Sweden

Chaos at Wizz Air: passengers who were heading to Budapest were stuck in Stockholm

Wizz Air plane flight

A Wizz Air flight from Stockholm to Budapest was supposed to take off at 9 p.m. on Sunday. However, the flight was postponed to Monday. On top of that, as the airline failed to arrange accommodation, the passengers had to spend the entire night at the airport. 

Wizz Air plane had a technical issue

Wizz Air has been experiencing difficulties lately, causing inconveniences for hundreds of passengers. This Sunday (09.26), a flight from Stockholm to Budapest was supposed to take off at 9 p.m. However, the flight was postponed to Monday. Travellers received the first notification around 5 p.m. that the plane was expected to have a 40-minute delay, a passenger wrote to 444.hu. The check-in had already started at that point but it was abruptly stopped. Nobody knew exactly how much the waiting time would be as passengers did not receive any further information. At around 1 a.m, the pilot announced that they were dealing with a technical issue. Therefore, the departure was postponed to 2 p.m., the following day.

Passengers did not receive the promised accommodation

Although Wizz Air assured passengers that the company would arrange accommodation, the promise did not pan out, reports blikk.hu. Initially, the passengers were directed to the waiting room, where they stayed for two hours. Following that, they received information that the earliest plane, which was supposed to leave for Budapest on Monday morning, was full. The unfortunate travelers had to spend the night at the airport. According to the latest information, the plane would take off at 2:40 p.m. at the earliest on Monday instead of the 9 p.m. departure on Sunday. Wizz Air has not yet commented on the incident.

This is not the first time Wizz Air passengers got stranded at the airport

The Hungarian airline has already let down its passengers numerous times. For instance, on 15 May, Wizz Air left its passengers in Paris, who were supposed to fly to Budapest. The flight from the Hungarian capital could not land at Paris Orly Airport due to a major storm. As a result, the plane was diverted to Brussels. Finally, airport staff helped people to reach some local hotels in the area at around 2 a.m.

What do Hungarian expats miss the most about home?

What do Hungarian expats miss the most about home?

Leaving the familiar behind and building a new life in a foreign country – either by yourself or with a family – can be both an enchanting idea and a stressful process. We have asked five of our readers, Hungarian expats, what they miss the most, apart from their loved ones of course, while living abroad.

Kata – Greece

“I could go on and on about the things I miss from Hungary. Once, I have even compiled a list of 43 reasons why Hungary beats Greece a hundred times in my blog. Here are some of them.. Firstly, the clean and well-kept pedestrian roads, which are basically non-existent in Athens. One can easily sprain an ankle or break a bone while trying to bypass a giant gap or a tree erecting out of the concrete in the middle of the road. Secondly, the instant hot water and the gas heating system – we have to switch on the boiler half an hour before taking a shower in Athens. Winters in Greece feel like an expedition to the North Pole. In Hungary, there is proper heating all day around while oil radiators operate only for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening here. Apart from these, I miss the four seasons, Hungarian architecture, and cosmetic stores such as Muller or Rossmann.”

Orsolya – United Kingdom 

“Food – definitely the food! Even though, there is an abundance of places with international flavours here it still does not stop me from craving those delicious and heavy Hungarian dishes – chicken paprikash with homemade noodles, my mum’s goulash soup, lángos with sour cream topping at Lake Velencei. I’ve tried to make some of them for my husband, but the ingredients just do not taste the same – probably due to the lack of sun. Also two things, I just can not track down are túró (cottage cheese or curd cheese) and tejföl (sour cream). Some days I am dreaming about a huge plate of cottage cheese dumplings or crepe filled with cottage cheese. Another aspect of living in the UK that I can not get used to is the weather. I miss warm summers and those balmy evenings when you can be out all night wearing just a pair of shorts, flip-flops and a light top. I wish I could just stuff my leather jacket at the bottom of my wardrobe.”

What do Hungarian expats miss the most about home? cottage cheese crepe
Source: canva.com

Read more: Why am I a proud Hungarian? The honest confession of an Argentinian Hungarian

Zsuzsanna – South of France

“I can list a bunch of things that do not exist in France but I wish they did. First of all, as a new mum, I miss Hungary’s well-designed family support scheme. There is no other country in the EU that allows mothers to stay at home with their toddlers for 2 years after giving birth. Besides that, I also miss the organised transportation system back at home. Here in Nice, the time schedule of the buses is just a myth, no vehicle comes on time. Another thing I miss is the rich variety of cultural programs in Budapest, whether it’s art, music, sport or concerts. Unless you live in a big city in France, which is not the case for me, you are kind of deprived of that. At home, there is always some interesting event to look forward to, regardless of the season. In the South of France, once the tourist season is over, there is not much to do other than dining in some fancy spot or visiting the nearby village for the 100th time.”

