February | 2011 | In Boedapest

Archive for February, 2011

Most wanted Nazi war criminal charged in Hungary

Sandor Kepiro, 97 this week and number one on the Wiesenthal Centre’s list of most wanted Nazi war criminals, was charged Monday with war crimes by Hungarian prosecutors, the prosecution announced.

“According to the charge sheet, Sandor K. was complicit in the execution of four innocent civilians in Novi Sad, Serbia, between January 21 and 23, 1942, as the commander of a patrol,” prosecution spokeswoman Gabriella Skoda said in a statement.

Kepiro’s patrol was also responsible for the deportation in a lorry of 30 people who were later executed, and for the killing of two brothers who tried to escape, bringing the number of victims to 36, Skoda told AFP, citing the charge sheet.

“The prosecutor’s office is not investigating the Novi Sad massacre in its entirety but only the actions of the suspect,” she added, noting that some 200 patrols, each made up of 10 to 12 people, had taken part in the mass killings, with only one under Kepiro’s command.

The trial of the suspect, who turns 97 on Friday, will take place in the Budapest Municipal Court, Skoda said.

2011: 02/15
CATEGORY: News
TAGS: Hungary
Sandor Kepiro
war criminal
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Hungary film funding under the spotlight

Hollywood producer Andrew Vajna, Hungary’s new film commissioner, sought to ease fears and reassure domestic and international filmmakers that his country’s beleaguered film industry would soon be back on its feet and said international co-productions were key to its future.

The government tapped Vajna to rebuild Hungary’s film funding system, which it says is bankrupt and some $25.5 million in debt.

Government plans for a radical overhaul have disrupted many Hungarian productions, and prominent filmmakers have been vocal in protesting the actions and blasting Vajna’s appointment as “a one-person decision-making system.”

via Hungary film funding under the spotlight – Entertainment News, International News, Media – Variety.

2011: 02/14
CATEGORY: News
TAGS: film industry
Hungary
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People to be polled about new constitution

Voters will get a 12-point questionnaire about the major issues of Hungary’s new constitution, Fidesz representative József Szájer and former MSzP prominent, currently independent Katalin Szili announced on Friday.

The 12 points will cover basic issues of civil life with questions such as whether the parents should get extra votes after children or not, or whether the constitution should maximize state debt. The questionnaires will be mailed within two weeks and voters will have 14 days to fill and return them.

At the same time, according to the latest initiative of the largest opposition party MSzP, four fifth of parliament representatives should support the concept of the new constitution for it to be accepted and two following parliaments would need to approve the constitution for it to be implemented, online portal Origo reported.

via People to be polled about new constitution _ Budapest Business Journal _ bbj.hu.

2011: 02/14
CATEGORY: News
TAGS: Hungary
new constitution
poll
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Politics.Hu: Poll indicates drop in ruling Fidesz popularity

Hungary’s ruling Fidesz-led alliance saw a 3 percentage point drop in popularity from last month and stood at 31 percent among all voters in early February, the lowest level since last spring’s elections, daily Nepszabadsag reported on Friday, quoting pollster Szonda Ipsos.

The popularity of the main opposition Socialists was relatively stable at 12 percent of all voters.

Fidesz’s voter base is around 2.5 million and the Socialists’ is 1 million.

Supporters of the Socialists were more active in February than in the two previous months but were still less active than Fidesz supporters, the paper said.

Among committed voters with a clear party preference, Fidesz received 60 percent support and the Socialists 20 percent in February, as against 65 percent and 17 percent in January, respectively.

The radical nationalist Jobbik and the green party Politics Can Be Different (LMP) have moved up in popularity from last autumn’s lows. Jobbik was supported by 7 percent of all voters and LMP by 4 percent in early February. Among voters with a clear party preference Jobbik stood at 12 peercent and LMP at 6 percent, just above the threshold required for entry to parliament.

2011: 02/14
CATEGORY: News
TAGS: Hungary
politics
poll
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Interview with Gergely Böszörményi Nagy On Country Branding For Hungary

Branding should be as important for a country as it is for a product, though many overlook it. Now Hungary is finally taking its own brand seriously. The task facing Gergely Böszörményi Nagy and his colleagues is daunting; develop a single, unifying brand for Hungary, channel all government communications to reflect it, and as part of the process, help Hungarians rediscover their love for Europe. Böszörményi Nagy rejoices in the very long title of Deputy Head of the Department for Strategic Communication at the State Secretariat for Government Communications.

