Hungarian Spectrum was a daily blog from 2007 to 2021, covering current political and social developments in Hungary. Created in 2007 by historian Eva S. Balogh, [1] [2] it came to an end with her death, on November 30, 2021. [3] [4] [5]
Hungarian Spectrum was published daily, seven days a week, starting June 27, 2007. [6] It has been permanently archived in the Library of Congress as of 2013 where it remains available online, [7] as well as in the Blinken Open Society Archives. [8] Balogh, who specialized in interwar Hungarian history, [9] [10] [11] [12] researched and wrote most of the articles. Based on primary sources in Hungarian, German and English, the articles analyzed current developments in Hungary for the nonspecialist reader from a historian's perspective.
The blog also occasionally included articles written by guest scholars such as Kim Lane Scheppele, [13] Johanna Laakso, [14] Charles Gati [15] and Randolph L. Braham. [16]
Hungarian Spectrum was supported by voluntary donations from its readers. Businessman George Soros, winner of the Ridenhour Prize for Courage in April 2019, donated his prize money to Hungarian Spectrum, describing it as a site that "renders an important service by exposing to the world what Prime Minister Orban is telling his own people." [17]
Following the death of Balogh, Hungarian Spectrum ceased publications. [4] [3]
Eva S. Balogh often wrote entries highly critical of the current government in power in Hungary, led by Viktor Orbán. She was described by Ference Kumin as having had close ties with the opposition to the government. [18] Balogh was a regular guest on ATV television programmes [19] [20] and published opinion pieces in Népszava , [21] [22] [23] a social-democratic newspaper. In November 2009, she gave a lecture for CIA officials at Langley, Virginia, where she characterized the imminent right-wing Fidesz victory in the 2010 Hungarian parliamentary election as a possible fascist breakthrough. [24] [25] [26]
Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Hungary led by Viktor Orbán. It has increasingly identified as illiberal.
The Constitutional Court of Hungary is a special court of Hungary, making judicial review of the acts of the Parliament of Hungary. The official seat of the Constitutional Court is Budapest. Until 2012 the seat was Esztergom.
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Viktor Mihály Orbán is a Hungarian lawyer and politician who has been Prime Minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has also led the Fidesz political party since 2003, and previously from 1993 to 2000. He was re-elected as prime minister in 2014, 2018, and 2022. On 29 November 2020, he became the country's longest-serving prime minister.
The Democratic Coalition is a social democratic and social-liberal political party in Hungary led by former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány. Founded in 2010 as a faction within the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), the Democratic Coalition split from the MSZP on 22 October 2011 and became a separate party. It has fifteen MPs in the National Assembly and two MEPs in the European Parliament.
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Lívia Járóka is a Hungarian politician. She is a Member of the European Parliament, first elected as part of the Fidesz list in 2004. Járóka is the second Romani ever elected to the European Parliament.
George Soros is a Hungarian-American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. As of October 2023, he had a net worth of US$6.7 billion, having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundations, of which $15 billion has already been distributed, representing 64% of his original fortune. In 2020, Forbes called Soros the "most generous giver". He is a resident of New York.
The Ridenhour Prizes are awards in four categories given annually in recognition of those "who persevere in acts of truth-telling that protect the public interest, promote social justice or illuminate a more just vision of society".
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David Hart was an English writer, businessman, and adviser to Margaret Thatcher. He also had a career in the 1960s as an avant-garde filmmaker. He was a controversial figure during the 1984–85 miners' strike and played a leading role in organising and funding the anti-strike campaign in the coalfields.
Sándor Pintér is a Hungarian politician and former top police officer. He served as Minister of the Interior from 1998 to 2002 and since 2010, in Viktor Orbán's cabinets.
László Kövér is a Hungarian politician who is the current speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary. Under his capacity as speaker, he was also twice acting president of Hungary, from 2 April to 10 May 2012, after the resignation of Pál Schmitt, and again from 26 February to 5 March 2024, following the National Assembly's approval of the resignation of Katalin Novák.
Zoltán Pokorni is a Hungarian educator and politician, who served as Minister of Education between 1998 and 2001.
Gergely Böszörményi-Nagy is an entrepreneur and former public servant who founded Brain Bar and the current chairman of the board of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design.
Kim Lane Scheppele is an American scholar of law and politics. She is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University.
An indirect presidential election was held in Hungary on 13 March 2017. János Áder was elected President of Hungary for a second term.
The Danube Institute is a conservative think tank founded in 2013 and based in Budapest, Hungary. The institute is financed through the Batthyány Foundation (BLA) and receives Hungarian state funding. According to its mission statement, the Danube Institute is dedicated to "a respectful conservatism in cultural, religious, and social life, the broad classical liberal tradition in economics, and a realistic Atlanticism in national security policy."
Zsolt Bayer is a Hungarian far-right and pro-Russian journalist, whose views have been widely described as racist, homophobic and transphobic, and antisemitic. He was a co-founder of the ruling Fidesz party and close confidant of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. He is the owner of party membership card No. 5.
The Hungarian conservative party Fidesz has been accused of exhibiting anti-democratic and authoritarian tendencies since their return to leading the Hungarian government in 2010 under the leadership of Viktor Orbán in his second premiership. The Fidesz-led government has been accused of severely restricting media freedom, undermining the independence of the courts, subjugating and politicising independent and non-governmental institutions, surveilling political opponents, engaging in electoral engineering, and assailing critical NGOs. The Fidesz-led government has been accused of engaging in cronyism and corruption. Fidesz has been accused of antisemitism, and the Fidesz-led government has been accused of passing legislation that violates the rights of LGBT persons. Due to its controversial actions, Fidesz and its government have come in conflict with the EU on multiple occasions.
