communism

House Speaker: Hungarian left-liberal opposition is part of a globalist network working against the nation

Speaker Hungary coronavirus oppositoin

The Hungarian left-liberal opposition is part of a “globalist network working against the nation”, feeding Western European propagandists with fake news and slander, House Speaker László Kövér said in an interview to the weekly Demokrata.

Regarding Hungarian legislation to contain the novel coronavirus epidemic, foreign objections and criticisms were “one and the same” as the opposition’s, Kövér said in the interview published on Wednesday.

“This opposition is not part of the Hungarian nation but a servant to that world elite,” he said.

Speaking about the fall of communism in Hungary ahead of lawmakers marking the anniversary of the first session of the free parliament on May 2, 1990, Kövér called the change of regime “a great scam, not a revolution”.

However, the historic role of those events and its actors has to be acknowledged, he said. “After all, we did end foreign military occupation and an oppressive dictatorship in 1990.”

He said Hungary had also regained its national sovereignty “to the extent that it was possible at the end of the 20th century”. He added that Hungary had since been exercising sovereignty in cooperation with European Union institutions.

Kövér called the ruling Fidesz party‘s 2010 election win and continuous term in office since “a milestone”.

At that time, “the mistakes and sins of the left-liberal governments that served foreign interests nearly cost us all our financial resources”, he said.

Kövér said “voices” that attacked Hungary did so not because they were misinformed but because “they have been assigned to do so”. International media outlets, he added, had also been “painting Hungary as the enemy” in a concerted effort to divert attention from “the fact that the country’s patriotic politics may appear to be too attractive to the citizens of other countries”.

The speaker said Hungary’s law provided the highest level of democratic guarantees by giving parliament the right to authorise the cabinet to take special measures during the state of emergency. The government will not have these special powers any longer than necessary, he added.

Kövér compared international pressure on the Hungarian government to the situation of the Third Reich in the last years of the second world war, “when everybody knew that it was a lost war but they were still unable to stop the madness” and prevent severe losses.

“It is as if the globalist command sitting in a Brussels bunker has lost faith in victory,” he added.

Commenting on the billionaire George Soros, he said Soros was playing a role given to him by an invisible power, a “deep state” present in the world.

In response to a question about the post-corona world, he said the “arrogant self-assurance” that had overcome the world may well disappear for a while but only temporarily.

“I would not dare to make a large bet on common sense getting the upper hand in shaping the course of the world,” he said.

The interests that maintain the current way of doing things in the world are too strong for that, he added.

However, he said that during crisis management, valuable experiences could be gained for the purpose of strengthening international communities and their institutions, and “these will improve our chances for combating future challenges”.

Read alsoHouse speaker: Gyurcsány belongs to ‘rock bottom of Hungarian politics’

Catastrophic economic projects of the Hungarian communists: the Hungarian housing project in Libya

Libya housing Hungary communism

According to some economists, it is a widespread misbelief in Hungary that communism bankrupted because leaders spent more Western money on keeping living standards higher than they were in the neighbouring countries. They say, instead, the many prestige investments could be the reason, all of which failed. One of them is the Libyan housing project.

The end of the big housing/flat building projects of the 1970s marked the start of the crisis in the Hungarian construction sector because it had a lot of unnecessary capacities. Therefore, the Hungarian government was very happy to hear during the 1980 Libyan-Hungarian negotiation that the Libyan government would like to entrust Hungarian companies to build 1,000 flats and the joint infrastructure in the North-African country. Based on the plans, the Hungarians would have produced 300 units in Tripoli and 700 in Zintan. The Hungarian government chose the ÉMEXPORT to carry out the plan, and the company received 600 million HUF to do so from the National Bank of Hungary. If they succeeded

they would have received 100.6 million dollars from Libya

which was a considerable amount of foreign currency those days for communist Hungary.

However, it became shortly clear that the Hungarian construction companies lack the experience and knowledge to build flats in the hot desert of the African country. They needed new vehicles and tools which had to be bought from the West, so they needed another 600 million HUF from the National Bank of Hungary. Further loans followed these so this sum climbed to 2.2 billion HUF in the end.

Moreover, the Libyan economy did not grow according to the expectations, so the local government introduced austereness which caused the decrease of the purchasing power of the people. As a result, socialist construction companies from Easter-Germany or Bulgaria left Libya one after the other, only the Hungarian one remained. But

without good local relationships, money and help

they could not solve even the most basic problems.

Despite all these, the Hungarian government trusted the good Hungarian-Libyan political relationship. Thus, they did not halt the project but unsuccessfully tried to modify the conditions of the contract.

The Hungarian companies could not keep the deadlines, so the government fired the CEOs one after the other, but that could not solve the problem. Since the fallback was considerable, in 1984, the Libyan government stopped the project and sent the ÉMEXPORT home. The company became bankrupt because of that decision.

The altogether sum the Hungarian state lost on the project 7.8 billion HUF,

almost one pc of the 1984 Hungarian GDP. Of course, nobody was brought to court because of the project.

Featured image: Tripoli, the capital of Libya.

Did you know that there is a Hungarian hospital in North Korea?

Hungary north korea hospital

Hungary builds new hospitals, for example, in Vietnam. In 1950, the Communist leadership of the country felt it essential to help their Korean and Chinese comrades fighting against the United States by sending a complete hospital with the crew to the Far East country. Interestingly, the hospital is in operation still today.

Interestingly, the first contact between Hungary and the Korean Kingdom was established at the end of the 19th century. Hungarian travellers and doctors visited the Kingdom before and after the Japanese occupation. American and Soviet troops retook the country from the Japanese forces in the final days of WWII, but the winners of the war could not decide the fate of the Penninsula. Since the negotiations on reunification failed, in 1948, separate governments were formed: the socialist Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the north, and the capitalist Republic of Korea in the south.

Hungary, as a country under communist leadership set up diplomatic ties with North-Korea almost immediately and in 1950, the first Hungarian ambassador arrived in Pyongyang. When the Korean war started, Mátyás Rákosi, hated and feared leader of the Hungarian communist regime, offered Hungary’s help and agreed with Soviet leader Stalin and the North Korean leadership that

he would not only send a team of doctors and nurses but a fully functional hospital with 200 beds to the Far East country.

