💥Viktor Orbán’s Hungary was the ONLY European country not to support a recent UN resolution on strengthening cooperation and mitigating the risks of the Chernobyl disaster — adopted days after a Russian drone strike damaged the Chernobyl sarcophagus. Even Serbia and Kazakhstan were in favor.

This gem festooning billboards across Budapest.

How much of a dirty word "Viktor Orbán" has become: yesterday, in London, the Belgian prime minister indignantly reproached the international press for calling him a "Russian spy" and "the second Viktor Orbán" because of his opposition to the use of frozen Russian assets 🤦‍♂️ @vrtnws.be

💥🪧Huge protest tomorrow outside Viktor Orbán’s office after another week of damning evidence of sexual and physical abuse in child care and youth detention centers. It's Hungary’s own Epstein-style scandal, fueled by wild rumors. This new related video has already been seen by millions.

🫡 US backing would also mean that President Donald Trump could order Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who has so far held up Ukraine’s accession process, to drop his veto and allow Kyiv to start progressing through the political approval process

Writing my next piece for the Hungarian Observer this weekend and can’t even decide what to focus on. The NSS mentioning Hungary? Orbán’s lies about Trump pledging financial protection? The latest child abuse scandal? Orbán trying to shift power to the presidency and switch to the role of president?

From the land of war-is-peace: Budapest Mayor charged with violating freedom of assembly for... assembling. Orban was humiliated by his Pride-ban failure and will now use select people as rhetorical punching bags until the elections (w/real consequences for those people). telex.hu/belfold/2025...

#Hungary: IPI welcomes the launching of legal action by the European Commission against Hungary over its systematic violation of new rules set out in the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), echoing findings of a recent IPI & MJRC report. Full statement👇 buff.ly/vj9nArH

🇭🇺⚖️🇪🇺🇺🇦 Viktor Orban had many opportunities to announce the death of the rule of law in the EU, but ironically instead of one of several moderately successful EU attempts to enforce respect for the rule of law in Hungary, he went with the use of art 122 TEU and EU immobilising Russian assets.

Hungary's Viktor Orbán is looking for ways to keep power if he loses next year’s election, Bloomberg reports. He is considering shifting into the presidency and turning the largely ceremonial office into Hungary’s dominant political post, an idea he raised after meeting Trump.

Europe’s strategy for convincing the Belgians to support its plan to fund Ukraine? Warn them they could be treated like Hungary. www.politico.eu/article/euro...

🥇Hungary is first again: The very first infringement case ever launched under the new European Media Act targets Budapest. From press freedom and source protection to public media and state ads, the Commission says Hungary breaks the rules across the board.

Important reporting from @bloomberg.com's Zoltan Simon on alleged scenario-planning by Orban and ideas to avoid giving up power. Castling a la Putin would be a straight-up authoritarian move but one that's also fairly risky www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

💥Bloomberg reports Orbán could stay in power after an election defeat by becoming president instead, using his outgoing supermajority — a scenario analysts and opposition figures now openly discuss. But such a move would come dangerously close to a self-coup. More: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

A gay Romani teacher in Hungary is being prosecuted for having organised the Pécs Pride, which attracted 8,000 people (including several MEPs). Could face a 3-year suspended sentence and being permanently barred from returning to teaching (he was already fired) www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

🚨 Huge news: the European Union has indefinitely immobilised the Russian Central Bank assets using Article 122 and a qualified majority. This protects the EU against undesirable vetoes (Hungary, Slovakia) and external pressure (US, Russia). Full story.

That's Hungary dealt with. Now on to the final boss: Belgium.

💥One of the many growing similarities between Russia and Hungary is that you can be entirely sure the news is true when the Kremlin denies it — and the same goes for the Orbán government and its spokesman.

After 15 years of Orbán’s rule, media capture in Hungary remains alarming. In @verfassungsblog.de we look at the Blikk acquisition by pro-government Indamedia and explore how the European Media Freedom Act could give the EU more leverage. verfassungsblog.de/curb-media-c...

Same in English, details in Alt text. 1. It's very concerning that such a huge % of TISZA voters and undecided voters seem to support autocracy. 2. Apparently 53% of Fidesz voters do NOT support autocracy. So, uh, what movie have they been watching all this time? Full study: tinyurl.com/4nu3rhpb

Much closer to downtown than Bosnyak ter, I shot this panorama in the Blaha Lujza underpass in 2016, not long before I had to leave Hungary. The accordeonist completed the "1990s Eastern Europe" mood perfectly: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNkM...

✍️ Although he had been considered a candidate for a while, the honor humbled a writer whose childhood hardly predicted his rise to global fame, Victoria Harms writes about Laszlo Krasznahorkai on the occasion of his Nobel Prize in Literature. 🧑‍💻 Read it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/3ud6r8hr

Criminal investigation, dismissed from his job as a teacher, dismissed from music centre where he worked as a mentor… and yet Orban’s government has retained seat in @consilium.europa.eu with Council and VDL Commission still refusing to endorse EP’s finding that HU is no longer a democracy…

‼️EU countries are to fast-track a decision to indefinitely immobilise up to €210bn in Russian sovereign assets, in an attempt to bypass Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán even before Europe’s leaders meet for a summit next week

‼️Unbelievable: Viktor Orbán claimed after his White House visit that he struck an Argentina-style financial safeguard deal with Donald Trump — which the US president denies. Orbán, again, lied to the Hungarian public, his international partners, and investors: www.politico.eu/article/dona...

