THE BUDAPEST TIMES
Volume 9, Number 23
05 C H E A P
www.bzt.hu
3 June – 9 June 2011
HUF 750/EUR 3
08 P O O R H O U S E
ENERGY Will be the end of agriculture... and us
Gov’t getting
cross with
unbelievable
churches
T
he Hungarian Alliance of
Witches, the Community for
Dignified Birth and the Church
of Hungarian Clairvoyants, all registered churches, could soon find that
their game is up. A draft bill to be
presented to cabinet within the next
few weeks is set to shut the door on
spurious churches established for
material gain under what László
Szászfalvi, state secretary in charge
of church affairs, has called the “ultraliberal” regulations passed following
the end of communism.
Once the new law is passed only
those communities primarily engaged
in religious activities will qualify as
churches, Szászfalvi told the daily
Magyar Nemzet. Data management,
parapsychology, education and envi-
Fix is in
Hungary’s English-language weekly.
ronmental protection would no longer
be able to masquerade as religious
activities.
What counts as church
According to the daily, the draft
law lays down seven criteria for
making the grade as a church:
focus on religion, a creed
Life one step up from sleeping on the street
containing religious teachings, a
history of over 20 years in
Hungary, membership of at least
1,000, approval of a founding
document and internal rules, election of officials and compliance
with the Constitution.
Under the current legislation on
churches essentially any community of at least 100 people can
Suspicion
in the ranks
Orbán unveils
mortgage relief plan
A
No free money
The provisional scheme to “fix” the
exchange rate on foreign-currency mortgages will give a few years breathing space
and stabilise instalments but the money will
have to be repaid eventually. For those whose
mortgages are too far gone, there is the
prospect of a possible state buy-out and leaseback plan, and a state-subsidised building
scheme for those who lose their homes.
– Continued on page 4 as ‘Witches’
War on
debt
E
BZT/Aaron Taylor
fter protracted negotiations between
banks and the government, PM
Viktor Orbán this week unveiled a
package of measures aimed to help people
who have fallen foul of the foreign-exchange
mortgage trap. In recent weeks promised
announcements of the deal were repeatedly
postponed as banks failed to agree on key
points, particularly the extension of a “crisis
tax” they have been paying since last year.
On Monday Orbán unveiled his scheme to
help struggling home buyers. “None of those
who took out home loans earlier will end up
on the streets,” he promised. That does not
mean, however, that those in arrears are
about to be bailed out by the state.
establish a church without its religious life being questioned. At a
press conference in March
Szászfalvi said the aim of the new
law would be to filter out bogus
churches availing themselves of
public funds and more favourable
tax rules.
T
housands of police and emergency service workers
demonstrated outside parliament on Monday, the
third in a series of protests against government
plans to do away with early retirement. Strike committee
leader Kornél Árok had said there was no point in demonstrating before planned talks with Prime Minister Viktor
Orbán on Thursday and had called for the protest to be
postponed. Protest organiser Judit Szima accused Árok of
being a “mouthpiece for the government”.
The fire fighters’ union leader took over after his more
militant predecessor Péter Konya resigned unexpectedly
the previous week citing majority views among committee
members on the government’s planned reforms that he
found “unacceptable on a human level”.
Orbán met union leaders in parliament on Thursday
despite Judit Szima - head of the Ready for Action Police
Union, which has links to the far-right - protesting at the
entrance to parliament. After the meeting, also attended
by Interior Minister Sándor Pintér, the prime minister’s
spokesman, Péter Szijjártó, said negotiations would
continue until the weekend. Szijjártó said the meeting
had been “level-headed, calm and moderate”.
conomic growth has returned,
the budget deficit is the eighthlowest in the EU, public debt will
fall sharply this year and employment
will rise. That is how Prime Minister
Viktor Orbán assessed the state of the
economy on Tuesday at a conference
dubbed “Economic Turn” to mark the
first year in office of his conservative
Fidesz-Christian Democrat government.