Hungary north korea hospital
The cooperation between Hungary and North Korea. Source: fortepan.hu

The first crew and the equipment started their long journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway in the summer of 1950 to heal those wounded during the war. By 1951, there were 8 separate medical teams in North Korea and China, all working between horrible circumstances and being continuously threatened by the US air raids. For example, the first equipment sent to North Korea was destroyed by American bombers.

Therefore, Hungary sent a second team of doctors with a hospital for 400 people. Interestingly,

during the North-Korean occupation of Seoul, the today capital of South Korea, the Hungarian unit of doctors lead a hospital for 2,500 people.

Finally, the Hungarian doctors moved to Sarivon, a big North-Korean city south from the capital, Pyongyang where they created the Mátyás Rákosi Hospital.

Hungary north korea hospital
Hungarian and Korean doctors together in Saviron. Source: fortepan.hu

The hospital treated wounded soldiers there until 1953 when the two Koreas signed an armistice agreement which is still in effect. Among the Hungarian doctors, there were some well-known persons, too, for example, Frigyes Kulka, father of popular Hungarian actor, János Kulka, László Gyarmati, brother-in-law of the famous Hungarian poet Miklós Radnóti, and Miklós Böszörményi, an outstanding specialist of pulmonology.

The last Hungarian team of doctors started their journey towards North Korea in 1956. Since the Hungarian revolution of 1956, the relationship between the two countries grew cold. The North Korean government ordered the almost 1,000 Korean students to return home immediately, and the last Hungarian doctor had to leave North Korea in 1957.

In the 7 years, the altogether

225 Hungarian doctors and nurses spent in North Korea they helped more than 120 thousand patients and did more than 7,000 surgeries –

the Hungarian News Agency said then. Today, a bilingual column commemorates their deeds in the garden of the hospital. The Mátyás Rákosi hospital is still in operation and, based on information, bears the name of the Hungarian communist leader even today. 

The Hungarian government is to spend millions of dollars in Washington

washington-dc capitolium

The Hungarian government is going to give 9 million dollars to create a museum in Washington, commemorating the victims of Communism.

According to Napi, the government says that they would like to fight against Communism more effectively, that is why they would like to increase the donation to create a museum for its victims. The decision of the government empowers the minister of foreign affairs and trade to lead the necessary negotiations in the issue with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and the Centre for Democracy Public Foundation.

The minister for finance has to transfer 1/3 of the money until the end of January while the rest should be allocated by the end of 2020.

We reported in 2014 that a fundraising campaign started online for donations to construct a museum in Washington, D.C., commemorating the victims of Communism around the world. The Hungarian government then offered 1 million dollars as a contribution to the project.

Marion Smith, leader of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, told a press conference then that the launch of buildthemuseum.org marks the 25th anniversary of the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the 20th anniversary of setting up the foundation. Representatives of 18 countries, including Hungary, and civil and diaspora organisations laid wreaths at the Victims of Communism Memorial modelled after the papier-mache statue, “Goddess of Democracy”, erected by student protesters on Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Maria Schmidt, director of the Budapest House of Terror Museum, said the time had come to follow up the erection of the statue with the building of a museum. Hungary has taken the role of the initiator in this project and contributed 1 million dollars to it, she added, expressing hope that other countries would also join. Historian Lee Edwards, chairman of the foundation, told MTI that most people were not aware that 100 million lives had been lost during the Communist dictatorships of the 20th century, and people were still dying in such dictatorial regimes. He then expressed hope that the cornerstone of the museum can be placed in 2017, the centenary of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Start of the 1956 revolution’s commemorations – PHOTOS

2019 October 22 Traditional torch-lit march in Budapest 1956

The 1956 Hungarian uprising against communist rule shows Hungarians’ resilience against the influence of foreign interests and power, former prime minister Péter Boross said at the start of the revolution’s commemorations on Tuesday, in front of a memorial near Budapest’s Technical University.

Older generations have a duty to pass on that awareness to the younger generations, Boross said.

Former-PM-Péter-Boross
Budapest, Hungary. Photo: MTI

Speaking at the university, Innovation and Technology Minister László Palkovics said Hungarian youth “drove the first nails into communism’s coffin” in 1956. Those serving the communist party were wrong in thinking they had forever ruined Hungarians, he said, and this mistake “shook the whole regime”, he said.

Commemorations continued with the traditional torch-lit march to Bem square, where concerts conclude the day’s celebration.

On October 23, the national flag will be hoisted in a ceremony in front of Parliament at 9am, ahead of day-long programmes on Kossuth Square and other venues. The traditional “Freedom concert” at the Millenaris events venue will conclude the commemorations in the evening, more details HERE.

Budapest then and now – photos, video of the 1956 revolution vs nowadays

1956 uprising commemorated in Washington

Hungary’s revolution of October 23, 1956 was commemorated in a ceremony in the US capital on Monday.

“We Hungarians, a people of freedom being of a small country but a great nation, dared to say from time to time: enough of tyranny; and we dared to confront much stronger powers than us,” László Szabó, Hungary’s ambassador to the US, said at the ceremony held in the Kennedy Center.

In 1956, he noted, Hungarian people made a stand for freedom “in the face of hundreds of thousands of occupying Soviet soldiers and dreaded communist militants”.

Szabó said 1956 laid the foundation for a change of regime thirty years ago. At the time, a young lawyer who is now Hungary’s premier was one of the first to demand the withdrawal of Soviet troops and the country’s democratic transformation, he added.

Referring to accusations that Hungary is friendly with Russia, he noted that Russian soldiers had helped the Habsburgs to crush Hungary’s fight for freedom in 1849, and in 1956 Hungarian freedom fighters were crushed by Soviet troops.

Whereas Hungary needs Russian energy imports, this does not equate to eternal friendship, he added.

Meanwhile, Szabó presented the Golden Cross of Merit, awarded by President János Áder, to the founder and curator of the Árpádhon Museum of Hungarian Settlement in Louisiana, Alex Kropog and his wife, and to Kinga Révész, president of the Hungarian Science Club in Washington.

October 23 will be commemorated in the next few days in other parts of the US, too.

On Sunday, Hungarians living in Southern California and Los Angeles held commemorations.

Tibor P Nagy, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs at the US Department of State, and Thomas B. Modly, Under Secretary of the Navy, attended the Washington commemoration.

Bundestag president thanks Hungarians for courage in 1989 – Interview

SCHÄUBLE, Wolfgang

Thanks to the courage of the Hungarians, a new chapter of history began in 1989, the president of Germany’s Bundestag told public news channel M1 on Monday evening in an interview marking the 30th anniversary of the opening up of Hungary’s western border.

