Latest posts
This time it was not different – bailouts in 2008 and 2011
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With Alex Katsiatis we have written a post two years ago about the dysfunctional Greek politics in the context of the Hungarian bailout of ’08, predicting that the Greek party will lead to a similar hangover. Very interesting in retrospect.
Brown to replace Strauss-Kahn in IMF top job?
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While Ms Merkel cannot discuss urgent matters on the euro crisis with the IMF while Mr Strauss-Kahn is detained in the United States, Mr Brown has already popped up again as a substitute for Stauss-Kahn for the top IMF job. Even if London is the bigg...
What is the EU (and Tony Blair) doing in the ‘peace process’?
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When Sen. Mitchell, the Middle East envoy of the Obama administration resigned on Friday, I immediately asked ‘what is Tony Blair doing’? In the time-frame of a single weekend, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has regained its importance in the M...
DSK should sort out his private life, not the euro crisis
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For a long time it was seen as a virtue that the French press was not grilling politician’s private lives. I think that the French public owes a lot to NYC gossip press and NYPD when it was saved from a non-substantial presidential campaign about t...
Elvis (Officially) Dead in Budapest
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While national Fidesz, the strongest governing party in Europe, is taking an effort to finish a new constitution for Hungary, its municipal group in Budapest has different ambitions. The party has won over the city council for the first time in Octob...
European Parliament: Who is a lobbyist, really?
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It appears to me that the term ‘lobbying’ is not very clear in Austria. Disgraced former MEP Ernst Strasser boasted that he was both a lobbyist and an MEP. His successor, Hubert Pirker owns a lobbying firm yet he believes that he is not a...
To Build a Road Across Libya from Tunisia to Egypt
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It was only last summer that the two leaders held 'amity talks' in a big Bedouin tent in the center of Rome 'focusing on trade relations'. They celebrated the big friendship agreement singed two years earlier. It is astonishing that in 2010 these sta...
No Man’s Land – Ecology of a Minefield
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I remember the young children of the war who always preferred to play on concret because green meant death for them. And I remember forests with mines that have not seen mankind or any greater animal for a decade because of the landmines. This year I...
Starting citizens’ initiatives is easier than stopping them
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First of all, there will be a lot of single issue politics, connected to lifestyle/hobby groups like hunting, bird watching or music downloading. A million signatures to abolish copyrights will be no match for them. There will be also a lot of emoti...
Against History III: Mind the Borders!
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I started, but did not really complete a series after the Schengen zone accession of the two countries to show municipalities and local communities that want to revert history and erect local borders where the state borders become invisible. Now that...
Czech General Elections
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After the last general elections in Poland, and more recently in Hungary, a new political landscape emerged. Yesterday the Czech Republic has joined the wave a change, ending an almost 20-years-long stalemate with two new parties. The proportional vo...
Energy Security 2011 – Challenges of the Hungarian and Polish EU Presidency
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I was invited to speak in the Energy Security 2011 – Challenges of the Hungarian EU Presidency conference organized by International Centre for Democratic Transition on 7 May 2010. Although I had been involved in the international affairs of railwa...
New Citizenship Law, Hungarian Passports… and Dumbest Afoe Article Ever?
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Douglas Muir calls Stratfor's article on the new Hungarian citizenship law - republished on Serbia's B92 - as the dumbest Stratfor article ever. Certainly not a very intelligent analysis, however, the Muir post on afoe is confusing because it has so...
Greece, a Divided House and a Need for Constitution
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I believe that current euro-crisis sparked by Greece, and partly accelerated by the electioneering in tiny Slovakia shows that in fact we have a European shadow government, and it would need a great amount of sunbeam to become transparent. I think th...
Formula 1 in Zero Emissions
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Probably the most advanced center in Central Europe's automotive hub, the Audi motor factory gave ground to the 5th annual race of zero emission electric, hydrogen- and fuel cell driven cars, go-karts and motorbikes.The rules follow the original rule...
Hungarian Elections Run-Off: Government Can Modify Constitutional Laws
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Technically one question was still open after Hungary's general election: will the new coalition, Fidesz and the Christian Democrats have at least two thirds of the MPs so that they can change constitutional laws and elect a new president smoothly. A...
The Hungarian Elections in Pictures
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The Hungarian European and general election campaign has dramatically changed the country's political landscape. Five images: Viktor Orbán announcing his victory; the Socialist Party buried under corruption charges; Jobbik, the new anti-establishmen...
Hungarian Elections 2010
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The Hungarian elections in 2010 have completely changed the political landscape of the country and may result in thorough constitutional changes. The Hungarian party system, which had been the most stable since 1989 in Central Europe has changed dram...
Condolences for Poland
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Condolences for Poland Originally uploaded by antaldaniel Citizens of Budapest mourn the tragedy of the Polish state leaders on the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre. H.E. László Sólyom, the Hungarian president, and friend of the Polish presi...
Visegrad+ Energy Summit: Old Power with New Aims?
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The V4+ Energy Summit held in Budapest on 24-26 February ended in a joint declaration signed by the V4 plus Austria, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, and the perspective member state Croatia (along with Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina). If these countrie...
