We go for it! The top 10 on the EP list of Együtt-PM fighting for Hungary in Europe

We go for it, after all! That’s the slogan expressing the current strategy of the alliance led by Bajnai, former crisis prime minister, as he is called by his allees. In Hungarian that slogan is one word : csakazértis, as you can see on the photo below.

Gordon Bajnai, the crisis prime minsiter

The undeniable fail of the Unity - formed by left wing parties - on the parliamentary elections did not discourage the Együtt-PM alliance from doing their best on the upcoming EP elections. This time and definitely separately from the other left-wing parties of the opposition.

Bajnai told that as EP members they will have to defend Hungarian interest, in cooperation with the Hungarian government, if possible, and if not, then defending them from it. The Együtt-PM alliance would like to build a democratic, transparent and controllable Europe that considers the specific needs of the member states, and where it is possible to stand for member states interest and, in the same time,work for common european interest too.

Péter Krasztev and Márton Benedek 2 of the top 10.

On the 8th of March 2013, Együtt 2014 (Together 2014) led by Gordon Bajnai concluded an alliance with the green party PM (Dialogue for Hungary) founded a couple of weeks before, on 17th February 2013 by former members of the green party LMP (Politics can be different) . Representing their new-born parties, Gordon Bajnai and Tímea Szabó signed the document.
Responding to a question Bajnai told that they presume 2 or 3 candidates getting seat in the EP. Members of the PM will sit in the Green group. The Együtt 2014 member plan to sit in S&D group.
Bajnai is at the top of the EP list, but he does not intend to work in the European Parliament. His first place is merely symbolic: it means that internal affairs of Hungary has to consider european politics. He will yield his place to his comrades. The list contains further 33 names, ending with the other co-president of PM, Tímea Szabó. The second name is Benedek Jávor, biologist, environmentalist and co-president of the PM , followed by Zsuzsa Szelényi, psychologue and former member of Fidesz and a writer Péter Krasztev, the former head of the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Bratislava.

co-chair of the Dialogue for Hungary, Benedek Jávor, # 2 who is #1 in fact.

The first or top 10 candidates has been presented to the press today but the full list is published on their websites (PM and Együtt2014) 

1. Gordon Bajnai

2. Benedek Jávor                     3. Zsuzsa Szelényi

4. Péter Krasztev                          5. Péter Balázs

6. Dávid Dorosz                     7. Márton Benedek

8. Gábor Daróczi                        9. Zita Herman

10. Nóra Hajdu                           11. János Dávid

12. Péter Szilágyi            13. István Sértő Radics

14. Melinda Teket                  15. Gábor Borsos

16. Edina Bátyai                       17. Csilla Dienes

18. Szabolcs Datki          19. Dr. István Szegedy

20. András Szeles                    21. Gábor Erőss

22. Szelim Simándi                  23. Sándor Nagy

24. Gábor Hídvégi                 25. Géza Szalóczy

26. Márton Kovács                  27. Gyula Cseke

28. Ágnes Réz                    29. András Kövesdi

30. Ottó Bence                     31. Balázs Berkecz

32. Péter Rauschenberger    33. Rebeka Szabó

34. Tímea Szabó

polls: HUNGARY MIDNIGHT DATA: 61% of eligible voters cast ballot, no qualified majority for Fidesz

By midnight 6th April 2014: 90% of votes has been counted, and Fidesz has not the 2/3 of seats.

They are 2 seats away from it, having 132. Jobbik, the extreme-right party will have 24 seats, LMP the green party only 5. The Unity formed by the left-wing parties, the liberals and Együtt-PM has 38 seats, representing 19%.

Fidesz-KDNP received 44,7 percent of votes
The Unity or Change of Government 25,6 percent
Jobbik 20,8 percent
LMP 5,2 percent

The 10 uncounted percent of votes can change the situation, and so does the votes from beyond the borders.

source: index.hu, www.facebook.com/torokgaborelemez

polls: 56.77% of eligible voters cast a ballot today 30 minutes before polls close

At 5.30 pm turnout rate was 56.77%

The polls close in 30 minutes.

At 3 p.m. turnout rate was 45,02%.

The polls close at 7 pm.

Orbán: the Unphotographable Prime Minister or screenshot on the free press in Hungary

The vote of Hungarian PM, Viktor Orban is only one of the approximately 5 million votes expected today, but the shot of it is certainly the most wanted. Today morning the MTI photographer, who was sent there to take this shot, was banned from taking the picture of the voting Orban. Instead the photographer of the right-wing newspaper, Magyar Nemzet, was chosen to take the photos that can be spread around on the vote of the Prime minister. This is the first time that happens to MTI.