Former West German politicians always knew that Germans living in the German Democratic Republic would choose unity if they could decide for themselves, Wolfgang Schauble said.

But it was also known that borders could not be changed either in Germany or in Europe, because such efforts would be suppressed by the communist regime, as was experienced by the Germans in 1953, the Hungarians in 1956, and later by the people of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the Poles in 1980-81, he said.

“However, in 1989, we felt that something started to change, and thanks to the courage of Hungarians, […], it became clear that a new chapter of history began and Europe would no longer remain divided,” Schauble said.

The Bundestag president said

Germany “will never forget” Hungary’s decision to open its border in September 1989 which had paved the way for German unity and the unification of Europe,”

said Schauble, a leading politician of Germany’s senior ruling party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Responding to a question, Schauble said that

the Iron Curtain dismantled in 1989 cannot be compared to the fence built along Hungary’s southern border in 2015.

“The two have nothing to do with one another,” he said.

While the Iron Curtain “closed people”, the fence was an answer to current challenges, including globalisation and regional differences, he said.

“It is quite understandable that people seek to flee from poverty-stricken, war-torn regions but it is also obvious that Europe cannot take in all those in need. We should find a solution to migration,” he said.

Schauble said that there is a need for border control. He added, however, that “we do not want to isolate ourselves hermetically because Europe is not a fortress”.

“If we do not want to restore internal border control, we should defend the external border,” he said.

Asked about Hungarian-German relations, Schauble said

“we should make continuous efforts so that political differences should not open new ditches between us and that we should be able to resolve issues that can only be resolved efficiently together.”

Schauble said that national affiliation should not be set against European endeavours. “Germany’s future will not be successful if that of Europe fails and Hungary has better prospects if it is part of a unified Europe.”

German foreign minister: German unity would not have been possible without Hungarians

Heiko Maas

It would have been impossible to restore German unity without the help of Hungarians in 1989, Germany’s foreign minister said on Tuesday in Berlin at the opening of a Hungary-Germany youth forum.

Heiko Maas, referring to the opening up of the Hungarian border thirty years ago on September 10, 1989, said that Hungarians had cleared the path to freedom for escaping East Germans. By opening the border,

“Hungarians punched the first brick out of the Berlin wall”.

This brick, he added, had become the foundation for today’s peaceful Europe based on solidarity.

The minister said that in the climate of today’s problems and disputes, “perhaps we should talk about this more from time to time”. He added that as a German and a European, he paid thanks to Hungarians for their steadfastness in 1989.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said at the forum that cooperation between Germany and central Europe “fundamentally determines the future of Europe”.

The events thirty years ago showed that Hungarians and Germans working together is “good for the whole of Europe”, he said.

Europe became stronger, wealthier and more peaceful with the accession of the eastern European states in 2004, and the region has gone on to be the engine of European growth, Szijjártó said. The volume of trade of Germany with the Visegrad Group exceeds German-French trade by 74 percent, he said, adding that cooperation between eastern Europe and Germany is key to European competitiveness and therefore determines the bloc’s position in the world, he said.

He called for European Union enlargement to integrate countries of the Western Balkans.

“Central Europeans, after fighting for our freedom, cast off the shackles of the communist dictatorships,” he said, noting that in 1991 four countries in the region set up the Visegrad Group “to struggle together to eradicate the remnants of dictatorship and strengthen each other in Euro-Atlantic integration.”

“Profound changes are taking place in world politics,” Szijjártó said.

“The global economy is rife with tension, attempts to curtail free trade are gaining ground, security threats are constant in the regions surrounding the European Union,” he said.

“As we face political, economic and security challenges, Hungarians and central Europeans are ready to take part in finding common solutions so that the European Union can be strong once again.”

He said the EU could be strong if its member states were strong. “Weakened nations that are unable to defend themselves, that have strayed far from their cultural and historical religious heritage, and a Europe based on such weakened nations, cannot be strong. We Hungarians are proud to have preserved our identity as one of the oldest states in the region,” he said.

Szijjártó urged the acceleration of EU enlargement, saying this would strengthen the bloc.

Integration of the Western Balkans, he added, must not wait until 2025 as this was important from the point of view of security.

“It is our common duty to return security to the people of Europe,” he said, warning that “hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, are moving towards Europe.”

Hungary is launching a 30 million euro aid program for Christians in the Middle East, jointly with the German Red Cross and is carrying out relief and reconstruction projects in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq to prevent people living there from fleeing, he said.

He said Hungarian-German friendship amounted to a strategic alliance. “We have been celebrating one of the most significant events in our history, with the linking of Hungarian sovereignty and the creation of German unity. We are proud that we could be a part of the reunification of Germany and Europe,” he said.

Meanwhile, at a commemoration held at the plaque marking the 1989 events on the wall of the German lower house of Parliament, the Bundestag, Hungarian House Speaker Laszlo Kover said Hungary’s independence and German unity were interlinked and constituted “a special ingredient of the future of a united, strong and democratic Europe”.

Kover noted that a twin of the plaque is placed on the wall of the Hungarian Parliament, reminding lawmakers and visitors “what we Hungarians and Germans did, in a demonstration of our friendship, for unity, independence and democracy.”

Bundestag chairman Wolfgang Schauble said at the event that the 1989 events were an example of Hungarian love of freedom. Hungarians “bravely and generously” gave a “crucial boost” to the events leading to German unity, he said.

“The time has come for Hungarian poets to seek new metaphors to describe the situation of their country, because Hungary is no longer a raft floating between East and West, but has a solid place in the heart of Europe, Schauble said.

Hungary took a huge risk by opening the borders for some 200,000 East German refugees in 1989, Schauble said, not only in view of the 80,000 Soviet soldiers occupying the country but also because the Soviet Union had clamped down on all previous freedom movements in the region, he said.

Hungarians, however, chose to help East Germans, which resulted in a “shared sense of freedom”. Germans have always thought of Hungary as a “neighbour without shared borders,” and the relationship reached a new level in 1989, he said.

The iconic Puskás Stadium opened 66 years ago!

Népstadion - fekete-fehér

On 20th August 1953, Népstadion (People’s Stadium – renamed to Ferenc Puskás Stadium in 2002) opened its gates to athletes, artists, and the audience. A great ceremony accompanied the event – for the Communist leadership of the era, it was a prestigious investment. The new Ferenc Puskás Stadium is opening in November. 

