Hungary's 'Orbanization' Is Worrying Europe

Niccolo and Donkey Wednesday 11 Jan 2017

This is key. The feeling in Hungary was that Spencer was a paid provocateur for Soros, looking to tar Hungary with the brush of racialism.

Tony Wednesday 11 Jan 2017

Jobbik is useful for dragging the Overton Window and Fidesz to the right.

The porn industry needs to be outlawed in Hungary, it is a disgrace.

Niccolo and Donkey Friday 13 Jan 2017

Tony Asterion

Hungary defends planned crackdown on foreign-backed NGOs

PM’s spokesman says Trump inauguration in US will herald new era more favourable to marginalising civil activists

Zoltán Kovács, a spokesman for Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán. Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images

Hungary’s populist rightwing government has offered a robust defence of its plans to curtail foreign-backed civil society groups and suggested the change in the US administration means a new era is at hand.

In comments that will alarm many non-government organisations, an official spokesman for Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, confirmed there would be changes to the rules governing civil activists, many of whom he accused of behaving like de facto politicians.

Several groups have voiced fears that Orbán – who has previously declared plans to create an “illiberal state” – will launch a crackdown in the coming months, emboldened by the forthcoming inauguration of Donald Trump as US president.

In a telephone interview, Orbán’s spokesman Zoltán Kovács did little to allay those concerns and appeared to suggest the end of Barack Obama’s presidency would usher in a climate more favourable to marginalising NGOs.

“Visibly there is going to be a new era and very obviously, even from Washington, you will have a different kind of opinion, a different kind of attention regarding these issues,” he said, adding that the Obama administration’s criticism of Hungary’s policy towards civil society groups had put “an unnecessary strain” on relations.

Orbán’s increasingly authoritarian behaviour has sparked fears of an erosion of democracy in Hungary , which joined the European Union in 2004. He has already faced widespread condemnation over moves allegedly designed to muzzle press freedom and curtail judiciary independence since his Fidesz party took power in 2010.

Kovács said Hungary had been subjected to “unfounded accusations about transparency and corruption”. “We believe that by getting rid of these elements of the political argumentation, it is going to be easier. A more pragmatic era is going to come,” he added. “Hungary is not going to be measured by the double standards or relativism that has been suggested by many of these accusations.”

Both Orbán and Trump are staunch opponents of George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist whose Open Society Foundation gives grants to dozens of Hungarian civil organisations and funds liberal causes in the US and elsewhere.

This week Szilárd Németh, a Fidesz MP and deputy chair of parliament’s national security committee, further dismayed activists by declaring that Hungary would “use all the tools at its disposal” to “sweep out” Soros-funded NGOs. “I think they should get out of here [and] I feel that there is an opportunity for this, internationally,” Nemeth said.

Soros, who was born in Hungary, has been repeatedly criticised by Orbán and his allies, who have branded him as a force for “political correctness”. Kovács claimed Soros had “very obviously” sought to interfere in Hungarian politics, for example by pushing for the acceptance of migrants and refugees in European countries.

He declined to give details of the government’s proposed reforms, but a provisional legislative programme suggests NGO leaders could be forced to declare their assets in the same way as elected politicians and officials.

Activists have described the plan as intimidation but Kovács said it was justified by the NGOs’ “political activism”.

“We believe that transparency of NGOs has the same requirement as in the case of politics and politicians, especially if those societies or associations deal with politics or policy-related issues,” he said. “The moment you step on the soil of political decision-making and responsibility, you are not a civilian any more. You have to act and behave like a politician.”

Asked about Hungary’s objection to civil groups receiving funds from abroad, Kovács replied: “Think in terms of national sovereignty. You hardly see central European countries financing, say, civil groups in Britain to influence politicians. What would be your opinion if you encountered that in your country?”

Some activists fear that Hungary may eventually follow Russia, where foreign-funded NGOs must declare themselves as “foreign agents”, or Israel, whose parliament recently passed a law forcing groups receiving more than half their funds from abroad to display the fact prominently on reports.

Kovács said Hungary was unlikely to imitate other countries, but added: “What’s wrong with Israel? Israel is a democracy. Very obviously they do bump into the same problems about politics [and] policymaking.”

A leading member of a Budapest-based thinktank, who declined to be named, said Orbán was unlikely to launch a full-scale assault on NGOs to avoid a clash with the European Union.

“This government has become paranoid and it’s really not the politics of self-confidence,” he said. “They see Soros-backed institutions as part of some international conspiracy but they are far from that. They’re made up of people who want to do some good but instead they are depicted as an arch-enemy, when in fact they aren’t that important or powerful.”

Niccolo and Donkey Friday 13 Jan 2017

Hungary swears in its first batch of 'border hunters' who will patrol the country's razor-wire fence alongside soldiers to keep migrants out

380kmh Friday 13 Jan 2017

hmmmm

Småland Monday 30 Jan 2017

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/AxDnwRr2qAc

Niccolo and Donkey Monday 30 Jan 2017

Macedonia has already stated that they're going to kick out Soros' NGOs and Hungary is on the way as well. The shitlib line is that these are 'attacks on civil society'.

Arrow Cross Friday 10 Feb 2017

Again, I should like to point out that for all the favourable press Orbán and his cronies are getting on the international Right, this is all purely rhetorics. And sometimes, it's not even that. The comments about "sweeping out" those parasitic NGOs were made by a single party functionary from the government, which disavowed them after days of media chimpin'. For now. I think it's more realistic that the Orbán government, ever the opportunists, are taking note of the winds of change brought about by Brexit and Trump, trying to test the waters and see what they can get away with and which policies would bring them the highest voter approval. There is no place for principles in a democrazy.

Tony Friday 10 Feb 2017

Arrow Cross said: ↑

Again, I should like to point out that for all the favourable press Orbán and his cronies are getting on the international Right, this is all purely rhetorics. And sometimes, it's not even that. The comments about "sweeping out" those parasitic NGOs were made by a single party functionary from the government, which disavowed it after days of media chimpin'. For now. I think it's more realistic that the Orbán government, ever the opportunists, are taking note of the winds of change brought about by Brexit and Trump, trying to test the waters and see what they can get away with and which policies would bring them the highest voter approval. There is no place for principles in a democrazy.

Jo napot. Who's the main force behind the porn industry in Hungary, and what's the best way to get rid of them?

Arrow Cross Saturday 11 Feb 2017

You will have to excuse me for not having delved into this topic whatsoever, but I believe the phenomenon is more or less omnipresent in the impoverished former Eastern Bloc. Once a will on the part of our governments arises to return some semblence of decency into public life, this can be cracked down upon, but for now, it's strictly within the vaunted "freedoms of enterprise" of this global-capitalist nonsense system.

Hungary's 'Orbanization' Is Worrying Europe

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