Columnists from across the political spectrum criticise a Socialist MP for likening the Orbán government’s new policies on the disabled to the practices of Josef Mengele, the ill-famed Nazi doctor who stood at the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp choosing which of the deportees were fit for slave labour and which should be sent to the gas chambers as “unfit”. READ MORE
Commentators in right wing dailies welcome the news that the IMF has accepted the amended National Bank Act and will now resume negotiations. Left of centre dailies criticise the delays, the prevarications and fear that the government might at any time decide to turn back and play the ”Turkish card” again. READ MORE
A left-wing commentator finds the court’s verdict proof of anti-Roma discrimination in the judiciary, while a prominent right wing columnist dismisses human right activists’ concern as another vicious attack against ethnic Hungarians. The ruling is under appeal. READ MORE
A commentator on the right finds the idea of a new Socialist policy targeting national minorities a campaign lie, and asks why the European left voted against a motion to examine Romanian Socialist Prime Minister Victor Ponta’s policies. READ MORE
Right and left accuse each other of acting in bad faith in connection with the government-sponsored, but failed reburial of Transylvanian writer József Nyírő. A liberal analyst believes both sides need enemies in order to mobilise their own troops. READ MORE
A left-wing commentator welcomes the European Commission’s decision to require Hungary to tax farmers who distil brandy. A right-wing columnist find the demand ridiculous and accuses the EU of applying double standards, once again, towards Hungary. READ MORE
The leading pro-government daily welcomes the decision by the ECOFIN to lift the suspension of 500 million Euros in aid to Hungary, and explains it as an open acknowledgement of the validity of the government’s economic policies. Left-wing commentators, on the other hand, believe that the Hungarian government has wasted two years and was forced by the EU to back-pedal on the counter-productive economic strategy it initially pursued. READ MORE
A right-wing columnist downplays the importance of Elie Wiesel’s decision to return the highest Hungarian state honour in protest against what he sees as the government’s efforts to restore anti-Semitic icons. A left-wing pundit, on the other hand, believes that the case will receive international attention and further harm the image of the Orbán government. A centrist commentator notes that the previous socialist-liberal coalitions did much less against anti-Semitism than the current Fidesz government. READ MORE
Commentators on the left and right trade accusations about hidden agendas and propagating half-truths concerning the charges of anti-Semitism, the heritage of Imre Nagy and the Strasbourg court ruling on wearing the red star in public. READ MORE
A right wing columnist suggests that the 2013 draft budget figures to be submitted to Parliament might be too optimistic, although they had been intended to reassure the markets. A left wing pundit thinks Economy Minister György Matolcsy’s attempt to refute an article published in The Economist is damaging to Hungary’s reputation. READ MORE