In the stadium, there used to be room for 68976 people. Sporting events and musical performances were organised there. The number one football pitch of the Hungarian team had always been in this stadium until it was unbuilt. Its successor,

the new Ferenc Puskás Stadium, is going to be finished soon, and the first match in it is going to be played on 15th November 2019.

az új Puskás Ferenc stadion
Ferenc Puskás Stadium under construction
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/puskasarena/photos

The idea of a grandiose stadium in Budapest was born in 1896 when Budapest had the chance to organise the first modern Olympic Games. After some reluctance at the beginning, the Greeks organised it in Athens, but the plan of the stadium stayed on the agenda. This need started to be urgent after the successful performance of Hungarian athletes, and in 1911, Budapest got permission to organise the Olympic Games in 1920. However, WWI hindered the plans. 

According to the first plans, the stadium of Budapest would have been built on Vérmező, but the vicinity of Nándor Garden and Krepesi Road (the Hungarian Jockey Club had moved from there) were also taken into consideration. However, the economic crisis after the war did not make the investment affordable at all. Later, a new law was introduced in 1924 to build a new stadium for the people, and sports tax was imposed for this purpose. However, the income was not spent on the sports facility because of the Great Depression. One of the aspirant designers of the new stadium was Alfred Hajós (Olympic Champion of 1896) who was awarded for his plans, but there was no chance to implement them at the time. In the ’30s, the idea came up again after stabilising the economy. Places like Aranyhegy, Városliget, Margaret Island Lágymányos, and Pasarét were considered, but WWII obstructed the execution. 

Népstadion színesben
Football match in People’s Stadium (in colour)
Photo: facebook.com/Népstadion Emlékoldal!

After the war, the parliament voted on the construction in 1945, and the accident at the FTC (Ferencváros-Fradi) pitch accelerated the execution – part of the grandstand broke, and 250 spectators fell down. It was a miracle that nobody died. The construction started on 13th July 1948 under the leadership of Károly Dávid (architect) and Jenő Gilyén (structural engineer). 90% of the elements were instantly fractured and used. According to the original plans, the room for spectators was to be 70000 seats, and later, they would have extended it to 100000. 18 pylons held the grandstands, and two Marathonian gateways were built at the Northern and Southern entrances.

Masses of workers took part in the construction voluntarily, including the Hungarian Golden team with Ferenc Puskás.  

The construction finished in 1953, and the stadium opened on 20th August. 78000 seats were available, but the extension to 100000 never happened – it was only extended to 83000 in 1959. The first stadium director was Imre Németh, a former Olympic Champion in hammer throw.

Focimeccs a Népstadionban
People’s Stadium – football match (in colour)
Photo: facebook.com/Népstadion Emlékoldal!

The celebration of the opening was made memorable with a flag parade, marching bands, folk dance groups, and the opening games. The second day of athletic games between Hungary and Norway was won by Hungary (140.4-70.5). The football match between Budapest Honvéd and Spartak Moscow followed. Hungarian women national teams A and B also played – the score was 7-3. Hungary won again (3-2). A pyramid raised from the red star with the Statue of Liberty on top was the image of the ceremony. 

Take a look at the list of the most famous artists and musical performances in the stadium:

  • 1965 – Louis Armstrong
  • 1986 – Queen
  • 1987 – Genesis
  • 1988 – Human Rights concert: Peter Gabriel, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, Youssou N’Dour, Hobó, Bródy János
  • 1990 – Illés (concert) + István, a király (theatre play)
  • 1991 – AC/DC, Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Queensrÿche
  • 1992 – Guns N’ Roses
  • 1993 – U2
  • 1993 – Jean-Michel Jarre
  • 1994 – Omega
  • 1995 – Hungária
  • 1995 – The Rolling Stones
  • 1996 – Michael Jackson
  • 1999 – Omega, opening act: P. Mobil
  • 2000 – Michael Flatley (Lord of the Dance)
  • 2001 – Illés, Metro, Omega (Superconcert)
  • 2004 – Omega
  • 2005 – Neoton Família
  • 2006 – Depeche Mode
  • 2006 – Robbie Williams
  • 2007 – George Michael
  • 2007 – The Rolling Stones
  • 2009 – Depeche Mode
  • 2010 – Metallica
  • 2013 – Depeche Mode
  • 2013 – Roger Waters

Freddie Mercury a Népstadionban
Freddie Mercury giving concert in People’s Stadium – 1986
Photo: facebook.com/Fans of Queen

The stadium has become dangerous nowadays because of its old elements. The renewal construction is going to be finished in November 2019, and the new Ferenc Puskás Stadium is going to open its gates again for sports and art soon.











 

Former Soviet army facility to be cleaned up around Strazsa Hill at Esztergom

Former Soviet army facility to be cleaned up

The Danube-Ipoly National Park Directorate (DINPI) will launch an environmental cleanup project to remove fuel and heavy metals from four ponds used by Soviet tanks around Strázsa Hill at Esztergom, in northern Hungary.

The 2.7 hectare area is located next to drinking water resources, the director of DINPI told a press conference in Esztergom on Tuesday. Tests in the ponds have revealed the presence of heavy metals in the sludge, András Furi said.

The cleanup project will include removing contaminated soil and concrete structures from the spot used for a fuel depo, as well as cleansing the sludge, he said.

It will also include taking fish, amphibians and reptiles to a safe habitat for the period of the cleanup, Furi added.

The Strázsa Hill area was used by the Soviet army’s tanks and chemical defence units for about three decades after 1956.

The directorate will spend 591 million forints (EUR 1.82m) on the project,

the farm ministry’s state secretary said.

A national environmental programme identified a total of 30,000 polluted spots in 1996, András Rácz said, adding that their cleaning was estimated to take 30 years at a cost of around 1,000 billion forints.

https://dailynewshungary.com/news_to_go/gigantic-rubbish-island-floating-on-river-tisza-video/

The second Communist dictatorship in the world lasted only 133 days in Hungary

Hungary communism WWI

The democratic government that formed in Hungary after its WWI defeat was not able to keep wild Communist propaganda supported by Moscow at bay and after less than 5 months they were overthrown by a well-organised coup d’etat.

People were desperate

However, the world’s second Communist dictatorship did not reign in Budapest for long: despite the unprecedented terror it implemented the regime collapsed precisely 100 years ago on August 1, 1919. 

