Eastern European Politics

...are those CÖF idiots on crack?

Today, Chief Sleeper of the European Parliament and the Head Dementialist of the Fun with Acronyms Party, Janusz Korwin-Mikke, said he wants to be like Orban. This is another sign (after naming his new political party KORWiN, I shit you not) that he completely lost the last remains of touch with reality.

Again, CÖF says it wasn't them but an unauthorized use of their name. That made me wonder whether it's actually a False Flag Operation masquerading as Fidesz ultras to undermine their reputation.

Since then, it came to light that of the 307 schools asked for audience, 263 refused. Klik (Klebelsberg Institution Maintaining Center, the group that funds national schools) said it wasn't compulsory, merely an invitation; a member of the faculty of this school anonymously said however that it was compulsory in the letter. Most schools refused to comment, with one principal saying Klik outright forbid them to comment.

Around 3000 students were expected; only 495 will go. I'd say that's a pretty clear 'fuck off' aimed at the government - especially once you realize that both major revolutions in modern Hungarian history started from the youth. 1848? Started by students. 1956? Started at the capital's universities. Granted, both failed but they did cause one hell of a ruckus. 1848? Half the goddamn capital city marched to the seat of govt in the castle, starting a series of events that ended with a European superpower getting utterly fucking humiliated. 1956? Govt machinegunned the peaceful protesters. Bit more than a week later, the survivors were facing Soviet armor with submachineguns and Molotov coctails. And Fidesz has been continually meddling with the entire schooling system for years now, accumulating plenty of hate...

Anyway, a Fidesz member called in the police to investigate Klik for a possible abuse of office. The very same guy who, in January, sued the anti-nettax and anti-NAV protests' organizers for possible fraud... and recently asked for police protection for Simicska when the latter expressed his concerns that someone might try to avenge him turning on Orbán. Heel–Face Turn?

edited 14th Mar '15 1:39:39 PM by amitakartok

On the big day today, Orbán held a speech at the National Museum, where the 1848 revolution really kicked in. "Don't be shy and let's say it: Hungary was democracy's flagship in Europe. It is any wonder if we feel like laughing when anyone wants to educate the people of Kossuth and Petőfi about democracy? [...] We are part of Europe, but Europe is full of questions while Hungary is full of answers. It's not the curvature of the cucumber but the posture of the European person that means the future. Among the family of European peoples, we Hungarians stand with a straight spine." He even joked that the Hungarians of March 15, 1848 didn't need Facebook to gather by the thousands (an obvious jab at the anti-govt protests this winter); the crowd lol'd at that.

About a dozen counter-protesters showed up, mostly made up of elderly people (the demographic Fidesz' voterbase is based on). There was a brawl and yelling; one person was dragged away by the police, affiliation unknown. The national TV station didn't even mention it on the news, instead spouting complete crap about whatever came to mind.

The crowd is only about half of its usual size, even with the employees of the government offices all being ordered out to participate. At least one Polish flag was spotted in the crowd.

edited 15th Mar '15 6:56:38 AM by amitakartok

I don't know how someone can be so arrogant when he appears to be on the way down. I guess it's a defence.

To which France, Switzerland and Denmark would say: 'Bitch, pls'.

Rather "Hahahahano".

That might be a better answer, indeed.

edited 15th Mar '15 8:44:20 AM by Quag15

Hungary apparently didn't have full women's suffrage until 1945. Finland had it in Parliamentary elections by 1907, when we were still a Grand Duchy of Russia. We had female representatives in Parliament after the 1907 election. So at least from the perspective of about half of Europe's population Hungary was about 40 years behind a country that wasn't even independent (although Finland was largely autonomous by 1907).

Current voter poll in Hungary:

• Fidesz: 21% (~1.7 million)
• Jobbik: 18% (~1.5 million)
• Socialists: 12% (~1 million)
• Democratic Coalition: 4% (~300 000)
• LMP: 3% (~250 000)

Around 200,000 Fidesz voters went over to Jobbik, along with an additional 350,000 who didn't want to vote until now also siding with Jobbik. In the below-30 age group, Jobbik has overtaken Fidesz 21%-17%. Their core voter base is the twenties-thirties age group, the unemployed and the uneducated, "eliciting strong interest and sympathy among them", according to the site I found this data on.

Fidesz' youth co-organization Fidelitas has announced the creation of a "provocateur watch" group, saying that the protesters who disturbed the March 15 event were leftist agents disguised as civilians. They created an email address where provocateurs can be reported with a name and a photo.

