As the IMF makes a credit-line agreement conditional on restoring foreign investors’ confidence, a right-wing commentator points out that Hungarians who buy government securities apparently have faith that their country will soon manage to get over the crisis. READ MORE
Pro-government commentators suggest that the government should not cave in to political pressure from the European Union and the IMF, while opposition newspapers warn that by refusing to accept the rules of the game Hungary’s leaders are taking serious and unnecessary risks. READ MORE
The main pro-government daily describes the attitude of the European Commission towards Hungary as nonsensical, for it releases only vague statements on what conditions Hungary should fulfil in order to be judged fit to start negotiations with the IMF on a long awaited credit line agreement. According to the biggest left-wing newspaper, on the other hand, the real problem is that Brussels has no trust in Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. READ MORE
Right-wing commentators in Hungary this Easter alert their readers to the possible consequences of denying Europe’s Christian roots. They fear that without basic Christian values, naked materialism will prevail, and qualities like solidarity, basic human kindness and morality will suffer throughout the secularized continent. READ MORE
Columnists draw conflicting conclusions from President Pál Schmitt’s resignation. READ MORE
The two leading dailies contend that President Pál Schmitt should have resigned after a fact-finding committee identified academic dishonesty in his doctoral thesis. A left-wing analyst, on the other hand, hopes that Schmitt will stay in office to remind Hungarians of the moral bankruptcy of the Orbán government. READ MORE
A pro-government columnist wonders whether the IMF is delaying the start of credit line negotiations with Hungary, in the hope that the financial markets will put the country under increased pressure, so that the government will give in and accept all the conditions dictated by the IMF.
A right-wing commentator finds it disgusting that the anti-government movement called ‘One Million for Press Freedom’ (Milla) has managed to prevent the broadcast of a documentary series on the Gypsies on Hungarian Public Television. READ MORE
Commentators seem to agree that Hungarians in Slovakia are among the losers of the Parliamentary election there. Some blame what they call the Orbán government’s wrong-headed cross-border policies; others believe the new inter-ethnic party is at fault. READ MORE
Left-wing commentators are appalled by PM Orbán’s new slogan: “We will not be a colony.” Their right-wing counterparts welcome the presence of the Prime Minister’s Polish supporters at the celebrations on the anniversary of the 1848 Hungarian revolution. READ MORE