Budapest, Hungary | Xinhua | The Western countries’ sanctions against Russia have turned the “local” conflict between Russia and Ukraine into a “global economic war,” Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday. An increasing number of countries across the world are becoming “victim” of the conflict in Ukraine, Orban said …
Read More »Hungary’s Orban receives exemption from EU oil embargo on Russia
Budapest, Hungary | Xinhua | The European Commission’s proposal to ban the use of oil from Russia in Hungary was rejected, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said early on Tuesday. The Commission’s proposal was “tantamount to dropping a nuclear bomb on Hungary’s economy, but we successfully avoided it,” Orban said in …
Read More »EU leaders meet as Hungary sticks to its guns on Russian oil ban
Hungary which imports 65 percent of its oil from Russia through the Druzhba pipeline, has asked for an exception from the ban Brussels, Belgium | Xinhua | European Union (EU) leaders gathered in Brussels on Monday for a special meeting that is likely to be overshadowed by disagreement on phasing out …
Read More »EU negotiation over massive recovery plan enters 3rd day with no major breakthrough
Kampala, Uganda | XINHUA | The European Union (EU) special summit which aims to decide on the next seven-year budget and a massive recovery fund dragged into the third day on Sunday with disputes over core issues still unresolved. But the heads of state and government of the EU member states, …
Read More »Virus-hit Hungary care home on frontline in Orban powerplay
Budapest, Hungary | AFP | A Budapest care home ravaged by the novel coronavirus has become a frontline in an escalating battle between Prime Minister Viktor Orban, emboldened by new emergency powers, and Hungary’s beleaguered opposition. Orban and the Budapest municipality, run by a liberal mayor, blame each other for a …
Read More »Coronavirus pandemic ‘amplifies press freedom threats’
Paris, France | AFP | The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating threats to press freedom around the world, with authoritarian states including China and Iran suppressing details of the outbreak, activists said on Tuesday. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its annual press freedom rankings the pandemic was “highlighting and amplifying the …
Read More »Spectre of coronavirus quarantine haunts Hungarian democracy
Budapest, Hungary | AFP | A “dictatorship” at the heart of the EU? A draft law to grant anti-coronavirus emergency measures set for adoption by Budapest has alarmed observers who fear it will hand Prime Minister Viktor Orban unlimited power. “Hungary is a special case, nowhere else have you the kind …
Read More »Romania, Hungary recruit in Asia to fill labour shortage
Bucharest, Romania | AFP | Sporting yellow safety helmets, about 30 men are busy at work on a construction site south of Bucharest, exchanging a few words in Vietnamese. Faced with a growing labour shortage which threatens their economies, Romania and Hungary are courting Asian workers, going against Hungarian nationalist Prime …
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