Global Voices » Hungarian

Hungary: Another Environmental Catastrophe in the Making

Atlatszo.hu — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:20:13 +0000

Parts of this text were published on Atlatszo.hu.

In October 2010, a toxic spill from a red sludge reservoir in Kolontár caused the greatest environmental disaster in Hungary's recent history. Toxic water and mud flowed through the nearby villages, killing ten and injuring many inhabitants who had not been informed about the danger of getting close to the deluge.

Residents of the town of Devecser, about 150 km west of the capital Budapest, hit by a flood of toxic sludge from an alumina factory were struggling to recover their belongings from the mud. Photo by Y ATTILA "BOGART" P., copyright © Demotix (6/10/10).

Since the production of alumina stopped, some alumina production waste sludge reservoirs in Hungary – similar to those that caused the October 2010 catastrophe – were or are being used for dumping other types of hazardous materials. Hungarian aluminium factories were privatized after 1990 at conveniently low prices. In exchange, the buyers had to take over the reduction of the previous environmental damages.

One of these factories – in Almásfüzitő, a town by the Danube River in north-western Hungary – has long stopped producing alumina. Its waste sludge reservoirs, however, are being used for hazardous waste produced elsewhere.

According to a document published by Atlatszo.hu [.pdf, hu], a staff member of Tatai Környezetvédelmi Zrt. (Tata Environmental Protection cPlc., also known as TKV Zrt.) claimed this 15 years ago, in a university lecture about a technology used in “fixing” one of Hungary’s alumina production waste sludge reservoirs (at Almásfüzitő): “We are replacing an existing risk with another one.”

The lecturer added at the time: “The only way to sort out this area would be to remove the whole lot of 11,000 tons of waste from here.”

The document, which is a transcript of the lecture, proves that with the excuse of “reducing the damages,” these containers get infected with hazardous waste and even heavy metals that are dumped there by specialist companies. The consequences of this are unpredictable, but profits can be huge.

Olajos, a Hungarian blogger, wrote in a 2010 post [hu] that, according to documentation on hazardous waste, even in 2000 alumina production generated 14.45 percent of the industrial dioxin and furan:

[…] What is dioxin? Those who've been following the Ukrainian politics in the past few years have heard of it, since [Victor Yushchenko, one of the presidential candidates in the 2004 election] was poisoned with dioxin at the time.

The full name of dioxin is Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). This compound doesn't exist in nature, it is a by-product of human, industrial activity, it disrupts the immune system and causes cancer, and has a DNA-damaging potential. The long and short of it: this is an insidious poison and it can't deplete from the body. Factories release into the environment by-products containing dioxin. In Hungary, dioxin got out from a waste reservoir in Garé, a place which also turned into a symbol of environmental damage.

Less has been heard about furan, this compound didn't get as famous as its companion, but the environment can be polluted with this by-product as well, deriving from the alumina production. […]

By the end of 2011, Greenpeace started a campaign in Hungary drawing attention to the reservoir in Almásfüzítő. Pacsker of Greenr blog shared a Greenpeace video titled “A Street of Cancer Patients in Almásfüzítő” [hu] and commented on it [hu]:

There must be a very serious case for ELTE University's Cooperative Research Center for Environmental Sciences (CRCES) to be talking in a Greenpeace video. The case of Almásfüzítő is like that.

Judit Molnár [the young woman talking in the video] is 24 years old and she has gone through two neoplasia diseases, her sister has 19 malignant lumps in her body.

1.5 meter deep it's already oil that is flowing in the soil.

Red sludge is bagatelle compared to other materials poured into the reservoir.

The frogs are red [because of the liquid leaking from the reservoir].

The reservoir leaks in many places. The low tide [of the Danube right next to the reservoir] has proved this perfectly. The whole Budapest is drinking these industrial poisons and carcinogenic by-products!

And, in addition to this, the Tata Environmental Protection (SIC!) cPlc. is able to call this simply “composting”… Man, how can you compost inorganic waste?!

This is pouring hazardous waste into a reservoir leaking like a sponge. In Germany and Austria it is forbidden to mix different types of hazardous waste and to deposit them together. [Meanwhile] we are intentionally creating an environmental powder keg…

Since the publication of the transcript of the 1996 lecture, TKV Zrt. has contacted atlatszo.hu to claim – among other things – that the documents mentioned above had been manipulated and that the red sludge reservoirs at Almásfüzitő are not at all dangerous to the environment. Yet, a study [hu, with a summary in English] published in 2004 by the Geographical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences supports the facts stated in the document published by Atlatszo.hu.