Réka – Netherlands

“Well, apart from friends and family.. I don’t really miss much. Perhaps, some services such as hair salon or manicurist. They cost way more in Eindhoven than in my town in Hungary and you do not get the same quality of service either. I also miss Lake Balaton sometimes but mostly because of my memories from childhood. Where I really experience a striking difference though is the healthcare system. Although I cannot say anything good about Hungarian healthcare, it is a reassuring thought that whenever I have some issues I can get an appointment within one week at a private clinic in Hungary, unlike in the Netherlands where it takes quite some time. Also, if you are lucky you pay 50 euros at most, and you can explain to the doctor what is the matter exactly in your own language. They already know your medical history while a Dutch doctor only makes a wild guess and may send you to the wrong department. The professional knowledge of Hungarian doctors is exceptional in the whole of Europe.”

Bálint – Sweden 

“Sweden was an alluring destination for me and my family to relocate to 15 years ago for its high standards of living and many job opportunities. Even though we are blessed with stunning landscapes and modern cities, what I really miss from Hungary are the thermal baths. Of course, we have the sauna culture here, but visiting a thermal spa in Budapest is a completely different experience. People are friendlier than the Swedish, and it is easier to strike up a conversation. We also miss real good authentic Hungarian flavours, especially when it comes to pastries. Luckily, a few years ago, a Hungarian supermarket opened in our town so we do not have to ask our relatives anymore to send us parcels from Hungary, filled with products that are hard to find here.”

What do Hungarian expats miss the most about home? Szechenyi Bath
Source: canva.com

Read more: 5 famous people you would never guess had Hungarian ancestors – VIDEOS

 

Minister to NATO: sanctions hurting us more than Russia are pointless

Péter Szijjártó foreign minister

The position adopted by NATO on the war in Ukraine continues to coincide with Hungary’s national interests, namely that everything must be done to ensure that the conflict does not spread beyond Ukraine’s borders, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Berlin on Sunday.

Addressing a press conference during a break in an informal meeting of NATO foreign ministers, Szijjártó said that as a neighbouring country to Ukraine, what mattered most to Hungary was that the conflict did not spread beyond Ukraine’s borders. That is why, he said, it was “especially good news” that this was the position being taken by the alliance in line with the stance adopted by NATO’s strongest member states.

Everyone in NATO “knows that Hungary is on the side of peace”

and as a neighbour to Ukraine is in a “special situation”, the minister said, adding that “fortunately the voice of common sense is strong enough” within the alliance.

He underlined that NATO is a defence alliance, “and our most important duty and interest is protecting Hungary and the Hungarian people”.

The position that everything must be done to prevent direct conflict between NATO and Russia also enjoys broad support, Szijjártó said.

The situation is “extremely fragile” and requires great caution,

he said. “We, of course, understand and respect that quite a few member states” are aiding Ukraine with weapons deliveries, he said, adding, at the same time, that it was crucial that those deliveries are not made “within the framework of NATO”.

The members of the alliance agree that “NATO is not sending weapons into this conflict”, he said. The reason why Hungary decided not to send weapons to its north-eastern neighbour and banned the transit of weapons deliveries through its territory into Ukraine was to ensure that it does not get dragged into the war, he added.

Member states also discussed the need to maintain “strategic dialogue with Russia” in the interest of preventing an escalation of the conflict and any “tragic consequences due to certain misunderstandings”, Szijjártó said.

Hungary fully supports this position and welcomes this week’s phone call between the US secretary of defence and Russia’s defence minister, he added.

Concerning the humanitarian aspects of the crisis, Szijjártó said he had told the meeting that Hungary has taken in almost 700,000 refugees from Ukraine. “We of course allow entry to everyone fleeing the war and provide care for them,” he said. Based on the “dynamics” of the war, the number of refugees entering Hungary is not declining, and Hungary is prepared to help anyone fleeing the war, he said.

The meeting also touched on the sanctions being imposed on Russia, Szijjártó said, adding that it was “pointless” to impose sanctions that “hurt us more than the country we would impose them on”.

Hungary stands by its position that “because the Hungarian people are not to blame for the outbreak of this war, nobody can expect them to pay the price of war”, Szijjarto said.

