Eastern European Politics

I'm well beyond sceptical and into outright disbelief.

Me too. Voluntarily letting go of absolute power is extremely rare in politics.

For what it's worth, the DK already submitted a legislative proposal to invalidate the rule-by-decree law, stating that if Orbán thinks there's no more need for emergency powers, then it's time to end this charade. That is, it wasn't necessary in the first place but now Orbán doesn't even have an excuse otherwise anymore.

Bosnia: Protesters condemn Mass for WWII Croat Nazi collaborators

You remember that incident from years back when the Speaker banned journalists from the Parliament building?

The Strasbourg Court of Human Rights declared it a violation of freedom of speech. According to their reasoning, it's OK to prevent journalists from chasing after MPs asking them questions they can't/won't answer and then using that to portray said MPs negatively, but in this particular case the punishment was excessive AND the fact that the Speaker slapped them down based on rules he made, he enforces and he can be appealed means there's a dangerously high risk of him abusing it in favor of his party.

Oh, boy. Three Jobbik bigwigs are leaving the fraction.

• Parliament vice president Sneider was president of Jobbik for two years after the disastrous elections in 2018 and pulled the party back from the brink, only for his successor to ditch national conservatism completely, creating rifts with the minorities stuck beyond the border, firing several dedicated party members with large families during the pandemic and now trying to make a scapegoat out of one of their own MPs for having advised them to vote yay on something they regretted in hindsight. Jobbik already wanted to recall him from his post but he initially refused; now he's resigning from his post himself, something that never happened since Hungary became democratic in 1990.
• Another MP, Farkas, also quit the fraction due to dissatisfaction over how the current president of Jobbik explicitly declared that he will not use any national or rightist rhetoric for fear of alienating leftist voters. He also adds that said president went full authoritarian, with personal loyalty to him being the only way to get ahead and the entire party operating an internal snitching network for gathering dirt on naysayers and political opponents within the party.
• The scapegoated MP, Varga-Damm, followed with her own announcement shortly afterwards. She claimed that after discussions within the party, the leadership of Jobbik decided not to make her resign but instead give her a second chance, which she's refusing because after the sheer humiliation of the past 10 days, she's refusing to work under such leadership and is instead demanding their immediate resignation and calling for elections.

Parliament unanimously voted today to repeal Orbán's rule-by-decree powers.

Does that actually repeal it or is it only a suggestion?

Time to be cautiously optimistic, I think. Emphasis on "cautious".

Those are important cracks a-happening.

Yikes, MAJOR controversy today. Fidesz has been blaming Budapest's mayor Karácsony for having postponed the renovation of the oldest bridge in Budapest (yet they're adamant about doing the August 20th fireworks from the bridge despite Karácsony having procured expert opinions that the deterioration of the bridge is at least partly due to the yearly fireworks).

Their latest propaganda stunt? They used a meme image of Karácsony standing in front of the destroyed bridge, which was actually a photoshopped image of Szálasi. I am not making this shit up. Fidesz took it down a few hours later as soon as they realized what it was, but by then Karácsony called it absolutely sick and monstrous for them to be joking about the destruction and death Budapest saw in WW2, even as Fidesz insisted they didn't know, took the image down as soon as they found out and in any case how dare he react to criticism by throwing around arrowcrosser accusations like a bolshevist?

Edited by amitakartok on Jun 17th 2020 at 4:52:29 PM

They didn't know, huh?

Which leg are they trying to pull? Because it feels like both.

Anyone been following the protests in Belarus? Just wondering.

Didn't even know there were any.

Presidential elections in Poland today, having been delayed due to the pandemic. Projections say the result is up for grabs because PiS doesn't have an absolute majority in popular support.

The incumbent is likely to win the first round, but not with a majority. Main concern is whether the opposition will be able to rally behind the surviving candidate or if they'll throw their hands up in a fit and stay at home.

Incumbent won with 41.8%, number two at slightly above 30%, so there will be a one-on-one second round. Chances are 50-50, which is really bad for PiS because their coalition doesn't currently have the 60% in the Sejm required to defeat presidential vetoes. Meaning that the opposition is a hair's breadth away from being able to create a deadlock in the Sejm to stop PiS.

Another noteworthy observation about the results is that number three was an independent candidate who did surprisingly well, indicative of people beginning to get sick of both PiS and the opposition.

Edited by amitakartok on Jun 28th 2020 at 12:47:37 PM

Specifically, this is the original image they photoshopped.◊

Barely 13% is hardly 'well'. Kukiz in '15 got 20%, and his sole platform was "fuck the system".

Having voted for Hołownia myself, I'm disappointed he didn't even clear 15%, but this was to be the expected result. The moment Trzaskowski was pulled out of PO-KO's magic hat, it was curtains for him, because people are really entrenched in their two camps at this point and no amount of publicity can help in evening the odds. (also, over 7% of voters voted for an actual Nazi, which is... concerning, to say the least; said guy said his motley crew won't give support to either of the remaining candidates, for all it's worth)

Well, it's better than nothing. A nothing president who can be expected to stay PIS's hand on their inane ploys is still a vast improvement over a glorified automated pen that is the incumbent. Hopefully all these Hołownia voters don't stay at home now...

Edited by FergardStratoavis on Jun 29th 2020 at 9:21:04 PM

Source on the Belarus protests. In response to the arrest of opposition candidate Babaryko, protestors are forming kilometers-long human chains in solidarity.

Unfortunately, this probably won't get results, seeing as unlike Trump, Lukashenko is an actual dictator.

Those are good news. I have read claims that Duda and his challenher have a remarkeable similar cv and dont differ that much in their political beliefs. But Duda subscribes to the discrimination of LBGTQ so it is pretty clear who should win.

Thanks, those protests receive little to no coverage where I live.

Edited by Zarastro on Jun 29th 2020 at 5:02:57 PM

Oh, wow! Lucky (unlucky for the victim and his family) break for the opposition: a Fidesz MP just died in a traffic accident and as a result, Fidesz no longer has supermajority in the parliament unless they win the interim elections that have to be arranged as a result.

In slightly less morbid news. For the past few months, the news were all abuzz by the story that Hungary's (now ex-)ambassador to Peru was caught with a sizable collection of child pornography on his computer. Earlier this week the court let him off with a suspended sentence, which resulted in massive outrage in both Fidesz and the opposition, as well as a push to change the law for more stricter punishment (because as per current laws, he'll have a clean slate in four years with no permanent mark on his criminal record).

There are also talks that Parliament might force Orbán to veto the next EU budget (which must be unanimous) unless the EU drops the investigations into Hungary's adherence to democracy, as Fidesz is of the opinion that EU money shouldn't be tied to a member state's ideological position.

Edited by amitakartok on Jul 10th 2020 at 8:20:39 PM

"Force" Orban. Right.

I'm not making that part up. It's legally the Parliament that gives the Prime Minister the mandate to represent Hungary before the EU, so if they tell him what to vote, he must comply even if he disagrees.

Yeah, but don't Fidesz in practice take orders from Orban on this kind of thing?

Edited by Ramidel on Jul 11th 2020 at 7:59:53 AM

Wait a second. Bosnia has anti-fascists?

I'm so jealous! All we in Serbia have are fascists and "leftist nationalists"!

I imagine that the Bosnian anti-fascists exist in part because of the existence of Serbian fascists.

And as far as I'm aware they don't have a tendency to prop up far-right groups like the Chetniks or Ustaše as nationalist icons.

I mean, sampling bias and all, but at least the ones I know IRL don't (grew up with refugee neighbours in Perth).