Conservative commentators agree with the government’s plan to send 100 soldiers to Iraq’s Kurdish region to serve as guards in two international bases and escort convoys along the road between the two. READ MORE
Tags: foreign affairs
Analysts are urging measures to bolster supervision over financial institutions after the collapse of Quaestor, Hungary’s biggest brokerage house, the third such case in just over a week. They fear that citizens will lose their already waning confidence in banks, which would severely impair the economy. READ MORE
Tags: corruption
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
Tags: communism, Orbán, secret services
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
Tags: communism, culture wars
Right-wing columnists commenting on Italian PM Renzi’s talks in Moscow point out that despite economic sanctions and diplomatic disputes, pragmatic Western statesmen are willing to meet President Putin if national interest demands. Thus, they argue, it is only normal that PM Orbán is also trying to maintain good ties with Moscow. READ MORE
Tags: foreign affairs, Orbán, Putin, Russia
A centrist analyst calls on the Socialist Party to return to social democratic principles, or risk further decline, including the danger of losing its voters to Jobbik. READ MORE
Tags: Jobbik, liberalism, liberals, MSZP, Trade Unions
The leading left-wing daily calls for privatization or substantial extra public spending in the health care system in order to overcome current underfinancing. A liberal commentator fears that the government’s plans to raise wages will not deter doctors from leaving the country or accepting cash ‘bonuses’ from patients. READ MORE
Tags: health, privatisation
Commentators on both Right and Left call on the government to reconsider the surplus taxes on banks as the state buys an interest in retails banks and the economy grows at a 3.5 per cent rate. READ MORE
Tags: credit-rating, economy, GDP, growth, tax
In its latest cautiously critical editorial, the formerly staunchly pro-government daily suggests the need for more transparency over the Russian-Hungarian deal on the enlargement of the Paks nuclear power station. READ MORE
Tags: energy, Paks, transparency
Pundits both on Right and Left fear that trust in banks and financial markets will weaken as the National Bank suspends operation of the Buda-Cash brokerage house, and estimates that as much as 100 billion Forints may have been embezzled. READ MORE