Europe
Hungary is starting to look a bit like Russia. Here’s why
Hungary, a member of the European Union and NATO, is no autocracy, but after eight years of Orban�..
Hungary, a member of the European Union and NATO, is no autocracy, but after eight years of Orban's rule, its political system has begun to resemble Russia's.The space for civil society and a functional independent media in Hungary is shrinking rapidly. A law passed in 2011 redrew the lines on the electoral map, in what opposition parties and the media criticized as blatant gerrymandering.Orban, 54, has made no secret of his admiration for Russia's political system. He has proudly described his vision for Hungary as an "illiberal democracy," a phrase that brings Russia's "sovereign democracy" to mind, both euphemistic terms for an autocratic style of governance.Orban served first as prime minister from 1998 to 2002, but it was after he was again elected in 2010 that he and Putin began meeting annually. And like Putin, Orban has surrounded himself with a powerful group of businesspeople. He has also come under scrutiny for awarding contracts to a small number of businessmen and family members, according to a Reuters analysis. His spokesman, Zoltan Kovacs, brushed off these allegations to CNN, saying it was "up to the courts to decide" in such cases.Ironically, Orban launched his political career in 1989 with a hard-hitting speech demanding that Soviet forces leave the country after more than 40 years of occupation."For two decades, Orban was probably the staunchest anti-Russian politician in the whole of Eastern Europe," said Andras Racz, a Russian expert and senior research fellow at the Centre for Strategic and Defense Studies in Budapest.That all changed when he was elected for the second time in 2010, when his public rhetoric on Russia began to take on a positive tone.In a recent report looking at Russian meddling in Austrian, Czech and Hungarian elections, the Budapest-based Political Capital research institute said Hungary was the most vulnerable of the three countries. "Hungary represents a case where the government has enabled space for Kremlin interference to shore up its own political strength, which is largely based on anti-migrant and anti-European integration policies," the report says.Kovacs dismissed the idea that Russia wielded influence on Orban or his government as "stupid.""There's not one element of our policies that can suggest to you that we're closer to Russia or Mr. Putin in any way than any Western European country," he said.
Russia's playbook
But some of Hungary's new policies look like they're straight out of Russia's playbook.Hungary passed a law last year that imposes restrictions on nongovernmental organizations receiving foreign funding. The law looks almost identical to Russia's Foreign Agent Law, which has been used to crack down on opposition voices and independent media.The Hungarian law requires NGOs receiving more than 24,000 euros from foreign entities to register with the government and disclose their sources. Orban has argued it is necessary for transparency and to stamp out money laundering, but Hungarian NGOs see it as an attempt specifically to target organizations funded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros. Soros's Open Society Foundations has been banned from Russia, which sees the organization as a security threat. The Hungarian government has since last year vilified Soros in countless billboards across the country. One pictures him with opposition party leaders, and another says, "Let's not allow Soros to have the last laugh!"
Peter Szijjarto, the country's foreign affairs minister, defended the campaign, labeling Soros a "national security risk," in a statement. He accused the financier of wanting to demolish a border security fence and "settle hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in Europe and Hungary." Soros's spokesman said his views have been misrepresented. Soros was born in Hungary to a Jewish family and fled to the UK in the 1940s to escape Nazi occupation. He later immigrated to the United States, where he became one of the world's richest investors and a philanthropist. In fact, it was thanks to a Soros-funded scholarship that Orban was able to study at the University of Oxford.The anti-Soros campaign sits uncomfortably close to a resurgence of anti-Semitism in the country, which has entered Hungarian politics in parliamentary debate.Kovacs told CNN that while Hungary must allow open borders to EU citizens as a member of the bloc, it did not want any migration at all beyond that. He praised Hungary's border fences with Serbia and Croatia, built in 2015 specifically to keep asylum seekers out.
Orban's control of the media
Journalist Anita Komuves, 35, says she is targeted by the government on two fronts — first because she's a reporter and second as someone who works for an NGO receiving funding from Soros.Komuves worked for Hungary's largest opposition print newspaper, Nepszabadsag, for 11 years before it was shut down suddenly in 2016. She found out about the closure from a news alert on her phone.The government denies shutting it down, but Komuves says that it "was obviously a political decision.""It was because we uncovered too many stories about corruption."The company that owned the newspaper, Mediaworks, was sold just weeks later to Lorinc Meszaros, a close Orban ally. "This way, they took over TV channels, several radio channels, the biggest news portal, a few weekly magazines and the entire regional media outside Budapest," Komuves said.