Less than an hour later, the youth co-organization of Együtt (one of the minor opposition parties) reported this to the police, saying that this move is in violation of the law concerning the handling of personal information. They asked Fidelitas to abide by the law "because we want to live in a country where the laws equally apply to everyone".

edited 18th Mar '15 5:40:18 AM by amitakartok

Some neo-Nazis started a similar thing in the UK ages ago, "Red Watch". Unbelievably loony.

Except Jobbik isn't doing this one.

Also, Fidesz seems to be awfully secretive about the Paks II project. You see, the country's only nuclear power plant in Paks is currently undergoing an expansion, funded from a Russian loan. Thing is, Fidesz really doesn't want to share the exact contents of the agreement with Russia, going so far as to turn it into a state secret sealed and classified for 15 years. When various parties tried to prevent this from happening, Fidesz carried it through anyway but extended it to 30 years.

Serbia arrests six over Srebenica massacre.

Good good.

Pleasant surprise, though we'll have to see where the case goes.

Excellent.

BTW, someone looked up a few things about Fidelitas' proposal above. Turns out it's a simultaneous breach of the constitution, the Book of Civil Law and Fidesz' own 2011 CXII law about the freedom of information. Even collecting that information is illegal, much less making it public.

edited 18th Mar '15 2:03:00 PM by amitakartok

Hungary isn't going for a Nuclear Weapons Program, is it?

We'd bankrupt ourselves if we tried to do that.

Besides, Hungary is a NATO member. We don't need nukes.

Ukrainian refugees can into Polan

The customs office is on the news again. You know, the same customs office whose boss was banned from the US on accusations of corruption?

Now the bitch and her gang are going around suing for libel everyone who called them corrupt, demanding millions in reparations, denying that anything corrupt is going on and asserting that the ex-customs whistleblower who uncovered deep-reaching corruption in the organization made it all up. Except it now turns out that a high-ranking official is being investigated for abuse of office... and just last week, the National Court of Audit made a highly negative report about customs office operations and methods correlating with what the whistleblower revealed... and now an ex-customs lieutenant colonel and his 14 civilian accomplices were arrested for running a years-long scheme where he sought out wealthy clients under investigation, then made a discrete offer of either stopping the investigation or showing the evidence, for a measly ten million (~$35,000 USD).

Hell, Vida sued someone for posting a meme◊ (the cardboard says "100,000 likes and I'll have a word with a taxpayer"). The fact that the guy is a former opposition representative who is actively attacking her in every medium he can get his hands on is just icing on the cake. To quote Vida, "his statements are aimed at destroying taxpayer morale [...] [repeatedly insinuating] that citizens do not have to fulfill their taxpaying obligation, thus endangering the meeting of fiscal targets".

The puns, they buuuurn.

Country-wide anti-corruption mass-protest scheduled for April 19. There will be demonstrations in over a hundred towns.

Good. Keep the pressure up.

And the rightards over here can only dream of mustering so much support against our government. And it's them who wanted to make an Orbanistan here.

The minister of homeland defense has submitted a proposal of contributing to efforts against ISIS with 150 troopers. Apparently the US asked us to help provide security for a Kurdish training camp. The assembly needs to vote yay with a supermajority for this to happen, but it's expected to succeed.

Good thing it's only ground troops. I read just last week that a full third of the airforce is ready to quit, due to low wages and no respect.

There was a parliament session today, but nothing really happened. And that's Exact Words right there: Fidesz did not respond meaningfully to any pre-agenda topics by the opposition. The socialists asked them about the recently-introduced compulsory closing of all shops on Sunday; Fidesz replied that the socialist party is "being kept together by hatred". Jobbik asked about an ongoing scandal regarding a broker agency that suddenly declared bankruptcy with billions of dollars worth of money missing; specifically, Jobbik asked why no indictment was made against the owner (who has since handed the agency over to a group who didn't even exist until this January, then disappeared without a trace). Fidesz shot back that Jobbik has skeletons in the closet themselves: agent accusations, falsifying history and spitting on others was mentioned. LMP asked what exactly happened to Malév (the national airlines that went bankrupt and dissolved a few years ago), despite there having been plans to save it; Fidesz replied that Malév is worth more than just a "daily political balloon" and proceeded to recite the organization's history without actually answering the question.

So yes, Fidesz is in full Attack! Attack! Attack! / "change the topic to maintain the illusion that we're in the right" mode.

Hell, barely anyone showed up for the session in the first place.