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Today’s news:
1. Fidesz intends to put the new rules of voter registration into the “Basic Law”, so the Constitutional Court will not be allowed to judge on them. The new rules allow registration by mail for ethnic Hungarians abroad only [opportunity for massive fraud], but denies citizens living inside Hungary the same thing. This way all people, even very old people, have to stand in line to register either to be allowed to vote in person or to register to be allowed to vote electronically.

2. A street in Budapest was named today after Count Teleki, the rabidly antisemitic Prime Minister of Hungary (1939-1941). He introduced the “numerus clausus” law against Jewish students in 1920 and the Second anti-Jewish law in 1939. This law defined Jews racially, everyone with 2 or more Jewish grandparents were deprived of civil rights, and later exposed to extermination.

Dear Editor,
Readers who may sympathise with the gist of Diggle's points are let down by the appalling factual inaccuracies (no room here to list all of them, but Jobbik, for example, is NOT the second largest force in parliament) and blatant exaggerations. Clearly there are many posting comments who have an axe to grind; you'd do readers who are less embroiled in and emotional about the situation in Hungary a service by publishing, at the very least, an article which contains verifiable facts.
Yours faithfully
Robert Szente

The usual tone of hype:

"Orban’s Fedesz Party won a super-majority of seats in the 2010 elections as the result of popular frustration and a disproportionate electoral system. "

Had this "disproportionate" electoral system been modeled on the British system, there would now be only 2 (!!) Socialist MPs, and 384 Fidesz MPs.

And some pearls from the comments:

From AMERICANIAN: "These give something for the rats to cling to"

Ain't it nice to observe such a deep-seated manifestation of respecting fellow human beings with different opinions?

Y-MAN: "Their aim is to indoctrinate children with pre-WW2 ideology (religion, nationalism, etatism & fascism)."

It has always amazed me how enlighted, progressive etc. some people have uncessantly claimed themselves to be, with capacity of distinction restricted to "us and them, the fascists".

Before, Orban was a Machiavellist, populist politician. Today he is mentally seriously ill, a confused maniac of power and a clear ally of the neo-nazi party "Jobbik". It is funny anyway, that the Hungarian goverment spends a lot of money to produce "spontaneous" comments for critical news articles. They do the same at home.

Dear Editor
The title of this article struck me immediately. "tyrant" what tyrant has to face elections again in 2 years time. How can anyone who was elected freely and fairly be a tyrant? He was elected with a two thirds majority because the alternatives were too pathetic to consider voting for. Thats democracy unfortunately, you cannot vote for parties not contesting an election, only for those that do. Remember too that the two thirds majority was attained with a ward system that undoubtedly favoured the then ruling socialists, every government on earth does that, show me one that doesn't redraw ward boundaries once elected. At least the plan here is to hold regular elections, with elected leadership and not to move to an unelected executive such as in Italy......

Now that you have started me off, let me move from the obvious to the slightly less known......

The writer fails to remind that the socialists were ousted for blatantly lying to the electorate and for rampant corruption, selling off of stae assets at knockdown prices to insiders, the then Prime Minister and his family included.
Are there corrupt officials in this ruling party? Well thats similar to asking if the Pope in Rome is a Catholic. Of course there are corrupt officials in every country. Since I married a Hungarian and moved here to Hungary I have heard a lot about how instituionaly corrupt this country is. The discount for cash economy has been around since before WW2 according to her grandad, who is the oldest relaible witness I know, and most corrupt folks don't get moved on when a new party gets elected to power. However tax collections are at an all time high which means to me that an effort is being made to cut out the black portions of the economy and catch the tax evaders (something that supposedly isn't happening in Greece) and unheard of in most parts of the world.

Hungary is streets ahead of any of the BRICS countries, I have lived in Brasil and South Africa, with many friends who have lived in India and Russia, I only know a few who have ventured into China. I can confidently say that this is a country with a better standard of living ON AVERAGE than in any of those countries. Everyone here has access to excellent health, sporting, educational and transport facilities.

I have lived in the UK too and in those areas Hungary is better too. Jobs pay more in the UK, London is the cultural melting pot of the world, its a different experience but my wife and I left the UK for Hungary, willingly, happily and much the better for our decision. I know a good few expats here who will tell you the same thing too.

