With no independent media, no checks and balances, no civil oversight, one of the most corrupt governments in the EU can expand on its already immense powers and get even closer to Putin’s Russia. But it is not too late to act and save what remains of civil society in Hungary.
The non-partisan or opposition media in Hungary is in decline as the influence of the government increases, since the populist governing party owns a large part of the local media. The government takes more and more drastic steps to silence voices of dissent.
While it might be too harsh to say that Hungary was near bankrupcy in 2010, or when it was put in the junk category in 2014 we could argue that it was only an overreaction of the market. Still, it would be wrong to say that ’Hungary is doing better’, especially on the regional level.
36% of Hungarians support same-sex marriage, while 56% are against it – according to the latest national representative opinion poll conducted by Budapest Pride and Integrity Lab. The support for legalizing the right is significantly higher: 46% of the respondents would not exclude same-sex couples from having such a possibility.
There is a significant, 7% decrease in the ratio of voters who support the continuation of the present Fidesz government, while the ratio of those who support Jobbik (the radical right party) or a coalition of the leftist, liberal parties has increased – shows the public opinion study by Republikon Institute in November 2016.
The change that hurts the leftist parties the most is the abolishment of the two-round system. This is due to parties having the chance to collaborate before if no absolute majority was achieved. In the new single round system, one can win even with a relative majority.
Only 10% of Hungarian members of parliament are women. This has been basically the case since the change of regime, despite the fact that the participation of women in politics is on the rise all around Europe and the world. And while complete gender equality in political representation is still not feasible in most countries, Hungary is usually at the end of all equality ratings.
Compared to the rest of the civil organizations set out to defend human rights, Pride is less insistent on isolating itself from party politicians: politicians of left-wing and liberal parties typically attend the annual march with high-profile representation.
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.