Komuves thought about leaving her profession, but she found a job with Atlatszo, an NGO of journalists, hackers and lawyers, one of the few remaining independent media organizations left in the country In a recent article, she argued that while there was evidence of Russian trolling and fake news sites in Hungary, Moscow didn't need to try particularly hard to influence the vote, because Orban and his government already lean toward Moscow and they lead in the polls.State media has also expanded under Orban and is working as a propaganda machine, Komuves said. It has picked up a significant number of news stories by Russia's Sputnik and Russia Today, both widely considered mouthpieces of the Russian government.Orban has also used the law to clamp down on the media, spearheading legislation that established a new parliament-appointed media control body that fined media outlets for "imbalanced" news coverage, or content that the body considers "insulting" to the majority. The financial crisis of 2008 left many media organizations open to takeovers. Around 90% of Hungary's media is now either directly or indirectly controlled by Orban's Fidesz party, according to Marius Dragomir, director at the Centre for Media, Data and Society at the Central European University's School of Public Policy. Writing in a blog post for the London School of economics, he described the situation as "a classic case of media capture."The widely watched TV2 was bought by a Hungarian-American former Hollywood producer, Andy Vajna, who had worked in Orban's government. He won the procurement in a legal battle against Lajos Simicska, a media tycoon and friend-turned-foe of Orban.Swaths of local media were also bought up by Meszaros, an Orban ally who rose from working as a gas fitter to become a wealthy businessman and the mayor of the town where Orban was born, Felcsut.
Orban's football obsession
It was one of Meszaros's companies that built a large football stadium right across from Orban's childhood home in Felcsut.It seats 3,500 people in the town of just 1,600, and has been ridiculed in independent media as a vanity project for the soccer-obsessed leader.Besides the stadium, there is little going on in Felcsut. Along a dusty stretch of road there are two small grocery stores, a rundown coffee shop and a tobacconist.The stadium represents much of what Hungarians are becoming frustrated with — corruption allegations have begun to spread through Orban's government and questions are regularly raised about the way lucrative government contracts are awarded. 
Janosne Abraham, a 59-year-old woman who works at the larger of Felcsut's two grocery stores, is vocally critical of Orban."Where is all the money? He just steals it all and doesn't spend it on anything useful, like healthcare," she said."That football stadium is a waste. It costs so much to light up and clean, and it hasn't brought in money for the town."Abraham isn't happy about Orban's relationship with Putin either.
She points to a nuclear power plant project that Hungary awarded to Russia's state-owned Rosatom,saying that she was worried her country would become too dependent on Russia for energy. The project was controversial because Hungary awarded the contract to Rosatom without a tender process and without revealing its costs to the state budget. The European Commission originally opposed the funding plan, which involved a 10 billion-euro investment from Russia, but after an investigation it gave it the green light.Kovacs defended the government's process, saying that only Russia had the experience and the technology to carry it out. He denied there was anything opaque about it.But even for those fed up with Orban, there are few feasible alternatives. The opposition is fragmented and no other party appears to have a real chance of winning.A woman with her children playing on the street in Felcsut said she would vote for Orban's party because, "This town is all Fidesz. It's better to stay silent and not get into conflicts."She is disappointed with allegations of government corruption, but she points out Orban's government wouldn't be Hungary's first to misuse funds. "They're all the same."
Original Article
-
Australia4 years agoButton and Diane Powellpark the school bus after three decades
-
Australia4 years ago
Button and Diane Powellpark the school bus after three decades
-
Europe2 years agoCovid: Flights shut down as EU discusses UK virus threat
-
Europe2 years agoPost-Brexit trade: Is red tape chaos just ‘teething trouble’ as the UK government argues?
-
Tech3 years agoSearch engine startup asks users to be the customer, not the product
-
Tech1 year agoSign up to The Independent’s free cryptocurrency expert panel event
-
Health2 years ago
Spain ‘to register’ those who refuse to have Covid-19 vaccine
-
Arts5 years agoHow a chain-link mosque at the Vancouver Biennale became a community hub
Europe
Hungary is starting to look a bit like Russia. Here’s why
Hungary, a member of the European Union and NATO, is no autocracy, but after eight years of Orban�..
Hungary, a member of the European Union and NATO, is no autocracy, but after eight years of Orban's rule, its political system has begun to resemble Russia's.The space for civil society and a functional independent media in Hungary is shrinking rapidly. A law passed in 2011 redrew the lines on the electoral map, in what opposition parties and the media criticized as blatant gerrymandering.Orban, 54, has made no secret of his admiration for Russia's political system. He has proudly described his vision for Hungary as an "illiberal democracy," a phrase that brings Russia's "sovereign democracy" to mind, both euphemistic terms for an autocratic style of governance.Orban served first as prime minister from 1998 to 2002, but it was after he was again elected in 2010 that he and Putin began meeting annually. And like Putin, Orban has surrounded himself with a powerful group of businesspeople. He has also come under scrutiny for awarding contracts to a small number of businessmen and family members, according to a Reuters analysis. His spokesman, Zoltan Kovacs, brushed off these allegations to CNN, saying it was "up to the courts to decide" in such cases.Ironically, Orban launched his political career in 1989 with a hard-hitting speech demanding that Soviet forces leave the country after more than 40 years of occupation."For two decades, Orban was probably the staunchest anti-Russian politician in the whole of Eastern Europe," said Andras Racz, a Russian expert and senior research fellow at the Centre for Strategic and Defense Studies in Budapest.That all changed when he was elected for the second time in 2010, when his public rhetoric on Russia began to take on a positive tone.In a recent report looking at Russian meddling in Austrian, Czech and Hungarian elections, the Budapest-based Political Capital research institute said Hungary was the most vulnerable of the three countries. "Hungary represents a case where the government has enabled space for Kremlin interference to shore up its own political strength, which is largely based on anti-migrant and anti-European integration policies," the report says.Kovacs dismissed the idea that Russia wielded influence on Orban or his government as "stupid.""There's not one element of our policies that can suggest to you that we're closer to Russia or Mr. Putin in any way than any Western European country," he said.