As for the religious freedoms claim, the church I belong to was deregistered, all that meant was that we don't get the tax breaks allocated to a church and have to register as a congregation and not a religion. There is no restriction on what we can or cannot do, absolutely no impinging on our religious freedom. We enjoyed our tax breaks for sure but we don't need them as we worship the creator of the universe who can take care of us with or without any government assistance. Our minister had to sell his car and now uses his bicycle or public transport....In winter thats not nice but its better than the previous socialist party who were predominantly old communist party members that had actively persecuted Christainity in any shape or form, We don't get persecuted today so I am OK, with spending cuts in luxury areas such as supporting anyone and every one to have a full time religious leader.

As for rolling back reforms of the last 20 years thats an interesting perspective as I understood the first democratic constitution to be a compromise with the old communist vested interests and was actually based on outdated concepts but in the spirit of a fast transition was accepted by the incoming democrats.
The new constitutions aim is supposedly to remove the last vestiges of the old order..... I am not one to judge the veracity of that claim but I do know that my kids and I are having a pretty good time here...yes the economy is down, that is obvious but its a global problem.

In Hungary we have tax cuts for large families, excellent schools, excellent medical facilities, a beautiful country with lovely holiday resorts at Lake Balaton (Europes largest freshwater expanse), great health spas,....what more can I say, don't listen to the negative, come to Hungary whether to live or visit, its a great place!!!

Jason has got it mainly right. You may not like the style, but perhaps that's what it takes to get people to notice. The right are of course jumping up and down but lets look at their "facts". True, abortion is not illegal, but the new constitution guarantees the foetus right to life from the time of conception. It is only a judge's decision away from making abortion a crime. Hungarian soliders are not "keeping the peace", they are there on the reconstruction effort. Jobbik may be making anti-Orban noises but Orban refuses to distance himself from their extremist views and effectively impose the ban on their black shirted 'private army'. The wife of a FIDESZ MEP selects judges. The 'unretired' judges can go back to work for 3 years but cannot hold senior roles. Tom Smith, of course does not complain about the nationalisation of privat pensions funds, nor the seizure of the Pécs Waterworks from its foreign investor (E.ON will be next), nor the flood of doctors and other professionals from the country. His line on the media law is so far outdated as to be a joke. The recent changes addressed less than 20 of the EU's 66 concerns.

Jason should come back, check out the facts in more detail and do a follow-up. It will be hair-raising. Europe should be asamed to have Orban in its midst.

As a responsible for the govt’s international communication, without questioning the right of anybody to express his or her opinion I just would like to deal with some of the claimed facts of the article.
As for the economic collapse of the last twelve month, Hungary is the rare example of European countries having been able to stabilize its budget deficit without generating instability and political crisis. The affords of keeping sustainably the deficit below the 3 percent GDP ratio threshold have also been recognized by the EU when it sustained the previously planned sanctions for excess deficit. Markets and exchange rates are stable; t-bond yields are shrinking, there may be a collapse, but the investors haven’t heard about it.
Judges are not forced to retire, just retirement age has been unified, and even this measure has been revised after the decision of Constitutional Court, which is doing its job. No party official decides which judge hears which case.
Abortion is not banned, there’s not a single change in the Hungarian abortion practice, and unfortunately there are a lot of these operations. Gay marriage like in many other countries has never been legal, thus, could not be banned. Other gay rights, like registered partnership are provided; the LGBT community of Hungary is vivid. We had Eurogames and Gay Pride March this year.
The Counter Terrorism Center is an elite police squad, and has of course not unlimited powers, as no one can have unlimited power under the rule of law.
Talking generally about “Dissidents who led the underground movement against dictatorship and who helped the country transition to democracy” is not sufficient; you should name them, and indicate their political affiliations as well. Many of those opinions are simply part of the Hungarian inside political competition, which is an obvious phenomenon, but positioning these opinions as the ultimate righteous ones is simply misleading.
Next you intend to write about Hungary, and you don’t feel confident about the facts, don’t hesitate to contact my office at intcomm@me.gov.hu