The cabinet’s unorthodox approach
has involved cutting ties with the
International Monetary Fund over an
extension of a standby loan and
imposing hefty “crisis taxes” on banks
and other profitable business sectors.
“While we have put an end to the basic
principles of a neo-liberal era, we have
yet to build up the non-liberal economic
policy of the 21st century, in terms of
planning, coordination and practices,”
Orbán was quoted as saying by state
news agency MTI. National debt and
unemployment are not mere problems,
they are enemies, he said. Hungary was
“at war” and only complete renewal
could defeat them.
– Continued on page 4 as ‘Workers’
– Continued on page 16 as ‘Agreement’
– Continued on page 3 as ‘Viktor’
Everything under the sun
N
ow in its eighth year
the Budapest Summer
Festival offers a whole
season of opera, music and
dance at outdoor theatres in the
picturesque surroundings of
Margaret
Island
and
Városmajor Park. The festival
lasts from June right through
until the start of September.
To make an occasion of it
event-goers can arrive at
Margaret Island by pleasure boat
and combine a sightseeing cruise
along the Danube with dinner.
Performances will take place at
309.45
26 May
302.48
2 June
268.98
26 May
concert on 29 July. To tie in with
Liszt Year violinist Edvin Marton
and the 120-strong King Saint
Stephen Symphony Orchestra
will play some of the composer’s
most popular pieces as well as
new songs inspired by his music
on Friday, 10 June.
The island will be the venue
for a dance fiesta on 18 June;
some 400 dancers from 25
different countries will come
together for the “Dance Island”
event from 11am to midnight.
This year the island’s Water
Tower, built in the Art Nouveau
266.23 218.09
2 June 26 May
218.73 190.00
2 June 26 May
184.78
2 June
STATS
RATES
www.takarékbank.hu
several spots on the island,
including against the backdrop of
the ruins of the Dominican
convent to which Saint Margaret
(1242-1271) retired at the tender
age of 10 following a vow made
by her parents to dedicate her to
religion if Hungary was freed
from the scourge of the Tartars.
Big draws on the main stage
will include Les Misérables on 25
and 26 June and 1 and 2 July,
Carl Orff ’s Carmina Burana with
the choreography of the Szeged
Contemporary Ballet on 22 July
and a Freddie Mercury tribute
style a century ago, will open for
Saturday night jazz concerts and
DJ parties, dubbed “Jazzy Tower”
events; tickets include a trip on
the “Jazzy Boat” from Jászai Mari
tér to the island.
Városmajor Park, a short walk
from Moszkva tér, will be the
scene for events including “My
Dream”, an extraordinary ballet
performance by members of
China’s
Disabled
People’s
Performing Art Troupe on Friday,
10 June, the Budafok Dohnányi
Orchestra’s concert of film music
ranging from Tom and Jerry to V
Garami Funky Staff will be the first to offer a “Jazzy Tower Concert” this
Saturday at 9pm. See page 10-14 for more events.
for Vendetta on 18 June and a
1920s-style dance show titled
Mafia Swing on 30 June.
For more information see
www.szabadter.hu (not all events
are listed on the English page).
– Jacqueline White
30% 18.5 FLAT 20 bn 5,345
Those who voted Avg. number of
Value of new corp. Households’ net
May new vehicles
for Fidesz that
months that it
contracts banks
repayment in HUF registery. Market
wouldn’t do so now. takes to find a job. signed in April.
of loans in April.
down by 3/4s from
pre-crisis levels.
Source: HVG magazine
Source: Stats Office
Source: National Bank
Source: National Bank
771785 110000
11023
THE BUDAPEST TIMES
3 JUNE – 9 JUNE 2011
POLITICS
Mádl remembered as non-partisan President
On the side of the law, rather than any political party
erenc Mádl, Hungarian Head
of State from 2000 to 2005,
died last Saturday at the age
of 80. The former President of
the Republic, a professor of
law, entered politics following the end of
communist rule.
