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HATC SAMPLE EDITION:
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20th July, 2010
Washington Post says Orbán may not be welcome
Viktor Orbán will “once again” be a pariah in Western capitals if he uses his overwhelming parliamentary majority to weaken democratic institutions, the Washington Post wrote in a Monday editorial.
Recalling that Orbán’s indulgence of the extreme right during his first term made him “persona non grata” in Washington, despite his country’s membership in NATO, the Post observes that the new Hungarian government is again leaning toward national chauvinism.
Specifically, the editorial highlights the decision to grant passports to ethnic Hungarians living in other countries, even though two of the target countries – Slovakia and Romania – are EU members, while the third, Serbia, is applying for membership. The decision, the Post writes, is a symbolic one aimed at those who have never accepted the 1920 Treaty of Trianon.
However, government efforts to control the media are not a symbolic move, the newspaper adds, citing Fidesz plans to merge the authorities that oversee state radio and television and to appoint its overseers. “The effect, as the leader of the opposition Socialist Party pointed out, would be ‘to change the public media into the party media’ – a phenomenon not seen in Central Europe since the collapse of Communist rule,” the Post comments.
The editorial concludes by saying that Orbán could implement reforms needed to revive the weak Hungarian economy, but if he strives to weaken democratic institutions, then he can only end up being treated as an outcast again.
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Sources regularly consulted, with abbreviations used in text: Népszabadság (N); Magyar Hírlap (MH); Világgazdaság (VG); Napi Gazdaság (NG); Magyar Nemzet (MN); Népszava (Nsz); Kossuth Rádió news (KR); nightly TV news (TV).
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