Russia's playbook
But some of Hungary's new policies look like they're straight out of Russia's playbook.Hungary passed a law last year that imposes restrictions on nongovernmental organizations receiving foreign funding. The law looks almost identical to Russia's Foreign Agent Law, which has been used to crack down on opposition voices and independent media.The Hungarian law requires NGOs receiving more than 24,000 euros from foreign entities to register with the government and disclose their sources. Orban has argued it is necessary for transparency and to stamp out money laundering, but Hungarian NGOs see it as an attempt specifically to target organizations funded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros. Soros's Open Society Foundations has been banned from Russia, which sees the organization as a security threat. The Hungarian government has since last year vilified Soros in countless billboards across the country. One pictures him with opposition party leaders, and another says, "Let's not allow Soros to have the last laugh!"Peter Szijjarto, the country's foreign affairs minister, defended the campaign, labeling Soros a "national security risk," in a statement. He accused the financier of wanting to demolish a border security fence and "settle hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in Europe and Hungary." Soros's spokesman said his views have been misrepresented. Soros was born in Hungary to a Jewish family and fled to the UK in the 1940s to escape Nazi occupation. He later immigrated to the United States, where he became one of the world's richest investors and a philanthropist. In fact, it was thanks to a Soros-funded scholarship that Orban was able to study at the University of Oxford.The anti-Soros campaign sits uncomfortably close to a resurgence of anti-Semitism in the country, which has entered Hungarian politics in parliamentary debate.Kovacs told CNN that while Hungary must allow open borders to EU citizens as a member of the bloc, it did not want any migration at all beyond that. He praised Hungary's border fences with Serbia and Croatia, built in 2015 specifically to keep asylum seekers out.
Orban's control of the media
Journalist Anita Komuves, 35, says she is targeted by the government on two fronts — first because she's a reporter and second as someone who works for an NGO receiving funding from Soros.Komuves worked for Hungary's largest opposition print newspaper, Nepszabadsag, for 11 years before it was shut down suddenly in 2016. She found out about the closure from a news alert on her phone.The government denies shutting it down, but Komuves says that it "was obviously a political decision.""It was because we uncovered too many stories about corruption."The company that owned the newspaper, Mediaworks, was sold just weeks later to Lorinc Meszaros, a close Orban ally. "This way, they took over TV channels, several radio channels, the biggest news portal, a few weekly magazines and the entire regional media outside Budapest," Komuves said.Komuves thought about leaving her profession, but she found a job with Atlatszo, an NGO of journalists, hackers and lawyers, one of the few remaining independent media organizations left in the country In a recent article, she argued that while there was evidence of Russian trolling and fake news sites in Hungary, Moscow didn't need to try particularly hard to influence the vote, because Orban and his government already lean toward Moscow and they lead in the polls.State media has also expanded under Orban and is working as a propaganda machine, Komuves said. It has picked up a significant number of news stories by Russia's Sputnik and Russia Today, both widely considered mouthpieces of the Russian government.Orban has also used the law to clamp down on the media, spearheading legislation that established a new parliament-appointed media control body that fined media outlets for "imbalanced" news coverage, or content that the body considers "insulting" to the majority. The financial crisis of 2008 left many media organizations open to takeovers. Around 90% of Hungary's media is now either directly or indirectly controlled by Orban's Fidesz party, according to Marius Dragomir, director at the Centre for Media, Data and Society at the Central European University's School of Public Policy. Writing in a blog post for the London School of economics, he described the situation as "a classic case of media capture."The widely watched TV2 was bought by a Hungarian-American former Hollywood producer, Andy Vajna, who had worked in Orban's government. He won the procurement in a legal battle against Lajos Simicska, a media tycoon and friend-turned-foe of Orban.Swaths of local media were also bought up by Meszaros, an Orban ally who rose from working as a gas fitter to become a wealthy businessman and the mayor of the town where Orban was born, Felcsut.
