In January this year, at the time of a debate on introducing a new law against domestic violence, the Hungarian Spectrum blogged:

President Sólyom doesn't seem to be too concerned, although according to Hungarian sociologists every week at least one woman dies as a result of domestic violence. And that statistic doesn't include old people and children who are abused or even killed. There was something on the books allegedly dealing with the issue, but it was totally ineffectual. Police couldn't act on the spot and weeks might go by before the case ended up in court. By that time, the plaintiff could be dead. Moreover, the police rarely acted. They simply didn't want to get involved in “family squabbles.” It was, for example, totally useless to call the police and report threats. The answer was: as long as there is no blood no action can be taken. I remember one specific case when such threats were uttered by a young boy against a young girl. The girl's family reported the situation. The police did nothing. A few days later the girl was dead. […]

Because of the refusal of the law in January by László Sólyom, the Hungarian president, the law was changed and the Hungarian Parliament voted on it in June again, and it came into force in October. The law, which has changed the regulation of limiting the freedom of movement to the person accused of committing violent acts, is still criticized (HUN) as not being effective enough.

This month, Hungarian NGOs joined (HUN) the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign. Amnesty International Hungary started a Facebook event where they published their two campaign videos from 2005.

Giving the title of a Hungarian singer Zséda's new song dealing with domestic violence (”Behind Doors”) to his post, tegla07 wrote this (HUN) on his blog:

[…] You're walking on the street and you have no other possibility: you are either one of them, or not. You can't do anything else. You can't be independent - you are among them, or next to them. But a lot of people, and among the lot there are more and more, who try to live as if all this didn't exist. Until it turns out that their best friend, a friend of a friend, a colleague, a cleaning lady or a secretary, a female director, teacher, CEO, is beaten at home…

And why? Every situation is different, every fate is unique, but. But there are rules, there are limits which are impossible to step across. There are situations when the “why” fades, and you can't ponder over it - and mostly, you can't judge.

You can't judge somebody because of her “weakness” (weakness? she stands up to something that you, probably, would never be able to), because of her “powerlessness” (powerlessness? she re-builds herself every morning from nothing)… If somebody's hurt, there's no question there. You must get there, from anywhere you are. You must hug her, to let her know that she's valuable. To let her know that she deserves something different. […]

Nobody, nobody deserves those slaps. Nobody, nobody can think that he has club-law in his family. Nobody, nobody can just pass by a humiliated woman. Nobody, never has the right to speak in another person's ear about a woman hurt… When will we understand this?

Hungarian news sites report (HUN) on the “vaccine tourism” from Slovakia to the pharmacies at the border and news agencies confirm that Hungary doesn't plan to seal its borders with the neighboring Ukraine (see the latest GV post about Ukraine and swine flu here).

Observer, a Hungarian blogger living in Kyiv, wrote a post (HUN) about her trip to Budapest:

In Pest, I came home for one week. Arriving to Borispol Airport, I put on a mask: I got it in store from a Hungarian colleague and kept it for the airport. There were fewer people at the airport than on an ordinary Friday. […] The number of passengers has decreased, it can be seen from the traffic of the border crossing points, the number of those leaving the country decreased by 23%, and of foreigners entering by 40%.

The ground service crew was working in “maskara”, but most of the passengers weren't wearing masks. It had been part of our preparations, that we'd vaccinated ourselves with Hungarian serum (yes, I have read the enormous debate on the net about the Hungarian vaccine, I had called up two doctors in Hungary - none of them had dissuaded me - in my judgment the risk there [in Ukraine] is bigger than the risk of the Hungarian vaccine - I thought rather to face the latter). […]

One part of the “enormous debate” mentioned by Observer is between the authorities and general practitioner doctors. One of them, Gyula Keszthelyi MD, a family practitioner in eastern Hungary, attracted the attention by his blog (HUN) where next to writing about prevention (HUN), and informing parents (HUN) about their right of not answering the letters they get from their children's school - which imply they're obliged to vaccinate their children while in Hungary it's not in the category of obligatory vaccination - in several posts he pointed at the mistakes ÁNTSZ is committing in its vaccination campaign. This generated a movement against his functioning. A Hungarian weekly Heti Válasz published an article on his case:

[…] 50 years ago, Mr Keszthelyi would just have been a village doctor, quietly grumbling under his breath and complaining to the elderly ladies among his patients. Today - thanks to giulio.freeblog.hu, the debating website he set up - his influence on people is comparable to that of the Hungarian Pandemic Commission. Tens of thousands of laymen read his fuming remarks on the site. In addition, he is also a regular visitor adding comments to several internet forums visited by other members of the profession, where the contradictory actions of the government are critically analysed to the tiniest detail. Keszthelyi found himself in the middle of a whole movement, when Ferenc Falus, the National Medical Officer threatened him with a fine of HUF 1 million and the withdrawal of his license, because he refused to administer the state-provided flu vaccines for free. […]

It wasn't only Dr. Keszthelyi who raised the question of administration and of the origin of the Hungarian-made vaccines, but also a consumer protection-blog Tékozló homár had a post (HUN) on it:

