Aren't You Glad Capitalism Has Been Restored? Part III

Hungary Today

Evidently, the Fidesz government in Hungary has revised the Hungarian Constitution THREE times in the last several years.  They are attempting it again.  The Fascist Jobbik and the Rightist (Horthyite) Fidesz are in league, dominating the government with one other party.

Benjamin Atban on April 3, 2013 says: 

“More particularly, the Constitutional Court is no longer allowed to give its opinion about the content of laws and to refer to its own case law – which results in the loss of almost all monitoring power on the legislature and the executive.”

Which means that any higher lawful review is now ended, and the government is free to act in any way they please, without legal oversight.

“Only a few days ago, Orban officially decorated three extreme right-wing leading figures: journalist Ferenc Szaniszlo, known for his diatribes against the Jews and the Romani people, whom he compares to “monkeys”; anti-Semitic archaeologist Kornel Bakav, who blames the Jews for having organized the slave trade in the Middle Ages; finally, “artist” Petras Janos, who proudly claims his proximity to the Jobbik and its paramilitary militia, responsible for several racist murders of Romani people and heiress of the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party, which organized the extermination of Jews and Gypsies during World War II.”

Emerging Europe on 3/7/2013 says:

“Civil-rights groups have complained about the (May 2013) amendments that, they say, would narrow the notion of family to heterosexual married couples with children, outlaw political advertising during election campaigns, abolish the financial autonomy of universities, or allow the government to prohibit homeless people from living in the streets.

Watchdog.net says:

“Hungary is no longer a democracy.  (Because of the ending of national court oversight evidently …)

President János Áder has just signed (March 2013) away the rights of all that was left of Hungary's opposition parties after years of gutting legislative powers, crippling the free press, and eliminating all mention of a "republic" in the country's constitution.

If this trend doesn't sound familiar, here's something to jog your memory: along with criminalization of the homeless and attacks on women and the LGBT community, Hungary's seen a horrific spike in state-sanctioned antisemitism and racism, including the decoration of three men known for their connection to the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party. 

We've seen the steps Áder's taken before. We know these signs. And while the European Union continues to stay silent, the situation for women, ethnic minorities and religious groups in Hungary becomes deadlier by the second.”

The EU is not doing anything about these developments – in effect not invoking Article 7 of their Charter about the ‘defense of democracy.’ 

Al Jazeera says:

Al Jazeera published on May 22 a video, available on UTube, of the developing fascist movement in Hungary, summarizing many of the developments already reported on this site. (Type in ‘Hungary’ in the Google text search box on this blog to read other commentaries.)  Note, this is a station homed in Abu Dubai, which you think would not be too upset by anti-Semitism.

The video, among other things, shows Hungarian Jewish philosopher Agnes Heller, who lost her father in Auschwitz, pointing out that Jobbik’s parliament speech calling for a listing for all Jews in Hungary was going over a line, making legitimate and public something only whispered in private.  The video reports that Laslo Csatary, the most wanted Nazi still alive, lived openly in Budapest for many years.  He was the sadistic head of the Kosice camp in Slovakia, and was only recently taken into custody last year.  10% of Hungarians are Roma (gypsies), who are the Hungarian underclass. The video reports that death squads were liquidating Roma in certain small villages; the homeless have now been criminalized; the Methodist church was not approved as an official religion; and 30% of journalists have been fired for political reasons.  All of these things have been a subject of late, yet Al Jazeera putting them all together is very interesting. 

And I saw it on the Internet

Red Frog

May 28, 2013