Mádl was born on 29 January, 1931
in Veszprém County and earned a law
degree
from
Budapest’s
ELTE
University in 1955, having been branded
a “class enemy” in Pécs where he
began his studies. In the 1960s he
studied European law in Strasbourg
under such distinguished lecturers as
Robert Schumann and Konrad
Adenauer. Mádl was on the staff of the
Institute of Politics and Law of the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences until
1973 and then became a university
teacher. From 1985 onwards he was
director of ELTE’s Department of
International Private Law.
The first prime minister of the
country’s fledgling post-communist
democracy, József Antall appointed him
minister without portfolio in 1990 and
education minister from 1993 to 1994. It
came as a surprise to some when Mádl,
an until then relatively inconspicuous
figure, was put forward as presidential
candidate by the opposition in 1995
against the incumbent Árpád Göncz
(still known affectionately today as
“Uncle Árpi”).
The balance of power in parliament
made Mádl’s defeat in that election
in power for the remainder of Mádl’s
five-year tenure. Known for his reserve,
he had only a few run-ins with the
Medgyessy and Gyurcsány governments, one of which was over the question of dual citizenship for ethnic
Hungarians living beyond the country’s
borders, a cause that he championed.
Although Mádl made use of his
constitutional veto several times, each
time his opinion was upheld by the
verdict of the Constitutional Court.
Ahead of the 2005 presidential election
he decided not to stand again and was
succeeded by László Sólyom (president
until 2010).
F
Condolences
BZT File
02
Former President Ferenc Mádl’s funeral will be held at the Fiumei út cemetery on Tuesday.
inevitable but in 2000 he was again the
choice of the centre-right party Fidesz,
which by then was governing the
country in a coalition with the Hungarian
Democratic Forum and the Independent
Smallholders. The national assembly
elected Mádl president on 6 June 2000.
Constitutional Court backing
While the current President Pál
Schmitt is widely viewed as a yes-man
to the second Fidesz government, Mádl
is remembered as a relatively nonpartisan Head of State; although he
owed his election to Fidesz, Mádl exercised his powers to refer legislation to
the Constitutional Court for review on
occasion (in 2001, for example, the
much-contested “lex Répássy”, which
would have granted the “right to
respond” to anyone criticised in opinion
articles in the press, was struck down by
the Constitutional Court as a result).
After Fidesz lost in the 2002 general
elections, left-liberal governments were
MPs to get more pay, fewer expenses
M
Ps’ expenses will be reduced and closely
monitored while their basic salary will
increase, according to the left-of centre daily
Népszabadság. Their gross average monthly salary
will rise from HUF 400,000 (EUR 1,504) at present to
HUF 600,000 (EUR 2,257) but their expenses will
not be reimbursed, their use of petrol will be strictly
calculated on official fuel cards and hotel rooms or
rented flats will be available only through the parliament office.
In May 2010 Fidesz said MPs’ salaries will neither
increase nor decrease, but because there will be
only eight ministers instead of 16, one will be working
for the worth of two, the party’s website says. The
newspaper said MPs’ income is difficult to measure
because it comes from several sources. Alongside
their basic salary they have expense accounts,
including more than HUF 100,000 (EUR 376) for
accommodation, and they receive supplements for
serving on committees. Prime Minister Viktor
Orbán’s HUF 1.7 million (EUR 6,396) monthly salary
is exceeded by the HUF 2.2 million (EUR 8,278) paid
to his personal spokesman Péter Szijjártó and to
accountability commissioner Gyula Budai.
Mádl is survived by his wife, Dalma, a
son and three grandchildren. The
governing and opposition parties
expressed their condolences and paid
tribute. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán
wrote on his Facebook page: “We are
shocked to hear the news. May he rest
in peace.” Fidesz said Mádl’s life and
work in the service of the nation stands
as an example to us all.