Hungary: Goodbye, Malév!

Marietta Le — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:10:19 +0000

Malév, Hungary's state airline since 1946, ceased operation on February 3, 2012, due to bankruptcy. According to news reports [hu], even the airline's employees were informed about the shutdown just an hour or so in advance. Some passengers learned the news when they tried to check in at the Budapest Liszt Ferenc Airport.

Hungarian citizens were shocked by the news, because even though the national carrier’s bad financial situation was well-known, Malév's rescue plans were being negotiated during the past few weeks. Many claimed the cause of the company's ill fate was bad financial management. In January, even the 2007-2010 state financial aid to the airline was deemed illegal by the European Commission. Eventually, business partners lost their trust in the company, and this tipped the balance on Friday when Dublin and Tel Aviv airports refused to give take-off permissions to Malév flights.

A Malév commercial, music composed by Gábor Presser

According to A REPÜLÉS Szakmai blog (THE AVIATION Professional blog) [hu], the last Malév flight landed in Budapest on Friday at 08:46 UTC (09:46 AM in Hungary), arriving from Helsinki. The words that the pilot said to the air traffic controllers have been shared by Hungarian netizens on many sound- and video-sharing sites:

Pilot: On behalf of the last Malév flight’s crew, we would like to thank you for the good, several-decade-long cooperation. See you.
Air Traffic Controller: We also thank you and wish you a good rest, I hope we will meet.
Pilot: Hope so, under some different name.

According to AIRportal.hu [hu], on Friday evening 14 Malév planes were returned to their lessor ILFC at an airport in Ireland. (See here for Malcolm Nason's photos of the Malév planes at Shannon Airport in Ireland.)

Csaba Demeter, a pilot who was among those flying the planes back, shared his story on Facebook [hu]:

[…] Around midnight we arrived to EINN [airport code for Shannon Airport, Ireland], landed one after another and rolled nicely, to salute in this way the past period. We stopped one after another, on rolling-roads, on parking spaces, we stopped them, unpacked and turned off the lights, our planes were in the darkness. It was an awful feeling, WE HAD TO LEAVE THEM THERE. We were hoping for a call [saying] COME HOME WITH THE PLANES this was just a dream or a bad joke. But nothing like that came. THEY STAYED THERE. All of them. :-( […]

People shared their thoughts on the sad fate of the national carrier. Csaba’s memories on Fékszárny blog [hu] tell the best what Malév meant for the citizens of this small Central European country:

I flew a lot with them, I have many good and many bad experiences as well. I wouldn’t tell about those because there is nothing special among them. Why I very much loved to fly with Malév and it always enjoyed priority in contrast to the others is that they were OURS. After being away from home for a long time they were the first signs of coming home. The mentioned white-blue painting with the Hungarian tricolor, the greeting at the door and the Hungarian newspapers. I usually spent 2-3 weeks abroad and not in cities and comfortable hotels, but in deserts and other great places. So coming home was always a big joy and its first messenger was the crew of the Malév flight. After a long, stressful trip even my eyes filled with tears when landing at the Ferihegy [airport]. It was a very bad [feeling] to look at the pictures and read the news on the internet. Let’s hope not all is lost, it would be good to see the red-white-green planes again.

Csaba

According to Véleményvezér blog [hu], the national carrier “got into the perfect storm” of Hungary's economic dynamics:

[…] Malév got into the perfect storm from this perspective: it should have survived almost a decade of economic stagnation and almost a decade of mismanagement; whilst the two phenomena amplified each other. It did not survive and this is yet another nail in the coffin of our dreams and illusions about the leading position of Budapest and Hungary in the region.

Until a new Hungarian carrier is founded, Origo news site reports [hu] the pilots of the “Malév Hungarian Airlines Virtual” will keep on “flying” with the Malév call signs.

Thumbnail and featured image show Malév airplane, by Flickr user hugovk (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Hungary: “We Voted For Orbán, Not For Goldman Sachs”

Marietta Le — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 03:33:55 +0000

Last Saturday, after several protests organized by citizen movements and opposition forces against the politics of the ruling Fidesz-KDNP government, Hungarians supporting those in power decided to express their opinion at a rally called Peace March.

