The answer to populism is not more populism. Demagogues can be defeated without lies. In the recent U.S. election two extremely untrustworthy candidates tried to outbid each other in telling the biggest lies. You can promise blood, sweat and tears and still be loved.
The Trump phenomenon has left analysts baffled. Who would have thought that such a clown can stand a real chance of becoming the next President of the United States? While most of the experts were still figuring out what on earth has happened, the explanation came from an unlikely source: South Park.
Sharing and digital economies usually thrive together in happy symbiosis. Digitalization, easy access to the Internet, apps and smartphones made sharing behaviors easier, and provided a platform for buyers and sellers to find each other. The question of the digital and sharing economy is not a purely economic or legal one.
Recently, the operations of the newspaper Népszabadság in Hungary were suspended. So what’s the big deal? It was a left to centre newspaper anyway, you will read some other newspaper instead. It generated giant losses, and its numbers have plummeted – you will hear, so the private owners were right to kill it off.
The government of Hungary spent the last few years informing the people with flyers, political surveys and billboards, that the “illegal immigration” is becoming a bigger problem day to day. During this process, lots of misleading or simply incorrect facts came out, not only abut the migrants, but even about the EU itself.
Backing out from NATO responsibilities could not only elicit the United States’ disapproval, but – among others – could also cause bad blood between Hungary and its presumed greatest ally, Poland, as it needs a strong NATO to countervail the power of Russia.
Since the victory of Fidesz-KDNP in the parliamentary elections of 2010, there were no successful political campaigns – not even those run by the governing parties. The only exception is the Two-Tailed Dog Party (Magyar Kétfarkú Kutya Párt, MKKP), which is currently conducting its second poster campaign.
April 20, 2016, marked the beginning of a brand new chapter in the history of the Hungarian radical right-wing party, Jobbik. The party’s leader, Gábor Vona, declared emblematic party leaders Előd Novák, István Szávay, and István Apáti shall not run for the office of the party’s vice president.
The actions of the Fidesz-KDNP government are pushing the public towards dangerous sentiments. According to the latest public polls, a significant number of Hungarians considers the migrants repulsive. The government campaigns are not the sole reason for this situation but they did contribute to this problem.
After 12 years after the abolishment of compulsory military service in Hungary, the debate over the matter was brought back to the political agenda on January 16, 2016, when László Kövér, Speaker of the National Assembly expressed his regret over the abolishment of the compulsory military service and described it as a “disastrous mistake”.