Fortunately, the idea around which all Hungarian branding communication will coalesce is somewhat shorter: Potential.

Having established an umbrella brand word, the next step was to break it down. “We decided on separate focus areas: Creative Potential; Green Potential; Healing Potential; and Market Potential,” explains Böszörményi Nagy. The concentration on focus areas is interesting.

The deputy head’s background is as a marketing professional, not a politician. Targeted messaging, he says, is vital. “I don’t believe in general branding for a country like those CNN spots. They are all very colourful, very similar, not very credible, and they all look alike; you could be talking about Malaysia or Croatia.

You have to look very seriously about where to buy media and advertising spots.” Instead, the idea is to focus on niche areas, smart branding, if you like, rather than blanket generalizations. Thus marketing for the Healing Potential will target people interested in health tourism, for example. Communications around Market Potential will address the business world; intellectuals will, in part, be the focus for Creative Potential. The drive has come too late for the EU Presidency – a fully thought through strategy is expected to be in place by this fall, to take effect from the beginning of 2012.

2011: 02/14
CATEGORY: News
TAGS: branding
Hungary
visual identity
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Investors prefer hungary as the reform in romania seems good only on paper

There is the chance that Hungary observes the target of economic growth of 5% after getting a new production unit for Daimler in 2012 and finalising the extension of the Audi factory.

IMF and the former budget council in Hungary, dismissed by the government last year anticipated that the advance of the GDP would be under the level of expectations. IMF warned that the budgetary deficit would go up to 7% of GDP.

The fund recommended the authorities in Budapest to reduce public expenditure by almost 4% of the GDP, as the level is higher by comparison to other states in the region. IMF warned that fiscality reduction could lead to smaller budgetary income as there is not strong coming back of economic activity.

On short term, investors considered that special taxes imposed to companies in some sectors and the nationalisation of pensions funds will allow Hungary to be financed for at least one year. The market expects details as regards a three-year plan, of 600 – 650 billion forint ( 2.98 – 3.23 billion dollars) of reduction of the budgetary deficit.

If the Hungarian government does not present accoutable measures « the market could adopt a different position against the present one » Elisabeth Gruie, analyst with BNP Paribas said. The analysts consider that the majority of investors prefer Hungary, instead of Romania whose markets benefit from a reduced foreign participation and fewer assets for sale.

The National Bank of Romania intervened last year to keep the leu at almost 4.1-4.3 units/euro and the government refused to sell bonds at high yields, thus reducing the opportunities.

« Investors give Hungary the benefit of the doubt, as it is a market actively traded » Nigel Rendell, analyst with RBC says.

He explained that investors are willing to accept this fact, as they get yields of 6% instead of 3.5% as in Poland. In the case of Romania, it will take two years for the market to become attractive, Rendell considers.

2011: 02/14
CATEGORY: Background
News
TAGS: economy
Hungary
Romania
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A brief history of the new Hungarian constitution

Fidesz, on the other hand, was thoroughly satisfied. László Kövér promised that only one sentence will remain from the old constitution: The capital of Hungary is Budapest. In this new constitution everything will be different: new preamble, new structure, new text. It will be shorter and more concise than the current one.

By mid-December a summary of the committee’s proposals became known and the chief justice of the constitutional court, Péter Paczolay, was obviously not thrilled. According to him human rights got short shrift in the document. At the end of December Tamás Bauer wrote an article in Élet és Irodalom in which he gave a fairly detailed critique of the document that was made available by the committee. Already in the preamble he found some strange concepts. For example, the framers talked about “all those values the nation shares.” But it is a well known fact that Hungarian society is deeply divided. Bauer claimed that this new Hungarian constitution breaks with the tradition of western democracies that a constitution must reflect the range of worldviews and lifestyles. Bauer also talked about a strange sentence in the proposal: “Basic rights involve obligations and responsibilities” (Az alapvető jogok kötelezettségekkel és felelőséggel járnak). Thus, Bauer claims that the basic rights of this constitution are “gifts” that can be withdrawn if someone doesn’t behave. That’s why he entitled his article “Constitution for Subjects.”

By mid-January Orbán came out with the new idea that the parliamentary session between February 14 and April 18, when allegedly the new constitution will be voted on, will have a new name: “alkotmányozó országgyűlés.” The best translation would be “constitutional convention” but there is a little problem with the term and the institution: it doesn’t exist in Hungarian constitutional history. I guess that was a clever way of involving the opposition parties in the creation of a new constitution. They walked out of the committee, but by golly they will be part of the constitutional convention. Ferenc Gyurcsány was the first one to notice the trap on January 11, 2011, and he suggested a boycott of the so-called constitutional convention. A week later MSZP announced that MSZP members of parliament will not be present in the House on those days.

