Disputed issues involving Hungary should be dealt with at a technical and legal, rather than at a political level, Zoltan Kovacs, Hungary’s state secretary for government communications, told reporters in Vienna on Thursday.
“The (current) political-ideological dispute should be transformed into a meaningful discussion of technical-legal issues,” the state secretary told MTI.
Concerning talks between Hungary and the European Commission, Kovacs insisted that the government had not succumbed to pressure by the EC. “This is a dialogue in which both parties put their arguments forward and in the end there will be a compromise,” he said, adding that Hungary would send its position to the EC within the next 26 days.
If Hungary’s cardinal laws which elicited European criticism prove indeed to be in conflict with EU legislation “they can certainly be adjusted”, Kovacs said.
On the subject of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, the state secretary declined to comment on “guesswork” in connection with the magnitude of financial assistance, but said that the government trusted that an agreement would be reached before the end of March.
Referring to a recent position by the EC’s special team evaluating the freedom of European media, Kovacs said that the government was in disagreement with the team’s critical remarks.
Hungary expects the team to approach issues of European law in an “impartial and unbiased” way, Kovacs said. He also noted that Hungary had amended its media legislation as requested by the Commission.
My only guess is that all this silly rhetoric from Viktor’s henchmen is for internal consumption. The EU and IMF are in charge and so to get themselves reelected the Government is laying it all on them. Reality and politics are unaccustomed bedfellows. Although to some extent what Viktor is doing is understandable — getting and staying in office is job No. 1 for politicians — I’d hope the Hungarian people would come to realize that they are being fed the party line for the benefit of the party. So far, this government has governed chaotically.
@ Cow – holy or not
So, why don’t you let, just as you suggest, the Hungarian people decide whether they are ‘being fed the party line’ or not.
I love it, when people like you, in the name of democracy, patronize and prejudge the Hungarian electorate by telling them what they should or should not be doing.
Your arrogance and disregard for democracy has no limits.
Popular says:
January 27, 2012 at 4:33 pm
I love it, when people like you, in the name of democracy, patronize and prejudge the Hungarian electorate by telling them what they should or should not be doing.
Your arrogance and disregard for democracy has no limits.
—-
But ‘holy cow’ does not write this, instead:
* ‘I’d hope the Hungarian people would come to realize that they are being fed the party line for the benefit of the party’
This is an ‘opinion’
In a democracy, you are allowed to have ‘opinions’ and the usage of ‘opinions’ is to convince other people
So, how is it limitless ‘arrogance and disregard for democracy’ to voice an ‘opinion’?
At least when it is not the Party-line of course
Ok, Vikie, you are trying to be logical. Great. An ‘A’ (as in best grade) for effort.
But, as far as content goes … sorry, but you still don’t make any sense.
When was it ‘feeding someone the party line’ not for the benefit of the party? You are stating the obviouse.
In democracy, to say that someone (one person) knows better than the collective of the electorate, expressed in a free and fair election, is the definition of contempt for democracy and arrogance.
Sorry Vikie, thinking is not just your cup of tee …
Popular’s version of democracy is outshouting and insulting
those with a different opinion. It’s pretty clear he has
the party line down pat. LOL. It’s really a lot of fun
to see the Viktorites get their panties in a twist.
Popular says:
January 27, 2012 at 8:05 pm
In democracy, to say that someone (one person) knows better than the collective of the electorate, expressed in a free and fair election, is the definition of contempt for democracy and arrogance
—
Aaahh, so that is what you guys were doing in 2002 and 2006, then
* “contempt for democracy and arrogance”
Vikieeeee
You are trying toooo hard 
Now be careful, dear, you might overextend your tiny little brain.
Till now I thought onl;y reasoning was difficult for you, but I see now that you have problems with memory as well. Maybe it is only a ‘senior moment come early’?:)
Hey Cow, try first answering my questions
and after go into the ad hominem stuff, if you know what I mean 
After that you can shout. prior to that it sounds rather silly.
Popular says:
January 27, 2012 at 11:20 pm
you have problems with memory
—
Did or did not Fidesz and MIEP/Jobbik complain after the elections in 2002 and 2006 that they knew “better than the collective of the electorate, expressed in a free and fair election”?
I remember that well,but I do understand you you already forgot that, also
But I heard that sucking a carrot is good for memory, so maybe you should do that while waiting for Godot?
@Popular
Your logic is faulty when you write, “to say that someone (one person) knows better than the collective of the electorate, expressed in a free and fair election, is the definition of contempt for democracy and arrogance.”
