Budapest protest against new constitution
Protest in central Budapest, Jan. 2, 2012
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Resolving Roma issue economic necessity, says state secretary
Resolving the Roma issue in Hungary is not simply a “humanitarian task” but an economic necessity as well, state secretary in charge of social inclusion Zoltan Balog said at a youth camp event of Fidelitas, the youth chapter of governing Fidesz, in Siofok 
on Friday.
Challenged by Fidelitas vice-president Gergely Balogh about the Justice Ministry’s programme goals of giving jobs to 100,000 Roma and new trade qualifications to another 20,000, as well as ensuring to 10,000 Roma final exams and to another 5,000 a university degree, and providing for 150,000 healthcare screenings as being too ambitious Balog said he agreed.
But he said that “it was the prime minister himself who asked for making corrections and putting down these final figures.”
Balog said that in Europe Hungary has the highest rate of Roma finishing primary school, but 70 percent of them find afterwards no employment and end up living on social benefits and family allowances.
He called it imperative to turn around the situation by helping the Roma become “tax paying citizens” or including them in public work schemes.
via Resolving Roma issue economic necessity, says state secretary | Politics.hu.
The Jobbik candidate won the mayoral elections in Gyöngyöspata
A local by-election normally doesn’t exactly make headlines. But the election of a new mayor in Gyöngyöspata yesterday was no ordinary local affair. You may recall that it was in the village of Gyöngyöspata that a couple of neo-Nazi militias decided to put the fear of God into the local Gypsy population in March and April. I wrote about the events in this village in the northeastern corner of Hungary earlier.
For a good couple of weeks the Hungarian police did nothing to put an end to the situation. Therefore, an American businessman, Richard Field, with the help of the Hungarian Red Cross arranged the evacuation of Roma women and children from the beleaguered village. The neo-Nazi Jobbik party took advantage of the situation and organized a “pro-Magyar” mass demonstration.
By that time the mayor, who had enjoyed the trust of the Gypsy community, had had enough. Claiming ill health, he resigned. Thus came yesterday’s by-election. Originally eight people announced their candidacy: seven “independents” and one who was the official candidate of Jobbik. Among the “independents” was Tamás Esze, the commander of Véderő (Defense Force), one of the two paramilitary organizations that invaded the village last April. Another independent was Mrs. Ferenc Matalik, the deputy mayor of Gyöngyöspata, who, as everybody in the village knew, was Fidesz’s favorite. The third independent was a young Roma man, János Farkas, Jr., who the night before the elections announced his withdrawal from the race.
There are 300 eligible Gypsy voters in the village and even if all 300 had voted for János Farkas he couldn’t have won the elections. Thus, the Roma community made the decision to support Mrs. Matalik, whom everybody in the village liked. They hoped that with this move they could prevent Jobbik’s candidate from winning the race. The Gypsies interviewed before the elections were all certain that Matalik would win. Well, it didn’t work out that way.
Normally very few people vote at by-elections, but in Gyöngyöspata most people, Roma and non-Roma, seemed to have realized the importance of this election. More than 60% of the eligible voters turned up. Oszkár Juhász, the Jobbik candidate, won with 33.8% of the votes, which meant 433 votes. Mrs. Matalik ended up second with 333 votes (26%), and Tamás Esze, the commander of Véderő, received 134 votes (10.5%). Thus the far-right actually received 567 votes (44.3%). This is very high indeed.
How did Jobbik achieve this victory over the allegedly independent Fidesz candidate? First of all, Oszkár Juhász conducted an effective and well organized campaign. Yet the local Gypsy community didn’t think he had a chance because, as it turned out, people who had already decided to vote for Jobbik’s candidate didn’t share their secret with anyone. The word in the village was that Mrs. Matalik would be the winner. According to some observers even Juhász seemed to be surprised at his success.
Read whole story: Hungarian Spectrum: The Jobbik candidate won the mayoral elections in Gyöngyöspata.
The militarization of Hungary
By the end of the school year of 2012/13 students will be able to choose “basic military science” as one of their subjects for the matriculation examination. Honestly, I had to read it twice in order to comprehend this latest “surprise” from the Orbán government.
Matriculating in basic military science in Hungarian gymnasiums is a historic first. Not even the Horthy regime came out with such an outlandish idea. They solved the problem of a forbidden standing army by establishing an extracurricular movement for boys where surreptitiously they were given basic military training. But the boys didn’t have to matriculate in the subject.
During the first years of the Rákosi period there was a brief experimentation with preparing us for some military attack by the imperialists, but the whole thing was scrapped in no time. I remember only a couple of lectures given on the subject by outsiders who were most likely members of the military.
After a little research I learned that basic military science is already taught in 27 schools in Hungary, but these are vocational schools (szakközépiskolák), not gymnasiums. If students can take basic military science as a matriculation subject, it means a change in the curriculum. All schools with students interested in studying military science will have to offer a course in the subject, and there must be a member of the matriculation committee who is capable of judging the student’s preparedness.