Concerning Finland and Sweden’s bid to join NATO, Szijjarto said Hungary had always backed the alliance’s “open door policy”, adding, however, that the position expressed by Turkey should also be taken into consideration.

As regards NATO’s planned new Strategic Concept, Szijjártó said the alliance must also pay attention to “security challenges” from the south as well as terrorism and illegal migration.

Terrorist groups are looking to take advantage of the fact that Europe’s focus is on the war in Ukraine, and with both Russia and Ukraine being among the world’s top grain exporters, a fall in exports due to the conflict could cause serious food shortages in areas that are already less stable, Szijjártó said. This could lead to a rise in extremism and terrorism, which in turn could lead to the emergence of new migration waves, he added.

Read alsoHungary simplified the employment of Ukrainian refugees

Orbán to hinder Sweden and Finland from joining NATO?

Viktor Orbán peace march rally Budapest

This Thursday, in The New York Times, David E. Sanger wrote about the current news regarding Finland and Sweden and their plans to join NATO. While Sanger writes about all sides, the pros and cons of this development, he also mentions Hungary and the self-contradictory political communication of the government and PM Orbán. He states: 

“Many believe Mr Putin will lean on Hungary and its prime minister, Viktor Orban, to reject the applications.” 

You can read Sanger’s article HERE.

Sweden and Finland’s application to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation right now is primarily a diplomatic move. It is meant to state that Sweden and Finland openly take a stand by Ukraine not only with words but by actions, joining the military alliance of the countries that most heavily support Ukraine in the war and that will not stay neutral. 

Hungary is also one of the members of NATO and has been since 1999 when Hungary joined right alongside Poland and the Czech Republic. Why is Sanger concerned then? His concern probably comes from the recent news that the EU would even reconsider the oil embargo over Viktor Orbán’s veto, though there had been no official announcements made about it. And while the current political narrative about the war in Hungary is quite hard to follow, on May 14th, in her officiation speech, Katalin Novák, the freshly-appointed president, stated that she condemns the Russian aggression and attack. 

Orbán von der leyen
Read alsoHungary to veto von der Leyen’s Russian oil embargo?

So, can Sweden and Finland expect a veto from Hungary regarding their application to NATO? It is quite hard to tell, but what we already know is that  Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, was not in favour of the application, but he had not stated if he would veto it or not. 

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, source: wikipedia commons

Turkey is the second-largest military force in the alliance, and for now, it is open to being convinced about accepting the two Scandinavian countries’ membership applications. Meanwhile, Sanger also reports that

“Britain has been explicit on the issue, signing a separate security pact with the two countries.”

Boris Johnson and Magdalena Andersson
Boris Johnson and Magdalena Andersson, source: MTI

David E. Sanger also wrote that the US is ultimately happy to welcome the two countries in the alliance, and their objective is to make sure Finland and Sweden will not have to worry about the threats of Russia regarding their membership. But again, he stresses this will only be possible if the unity within NATO is stable and that Orban will not hinder this process.

Volodimir Zelensky
Read alsoZelenskiy to Orbán: “You have to decide for yourself who you are with” – UPDATED

Hungarian minister meets Electrolux, Ericsson heads in Stockholm

sweden swedish flag hungary flag

Swedish investments are bringing future technologies to Hungary while contributing to the country’s long-term growth, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said after meeting executives of Electrolux AB and Ericsson in Stockholm on Tuesday.

The 170 Swedish companies currently employing over 150,000 people in Hungary are important players in the transformation of its economy, and their cutting-edge technologies are an important factor in its future success, he said.

“Hungary’s government has created a friendly tax environment, and it supports investments that attract investments with high value-added, cutting-edge technologies, and large R and D content to Hungary,” he said.

Electrolux, which has been present in Hungary for thirty years, is embarking on its largest investment yet in Nyíregyháza, in eastern Hungary, where a 35 billion forint (EUR 98m) development will create a plant manufacturing smart fridges, he said.

Ericsson is developing a 6G network with the help of its engineering team in Hungary, and continues to bring R+D capacities to the country, he said.

plane
Read alsoWizz Air passengers forced to wait half a day in Stockholm

Kidnapped in Sweden? Interpol helps the Hungarian father to find his daughter

girl, black and white, sad

A Hungarian man – who lives in Sweden – is desperately searching for his 10-year-old daughter. The father has not heard from his daughter ever since the little girl was taken by her mother in July 2020. Interpol is already working together with the father to find his beloved child who has not been seen for 18 months.