[…] The hospitals and pharmacies, anyway, didn't want to receive the vaccines delivered without an expiration date, since it's illegal like that, but the stuff should be sold out if the state had already paid for it. […]

Dr. Gergely (Greg) Bognar, assistant professor at the Center for Bioethics at New York University also reacted (HUN) through his blog dealing with bioethics questions on the swine flu debate turned to party politics, and raised the thought of a big experimentation:

[…] According to fresh research, voters supporting the governing party are rather on the side of vaccination than those of the opposition. […]

Politicians helped a lot for the population in knowing the way about the question: while the prime minister and the minister of health care vaccinated themselves in public, Péter Szijjártó, the deputy-floor leader of FIDESZ [party in opposition now], “considering every circumstance” won't vaccinate himself. […]

Why is the set-up of things like this lucky? Well, the situation is that there's a big question mark related to vaccines against flu. The question is not whether they're harmful - experts agree that they're harmless - but whether they're useful, and if yes, then how far. Does the defense against the new flu really worth 6 billion forints for a society? How efficient are the vaccines against flu financially? […]

We can try with not doing a clinical examination, but vaccinating half of the population, and the other half not, and then keeping the tabs on how many are getting ill, or dying from these two groups. […]

But this kind of research is not free of ethical problems either. […]

I suppose, it's already clear where I'm leading up to. The Hungarian society voluntarily, with enormous self-devotion, by the wise encouragement of politicians started an experiment similar to the one in Tuskegee. The population is dividing itself into two groups by political party sympathy: one group is getting the vaccine, the other, as a volunteer control group, is not.

The experiment plan is very promising, since ten million subject in a research is fair enough to exclude every kind of disturbing circumstances, and the distribution following party sympathy is more or less random. So everything is given to get serious scientific results from the Great Hungarian Experiment!

So it's not by chance that the world is looking at us with great attention. Observers will be sent by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prestigious periodicals as the New England Journal of Medicine, or the Nature, will report on the newest results. […]

I am a metropolitan person, I am and always have been. A metropolitan person does not belong to Budapest. The city is completely balkanised. A metropolitan person belongs to Berlin!

His words made several Hungarian bloggers upset, and a tense discussion started right after the release of the Hungarian translations of the interview. Mr Falafel of Konzervatív Költők Baráti Köre (HUN, ‘Fellowship of Conservative Poets') reacted (HUN):

[…] In the interview he gave to Die Welt, he declared what every honorable Hungarian man thinks about him, that he is a stateless rogue who has nothing to do with Hungarians. […] Regarding the interview, the translations of certain news sources are different at the point that, according to Kertész, anti-Semites have been reigning for 10 years, or they have been only opinion leaders. I don't speak German, so I can't decide which translation I should trust. Actually, it's the same, both versions are imbecility. He is not living in Hungary, and he is not even interested in what's happening here. […]

Lordart was also disappointed after reading the article. He wrote in his post (HUN):

[…] Till now I have been a little bit proud that there's a Nobel Prize-winning author of Hungarian origin, whose work - and the value of whose work - is recognized worldwide. After this I will still acknowledge what can be considered as value in the work of Mr. Kertész, but I will respect his will, according to which his personality can't be attached to Hungary, to Budapest. […]

Some bloggers condemned the translations published by the Hungarian media because some points seemed to be exaggerated. Vérszegény éjszakai dúvad of Hángörienidiocc (HUN) re-translated the whole interview (HUN), and added his comments to the controversial translations of the press:

[…] Simply and solely the whole Hungarian press was lazy to review a damned translation, every news report is an approximated word-for-word repetition. (Perhaps nobody speaks German in this country.)

It sounds really very good anyway: “Don't attach me to Hungary.” And of course one can be shocked at it, but the problem is, which is always forgotten to be stated, that it's not about the origins, but rather about the literary roots.

Otherwise, that can't be picked at either what Kertész thinks about Budapest or Berlin, because that would be approximately like if I picked at someone because he doesn't like goulash with beans; how can that be, if for me that's the favorite meal.

[…] It seems as if anything that Kertész had done, he couldn't atone for since then, because summarizing his interview this way looks rather like an intentional slant than a mistranslation. […]

According to one of the first reports (HUN), published by a southern Hungarian news site Délmagyar.hu (HUN) about the case of 15 illegal immigrants disappeared in the Tisza River at the Hungarian-Serbian border, a member of the group who tried to cross the river, father of a 2-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl, was the one to call the police from a public payphone in the border village, Röszke, at dawn on Oct. 15.

Nagyobb térképre váltás

Csaba Bálint, a blogger with Serbia Insajd (HUN), commented on the case, using the report of Délmagyar.hu, and also proposed to start an investigation personally on the relations between Hungary and Kosovo:

[…] Child, child, help!

