Quote Originally Posted by Vuk View Post
You and Horetore should form your own little commie brigade. :)
No.

1) I myself trancend left or right
2) I only do muscular manly men, sorry HoreTore
3) One can regard politics in either of two ways: A, in a manichean 'left vs right' idea of politics, considering everything in this light. Or, B, based on informed opinion. It is not out of any commie sympathy that I have serious worries about the current Hungarian government, and that I loathe the European national-conservative right in general.


In fact, the Economist, that bastion of European economic liberalism, that is, rightwing for you Americans, fully agrees with HoreTore and even goes one better:

FIDESZ, a right-wing party, was elected to government in Hungary in April with a stonking majority and a large popular mandate for change following what it saw as eight years of misrule and corruption under the Socialist Party. In office, Fidesz, led by the belligerent prime minister, Viktor Orban, has interpreted this mandate in a liberal fashion, extending state control over independent institutions and appointing party men to roles of authority. With Hungary about to take up the rotating presidency of the European Union, some observers are concerned about what they consider to be a growing trend of assaults on the country's independent centres of power. Our interactive chart chronicles the events of the last eight months.


http://www.economist.com/blogs/daily...2010/12/fidesz
Quote Originally Posted by Economist
HUNGARY is under the international spotlight. In January the country takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union. But there is growing alarm about the increasing centralisation of power under the right-wing Fidesz government led by Viktor Orban, Hungary’s pugnacious prime minister.

Fidesz won an unprecedented two-thirds majority in April’s general election. Since then, say its critics, it has embarked on a power grab, taking over almost every independent institution. Pal Schmitt, an emollient former member of the European Parliament, has been appointed to the presidency. A “statement of national co-operation”, to be placed in public buildings, claims that only now has Hungary regained its self-determination, though it has been a democracy for two decades.



Party nominees have been elected to all five seats on a powerful new media council. This supervisory body will have an unparalleled mandate to impose large fines on print, online and broadcast media for such vague transgressions as offending “human dignity”. Its powers are causing alarm. Magazines and newspapers have published blank front pages in protest, and international bodies such as the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe have called for a rethink. The members of the council insist that they will not be pushed around by the government.


The charge sheet does not end there. The constitutional court’s jurisdiction over financial matters has been severely restricted. The government has imposed crisis taxes on banks, energy, telecoms and retail companies, alarming foreign investors. It has raided private pension funds. The fiscal council, which provided independent oversight of the budget, has been scrapped, though it will have a successor.


Opposition politicians and civil-society activists hoping that the forthcoming EU presidency would bring outside pressure to bear on Fidesz have been disappointed. The priority in Brussels is for smooth management over the next six months, not bust-ups over press freedom. The government was elected with a clear mandate for change, comments one senior EU official.
http://www.economist.com/node/177333...ry_id=17733367