Levente Csulak has been a Swedish resident since 1990. In 2004, during one of his visits back to Hungary, he met his ex-wife, Mónika. Shortly after, the woman left her home country to live with him in Sweden. Their daughter Fanny was born in 2011.

Over the years, the couple broke up but agreed to share joint custody. Fanny spent one week with her mother and one week with her father. At least, it worked like that

until July 2020, when suddenly both the mother and the little girl disappeared.

As the Hungarian news portal Blikk reports, this is not the first time that the woman took the little girl away from her father. Mónika had previously asked the father to allow her to move to Stockholm with their daughter, more than 400 kilometres away, but Levente did not agree. Despite the father’s objection, the woman took the decision which meant that Levente could not see his daughter for two months. According to the distressed man, his ex-wife had also accused him of abuse which was proven to be a lie.

The Hungarian man is now desperately searching for his beloved daughter.

Fanny’s disappearance is already under investigation by Interpol.

Fanny disappeared
Photo: Interpol

The last time Levente saw his daughter was on 17th June 2020, when he dropped Fanny off at school. He only spoke to her on the phone a month later. Although Fanny had always been a cheerful happy child, at that time she hardly wanted to talk. She said goodbye by whispering “I love you, Dad”. Those were her last words before her disapperance. Three days later, the woman was supposed to take back the child to Levente, but this did not happen. Since then, Levente has not been able to reach his daughter. The telephone is turned off. According to the desperate father, his ex-wife must have kidnapped their daughter.

Read also: Hungarians everywhere – on Interpol’s wanted list, for instance

One month after Fanny’s disappearance, authorities received a report that mother and daughter had been quarantined in a village in Fejér County, Hungary. However, by the time the police arrived, they were already gone. The house was owned by a friend of the woman, who did not know that the mother and her child were on the run from the authorities.

The concerned father is in great despair. He feels helpless that he does not know anything about Fanny. Levente says he will never give up the hope that one day he can finally embrace his daughter in his arms again.

Read alsoHungarian woman escaped with her daughter from Sweden, now she is wanted!

Government concluded strategic agreement with Swedish giant

Szijjártó agreement Autoliv Sweden
Hungary’s government has concluded a strategic cooperation agreement with Autoliv, the world’s largest automotive safety supplier, Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s minister of foreign affairs and trade, said on Thursday.
 
The agreement will help maintain the rate of economic growth and strengthen the position of Hungarian suppliers, he said. Stockholm-based Autoliv is the 91st corporation to sign a strategic cooperation agreement with the government. These companies, taken together,
 
employ 193,000 Hungarian workers, 15,000 more than they did when they signed the agreement,
 
Szijjártó said.
 
 
Autoliv manufactures active and passive automotive security systems and accessories. In 2020 it had a share of 42 percent in the global production of airbags, 44 percent in safety belts and 37 percent in steering wheels. It is a supplier of all major car manufacturers of the world, and operates 64 plants in 27 countries.
 
Szijjártó said that Hungarian-Swedish trade turnover increased by 18 percent last year, and Swedish investment in Hungary came close to 800 million euros.
money, salary, forint, financial
Read alsoPrices are soaring, but inflation continues to rise in Hungary in 2022?

Anniversary of Budapest Jewish ghetto liberation commemorated by Mazsihisz

Raoul Wallenberg memorial budapest

“Remembrance is a part of our shared future,” András Heisler, the president of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (Mazsihisz), said on Monday at a commemoration of the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Jewish ghetto in Budapest.

The survivors of the Holocaust would soon all be gone “and we’ll be left to ourselves with the duty and curse of remembrance”, he said.

Heisler said the descendants of Holocaust survivors had a duty to keep the memories of their ancestors alive, because otherwise they would be disowning the suffering their parents and grandparents had endured.

József Sebes, head of the Raoul Wallenberg Association, said his organisation wanted to honour the actions of its namesake Swedish diplomat, who rescued tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust in Hungary, by contributing to a way of thinking that people should be judged by their personalities and not based on their belonging to a certain group. Sebes named the fight against racial, religious and political discrimination as a key goal of the association.

Dag Hartelius, Sweden’s ambassador to Hungary, said

everyone had a duty to remember the Holocaust and had a role to play in the fight against anti-Semitism, adding that Wallenberg’s legacy served as a guiding principle in this.

Zoltán István Horváth, parish priest of the Cathedral of St. Theresa of Avila, said young people needed to be told about those who helped save Jews during the Holocaust, so that they could serve as role models whose “faith, conviction, love and humanity defeats all forms of fear” and who were willing to risk their lives to save those facing persecution.