Socialist party chairman Attila
Mesterházy said Mádl had always
“acted in accordance with the values of
respect for freedom, solidarity, love,
understanding and harmony, and lent
dignity to the whole nation”.
Schmitt expressed his “deep pain”
upon learning of Mádl’s death.
Crisis PM’s take
on debt surge
Still gunning for Gyurcsány
T
he PM in the one-year caretaker government that held
office until April 2010 has blamed excessive state
spending between 2001 and 2006 for a huge increase
in national debt. However, a surge in the debt to a current 80
per cent of GDP was as much due to the economic crisis,
former prime minister Gordon Bajnai suggested.
As a proportion of GDP, government debt rose from 53 per
cent in 2002 (when the governing Fidesz party last left office)
to around 80 per cent in 2010 after eight years of Socialist-led
government. Bajnai was addressing a parliamentary subcommittee on Wednesday through which the
government seeks to apportion blame for
the rise in the nation’s indebtedness.
Pension and public pay hikes
Some spectacularly expensive gestures
were made by the government of former
PM Péter Medgyessy (2002-2004),
including a doubling of public-sector pay Gordon Bajnai
and the introduction of a “13th month” bonus pension
payment. Bajnai also mentioned expensive motorway investments, although he noted that the vastly improved transport
infrastructure may have contributed to the recent success in
attracting foreign investors such as Daimler to set up shop in
Hungary.
By 2006 Hungary was running the highest budget deficit in
the EU, at 9.2 per cent. A subsequent round of austerity measures reined in spending, as well as contributing to a near total
collapse in support for the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP).
However, the national debt continued to rise from 66 per
cent at the end of 2007 to 80 per cent by the beginning of
2010, Bajnai told the committee. Bajnai, who served as
economy minister in the Socialist government, identified three
main reasons: GDP fell as Hungary suffered a deep recession
amid the financial crisis, thus increasing the national debt in
relative terms; money drawn from an International Monetary
Fund rescue loan was used to pad foreign-exchange reserves
(Bajnai noted that this did not increase net debt); thirdly, the
forint weakened dramatically. In addition Bajnai mentioned
increased bond yields and overspending by local authorities.
Retribution
PM Viktor Orbán has repeatedly labelled the “fight” against
public debt as the government’s main challenge. The “debt”
committee is in line with a policy of “holding to account”
allegedly corrupt or incompetent officials who held office
during the eight years of Socialist-led government.
The deputy chair of the committee, prime minister’s
spokesman Péter Szijjártó, was quoted by state news agency
MTI as saying that the committee’s meetings had so far failed
to establish at what point the national debt increased dramatically. Szijjártó said Bajnai’s testament showed that the growth
in debt was halted in 2009. That means, he said, that the
increase took place during Socialist former prime minister
Ferenc Gyurcsány’s term (2004 to 2009). The committee plans
to hear Gyurcsány on 17 June, Szijjártó said.
Herényi: Orbán
advisor offered bribe
András Tombor, former advisor to Fidesz
chairman Viktor Orbán, had offered the
Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF)
HUF 2 billion (EUR 7.52 million) from a
financial interest group if the centre-right
party were to elect MP Kornél Almássy
as its chairman in September 2008, the
party’s former caucus leader, Károly
Herényi, told a court this week.
Testifying in the so-called UD surveillance case at Pest Central District Court,
Herényi said Tombor made the offer on
12 September 2008 on behalf of a
wealthy financial group. Herényi would
not identify the people Tombor represented.
He claimed that the letter presented as
evidence was falsified, because it
contained additions he had not seen,
news website Hírszerzõ reported on
Wednesday. The letter had been given to
Tombor
and
contained
the
conditions of the
offer, Herényi said.
According to the
charges, former
Forum
leader
Ibolya Dávid and
Herényi
forced
MDF party-leaderelect
Kornél Ibolya Dávid
Almássy to withdraw from the race by threatening to
make public secretly recorded phone
conversations, Hírszerzõ wrote. Dávid
was due to testify as a defendant but
could not appear, having recently broken
a leg.
