“A right-wing and at times far-right media hegemony prevails in Hungary, and I ever more often feel that Radio Free Europe or the BBC’s Hungarian-language service should be restored, to state the basic facts,” Hungarian-born writer Paul Lendvai said in an interview with Népszabadság on Wednesday.
Lendvai added that “regrettably there is no charismatic, right-wing Hungarian moderate like Poland’s Donald Tusk, and there is not nearly as much tolerance as in the Czech Republic, where the dual Swiss-Czech citizen Karel Schwarzenberg, a Bavarian property and Vienna hotel owner, is foreign minister and could even become head of state”.
He expressed qualified optimism, however, reasoning that Hungary is a small state and needs competent people with integrity; “and sooner or later a statesman will appear in the political arena who realises this, and acts accordingly”.
Lendvai presented his latest book Magyarok: Gy zelmek és kudarcok (Hungarians: Victories and Fiascos) to the media in Bratislava on Tuesday evening.
