PM Orbán meeting EPP leaders

The first comments on the outcome of the European People’s Party Presidency meeting on Hungary express a mixture of confusion and contradictions on whether the Prime Minister made concessions in Brussels, or defended his positions against criticism and pressure.

PM Orbán under fire in the European Parliament

While the Prime Minister defended his policies against sharp criticism by the European Commission and MEPs, a legal analyst wrote that the infringement procedure launched by the Commission against Hungary rests on shaky foundations.

Dispute over ‘open society’ – and its critics

As Parliament begins to debate a bill on NGOs which receive foreign funding, pundits across the political spectrum discuss the idea of an ‘open society’, an ideal frequently evoked by George Soros, and assess the status and political role of NGOs in Hungary.

Debate on unruly demonstrators

A left-wing columnist defends demonstrators who throw paint as public buildings, on the grounds that they ‘have no other means to express their anger.’ A pro-government commentator thinks that everyone has the right to protest but only as long as they obey the law and respect public order.

Prime Minister Orbán’s Easter interviews

Commenting on PM Orbán’s Easter interviews, a conservative critic of the government thinks that Fidesz has alienated its conservative intellectual supporters. A pro-government commentator shares the PM's view, when he detects George Soros behind the recent anti-government protests.

Weeklies on anti-government demonstrations

After a week of demonstrations in support of the American-Hungarian Central European University and watchdog NGOs, but before Good Saturday’s rally in Szabadság (freedom) square, Hungarian weeklies ponder if the current wave of protest will fatally wound the governing forces or share the fate of previous ad hoc movements and ...

Demonstrations in Budapest

After the fourth anti-government demonstration in four days, commentators express strongly diverging views on their significance.  They agree, however, that the protests in Budapest are unlikely to turn into something like the ’colour revolutions’ in former Soviet republics.

President Áder signs amendments to the Higher Education Act

After President Áder ordered the promulgation of the amended Act on Higher Education, political polarisation has reached new levels in the Hungarian press.

Polarization as a threat

A centrist commentator thinks that in Hungary both Left and Right want to silence voices that do not fit their own ideology.

Parliament passes amendments to law on foreign universities

As Parliament turned into law the amendments to the higher education act on Tuesday, a conservative columnist suspects that the government’s ideologically motivated attack on CEU may easily backfire. Pro-government sources describe the opposition to the law as pure hysteria.