The beginning of the end? A subjective assessment of the political situation in Hungary Hungary’s new Fundamental Law came into force on the 1st of January 2012. Although the text itself is scary enough, the government had last minute surprises. In the last week of 2011 members of the ruling coalition – despite warnings from their fellow MPs and the country’s international partners – passed a number of bills which break the pillars of the liberal democratic edifice, erected just two decades ago to replace an authoritarian system of rule.
Far right mobilization and the roots of anti-Roma sentiment in Hungary “Those who are not willing to integrate into Hungarian society and live by the values we stand for should leave the country” – declared Gábor Vona, the leader of the far right party Jobbik, at the demonstration organized on the 6th of March in the village of Gyöngyöspata. It was obvious who he had in mind, given the fact that members of the Civil Guard Association for a Better Future had been patrolling the area around the Roma settlement for a week, with the aim of preventing “Gypsy-criminals” from stealing and harassing “hard-working citizens”.
The betrayed republic. Hungary’s new Constitution and the “System of National Cooperation” This is the second piece of a series of articles in which the author Kristóf Szombati intends to lift the veil on significant social, political and cultural transformations since the right-wing government came to power in Hungary. In what follows Szombati seeks to outline and interpret the most significant changes brought about by the new Constitution which the Fidesz-KDNP coalition has decided to bequeath to the country. The text is written from the perspective of a long-time member of the Hungarian green movement who co-founded the “Lehet Más a Politika” (LMP) party.
"Enfant terrible" of the Eurozone - Why did Slovakia refuse to bail out Greece? Shortly after a new ruling coalition formed Slovakia’s new center-right government, a small shock wave rolled through Europe. First the Slovak government and then parliament voted to withhold Slovakia’s share of a European bailout loan for Greece’s embattled economy. Not that Slovakia’s minute share of the package would mean a lot for the eurozone – the decision’s importance lay in its symbolism and, therefore, in politics.
The History and Memory of Communism in the Czech Republic On discussions surrounding the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and understanding contemporary history The Czech reflection on communism is still undertaken in peculiar waves even twenty years after its fall. Indifference and extreme anti-communism with the accompanying desire to name and marginalise the culprits of past evils regularly alternate or supplement one another.
Czech EU Presidency – a Missed Opportunity When evaluating the Czech EU presidency, the first question we need to deal with is what we might expect from a successful presidency. According to most of the academic literature in the field, the country holding the presidency is expected to act as an honest broker, and thus as a country interested in promoting the interests of the EU, not solely its own interests.
The Czech EU-Presidency - A Polish Perspective The Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU has, since the very beginning, attracted negative comments, especially in the “old” member states. A “new” rather small member state, which has not yet ratified the Lisbon Treaty, was under close scrutiny of the more experienced and influential partners in the Community. The deepening financial crisis and the volatile situation on the European stage as well as the new American administration getting into power, all that suggested that the time of the Czech Presidency would be full of new challenges.
Is the Czech Republic Still Abstaining on Human Rights? When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN in 1948, eight of its 48 member countries abstained from the final vote: South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Yugoslavia, USSR, Belarus, Poland, Ukraine and Czechoslovakia. While watching developments in human rights protections in the Czech Republic over the past 15 years, I have often reflected on the repercussions of that abstention. The Charter 77 movement, which resulted in Civic Forum and the democratic transition of 1989, has been lauded internationally, especially in the English-speaking world, for having based its challenge to totalitarianism on demanding respect for human rights.
Reality check on the Bali promises after Bonn II: Where is climate heading to in Copenhagen? In mid-December 2007, the US delegation finally stopped blocking the way towards reaching agreement and the Bali Action Plan was approved late at night. After two weeks of tough negotiations, which included booing in the room, the approval was a “real breakthrough and a real opportunity” as Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, put it.
European Elections in Hungary: New green party achieves unexpected success, but so does the radical right Barely three months after its official formation Hungary’s new green party, LMP (Lehet Más a Politika / Politics Can Be Different) has managed to entrench itself on the country’s political map. Standing in coalition with the small Humanist Party, LMP obtained 2.6 % of the votes, coming in fifth place, well before the liberals, who have reached an historic low and may well disappear from the political landscape.