Right-wing columnists fulminate against the appeal court which annulled the prison sentence handed down to former Communist Party chieftain Béla Biszku for his role in the post-revolution reprisals in 1956. An expert says while the ruling was well founded legally it signals a defeat for the Judiciary. A left-wing commentator suggests that Biszku is despised in Hungary – even without a sentence. READ MORE
A conservative commentator is disgusted by the ruling of the Budapest Appeal Court to scrap a five year prison sentence handed down by the first instance court to Béla Biszku, who as a key member of the Communist Party leadership in 1956 was accused of responsibility for the massacre of unarmed demonstrators after the anti-Communist revolt was crushed by the Soviet Union. READ MORE
Left-wing magazines point out how damaging the charge levelled against the Prime Minister by his former close ally is. Liberal pundits think the uncertainty about former real or imagined police informants should have been settled long time ago by publishing all Communist secret service files, while right-wing commentators call Mr Simicska’s allegations sheer slander. READ MORE
Commentators are predominantly sceptical about the allegation that PM Orbán was recruited by the communist secret services during his military service in 1982. READ MORE
A left-wing author calls on the competent Cabinet Minister to prevent those who want to rename a high school in Szeged from getting their way. The Ságvári school was named after a Communist who fought against Nazi occupation in 1944 and was killed when he opened fire on the policemen who wanted to arrest him. READ MORE
Commenting on the commemorations for the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Communism, a leading webmagazine suggests that the spiritual damage caused by decades of Communism still weighs heavily on Hungarian society. READ MORE
In a two part essay, a liberal pundit argues that for the moment, anti-government opposition groups do not offer a clue as to how they would govern if they succeeded in unseating the current government. The Prime Minister, he explains, has realized that in order to gain public support, he needs to govern according to public sentiments rooted in the late 1980s, in the last Communist years in Hungary. READ MORE
Looking back on the 1989 Pan-European Picnic, a pro-government commentator contends that at the time, Hungarians had unrealistic hopes about the transition. He also believes that the West should show more respect towards Hungarian sovereignty. A left-wing columnist accuses PM Orbán of knocking liberal democracy again. READ MORE
As Hungary remembers the victims of Communism on 25 February, a conservative columnist complains that former communist officials have been the main beneficiaries of the transition to democracy. READ MORE
Pro-government columnists accuse the opposition of using the anniversary to entrench political cleavages. Left-wing pundits, on the other hand, suspect that the government is using the public media and other state run services to silence the opposition. READ MORE