Monday’s commemoration was organised by the Raoul Wallenberg Association and the Embassy of Sweden in Budapest.

The event ended with participants laying flowers on the memorial dedicated to Wallenberg.

As we wrote on Monday, the United Hungarian Jewish Community (EMIH) held a commemoration at the The Shoes on the Danube Bank Holocaust memorial on the occasion of the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Budapest ghetto. Details HERE.

Coronavirus vaccination
Read alsoNew Israeli vaccine being tested in Hungary

Wizz Air passengers forced to wait half a day in Stockholm

plane

Due to a technical malfunction on Monday morning’s Stockholm-Budapest Wizz Air flight, passengers could not get home in time. On top of that, they had to wait for 13.5 hours before the plane could finally take off.

The news was reported by Magyar Hang, after the airline officially confirmed the event. Instead of the scheduled 9:20 am set off, a new plane arrived for the approximately 150 people at 10:54 pm at Skavsta airport.

A reader of Magyar Hang told the news portal that at Skavsta airport, about 150 people were stuck in the terminal. The reason was that their plane’s cargo door could not be closed and a new one was only sent to pick them up at 10:30 pm. On the other hand, he also added that all passengers received their mandatory food vouchers before noon.

„There were many small children among the passengers and it wasn’t easy for parents to keep them occupied”

he added.

The flight is 2 hours long from Stockholm to Budapest. This means that instead of landing around 11:30 am in Budapest, the plane arrived at 12:30 am on Tuesday. Here is how Wizz Air responded to Magyar Hang’s question about the delay on Monday evening:

Unfortunately, the Wizz Air aircraft on the Stockholm-Budapest route experienced some malfunction. In order to ensure the safety of our passengers and staff, we postponed departure until the technical issue was successfully resolved by our specialists.

Even though the repair had been completed and the new flight was scheduled for 9:30 pm, according to Attila Kriaszter a tour guide who was also waiting among the passengers, there was no sign of the plane setting off at 9:30 pm.

At 9:38 pm, Kriaszter told Magyar Hang that all information about the Hungarian flight had disappeared from the display. However, a few minutes later, they were called to the gate and the crew showed up as well. At last, the plane took off for Budapest at 10:54 pm.

Kanizsa Arena 2
Read alsoNew Hungarian arena boasts never-before-seen architecture – PHOTOS

Government: migrants used as pawns in hybrid warfare

migrants
Hungary stands by its stance that migration should be stopped and supports Poland and the Baltic states in their efforts to protect their borders, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Stockholm on Thursday, after talks with his Belarusian counterpart, Vladimir Makei.
 
After the talks on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Szijjártó said in a Facebook post that the European Union was in a difficult situation, with migration pressure building up on three borders simultaneously.
 
“It is unacceptable to place migration pressure on another country or use migrants as pawns in hybrid warfare.
 
At the same time, we have to maintain channels of communication or we lose all possibility of finding a solution,” Szijjártó said.
 
 
He noted that Hungary had experienced the challenges of mass illegal migration during the 2015 crisis. “We then made a definitive decision to stop the inflow of migrants into Hungary. The fence has been working well ever since, and
 
we stopped 110,000 migrants on our southern borders this year alone,”
 
he said.
 
The security risks arising from the allied forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan are threatening with larger migration waves than ever, he said. “It is in our interest to strengthen our borders and to push our defence lines as far back as possible,” he said.
 
Szijjártó slammed the “astounding hypocrisy of Brussels and certain countries … who keep talking against migration even as they keep mandatory distribution quotas on the agenda, support pro-migration NGOs and criticise us, the fence and the transit zone,” he said.
Hungary Border Fence Migration Illegal
Read also Brussels seeking to control members states’ migration policy?

CJEU: Courts’ right to turn to CJEU precludes national law

The right of European Union member states to turn to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) stands above the laws of member states, and so the courts are within their rights to ignore all decisions prohibiting them to seek guidance from the CJEU, the European court ruled on Tuesday.

The decision concluded a 2015 case in which a Budapest court turned to the CJEU concerning whether Hungarian practices on interpretation and translation in legal matters complied with EU regulations. Hungary’s top court, the Kúria, ruled the request was unlawful as it had no direct connection with the case that had arisen — a Swedish national was charged with use of illegal firearms. The quality of the Swedish-Hungarian language interpretation at the court was questioned, throwing doubt over whether the accused’s right to interpretation and information were fulfilled.