Here’s a test: if a physician with decades of experience gives his/her medical opinion about your health, do you say instead that you want to take a vote of the people walking on the street?
The same thing holds in politics; democracy’s weakness is that ill-informed amateurs are tasked with choosing the best experts for the job of running the government. If someone (say, Gyurcsány or Orbán) runs a campaign based on lies, then how does the average citizen know how to see through these lies? The experts and people who are in the know are aware of the lies, but they can be silenced or discredited in various ways. Thus successful democracies have checks and balances, along with rules that make it very difficult to change the basic law (like requiring a 2/3 vote in a referendum), while also allowing the opposition to have a significant say in decisions that affect the nation. The communists came to power in 1949 through a democratic process, though true democracy was subverted. We shall see whether Fidesz has the courage to try the same thing for the next national elections.
So you see, one person *can* know better than the electorate, especially when the electorate has been systematically lied to. That does not mean that democracy should not reign, but there should be an opportunity for the people to change their minds sooner than four years later, especially when they find that the government they elected is very different than the government they thought they were electing.
@MagyarViking
Thanks!!!!!In my opinion: An ‘A’ for the effort and also for the content.
The great philospher Popular can not handle it though. Look below…starts insulting right away and than you can be very sure you won the “battle”
“this government has governed chaotically.”
Maybe your 30,000 at the Opera House protest say so, but over 400,000 showed their support for the Orban government last weekend. Did you see the latest polls showing Fidesz still has a majority of Hungarian voters supporting them.
They are right in saying that all the attacks against them are ideological. All globalist(ultra-left wing) organizations and left-wing parties in Europe and the world have been viciously attacking this conservative government. No surprise as Barroso is a professed Maoist. They hate, yes HATE the fact that the Fidesz government is not following their line like blind sheep. They hate the fact that they are expressing the Christian values of Hungary (Christophobes). At least the Fidesz government doesn’t rob and steal from the people like the socialists did and send it to off shore companies.
Barroso is a professed Maoist? Oh my…..Breaking news.
Talk about hate….there are few comments who are tasting more hate than yours.
Calling names, insulting people, deep hatred towards anyone who does not agree.
Visitor you are a very good example of why the VO government is completely isolated within the EU.
Now…time to think what will happen if Hungary will leave the EU. Not so unlikely anymore is it?
“Barroso is a professed Maoist? Oh my…..Breaking news.”
You must have lived under a rock in a cave.
In the mean time, every (EVERY) other nation within the EU is respecting him for being a very good President of the European Commission. Except by the VO fans who hate him and what the EU stands for like hell. But do not take the next, very obvious and honourable step to leave. Because…….of the money only.
Such a double game….such a shame.
<<<>>>
“Barroso’s political activity began in his late teens, during the Estado Novo regime in Portugal, before the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974. In his college days, he was one of the leaders of the underground Maoist MRPP (Reorganising Movement of the Proletariat Party, later PCTP/MRPP, Communist Party of the Portuguese Workers/Revolutionary Movement of the Portuguese Proletariat). In an interview with the newspaper Expresso, he said that he had joined MRPP to fight the only other student body movement, also underground, which was controlled by the Portuguese Communist Party. Despite this justification there is a very famous political 1976 interview recorded by the Portuguese state-run television channel — RTP, in which Barroso, as a politically minded student during the post-Carnation Revolution turmoil known as PREC, criticises the bourgeois education system which “throws students against workers and workers against students”, showing clear left-wing and Maoist inclinations.[3]”
Source: Wikipedia
See, I told you he was a MAOIST!!! Regards
Yes, and Fidesz Founder and Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament is a Communist, partner with Gyurvsany…
Of course, Fidesz is engaging in corruption. Why do you think government procurement has not been reformed?
It is corruption to use political power to find jobs for party members who place loyalty to the party above the Consitution and the State and it is corruption to hold non-transparent auctions that award government tracks to companies that are best known for their political donations to Fidesz.
One of the reasons that IMF will require reform of Hungarian procurement is that it is still non- transparent and hence subject to abuse.
As for your brave words of defiance, the government is paying higher interest rates than it is enjoying in nominal GDP growth. That means Hungarian public debt is becoming a bigger and bigger and actually rising as a percentage of Hungary’s GDP.
Fidesz cannot escape the consequences of its economic policies.