Orban's football obsession
It was one of Meszaros's companies that built a large football stadium right across from Orban's childhood home in Felcsut.It seats 3,500 people in the town of just 1,600, and has been ridiculed in independent media as a vanity project for the soccer-obsessed leader.Besides the stadium, there is little going on in Felcsut. Along a dusty stretch of road there are two small grocery stores, a rundown coffee shop and a tobacconist.The stadium represents much of what Hungarians are becoming frustrated with — corruption allegations have begun to spread through Orban's government and questions are regularly raised about the way lucrative government contracts are awarded. Janosne Abraham, a 59-year-old woman who works at the larger of Felcsut's two grocery stores, is vocally critical of Orban."Where is all the money? He just steals it all and doesn't spend it on anything useful, like healthcare," she said."That football stadium is a waste. It costs so much to light up and clean, and it hasn't brought in money for the town."Abraham isn't happy about Orban's relationship with Putin either.She points to a nuclear power plant project that Hungary awarded to Russia's state-owned Rosatom,saying that she was worried her country would become too dependent on Russia for energy. The project was controversial because Hungary awarded the contract to Rosatom without a tender process and without revealing its costs to the state budget. The European Commission originally opposed the funding plan, which involved a 10 billion-euro investment from Russia, but after an investigation it gave it the green light.Kovacs defended the government's process, saying that only Russia had the experience and the technology to carry it out. He denied there was anything opaque about it.But even for those fed up with Orban, there are few feasible alternatives. The opposition is fragmented and no other party appears to have a real chance of winning.A woman with her children playing on the street in Felcsut said she would vote for Orban's party because, "This town is all Fidesz. It's better to stay silent and not get into conflicts."She is disappointed with allegations of government corruption, but she points out Orban's government wouldn't be Hungary's first to misuse funds. "They're all the same."
Original Article
Madrid Journal – Italian and Greek media seem to lose patience with how the Belgian authorities are dealing with corruption case in the European Parliamentary. The ill treatment of the Belgian judiciary became very obvious where the prosecution is practically employing blackmail as a tactic to get Eva Kaili to confess despite her pleading innocence from day one. According to the report of the Italian newspaper, the Belgian judges investigating the Qatargate scandal allegedly exerted illegal undue pressure on Eva Kaili, suggesting that she confess her guilt, with the promise that she will be released from prison.
It should be noted that after the conclusion of the last hearing, the lawyers of Eva Kaili complained that their client was kept in solitary confinement for six hours, speaking of torture reminiscent of the Middle Ages and a violation of human rights.
Today the Italian newspaper brings to light the aforementioned claim of the well-known criminologist Michalis Dimitrakopoulos.
“She has not agreed to confess to something she has not done”
“From the first moment they suggested that Eva Kaili plead guilty and be released from prison so that she can finally hug her daughter again,” says Dimitrakopoulos, clarifying however that his client , who has been claiming innocence since day one, has always denied it.
“Despite the fact that being away from her little girl is the greatest psychological torture, she has not agreed to confess to something she has not done,” adds the Greek lawyer.
As also stated in the publication “she does not want her daughter to inherit the stigma that her mother was a corrupt female politician, because it is not true”.
The same publication also states that: “The former Greek TV journalist was immediately acquitted by her partner Giorgi, but the investigators did not believe the couple’s version, convinced that the woman belonged to Pantzeri’s network and tried to help him disappear the money from the funds. In fact, they accused her of bribery and of trying to hide the fruits of a crime.”
What will be her next move
The next moves Dimitrakopoulos plans for Eva Kaili are to build a profile of a woman deeply scarred by the month and a half she spent behind bars in Haren prison, the newspaper says.
“She was shaking as she told the judge, who was also a woman, about the torture she suffered, not in prison, but in a police cell. What he experienced – says the lawyer – is reminiscent of the movie ‘Midnight Express’, but unfortunately this is happening in the center of Europe”.
The indictment against the allegedly aggressive methods of the Belgian justice system ends with the announcement of the next legal move by Eva Kaili’s defense team: “Next week we will appeal to the Supreme Court, announces Dimitrakopoulos. When someone is arrested they are immediately protected by the law. I wonder if it was the same in Brussels.”
Adults-only resort overlooking the shores of a private lake, the Seehof Nature Retreat has 40 rooms, including suites and doubles, with lake view or garden view. The wellness rite to clarify ideas about what to do in the future is carried out in the spa, it is the Aufguss, the infusion of vapors with essential oils which is carried out by a sauna master. The swimming pool is heated and can therefore also be used in winter, while the lake is frozen, so only the bravest will go and get their feet wet after a session in the sauna. Those who can’t sit still can go skiing in the Gitschberg/Jochtal and Plose/Bressanone areas, on the way back, massage with alpine herb pads or with arnica and St. John’s wort to soothe the muscles. The stay is all-inclusive (with a four-course gourmet dinner); the half board is on request.
Langhe House / Cerretto Langhe (Cuneo)
The Alta Langa is a land of great reds and also of sparkling wines, hazelnuts, cheeses and castles. Heritage of biodiversity, it is a land that tries to defend its relationship with nature, limiting highways and new constructions.
The result is Casa di Langa, a five-star resort amidst hazelnut groves and vineyards, which renounces single-use plastic, focuses on energy independence and recycles water for the irrigation of its vineyards and biodynamic vegetable gardens which Luigi Merlo, the gardener, takes care of Daniel Zeilinga, the executive chef, with two years of experience alongside Enrico Crippa at the Piazza Duomo restaurant in Alba. Aromatic herbs, edible flowers, ancient varieties all that grows is needed at the Sorì Cocktail Bar, which favors infusions for drinks, the Fàula restaurant, which has just entered the Michelin guide, and the Spa.