Subsequently, the Kúria initiated disciplinary proceedings against the judge who referred the case to the CJEU.

In its ruling, the CJEU said that under the Treaty of the European Union, it was unlawful for national supreme courts to declare “that a request for a preliminary ruling submitted by a lower court is unlawful … on the ground that the questions referred are not relevant and necessary for the resolution of the dispute in the main proceedings,” as that decision is the competence of the CJEU alone.

“In such circumstances, the principle of the primacy of EU law requires the lower court to disregard the decision of the supreme court of the Member State concerned,” the ruling said.

The CJEU also declared the disciplinary procedure against the Hungarian judge in question unlawful. “Such proceedings are liable to deter all national courts from making references for a preliminary ruling, which could jeopardise the uniform application of EU law,” the ruling said.

sweden
Read alsoHere is why more and more Swedes move to Hungary!

Here is why more and more Swedes move to Hungary!

sweden

Despite the extremely high standard of living and outstanding economic development in Sweden, many locals decide to leave their homeland and settle down in another country. Many Swedish people choose Hungary as their new place of residence. Here is the reason why!

Sweden is the 4th most competitive country in the world. The Scandinavian country ranks exceptionally high in quality of life, health, education, protection of civil liberties, economic competitiveness, income equality, gender equality, prosperity, and human development – reported by Wikipedia.

Even though the country’s population shows steady growth, there is one specific reason why more and more Swedes decide to leave their homeland and settle down somewhere else. The reason for this is the mass migration that has completely transformed Swedish society in recent years.

That is the reason why many Swedish people choose Hungary as their new place of residence.

As the Hungarian news portal Híradó reports, during the last decade more than 400,000 people arrived in Sweden which originally has a population of ten million. As a result, most districts in Malmö already have a high number of immigrants, and crime statistics have been dramatically deteriorating. According to the Swedish Crime Prevention Council, Sweden already had the highest number of shootings in 2019 and a record number of homicides in 2020. The situation is becoming increasingly difficult for the Swedish population to bear.

As an example, we can learn about the case of a Swedish family who moved to Hungary in 2018 for the safety of their children. The Swedish couple decided to do so after 5-6 years of planning. The family used to live in a good region of Central Sweden. However, after a tragic incident when one of their friends was killed, they realized that their homeland was no longer the same where they grew up. That was the turning point when they decided to move to Hungary and start a new life in Budapest. The Swedish couple works as lawyers and lives in the Hungarian capital with their two children.

As they say, they are extremely satisfied that they have chosen Hungary as their new place of residence.

Apart from Swedes, in the past few years, more and more German families move to Hungary because it is safer. They interviewed locals revealed that they were living in constant fear in their home country. That is why they decided to choose Hungary as their new place of residence. As we previously reported, the majority of immigrants moving to Hungary are Ukrainian, Romanian, German, and Serbian citizens.

Besides being among the TOP20 most peaceful countries in the world, Hungary may also attract foreigners for its beautiful wine regions. As we previously reported, this was the primary motivation of a Swedish brother and sister who started to produce wine in the beautiful region of Badacsony.

Villa Sandahl
Read alsoWhat inspired a Swedish brother and sister to produce wine in Hungary?

Hungarian dating app enters foreign market

date

A Hungarian company bought its way into the Swedish and Norwegian dating app market. The website and app they bought is one of the largest in Norway and Sweden.

A Hungarian company bought Mötesplatsen a premium dating site and app popular in Norway and Sweden. The previous owner sold it after 15 years, writes kreativ.hu. After the purchase, the Hungarian company will be present in 6 countries.

The company also operates a dating site in Hungary. Randivonal and the newly bought Mötesplatsen share one important attribute in common. Unlike fast dating apps and sites, which focus on fast instant communication between members once they match, both Randivonal and Mötesplatsen focus on slow dating. It takes more time and consideration for users to find that special someone, writes portfolio.hu.

The Hungarian company wants to form a European network. To achieve this goal, it is important to buy more platforms.  Now the Hungarian company is present in 6 countries and the income will be more than 2.5 billion forints.

Dating a Hungarian date in Budapest
Read alsoMulticultural love stories about dating a Hungarian

Acquiring Mötesplatsen was indeed a good choice. According to their site, which was launched in 2001, 96% of the members has a positive opinion about the service. Today, Mötesplatsen is one of the Nordic region’s fastest growing dating sites. Finding someone on the website seems easy since there are more than 140,000 active members to choose from both in Sweden and Norway.

The gender ratio is balanced as well. There are 47% women and 53% men on the site. About 90% of Mötesplatsen’s members are over 25 years old. More than half have a university degree.

