Focus on Hungary
The Heinrich Böll Foundation is compiling a dossier containing articles on the situation in Hungary since the right-wing government came to power in April 2010.
The arguments and opinions presented in the dossier provide an acute, sometimes trenchant critique of the current government and its policies. We see our role in supporting the democratic voices in Hungary and raising public attention in Europe with regard to critical developments in our common political space.
We hope that this dossier will help our readers get a better grasp of the controversies surrounding the socio-political changes in Hungary, and thereby involve members of the European public in the crucial debate on democracy in a changing Europe. This debate is not limited to current developments in Hungary. We see democracy as a never-finished task. There is no guarantee against retrogression, and it’s always up to citizens to reinforce democratic structures and procedures through their engagement in the public sphere.
Ellen Ueberschär, President, Heinrich Böll Foundation
Nino Lejava, Head of Office, Heinrich Böll Foundation Prague (Nino.Lejava@cz.boell.org)
Nóra Köves, Editor of the dossier (Nora.Koves@cz.boell.org)
Campaign to support Hungarian NGOs
The Hungarian taxpayers have a chance to offer 1% of their tax to NGOs each year, however not so many (more than 50% of the taxpayers) are either don't know about this possibility or they just don't pay attention to it. Moreover, the Hungarian government has been trying to hide this option, or at least make it harder to offer the 1% of the tax, therefore money won't get to the NGOs critical to them. This year the Hungarian NGOs decided to do an unusual joint campaign to promote this possibility, therefore a music video was made which primarily targets the young generation. The video is about a lame and spoiled guy (played by a popular young actor, Márkó Linczényi) who is complaining about many annoying first world problems. Though he pays attention to offer his 1% of the tax for the NGOs, because its a serious topic, and it goes beyond our everyday problems, since it's very important for others who have to handle harder situations than the marginal daily issues.
Interview-Series "Agents of Change"
Cultures of History Forum
In this special feature of the Cultures of History Forum the authors seek to place the ‘Lex CEU’ in a broader context, both regionally and historically, and ask what the state of academic freedom, civil society and liberal values is in the countries that came out of communist dictatorships more than 25 years ago.