Villa Gelsomino / Santa Margherita Ligure
An 18th-century villa, Art Nouveau details and 5 sea-view suites, with original frescoes and Genoese grit floors. Villa Gelsomino is the project of three friends, who transformed the house into a boutique hotel reserved for adults only. The structure uses green energy, is plastic-free, and compensates for C02 emissions by planting trees around the world. You stay among a few guests and in the quiet, on request, there are private yoga and pilates lessons and you get around with electric scooters and e-cycles.
Gallicantu / Luogosanto (Sassari)
They are the new refuges for travelers who have already experienced everything; the pens, the rural settlements where the animals are rounded up, in the Sardinian Gallura are small treasure properties, created among the blocks of granite, sheltered from the confusion of the coast (but the beaches are always short range). Gallicantu, a micro-resort revisited by architect Jean Claude Lesuisse, with just five rooms and two suites, is close to Luogosanto (its name comes from the 22 country churches in the area), Tempio, where Fabrizio De André had chosen to live, and the beautiful Aggius, which is part of the authentic villages of Italy. If you wish, instead of reaching the Costa Smeralda, you can stop by the pool, among the olive trees. There is also a wellness area with sauna, Turkish bath, emotional showers. The pre-nuragic cave of the property is instead intended for the tasting of wines, cold cuts and cheeses.
Cape of Senses / Torri del Benaco (Verona)
55 lake view suites, three swimming pools, one of which is sports and two infinity, adults-only Spa, with fitness and yoga platforms, two restaurants, a 15,000-metre property among the retreats in Italy that will make headlines in 2023 is the Cape of Senses, which will open in July in Albisano, above Torri del Benaco, on Lake Garda. Designed by Hugo and Alessia Demetz, the hotel will be an oasis where you can stay for three days or more: upon request, you can sleep in a mobile structure, in direct contact with the stars. Two restaurants, At sunset, with gourmet à la carte cuisine, and La Pergola, with traditional cuisine served on the panoramic terrace.
This article was originally published on GQ (Italiana Edition)
According to the same sources, Eva Kaili’s lawyer, Michalis Dimitrakopoulos said that the Greek politician was “happy to see her child again after a month”. Mother and daughter “played together for about two hours and twenty minutes. The room was very nice and I didn’t feel like I was in a prison,” he added.
Then the well-known criminologist revealed that in the coming days the child will again return to Haren prison to see his mother.
It is noted that in the previous period the Eva Kaili had complained that they did not allow her to see her daughter, a claim denied by the Belgian authorities, stating that detained mothers can see their children at predetermined times, while they have the possibility – if they wish – to keep them in specially designed cells.
It is recalled that Kaili was arrested on December 9, for calling her father and asking him to come and pick up a suitcase from the house where she lived with her husband Francesco Giorgi, after learning that her partner had been arrested. A suitcase in which there were 750,000 euros. Kaili told authorities she knew her husband was holding something on behalf of Italian former MEP Antonio Pancheri, but claims she didn’t know the contents of the suitcase until that morning.
However, the MEP’s entourage speaks of a plot of big interests on her back, while the documents that linked the Greek politician to bank deposits in Panama are still under the microscope.
It is recalled that Kaili was arrested on December 9, for calling her father and asking him to come and pick up a suitcase from the house where she lived with her husband Francesco Giorgi, after learning that her partner had been arrested. A suitcase in which there were 750,000 euros. Kaili told authorities she knew her husband was holding something on behalf of Italian former MEP Antonio Pancheri, but claims she didn’t know the contents of the suitcase until that morning.
However, the MEP’s entourage speaks of a plot of big interests on her back, while the documents that linked the Greek politician to bank deposits in Panama are still under the microscope.
-
Australia4 years ago
Button and Diane Powellpark the school bus after three decades
-
Australia4 years ago
Button and Diane Powellpark the school bus after three decades
-
Europe2 years ago
Covid: Flights shut down as EU discusses UK virus threat
-
Europe2 years ago
Post-Brexit trade: Is red tape chaos just ‘teething trouble’ as the UK government argues?
-
Tech3 years ago
Search engine startup asks users to be the customer, not the product
-
Tech1 year ago
Sign up to The Independent’s free cryptocurrency expert panel event
-
Health2 years ago
Spain ‘to register’ those who refuse to have Covid-19 vaccine
-
Arts5 years ago
How a chain-link mosque at the Vancouver Biennale became a community hub
Europe
Hungary is starting to look a bit like Russia. Here’s why
Hungary, a member of the European Union and NATO, is no autocracy, but after eight years of Orban�..