That's what the Kosovo Albanian guy, whose children almost froze to death on the bank of the Tisza River, was repeating, when he was trying to escape to the EU one night. If somebody isn't familiar with the story, I'll retell it in a nutshell. […]

The weirdo had gone by that he would pay the human smuggler well, it's a trendy profession there, and what would be, would be, he would step into the new world at Szeged. He hadn't reckoned with the fact that cold rain would fall on his kids at night, that they would be worn out because of this irregular forest hike. When our man saw how big the trouble was, he left the children back in the October rain, and went to ask for help. […]

The children hardly breathed when they found them. A 2-year-old and a 3-year-old, I'm just mentioning that! They were totally run cold. One child of the cross-border violator mister had fallen into a coma, but got better since then. They came off with a whole skin, but the story is sad. Sad and makes you wonder. At least some questions come up with it.

What's the reason for that from the independent and free Kosovo Republic, hundreds of independent and free citizens are escaping? Probably, it's not easy to live in a ‘democracy' built on delinquency? Tell another independent country in Europe from where dozens of free people are coming illegally every week! Probably, the states that urged to recognize a Columbia of the Balkans, hereafter are not working so hard anymore on making the country a country? If a 29-year-old man with two little children is heading off to the forest at night in the middle of October, then I have to say: no.

In the next episode we'll look at what Hungary, the big European friend of Kosovo, has done so that the people living there wouldn't have to escape to the West. […]

Balkan Insight reported that investigations have been started by an EU rule of law mission, EULEX, Kosovo police and the Hungarian authorities. According to the website, migrant family groups had to pay €6,000 to €8,000 to get to Hungary. Contrary to the media referring to Koha Ditore, Balkan Insight emphasized, no arrests have been made yet.

By Monday, Magyar Szó reported (HUN) that a body of one man was found on the Hungarian border of the Tisza River, and on the Serbian border bodies of two women were found. One of them was Agron Rama's wife and the mother of his children.

Gábor Nagy, a Hungarian immigration officer, also commented (HUN) on the case on his blog, showing the same incomprehension of why Albanians escape so desperately from Kosovo:

[…] Of course in cases like this the question can always be raised, if the parents are so careless as to start off with babies to the ‘big world' or the situation is really this horrible in Kosovo? Though it should be mentioned, nobody is after them from Kosovo, as they ‘achieved their independence.' At least on paper. And that also can't be forgotten that these people are always helped by human smugglers for weighty Euros. But if we consider that it's not even to Hungary where they want to escape, then I have a negative stance on the things, too.

András Földes of Képgyár blog ('Image Factory', HUN) reported:

It could be known about the luminous igloo mounted at Blaha Lujza Square that it was the work of young artists and architects, and it cleans the smoggy air by biological means. Which is a noble goal, polluted air is bad after all, clean air is very healthy on the other hand. But still, the euphoria around the futuristic construction was surprising at first. […]

According to the website of Placcc festival:

Although the group includes future architects, they felt it was important to approach space from other aspects, not only and exclusively an architectural point of view, therefore they explore the relationship of man and space through art in public space. The starting point of the work they are making for PLACCC Festival is the belief that we are not mere observers of (public) space, but can actively shape it and participate in its transformation.

This photo, taken by Rozmy, shows the inside of the plastic igloo where the algae filtration was taking place:

András Földes asked the leader of Téreltérítés Munkacsoport about the functioning of the so-called 'smog reducer':

[…] The leader of the project and [university] professor, Antal Lakner, explained ardently the functioning principles of the algae filtration bio-catalyzer, adding after each of his sentence that this thing really worked, that it wasn't just an object of art.

“Here an artist, an architect, a biologist and a technician worked together to resolve an existing problem,” said Lakner, a Hungarian Algae working helmet on his head. “A detecting car came here, and demonstrated that the plantation produced a significant amount of oxygen,” he said as he looked lovingly over the glass bubble occupied with silent oxygen production.

After the first CM in 2004, in Budapest, cycling enthusiasts organized several other rallies every year not only in the capital of Hungary but in almost every other big city (HUN).

The main website of the event and the movement of cycling enthusiasts proudly announced that they broke the international record of the number of participants in 2006, and it could still increase:

[…] The first Critical Mass ride in Budapest was organised on Car Free Day, September 22, 2004, though it was preceded by at least 50 similar bicycle events initiated either by organisations, groups of bicycle couriers, or other pockets of non-affiliated individuals. The September 2004 ride, however, was significant in that it combined almost every previous organiser into one mass of cycling enthusiasts and concerned citizens. That event drew a surprising 4000 participants. By Earth Day 2005, the number of Critical Mass participants reached 10,000, and doubled again for the September 2005 event, reaching 20,000. On Earth Day 2006 an international record of 32,000 participants was reached, to be topped only by next year’s similar event, with a turnout of 50,000, reaching as many 80,000 by April 2008. […]

This photo was taken at Critical Mass Budapest last year by Zsolt Bugarszki of The Budapest Daily Photo. Bike lifting is always the main attraction of the Budapest Critical Mass (HUN, ENG) events.

This year there were two bike lifts preceded by a new cycling movement united with the ride. The Kidicalmass (HUN, ENG), the children’s protected ride, was to promote healthy lifestyle among children and to create appropriate cycling conditions for the future generation.