According to the Hungarian Interior Ministry's report [hu], some 400,000 people expressed their support for the government at the peaceful - and cheerful - event.

‘We are the Hungarian people and we stand for Orbán's government!'. Photo by Redjade, used with permission.

Those who thought Fidesz-KDNP had lost the trust of the Hungarian citizens, drawing the consequence from the extensive foreign media coverage of the opposition protests in Budapest, were challenged this time by the fact that the government elected in 2010 with a two-thirds majority still enjoyed the support of many. Fidelitas, a youth group derived from Fidesz, shared some 360-degree panoramic photos of the march.

The protesters marched from Heroes' Square to Kossuth Square by the Parliament, where brief speeches were delivered. The main organizers of the event were Zsolt Bayer, author of opinion pieces at the conservative daily Magyar Hírlap, Gábor Széles, a wealthy Hungarian entrepreneur and owner of Magyar Hírlap, and András Bencsik, editor-in-chief of Magyar Demokrata [hu], also a Hungarian conservative daily.

The right-leaning blog Mandiner has been very critical of the government recently, and, at first, their blogger, Dobray, who visited the Peace March, also had some doubts regarding the event [hu]:

[…] Compared to what I had anticipated, the march came off even better: the mass of 400,000 (probably fewer than that, the protest maths [competition of whose protest had more attendees] was started by Bencsik at Kossuth Square when he said, referring to a television report, that they were 1 million, which was evidently an unreal figure) walked the distance, and, as no other options were listed on the program, no lame events happened. The puritan minimalism goes hand in hand with a portion of boredom well known from the first, eventless left-wing rallies. But it's hard to pick at that. And that there were some groups with Arpad's striped flags [a symbol of the far right] was not a big deal, we are used to that, they don't do any trouble. We will worry about some Arpad stripes protesters in a mass of a couple of hundred thousands if the left wing expels from their community the comrades parading in the USSR and Che t-shirts. […]

The fact that describes the complex situation in Hungary best is that the government's supporters oppose the talks and future agreements on the bailout from the EU and the IMF, while the opposition is in favor of reaching the agreements as soon as possible, in order to strengthen Hungary's volatile economy.

Pro-government protesters criticized EU/ECB/IMF for pressure on the government to take more bailout loans. Photo by Redjade, used with permission.

Many protesters arrived from outside the capital. The blog of the city of Ócsa wrote [hu] about why they considered it important to participate in the march:

People set off from almost every settlement of the country to express their solidarity with the government elected with the two-thirds majority, with its leader Viktor Orbán and with everyone who has been attacked in the past days. The marchers stand up for the sovereignity of Hungary and stick to the achievements of democracy, they can't stand that foreign politicians, businessmen, banks are willing to administer their lives. […]

Véleményvezér pointed out [hu] that most of the protesters were elderly:

[…] it was very striking that most of the marchers were aged 50 or older. They are the ones whose private pension savings were not taken away, almost none of them has a foreign currency loan, and the government specifically tried to support them, through measures like the one-time 8-percent pension makeup or by implementing the institution of securing employment for older persons. […]

'We voted for Orbán and not for Goldman Sachs'. Photo by Redjade, used with permission.

Dobray hints at the rumours about paid protesters and organized travel to the rally location, the accusations raised by opposition members:

[…] So now we are even, now really each and everyone has brought politics to the street. And it's funny that at any sort of protest the actual side opposing the protesters tries every method to discredit the other's event; and tries to find those whose travel has been paid for, who were paid to come and who were cheated, etc. Everyone is generous when it's about their protest, but if it's about the other's, they turn petty and suspicious. The neighbour's lawn is always wilted. I also would be happy if the Peace March didn't get listed among the ultimate arguments of Fidesz government allowing them to knock down all the opposing opinions. […]

Zoltán Ruzsbaczky of Mos Maiorum blog published a guest post [hu] on Konzervatórium blog, noting that the huge number of the pro-government supporters may signify the arrival of a new stage of democracy in Hungary, with a lot of people daring to stand up for their opinion:

[…] Of course, this needs a government that applies this trust and successfully navigates the tempestuous sea of international politics and with its economic policy it sets Hungary on the track of growth. Besides this, one can't get by those masses who still oppose the politics of the government. We will learn only later what the long-term effects [of this march] will be, [and whether there will be any].