Hungary, a member of the European Union and NATO, is no autocracy, but after eight years of Orban's rule, its political system has begun to resemble Russia's.The space for civil society and a functional independent media in Hungary is shrinking rapidly. A law passed in 2011 redrew the lines on the electoral map, in what opposition parties and the media criticized as blatant gerrymandering.Orban, 54, has made no secret of his admiration for Russia's political system. He has proudly described his vision for Hungary as an "illiberal democracy," a phrase that brings Russia's "sovereign democracy" to mind, both euphemistic terms for an autocratic style of governance.Orban served first as prime minister from 1998 to 2002, but it was after he was again elected in 2010 that he and Putin began meeting annually. And like Putin, Orban has surrounded himself with a powerful group of businesspeople. He has also come under scrutiny for awarding contracts to a small number of businessmen and family members, according to a Reuters analysis. His spokesman, Zoltan Kovacs, brushed off these allegations to CNN, saying it was "up to the courts to decide" in such cases.Ironically, Orban launched his political career in 1989 with a hard-hitting speech demanding that Soviet forces leave the country after more than 40 years of occupation."For two decades, Orban was probably the staunchest anti-Russian politician in the whole of Eastern Europe," said Andras Racz, a Russian expert and senior research fellow at the Centre for Strategic and Defense Studies in Budapest.That all changed when he was elected for the second time in 2010, when his public rhetoric on Russia began to take on a positive tone.In a recent report looking at Russian meddling in Austrian, Czech and Hungarian elections, the Budapest-based Political Capital research institute said Hungary was the most vulnerable of the three countries. "Hungary represents a case where the government has enabled space for Kremlin interference to shore up its own political strength, which is largely based on anti-migrant and anti-European integration policies," the report says.Kovacs dismissed the idea that Russia wielded influence on Orban or his government as "stupid.""There's not one element of our policies that can suggest to you that we're closer to Russia or Mr. Putin in any way than any Western European country," he said.
Russia's playbook
But some of Hungary's new policies look like they're straight out of Russia's playbook.Hungary passed a law last year that imposes restrictions on nongovernmental organizations receiving foreign funding. The law looks almost identical to Russia's Foreign Agent Law, which has been used to crack down on opposition voices and independent media.The Hungarian law requires NGOs receiving more than 24,000 euros from foreign entities to register with the government and disclose their sources. Orban has argued it is necessary for transparency and to stamp out money laundering, but Hungarian NGOs see it as an attempt specifically to target organizations funded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros. Soros's Open Society Foundations has been banned from Russia, which sees the organization as a security threat. The Hungarian government has since last year vilified Soros in countless billboards across the country. One pictures him with opposition party leaders, and another says, "Let's not allow Soros to have the last laugh!"Peter Szijjarto, the country's foreign affairs minister, defended the campaign, labeling Soros a "national security risk," in a statement. He accused the financier of wanting to demolish a border security fence and "settle hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants in Europe and Hungary." Soros's spokesman said his views have been misrepresented. Soros was born in Hungary to a Jewish family and fled to the UK in the 1940s to escape Nazi occupation. He later immigrated to the United States, where he became one of the world's richest investors and a philanthropist. In fact, it was thanks to a Soros-funded scholarship that Orban was able to study at the University of Oxford.The anti-Soros campaign sits uncomfortably close to a resurgence of anti-Semitism in the country, which has entered Hungarian politics in parliamentary debate.Kovacs told CNN that while Hungary must allow open borders to EU citizens as a member of the bloc, it did not want any migration at all beyond that. He praised Hungary's border fences with Serbia and Croatia, built in 2015 specifically to keep asylum seekers out.
Orban's control of the media
Journalist Anita Komuves, 35, says she is targeted by the government on two fronts — first because she's a reporter and second as someone who works for an NGO receiving funding from Soros.Komuves worked for Hungary's largest opposition print newspaper, Nepszabadsag, for 11 years before it was shut down suddenly in 2016. She found out about the closure from a news alert on her phone.The government denies shutting it down, but Komuves says that it "was obviously a political decision.""It was because we uncovered too many stories about corruption."The company that owned the newspaper, Mediaworks, was sold just weeks later to Lorinc Meszaros, a close Orban ally. "This way, they took over TV channels, several radio channels, the biggest news portal, a few weekly magazines and the entire regional media outside Budapest," Komuves said.Komuves thought about leaving her profession, but she found a job with Atlatszo, an NGO of journalists, hackers and lawyers, one of the few remaining independent media organizations left in the country In a recent article, she argued that while there was evidence of Russian trolling and fake news sites in Hungary, Moscow didn't need to try particularly hard to influence the vote, because Orban and his government already lean toward Moscow and they lead in the polls.State media has also expanded under Orban and is working as a propaganda machine, Komuves said. It has picked up a significant number of news stories by Russia's Sputnik and Russia Today, both widely considered mouthpieces of the Russian government.Orban has also used the law to clamp down on the media, spearheading legislation that established a new parliament-appointed media control body that fined media outlets for "imbalanced" news coverage, or content that the body considers "insulting" to the majority. The financial crisis of 2008 left many media organizations open to takeovers. Around 90% of Hungary's media is now either directly or indirectly controlled by Orban's Fidesz party, according to Marius Dragomir, director at the Centre for Media, Data and Society at the Central European University's School of Public Policy. Writing in a blog post for the London School of economics, he described the situation as "a classic case of media capture."The widely watched TV2 was bought by a Hungarian-American former Hollywood producer, Andy Vajna, who had worked in Orban's government. He won the procurement in a legal battle against Lajos Simicska, a media tycoon and friend-turned-foe of Orban.Swaths of local media were also bought up by Meszaros, an Orban ally who rose from working as a gas fitter to become a wealthy businessman and the mayor of the town where Orban was born, Felcsut.