Former secret services minister György
Szilvásy and former national security
committee chairman Károly Tóth, both
Socialists, are defendants in the case,
along with Dávid and Herényi. Court
hearings will continue on June 5 and 6.
Change for soldiers
in Afghanistan
A new strategy on Hungary’s engagement in Afghanistan will be developed
by November, state secretary of foreign
affairs Zsolt Németh said this week.
The military presence will gradually
turn into assisting with training and
relief efforts. The strategy will essentially be Hungary’s official stance at an
international
conference
on
Afghanistan scheduled for December.
“The international community decided
in 2010 that the transition in
Afghanistan needs to be completed by
2014, when local authorities will take
over the security responsibilities of the
country,” Németh said. Hungary
remains committed to the mission, he
said. It is the country’s biggest military
contribution, with around half of the
1,000 Hungarian soldiers abroad
serving in Afghanistan.
THE BUDAPEST TIMES
ISSN 1785-1106
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PM sees stability in
hard-to-change laws
The economy will be more stable when a
raft of legislation is moved into the category of laws whose amendment requires
a two-thirds parliamentary majority,
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on
Tuesday on commercial channel TV2.
“Laws on the pension and tax systems
and the budget, which currently need 50
per cent plus one vote to pass, will be
changed to require two-thirds majority of
lawmakers’ votes,” Orbán said. Such a
majority has traditionally been required
for amendments to the Constitution.
Although Orbán’s conservative government commands the necessary parliamentary majority, it is thought unlikely that
future governments will be able to repeat
the unprecedented electoral landslide.
Opponents see the government’s move
as an attempt to ensure its legislation
remains on the statute books well beyond
its term in office. Orbán acknowledged
that the so-called “supermajority” laws,
which are expected to be elaborated in
the second half of this year, will attract
strong criticism at home and abroad.
Electoral let-down
after a year in office
A year after Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s
conservative government took office initial
optimism has given way to disappointment, a survey by pollster Medián
suggests. Almost a third of those who
voted for Orbán’s Fidesz-Christian
Democrat alliance in April 2010 would not
do so now, the poll conducted for weekly
news magazine HVG found. Of those who
said they voted for Fidesz, 36 per cent
declared themselves “disappointed” with
the government’s first year, while 59 per
cent said things had gone more or less as
they expected. Supporters of opposition
parties voiced a higher degree of disappointment. Overall, 51 per cent of respondents were unhappy with the first 12
months of Orbán’s government, 44 per
cent said the results had been what they
expected and three per cent felt things
had turned out even better than expected.
Sunday closing a
distant prospect
The Christian Democrats, junior alliance
partner in the governing alliance, want a
ban on Sunday shopping but Prime
Minister Viktor Orbán has dismissed the
idea on economic grounds. Speaking at
an economic forum on Tuesday, Orbán
said many people need the income from
weekend work to make ends meet, state
news agency MTI reported. “When people
can get by on five days of work a week,
then I too will be among those who
support keeping shops closed on
Sunday,” he said. “Until then, I feel there is
no chance for this.”
Rest easy.
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for 3-star prices
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– Continued from page 1
Business reaction
B
usiness leaders at the Economic
Turn conference expressed a
degree of satisfaction with the government’s economic policy efforts so far
but their enthusiasm was not shared
by Orbán’s political opponents.
The head of German car maker
Audi’s Hungarian arm, Thomas
Faustmann, was said he was
“convinced” that the government
would achieve the objectives it had set
out in its bid to modernise the country.
He noted that the Hungarian forint had
strengthened considerably over the
past year, stressing the need for legal
security and predictability. “A knowledge society must be created in
Hungary,” Faustmann said.
“Many automobile industry representatives have discovered the excellent
conditions that Hungary offers in recent
months. That is not least the result of
the new Hungarian government’s
forward-looking and investment-friendly
economic policy,” he said.