But how could Communists gain power in Hungary, the land of the 1956 revolution during which adolescents fought against the most enormous army of the world, the Soviet Red Army?

In the final days of WWI Hungary (like other nations taking part in the war) was no longer the land that once grabbed arms with great enthusiasm to punish the Serbs or the Russians. In 1918 fall

millions were starving

at home and on the front, as well, everybody wanted to finish the war, return home and punish those they thought are responsible for the 4-year-long bloodshed. They found their leader first in Mihály Károlyi who promised to put an end to the massacre, to democratise Hungary and preserve its territorial unity against Romanian, Serbian or Czech demands.

However, Károlyi and his governments failed to meet the exaggerated expectations of the people. The First People’s Republic of Hungary was unable to defend the borders against the invading neighbours helped by the entente powers, and they were also incapable of

implementing crucial reforms like the distribution of land or organising a general election.

On the other hand; however, since they regarded themselves as democrats, they did not step up against wild Communist propaganda promising almost everything and winning the support of more and more people as the time passed. The parties of the government were like political clubs without real membership except for the social democrats who had almost 1 million party members. By March 1919 Károlyi thought that only the social democrats and their many supporters could stop foreign forces and save Hungary from the destruction. Therefore, he appointed a full social democratic government, but he was not aware of the fact that the Social Democrats already made a pact with the Hungarian Bolsheviks and gave power into their hands.

Hungary Communism Lenin
Communists celebrating after the successful coup d’etat.

On March 21, 1919, the Revolutionary Governing Council was formed which proclaimed the Hungarian Soviet Republic and dismissed Károlyi. 

To tell the truth; however, anti-clerical and anti-peasantry Communists were extremely unpopular in the countryside so their

base was mostly the working class of the large industrial centres

like Budapest, Miskolc or Pécs and some intellectuals who, in the beginning, thought that Lenin’s Hungarian apprentices are the only ones who can finally reform the archaic Hungarian state and society and modernise the country.

Communists, however, also failed to meet the expectations though they implemented many radical reforms. For example, they abolished the aristocratic titles and privileges,  separated the church from the state, meaning that they forbid members of the cleric to teach in schools. They nationalised industrial and commercial enterprises and socialised housing, transport, banking, medicine, cultural institutions, and all landholdings of more than 40 hectares.

Hungary History Communism Lenin
Béla Kun, de facto leader of the Soviet Republic of Hungary.

However, they were not able to improve the conditions of the industrial workers, so their support decreased every day even in that group. Therefore, Communists used unprecedented terror to remain in power; for example, the Lenin Boys lead by József Cserny were deployed where counter-revolutionary movements were suspected of operating. They, as well as other similar groups, terrorised and killed many people during the 133 days of the Communist rule in Hungary.

Béla Kun, the real leader of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, announced that the Communists would retake the lost territories of Hungary and asked for help from Soviet-Russia but

Lenin could not send any troops

because of the Russian Civil War. Therefore, the Hungarian Red Army attacked and crushed Czech forces and retook much of NE-Hungary. The reason for their success was that many former soldiers and officers of the WWI army joined the ranks of the Communists not because they agreed with Communist ideas but because they wanted to retake the lost territories.

Hungary History Communism
The Lenin Boys.

However, Kun ordered the victorious troops to retreat because he was promised to be internationally recognised if he did so (of course, that was a lie). The result was total disintegration and the evaporation of the last bits of trust in the Communist government. Thus, Romanian troops could easily defeat the Red Army and capture even Budapest while Béla Kun and his comrades escaped to Vienna. Later most of them repatriated to the Soviet Union and many of them including

Kun were executed during Stalin’s great purge in the 1930s. 

Mátyás Rákosi, leader of the Red Guard in 1919, managed to survive the 1930s and he returned to create the second Communist state in Hungary after WWII and the Soviet occupation of the country.

Chernobyl – What Communist Hungary did instead of protecting its citizens

The essence of the unique “Hungarian” way of dealing with the effects of the disaster was to tell nothing to the people but share all information and measurement results with the Western governments. This is how the Kádár-leadership could gain plus points in both West and East, Washington and Moscow. Fortunately, Hungary was not hit hard by the radiation – otherwise, the government would be responsible for the death of hundreds.

Is the Paks nuclear plant a good idea?

According to Rubicon, a Hungarian History magazine, the Chernobyl-disaster happened in an era when all media in Communist-lead Hungary, owned of course by the party-state itself, talked about

the high-tech achievement of the Socialist Soviet and Hungarian industry: the Paks nuclear plant.

What happened in Chernobyl did not fit into this success story, and since Hungarian authorities received at the beginning very little information about what exactly happened and how bad the results can be, they were interested in minimising the problem. The first report on the disaster that occurred on April 26 appeared on April 28 in the Hungarian state television and stated that everything is in order, the food is safe and the radiation level is not high. 

In fact, only 5 pc of the news said that what happened in Chernobyl was very dangerous,

83 pc of them highlighted that it is not harmful. 

Though the first radiation wave reached the country on April 29, authorities and media reported that there is nothing to fear from and everybody should take part in the May 1 celebrations.

The message changed only days later when newspapers started to write about protective measures. They suggested parents give their children only milk analysed and approved by the Hungarian authorities or to wash vegetables properly before using them. However, by and large, nor reporters nor politicians took seriously what happened in Chernobyl. Though the goal was not to cause panic among the citizens, the media was not able to even calm the people who received information about what really happened through rumours and gossip anyway.

To make matters worse, the Hungarian government did not publish its measurement results, but it shared each of them with the Western powers where, therefore, they appeared to be a reliable partner. As a result, the number of people listening to Radio Free Europe increased while the whole issue considerably

undermined public trust in the government. 

True, the Hungarian political leadership received little information from Moscow about the real damages. However, through unofficial channels, they knew that the problem is much worse than the Soviet authorities try to picture it. Furthermore, this does not explain the fact why the first Hungarian measurement results were published only on May 14, more than two weeks after the disaster.

More people listened to the Free Radio Europe

The economic consequences of the catastrophe were also severe in Hungary since the Communist country was struggling with a debt trap, so it needed every dollar for the goods it exported to the West. Though thanks to the good measurement results the ban of the Council of the European Communities lasted for only two weeks, it caused

almost 12 million USD minus for the weak Hungarian economy.

Furthermore, tourists cancelled 60 thousand guest nights.