Hungary: President Accused of Plagiarism

Marietta Le — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:45:18 +0000

Vastagbőr blog collected [hu] some internet memes about the President of Hungary Pál Schmitt, the newest of which appeared after hvg.hu news site published an article titled ‘Serious Suspicion of Plagiarism in Pál Schmitt's Ph.D. Dissertation‘ [hu]. According to hvg.hu, the President had allegedly plagiarized his dissertation ('Analysis of the Modern Olympic Games Program') from the text of a Bulgarian sports expert Nikolai Georgiev. The Presidential Office claims [hu] that Schmitt and Georgiev knew each other well personally, collaborated and used the same sources.

Hungary: “Hey Europe, Sorry About My Prime Minister”

Marietta Le — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:34:17 +0000

Hungary is ‘enjoying' an extensive foreign media coverage of the financial and political crisis in the country. Many well-known mainstream media outlets, such as the BBC, the Guardian, the New York Times or Al Jazeera have reported on the January 2, 2012, protests against the new constitution, which came into effect on January 1. Hungarian citizens, too, are constantly using blogs and social media to express their criticism of the government's measures and share the news of the country's volatile economy.

Although the rallies are growing more and more frequent, we confine this coverage to the protest that took place last Monday 2 January, presenting some Hungarian citizens' views on the event.

The purpose of the January 2 rally was to speak up against the new constitution designed by the governing Fidesz and KDNP parties. To celebrate the constitution, the government organized a high-profile event at the Hungarian State Opera. The rally against it took place right outside the Opera.

Non-governmental organizations, civil movements and some opposition parties allied for the time of the protest to demonstrate that opposing the government's politics results in joint forces. The organizers wanted to avoid the influence of party politics on the event, and therefore only the representatives of civil movements and trade unions were the speakers.

A screenshot of the New York Times

Still, the presence of political parties raised doubts in many. Tracey framed this in an article [hu] on LMV community portal and stated he/she wouldn't attend the protest:

[…] My first thought: is democracy in danger? I think it is not.

The current government has buried only one interpretation of democracy, it was the parliamentary democracy, but this was made possible by the previous governing parties since they discredited democracy, its institutions and like in a banana republic they used power to gain profit. The whole political elite of the past 20 years of transition is responsible for what Fidesz is doing, irrespective of [political] colours, so talking about a democratic opposition, ‘offering [the parties in opposition] comradeship', for the civil movements it's simply a dangerous self-delusion–except for if they want to give some party a leg up. […]

After the protest, Kékpóni drew a different conclusion on Kettős Mérce (Double Standard) [hu]:

Though there were many things I disagreed with concerning the event, I still attended the protest held on Jan. 2, whose message is summarized in the slogan “Still, There Will Be a Republic of Hungary.” I felt that the fight for democracy and association are keywords I can support with the feeling of ease. […]

According to the calculations of Fideszfigyelő blog (Fidesz monitor) [hu] some 32,000 or 50,000 people attended the protest. There were conflicts between the majority and the extreme-right protesters, who were also allowed to hold a 'small counter-rally' at the same place (as you can see on this YouTube video). Kettős Mérce reported [hu] that two activists of LMP (Politics Can Be Different party) were beaten by the extremists, one of them was searched by the police.

All in all, KA_Steve, one of the speakers, was happy with the outcome [hu]:

[…] I don't know how to put it but it was somehow uplifiting to see that self-satisfied politicians drunk with power are not able to organize an undisturbed celebration of themselves, even if they like it or not, they are obliged to celebrate the illusion of the System of National Cooperation, moving behind the four lines of police cordon, facing the citizens who are expressing their dissatisfaction loudly. […]

According to some rumours, high profile guests of the constitution's celebration had to use an escape route under the Opera to leave the building, journalists of index.hu news site interviewed [hu] the guests leaving through the Opera's back doors.

Kékpóni says the protests are just the tip of the iceberg:

[…] I am frankly happy for the shaping of a new Hungarian resistance, but I feel that the protest and anger focus only on the government measures, while what's being neglected is the fact that the system we are living in has not just got into crisis, this is just a more and more threatening consequence. Democracy will not end because of Orbán, it will end because we have not created it yet and we have not experienced yet the recognition that we have to do something for the creation–if we recognized it, there wouldn't be an Orbán system! […]

Hungary: Presidents in Correspondence, Journalist in Blind Copy

Marietta Le — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:59:49 +0000

Attila Mong, a Hungarian journalist, has obtained the letter sent by José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, to the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán. The journalist has published in three parts the letter on his blog Napi Fix. The whole letter in English and in Hungarian is available in this post.