The first bike lift took place at the City Hall in the afternoon. As you can hear in the video below, not only Hungarian but foreign citizens also ride and lift at CM:

The second, event-closing bike lift was held in the evening at Deák Square:

In the evening, the Cycle Chic (HUN) blog had a cycling chic party with a cycling clothes fashion show (HUN) tied to the event.

Cycle Chic uses an alternative way to get people's attention by taking photos of ‘chic' cyclists in the city. This photo below of Gréta Gaál about the fashion show illustrates well their definition of trendiness in riding a bicycle:

By bike? How does that look like? There are more and more who realize that there're other styles than trash waistcoat [high visibility waistcoat] and cycling tights. This site is about them, you, who are cycling chic. Woman, man, Hungarian, tourist, riding to work, to school, to party, in the countryside, or in Pest, their place is here. Because cycling is not only a sport but the most natural thing in the world!

However, CM is also a way of having fun together, it covers many different topics of society. Journalist Greg Spencer warned on his blog (ENG) the participants and other citizens concerned that Car Free Day is more of a political event:

[…] Unlike the Earth Day Critical Mass in the spring, which is a celebratory, weekend parade for the whole family, the ride on Car Free Day is more of a hard-nosed, politically-pointed affair. It takes place during a weekday rush hour, and only parts of the route are cordoned off from other road users. For the most part, participants ride in traffic as they would during a normal evening commute. It's in the spirit of the original Critical Masses in San Francisco, which were spontaneously organised rides to show that cyclists are part of the traffic. […]

Organizers write on Critical Mass website, they are aware of the power that could be used for party-political intentions, and they try to do their best to stay independent but fight for the rights of cycling citizens using all the means they can:

[…] Critical Mass is completely independent of any political parties, organisations or movements. It is not a registered organisation, but rather an “organised coincidence” (as it is often called in other places). […]

The largest ride so far was the April 22, 2008 Critical Mass/Earth Day demonstration, which attracted an estimated 80,000 cyclists, and was officially launched by the Dutch ambassador to Hungary, Ronald A. Mollinger, symbolising the popularity of cycling in the Netherlands now spreading to Hungary. László Sólyom, president of the Republic of Hungary also participated on two occasions (in 2006 and 2007), and rode along with the participants, rendering – at that time – unprecedented esteem to an unprecedented turnout in Hungarian as well as international terms. Other prominent individuals among participants included government ministers, the Mayor of Budapest, and many celebrities.

The Budapest City Council gave Critical Mass a Pro Budapest award for their efforts in promoting cycling as an alternative mode of urban transport and improving the transportation culture in the capital city. […]

As the number of the participants gets higher and higher, Critical Mass is more and more supported also by foreigners. Preceding the event of September 22, Greg Dorey, the British Ambassador in Budapest, sent a video message to bike-riders who fight for a more environmentally-friendly world:

Greg Dorey mentioned that critics say CM wouldn't make any difference, but it seems the event started a tense debate on the capital's transportation system. Several bloggers reposted the announcement of this week from Emberibb Parkolásért Mozgalom (EMPAMO) (HUN, ‘For A More Humanoid Parking Movement'), which is an organization representing car-drivers' interests. The scandal broke out because of several statements in the announcement:

The Critical Mass is more and more violent, though it fights for its own rights, it doesn't consider the rights of others in traffic! Though it lifts up the voice for the protection of the environment, it induces giant traffic jams, and by appropriating additional routes of transport it would generate even bigger traffic jams. Though it [still CM] promotes: bicycle is an alternative, but it would use openly fascist methods against car-drivers, its organizers in turn run enterprises which use cars too for deliveries. […]

A well-known Hungarian right-wing blogger Tomcat also reposted and commented (HUN) on the message of EMPAMO:

[…] I kiss your hand [Hungarian greeting phrase], Critical Mass is an interest-protecting demonstration. It doesn't just exist for the hell of it, but those hundreds of thousands people want to achieve something. It becomes “more violent” because there are more who participate in it. […] I didn't know until now that we definitely need the Critical Mass to make traffic jams, until now I thought that cars can manage it by themselves. […]

CM website collected the reports and interviews (HUN) covering the recent scandal, emphasizing that two weeks ago CM didn't make it to the public TV's show debating public life Az Este (HUN, ‘The Evening'), but “fascist” Critical Mass is already interesting enough to broadcast.

View Larger Map

The first civil disobedience movement and protest against the decree took place the same day at Liszt Ferenc Square, András Földes of index.hu reported (HUN):

[…] The demonstration of the outlets in Terézváros ['Theresa City' is the other name of District VI] Thursday night succeeded wonderfully. Protesting against the decree of the district, which came into force Sept. 1, the outlets at Liszt Ferenc Square turned off their lamps at 10 PM. Foreigners sitting on the terraces looked around wonderingly, as if they were waiting to get to know some special Hungarian habit. The citizens from Budapest were undisturbed, they kept on talking.

