Category: VOLUME V, No. 2

Among the many unfair or exaggerated criticisms Hungary has received recently it is often brought up that Horthy, Hungary’s Head of State (Regent) from 1920 to 1944, was an ally of Nazi Germany, who, with Hitler’s help, annexed territories from the neighbours, and permitted the murder of half a million

The first thing a Foreign Ministry does when a speaking invitation arrives is to use the most sophisticated electronic techniques to check the “About Us” page of the website of those sending it. The website of the Danube Institute tells me this: the Institute provides an independent centre of intellectual

The  2008  financial  crisis  was  a  major  event,  equivalent  in  its  initial scope – if not its duration – to the Great Depression of the 1930s. At the time, many commentators said that we were witnessing a crisis of capitalism, proof that the free market system was inherently unstable. These

WHY DID HUNGARY NEED A NEW CONSTITUTION? The regime change from communism took place in terms of constitutional law via the modification of the old communist Constitution, that is the 20th Act of 1949, and by the adoption of a few cornerstone laws (like the Act on the Constitutional Court).

Thirty years ago Hungary, like all of socialist Eastern and Central Europe and of course the Soviet republics, buzzed with excellent political jokes. When acquaintances met, the conversation would inevitably begin with “Have you heard the latest political anecdote?” The jokes were spontaneously invented by ordinary people, they grew out

Hungary’s Elections Will Be Fair and Legitimate Winning the responsibility of government is not dependent on the new rules but is up to the fair judgement of the electorate It has become a cliché to say that relations between opposing players of the political spectrum in Hungary are simply awful.