by Paul Lendvai
1.Lengyel, László, A halott ország, Budapest, 2016.
2.As he admitted, Szigetvarí arbitrarily included in this figure the estimated fortunes of five Orbán intimates and, despite the rift between the two men, a third of Simicska’s fortune; cf. Népszabadság (18 May 2016) and The Daily Telegraph (20 June 2016). For similar statements and smaller estimates see Magyar Narancs (14 April 2016) and for more on strawmen the Internet news site 444.hu.
3.See Chapter 5, footnote 1.
4.Cf. Népszabadság (8 December 2015).
5.‘A 100 leggazdagabb’, Napi.hu; see also Süddeutsche Zeitung (28 January 2016), Die Welt (13 January 2015), Népszava (4 November 2015 & 12 April 2016), HírTV (11 February 2015), Magyar Narancs (14 April 2016) and 444.hu (16 January 2016).
6.444.hu (16 January 2016) and Népszabadság (3 May 2016); according to József Ángyán, a former secretary of state in the Fidesz government who resigned in protest against agricultural policy, the Mészáros family and their companies lease more than 3,000 hectares of land in the Fejér region; according to Magyar Nemzet (4 July 2016) the Mészáros family owns as much as 6,500 hectares of land in the region. On the Orbán family and the reports on its business contacts see HVG (10 November 2016 & 22 December 2016) and Magyar Narancs (2 June 2016 & 5 January 2017).
7.See Chapter 2.
8.See Népszabadság (30 January 2016); see also Die Welt (13 January 2015) and Süddeutsche Zeitung (27 January 2016).
9.See Magyar Narancs (23 July 2015 & 21 April 2016), Népszabadság (5 & 6 November 2015) and Napi.hu, op. cit.
10.The pleasure of the prime minister was certainly tempered by the report that, following charges of fraud made by an opposition Hungarian MEP, the European Anti-Fraud Office has investigated whether deliberately false figures for the numbers of anticipated passengers (2,500 to 7,000) were provided. In the first three weeks of operations only 1,220 tickets were sold. A covered sports hall costing €20 million is also being built in Felcsút (Népszabadság, 8 July 2016).
11.Népszabadság (4 April 2016).
12.Ibid.
13.Cf. Hankiss, Elemér, Társadalmi csapdák, Budapest, 1979.
14.Cf. Lendvai, Paul, ‘The “Golden Age” of the Millennium: Modernization with Drawbacks’, in Lendvai, Paul, The Hungarians, Princeton, 2003, pp. 310–28.
15.HVG (23 June 2016). Among these suspicious investments the media count, for example, the sale of 4,700 special bonds (as of end of 2016), which foreign investors from non-EU states are able to purchase for €300,000 each for five years in order to acquire, with immediate effect from July 2016, a permanent residence permit in Hungary. With this, they are able to move freely within the Schengen area. The bonds are offered by six offshore companies. These firms receive €60,000 in fees as commission per bond and are scrutinised by no external body. The whole project was launched in 2013 by a special (Fidesz-dominated) committee headed by Antal Rogán, who today, as Orbán’s chef de cabinet with the rank of minister of state, is placed seventh on the list of most influential Hungarians, and who in the summer of 2016 was linked by the media to various real estate scandals (cf. Magyar Nemzet, 31 March 2016). The offshore companies are alleged to have earned almost €400 million with one third originating from public funds (Magyar Nemzet, 14 January 2017).
16.HVG, 23 June 2016.
17.The deputy director-general of HírTV, Péter Tarr, related to the trade journal Médiapiac how the broadcaster functioned in the time of the friendship between Simicska and Orbán. ‘Those responsible for [government] communications informed the management what the party message for that week was to be, what should be advertised in the programmes, who should be invited to appear, who should speak on what matter, where and how and what they should emphasise. The truth is we served the regime’ (Népszabadság, 15 February 2016).
18.This was an unprecedented leak of 11.5 million files from a financial outfit in Panama, revealing money laundering, tax evasion and so on, including by government and government-linked figures from across the world. It was reported by a group of newspapers, including The Guardian, with the first details published on 2 April 2016.
19.See Népszabadság (16 April 2016).
17. HUNGARY’S ‘FÜHRER DEMOCRACY’
1.Mozgó Világ (January 2016).
2.Carl Schmitt (1888–1985) was an extreme right-wing German jurist and political theorist who wrote widely on the effective exercise of political power.
3.Lengyel, László, A halott orszag, Budapest, 2016.