Mr. Mong was fired in January from a public radio channel for observing a minute of silence on the morning news program, protesting against the then introduced media law.

He has published an article [hu] about the content of the letter first on origo.hu, a Hungarian news site. This happened following an interruption to the talks between the Hungarian government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week because of the two laws the government insisted on introducing. In his letter, Mr. Barroso advised the Hungarian PM to withdraw the two cardinal laws on the Hungarian National Bank and on financial stability for not being compatible with the European Union's legal system:

[…] These laws contain provisions which could be in contradiction with the Treaty and interfere with previously issued European policy advice. The Commission has serious doubts on the compatibility of the current version of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) bill with Article 130 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. I also regret that the last drafts of these laws have not been subject to a consultation with the ECB which repeatedly expressed its concerns. […]

Since the credibility of the journalist had been questioned by several government officials (by the government's spokesman, Fidesz faction leader János Lázár [hu]), Mr. Mong decided to share the letter on his blog, mixing the order of the three parts and dedicating them to the officials and the minister leading the talks with the IMF. (Part one, Part two, Part three [hu]) In the fourth post [hu], he shared the whole text and pictures, confirming that he had a hard copy of the letter. This post was dedicated to Máté Kocsis and Sándor Pintér.

“How could the letter of the president of the European Commission get to journalist Attila Mong?” was the question raised by the member of the Hungarian Parliament, Máté Kocsis (also known for being the advisor on homeless issues of the governing party). The formal question [hu] was sent to the Minister of the Interior, Sándor Pintér, just a few days after the Hungarian Constitutional Court ruled out a part of the much-debated Hungarian media law in effect since January 2011. The decision was made in favour of journalistic source protection.

Signature of José Manuel Barroso on the letter sent to Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, as published on Napi Fix

Hungary: Solidarity With the Homeless and the Poor

Marietta Le — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:45:11 +0000

Many citizen actions have been organized in the past weeks in Budapest in protest against the modification of the law that would punish “recurrent residing in public places” with an increased fine of €530 or imprisonment. The law is supposed to come into force by December 1, 2011.

The City is for All grassroots group, fighting for the right to housing in Hungary, published this statement on their blog:

[…] Mate Kocsis, mayor of the 8th district forbade rummaging through garbage in the 8th district. Despite the fact that the ombudsperson for civil rights found the Budapest ordinance unconstitutional, hundreds of homeless people have been subjected to short-term arrest by the police in the past months on the grounds of the ordinance, and dozens of self-made homes have been destroyed by the authorities. […]

Sit-in in front of Hungarian Parliament for the protection of homeless peoples rights. Image by Janos Kis, copyright Demotix (17/10/11).

European Federation of National Organisations Working With the Homeless (FEANTSA) published a press release condemning the regulation passed on November 11:

[…] The drafters of the law argue that imprisoning homeless people is a “dissuasive” form of sanction. This is very cynical and ignores the fact that homeless people are often obliged to use public space to survive because of a lack of services, especially ones adapted to their needs. Framing homelessness as an offence subtracts the question of homelessness from social policies. It also constitutes a denial of state responsibility for what is often a result of structural problems and belies a culture of blaming homeless people for their situation. […]

The day after the law passed on November 11, a citizen group called Börtön helyett lakhatást (Housing, Not Prison) organized a sit-in protest in Máté Kocsis' mayor's office. (The mayor of District VIII is also the advisor of homeless issues to the governing party in Parliament.)

About 30 protesters were arrested by the police and interrogated until late night. Kettős Mérce live-blogged [hu] the events at the office and shared a photo gallery of the sit-in.

Index.hu news site's video of the sit-in and the arrests with English subtitles is here.

A week later, a silent protest was organized [hu] in front of the Parliament. A photo gallery of Kettős Mérce is here. A ‘counter-post' [hu] was published on Mandiner, also with a photo gallery of the same event.

Börtön helyett lakhatást group called for solidarity with the homeless by staying on the streets of Budapest on the night when the regulation is coming into effect (Night of Solidarity Facebook event [hu]).