@Ugly,
“Of course, Fidesz is engaging in corruption…
It is corruption to use political power to find jobs for party members who place loyalty to the party above the Consitution and the State and it is corruption to hold non-transparent auctions that award government tracks to companies that are best known for their political donations to Fidesz”
I agree…this type of behaviour was foreign in Hungarian politics until Fidesz!!!
Those…those…mean people…those …those…stinkers!!
@JA
Aside from the usual lame attempt at sarcasm and belittling those who disagree with you, your whole argument boils down to: “everyone who came before Fidesz was doing it, so now it’s Fidesz’s turn”. Nowhere did AiB say anything about the previous government. He wrote something that is true, did not insult you or anyone else, and all you can do is throw logic out the window and call him “Ugly” and revert to childish retorts devoid of meaning or substance. I’d bet a significant amount of money that you are not exactly beautiful, so what difference does it matter what he looks like?
You have no class at all.
@SE – “I’d bet a significant amount of money …..”
Would you bet four pigs?
-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine
@CG
Haha, yeah, I read that article earlier today, too! I guess that woman wasn’t considered a great beauty in Papua New Guinea, since the taxi driver’s wife fetched 30 pigs!
Pot – Kettle. Orbán is just as much ideologically and politically motivated as his critics in Europe.
\Your arrogance and disregard for democracy has no limits.\
Indeed, well put. That’s a well-known common feature of these left-liberal “democrats”.
Leto says:
January 28, 2012 at 2:38 am
Indeed, well put. That’s a well-known common feature of these left-liberal “democrats”
—
Of course, we all know that Fidesz/”Jobbik” are just so left-liberals, then as
Popular says:
January 27, 2012 at 8:05 pm
In democracy, to say that someone (one person) knows better than the collective of the electorate, expressed in a free and fair election, is the definition of contempt for democracy and arrogance
—
Leading to what Fidesz and MIEP/”Jobbik” were saying in 2002 and 2006, was then
* “contempt for democracy and arrogance”
You cannot question the Government, then that is contempt
Fidesz is running with this argument now that the current opposition is ‘not legitimise’
Check out this latest example:
(-http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2092670/The-huge-protest-Budapest-showed-Hungarians-support-government–wasnt-reported.html)
It has this wonderful ending:
-
“The role of the opposition is vital in any democracy as long as it works for the country. When the opposition stops playing by the rules of democracy and starts an overt verbal war against the country and its lawful government soliciting the support of their politically motivated foreign allies, that opposition loses its legitimacy
The huge demonstration in Budapest on 21 January showed the world that the majority of Hungarian voters continue to support the government and its policies”
-
Here Andrea Hossó claims that an opposition never can go abroad to seek support, even inside its own union, the EU
So that means that Fidesz/”Jobbik” also lost their legitimacy after they both went abroad, to the EU and to the US and told about the riots in Hungary in 2006. Must be that Fidesz/”Jobbik” are living in another dimension, where these petty things like logic of argument is not necessary
To claim that the 5% of the Hungarian electorate who demonstrated on January 21st represents the “majority of Hungarian voters” is of course all shiny nice ‘New Speak’
You don’t understand democracy. Holy Cow is expressing his political opinion and that is protected by the right of free expression.
And everyone outside of Hungary knows that the Hungarians are a backward people.
I ran into a German just yesterday and we both agree that Hungary is not a normal country. Hungary never had strong institutions capable of withstanding attacks by powerful parties. Both Miklos Horthy and the last 20 years have shown that the Hungarian people can be easily manipulated by nationalism into making all sorts of egregious decisions from quotas placed on the Jewish population to gutting checks and balances.
@American in Budapest
What, exactly, is a “normal country”? I love the fact that you use an example of a conversation with a German, of all nationalities! They have definitely had experiences with weak institutions and strong parties (as well as “egregious decisions” regarding Jewish folk), so they should maybe show a little understanding when talking about nations which have had only a couple of decades of experience with it.
Hungarians are no more “backward” than Greeks, Italians, Slovaks, and Poles, to name a few local EU states that have recently either dealt with autocratic-minded leaders or flushed their economies down a toilet through poor governance.
How “backward” are the citizens of the U.S.? Very few Hungarians are denying the science behind climate change or giving their government the all-clear to start unnecessary wars that bankrupt their treasury. The Hungarian government is a travesty, but at least it isn’t allowing their banks to become so powerful that they plunge the country into a financial crisis. Also, the U.S. has been dropped even further down the list than Hungary when it comes to freedom of the press (see article on this site entitled: “Hungary Tumbles Down Press Freedom Rankings”). Who’s “backward” now?