As a responsible for the govt’s international communication, without questioning the right of anybody to express his or her opinion I just would like to deal with some of the claimed facts of the article.
As for the economic collapse of the last twelve month, Hungary is the rare example of European countries having been able to stabilize its budget deficit without generating instability and political crisis. The affords of keeping sustainably the deficit below the 3 percent GDP ratio threshold have also been recognized by the EU when it sustained the previously planned sanctions for excess deficit. Markets and exchange rates are stable; t-bond yields are shrinking, there may be a collapse, but the investors haven’t heard about it.
Judges are not forced to retire, just retirement age has been unified, and even this measure has been revised after the decision of Constitutional Court, which is doing its job. No party official decides which judge hears which case.
Abortion is not banned, there’s not a single change in the Hungarian abortion practice, and unfortunately there are a lot of these operations. Gay marriage like in many other countries has never been legal, thus, could not be banned. Other gay rights, like registered partnership are provided; the LGBT community of Hungary is vivid. We had Eurogames and Gay Pride March this year.
The Counter Terrorism Center is an elite police squad, and has of course not unlimited powers, as no one can have unlimited power under the rule of law.
Talking generally about “Dissidents who led the underground movement against dictatorship and who helped the country transition to democracy” is not sufficient; you should name them, and indicate their political affiliations as well. Many of those opinions are simply part of the Hungarian inside political competition, which is an obvious phenomenon, but positioning these opinions as the ultimate righteous ones is simply misleading.
Next you intend to write about Hungary, and you don’t feel confident about the facts, don’t hesitate to contact my office at intcomm@me.gov.hu

Thank you Jacob Diggle for telling it like it is in Hungary! "Tom Smith" is sounding very like resident BBC reporter, married to a Hungaian who has been a strong supporter of the right-wing (not centre-right) government.
Hats off to the New Statesman for being able to see the situation in Hungary with such clarity.
Shame on the BBC for allowing reporters with huge vested and personal interests here, to continue to dessiminate falsified and inaccurate information to the rest of the world.

The re-telling of facts combined with well researched opinion is the basis of journalism. We are here to provide information to those either less fortunate than us or less inclined to gather all the facts together. What, then, would this article cause to someone who does not know a thing about Hungary? What would reading a piece with such flagrant disregard for facts cause inside the head of someone who relies upon this for their information?

This has been going on long enough, this "besmirching" of Hungary's government. They are not a perfect government, I don't think one of those can exist, yet I am able to live here freely. I have cheap healthcare that is (allegedly, see this BBC article) of a good standard, though I have had no need of it yet. I have police patrolling the streets. People are out and about every evening spending money they apparently don't have. This is a country in recession, or so we're told. Where is this recession, then? I see people on the streets but I also see record numbers of council workers. The government are actively spending money to employ people.

What has Orban Viktor done to the West? The media law was bought in line with other media laws: Hungary's was lacking somewhat. Why these regular articles based upon nothing but bigotism? There's no other word for it, there's no reality contained within.

Matyas Sarkozi summed it all well enough. To top it all, connections of a democraticaly elected center-right government to communist totalytarism ("undid the democratic reforms") are no more acceptable than are connections of a democratically elected center left government to a nazi regime.

Dear Editor,
I am completely knocked out by Jacob Diggle's article on Hungary. Is this the New Statesman or some kind of propaganda rag from a third world country?
The style! My God! And the complete disregard of facts!
Diggle is trying to knock the freely elected government of a democratic country, a fellow-member of NATO and the European Union, whose soldiers keep the peace in Afghanistan together with British forces.
There is an ultra right wing party in Hungary about the size of the National Front. It is strongly against Viktor Orbán's right of centre conservative government and not connected with it in any way. Hungary being a democracy it allows any political group (except neo-Nazis) to have as many anti-government demonstrations as they wish to organize. Hungary is not lead by Putin.
The contents of this article are obviously based on similar previously published newspaper attacks on Orbán, using the same phraseology ("Orbán goes cup in hand to the IMF" ) and full of factual mistakes ( for example abortion is not banned in Hungary). It seems that Hungary, recovering from the tremendous damage in its economy caused by years of Socialist government, now will not need a loan from the IMF.
It is really pitiable that the New Statesman sunk so low as to publish such a poorly researched propaganda piece.
Yours faithfully
Mátyás Sárközi