The head of the employers’ organisation VOSZ, and one of Hungary’s
richest men, Demján Sándor
welcomed some of the government’s
steps, such as setting aside eurozone
accession and staying out of a unified
taxation system. He criticised a
government committee set up to
monitor wage levels, which Demján
said causes uncertainty for entrepreneurs. “A society which does not
produce cannot develop, so manual
workers are needed, and their work
should be respected,” Demján said.
Audi Hungaria Motor CEO Thomas Faustmann told the audience that business needs
an atmosphere of legal security and predictability.
MSZP: PM ‘pigheaded’
The opposition Hungarian Socialist
Party (MSZP) was more critical.
Spokesman Lajos Körözs said the
number of unemployed had risen even
as the government promises hundreds
of thousands of new jobs. He described
Orbán’s comments about Hungary
ignoring
outside
criticism
as
“pigheaded”. The Socialist former prime
minister
Ferenc
Gyurcsány
summarised the first year of the Orbán
government as one of “exaggerated
hopes and bitter disappointments”. The
leader of the green-liberal opposition
party LMP also dismissed Orbán’s
speech. Playing on a government
slogan, András Schiffer said “in place of
national cooperation we get national
cynicism”. He described the government’s economic policy as “voodoo”.
The PM said he “understood” those
who are fighting to hold onto their way
of life but everyone must accept certain
facts. “We cannot pay able-bodied
people to go into early retirement, we
cannot pay welfare to people capable
of work when there is much unfinished
work to be done,” he said. Public works
programmes would get under way in
the second half of the year. He expects
consumption – currently in the
doldrums – to rise in the coming
months.
Orbán was keen
to
stress
that
Hungary would not
be swayed by
foreign opinion as
in the past. “Either
we never began
important work, or
if we started and Viktor Orbán
someone in America, Paris, Berlin,
Brussels or London didn’t like it, we
lost our confidence and abandoned
it.” His government has already
received strong international criticism
over its media laws, and Orbán
accepted that there would probably be
further “attacks” regarding the new
Constitution and economic policy.
“We can only say calmly, politely
and directly, without flinching, that
this is none of your business, it is the
business of Hungarians.”
A nation hopes as gov’t’s better ideas tread thin line
Policy Solutions analysis: Some things well done
porate into the polity numerous voters who are not
affected by the government’s policies. That would significantly damage democratic politics.
fter a relaxed start the government has
been very active enacting changes in
many walks of life. A lot of it seems to lack
planning, while another portion seems
wrong-headed or dubious. This week we
are going to take a look at the third group, the dubious:
we will review the measures that we find most positive.
Many of these are small acts that improve small slices of
everyday life. Other measures herald greater changes
but also harbour greater risks.
We have complained a lot in the past year. Not unduly,
we believe – unfortunately we had plenty of grounds to
do so – but nevertheless a lot. It’s time to appreciate the
finer things the government has had to offer. We’ll review
below some of the positive measures the government
has introduced in the past couple of months. Most of
these are not parts of a grand scheme but rather isolated
acts that will improve specific, targeted sections of life.
This is to some degree unfortunate, both in that this
suggests we don’t see the contours of a large-scale
programme that will improve Hungary’s situation, and
also in that it will make this week’s column more
disjointed thematically.
A
1) Two-thirds majority against the tobacco industry
While the government has talked a lot about finally
throwing off the shackles of our socialist legacy, the
smoking ban was the most significant real step towards
moving away from an awful leftover of life under the old
regime: smoke-filled restaurants and pubs.
Except for designated smoking rooms in hotels,
smoking will be banned in all public indoor and a wide
variety of outdoor facilities. In a country where smoking
is still widespread this caused relatively little stir, showing
that smokers too no longer consider the infliction of
passive smoking a birthright.
What’s more, this measure finally allowed for some
cross-party cooperation: smokers fought and voted
against the ban across party lines, though their joint
action was far too feeble considering the vast – and also
inter-party – alliance for the smoking ban.