It became obvious that they knew what was happening when the lamps turned back on and a wave of applause swept over the terraces. The square again looked as if the decree of District VI hadn't come into force that day, saying that the outlets of entertainment, restaurants and shops were allowed to be open until 10 in the evening instead of midnight and 1 AM. […]

The Budapest Times published an article after the revision of the decree, reporting:

Despite having promised a suspension of the silence decree on bars and restaurants, the council of Budapest’s District VI voted against the discontinuation of the regulation at its session last Thursday. […] After the decision was announced around 50 district bar owners held a meeting and unanimously agreed to stay open after 10pm. […] They will likely close at 1pm, which, according to the decree, was previously the latest time a bar or a restaurant could remain open if no resident complaints were made against it.

The citizens started to organize a demonstration in front of the district's mayor's office on Facebook (HUN, ENG):

We had no other choice but to DEMONSTRATE against the so-called “silence order” came into force on the 1st of September, according to which ALL PUBS AND RESTAURANTS have to close the latest at 1 a.m. in district VI (Terézváros).

Unfortunately it turned out that quite a few members of the delegate board simply did not say the truth upon promising the withdrawal of the order came into force on the 1st of September. Now we’ve been assured by the renegotiation of the issue at the end of October, expectedly it will amount to the same result. So far negotiations and protests were not efficient, so our only way is a demonstration.

Noone has the right to paralyse the nightlife of downtown Budapest, to bankrupt well-known and popular pubs, to restrain the vivid clublife. Budapest is a real European metropolis which can not exist without night life!

More than a 1000 workplaces, yearly hundreds of thousands guests and the fame, renown of Budapest are at stake!

Would you like to party in the future in Terézváros? Than demonstrate with us! Without YOU it won't work. The more people are there the more evident it will be how ridiculous and destroying this order is.

The venue of evening parties is downtown Budapest, noone can take it away! […]

A website was started dealing with the topic, trying to reconcile the views of the local residents who want silence and rest at night and of those who prefer keeping the boisterous nightlife alive. Takarodó.com ('sack time'.com, HUN) published several ideas and proposals that they would like to discuss with the local council. They're also spreading the word and try to invite people to the demonstration on Monday.

Eva S. Balogh of Hungarian Spectrum wrote about the tense atmosphere preceding the closing event:

[…] Within a few days the atmosphere became sufficiently tense that a statement was released by the embassies of Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The statement read in part: “we express our support for and solidarity with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in Hungary. We support the right of these communities to use this traditional occasion to march together peacefully and lawfully, in order to express their desire to end the silence surrounding the specific issues that affect them.” The statement ended with these words: “Our governments' policies in this area are in accordance with the principles set out in the Joint statement on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity delivered at the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December, 2008.” To find among these thirteen the Czech Republic and Slovenia is really a slap in the face and shows how low Hungary has sunk even in the region. Today Mátyás Eörsi (SZDSZ) expressed his gratitude for the support of these countries. In addition Whoopi Goldberg, who knows and loves Hungary dearly ever since she spent some time there while filming and who jokingly said that she wouldn't mind being the U.S. ambassador to Hungary, was so worried about the Hungarian situation that she sent a message to Hungary via YouTube. […]

Here is Whoopi Goldberg's YouTube address:

Saturday gave a lot of work to the Hungarian police since that was also the day when Hungary played against Sweden in a World Cup qualifying football game. IndymediaCalling posted this report:

[…] The only positive thing about 2008 Pride was high attention of the media and increased security (Not all cops are bastards after all) this year. Not only Andrassy avenue, where the Parade took place this year, but also parallel streets were closed and surrounded by fences. Basically, a big part of central Budapest including metro was closed.[…] Crowds of people were to be observed outside the fences, apparently not as many as previous year. Moreover, this day was a football match between Hungary and Sweden and most probably most hooligans were already at the stadium by the end of the Parade. The Parade participants turned out to be hard nuts for those willing to attack them, as police was escorting them even after the end of the Parade at Deak sq. and Blaha Lujza sq., as all the participants were recommended to go to Blaha Lujza by metro.

Hungarian Spectrum also had a report on the march. Former prime minister of Hungary, Ferenc Gyurcsány, participated, too, but he left the parade with his wife before the end of the event through a station of the yellow metro line:

[…] There were about 1,000 participants including former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány and his wife; Tamás Bauer, former SZDSZ member of parliament; Mátyás Eörsi, SZDSZ MP; Péter Kende, writer; and András Léderer, former president of SZDSZ's New Generation. In addition there were representatives of Amnesty International, Democratic Charta, and other civic organizations. This was the first public appearance of the former prime minister since his resignation in March. […] I'm not sure how the police managed to keep the anti-gay groups outside the cordon but they were successful although trouble started even before the parade began. It was a relatively small group at Hősök tere but loud enough. First they used all sorts of four-letter words against gays and Jews, and when they discovered Gyurcsány in the crowd they had a few kind words for him as well. […]

Thanks to the increased and extended protection of the police, the marchers could enjoy the parade without facing the groups of counter-demonstrators.

Here are links to two video reports from the parade: in the first one, people talk (HUN, ENG) about why it's important to participate in events like this, while the second one - titled “100% hetero” - features the police and the anti-gay crowd.

