The pro-government Magyar Nemzet stresses that the government’s position is stable, despite all the financial difficulties and mistakes which afflict it, while the left-wing Népszabadság believes that PM Viktor Orbán’s meeting last week with (mainly conservative) economists was just a show-case. READ MORE
A pro-government commentator believes that Socialist officials guilty of illegal practices while in government should be jailed, or at least voluntarily withdraw from politics. Left wing analysts don’t believe the latest spy story. READ MORE
A left-wing pundit ponders whether the country’s financial difficulties may encroach on the government’s two thirds majority in Parliament. He draws inspiration from an article by a right-wing colleague. READ MORE
Wednesday’s daily papers illustrate how left and right in Hungary hold diametrically opposed opinions, not only on the main issues, but even on what the main issues are. Both conservative and left-wing papers comment on the decision by the Constitutional Court to postpone a ruling on the nationalisation of compulsory pension funds, while the two right wing dailies carry editorials on an apparently arrogant private comment made by the liberal President of the National Bank three years ago. READ MORE
Left and right wing analysts are united in their delight over the fall of Colonel Gaddafi, as well as in their concern over what will happen next in Libya. READ MORE
In an apparent attempt to calm the controversy over Hungarian-American relations, the state secretary responsible for foreign affairs, Zsolt Németh deems it fully acceptable that the US Ambassador to Budapest expressed her critical views in a newspaper article. Reacting in the same daily, Magyar Nemzet, Németh suggests that Washington is not always too well informed about Hungarian affairs, but says the two countries are staunch allies and the US Ambassador is a good friend of Hungary. READ MORE
Left wing commentators welcome the unequivocal warnings addressed to the Hungarian government by various Western sources, while right wing analysts deem accusations of anti-democratic tendencies directed at Hungarian leaders unfair. READ MORE
Opinions diverge on who is to blame for the plight of the hundreds of thousands of Hungarians struggling with mounting debts denominated in foreign currencies, mainly in Swiss Francs. But commentators agree that their problem is a threat to the country as a whole. READ MORE
Commentators in Hungary are still arguing on the Parliamentary majority’s plan to find a way to sue politicians responsible for the country’s indebtedness. In the mainstream press there is full consensus on the impossibility of retroactive legislation, but left and right wing commentators disagree on all the rest. READ MORE
Commentators on both sides of the political battlefield believe equally that Hungary must learn its lesson from what happened in Oslo on July 22. But they differ on what that lesson should be. READ MORE