If you want to read about the direct effects of the Chernobyl-disaster in Hungary where the radioactive cloud entered in two waves on April 29, and May 7, click HERE. We wrote HERE that Hungary’s Paks nuclear power plant is not at risk of a Chernobyl-like disaster because the designs of the two plants’ nuclear blocks were utterly different.

Hungarian government propaganda at festivals too?

volt festival

VOLT Festival at Sopron has just kicked off on Wednesday, and along the concerts, festival goers were welcomed with a message from the past, delivered by Viktor Orbán.

Index reports that the end of Communism is commemorated at VOLT Festival too: between two numbers, a video of Viktor Orbán’s speech from 30 years ago is played on the mega screens.

During the breaks between two performances, the following video (available only in Hungarian) is played, every 7-8 minutes.

 

Viktor Orbán delivered this speech on the occasion of Imre Nagy’s (the martyred 1956 Hungarian prime minister) reburial.

A young Orbán demands that the Soviet troops leave Hungary.

However, as Index reminds readers, the troops did not leave Hungary because Orbán demanded them to do so, but because of an agreement between Miklós Németh, the Hungarian head of government, and the Soviets. This agreement was sealed three months prior to Orbán’s speech but was kept secret on Moscow’s request.

This footage is often screened by government TV channels and by TV2 as well.

VOLT Festival is a branch of Sziget Zrt., a company which is in agreement with the House of Terror, thus the commemorative video. Festival-goers can paint Trabants too as part of the 30 year anniversary event series.

This was not the first time VOLT took part in government propaganda:

in 2016, which was the 50th anniversary year of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, a message delivered by Mária Wittner (a Hungarian revolutionary, who took part in the 1956 Revolution and is now a member of the National Assembly, representing Fidesz) was projected on the ferris-wheel.

The press agent of Sziget Zrt., Viktória Vető, stated that different footages, videos are displayed in rotation on the large screen, with the same frequency, and Orbán’s speech is no exception to this.

featured image: https://www.facebook.com/VOLTFesztival

The last Soviet soldier leaving headquarters in Hungary – VIDEO

viktor silov leaving hungary

The moment when the very last Soviet soldiers left their Hungarian headquarters on June 19, 1991, aired on national television for the first time. The recordings were made by László Zámbó, who sat in his Trabant and immortalized the moment that the whole country waited decades for.

László Zámbó recorded the last Soviet trucks leaving Budapest, and also the troops’ commander, Viktor Silov leaving his mansion. The videos aired on RTL Klub on Saturday night, reports hvg.hu.

During the show in which the videos were shown, the man said he waited for two nights and almost three whole days so he could record the historical moments.

The next day, Zámbó went to the headquarters and looked around. “Hideous, what they left behind, dirt and disarray. The Russian soldiers undressed, took their uniforms off, and hang it on the fence. Whatever they could get, civil clothes, they scattered. They did not want to go home, they obviously knew they could have a better life here,” he said.
The man was there as well when Viktor Silov left his mansion. The Lieutenant General, upon noticing the camera, went back to the building, then eventually got himself to leave: he stepped onto the street, locked the door, swinging his umbrella he walked to his Volga and took off to Záhony. He left the country the same afternoon.

RTL Klub tried to get in contact with him, but the ex-soldier did not want to give them an interview.

The then-Prime Minister, Miklós Németh, came to an agreement with Mihail Gorbacsov about the decades-long “temporarily” stationing Russian troops’ withdrawal in March 1989, but they did not go public with the decision.

The first 10,000 soldiers left Hungary in March that same year, and a year later an official agreement was reached, which stated that all soldiers and vehicles would leave the country.

 
In the video, after introducing the topic, they talk about the famous Hungarian song “Bye-Bye Szása,” which was inspired by these events. After that, they interviewed people, such as Miklós Németh, who was the Prime Minister at the time and asked about what memories they have of the “temporary residency” of the Soviets and Russians.
Throughout the video, many recordings of Hungary at the time are shown. They also explain that the Russians came here during the Second World War, then in 1956 more came to fight off the Hungarian resistance. And although there was an agreement that they would only stay temporarily, they were here for over three decades.
We can see the soldiers leaving in the video around 5:30 as well as the conditions they left. At 8:40 we can see Viktor Silov turning back at his gate, before finally leaving his mansion – and Hungary.
Featured image: László Zámbó / RTL Klub Fókusz Plusz

Újpest vs Ferencváros: The Budapest derby explained

újpest-ferencváros-badges

Arguably one of the biggest rivalries in Central European football, Újpest versus Ferencváros, is a highlight of the Hungarian football calendar. Despite Ferencváros winning the league last week, the fixture will no doubt be fiercely contested. They will face each other for the final time this season on Saturday. But why is there such a big rivalry between two clubs that are based in completely different parts of Budapest?

Where it all began

Since its inception in 1901, the Hungarian league was dominated by MTK Budapest and Ferencváros; by 1929, these two sides racked up 13 and 11 titles respectively. In fact, no other side had won the league between 1903 and 1929. However, the 1929-1930 season broke this trend, changing the Hungarian football landscape forever. Újpest, a club from a town on the border with Budapest, became the first team outside of the capital to win the Nemzeti Bajnokság I. They went onto win 4 other titles in the 1930s. Their success did not go unnoticed, and a rivalry started developing between them and Ferencváros. While Újpest represented Hungary’s rural communities, the Green Eagles were the club of the Budapest middle class, the majority of whom were of German origin. However, the rivalry was about to reach an intensity that neither fan base could have anticipated at the time.

The Communist era

In 1950, Újpest became incorporated as the 4th district of Budapest, a number which became synonymous with the club for decades to come. More importantly, the communist era heralded a new chapter in Újpest’s history and for the derby as a whole. In the same year, the side became the team of the Ministry of Interior. Being a working-class district in the Hungarian capital with a relatively successful team, it was easy to see why the regime chose Újpest as their club.  They received the traditional Dynamo-style badge and were renamed Budapesti Dózsa – and subsequently to Újpesti Dózsa – in honour of György Dózsa. György Dózsa was a Hungarian peasant who led a revolt against the nobility in 1514. It was easy to see the connection between his story and the communist government’s propaganda, and conveniently, his name started with the letter ‘D’.

On the other hand, Ferencváros was the club of resistance. While Újpest represented the oppressors, Ferencváros was the team of the opposition, and their fans were mostly right-winged supporters.