You’ll note that I didn’t insult you personally; all I ask is that you stop wantonly insulting Hungarians in this manner. It really hurts your credibility, and makes you look like a jerk. Plus, some client of yours might figure out who you are and stop doing business with you, and spread the word among your other business contacts. As you might have figured out, Hungarians can be a nationalistic lot, much like Americans.
@Arrogant, vile and ignorant Jewish son of a bitch in Budapest:
“quotas placed on the Jewish population”
Just like like the ones used in the US between 1918 and the 1950s:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerus_clausus#Numerus_clausus_in_the_United_States
“Although never officially legislated, between 1918 and the 1950s a number of private universities and medical schools introduced numerus clausus policies limiting admissions of students based on their religion or race to certain percentages within the college population. One of the groups affected by these policies was Jewish applicants, whose admission to some New England and New York City-area liberal arts universities fell significantly between the late 1910s and the mid-1930s.[4] For instance, the admission to Harvard University during that period fell from 27.6% to 17.1% and in Columbia University from 32.7% to 14.6%. Corresponding quotas were introduced in the medical and dental schools resulting during the 1930s in the decline of Jewish students: e.g. in Cornell University School of Medicine from 40% in 1918–22 to 3.57% in 1940–41, in Boston University Medical School from 48.4% in 1929–30 to 12.5% in 1934–35. During this period, a notable exception among U. S. medical schools was the medical school of Middlesex University, which had no quotas and many Jewish faculty members and students; school officials believed that antisemitism played a role in the school’s failure to secure AMA accreditation”
@Leto,
“Just like like the ones used in…”
Stop reacting! It’s time for people like Ugly to ‘just get over it and move on’ don’t you think?
It’s all in the past. As he him has suggested to others with historical grievances….enough already
sorry Leto, above post from me
oops a typo…As he himself has suggested…
The Western European left has a shameful history of apologizing for and defending the most reprehensible behavior of Central and Eastern European leftists. This goes back to the western apologists for the human-rights atrocities of the communist regimes.
This Fidesz government was voted into power with an overwhelming majority because the Hungarian left had sent the once promising Hungarian economy into a nosedive caused by an orgy of mendacious corruption. These corrupt oligarchs are now rightly terrified that the organs of government that they thought they bought and paid for are now slipping out of their control.
To the contrary, Western Europe, including the Leftists, contained communism during the Cold War.
As for corruption, plenty of companies that gave money to Fidesz are lining up to get contracts where were subject to public tenders and auctions.
One of the conditions of IMF funds will be that this procurement process is made transparent.
The reality is that the Hungarian economy is in worse shape than when Bajnai left office. Fidesz has refused to tackle the structural deficits plaguing the Hungarian economy.
The Ballad of Orban Viktor (prologue)
The sword shall not sleep in its scabbard until all the cynical communists and other
enemies of the state are defeated and the land of our fathers is once again singing
to the sound of music and the wine is flowing in abundance and the bogrács bubbling with húsleves thereupon a delicious aroma permeates the air confirming the expectations of a magnificent dinner in which we celebrate a glorious and legendary victory over those detractors that doubted our strength and ingenuity (against all odds)in repelling the invaders that sought to steal the Holy Crown. The never-ending struggle against these villains will continue unabated ‘til every last one of them is hunted down and brought before the Courts of Justice where they will be given a fair trial and then sentenced to be hanged by the neck until they are no longer a burden to the government and people of this great nation…
…The pledge to everyone is that the land previously snatched from us under the most heinous of circumstances will be returned to its rightful owner and the Trianon injustice will be put to bed/or the sword once-and-for-all in our lifetime! Before all this can be accomplished the Magnificence has issues to settle with the IMF, EU, Central Bank, European Court of Justice, (and the wife is also playing up at the moment).
But, fear not, because these matters are mere trifles and can be sorted out in an instant.
In fact, before you can say, “Andras Simor, I told you so!” Then the real business can start in respect of the canonization for the multitudinous and wondrous achievements our dear leader has carried out on behalf of each and every one of you.
The Omnipotence is not dead (yet) in order that the criteria for the sainthood is met but, many ungrateful wretches wish he were/was and that, in Orbanisztan, makes the difference. In recognition of this immaculate aggrandizement the acceptance speech begins:
“A surplus of sanctimonious jetsam and flotsam washed up on the high tide has spewed forth a plethora of iniquitous propaganda launched by the liberal, j-wfish press, against a most noble and legendary hero of the Hungarian people…” and so on and so forth, ad infinitum.