Commentators take it for granted that PM Orbán’s candidate will get his seat in the European Commission. A right-wing analyst believes that Navracsics’s questioning in the Cultural Committee of the European Parliament was meant to gloss over a deal that had been struck well in advance. READ MORE
Népszabadság thinks the future Hungarian Commissioner is an unprincipled man who dissociated himself from the government he has served for 4 years in order to get a seat in the European Commission. Magyar Nemzet writes that Tibor Navracsics kept his composure throughout the tough hearing. READ MORE
The Left considers the post insignificant and an expression of dissatisfaction with the Hungarian government, while the Right thinks the portfolio is of strategic importance. READ MORE
Most commentators agree that Hungary has made relatively little progress since it joined the European Union ten years ago, despite a net financial transfer amounting to about 1.5 per cent of its GDP. Opinions diverge however on the reasons as well as on the direction European integration should follow. READ MORE
A left-wing columnist welcomes the government’s acknowledgement of Hungarian responsibility for the crimes committed against Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust. He agrees with the government that the public needs to be reminded of the country’s past crimes. READ MORE
The authorities were at least one day late in reacting to the exceptional snowstorm and a left-wing commentator thinks the reason was that PM Viktor Orbán was busy fending off growing discontent with Hungary’s constitutional amendments among European allies. READ MORE
Commentators from the left and the right blame each other for polarizing and politicizing issues related to the Roma. They both believe that their opponents use the Roma for opportunistic political reasons. READ MORE
On the first anniversary of the establishment of the Orbán government, pundits and politicians weigh in to assess the centre-right government’s performance so far, and to outline the possible government strategies of the coming years. READ MORE