A change in regime

Like other Eastern European leagues after the collapse of the communist system, Hungarian football did not escape hooliganism either. Both sides’ ultras became primarily right-winged hooligans, and there were intense confrontations between the two sets of fans, although tensions have calmed over the past few years. While the rivalry remained, the respective clubs began to represent different things once again.

Ferencváros became a much more supported club nationally, whereas Újpest fans developed a strong affiliation to the 4th district of Budapest. Újpest supporters established an identity that was interwoven with their connection to the club and the Újpest district as a whole. From an Újpest perspective, the club began to represent a community to which supporters belonged to, and a sense of place-based pride was born.

A rivalry set to change again?

This month, Budapest Honvéd underwent a change in ownership, meaning Újpest remains the only Hungarian club in the top flight not to be in the hands of officials and oligarchs close to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. As Ferencváros is starting to dominate the league thanks to their expensive acquisitions, will the roles reverse? Could Újpest grow into the club of the opposition? Only time will tell. While the Újpest-Ferencváros rivalry has been around for nearly a century, the very reasons why they are adversaries changed over the course of history.

In 2014, one of the biggest football youtube channels Copa90 did a mini-documentary on the Újpest-Ferencváros rivalry:

This month, we reported that FC Barcelona is set to establish a football academy in Hungary.

Featured images: https://www.facebook.com/%C3%9Ajpest-FC-777989009018242/ and https://www.facebook.com/fradi.hu/

Day of Victims of Communism marked in Hungary

Day of Victims of Communism

Politicians addressed commemorations held in memory of the victims of Communism on Monday.

Under a parliamentary decree, February 25 has been observed as a memorial day of martyrs of Communism since 2000. On this day in 1947, leader of the Independent Smallholders’ Party Béla Kovács was illegally detained and deported to the Soviet Union.

Day of Victims of Communism

Addressing a commemoration in the Budapest House of Terror Museum, László Trócsányi, the justice minister, said that

between 1945 and 1988, three-quarters of death sentences were politically motivated and more than 900,000 people were executed due to the distorted legal system. The actual number of people murdered was much higher, he added.

Nor was the communist regime was “sparing” when it came to prison terms, Trócsányi said, adding that all prison sentences put together came to 7-8 million months.

Addressing a commemoration at the site of a former prison in Budapest, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said the time had come to declare, irrespective of political orientation, that Communism was Hungary‘s “common tragedy”. Communism, one way or the other, afflicted almost every Hungarian family, he said. “The Hungarian nation has learned that madness is contagious, and if we are not careful there’ll be a new epidemic,” he added.

Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said

Communism was the dead end of civilization.

At an event held in the House of Terror Museum, which once housed a secret police torture site, Gulyás said that tribute was being paid to the victims of a mass murdering dictatorship at one of the sites of the crimes of Communism.

Day of Victims of Communism
House of Terror Museum, Day of Victims of Communism, photo: MTI

Mária Schmidt, the museum’s director, said

Communism should not be presented exclusively as something of the past as there were still people in Europe who wanted to change the world on the basis of its ideology.

Day of Victims of Communism
Day of Victims of Communism, photo: MTI

Day of Victims of Communism
Day of Victims of Communism, photo: MTI

Day of Victims of Communism
Day of Victims of Communism – President Áder and his wife at the Budapest House of Terror Museum

Jobbik: Szabadság Square WWII monument to Soviet soldiers should be relocated

As Hungarian News Agency (MTI) said, Hungary’s conservative Jobbik party has called for the monument to Soviet soldiers who lost their lives liberating Hungary to be relocated from Szabadság Square, in central Budapest, to an unspecified military cemetery.

János Bencsik, the head of Jobbik’s Budapest chapter, told a press conference held in front of the obelisk on Monday that more than 100 million people had fallen victim to Communism. This is why activists had covered the monument in black drapes, he added.

MP János Bencsik Jobbik party Hungary
János Bencsik (Jobbik party), photo: facebook.com/bencsikjanos1985

Bencsik said Hungary today was turning away from the West and towards “despots in the east” instead of ridding itself of its communist legacy.

Pócspetri

The Archbishop celebrates a Mass in Pócspetri, Hungary
The Archbishop celebrates a Mass in Pócspetri, Hungary

The Archbishop celebrates a Mass in Pócspetri, Hungary
The Archbishop celebrates a Mass in Pócspetri, Hungary

On 25 February we remember victims of communist dictatorship

25 February the Memorial Day of the Victims of Communism

On 25 February we remember the victims of the communist dictatorship, those who were executed, incarcerated and destroyed and whose only sin was that they failed to fit into the narrow boundaries of the class struggle ideology, Zoltán Kovács, Minister of State for International Communication and Relations told the Hungarian news agency MTI.

He recalled that it was the first Orbán Government that decided that we should finally commemorate the victims of communism in a dignified manner.

He said it is unacceptable that to this day communism is perceived in Western Europe “with nostalgia mixed with enthusiasm for good measure”. “While we here in the Central European region experienced first-hand what it is like to live in oppression and fear,” he added.

Mr Kovács highlighted that

today in Hungary “we live in freedom and security, we have a future that we chose for ourselves, unlike in dictatorship”.

“We understood that we can only be free if we never resign our national sovereignty ever again,” he said.

The Minister of State said that, as part of the centrally organised programmes, all day long on Monday the House of Terror Museum will await visitors with special history lessons and guided tours. The guided tours will be attended by celebrities such as Ákos, Feró Nagy and Adrienn Zsédenyi.

25 February the Memorial Day of the Victims of Communism
25 February the Memorial Day of the Victims of Communism

Commemorators will be able to pay tribute at the Wall of Heroes by lighting candles throughout the day.

At the central commemoration, Justice Minister László Trócsányi and Mária Schmidt, Director General of the House of Terror Museum will deliver speeches.

Today, as a Memorial Day, the House of Terror Museum will be open for free visits all day long.

In 2000 Parliament declared 25 February the Memorial Day of the Victims of Communism in memory of the fact that it was on this day in 1947 that Béla Kovács, Secretary General of the Independent Smallholders’ Party was arrested unlawfully prior to being taken to the Soviet Union.


WHY IS THERE A HOLE IN THE CENTRE OF THE HUNGARIAN FLAG ON OCTOBER 23? – PHOTOS, VIDEO

The Hungarian government to suppress the independence of the Academy of Sciences, says Academy Staff Forum

Photo by Alpár Kató Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA)

Press release – The ADF (Hungarian Academy Staff Forum – HASF in English) is a civil initiative of the researchers from the research institute network at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS).