Orban's football obsession
It was one of Meszaros's companies that built a large football stadium right across from Orban's childhood home in Felcsut.It seats 3,500 people in the town of just 1,600, and has been ridiculed in independent media as a vanity project for the soccer-obsessed leader.Besides the stadium, there is little going on in Felcsut. Along a dusty stretch of road there are two small grocery stores, a rundown coffee shop and a tobacconist.The stadium represents much of what Hungarians are becoming frustrated with — corruption allegations have begun to spread through Orban's government and questions are regularly raised about the way lucrative government contracts are awarded. Janosne Abraham, a 59-year-old woman who works at the larger of Felcsut's two grocery stores, is vocally critical of Orban."Where is all the money? He just steals it all and doesn't spend it on anything useful, like healthcare," she said."That football stadium is a waste. It costs so much to light up and clean, and it hasn't brought in money for the town."Abraham isn't happy about Orban's relationship with Putin either.She points to a nuclear power plant project that Hungary awarded to Russia's state-owned Rosatom,saying that she was worried her country would become too dependent on Russia for energy. The project was controversial because Hungary awarded the contract to Rosatom without a tender process and without revealing its costs to the state budget. The European Commission originally opposed the funding plan, which involved a 10 billion-euro investment from Russia, but after an investigation it gave it the green light.Kovacs defended the government's process, saying that only Russia had the experience and the technology to carry it out. He denied there was anything opaque about it.But even for those fed up with Orban, there are few feasible alternatives. The opposition is fragmented and no other party appears to have a real chance of winning.A woman with her children playing on the street in Felcsut said she would vote for Orban's party because, "This town is all Fidesz. It's better to stay silent and not get into conflicts."She is disappointed with allegations of government corruption, but she points out Orban's government wouldn't be Hungary's first to misuse funds. "They're all the same."
Original Article
Madrid Journal – Italian and Greek media seem to lose patience with how the Belgian authorities are dealing with corruption case in the European Parliamentary. The ill treatment of the Belgian judiciary became very obvious where the prosecution is practically employing blackmail as a tactic to get Eva Kaili to confess despite her pleading innocence from day one. According to the report of the Italian newspaper, the Belgian judges investigating the Qatargate scandal allegedly exerted illegal undue pressure on Eva Kaili, suggesting that she confess her guilt, with the promise that she will be released from prison.
It should be noted that after the conclusion of the last hearing, the lawyers of Eva Kaili complained that their client was kept in solitary confinement for six hours, speaking of torture reminiscent of the Middle Ages and a violation of human rights.
Today the Italian newspaper brings to light the aforementioned claim of the well-known criminologist Michalis Dimitrakopoulos.
“She has not agreed to confess to something she has not done”
“From the first moment they suggested that Eva Kaili plead guilty and be released from prison so that she can finally hug her daughter again,” says Dimitrakopoulos, clarifying however that his client , who has been claiming innocence since day one, has always denied it.
“Despite the fact that being away from her little girl is the greatest psychological torture, she has not agreed to confess to something she has not done,” adds the Greek lawyer.
As also stated in the publication “she does not want her daughter to inherit the stigma that her mother was a corrupt female politician, because it is not true”.
The same publication also states that: “The former Greek TV journalist was immediately acquitted by her partner Giorgi, but the investigators did not believe the couple’s version, convinced that the woman belonged to Pantzeri’s network and tried to help him disappear the money from the funds. In fact, they accused her of bribery and of trying to hide the fruits of a crime.”
What will be her next move
The next moves Dimitrakopoulos plans for Eva Kaili are to build a profile of a woman deeply scarred by the month and a half she spent behind bars in Haren prison, the newspaper says.
“She was shaking as she told the judge, who was also a woman, about the torture she suffered, not in prison, but in a police cell. What he experienced – says the lawyer – is reminiscent of the movie ‘Midnight Express’, but unfortunately this is happening in the center of Europe”.
The indictment against the allegedly aggressive methods of the Belgian justice system ends with the announcement of the next legal move by Eva Kaili’s defense team: “Next week we will appeal to the Supreme Court, announces Dimitrakopoulos. When someone is arrested they are immediately protected by the law. I wonder if it was the same in Brussels.”
Adults-only resort overlooking the shores of a private lake, the Seehof Nature Retreat has 40 rooms, including suites and doubles, with lake view or garden view. The wellness rite to clarify ideas about what to do in the future is carried out in the spa, it is the Aufguss, the infusion of vapors with essential oils which is carried out by a sauna master. The swimming pool is heated and can therefore also be used in winter, while the lake is frozen, so only the bravest will go and get their feet wet after a session in the sauna. Those who can’t sit still can go skiing in the Gitschberg/Jochtal and Plose/Bressanone areas, on the way back, massage with alpine herb pads or with arnica and St. John’s wort to soothe the muscles. The stay is all-inclusive (with a four-course gourmet dinner); the half board is on request.
Langhe House / Cerretto Langhe (Cuneo)
The Alta Langa is a land of great reds and also of sparkling wines, hazelnuts, cheeses and castles. Heritage of biodiversity, it is a land that tries to defend its relationship with nature, limiting highways and new constructions.
