Enterprising start-up aims to take advantage of hooch amnesty.

The Customs and Finance Guard (VPOP) issued a warning last Monday to those impatient to start making their own pálinka after the government made good a pre-election pledge to relax controls.

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Opposition shun investiture of Pál Schmitt as head of state.

Pál Schmitt was invested as Hungary’s new president last Friday in front of prime minister Viktor Orbán and some 200 invited dignitaries. Notable absences included his predecessor László Sólyom and representatives of the opposition Socialist Party (MSZP) and green party LMP.

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A traditional fireworks display will be held on the Danube at 9pm on 20 August to round off the capital’s celebrations of Nation Day. This year the theme is solidarity with the victims of the floods that hit in late spring after the wettest May on record. Some 500 children from flood-afflicted areas – the relatively impoverished northeast was particularly badly hit – will be shuttled into the capital.

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The change of government has brought a series of personnel changes at the top of the law and order bodies. The aim according to Fidesz is to restore public security and raise the effectiveness of police operations. 
New national police chief József Hatala has stressed that the latest public security strategy aims to improve the populace’s feeling of security.

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Sexist decision enters grey area.

The government has decided to make it possible for any woman who has worked 40 years to retire no matter what her age. Since very few women have spent this much time in the labour force it is unlikely the decision will have much impact on state pension finances. Yet the rule – trivial though it may seem – represents a risky step in the wrong direction. It sends a bad signal to international investors and financial institutions who want the government to use its bulletproof parliamentary majority to push through changes that will stabilise Hungary’s bloated state welfare system, not increase its burdens.

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Mayor of Budapest Gábor Demszky denied last Tuesday any involvement in suspected cases of corruption at the city’s parks and gardens maintenance firm, Fõkert.

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Will stick to deal.

Prime minister Viktor Orbán last Wednesday said that Hungary’s finances are secure, and the wobbles on the market for Hungarian bonds, shares and currency that followed the recent exasperated departure of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and EU delegates will be short lived.

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SMEs to see HUF 1 trillion in support by 2013: PM

The government unveiled last Wednesday its proposed model for a New Széchenyi Development Plan to boost Hungary’s economy and create jobs. EU and state funds to the tune of HUF 1 trillion (EUR 3.51 billion) will be pumped into SMEs by 2013, prime minister Viktor Orbán, economy minister György Matolcsi and national development minister Tamás Fellegi told entrepreneurs and journalists in the capital last Wednesday.

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Unilateral declaration of statehood did not violate international law.

Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 did not violate international law, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled last Thursday.

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Some controversial aspects of media reform axed, but power centralised.

It was a big misunderstanding. That’s what the governing Fidesz party wants us to believe about its media-reform package, which has garnered condemnation from free-press advocates across Europe. The intent is not to restrict press freedom, but to clarify it, Fidesz parliamentary media committee chairman László L. Simon said last Wednesday. Antal Rogán, the bill’s co-sponsor, said the true aim is to set uniform standards for reporting and to protect journalists.

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Hungary is the first EU country to introduce extraordinary tax on financial sector.

Parliament voted last Thursday in favour of a controversial bank tax that the government hopes will allow it to fill a gaping hole in this year’s budget without having to resort to further austerity measures.

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Prime Minister Orbán spoke of Central European renewal following the Visegrád Four summit. After hosting prime ministers Iveta Radicova of Slovakia, Petr Necas of the Czech Republic and Donald Tusk of Poland, Orbán called for co-operation in Central Europe lest the former Iron Curtain be replaced by a “money curtain”.

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Hungary and Slovakia will try to iron out their differences.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Slovak counterpart Iveta Radicova say they hope to open a new chapter in bilateral relations, after meeting following the Visegrád Four summit in Budapest last week.

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Not acting like MSZP of great importance to Fidesz.

Negotiations between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Hungarian government led by Viktor Orbán turned into an open conflict after the delegation of the IMF and the European Commission upped and left Hungary the weekend before last.

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Red-faced transport minister, passengers, hot under the collar

Germany's train system is suffering from a lengthening list of woes at odds with its efficient image, news weekly Der Spiegel reported last week.
The list of recent problems to afflict the once famously efficient system includes broken axles, a lack of brake maintenance and failed air conditioning systems.

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State Audit Office probes sale again, this time, under Fidesz

The State Audit Office (ÁSZ) is carrying out an investigation into the sale of Hungarian State Television’s (MTV) headquarters as well as the rental agreement for the network’s new office building in District III. It will hand over its findings to Parliament by 31 August, ÁSZ deputy director and lead investigator László Podolányi announced last Wednesday.

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Political responsibility rather than criminal liability: Commissioner.

Initial results of an investigation in cases of suspected corruption during the eight years to April that the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) was in power are expected this week, according to the government commissioner heading the probe.

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Opposition leader invokes spectre of ‘show trials’.

The Socialist former PM Ferenc Gyurcsány vehemently denied last Wednesday that he played any part in a controversial land swap deal connected to a planned casino complex on the shores of Lake Velence.

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Grigori Perelman says US mathematician deserves just as much credit.

Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman has solved the greatest maths problem posed in the last 100 years, a task so intriguing that the US Clay Mathematics Institute offered him a USD 1 million award for the effort.

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Budapest will soon have more and better public toilets, the city council-owned Budapest Sewerage Works (FCSM) says. Priority would go to toilets in important tourist locations and at public transport hubs, the firm said.

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Statement of National Cooperation will be obsolete by spring.

Apreamble to the Hungarian Constitution would be ready by next spring, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told reporters after meeting opposition green party Politics Can Be Different (LMP) last Wednesday. Orbán had accepted an invitation to a meeting of the parliamentary caucus of the smallest opposition party to demonstrate his commitment to the idea of “national cooperation” (see front page article).

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MDF leadership no longer enjoys immunity from prosecution.

Having lost their immunity as MPs after failing to get re-elected in April’s parliamentary elections, Socialist Károly Tóth and Democratic Forum (MDF) politicians Ibolya Dávid and Károly Herényi were interrogated last week as suspects in connection with the UD security case, which emerged in September 2008.

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Order to post declaration brings back memories of state socialism.

The biggest political calamities are sometimes the consequence of the most obvious political mistakes. This may be the case with the new Declaration of National Cooperation, the 300-word political credo (translated above) that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has ordered displayed in all central government buildings and military institutions.

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