The Hungarian government is introducing a new system of research financing, in a way which in itself contradicts the appropriate manners of policy making, and which, after implementation, will have disastrous effects on the autonomy of scientific research and scholarship in the entire country as well as academy staff work and life altogether. Given that their voice has not been heard either in public or during the negotiations between the HAS and the government, this initiative is meant to express Hungarian Academy Staff Forum opinions about the situation and the whole process. Summary of the situation:

Background information

The Hungarian government is continuing its crackdown on academic freedom. The government first placed all universities in the country under the direct supervision of a chancellor, an administrator appointed directly by the government, and more recently forced Central European University to move most of its programs from Budapest to Vienna. Now, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences is subject to a structural reorganization by the government which will lead to the complete loss of academic independence for the Academy specifically and for scholarship in Hungary in general.

Before the elections in April 2018, government officials made clear in statements published in several right-wing media outlets that the government would intensify efforts to put the research institutes of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) under government control because these institutes had not been unquestioning in their loyalty to the government.

What is the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and why does it matter?

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences was founded in 1825 to promote scientific research in Hungary. It was created and maintained with the support of private benefactors. It has since become a national symbol of scientific endeavour and a major centre of cultural life in Hungary. After the First World War, HAS suffered from a major lack of funds, but its autonomy was strengthened and successfully maintained until the last years of the Second World War. Towards the end of the war, purges of the members of the Academy were held by successive regimes (the nationalist-conservative Horthy regime, the Arrow Cross regime which rose to power with the help of the Nazis, a short-lived democratic regime, and the communist regime under Mátyás Rákosi), and by 1948 the Academy had become a typical Soviet-type institution and an organ of the communist state.

Ironically, in the darkest years of the 1950s, an important new element was added to the Academy: the network of research institutes. This network had domestic antecedents, but fundamentally it was based on the Soviet academic world.

After the post-communist democratic transition in 1990, the Academy successfully struggled to retain the values embodied by the various academic institutions, while adapting them to the challenges of the technological revolution. A comprehensive reform of the research network was implemented in 2011–12 by President József Pálinkás, a scholar and former conservative minister of education and research who centralized the smaller institutions into fifteen research centres. The reform introduced a new system according to which scientific performance was evaluated and increased the role of tender-based financing, but it continued to respect the special demands of various disciplines, from the natural to the social sciences and the humanities. Until 2018, academic freedom was guaranteed by the autonomy of the Academy, which was grounded on two pillars affirmed by Law No. XL/1994. First, the Academy was led by a self-governing body of distinguished researchers who played an important role in managing the research centre network and supervising its work. Second, funding was negotiated on non-partisan grounds every year.

In June 2018, László Palkovics, the newly appointed Minister of the newly created Ministry for Innovation and Technology and himself a member of HAS, who enjoyed the strong support of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, proposed a seemingly tiny technical amendment to the 2019 budget laws to reallocate the annual financial support for the academic research centre network from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to the new ministry.

The real goal of this move was unmistakable. It was intended to deprive the Academy of its position as custodian of the largest network of research institutions in Hungary. Furthermore, it strengthens the position of the new minister as the de facto arbiter over the direction of scholarship and academic research in Hungary in general and, more narrowly, the specific topics covered in some fields of the sciences. The minister left the president of the Academy only 54 minutes to comment on the proposal, which the president of the Academy received by email, and the bill was passed within a few days.

In autumn 2018, several meetings took place between Minister Palkovics and the leadership of HAS driven by the Academy’s hope for an acceptable compromise.

Events took a dramatic turn after the extraordinary meeting of the General Assembly of HAS in December 2018, when an overwhelming majority rejected the reform plans and expressed support for HAS President László Lovász and the Presidium. Although the Academy had previously agreed to establish fast-track evaluation commissions to assess the scientific performance of the HAS research network by March 31, 2019, it soon became clear that reorganization plans would not take this into account.

palkovics
Minister Palkovics. Photo: MTI

In mid-January 2019, Minister Palkovics sidestepped President Lovász and met directly with the heads of the Academy’s research institutes to “request” their cooperation in making Hungary’s research and innovation system more “efficient,” i.e. to put it under more direct government control.

Following the model of the reorganization of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2013–14, the fundamental goal of Palkovics’ manoeuvrer against the HAS President was to reduce HAS to an innocuous “academic club” of mostly retired members.

The most valuable asset of HAS, its network of research centres with approx. 5,000 active staff members at an average age of 41, would either be transferred to universities and state-controlled research centres or simply eliminated. Entire institutions – mostly in the human and social sciences – would be labelled “unproductive” and dismantled. On January 31, 2019, the National Office for Research, Development, and Innovation, which is controlled by the Ministry for Innovation and Technology, launched a so-called “program of excellence.” According to this new model, research centres must apply for their entire budget by submitting tenders which are assessed according to unclear evaluation principles, allowing for arbitrary, politically motivated decisions. This system replaces the old model of normative financing of the research centre network based on the legally affirmed managerial autonomy of the Academy.

HAS President Lovász and the directors of the research centres face the dilemma of whether to apply for short-term financial support within this new scheme (January 1–December 31, 2019). To do so would mean acknowledging and accepting the end of the post-1989 history of the Academy as a free and autonomous public body and the supervising body of Hungary’s largest scientific research infrastructure. If the Directors choose to comply with the dictate in order to save their employees and projects which are currently underway, they 1) give their support to a move which has been recognized by the legal staff of HAS as “illegal” and “unconstitutional”; and 2) formally defect from their legal employer – the President of HAS. This split would mean the first step toward highly centralized, government-controlled research focused essentially on aims which are considered priorities by the government. If the Directors choose to resist this attempt by the government to assert its control over scholarship and research in Hungary, they jeopardize the livelihoods of thousands of employees.

On February 12, 2019 the Presidium of HAS will hold a meeting which promises to be one of its most crucial gatherings in recent decades.

Whatever decision is reached, the effects on the Hungarian academic community will be disruptive. If the government is allowed to dismantle the research network of the Academy by force, which seems to be its intention, Hungary will become the first member state of the European Union to reject, explicitly and unmistakably, the fundamental principle of the independence of scholarly research from political interest.

Photo: Daily News Hungary