The result is Casa di Langa, a five-star resort amidst hazelnut groves and vineyards, which renounces single-use plastic, focuses on energy independence and recycles water for the irrigation of its vineyards and biodynamic vegetable gardens which Luigi Merlo, the gardener, takes care of Daniel Zeilinga, the executive chef, with two years of experience alongside Enrico Crippa at the Piazza Duomo restaurant in Alba. Aromatic herbs, edible flowers, ancient varieties all that grows is needed at the Sorì Cocktail Bar, which favors infusions for drinks, the Fàula restaurant, which has just entered the Michelin guide, and the Spa.
Villa Gelsomino / Santa Margherita Ligure
An 18th-century villa, Art Nouveau details and 5 sea-view suites, with original frescoes and Genoese grit floors. Villa Gelsomino is the project of three friends, who transformed the house into a boutique hotel reserved for adults only. The structure uses green energy, is plastic-free, and compensates for C02 emissions by planting trees around the world. You stay among a few guests and in the quiet, on request, there are private yoga and pilates lessons and you get around with electric scooters and e-cycles.
Gallicantu / Luogosanto (Sassari)
They are the new refuges for travelers who have already experienced everything; the pens, the rural settlements where the animals are rounded up, in the Sardinian Gallura are small treasure properties, created among the blocks of granite, sheltered from the confusion of the coast (but the beaches are always short range). Gallicantu, a micro-resort revisited by architect Jean Claude Lesuisse, with just five rooms and two suites, is close to Luogosanto (its name comes from the 22 country churches in the area), Tempio, where Fabrizio De André had chosen to live, and the beautiful Aggius, which is part of the authentic villages of Italy. If you wish, instead of reaching the Costa Smeralda, you can stop by the pool, among the olive trees. There is also a wellness area with sauna, Turkish bath, emotional showers. The pre-nuragic cave of the property is instead intended for the tasting of wines, cold cuts and cheeses.
Cape of Senses / Torri del Benaco (Verona)
55 lake view suites, three swimming pools, one of which is sports and two infinity, adults-only Spa, with fitness and yoga platforms, two restaurants, a 15,000-metre property among the retreats in Italy that will make headlines in 2023 is the Cape of Senses, which will open in July in Albisano, above Torri del Benaco, on Lake Garda. Designed by Hugo and Alessia Demetz, the hotel will be an oasis where you can stay for three days or more: upon request, you can sleep in a mobile structure, in direct contact with the stars. Two restaurants, At sunset, with gourmet à la carte cuisine, and La Pergola, with traditional cuisine served on the panoramic terrace.
This article was originally published on GQ (Italiana Edition)
According to the same sources, Eva Kaili’s lawyer, Michalis Dimitrakopoulos said that the Greek politician was “happy to see her child again after a month”. Mother and daughter “played together for about two hours and twenty minutes. The room was very nice and I didn’t feel like I was in a prison,” he added.
Then the well-known criminologist revealed that in the coming days the child will again return to Haren prison to see his mother.
It is noted that in the previous period the Eva Kaili had complained that they did not allow her to see her daughter, a claim denied by the Belgian authorities, stating that detained mothers can see their children at predetermined times, while they have the possibility – if they wish – to keep them in specially designed cells.
It is recalled that Kaili was arrested on December 9, for calling her father and asking him to come and pick up a suitcase from the house where she lived with her husband Francesco Giorgi, after learning that her partner had been arrested. A suitcase in which there were 750,000 euros. Kaili told authorities she knew her husband was holding something on behalf of Italian former MEP Antonio Pancheri, but claims she didn’t know the contents of the suitcase until that morning.
However, the MEP’s entourage speaks of a plot of big interests on her back, while the documents that linked the Greek politician to bank deposits in Panama are still under the microscope.
It is recalled that Kaili was arrested on December 9, for calling her father and asking him to come and pick up a suitcase from the house where she lived with her husband Francesco Giorgi, after learning that her partner had been arrested. A suitcase in which there were 750,000 euros. Kaili told authorities she knew her husband was holding something on behalf of Italian former MEP Antonio Pancheri, but claims she didn’t know the contents of the suitcase until that morning.
However, the MEP’s entourage speaks of a plot of big interests on her back, while the documents that linked the Greek politician to bank deposits in Panama are still under the microscope.
-
Australia4 years ago
Button and Diane Powellpark the school bus after three decades
-
Australia4 years ago
Button and Diane Powellpark the school bus after three decades
-
Europe2 years ago
Covid: Flights shut down as EU discusses UK virus threat
-
Europe2 years ago
Post-Brexit trade: Is red tape chaos just ‘teething trouble’ as the UK government argues?
-
Tech3 years ago
Search engine startup asks users to be the customer, not the product
-
Tech1 year ago
Sign up to The Independent’s free cryptocurrency expert panel event
-
Health2 years ago
Spain ‘to register’ those who refuse to have Covid-19 vaccine
-
Arts5 years ago
How a chain-link mosque at the Vancouver Biennale became a community hub