About Hungary beta

The Guardian correspondent compares PM Orbán to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Yes, you read that correctly.

Hungary helps Yazidi genocide survivors

A guest post by State Secretary Tristan Azbej

Hard work pays off: Here’s how Hungary’s economy defies global slowdown

Despite fears of an imminent global slowdown, Hungary’s economy keeps on keeping on.

The pro-immigration forces are waging a revenge campaign camouflaged as a legal process

Today’s hearing at the EU’s General Affairs Council was nothing more than that.

Die Anti-Ungarn-Pro-Migration-Lobby hat sich wieder gemeldet

Bestimmte Elemente im Europäischen Parlament sind weiterhin entschlossen, Ungarn dafür bezahlen zu lassen, dass es sich gegen die Einwanderung einsetzt und auf die Verteidigung der europäischen Schengen-Grenze besteht.

The anti-Hungary, pro-migration lobby is back at it again

Here's what today's hearing is all about.

Issues

Issues

Hungary has an obligation to defend the Schengen borders

Mar 09, 2017

Protecting the external border of the EU remains essential to maintaining security and the freedom of movement in the Schengen Area

Issues

Referendum on EU’s Mandatory Quota System: New Unity and Changes to the Fundamental Law

Oct 20, 2016

More than 3.36 million Hungarians voted “no” in the October 2nd referendum on the EU’s proposed quota system, an overwhelming 98 percent voting in favor of the government’s position that the decision on relocation of non-Hungarians should remain a national competence.

Issues

Referendum on EU’s Mandatory Migrant Resettlement Scheme

Sep 27, 2016

Hungary will hold a popular referendum on October 2nd, 2016 on the so-called quota package, the plan whereby the European Union could relocate an unlimited number of migrants to the territory of Hungary and other Member States. “Do you want the European Union,” the referendum question asks voters, “to be able to mandate the obligatory resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens into Hungary even without the approval of the National Assembly?”

Issues

Strong Borders, No Quotas: Putting European Interests First in the Migration Crisis

Feb 26, 2016

The situation in numbers: Between January and October 2015, 1.2 million migrants crossed a European border illegally and more than 391 thousand travelled via the western Balkans route, passing through Hungary. Despite the cold winter, an average of one thousand people are still arriving to Europe every day. Most of them do not have any proper documentation.

Issues

Putting Families at the Core: the Family Housing Support Program (CSOK)

Feb 26, 2016

In an effort to support families with children and counter negative demographic trends, the Hungarian government announced the innovative Family Housing Allowance Program, or CSOK, which would offer up to 20 million HUF of assistance per family, specifically toward home ownership. Together with a significant reduction in the value-added tax rate on newly built homes, cutting it from 27 to 5 percent, the program offers considerable financial assistance to young couples to become homeowners.

Issues

Stability, growth, jobs: The Hungarian model of economic recovery

Feb 24, 2016

In 2010, Hungarian voters went to the polls looking for change. Eight years of mismanagement of the economy by socialist-liberal governments left the country badly exposed in the financial crisis. Consumer confidence had collapsed, unemployment and the debt to GDP ratio was on the rise and so too was social instability and extremism.

Issues

The Paks Nuclear Power Plant in Hungary

Feb 23, 2016

In order to decrease its dependence on imported energy, Hungary aims to diversify its energy imports and increase the share of energy generated domestically. Nuclear energy presents an indispensable option to generate cheap energy, and the project to sustain capacity at the Paks Nuclear Power Plant will ensure that Hungary’s dependence on imported natural gas will not increase in the future.

Issues

How Hungary Eliminated Foreign Exchange Loans and Averted a Crisis

Feb 22, 2016

Parallel to the Greek sovereign debt crisis, another debt crisis has threatened the EU. The Swiss National Bank’s decision in January 2015 to abandon the exchange-rate cap against the euro, sending shock waves through several central European countries. Following the decision, the value of the Swiss franc jumped, trading on average at a rate 20 percent higher against central European currencies. The dramatic increase shook the mortgage markets, touching hundreds of thousands of families in the region.

Issues

The Case of the Norway Grants and NGOs in Hungary

Feb 21, 2016

Since 2004, Hungary has been a recipient of a program called the EEA and Norway Grants, financial contributions offered by Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein intended to strengthen bilateral relations and reduce economic and social disparities in certain EU countries.

Issues

Reducing Utility Prices

Feb 20, 2016

“Take the reduction of household utility bills. It had been universally accepted that there can be no such thing: household utility bills cannot be reduced, they can only be increased. We said that this is not impossible, we would do it – and we did it.” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, January 14, 2016

Issues

Making Family a Top Priority

Feb 19, 2016

Since taking office in 2010, the Orbán Government has pursued policy that gives priority to families as the core of Hungarian society in both economic and cultural terms.