US politics and election

October 29th, 2015
US ambassador severely criticizes Orbán gov’t policies in lecture held at Corvinus University
By All Hungary News

US ambassador Colleen Bell voiced serious criticism of the Orbán-government’s policies at a lecture she gave at the Budapest Corvinus University on Wednesday. Bell warned of the possible harmful consequences of Hungary’s energy dependence from Russia and advised the government to reveal the details of the agreement about the expansion of the Paks atomic power plant. She considers the systemic corruption present in Hungary is a serious concern and suggested that a more stable system of taxes and regulations would be desirable to encourage foreign investments. She also warned of the situation of democratic institutions, as checks and balances suffered the increased power concentration during the Orbán-governments since 2010.

Bell said the government measures that endangered the independence of civil society and NGOs were “extremely worrying”. She also disapproved of the government’s hostility towards refugees, as ‘while each sovereign state is entitled to protect its borders, as members of the international community they are obliged to help people seeking asylum.” The ambassador said “Our policy has not changed. As a friend of Hungary, we have raised issues in the past, and we will do so today and into the future – in the same spirit – as friends and partners."

Foreign minister Péter Szijjártó said in response on Thursday that since Hungary is a member state of the EU and not the United States, “the issues raised by the ambassador will be discussed with the European Union, in fact, we have already discussed them. We know that the US would like to see more and more migrants in Europe, clearly this was why they addressed the issue, however, Hungary remains the only European country that was able to stop the flow of migrants on its border,” Szijjártó said.

Budapest Chief Prosecutor: more corruption cases exposed in Hungary last year than before
By Hungary Matters October 29th, 2015

There were three times as many corruption cases exposed in Hungary in 2014 as in the previous year, and criminal statistics showed improvement for last year in the capital as well, Budapest’s chief prosecutor said in an interview published by the daily Magyar Idők.Citing national criminal statistics, Tibor Ibolya said that the number of graft cases exposed last year was 3,269, up from 1,105 in 2013, adding that data suggest a similar increase in Budapest. What explains the increase is that authorities were more efficient in exposing cases, which then appear in criminal statistics, he said, cautioning however that these figures do not reveal the actual level of corruption.

Ibolya said he saw Hungary’s corruption indices showing no big difference when compared with those of other countries with a similar economic and political system in the region. Corruption “practices” have changed, Ibolya said, noting that new methods include covering up illegal money movements with rather complicated contracts involving on occasions foreign companies.