4.Mozgó Világ op. cit. Kálmán Tisza held the office of prime minister for fifteen years between 1875 and 1890, the longest premiership in Hungarian history.
5.Professor István Magas, director of the Institute for Global Economy at the Corvinus University in Budapest, in Népszava (2 July 2016). The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies has calculated that, measured by purchasing-power parity in Hungary, a superior annual growth rate of 5.4 per cent would be required to overtake Austria by 2040.
6.Cf. ‘Eltorzult Magyar alkat, zsákutcás Magyar történelem 1948’, in Bibó István összegyüjtött munkái, Bern, 1981, p. 267.
7.Cf. Mozgó Világ (March 2016). Csillag was the minister for economic affairs in the Socialist–Free Democrat government between 2002 and 2004 and president of the Export-Import Bank from 2005 to 2010.
8.168 Óra (3 March 2016). See also Portfolio.hu (6 November 2015), Népszabadság (5 December 2016), 168 Óra (7 April 2016) and Élét és Irodalom (12 February 2016).
9.See Vasárnapi Hírek (6 March 2016), 168 Óra (7 April 2016) and Élet és Irodalom (12 February 2016).
10.HVG (24 November 2015).
11.See Tellér, Gyula, ‘Született-e “Orbán rendszer” 2010 es 2014 között?’, Nagyvilág, (March 2014).
12.Woller, Hans, Mussolini, der erste Faschist, Munich, 2016.
18. ‘THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN THE EU’
1.For Hungary see Gábor Halmai in Élet és Irodalom 22 October 2015; for Austria see Statistik Österreich.
2.Le Bon, Gustave, Psychologie des foules, Paris, 1895.
3.Pew Research Center, Washington DC, 11 June 2016. The poll was conducted in the spring of 2016 in Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Greece, the UK, France and Spain.
4.See interview with the Hungarian news agency MTI (11 January 2015).
5.See interviews with Soros in Wirtschaftswoche (12 November 2015) and the New York Review of Books (11 February 2016); on the subject of Orbán and Fidesz as recipients of Soros scholarships and financial support, see also Chapter 3. Between 1979 and 2015 Soros donated approximately $11 billion to various aid projects, all in post-communist countries, including money for the establishment and running of the Central European University in Budapest.
6.Index. hu (29 December 2015).
7.Der Spiegel (9 December 2015); for the János Kis quotation see the interview in Vasárnapi Hírek (22 February 2016).
8.Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (23 September 2015).
9.Lengyel, László, ‘Orbáns Weltbild’, Europäische Rundschau (2016/1).
10.Under the agreement of 16 April 2016 between Turkey and the EU, Turkey stops the flow of refugees to Greek islands (and thus into the Schengen zone) in exchange for €6 billion in funding for refugee camps in Turkey; Greece sends refugees back to Turkey, in exchange for Syrian refugees being distributed among and hosted by EU states. Turkey was also promised abolition of visa requirements for Turks to enter the EU and an acceleration of its own EU accession talks.
11.Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (25 May 2015).
12.Die Presse (20 April 2016).
13.Süddeutsche Zeitung (11 September 2015).
14.Vasárnapi Hirek, op. cit.
15.Index.hu (16 September 2015).
16.Weltwoche (12 November 2015).
17.www.kormany.hu (28 February 2015, 20 February 2017 & 15 March 2017).
18.Magyar Hírlap (11 October 2015).
19.Magyar Hírlap (9 Apri
l 2016).
20.Schmidt, Mária, ‘Das verwaiste Vermächtnis’, Budapester Zeitung (28 May 2016).
21.Financial Times (30 March 2017).
19. THE END OF THE REGIME CANNOT BE FORESEEN
1.Quoted from Bernard Crick, George Orwell: A Life, London, 1982, p. 348.
2.Citations from MTI-Magyar Távirati Iroda (Hungarian Telegraphic Agency)
3.MTI, 22 February 1992. The left-liberal weekly Magyar Narancs published on 13 April 2017 a detailed account of the grants Orbán and more than a dozen leading Fidesz politicians received from the Soros Foundation for study abroad. Ironically, one of the top beneficiaries in 1992–9 was a certain Zoltán Kovács, who has become internationally known as the government spokesman, and particularly for the abusive campaign against both the CEU and the Soros foundations.
4.We are both Holocaust survivors of the same age from Budapest, refugees—he fled from Hungary in 1948, I did in 1957—and our fathers were both lawyers.