MTI is the Hungarian news agency, founded in 1880, currently meant to be the only independent official press information source, however its independence is contested by left-wing press. Anyway, this is the only official state owned news and photo agency in Hungary. MTI’s news service in English is meant to keep you “abreast of the latest developments in Hungarian politics, diplomacy, culture, economy and sports” declares its website . Publishing the shots of Magyar Nemzet is be against the ethics and traditions of MTI, according to index.hu

Six minutes after 8 am, MTI published the brief:

"Prime Minister Viktor Orbán who casted his ballot a couple of minutes before 8 am, in the XIIth district of Budapest, is expecting a high turnout at the parliamentary elections this Sunday. High turnout rate improves the government performance, he told to the press, afterwards. (..) (PHOTO) ..."

But in fact no photos were published. 

At 11 am one photograph of the same polling station that Orbán casted his ballot in was published on MTI, but the photo did not show the PM. The photo was made by an MTI photographer. 

The photos of the PM casting his ballot pop up  in the MTI newsfeed after 3 pm. 

"photo MTI : Márta Hegedűs, Magyar Nemzet."

At 3 p.m. turnout rate was 45,02%.

The polls close at 7 pm.

She can do it! Woman on stage: Tímea Szabó

The red stone in her necklace gives the impression that she shows her heart. She looks good, and damn, this is not her only asset. The co-president of the Dialogue for Hungary is a tough woman.  She can do it!

She is able to turn people toward politics in the last minute. The speech of Szabó Tímea reached people unreached before "I liked the speech of that young little woman with black hair, do you know her?" - asked a friend of mine who usually tries to give a shit on politics- after seeing her speech in the television last Sunday. 

Szabó Tímea co-president of the Dialogue for Hungary

She described Victor Orban as an insane dictator, as the below part from Budapest Beacon shows. "In Hungary today there is only one man who wants war and slavery. But we will take away his favorite toy, the government’s scepter of power, and we will restore liberty and peace! My dear friends, all we want is peace and we promise not to hurt this person. We’ll let him keep his other toys. He can keep his half-finished stadium in his village, he can keep his Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader counter-terrorist friends, he can even keep the gold-plated toilet brush he uses at his Felcsut palace."

See the full speech

The red of the Hungarian national flag is in Tímea's hands. Red, white and green color sheets of paper were distributed by the candidates to the electors.

 Timea Szabó throwing a kiss to her sweet comrade, Milán Rózsa.

The kiss is in the air.

 Tímea Szabó standing beside Gordon Bajnai on the protest against Russian military intervention in Ukraine

Song and dialogue, on the 1st anniversary of the Dialogue for Hungary.

Tímea Szabó, 23rd of October 2014, member of the Unity.

by CSilla Katona

The March Speech of Peace and Freedom by Gábor Fodor, leader of the Hungarian Liberals

Many ask why Gábor Fodor, leader of the the Liberal Party have a place in the coalition of the left. Wearing the ultimate color of liberals, the blue he was the third speaker, following Péter Kónya, leader of the Szolidaritás and Ferenc Gyurcsány  and pronounced quite a powerful speech last Sunday in front of the Opera.

Gábor Fodor, leader of theLiberálisok, the Liberal Party in front of the Opera last Sunday , on the 30th March 2014.

Budapest Beacon published his speech in which he gave new coordinates for the view point to see freedom and peace, two terms frequently used by Viktor Orbán and his allees. See below a part:
"My fellow citizens, freedom should never be in opposition! They want to take our freedom from us, but we won’t let them! The Prime Minister said he wants to continue the next four years. We ask him to not continue because we don’t want the pact with Russia. We don’t want to be dependent Russia. We don’t want to be fight against our allies in the west. We don’t want the fear-mongering of the Freedom Square memorial to Nazi Germany. We don’t want Kozgep. We don’t want the Felcsuti soccer stadium. We don’t want the tobacco concessions. We don’t want them to steal our pensions again. We don’t want the nationalized centralized education system. We don’t want to be bombarded with propaganda. We don’t want our elections to be manipulated. We don’t want our public spaces to be blanketed with billboards paid for fake civil organizations who support the government. We don’t want employees of the public works to work in the election campaign. We don’t want the signature forging fraudulent political parties. We don’t want the Fidesz government!
My dear friends, throughout Hungary’s history there have always been those who have fought in the struggle for freedom. And there have always been those who fought to take away our freedom. Fidesz has joined the ranks of those who are fighting to rob us of our freedom! Despite this, we who are the descendants of the liberal Lajos Kossuth, the radical Sandor Petofi, the conservative Istvan Szechenyi, must learn from those who came before us.
Those who assembled yesterday at Heroes’ Square are just as much a part of this country as we are. But they are also the ones who tried to make the national cockade their own one decade ago. We have just as much right to our nation symbols as they do. But in order for us to open our hands to them, we must first defeat them because Viktor Orban may be victorious in battle but never in peace! The majority of Hungarians, like us, want peace!"
see Fodor's full speech

Gábor Fodor, spoke against the planned monument to victims of Hungary's 1944 occupation by the Nazis, called the memorial to the German occupation of Hungary, on the 19th of March 2014, at Szabadság sqare, where the monument is planned to be.

