Die Neue Zeit
21st January 2012, 18:12
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,809827,00.html
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán only needed a few years. In that short time he managed to turn his country inside out. Civil liberties and press freedoms were reined in, the democratic separation of powers annulled, and a constitution passed in the spirit of the country's former authoritarian-nationalistic leader Miklós Horthy.
Hungary is politically isolated in the European Union, and on the verge of national insolvency. And now the European Commission has launched legal action against the country. Brussels sees Orbán's constitutional reform as a violation of EU law, and is threatening to deny economic aid to the heavily indebted country. It's a remarkable development for a country once seen as a model for reform to be emulated by other countries in the region.
Orbán himself, formerly a much-admired politician, now seems like a dubious mix of Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chávez. But the diminutive politician from the tiny northwestern Hungarian village of Alcsútdoboz is by no means a special case. Orbán and his Hungary represent a political movement that is sweeping across central and southern Europe.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/120118/viktor-orban--hugo-chavez-central-europe-Hungary-european-parliament
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban drew some colorful comparisons when he faced the European Parliament on Wednesday.
One member called likened him to Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, while another talked of the Putin of the Puszta – a reference to the grassland plain of eastern Hungary.
[...]
From the Socialist, Liberal and Green factions, criticism was relentless.
“You are going in the direction of Mr. Chavez and Mr. Castro and all those authoritarian governments,” said Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who co-leads the Green group in the parliament.
There's still too much pro-RCTV BS ignoring its active role in the failed coup.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán only needed a few years. In that short time he managed to turn his country inside out. Civil liberties and press freedoms were reined in, the democratic separation of powers annulled, and a constitution passed in the spirit of the country's former authoritarian-nationalistic leader Miklós Horthy.
Hungary is politically isolated in the European Union, and on the verge of national insolvency. And now the European Commission has launched legal action against the country. Brussels sees Orbán's constitutional reform as a violation of EU law, and is threatening to deny economic aid to the heavily indebted country. It's a remarkable development for a country once seen as a model for reform to be emulated by other countries in the region.
Orbán himself, formerly a much-admired politician, now seems like a dubious mix of Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chávez. But the diminutive politician from the tiny northwestern Hungarian village of Alcsútdoboz is by no means a special case. Orbán and his Hungary represent a political movement that is sweeping across central and southern Europe.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/120118/viktor-orban--hugo-chavez-central-europe-Hungary-european-parliament
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban drew some colorful comparisons when he faced the European Parliament on Wednesday.
One member called likened him to Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, while another talked of the Putin of the Puszta – a reference to the grassland plain of eastern Hungary.
[...]
From the Socialist, Liberal and Green factions, criticism was relentless.
“You are going in the direction of Mr. Chavez and Mr. Castro and all those authoritarian governments,” said Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who co-leads the Green group in the parliament.
There's still too much pro-RCTV BS ignoring its active role in the failed coup.