KA Steve, an activist known for hacking the District VIII regulation, blogged the following on Kettős Mérce [hu], stating that the modification will fail because citizens finally have to stand up and say no:

[…] From December 1, 2011, thousands of innocent people may be sent to prison. This is not about disputable stances, abstract political questions, smaller or bigger shady dealings, ridiculous paintings [referring to the new Hungarian constitution which has been illustrated with paintings ordered by the special commissioner of the Prime Minister], and it's not even about social justice. It can't be repeated enough times: this is about the fact that innocent citizens may be sent to prison.

And this is our responsibility. Years later, our grandchildren will ask what we have done, but it's eventually us who will have to account for our conscience. And saying “I ‘liked' the news” or “commented on them” won't be a satisfying feeling. […]

Today the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) started a campaign [hu] against the modification of the law, calling on citizens to write protest letters to the Minister of the Interior and to Máté Kocsis, the referee of the homeless issues.

The campaign goes with the following video that compares the price of two nights spent at luxurious Budapest hotels to the price of spending two nights on a public bench. It should not be evident, but, of course, the latter one is more expensive.

Hungary: Live-Blogging Oct. 23 Opposition Protest in Budapest

Veronica Khokhlova — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:40:11 +0000

The Contrarian Hungarian live-blogged Sunday's opposition rally in Budapest, which had been organized through Facebook (hu; en) and drew “many tens of thousands” of protesters.

Hungary: Oct. 23 Opposition Rally

Veronica Khokhlova — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 00:20:21 +0000

Hungarian Spectrum and The Contrarian Hungarian write about the Oct. 23 anti-government rally, organized through a Facebook community called Egymillióan a magyar sajtószabadságért [hu; 88,272 ‘likes']/One Million for the Freedom of Press in Hungary [en; 720 ‘likes'] - and about a pro-government rally, which was scheduled to take place on the same day some 700 meters away from the opposition rally, but was cancelled on Oct. 17, allegedly due to PM Viktor Orbán's Oct. 23 visit to Brussels.

Hungary: “How Many Policemen Does It Take to Arrest A Homeless Person?”

Marietta Le — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:46:36 +0000

“How Many Policemen Does It Take to Arrest a Homeless Person?” was the title of a post on October 11, 2011 [hu] on Kettős Mérce blog [Double Standard], which included a video showing eight policemen arresting a homeless man in the District VIII of Budapest.

In fact, it was Attila Kopiás, blogging under the name of KA_Steve [hu], who pretended to be homeless and, with the help of Kettős Mérce's bloggers, recorded what happened after they had called the police and reported that there was a homeless person on a bench of a District VIII square.

The issue generated a huge debate after the mayor of the district, through a referendum, had banned homeless people from public spaces in September. Bloggers followed the cases happening in District VIII and published an order [hu] prosecuting a homeless man for “sitting on the stone with some of his fellows.”

The regulation literally forbids “staying in public space as a lifestyle.” Attila Kopiás told the bloggers of Kettős Mérce in an interview that he tried not to lie to the police, so when they asked him if he stayed at a public place “as a lifestyle” he replied that “it had happened before that I slept in a public place”.

He told Kettős Mérce:

[…] I didn't have any elaborate strategy, I was simply disgusted by the fact that people are not punished for their acts but for their condition. The idea came from me feeling an urge to do something against this unfair system. In addition to this, my mind was not able to accept that in 2011, in Hungary, it can happen that one can be arrested and handcuffed for notorious sitting/lying on a bench. […] I reckoned with nobody taking care of me, and I simply wanted to see what really happens. […]

Commenting on the action, KA_Steve raised the question of what differentiates someone having a picninc at a public space from a homeless. Reflecting this, a version of ‘Picnic in May' - originally a painting by a 19th-century Hungarian artist - started to circulate on Facebook, published originally by the Tumblr user Prolidepp.

KA_Steve called for action on his blog [hu], sharing legal ways to protest the regulation that punishes those who live on the streets, move a trash can or engage in begging.

Attila wrote this [hu] on Kettős Mérce:

[…] But I want them [the homeless] to know there are people who stand up for them. The way we all want someone to stand up for us when we are in trouble.

