Hungary.

[TsarSamuil]

Orban declares end of ‘liberal democracy’ in Hungary, vows to fight for Christian values.

RT.com
10 May, 2018 20:23

Viktor Orban has declared the end of “liberal democracy” in Hungary, saying it has failed to defend freedoms and Christian culture in wake of the migrant crisis. He vowed to build a “Christian democracy” defying EU dictates.

In a Thursday address given after Hungary’s new parliament handed him his third straight term, the Prime Minister said that Hungarians have defied the “old world order” in favor of Christian democracy, allowing Hungary to “survive and grow” as a nation.

“The era of liberal democracy has come to an end. It is unsuitable to protect human dignity, inadmissible to give freedom, cannot guarantee physical security, and can no longer maintain Christian culture,” Orban said.

Hungary has built a “twenty-first century Christian democracy that guarantees human dignity, freedom and security” as well as “protects the traditional family model,” the PM said. He added: “We are Christian Democrats and we want Christian Democracy.”

Orban said he would not acquiesce to EU-imposed migrant quotas, warning that mass migration “can lead to the deaths of nations” as he vowed to defend the interests of the Hungarian people and safeguard Christian values.

“Today, thousands of paid activists, bureaucrats and politicians are working in Brussels to classify migration as a fundamental human right. That is why they want to take away the right to decide who we accept and who not,” Orban said.

He urged the European Union to “return to the grounds of reality,” saying that the EU should abandon the “delusional nightmares” of a United States of Europe and instead be “an alliance of free nations.”

“My government will be the government of free Hungarians and sovereign Hungarians,” Orban said.

Orban’s policy has apparently struck a chord with Hungarians, who voted him in for a third consecutive term, with his Fidesz party winning two-thirds of the parliament seats in the April 8 elections. He has also gained a sizeable city-dwelling opposition calling for“regime change” and a lifetime nemesis in the form of Hungarian-born media tycoon George Soros, whose NGO is now reportedly moving out of Budapest due to “political hostility.” For his part, Orban has launched a crusade against Soros-controlled organizations, saying “no matter how many times George Soros goes to Brussels, no matter how many times the issue of illegal immigration is placed on the agenda, and no matter how many allies George Soros has in Brussels, we will not back down.”

The EU has repeatedly threatened the Eurosceptic PM with sanctions over alleged violations of rights, freedoms and “EU values” in general, but it has not resulted in any action against Budapest so far.

Orban, who has been branded a “dictator” and a “nationalist” by his EU critics, is not, however, the only European official turning to Christianity in the wake of the refugee and migrant crisis. Germany’s Bavaria, controlled by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s key allies Christian Social Union (CSU), has recently ordered Christian crosses to be placed in government buildings to reflect its “cultural identity and Christian-Western influence.” While Bavarian Minister President Markus Söder said that such objects should not be seen as “the sign of a religion,” he has been previously quoted as saying that “crucifixes belong in classrooms, headscarves don’t.”

[TsarSamuil]

George Soros’ Open Society foundation ends operations in Hungary.

RT.com
15 May, 2018 05:14

George Soros’ Open Society Foundations is ending its operations in Hungary, accusing Budapest of repressing civil society. PM Viktor Orban has repeatedly slammed the tycoon for meddling in the nation’s internal affairs.

“Faced with an increasingly repressive political and legal environment in Hungary, the Open Society Foundations are moving their Budapest-based international operations and staff to the German capital, Berlin,” the group confirmed on Tuesday.

Patrick Gaspard, the president of the Open Society Foundations, lashed out at Budapest, saying it has “denigrated and misrepresented our work,” while repressing civil society “for the sake of political gain.”

The group based its decision on the fact that Budapest "prepares to impose further restrictions on nongovernmental organizations through what it has branded its "Stop Soros” package of legislation.”

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has repeatedly spoken out against the detrimental agendas of Soros’ foundation and other NGOs, accusing the billionaire of meddling in Hungary’s internal political affairs by funding opposition groups.