Gábor Fodor, spoke against the Paks Pact, on a protest in front of the Parliament on 2nd February 2014, on the stage of the members of the Unity.

Gábor Fodor, 23rd of October 2014, member of the Unity.

by CSilla Katona 

Barrier to Bajnai and the Dialogue for Hungary

Will they, overcome, the alliance Együtt-PM (Banai and the Green Left) the new double obstacle: administrational, pretty clumsy with understatement, on one hand and "constructional" on the other.

For the moment there is only a tiny space for the Együtt-PM campaign tent. 

HVG published this afternoon the following. After the alliance Együtt-PM has obtained authorization from the the 7th district of Budapest to hold their final ballot waiting event on April 6, at Madách square, the same office approved a construction permit for the same place and first barricades have already been raised.
It is difficult to unsee in it a call to arm, but let’s wait for an explanation from the bureau, we hope that this obstacle will not discourage Bajnai and his green allies and they can watch the final elections scores at Madách square. 

Till then, let's think about what can the reasons be...

French mirror of Hungary before the parliamentary elections on 6 April

A couple of days after the end of the Francophone Festival, and a couple of days before the parliamentary elections in Hungary, Eastland Baguette offers you a French mirror reflecting Hungary from the views of a Frenchman and a Frenchwoman answering our questions about democracy and the parliamentary elections, to be held in Hungary this Sunday, 6 April, 2014.

How do you judge the status of democracy in Hungary compared to France?

According to Yann (aged 41), it is difficult to compare two democracies with such different histories. "In
France, many people now think that there is no more democracy, and a part of the Hungarians think the
same thing about Hungary. Being a foreigner here, I do not feel at all a lack of democracy in Hungary (there are opposition parties, they have the right to demonstrate, there are opposition newspapers, the internet is not as muzzled as in Turkey...). There are problems, rather, with counterbalances." He adds that the French complain about the lack of democracy in France after protests against single-sex marriage divided the country.

Fidesz, 23rd October 2013. Budapest, Heros square

Hélène (aged 28) believes that Hungary still has a democratic system. Although there have been serious attempts at its limitation, it is still relatively functional, thanks to interventions from outside. "To me the big problem in Hungary is the lack of dialogue between the government and its citizens." As a young graduate, she offers an example in education: "How can it be, that the education reforms were made without the participation of those who are primarily concerned, like the collective Haha (and not the Höök which epends on Fidesz)? The opposition is ignored. Whether they have good ideas or not, they are disregarded by Fidesz. Where is the democracy?” She finds it unbelievable that the “war machine of the government's 2/3rds majority worked so well that only four legislative proposals from the opposition were voted upon in four years of parliamentary legislation".

 protest anti-government for the free education, Christmas 2014

Hélène explains the weakness of dialogue with a striking example: the prohibition of sleeping on the street for the homeless. "This is anti human; anti Christian. How can anyone let this be done?“ She points out that Fidesz co-governs with the Christian Democratic Party, KDNP. “I know that the problem is complex, but the government doesn't have the right approach. Now it is up to citizens to show that they disagree.” She is grateful for the efforts of the AVM movement (A Város Mindnekié: The City is for All), but adds that, to her knowledge, there has never been a critical mass at their demonstrations in Budapest. And in fact the next question was exactly about this topic.

- In your opinion does the Hungarian State care about poverty and on what scale? And has there been any progress on this since 2008?

Poll: The left managed to push the numbers among potential voters

Gábor Török, Hungarian political scientist has published a breaking news on his fb page: the final poll of the Nézőpont and Medián institutes are more than ever alike.

The numbers are the same  with only 1% difference regarding  voters of the left. The Unity is now called Kormányváltók (Change of Government, here below see Change)  and not Összefogás (United opposition, or Unity) anymore. The reason is that in the last couple of weeks new small parties popping up surprised the left.

See below the numbers of Nézőpont Intitute (N) Median (M):
Fidesz-KDNP: 36 (M), 37 (N) and
Change: 18 (M), 19 (N)
Jobbik: 15 (M), 15 (N)
LMP: 2 (M), 2 (N)

According to Nézőpont Intitute, compared to their previous poll,

Oh come on, oh baby don't you want to vote

Sweet home… but where? “It is good everywhere, but it is the best at home.” goes the Hungarian proverb. It has changed somewhat however in the course of the last tens years of Hungarian politics. Today it sounds more like “It is bad everywhere, but it is the worst at home”. That’s not news, we all know what Hungarians are like…" , the readers can say. Such clichés are best left aside, though - let's turn to the facts instead: e,g, did you know that today more than 280,000 Hungarians are employed abroad? We wanted to know whether they care at all about the general elections scheduled for this weekend in their homeland - a homeland that was not strong enough to get them back one way or another. Well, it seems that they do and they don’t.

sweet or sour?

