Hungary

On 6 April, election was held in Hungary. The winners were Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party but also Jobbik With 20,5 percent, Jobbik is now the strongest extreme right-wing party in the EU. Eva van de Rakt spoke with political scientist Bulcsú Hunyadi about the outcome.

The left-of-centre opposition parties ended the protracted period of negotiations by creating a type of alliance. The alliance exhibits resembles the former governing left-wing coalition and has hitherto been incapable of mounting a serious challenge to the ruling right-wing majority in 2014.

It might be the first time for Hungarian voters to re-elect a conservative government and Viktor Orbán is confident of winning the elections with a two-third parliamentary majority. Bulcsú Hunyadi gives a detailled overview on Hungaries political landscape and depicts that there is no competition among equals.

The next Hungarian parliament could include two green formations: Dialogue for Hungary (PM), which will surely have some members in parliament, and Politics Can Be Different (LMP). If LMP surpasses the election threshold an independent parliamentary group is guaranteed.

Hungary receives massive aids from Russia in constructing new power plants. It is not only generosity, but mere a fiendishly clever economic strategy. Still legal and political risks have been neglected.

An amendment has made it illegal to sleep rough in world cultural heritage areas, which cover Budapest’s entire city-centre. Now there is a long list of additional areas in Budapest where homeless people can be subjected to forceful removal and penalties. How did we get here?

Philosopher Péter Rauschenberger ist co-founder of the Hungarian green party (LMP), which he left in January 2013. In his article he gives an overview on the different actors of the “democratic opposition” under the Orbán government and explains, why they struggle to build stable alliences.

On 29 August Attila Mesterházy, president of the Socialist Party, and Gordon Bajnai, leader of the Together 2014-PM alliance, announced that they had finally reached a deal that ‘would allow the democratic forces of the left to unseat the Orbán government’. What are the consequences of the agreement?

In July a three-year process of the reform of the Hungarian electoral procedure law has come to an end. With the changes in the voting system the leading Fidesz-KDNP party foremost seeks to convert its relative popular majority into an absolute majority in Parliament. An analysis of the reform's effects.

On 3 July, the European Parliament adopted the resolution “on the situation of fundamental rights: standards and practices in Hungary”, which criticises the state of fundamental rights and the rule of law in Hungary. MEP Rui Tavares, the rapporteur in charge of wording the report, discusses the resolution’s afterlife and its implications.