Fascinating vote analysis on European Parliament votes on Russia by @euobserver.com, with a particular focus on far-right parties:

This is a pretty depressing read. Very few empowering suggestions, let alone solutions. And add to that how passive and (self-)isolated progressive U.S. civil society is, we could be in for a long dark period. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

It's hard to decide who is the bigger liar 🤥

💰SCOOP: Hungary is in advanced talks with Russia on a plan to bypass US sanctions on Serbia’s mostly Russian-owned NIS oil firm by having a Hungarian firm buy shares. My sources say this is foreign minister Péter Szijjártó’s main topic at today’s Moscow trip—just 11 days after Orbán's Kremlin visit.

From @“gmfus.bsky.social : Hungary’s 2026 Elections: The Stakes and Challenges. Information, insights, analysis. Worth watching every second, but key food-for-thought for me: youtu.be/swZ36J4g4KA?...

Meanwhile in Hungary: "What they call 'corruption' is the basis of the whole regime. (...) It's a political point of view, trying to give the word 'corruption' a mythical overrtone." - said Lánczi András, one of Orbán's biggest supporters, way back in 2015. And it's only gotten more blatant since.

Hungarian government-funded propaganda accounts post glossy “This is Viktor Orbán’s Hungary. What do you notice?” videos from downtown Budapest — where Orbán’s family runs luxury hotels. But here’s what a regular major Budapest junction, Bosnyák Square, actually looks like from the tram stop.

“Trump and Putin’s European saboteurs” My piece on a meeting in Brussels of the far-right activists who love MAGA more than they love Europe comment.press/farage1225

A friend sent me this find: Hungarian prime minister unexpectedly visits the regional top dictator in his capital. I wonder what it reminds me of... I can almost read the press release: "We are working together for peace!" :)

⚡️Hungary has blocked EU eurobonds as a Plan B to fund aid for Ukraine—another move that makes Orbán look like a Kremlin puppet. By rejecting joint debt, Hungary undercuts an alternative plan if the EU can’t use frozen Russian assets to finance the €165B loan to Kyiv: www.politico.eu/article/hung...

💰🇷🇺 Viktor Orbán just announced that a large Hungarian business delegation will travel to Moscow in the coming days to discuss economic cooperation. Hungary is preparing for a “post-war world,” Orbán said, as “the sanctions and the war will come to an end” at some point.

This Hungarian assertion looks like a move coordinated with the leaks from the Kremlin, or at least a very interesting coincidence. The message from both capitals is clear: there is no easy alternative plan for financing Ukraine, and the Commission's plan will fail. www.politico.eu/article/hung...

One key battleground we should all keep our eyes very peeled on is Hungary's election in April 2026. PM Viktor Orban is in the balance. If the US's National Security Strategy is now USG policy, we should surely expect some MAGA involvement to help tilt the race in Orban's favour

It's certainly six letters long and starts with an "R", but I'm not sure it's "reason"

from @nickcohen.bsky.social: Europe's fake patriots nickcohen.substack.com/p/the-fake-p...

Fico stopped short of confirming that his gov’t will join #Hungary in challenging the EU’s plan to phase out🇷🇺gas imports by 2027, despite Budapest’s claim that a joint lawsuit at the @eucourtofjustice.bsky.social is underway. He said only that Bratislava has “sufficient grounds” to sue @euractiv.com

love this and love the hungarian word for it too: "holdudvar" literally means "moon court" or "moon yard", very lyrical

🎭Hungary’s pro-government media is celebrating the arrest of former EEAS officials as proof of “EU corruption.” Yet the investigation was initiated by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, the very body the Orbán government dismisses as useless, as one of its officials recently stated in the EP…

AI-driven fake profiles in the #Hungarian campaign - Young, attractive, fans of football, #Orbán and relationship drama: inside the most sophisticated pro-Fidesz fake-profile network on Facebook lakmusz.hu/2025/12/02/y...

📢 My book on Hungarian politics and populist polarisation is out. The online (hybrid) launch is on Monday 8 December at noon GMT, 2-4pm EST in Helsinki. The whole monograph is available open access online from @helsinkiupress.bsky.social - and in paper copies, if anyone is interested 🎉

if you want to understand why #Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony (@europeangreens.eu) is protesting w/ flaming torches rn in front of PM #Orbán 's office & why the 🇭🇺 capital might go bankrupt very soon, I have an OA 🔓 article published at @cjres.bsky.social for you: academic.oup.com/cjres/articl...

In her latest, GMF's Re.ThinkCEE Fellow, Anastasia Mgaloblishvili, examines the engagement of Hungary’s government in Georgia and Serbia and the European Union’s role as a credible promoter of liberal democracy in its neighborhood.
 ➡️ Read it: www.gmfus.org/news/decoupl...

A hetet egy "követőinktől érkezett" posztal indítjuk. Kommentárt nem igénylő fotók. A műveleti biztonságot növelő kitakarást plusz pontokkal jutalmazzuk! #FreeHungary #StandwithUkraine #ruszkikhaza

According to the propaganda of the Hungarian government, anyone not belonging to the ruling party Fidesz is a warmongering puppet of "Brussels" However, when PM Orbán repeats the Russian talking points about the war in Ukraine and serves Russian interests, he's displaying HU's proud sovereignty :)

📉 In Hungary, the economy is ailing — and so is Márton Nagy, once Orbán’s most powerful minister. Since cardiovascular surgery this summer, his health has raised questions. At a hearing last week, he struggled to recall words and asked for help, fueling rumors about his fitness and political future.