Gyula (yes that a very Hungarian name!) is a Hungarian social worker, age 37, who has lived in the Netherlands since 2011. He has a pretty negative image of the political parties in Hungary, especially the Socialist Party, (MSZP) who, in his opinion, has not changed at all in reality. It is led now by a young socialist, Attila Mesterházy, who for many symbolizes the rejuvenation of the Hungarian Socialist Party - but the ones behind him are the same ones as those before the Öszöd speech, he says.
His opinion of voters is no better; as he can see it, most Hungarian citizens are more comfortable with a feudal system that requires only a minimum of participation, thinking and responsible decision-making - or none at all.

He says that as he does not live in Hungary anymore and has no intention to go back one day, he feels he does not have a right to intervene, so he will not vote. He did the same during the last Romanian elections, too; by then he had already left the country, where he was born. He was granted Hungarian citizenship and voting rights in 1993. He now has both Hungarian and Romanian citizenships and concomitant voting rights but he does not belong to the group of more than 200,000 transborder Hungarians who signed up to vote for the first time in 2014.

There are however many more, about 480,000 ethnic Hungarians who applied for the double citizenship introduced in 2010 by Fidesz-KDNP. They could all vote this Sunday. Starting from 2010, Hungary has granted dual citizenship to people living in, and having ancestors in territories which were annexed from Hungary at the end of World War I, due to the Trianon treaty, provided they can still speak Hungarian. Additionally, there are around 280,000 Hungarians working abroad; yet, less than 10% of them would like to vote this Sunday. Altogether that’s nearly 800,000 Hungarian who could vote beyond the borders. And probably a quarter of them will.

Are we sitting in the same boat on the Blue River, the Danube?

Fear and loathing at Paks -The fearful shadow of an irreversible tragedy / part 3.

€10 billion state loan from Russia to Hungary. Worst joke ever? Certainly, according to the Hungarian opposition. On 1st of April 2014, Hungarian State secretary János Lázár confirmed that Hungary had signed an agreement with Russia on credit for an upgrade of the Paks nuclear power plant but only after that Russian daily Vedomosti reported that Russia and Hungary had signed the agreement on the €10 billion state loan, based on information from Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak informed to the agency Interfax.

€10 billion loan from Russia with love and first due on 15th March 2026

The repayment period is set at 21 years. The loan covers 80% of the constructions cost. It can be used between 2014 and 2025. Hungary is set to repay the loan in euros. The first payment will be due on the 15th Match or 15th September which falls closest to the start of operations at new blocks no 5 and 6, but no later than 15th March 2026, reported Vedomosti. States secretary Lazar said that  the credit agreement would be submitted to the new parliament after the elections. The agreement has been sent on to Brussels too.

On the 27th of March, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has come against new possible economic sanctions against Russia - reported the Voice of Russia Saturday, the 28th March, adding that - Russia and Hungary have recently signed an agreement to provide up to 10 billion euro to build the Paks nuclear power plant. "The sanctions won’t meet the EU interests. Moreover, these measures affect our relations," quotes the journal Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

On 13th of March,...

Rage against the law machine? Hungary Elections 2014

Szabolcs Hegyi, expert on political freedoms of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union: "The next Hungarian Government should recover good relations with the EU".  In this interview, just a few days from the upcoming parliamentary elections in Hungary, Szabolcs Hegyi, responsible for human rights in the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU), analyzes the socio-political landscape in Hungary.

The HCLU is an independent international or-ganization, founded in 1994, which works in the field of basic human rights, such as: free-dom of expression, patient’s rights and freedom of association. Szabolcs Hegyi, teaches political philosophy at the University of Miskolc and has been responsible for two years for reporting information related to the right of freedom of assembly and the rights of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion before national and international court litigations.

New Constitution, more than 300 constitutional reforms and five amendments to statutory laws - all in just 4 years. What is happening in Hungary?

Antifascist Budapest: The Real Peace March against the Far Right and Neo-fascism in Europe, on 3rd April 2014.

Strategies for the struggle against the Far Right and Neo-fascism in Europe is the title of the Antifascist seminar that will be conducted on the 3rd of April in Kossuth Klub, (Múzeum street 7), before the organizers and their guests walk up to Gellérthegy for the demonstration called the REAL PEACE MARCH (VALÓDI BÉKEMENET). 

The title of the demonstration is referring to the Peace March that has been organized during the last two years by the right wing, and most recently last Saturday on the 29th of March, and questioning wether the right marches in reality for the peace.

Translation in English, French and Polish will be proposed. 

See the facebook event.