Conference in Washington: “Hungary: A second change of the system?”

Gati was born in Hungary and left in 1956. He was very critical of the Orbán government. He seemed especially worried about the new Hungarian government’s systematic reorganization of the governmental structure that resulted in the practical elimination of checks and balances. Gati considered Orbán a “true democrat” in the 1990s but today he has to conclude that Orbán is no longer devoted to the idea of democracy. His “anticommunist rhetoric is Orwellian.” Hungary is “not a dictatorship, at least not at the moment.” In his opinion we can talk about “centrally controlled democracy” in domestic terms while in foreign policy Hungary is alienating all her western friends.

read (much) more Hungarian Spectrum.

2011: 02/11
CATEGORY: Background
Opinion
TAGS: Hungary
political situation
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After censorship row, what next in Hungary?

Two big Hungarian exhibitions are set to open in Belgium, where the EU presidency is based. “Hungary in Focus” at Bozar in Brussels (4 February-8 May), which includes Balázs Kicsiny’s The New Arrivals (Temporary Resurrection), 2010, and “Joy and Disaster” at SMAK, Ghent (25 March-5 June), have been organised to mark the presidency and will seek to promote the vibrancy of Hungary’s domestic art scene.

However, Hungary’s cultural scene has been overshadowed by criticism of prime minister Viktor Orban, leader of the conservative Fidesz party which won the election last April, who has created a media watchdog that has the power to fine media outlets deemed to violate public interest, order and morals. The controversy has led to suggestions that Hungary is ill-placed to act as the EU’s figurehead.

Several of those involved in exhibiting Hungarian art abroad privately acknowledge that the controversy surrounding government policy has damaged Hungary’s international standing, but maintain that it should not detract from an appreciation of the country’s artists. Speaking about the situation, artist Hajnal Németh, who will represent Hungary at this year’s Venice Biennale, said: “In terms of contemporary art, national representation is always a contradictory matter, but I don’t represent the Hungarian government, its politics and cultural policy.”

2011: 02/10
CATEGORY: News
TAGS: culture
Hungary
politics
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Negative economic signs but generally upbeat mood

Yesterday the National Economic Ministry announced that the budget deficit in January was 122.8 billion forints, 18% of the planned deficit for the entire year. And that figure doesn’t include the deficits accumulated by local governments. Revenues were 77.4 billion forints less than a year ago while expenditures were 72.2 billion forints higher than in January 2010. Personal income tax receipts alone were 36 billion forints less than a year ago. The reason for this change is obvious: the new tax code.

MSZP immediately reacted to the news in the strongest terms. They called the January figures “a horror story” that shows that not even with “extra levies and the expropriation of private pension funds” can the budget be balanced. According to MSZP “government expenses have increased dangerously.” The Orbán government promised a smaller and cheaper state but expenditures have grown by 150 billion forints in comparison to the situation a year earlier. At the same time “the unjust flat tax has created a 350 billion hole in the budget.”

The National Economic Ministry tried to sell these very large deficit figures as a great success because, according to the ministry, they “are one of the lowest monthly figures in the last twelve years.” Of course, one can parse the data that way, but such a calculation is questionable because the size of the deficit varies from month to month within the year. One should compare January figures only to past January figures. In fact, the MSZP spokesman pointed out, in the last three years of the Gyurcsány and Bajnai governments there was a surplus in January: more than 30 billion forints each year.

And to add insult to injury, in January the number of unemployed workers grew by 90,000, which is almost one-sixth of the total number of unemployed (680,000). This despite the fact that during the same period the number of available jobs grew by 130%. The surge in unemployment is most likely due to the new regulation that restricts people until now employed full time on public works projects to half-time jobs of four-hour work days. The amount of money they would earn from part-time work is not enough to keep body and soul together. Thus these people are back in the job market.

It was also reported in Magyar Nemzet that the Hungarian government will cut back on subsidies used to lure foreign investment. According to Zsolt Becsey, undersecretary in charge of foreign trade, until now Hungary has been much more generous with subsidies to foreign firms than other countries in the region. That will come to an end. Subsidies will be given only to those firms that use Hungarian suppliers. Even then, the subsidy will not exceed five million forints ($25,386) per new job created.

2011: 02/10
CATEGORY: Background
Opinion
TAGS: economy
Hungary
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