Hungary

Emboldened by a fourth consecutive landslide election victory, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is expected to dig in against energy sanctions on ...

"I did not hope for such a big victory but I was sure that the present government party would win," said Veronika Nagy, a language teacher. "Without wanting to sound overly dramatic, it’s a tragedy. "We are not happy. With inflation running at an almost 15-year high of 8.3% in February, Orban will have a tough task in unwinding some of his measures that had helped tame price growth in the run-up to the vote. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban addresses supporters after the announcement of the partial results of parliamentary election in Budapest, Hungary, April 3, 2022. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban addresses supporters after the announcement of the partial results of parliamentary election in Budapest, Hungary, April 3, 2022.

The pro-Putin nationalist managed to turn the war in Ukraine to his advantage in a win that deepens the EU's troubles, says Guardian columnist Timothy ...

Faced with the latest evidence of the barbaric behaviour of Russian troops in Ukraine, Europe needs to step up its sanctions against Putin. When Orbán returned from back-to-back summits of Nato and the EU in Brussels last month, his government sent an email to all Hungarians who had signed up for a Covid vaccine saying that “proposals were put on the agenda against which Hungary’s interests had to be protected”. His government would never allow weapons supplies to go through Hungary to Ukraine, nor sanctions to be imposed on the 85% of Hungary’s gas and 64% of its oil that comes from Russia. In response to the Bucha atrocities, EU leaders such as French president Emmanuel Macron are now calling for more sanctions, including on Russian oil. Self-styled “realists” may argue that Brussels has to stay soft on Hungary in order to keep Orbán on board for a common front over Ukraine. Hungary’s political system is now closer to that of non-EU Serbia, which this weekend saw a simultaneous victory for another nationalist electoral authoritarian, President Aleksandar Vučić, than it is to that of a democracy such as France or Portugal. Orbán and Vučić are close allies. “Russians go home!” some youngsters chanted at the very end of that disconsolate opposition wake in Budapest, recalling a slogan from the time of the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. Walking back at midnight across a deserted Heroes Square, I recalled how in that very place in June 1989 I had heard a young, seemingly idealistic Orbán himself call for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary. Yet now the ageing cynic is flatly refusing to let western arms supplies pass through Hungary in order to help the Ukrainian army send the Russians home. They included the international media, Brussels bureaucrats and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has criticised him fiercely for his opposition to the weapon supplies and further sanctions that Ukraine desperately needs.

As he prepares to continue his autocratic governance of Hungary for another four years, Viktor Orban faces a shattered opposition at home but an ...

That this election was democratic and free is, of course, something we continue to dispute.” Along with the parliamentary election, a referendum on LGBTQ issues was held on Sunday with questions pertaining to sex education programs in schools and the availability to children of information about sex reassignment. But while Orban's party won 53% of the vote in Hungary, convincing Europe to get on board won't be so easy. “Hungary seems to have reached a point of no return,” she said. “The whole world has seen tonight in Budapest that Christian democratic politics, conservative civic politics and patriotic politics have won. Elections posters and the Hungarian flag are seen outside a polling station for general election in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 3, 2022.

However, the ruling Fidesz party led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, added to it sections on pedophilia and a ban on talking to minors about homosexuality and ...

Subsequently, it prohibited the registration of transgender name changes and adoption by same-sex couples. In 2011, Orban introduced in the new Hungarian Constitution the definition of marriage as the exclusive union of a man and a woman. The failure of the referendum will not affect the LGBTQ law in question, which continues to be in force, and which the government has so far shown no intention to modify.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his right-wing Fidesz party won a comfortable majority over the opposition United for Hungary alliance on Sunday, ...

58-year-old Orban has often boasted of his close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but that link became a major challenge for the electoral campaign of his ruling Fidesz party. Orban and his right-wing Fidesz party won a comfortable majority over the opposition United for Hungary alliance on Sunday, despite expectations for a tight race. Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban dubbed his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, one of his opponents on Sunday evening, following a landslide election victory for the nationalist leader.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban easily sailed to victory against a coalition of political opponents from the left and right, while Serbian President ...

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Viktor Orban's landslide victory in Hungary's parliamentary election on Sunday dashed many hopes. Notwithstanding an electoral system strongly biased in his ...

The Hungarian government has allocated a HUF 200 billion or €542 million fund to the development of 20 state-owned and private universities as the first ...

Additionally, the number of international students in the country has been on an upward trend since 2009, starting with 14,300 foreign students, recording a year-on-year increase of 131.4 per cent since then. “The aim has been to provide universities with a structure that allows them greater flexibility and autonomy so they can be competitive both at home and abroad. The Hungarian government has allocated a HUF 200 billion or €542 million fund to the development of 20 state-owned and private universities as the first phase of a €731 million scheme, the authorities reveal.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban easily sailed to victory against a coalition of political opponents from the left and right, while Serbian President ...

Zemmour, who has been convicted of using hate speech at least three times, has previously expressed support for Russia, though he condemned its invasion of Ukraine. In Serbia, Vucic has boasted about his personal ties to Putin, the Associated Press reported. In his 12 years in power, Orban has often clashed with the EU over what critics have called his increasingly undemocratic tendencies, such as gaining influence over a majority of Hungary's legacy media and cracking down on the country's LGBTQ population.

Hungary's authoritarian leader and longtime Russian ally, Viktor Orban, has declared victory in the country's parliamentary elections, clinching a fourth ...