There is also a VIP membership. The website prides itself on helping members to find love that lasts forever. This corresponds well with the mission statement of the Hungarian dating website. Randivonal is also a platform that helps users to find long-lasting relationships. Registration and profile browsing is free of charge; however, the member has to pay if he wants to exchange messages. The average age is above 35 and the balance between genders seems equal. 40% of people succesfully find their partner on the website.

 “We believe that the driving force of both of our companies is very similar, we have been developing our premium dating services along the same lines for more than two decades now. We successfully defend our local market against giant international companies and face the same challenges. I believe that, while we rely on international synergies, our future depends on local markets. We do not plan to merge our platforms, as all of our websites need to reflect on local attributes, stay relevant, keep and build on the cultural differences we can be proud of. I see the future in local and premium services as opposed to global monopolies. ”, kreativ.hu quotes Péter Weiler.

How to make friends as an expat in Hungary
Read alsoHow to make friends as an expat in Hungary

Hungary is ready to open a corridor for migrants to “march up to Austria, Germany and Sweden”

Hungary helps program migration

Commenting on migration, PM Viktor Orbán said in his regular Friday morning interview that over the past six years since 2015, border fences have been built not only by Hungary but also by Greece, Spain, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. This shows that Hungary’s position which it took “in solo” in 2015 is slowly becoming a majority view in Europe, he said.

A total of 92,000 illegal border entries were prevented in the first nine months of this year, which shows that the pressure of migration increased three to four-fold over one year, Orbán said.

Hungary has

spent nearly 600 billion forints on border protection so far,

which is approximately the same sum that the government will give to parents in the form of tax rebates next year, he said. As a result, it is a reasonable demand by Hungary that the EU should pay back at least a part of this money, he added. Orban warned that migration was making the pandemic spread faster, with illegal migrants transmitting infection.

Hungary is ready to

open a corridor for migrants to “march up to Austria, Germany and Sweden”

but refuses to allow Brussels to force its opinion on Hungary, Orbán said.

It is up to the Hungarian people to decide who should be allowed to enter the country and whom they want to live with, he added. “This debate will stay with us for years because we live in an age of epidemics and migration,” Orbán said.

Orban calls on EC to reimburse Hungary’s border protection costs

 

On the topic of utility costs, Orbán said Hungary’s left-wing opposition had made it clear that they would raise the price of electricity and gas to market level if they won next year’s general election. “The left’s position is clear: if market prices are rising, the people should also pay more,” Orban said. He added that his government, on the other hand, had fixed household utility prices in the interests of families and pensioners. Even though the price of electricity and gas has increased two to three-fold in Europe in recent months, Hungarian households have not seen their utility bills rise, Orbán said.

“That’s how it’ll be as long as the country is governed by a nationally minded government,”

he said.

Meanwhile, Orbán said it was a “foolish idea” on the part of Brussels to introduce “a so-called climate protection plan that will further raise prices” when energy prices were already rising. But governments have room for manoeuvre, Orbán said, adding that it was possible to fight climate change by making the biggest polluting companies bear the costs for it instead of households.

He said this was currently the most contested issue in Brussels,

as the more prosperous western European countries wanted to impose a tax on homes and vehicles while the central European countries were resisting such a measure. The main question at next month’s summit of European Union leaders will be which side prevails, he added.

Orbán said the increase of the minimum wage to a monthly 200,000 forints had been a “great achievement”, adding that he had not heard of any international example of a 20 percent minimum wage increase within one year. In order to achieve this, the government agreed to a significant tax cut at talks with employers, he added.

Ten years ago, when the Gyurcsány-Bajnai governments were in power,

the average wage was at the same level that the minimum wage will now reach,

he said.

railway frankfurt high speed
Read alsoHigh-speed railway between Budapest and Warsaw to cut travel time from 12 to 5 hours

We do not want to live in a European empire, says Hungarian justice minister

varga judit

Justice Minister Judit Varga held talks on the issue of the rule of law in Hungary and the future of Europe in Stockholm on Monday.

In a Facebook post, Varga said she had told Sweden’s EU Affairs Minister Hans Dahlgren that reports in the international media regarding the state of the rule of law in Hungary should be treated with caution because they were “often one-sided”.

“This is also true for the independent and objective reports published by the European Commission,” she added.

Varga said the EU’s rule-of-law procedures were “political witch-hunts dressed up as legal procedures”, of which she said the latest example was the “series of attacks” launched against Hungary over its child protection law.

