Hungary

After months of aggressive attacks by the Hungarian government, it's most likely that the three-decade history of the Academy as a free, autonomous public body will be brought to an abrupt end.

During the winter of 2018-19, a demonstration wave spread across Hungary in response to a labour law amendment. These events turned around many trends in Hungarian politics.

Journalism is in a serious crisis. Nevertheless, alternative left-wing media are still out there in Europe, providing quality news and analysis with financial backing not from oligarchs or big business but from their readers. An exchange between the makers of merce.hu (Hungary), republik.ch (Switzerland), oko.press (Poland), and taz.de (Germany).

The state cannot expect regular people to respect the decisions made in courtrooms if state agencies themselves ignore them.

The prime minister and his wife attended a show in Milan’s famous opera house, La Scala, on November 15. Coincidentally, one of the airplanes owned by the Hungarian military, which Orban had used several times before for official trips, flew to Milan on the same day.

Three influential businessmen close to Viktor Orbán have interests in almost every sector. Lőrinc Mészáros has almost doubled the number of his enterprises last year, the companies of Garancsi are soaring and Andy Vajna’s wealth grows exponentially.

The Hungarian government is financially supporting soccer wherever it can: new stadiums are being built across the country. Besides professional soccer, there is a huge amount of money spent on junior teams and training the new generations of soccer players as well.

The watchdog NGO Atlatszo revealed in September that Viktor Orban and the political and economic elite close to the government are using a €56-million luxury jet and a €21-million yacht. It decided to build an online tool where anyone can track the yacht and the jet in real time.

This week 476 media outlets became parts of the new Hungarian media holding controlled by pro-government forces. The name of the mammoth is Central European Press and Media Foundation. This infographic shows you what happened!

The Central European University (CEU) announced that it is forced to launch all degree programs in a new location in Vienna in September 2019. The Hungarian Government has made it impossible for the university to ensure its operations in Budapest on the long run.