2) A few hundred thousand Hungarians plus
Generally speaking the move towards allowing dual
citizenship was also a good and overdue move. It was
difficult for ethnic Hungarians to strengthen their ties with
Hungary or even to move there. For most of the affected
persons this will have few practical benefits – though for
those wishing to live in Hungary it’ll make life a lot easier.
But it is an important symbolic move reinforcing the
nation’s commitment to those ethnic Hungarians whose
ancestors unwittingly found themselves outside of the
borders of their homeland.
Nevertheless, giving suffrage to those across the
borders would be a different move entirely: it would be a
political ploy to increase Fidesz’s base and would incor-
3) EU presidency: success at policy level
As we have noted previously, Hungary has done a fairly
decent job in terms of managing the policy issues for which
its EU presidency was responsible. While the policy work
was undermined by the grand political issues – for instance
the ruckus over the media law – diplomats toiled tirelessly
behind the scenes and succeeded in pushing the policy
agenda forward. Important issues, such as the six-pack on
economic governance, a truly integrated energy market
and the European patent rights, saw impressive progress
under the Hungarian presidency.
However, it has missed the opportunity to host an
Eastern Partnership summit, even though one of the most
promising prospects for Hungary’s position as a pivotal
state in international diplomacy would be precisely as a
mediator between East and West.
The most successful and symbolic public policy
achievement of the rotating EU presidency is likely to be
the progress in the adoption of a Roma Framework
Strategy. With the strategy most recently wrapping up the
unanimous endorsement of the Employment, Social Policy,
Health and Consumer Affairs Council, it is likely to take the
other hurdles and appears on course for smooth passage
in the European Council too.
Moreover the government has made some serious
commitments on the issue at home as well, pledging a
hundred thousand jobs for unemployed Roma: though it’s
far from sufficient, it’s the largest and most significant
commitment any government has made until now.
Delivering won’t be easy.
4) Community work – a new term for Hungarian youth
The government has talked a great deal about community spirit and solidarity, and it is making small moves
towards really strengthening them in a country where cynicism is generally rife when the terms “solidarity” and
“community” are introduced into a conversation.
In its draft programme for secondary education, the
Ministry for National Resources has proposed 60 hours of
mandatory community work for youths, similar to the
International Baccalaureate’s CAS (Creativity, Action,
Service) requirement. We don’t know yet whether this will
actually happen but it’s a good idea.
Many youths grow up without a perspective on those
less fortunate. Those who take such a programme seriously could benefit a great deal, while the rest won’t be
scarred for life.
5) A Hungarian École Nationale d’Administration
The government will also set up a public service university. The idea is good and overdue. Public service is not
held in high esteem in Hungary and a good institute of
higher education might improve that perception, in addition
to providing better instruction for future public servants and
maybe helping to create a new ethos of public service,
which is virtually non-existent.
At the same time many observers fear that this new
school will primarily serve the training of a Fidesz-dominated public service whose loyalties will foremost lie with
the current governing party. That would be unfortunate and
make the project counterproductive.
6) Easing the life of the SMEs
Several measures undertaken by the government are
aimed at making the life of SMEs easier. In fact, Hungarianowned small enterprises constitute one of the key pieces in
what is Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s vision of the future.
Some of these measures, included in the somewhat
ironically titled “bureaucracy reduction” programme, are a
frontal assault on workers’ rights. There are some sensible
measures as well, however, such as the reduction of
corporate taxes from 19 per cent to 10 per cent, applicable
to a pre-tax revenue of up to HUF 500 million (EUR 1.88
million) per year (up from HUF 50 million, EUR 188,088).
With the higher tax rate having been raised to 19 per cent
from 16 per cent at the end of last year, the competitive
environment for SMEs might really improve.
7) Brave but ambiguous measures in social policy
Finally the government is entering onto a politically risky
path by challenging two key social rights: the right to early
retirement and the widespread disability pensions. Fidesz
is right in finally trying to tackle these issues.
