The number one business daily condemns the Hungarian branch of an international initiative which has proposed a guaranteed and unconditional “basic income” for all European citizens as ”campaign-flavoured”. READ MORE
Left-wing dailies express mixed emotions over the new opposition pact, fearing that time is too short to reach out to potential voters. A pro-government commentator thinks that by embracing Mr Gyurcsány as their future partner, Socialist Party chairman Attila Mesterházy and Together-2014 leader Gordon Bajnai have given up their quest for something different to the pre-2010 system of government. READ MORE
Népszabadság suggests that a planned ‘exclusive review’ illustrates how the government is attempting to tame authors and artists. The internet is “aflame” with spicy reactions and young right-wing authors who have been queuing up to dissociate themselves from the project. READ MORE
The leading leftist daily deplores the main players’ reluctance to revise their electoral pact, and hopes that their announcement has not come too late. The main pro-government daily is less charitable and points out that after so much ado, the leading left-wing candidate for the Premier’s post has yet to be picked. READ MORE
A left-wing daily welcomes Bajnai’s move as a new chance to beat Orbán with joint candidates and a coordinated campaign – a much-needed boost for opposition morale. READ MORE
In their first post-new-year’s-day analyses of the electoral landscape, most columnists consider Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party the likely winner of the next elections, although a left-wing commentator suspects that the opposition constituency is underrepresented by the opinion polls. READ MORE
Left-wing commentators echo the misgivings expressed by opposition politicians about the government’s plan to erect a monument commemorating the invasion of Hungary by Nazi Germany in 1944. The statue is due to be unveiled on the 70th anniversary, i.e. March 19th, on Szabadság (Freedom) square, in front of the monument to Soviet soldiers. Left-wing politicians have criticised the hasty decision and expressed fears that the monument will implicitly whitewash the role of those Hungarians who collaborated with the Nazis. READ MORE
Népszabadság calls the project a capitulation to tax evasion and deplores a police search in the home of a tax fraud whistle-blower. Meanwhile, fact-finding journalists continue their quest to either prove or disprove the whistle-blower’s allegations. READ MORE
In their traditional New Year columns, left and right-wing dailies alike agree that Fidesz is the probable winner of the next elections, but that prospect does not make them equally happy. READ MORE
Magyar Nemzet believes that what its editors always saw as double standards in judging economic policies came to an end when Standard and Poor’s stripped the European Union of its top credit rating just before Christmas. The commentator cautions, however, against premature triumphalism, despite the first signs of recovery in Hungary.
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