This piece of news came on the heels of another announcement by the Ministry of Defense. Soon a military high school will open its doors in Debrecen. Military schools were numerous before 1948, but after the communist takeover only one such school remained in Budapest. Even that was closed after the Hungarian revolution. While military schools in the United States are known as “schools for troubled kids,” the Hungarian military schools in the past catered to the children of the upper middle class with political views that reflected the government’s official ideology.
Read more: Hungarian Spectrum.
Hungary will sell 25% stake in Budapest Airport to Hochtief
Hungary will sell its 25 percent stake in Budapest Airport Zrt. to Germany’s Hochtief AG (HOT), which leads a group that owns the remainder of the equity, the National Development Ministry said.
The government will call its option to sell the stake, valued at about 36.6 billion forint ($200 million), to Hochtief by the June 18 deadline set when the majority of the equity was sold in 2005, the ministry said in an e-mailed statement today.
Hochtief’s Hungarian unit owns 37.7 percent of the airport.
via Hungary Will Sell 25% Stake in Budapest Airport to Hochtief – Bloomberg.
EU asks Hungary to stop anti-abortion campaign
The European Commission requested Hungary to stop its anti-abortion campaign because it was financed mainly using EU money allotted to gender equality projects.
The Hungarian government earlier this year chose against an outright ban on abortion, but started an ad campaign hoping to reduce the numbers of legal abortions. The campaign is set to run for two months and show a picture of a fetus with the words, “I understand it if you aren’t ready for me, but rather put me up for adoption, let me live!”
read more EU Asks Hungary to Stop Anti-Abortion Campaign – Emerging Europe Real Time – WSJ.
Hungary finds no evidence of vegetable contamination
Hungarian authorities have found no evidence of contaminated vegetables after checking all products from Spain, the farm minister said on Monday.
Speaking on the sidelines of an informal meeting of EU farm ministers in Debrecen, Sandor Fazekas said it was not yet known how the contaminated cucumbers had entered the food chain.
“I’ll be curious to see the results of investigation,” he said.
On Sunday, reports of Spanish vegetables suspected of being contaminated with E-Coli emerged in parts of Europe, and Hungary’s agricultural authority said it was possible the contaminated products had been imported to Hungary via Germany. Hungary was alerted via the European Union’s medical alert system (RASFF).
The cucumbers transited Germany, where at least nine people have died and almost 300 have been sickened as a result of complications related to E-Coli poisoning, AP reported.
Fazekas called attention to the importance of frequent testing of food products, “be it cucumbers, honey or meat products”.
As an example he mentioned that a meat plant had been recently closed due to concerns over product quality.
EU farm ministers arrived on Sunday to meet informally in the eastern Hungarian city of Debrecen. France, Germany and the Czech Republic are represented by deputy ministers.
Monday’s programme began with a “bio-picnic” at Debrecen University, hosted by the Dean, Istvan Fabian. The ministers sampled food from nearby organic farms and were briefed about scientific research on innovative food products.
The next stop was Hortobagy, on the Great Plains, where ministers visited a shepherds’ museum and fair, the Hortobagy National Park, attended the opening of a restaurant next to the famous Nine Hole Bridge, the symbol of Hortobagy and the longest road stone bridge in historic Hungary.
The meeting will continue on Tuesday in a closed-doors working session.
Fazekas said the meeting aimed to first give a glimpse of Hungary, and then to review issues related to the future of animal farming and animal feed.
The current cucumber contamination will be addressed at the meeting, too, Fazekas said.
via Hungary finds no evidence of vegetable contamination – Caboodle.hu.
Hungary buys 21.2% stake in oil firm MOL Nyrt
The Hungarian government said it has bought a 21.2% stake in the country’s main oil company, MOL Nyrt, from a shadowy Russian oil producer whose original purchase of the interest raised fears of Russian encroachment into the eastern European energy sector.
The government said it had acquired the stake for €1.88 billion ($2.64 billion) from OAO Surgutneftegaz, Russia’s fourth-largest oil producer, making it MOL’s single largest shareholder. The government already owns a small stake in the former national oil company.
The deal marks a reversal for Igor Sechin, Russia’s deputy prime minister and the overseer of its energy sector, who has pushed Russian oil and natural-gas companies to go global. He was a key architect of Surgut’s original purchase of the MOL stake in 2009, and just three months ago he told The Wall Street Journal that Surgut had no plans to sell it.
“From a national strategic point of view, we have managed to place one of the most important corporations into safe hands,” Prime Minister Viktor Orban said, announcing the deal to reporters in Budapest. A spokesman for MOL said the deal ends a “long period of uncertainty” for the company.
But a Western banker who has had dealings with MOL and Surgut said it was “bizarre” that Hungary’s government would consider such an expensive buyout when it is financially stressed. Ministers said they would finance the purchase from money received from the International Monetary Fund in a 2008 bailout, so it won’t have any impact on Hungary’s budget deficit or debt levels.
read whole article Hungary Buys 21.2% Stake in Oil Firm MOL Nyrt – WSJ.com.
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