5.Marton Dunai, ‘Soros-funded charities targeted by Trump-inspired crackdown in Eastern Europe’, Reuters, 23 March 2017. See also the Fidesz paper Magyar Idök (3 June 2016, 18 November 2016, 6 April 2017); interview with Orbán (15 April 2017); Der Spiegel online, ‘Half of Eastern Europe hates Soros’, 26 February 2016.
6.Interview with Magyar Idök (15 April 2017); English translation from the government website.
7.For the quote from Timothy Garton Ash, see The Guardian (12 April 2017) and for Jan-Werner Müller, Financial Times (11 April 2017).
8.See press releases from the EU Commission and the EPP presidency (Brussels, 26 and 29 April 2017).
9.See his article in Élet és Irodalom (7 April 2017).
10.Citations from MIT (28 February 2016).
11.Interview with Bild (24 February 2016).
12.The Guardian (17 April 2017).
13.See the analysis by Zoltán Sz. Biró, the foremost Hungarian expert on Russia, in Élet és Irodalom (31 March 2017); for the details and doubts on this matter see Süddeutsche Zeitung (30 December 2016), Népszava (2 February 2017), Financial Times (3 March 2017), Magyar Narancs (17 March 2017).
14.New York Review of Books (11 February 2016).
15.For the Szijjártó-Lavrov photo see Népszava (24 January 2017). For bilateral relations see HVG (26 January, 13 April 2017); Magyar Narancs (16 March 2017); Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (3 February 2017).
16.HVG (13 April 2017).
17.Simicska told 24.hu that he had originally granted Reuters a two-hour, sharply worded interview about the political situation in Hungary, but that the final version of the text had been so heavily ‘censored’ that he withdrew it. The most important part was the account of his talk with Orbán in 2014. The government spokesman’s reference to the Jobbik MEP Kovács concerns the inquiries in Brussels and Vienna over an alleged espionage affair. The accusation has been rejected both by him and by his party. Simicska expressed his hope in a statement that Jobbik would win the next elections. In their critical coverage of the government, the TV station and newspapers controlled by him give space and airtime to interviews with opposition spokesmen, including those of Jobbik, which still ranks as Hungary’s second largest party in both parliament and all opinion polls.
18.See figures in Napi.hu’s ‘100 Richest Hungarians 2017’ for the links between Mészáros’ 120 firms and the Orbán family; Magyar Narancs (23 March 2017) for the net profit of the family enterprises.
19.See his interview on ATV (21 April 2017), Magyar Nemzet (23 April 2017), Népszava (10 May 2017), Népszava (12 June 2017).
20.Wirtschaftswoche (23 April 2016).
21.During a three-day visit to Budapest on 19–21 July 2017, Netanyahu met not only Orbán but also the prime ministers of Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic (the other members of the so-called Visegrad group, of which Hungary became president in that month). The meeting was used to criticise EU policies regarding migrants and the Middle East, and was widely regarded as a political success for Orbán.
INDEX
Acton, Lord, see Dalberg-Acton, John
Adenauer, Konrad, 3, 204
Áder, János, 10, 23, 74, 75, 152, 211
Afghanistan, 195
Albright, Madeleine, 201
Alcsútdoboz, 12, 172
Aliyev, Ilcham, 222
Aliyeva, Meriban, 222
Alliance of Free Democrats, see Szabad Demokraták Szövetsége (SzDSz)
Amnesty International, 214
Andrássy Avenue, Budapest, 6, 122
Andrew G. Vajna Revocable Trust, 158
Ángyán, József, 244
Antall, József, 22, 24, 25, 34–5, 95, 227
anti-Semitism, 27, 48, 73
of Bayer, 236
and Jobbik, 69, 138
and MDF, 25, 209
and MIÉP, 43
and ‘open letter to artists of Europe’, 123
and refugee crisis, 191, 193, 203, 213