Croatia: Court Forbids Homophobic Priest From Blogging

Marietta Le — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 20:49:51 +0000

Serbia Insajd, a Hungarian blog about South-Eastern Europe, reports [hu] that the Rijeka Court has banned Franjo Jurčević, a Kastav-based Catholic priest, from writing homophobic blog posts [Jurčević's blog, hr: http://zupnik.blog.hr/]. The court has also ordered Jurčević to publish the court decision in two national dailies at his own expense.

Hungary: A Picnic for Democracy

Marietta Le — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:32:40 +0000

Authors of Kettős Mérce (”Double Standard”) blog held a ‘picnic for democracy‘ [hu] last Sunday in the capital of Hungary. They also shared a video from the event, which was organized in solidarity with the recent protests in Spain.

Hungary: Facebook Blocked Popular Far-Right Website

Marietta Le — Sat, 21 May 2011 23:23:22 +0000

Hungarian news sites report that Facebook has blocked the most popular far-right website Kuruc.info. According to kuruc.info [hu], no referring links can be sent through Facebook's system, the Like button has disappeared, and Facebook is also blocking mentions of “Kuruc.info.” Kuruc.info wrote that the block was worse than similar measures in the communist China, encroaching on free speech and personal freedom. They also encouraged readers [hu] to file requests on Facebook to unblock the site. Many, however, welcomed Facebook's decision.

Hungary: Hungarian-Roma Tensions Result in Clash in Gyöngyöspata

Marietta Le — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:15:26 +0000

Last night four people were injured in a clash between ethnic Hungarian members of the far-right group Véderő and members of the Roma community in Gyöngyöspata. Tensions have been escalating in this northern Hungarian village since March. By last Friday, Véderő's show-off military training tipped the scales of the conflict against making peace between the local Roma and Hungarian communities.

Contradictory accounts have been published in the Hungarian media about how exactly the fight started - and neither of the communities has taken responsibility for the clash.

A Roma girl cries after arriving back home following her evacuation from the Hungarian village of Gyöngyöspata. Image by David Ferenczy, copyright Demotix (24/04/2011).

Gyöngyöspata Solidarity blog shared a translation of the index.hu news report [hu]. János Ladó of the Roma Civil Rights Foundation told index.hu the Hungarians had been provoking the Roma community all day and this topped with the clash:

[…] By the evening, in the middle of a birthday celebration, the provocation increased, and more and more gathered on both sides. The Roma called the police, first one patrol arrived, then more policemen.

While the crowd was gathering in the central areas of the town, some threw stones at the windows of one of the houses in the Roma neighbourhood, some 10 minutes walk from there, then assaulted a 14-year-old local Roma boy. A serious fight in the Roma neighbourhood followed; according to Ladó, some were seriously injured, he saw three. Police called for more police backup. This was also confirmed by representative of TASZ [HCLU- Hungarian Civil Liberties Union] who saw a group of police cars on the highway, on their way to Gyöngyöspata. […]

Gábor Vona, the leader of the far-right Jobbik party in the Hungarian Parliament, criticized the way in which the Minister of the Interior, Sándor Pintér, responded to the situation in northern Hungary, calling for the minister's resignation because he hadn't been able to protect the Hungarian citizens from the Roma who “keep the whole village, mostly the elderly, in constant terror.”

Egyenlítő blog reported that Mr. Vona also invited PM Viktor Orbán for a dialogue about the Hungarian-Roma relations. The blogger drew quite a radical conclusion in his post [hu]:

[…] The problem is just that along with verbal slaps there are more and more real conflicts [happening]. In the meantime, the government makes some constitution, some media law, [and] educates Europe. […] Nicely [getting] back to the [1930s]. And, sadly, every sign says the [1940s] will be following them again.

Or there's another opportunity: in two weeks from now, the security of our country could highly increase if Mr. Orbán and Mr. Pintér resigned.

Hungary: For Gyöngyöspata's Roma, Evacuation - or an Easter Excursion?

Marietta Le — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 23:17:40 +0000

Northern Hungary has recently become the center of rising conflicts between the Roma and the Hungarian communities. In the community of Gyöngyöspata, for example, paramilitary organizations marched a month ago, claiming they were members of a neighborhood watch, even though their far-right stance was obvious.

A village without a mayor

On April 19, 2011, this video [hu] was posted by a Roma news site So Si? [hu], covering the rumors spreading in the Roma community of Gyöngyöspata about a paramilitary organization's plans to hold a training camp in the village. On the same day came the news of the resignation of the local mayor.