Speaking on the recent election and the victory of his Fidesz party, Orban said, “I know they won’t accept the result of the election, they will organize all sorts of things, they have unlimited financial resources.”

When news of the Open Society Foundations’ possible departure from Hungary broke in April, Orban said: “You might understand if I don’t cry my eyes out.”

In February, Fidesz submitted a bill to parliament called the ‘Stop Soros Act’ – in reference to the Hungarian-American tycoon – which would curb immigration and would also affect foreign-funded NGOs. The bill says that all NGOs which “support illegal immigration” need to be registered, while any NGO which gets money from abroad must pay a 25-percent tax.

Also, foreign citizens and Hungarian nationals who support illegal immigration could be subject to a restraining order which would keep them away from the border. “If Soros is found to have engaged in such activity, meaning he organizes illegal immigration, then the rules will apply to him,” government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said in February.

The 87-year-old worked as a trader and analyst before establishing Soros Fund Management in 1969. He became one of the world’s foremost investors, generating enormous wealth for himself. The Hungarian-American made a fortune, but also earned notoriety for shorting Britain’s pound sterling, which forced the currency’s collapse in the 1990s.

The Open Society Foundations project was started in 1979, with the first non-US foundation opening in Hungary in 1984. The group currently has annual expenditures of over $940 million, operates in over 100 countries across the globe, with 26 national and regional foundations and offices.

The billionaire was once likened to Satan for his calls to bring migrants into Europe, which was perceived by some Hungarian MPs as an attempt to destroy the independence and values of nation-states. Hungarian lawmaker Andras Aradszki of the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP) said it is a Christian duty to fight what he called “Satan’s Soros plan.”

The billionaire also faced accusations of meddling in British politics after news emerged that he donated almost half a million pounds to a campaign seeking to reverse Brexit.

Orban, a harsh critic of illegal immigration and Brussels’ mandatory migrant quotas, once stated that the recent wave of refugees entering Europe is an invasion. In December 2017, Hungary, along with Poland and the Czech Republic, said they reserve the “right” to reject EU-imposed refugee quotas in spite of pressure from the European Commission. The three countries argued at the time that the refugees could pose a direct threat to public security.

[TsarSamuil]

Soros-funded uni campus for US programs ‘forced out’ of Hungary, opening in Vienna.

RT.com
25 Oct, 2018 18:10

The George Soros-funded Central European University is set to flee Budapest for Vienna in the latest round of a long-running ideological battle between the billionaire media magnate and Viktor Orban’s conservative government.

CEU, which had previously pledged to remain operational in Budapest, is set to open a new Vienna campus which will offer US-accredited degrees from 2019, claiming a new law prevents it from doing so in Hungary.

Hungarian-born Soros has been a vocal critic of Orban’s government, accusing him of leading an “unrelenting propaganda campaign” against him and turning Hungary into a “mafia state”. Orban, in turn, has accused Soros of supporting “everything that changes the traditional European lifestyle” over his support for immigration.

The university, founded by Soros in 1991, made headlines last year after thousands of Hungarians took to the streets to protest the new rules which meant that it would no longer be allowed to issue diplomas accredited to the US unless it opened a campus there or reached some kind of deal with the government.

CEU’s ability to offer US-accredited degrees made the university highly marketable to students. The government argued that this put other institutions and students at a disadvantage, but CEU and anti-government protesters said the rule change was an attack on its academic freedom.

But the battle has continued unsolved for months. The university claims it has complied with all new legal requirements and that Orban has simply refused to sign an agreement needed for it to remain operational in Budapest.

University President and Rector Michael Ignatieff said on Thursday that if Orban does not sign a deal “within one month” all US-accredited degree programs will be moved to Vienna.

“We have repeatedly indicated our openness to find a solution that guarantees our institutional integrity and academic freedom. We have waited as long as we possibly can,” Ignatieff said, adding it would be “irresponsible for us not to pursue arrangements” for the university’s future. A spokesperson for the Hungarian government, however, called the university’s announcement a “Soros-style political ploy.”

