as Spanish honey. Even though it scams consumers, this trick is not illegal. According to the rules currently in force, „if Romanian honey is mixed with 51% Chinese honey, the resulting product can still be called Romanian honey”.

However, by examining the pollen particles in honey, it is possible to determine the origin of the product. That is what the experts have been currently analysing.

Three healthy Hungarikums to keep in your kitchen!

PM Orbán and Spanish VOX to launch joint action against globalist left

Viktor-Orban-Abascal
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held talks with Santiago Abascal, the leader of Vox, the largest Spanish conservative party, in his office in Budapest on Wednesday, Orbán’s press chief said.
 
Orbán, the leader of ruling Fidesz, discussed with Abascal their common vision about Europe’s future, issues around protecting national sovereignty and families, and the protection of borders, Bertalan Havasi told MTI. They also discussed steps to be taken towards future
 
cooperation of European conservative parties
 
and joint action against the globalist left, he said.

Fidesz has close ties with Vox which is member of the European Parliament’s European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group. At the meeting it was noted that Vox’s deputies have always stood up for Fidesz in Brussels, most recently on the occasion when the EP’s LIBE Committee delegation had paid a visit to Budapest, Havasi said.
 
Hungarian minister calls for halting illegal immigration on land, at sea

He noted that the Hungarian prime minister had discussed establishing
 
a new European political alliance with Matteo Salvini, the head of Italy’s League party, and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on November 3.
 
Orbán will pay a visit to Warsaw on December 3-4 at the invitation of Poland’s ruling PiS party to attend a meeting of representatives of European conservative parties that had signed a joint declaration on the future of the EU in July, Havasi said.
Hungary Spain Abascal
Read alsoSpanish party leader in Budapest: his govt refuses to protect the borders against the migrants