Roma in the Hungarian village of Gyöngyöspata. Still from video uploaded to YouTube by sosinet1.

Piroslap blog, referring to a news agency, wrote [hu] that the mayor had explained his decision to resign by health reasons. About the training camp, Piroslap wrote this:

[…] Now the group Véderő wants to hold a military camp at the settlement. On their website they define themselves as [a group] operating far from politics but on the national side, and after the elimination of conscription they would like to offer martial type of training to those who like this kind of education but wouldn't want to be professional soldiers. […]

The Roma have left

By Friday, April 22, some 300 Roma had left Gyöngyöspata, allegedly because they were afraid of the vigilante group arriving at the village for training. According to news reports, the departure of the Roma women and children was organized by the Hungarian Red Cross and Richard Field, an American businessman who had already expressed his concerns about the situation of the Roma in Hungary and even started a non-governmental organisation to support them.

The Hungarian media used the word ‘evacuation' for what happened, whereas government officials claimed this wasn't an evacuation: according to them, the Roma had been taken on an Easter holiday trip for the weekend.

Both Péter Szijjártó, the spokesman for the Prime Minister, and Minister of the Interior Sándor Pintér have offered an explanation for what happened. This video [hu] shows Pintér at a press conference held in Gyöngyöspata on Friday. He said:

They [the members of the paramilitary group] took away the happiness which was offered by the charitable organization Red Cross. The national board of the Red Cross invited the women and children from the Gyöngyöspata families for an Easter excursion.

Gellért Rajcsányi of Mandiner wrote [hu]:

[…] Because of the threats, the Roma are afraid of atrocities. A leader for the action said the [Roma] men all stayed in the village trying to protect their valuables left at home. They are expecting members of the Parliament, representatives of embassies and international human right activists to arrive by Friday afternoon. According to János Farkas, the deputy of the Roma Hungarian Civil Rights Movement, the Red Cross contributed in moving out the people who were accommodated in different camps. A representative of the Red Cross told dpa [a German press agency] that this was the first time since World War II when the organization evacuated citizens threatened by a paramilitary group in Hungary. […]

Also on Friday, the Minister of the Interior announced that the government had designed a “decree to penalise civil guard activities conducted without prior approval by the police or feigning a right to act as a keeper of public order.”

By Friday afternoon, the police dismissed the paramilitary training of Véderő. According to news reports, the leader of the group Tamás Eszes was detained. Far-right news site Kuruc.info re-published [hu] these reports, adding an important piece of information: Tamás Eszes is a man who was disqualified from the Hungarian Guard. (Other sources wrote that Mr. Eszes would run for the mayor position now that Gyöngyöspata has no mayor.)

Gellért Rajcsányi wrote that the biggest responsibility is that of the government:

[…] We've been keeping the state for millennia to maintain the outside and inside security. The improvident promise [hu] of making order in two weeks in those points of the country that looked hopeless was unavailing. We know it's impossible to meet close-to-perfect public security even in two-years time but at least there would be signs if we were heading that way! But today, on Good Friday, we have reached another touch bottom. Hungarian citizens fearing for their property and going about in bodily fear are longing for the presence of paramilitary organizations; [meanwhile] other citizens fearing for their property and going about in bodily fear are expecting the solution from leaders of civil rights movements and the Red Cross. The devil is raised in Gyöngyspata. In the international news [broadcasts] there will, hopefully, be good footage with crying children and vigilantes wearing uniforms among the news about Libya and Cote d'Ivoire. […]

Political action?

Photographer Levente Hernádi expressed his doubts [hu] over whether there was no interest in motivating the events. He pointed out that the result of the events have been articles like this one on a Hungarian news site [hu], illustrated with photos about the Roma leaving the village, members of Véderő, the Roma who stayed in the village and a Roma child. The article is a full report about the Roma who left Gyöngyöspata for the weekend and who applied for refugee status in the United States and Canada because of their threatened situation:

[… ] I think Gyöngyöspata was an extremely well-prepared play taking advantage of the always crying and ambiguously speaking Roma and of the national front that always acts nationalistic. It just had to be started and the rest went by itself.

Maximum respect to the one who [does stories] like this one […].

By Sunday, the Roma women and children were back in the village.