This is the latest in a line of public standoffs between Soros and the Orban government. In May, Soros’ Open Society Foundations ended its operations in the country citing an “increasingly repressive political and legal environment.” Earlier, Vice Chairman of the ruling Fidesz party, Szilard Nemeth, had said that Soros and his NGOs should be “swept out” of Hungary because they are “pushing global big capital and a related political correctness.”

In June, the Hungarian parliament passed a 'Stop Soros' law which could result in punishments for anyone helping illegal immigrants claim asylum in the country — the name of the law referencing Soros’ support for pro-immigration policies.

Soros has also been a figure of hate in the US, with some Republicans recently suggesting that the pro-immigration billionaire had organized the caravan of migrants making its way from Honduras to the US’s southern border. On Monday, authorities said a pipe bomb had been delivered to Soros' New York address.

[TsarSamuil]

'Enormous hypocrisy': Hungary blasts US' warnings on the dangers of dealing with Russia or China.

RT.com
11 Feb, 2019 23:21

US State Secretary Mike Pompeo's quest to scare Hungary away from dealing with Russia and China appears to have turned sour, as Budapest said it's fed up with lectures about its foreign policy.

Pompeo is on a five-day massive charm offensive in Eastern Europe seeking to "make up" for the time the US "shunned" the nations of the region "in a way that drove them to fill a vacuum with folks who didn't share our values," as he himself put it.

His first stop was Hungary, a country that no US State Secretary had visited since 2011. And Budapest has been dangerously leaning towards Moscow and Beijing, according to Washington.

"We must not let [Russian President Vladimir] Putin drive a wedge between friends in NATO," Pompeo stated passionately, at a joint press conference with the Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, claiming that the US and its allies "know all too well from history" that "that Russia will never be a friend to the freedom and sovereignty of smaller nations."

He did not focus his attention solely on the Kremlin, though, and promptly warned his Hungarian counterpart about the dangers of working with China, by saying that "Beijing's handshake comes with strings … that will leave Hungary indebted both economically and politically."

Szijjarto retorted to Pompeo's lecturing that "the world is not going to be a better place if some countries spend their time intervening in the internal political affairs of other countries." He insisted that Budapest can have transparent relations with Moscow and Beijing and the West, and said it was an "enormous hypocrisy" that Hungary is singled out for its ties with Moscow.

"There is a lot of criticism on the surface, and below the surface there is a lot of trade between Europe and Russia in billions of euros," he said.

"Cooperation with Russia or China that does not harm us," he added, explaining that any such economic ties do not make Hungary a less reliable NATO partner.

Pompeo's trip to Eastern Europe comes after US withdrawal from the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which might have soured relations between the US and its allies across the Atlantic, as it revived the possibility of a new arms race and greatly raised the stakes of a potential standoff between Washington and Moscow in Europe – especially at the expense of the European states.

The trip looks like a massive lobbying campaign aimed at advancing the interests of Washington as well as those of the all-powerful US military industrial complex. Budapest has pledged an unspecified deal to buy more US-made weapons.

Pompeo will then go to Slovakia, which recently "selected the F-16 as its next generation fighter." He will also visit Poland, where he will, among other events, take part in a conference on the Middle East, an effort to build a coalition against Iran.

Pompeo is also trying to discourage European nations from even thinking about working with the Chinese telecoms giant Huawei in developing their national G5 networks, as Washington and Beijing are, apparently, involved in some sort of a turf war.

"We want to make sure we identify [to] them the opportunities and the risks of using that equipment," Pompeo told journalists in Budapest, speaking of the expansion of Huawei Technologies.

"We have seen this all around the world, it also makes it more difficult for America to be present," the US State Secretary said. "If that equipment is co-located where we have important American systems, it makes it more difficult for us to partner alongside them."