IndymediaCalling concluded that the parade of 2009 as a mostly peaceful event:

[…] To the Pride 2009 itself: there were a number of groups and individual people from both Hungary and abroad. The opening speeches were delivered by Juris Lavrikovs, Paata Sabelashvili (ILGA Europe) who welcomed the participants and shared their thoughts of the importance of the Pride. There were two cars with sound systems, a group of people carrying a rainbow flag, and a number of smaller groups including Amnesty-Hungary (the yellow group) and the pink-black bloc.

Overall, it was just another good opportunity for queer people to claim for their right for equality and for their supporters to express their solidarity. Hopefully, the peacefulness of Pride Parade 2009 will become a good tradition and the tolerance in Hungarian society to queer people will grow to the level that no fences will be needed in the future. […]

The vigilant blogger of Hungarian Spectrum reported on the riots around the protected pride march and the closing party later at Corvintető (”Corvin Rooftop”), at Blaha Lujza Square:

[…] However, farther down the road there were a few hundred demonstrators who tried to break through the cordon at Octogon. Again, they didn't succeed. The participants apparently weren't even aware of the upheaval outside the cordoned off area. By 4:30 about 300-400 people gathered at Deák tér where they attacked the police, and here the police had to use tear gas. The crowd began to disperse but unfortunately they then lingered in neighboring streets, including Dohány utca where the famous Budapest synagogue is situated. One can imagine what happened afterward. They called the Jews all sorts of names and tore down posters advertising the Jewish Summer Festival. All this was done while these savages were carrying Hungarian flags. How patriotic. Not far from Dohány utca there is the Astoria Hotel where another group gathered that began going along Rákóczi út to Corvin Department Store whose flat roof is used for all sorts of parties. Apparently some of the gays were planning to hold a party there. While about 150 people were gathering in front of the department store battling with the police, on Deák tér about 200 people were throwing bottles and rocks at the police and broke the windows of at least one car. Altogether 11 people were arrested. Some of these “gentlemen” apparently beat a young woman who wore a T-shirt identifying her as a participant in the parade. She was waiting for the street car when three men appeared from the underground passage in front of Astoria and, without saying a word, began to beat her. Because of the blows the woman fell on the ground. So, for good measure they kicked her several times. She suffered head and arm injuries. […]

According to The Budapest Times police have initiated legal proceedings against 17 people for violence against officers, and altogether 41 people were detained for various reasons including disobeying police, endangering public safety and carrying explosive materials in various parts of the city. The gay march, attended by some 1,500 people and secured by iron fences and a large number of police, ended without major incidents.

And Sweden defeated Hungary. 2:1.

He was born in 1943 in Budapest, but had lived in Tordas (Fejér county) until the age of 13. After college he taught Arts at an elementary school in Budapest. He started to write and perform songs with Géza Bereményi while he was a teacher. He became the member of several theaters in the 1970s, and released his first album, Levél nővéremnek (Letter To My Sister), in 1976. His music influenced generations of students growing up since the communist era.

By Saturday, Hungarian users have published links to their favorite Cseh's songs on every social networking site.

A journalist-blogger, György Korbély evokes (HUN) his first encounter with the singer's music:

[…] The disc featuring János Másik was the first encounter with Tamás Cseh for me too, when I was a high school student: I found the disc at the school radio studio, since they never played it, the chief of the studio very piously gave it to me. These were the great years of the confrontation between rock wave and disco fever, there was no place in this dichotomy for uncategorizable values, and the staff of the school radio couldn't deal with the songs of Tamás Cseh. But me, I knew: I listened to it day and night, I still know the lyrics and millions of people are in the same situation, from the 15-year-olds to those who are 75. […]

Károly Balla D. also remembers the singer (HUN):

[…] We fretted the grooves of Levél nővéremnek (1977) until the end, we knew all lyrics by heart - the Tamás Cseh feeling reached us just then, the feeling other young people in Budapest already had experienced at universities and other kind of clubs and at theater. […]

A younger blogger of könyves.blog.hu summarized the influence of Tamás Cseh on the younger generations (HUN):

[…] Through the performance of Tamás Cseh (and János Másik), via the felicitous lyrics of Géza Bereményi I got to know an era that had nothing to do with me. I did not live in the 1970s, indeed I had no relatives living in Hungary at that time, but despite this I am very familiar with that era. I know how it felt to love, to cheat, to get married and to divorce, to change lovers, to feel hunger, to switch from one sublet to another, to go to the laundry, to smuggle women to the workers' hostel, to get my identity checked, to be a boy in gym shorts and sheathe the sword with deported girls, to be a booby who has affairs with adult women, to commit serious faults at house parties together with a dozen of other people. […]

It's very hard to explain the role of Tamás Cseh in the life of the young generations who want to understand their parents' socialist past. Nobody could describe what socialism looked like, or what the real socialist gym shorts looked like. Nobody but Tamás Cseh.