The minister said that in her talks she underscored Hungary’s position that

parents should have the exclusive right to decide how they raise their children which position she said “Brussels too must understand”.

Varga said she and Dahlgren had also discussed the challenges facing Europe. She said that despite their different cultures and geographical distance, Hungary and Sweden shared the goal of “putting Europe back on the global map”, emphasising that this was only possible to achieve as a community of strong nation states.

“Hungary’s vision remains straight forward and clear-cut: we do not want to live in a European empire,”

Varga said. “Integration is a means and not an end in itself”, she said, calling for the aim of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe to be removed from the EU’s founding treaties. Decisions should be made by Europe’s elected leaders rather than international NGOs, she added.

“We say no to the outsourcing of the rule of law,”

Varga said. She said the strength of European integration stems from shared economic success, adding that a failure by member states to be more successful together than on their own would mean the end of the EU.

Varga also said that the coming decade would be characterised by “dangerous challenges” including mass migration and pandemics which European people needed to be protected from.

The minister also called for restoring European democracy. She said the European Parliament had “turned out to be a dead end” that only represented “its own ideological and institutional interests”. Varga called for giving a larger role to national parliaments and admitting Serbia to the EU.

School-kindergarten-education
Read alsoPM Orbán: the EU gives money only if Hungary allows LGBTQ activists into schools

Did the Swedish PM really lie about the situation in Hungary?

Hungary Sweden politics PM
Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Thursday accused Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven of “lying” about the situation in Hungary. “The failed Swedish prime minister once again wanted to lecture Hungarians and Poles about democracy and he launched an unscrupulous volley of lies in parliament, not for the first time,” about “circumstances” in Hungary and Poland, Szijjártó said on Facebook.

“It is of course no accident that Stefan Lofven will have to leave his post in November,” considering that “he has obviously lost control”, he added. “Public safety is a thing of the past in Sweden, crime rates are sky high, 366 shootings have been registered, and the number of violent crimes committed by migrants is constantly rising; most recently even small children playing outdoors were shot during gang warfare,” Szijjártó said.
 
Incitement against Jewish communities is left without consequences and migrants set fire to a synagogue in Göteborg,
 
he added.
 


He said LGBTQ activists were freely going into schools and kindergartens, reflected in a 15-fold rise in recent years in the number of people dissatisfied with their gender identity and suffering from depression, he said.

A court recently reduced the sentence of a Swedish LGBTQ activist who had raped migrants,
 
Szijjártó said, adding that the decision far from showed the rule of law in Sweden in a positive light.

“We understand the frustration that the Swedish prime minister must feel by all these things, but perhaps he would not have failed had he focused more on governing his own country instead of lecturing us,” Szijjártó added.
 

Young Swedish tourist raped in Budapest – court trial began

A 39-year-old man raped a young Swedish girl in an apartment in the 7th district of the Hungarian capital, in October 2019. It was difficult for the police to find him, but yesterday, his court trial started.

As we reported two years ago, the girl and her two girlfriends rented a first-floor apartment in the 7th district of Budapest for three days in 2019. They came to a party in Budapest,

but one of their nights ended horribly.

“The girls called me at dawn and said that something terrible happened, so I immediately went to their place. They said that the previous night, they were in a nearby bar where they drank. One of them got tired, so she went back home while two of her girlfriends remained at the bar,” the owner of the apartment said. He added that the man probably followed the girl, and he knew which flat he had to climb into.

After the girl arrived home, she opened the window to allow her friends to enter the apartment, and she locked the door. Following that, she went to sleep, but it did not take long until a strange sound woke her up.

When she opened her eyes, she saw that somebody was climbing into her room.

The man raped her and left the flat through the window. The girl immediately called the police, and she was taken to the hospital, according to the owner of the flat.

According to telex.hu, the girl came to Budapest on Wednesday to face her attacker in the central court of Pest. Based on the information of the news portal, the 39-year-old Gergely T. rented a flat next to the Airbnb apartment the girls rented and noticed while smoking that three young girls moved next to him. After he climbed into the girl’s room, where

she was in deep slumber, he raped her.

However, she woke up and tried to defend herself, pushing him away with her legs. In the end, he escaped through the window.

It was difficult for the police to find the rapist. Interestingly, a cigarette butt’s DNA content led them to Gergely T. and became the main evidence in the case. The court would have held a preparatory session on Wednesday, which they postponed since the defendant and the lawyer assigned to him had not met before, and the latter was not familiar with the details.

Featured image: illustration