and Soros, 209, 213, 230
APEH (Adó-és Pénzügyi Ellenõrzõ Hivatal), 46
Apró, Antal, 235
Apró, Piroska, 58, 59, 61, 235
Árpád flag, 191
Arrow Cross, 102, 191
Ash, Timothy Garton, 213, 221
Asselborn, Jean, 115
atlatszo.hu, 154
ATV, 163
Audi, 220
austerity, 40, 79
Austria
economy, 181
Fischer’s meeting with Orbán (2014), 74
FPÖ (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs), 84, 138, 200
Hypo Alpen Adria, 161
Kreisky chancellorship (1970–83), 61
immigration, 192
ORF (Österreichischer Rundfunk), 6–8, 69, 122, 190–91, 209
property rights in Hungary, 121
and refugee crisis, 189–91, 193
refugees from Hungary, 189
Social Democratic Party, 117
TV stations, 121
Vienna Capital Partners, 161
Austria-Hungary (1867–1918), 44, 111, 114, 148, 173, 194, 234
Austrian Empire (1804–67), 112
authoritarian system, 92–4
Azerbaijan, 221–2
Aznar, José María, 144
Bãile Tuşnad, Romania, 68, 242
Baja, Ferenc, 67
Bajnai, Gordon, 79–80, 132, 240
Baka, András, 104
Balatonöszöd, 66
Balog, Zoltán, 50
de Balzac, Honoré, 11
Bangladesh, 208
Bárányvakság, 236
Barnás, Ferenc, 185
Bauer, Tamás, 92
Bavaria, Germany, 197–8, 200, 204, 220
Bayer, Zsolt, 204, 236
Belarus, 10
Belgium, 83, 172, 197, 221
Berlin, Isaiah, 2
Berlin International Film Festival, 122
Berlin Wall, fall of (1989), 40, 189
Berlusconi, Silvio, 158
Bertelsmann, 139, 161
Bibó István Special College, 17–18, 19, 23, 38, 44, 104, 141, 142–4, 234
Bibó, István, 113, 181, 234
Bicske, 172
Bild Zeitung, 240
Birnbaum, George E., 243
Biszku, Béla, 233
Blair, Anthony ‘Tony’, 61
Bokros, Lajos, 40–41, 92, 225–6, 237
Boldvai, László, 174, 175
Bosch, 220
Boston University, 48
Botka, László, 229
Bozóki, András, 92, 179, 219
Brandt, Willy, 3, 37
Brexit, 199, 216
Bronson, Charles, 39
Brussels Economic Forum, 216
Buda Cash, 138–9
Budapest
Andrássy Avenue, 6, 122
Bibó College, 17–18, 19, 23, 38, 44, 104, 141, 142–4, 234
Central European University (CEU), 179, 197, 211–20, 225–6, 246
City Park, 6
Corvinus Univers
ity, 155, 182, 245
Franz Liszt Academy of Music, 42
Heroes’ Square, 6–8, 22, 141, 172, 221
House of Terror, 75, 204
Keleti station, 189, 190
Kossuth Square, 69, 218
living standards, 184
May Day parades, 171
Ménesi Street, 18
Metro, 76
Millenáris Park, 50, 51
Museum of Fine Arts, 7, 157
National Museum, 45, 114, 203
Palace of Arts, 7
Parliament Building, 45, 69
Republikon Institute, 218
Semmelweis University, 96
State Opera House, 122
Budget Council, 107
Bulgaria, 173, 199, 235
Burckhardt, Jakob, 3, 61
Bush, George Walker, 48
Calvinism, 50
Canada, 211
Canossa, Italy, 239
cardinal acts, 99, 103, 107, 116
Cardinale, Claudia, 39
Carlyle, Thomas, 1
Carpathian Basin, 89, 112
casinos, 158
Catholicism, 25, 36, 42, 50, 51
censorship, 117, 122
Central European University (CEU), 179, 197, 211–20, 225–6, 246
Central Statistical Office, 184
Charlie Hebdo attack (2015), 194
Chikán, Attila, 182–4, 185
China, 141, 220
Christian Democratic People’s Party, 22, 31, 37, 84, 178
Christian Democratic Union (CDU), 84, 213, 220
Christian Social Union (CSU), 197–8, 216, 220
Christianity, 25, 36, 38, 42, 50–52, 76, 90, 102, 123, 238 and refugee crisis, 201, 203, 204, 217
Churchill, Winston, 2–3, 234
City Park, Budapest, 6
civil service, 47, 74, 78, 96, 104–5, 136, 141, 178
Class FM, 160
Cohesion Fund, 120, 181, 194
Cohn-Bendit, Daniel, 117, 118, 221
Communist Party, see Socialist Workers’ Party
Compromise, Austro-Hungarian (1867), 173, 194
constitution, 93, 95, 96, 97–9, 103–7, 116, 123–4
cardinal acts, 99, 103, 107, 116
constitutional court, 95, 96, 97, 103–7, 123, 237
Fundamental Law of Hungary, 96, 99, 101–3, 107, 110, 122
‘constitutional dictatorship’, 131
corruption, 135–6, 138, 151–63, 165–75, 183–7, 224, 229
Corruption Perceptions Index, 173