Below is one of the songs - “Budapest” - performed by Cseh Tamás and Másik János:

Last week, four people were arrested on suspicion of giving illegal stem cell treatments. According to police reports, the treatments were carried out not just in Budapest and Kaposvár, but in hotel rooms and private homes around the country. Hungarian Spectrum reports:

[…] The Hungarian police arrested four people: “B. Julliy” who turned out to be Yuliy Baltaytis, a Ukrainian-born U.S. citizen; a Ukrainian woman, Natalia K., who apparently supplied the embryonic stem cells from Kharkov and Kiev; and two unnamed Hungarians, one of whom was charged with assisting the doctors “in the transportation of the cooling equipment, the handling of shipments from Ukraine, and the transportation of the patients to and fro.” The police claimed that the “therapists” demanded 5 million Hungarian forints ($25,000) for a single treatment. […]

The Budapest Times has more on the case:

[…] The suspects have been identified as Ukrainian-American medical professor Yuliy Baltaytis, plastic surgeon István Seffer, and a Ukrainian biologist known as Natalia K. A company called Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IRM), based in Kaposvár, was responsible for the treatments and CEO of the company Sándor Szabó is the fourth detainee, according to MTI. IRM rented space from Seffer & Renner clinic, said Tibor Seffer, managing director of the clinic and brother of István Seffer. He added that the IRM laboratory was separate and the Seffer clinic had nothing to do with stem cell research. […]

Hungarian Spectrum adds:

[…] The CEO of the company was Sándor Szabó and on the board we find Imre Pákh, István Seffer, the plastic surgeon from Kaposvár, and Ádám Fásy, a “media star” who apparently became rich as a result of starting beauty pageants in Hungary. Otherwise, Fásy has a rather primitive program on ATV called “Fásy mulató.” “Fásy Revelry.” […]

A year ago, a 31-year-old mother who was looking for treatment for her son's Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, wrote a post (HUN) about Dr. István Seffer, one of the Hungarian doctors who were arrested, because she intended to resort to the treatment:

I've already mentioned in a link that Dr. István Seffer would deal with stem cells at the private plastic surgery clinic in Kaposvár. They still don't have the ethical permissions but doctor Picskur practicing in Kiev is coming here to do implants. Of course on own responsibility (patients must sign a statement). From the three problematic criteria, two they can fulfill with benevolence, since correct hygienic conditions are given, and the stem cells aren't from Kiev but produced in Hungary, according to the statement of the doctor, they are totally controlled (concerning infections and genetic diseases). The third thing is the danger of cancer. I don't know anything about this at present, but considering the state of science today - I suppose - they don't know either…

The treatments were based on stem cells retrieved from aborted foetuses. Részeg Szamár (”Drunken Donkey”) wrote indignant posts about the story (HUN):

[…] As Neveletlen and several other media outlets wrote, stem cells were obtained from necrosed, or aborted foetuses. One thing is sure: not from dead foetuses, since no organs can be transplanted from the dead. But it sounds another way that Pisti [István Seffer] and his friends didn't pluck out by violence from mothers' uterus, but plop they caught foetuses just scraped out, or just leaving the uterus, but still alive, and they obtained some millions from them before throwing them out to trash. However, ‘on behalf of humanity', and on behalf of Pisti's pocket, the ‘unneeded' foetuses were used, and each one had a biological mother. So by this time these mothers had to sign legal statements that they permitted it all. If Pisti can't present these, that's a big pitfall. If they can present, the image would be prettier, but only a little, because the stem cells didn't pass the obligatory examinations, so the lucky ones got whatever kind of a terrible genetic disease for 5 million, instead of eternal life, as a bonus, I suppose… Not to mention a small thing, that all this is prohibited in the [EU].

According to the Hungarian news agency MTI, Péter Zamecsnik, the defense lawyer of István Seffer, announced that the doctor was released Thursday from detention to house arrest.

In December 2008, Eva S. Balogh of Hungarian Spectrum reported on the first decision made by the court:

[…] It's hard to believe, but the first round of court proceedings against the Hungarian Guard (Magyar Gárda in Hungarian) is finally over. The judge agreed with the chief prosecutor's office of Budapest that the Hungarian Guard is illegal. Illegal in the sense that it is not a cultural association. […] The prosecutors sent the indictment over to the Budapest Court on December 17, 2007. Exactly one year ago. The court was in no hurry. The case initially appeared on the docket in March 2008. […]

There were some problems with the creation of the Hungarian Guard in 2007:

[…] The case was a little tricky because the organizers of the Magyar Gárda tried to insulate the troops from any litigation against the alleged cultural organization. They created a separate legal entity comprised of the uniformed fellows with their black boots and insignia suspiciously resembling that of the Hungarian Nazis of Ferenc Szálasi. It was legally distinct from the original organization with its self-described cultural mission. Thus we had a Magyar Gárda Mozgalom (Movement of the Hungarian Guard, the troops) and a Magyar Gárda Egyesület (Association of the Hungarian Guard, the so-called cultural association). It was with this legal separation that the lawyers working on behalf of Jobbik, the extreme right party responsible for the creation of the Hungarian Guard, tried to save at least the uniformed units that belong to the Movement. […]

As Eva S. Balogh writes, the verdict of 2008 clearly declared that the separation is not enough to defend the existence of the Guard:

[…] This court case addressed the Association, not the Movement. However, this is still a blow to the whole Hungarian Guard because the judge very rightly pointed out that the Movement and the Association are in a symbiotic relationship amply demonstrated by the changes made in the original documents, by the signed documents of cooperation between the two organizations, and by the financial interconnections that exist between them. The judge decided that the Hungarian Guard's main aim is to spread fear among Gypsies. Judge Pataki noted that the Guard is also antisemitic because in a speech a spokesman of the Guard talked about “Zionist rats, locusts, and grave diggers of the nation.” The judge pointed out that all these activities are unconstitutional and not in conformity with Hungary's international obligations. […]

The judgment was appealed and after the first round verdict Gábor Vona, Chairman of the Hungarian Guard Association, stated in an interview:

[…] Either way we will continue, even under a different association or civil group, we will serve our nation. […] The Hungarian Guard Movement is not affected by the verdict, even the Judge confirmed this. The verdict is about the Association. Indirectly the court confirmed that the Guard will carry on and I can also confirm this. […]

In early July, the final verdict was pronounced. Eva S. Balogh of Hungarian Spectrum wrote:

[…] It was last December that the presiding judge in a lower court found the Hungarian Guard guilty of violating the rights of an ethnic group. The lawyer representing the Guard appealed. Today the Hungarian Guard both as a “cultural association” and as a “movement” was found guilty as charged. […]

Gábor Vona announced an official demonstration for the Hungarian Guard three days later, right after the day of a spontaneous rally that was held in the center of Budapest and disbanded by the authorities. Kuruc.info, an extreme right website related to Jobbik, stated:

Hungarian Law categorically permits demonstrations within a 72 hour window of contemporary events, without any form of prior permission from the authorities. […] The subsequent protest, held by a few hundred members of the Hungarian Guard, their supporters and members of Jobbik, was in response to such a contemporary event. Namely, the ruling by the unelected judges of the Budapest Appeals Court on July 2, which called for the disbanding of the Hungarian Guard. […]

The website reported that the protesters surrounded by the police sat down to keep on holding the peaceful rally:

The police responded with a series of callous attacks against the seated demonstrators, in an all too common display of the facial spraying of tear gas at close range and the brutal beating of protestors regardless of age or infirmity. […] The police were compelled to forcefully remove and arrest the demonstrators by snatching them individually and dragging them away. […]

Also Gábor Vona was arrested as responsible for the spontaneous rally. The second demonstration that was officially announced on July 11 was finally held peacefully. The organizers stated that they would relaunch the Hungarian Guard. At the rally, recently elected Members of the European Parliament (MEP) were present in black-and-white uniforms of the Guard.

Politics.hu reported that three days later one of the delegated Jobbik MEPs, Csanád Szegedi, was wearing the Guard's uniform at the inaugural session of the European Parliament, which was condemned by the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.

On June 19, about a hundred of Iranian students studying in Hungary held a silent commemoration at Heroes’ Square in Budapest, the Hungarian capital. The rally had been organised via Facebook. The second demonstration, by Hungarian supporters, took place in front of the Iranian Embassy in Budapest on June 21: it was called the Green Flashmob.

The third rally “for democracy and human rights” in Iran was held on June 26, also in front of the Iranian Embassy. On the community blog site Lehet Más a Világ! (”The World Can Be Different!”), Redjade shared information and photos about the June 21 protest and wrote this about the June 26 one:

[…] It was a big contrast from the previous protest last Sunday where there was no police presence, at all. Not only was there a fence this time (borrowed from the Parliament?) but dozens of police including four police vans and six cars. But the entire event was a friendly and calm situation, however. But I wonder if the lower turn out by Iranian students may have been the result of the intimidating police presence. […]

The Hungarian media reported on the meeting between state secretary of foreign affairs Gábor Iklódy and the Iranian ambassador Ali Reza Irvas, after which the Hungarian official declared that the Iranian protestors had the right to protest peacefully and that Hungary was concerned about the restraints placed on the media in Iran.

Also on June 21, a different type of rally took place in Budapest: members and supporters of the Two-Tailed Dog Party (HUN) held a so-called General Demonstration against things that don’t make any sense. The Two-Tailed Dog Party is a fake political party known for its extremely humorous criticism of political issues in Hungary. Some 200-300 people gathered in front of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office: according to the blog (HUN) of the demonstration, the reason was that the existence of this office didn’t make any sense.

On the art blog Képgyár (”Image Factory”), journalist András Földes reported (HUN) on the Two-Tailed Dog Party's demonstration:

[…] ‘What do we want? Nothing! When? Never!' Protesters in front of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) are shouting their demands for long minutes but they can’t gain a hearing. Nobody comes out from the office to receive the petition and to start dialogue.

Though there are enough demands. ‘Let tomorrow be yesterday!' ‘Dissmiss us!' ‘Main stage!' ‘Let's bring everyone who is under the radical sign to a square!' […]

Some of the users of Képgyár (HUN) mentioned in the comments section that one of the protesters with the ‘Dissmiss us!' slogan was actually sending a hidden political message about frequent demonstrations against the present Hungarian government that have been taking place since 2006. Others noted that this kind of rallying for nothing already had a cultural background in Europe and represented an anarchist or radical liberal view, which contradicts the main goal: rallying for nothing.