Friday 20 January 2012

Hungary for change

anyone else worried about recent events in Hungary?  I know that when there is democracy people quite often vote for the wrong parties, but what is worse than that is when those elected pull up the ladder behind them by removing democratic safeguards.  Hitler did this.  Hamas did it too, more recently, by throwing the legitimate heads of the administration out of windows (nice).  Now it is happening in Hungary.  There is only one radio station left which supports the opposition, Klubradio, and the government-appointed Media Council has now reallocated radio frequencies, so that Klubradio will have to stop broadcasting at the end of February.  They can perhaps become an internet radio station, I don't know.  Anyone?  Anyone?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

No Jane, I haven't been worried at all, for a very good reason.
I get a national daily twice a week and read Ceefax news twice a day.
This is the first I've heard about any problems there. Are they being played down for some reason?
L9

janestheone said...

this is from 2010 http://www.economist.com/node/17733367
and foretold extremely perpicaciously what is happening now. Fidesz got a large majority, so they can do what they like.

Jonny said...

I've been following Orban's increasingly authoritarian swing, and the only conclusion I come to is that Fidesz, being so firmly rooted in the anti-communist youth movement of the 1980's, is fighting the war before last.
The problem with the EU's stance toward Hungary is that I don't think Orban really cares if Hungary was forced to leave the EU - the European nuclear option.
I find Jobbik more worrying, in that the opposition is coming from a clearly racist party in the absence of effective opposition from the still discredited socialists.
Balanced with this however is how much popular opposition there is not based around political parties, and whether that has the strength to threaten a Magyar Spring. Demonstrations and cultural boycotts are growing, and it would be nicely ironic if Hungary's drift to the right was stopped by a movement with many similarities to that which gave birth to Fidesz in the first place.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Hungary in the verge to repeat Germany '933's "evolve" - to something alien of the civilized Europe.

- Or I sincerely hope so (alien, that is!)...

Anyone with a slight concern regarding human rights, personal integrity and the freedom of speech should act, if she/he cares.

Just for your information - Jonny, for that matter - Mr.Orban's Fidesz today is entirely different from the Fidesz in 1990.
Then they were liberal anticommunist, today they are national-socialists, as true as they come.

Go figure.