Early retirement was a legitimate idea for some jobs
involving very heavy physical or mental stress. The original
valid concept has been hollowed out by a mindless expansion and service year requirements that are too short.
Reforming this would be crucial not only for easing the
pressure it puts on the exchequer but also because it
drains valuable experience from the public services.
Similarly the vastly inflated disability pension roster –
Hungary has an inordinately high ratio of disability
pensions in international comparison – is due for some
parsing, because it keeps able labour out of the job market
at a time when the employment level is the second-lowest
in the EU.
Yet the danger with tackling both these problems is overshooting, which the Orbán government has a tendency to
do. Early retirements have a legitimate purpose when it
comes to certain jobs associated with high physical or
mental stress. Their wholesale and indiscriminate abolition
is unwarranted and extreme. Moreover, reviewing early
retirements that were granted perfectly lawfully and
sending legitimately retired persons back into the labour
market would also be extreme – yet a constitutional
amendment by Fidesz would allow for and in fact serve
only this purpose.
Disability pensions are different in that many were
granted unlawfully without a relevant disability to legitimise
them. But here too the government should proceed with
sensitivity. While its claims may be just it makes hardly any
sense to quickly force hundreds of thousands of people
into a labour market that is clearly far from ready to absorb
them. This would cause considerable hardships and the
political and social costs would be high.
Often only a thin line divides positive policies from very
similar negative ones. Many of the measures analysed
above could be implemented well and yield benefits but
they could also result in governmental excess, corruption
and social hardship. By including them here we have given
them the benefit of doubt and we hope the government will
deliver.
POLITICS
Viktor Orbán on his government
03
04
THE BUDAPEST TIMES
NEWS
Witches, shamans, Noah get that sinking feeling
Unpersecuted churches
The draft reportedly lists nine churches that
have played a major role in the nation’s history
and culture: Catholic, Reformed and Lutheran,
the Jewish religious community, the orthodox
churches, the Unitarian, the Baptist, the
Methodist and the Pentecostal churches. Further
categories are to include the “new Protestant
churches”, “other religious communities recognised by parliament” and the rather vague
“churches performing considerable public activities, which can conclude an agreement with the
government”.
In an interview with news website Mindennapi.hu
he described it as “ludicrous that two or three families with 100 signatures can simply stroll along to the
court and register their business venture as a church.
Or when an animal rescue home passing itself off as
a church gets HUF 70.80 million (EUR 265,708)
from the budget yearly. It’s scandalous that even the
church of ‘placenta worshippers’ can get its hands on
millions of forints for its sham religious activities”.
Communities registered as churches can ask
taxpayers to donate 1 per cent of their annual
personal income tax.
Airport cops may
have dealt dope
The weekly Heti Válasz compiled a list of 50
churches highly unlikely to fit the bill. Among them
is the Noah for Life Community, which the magazine claims is actually a front for the Noah Animals
Home in Budapest, although it professes to follow
the teachings of Jainism and ascribes spiritual
significance to the protection of animals. Some
might be surprised to learn that the Japanese
board game Go even boasts its own church in
Hungary. The many churches peddling various
forms of occultism include the Ancient Hungarian
Shamanic Church, which spends its days escorting
ghosts back to the other world.
– JW
Two officers of the Airport Police
Directorate were arrested last weekend
on suspicion of drug trafficking.
According to the allegations the two
were the amphetamine suppliers for
numerous
dealers
who
were
conducting their illegal business in
nightclubs in Miskolc. Borsod County
Police have arrested three alleged drug
dealers who are suspected of having
bought “speed” and investigations have
been launched against 15 alleged drug
takers. National Defence Service investigators searched the two officers’
homes and allegedly found an illegal
firearm at each. The Airport Police
Directorate was unavailable for
comment. One officer has been
suspended and the other has resigned.
Workers up in arms
Budapest in ring for
2017 World Games
Árok said, however, that the government had not budged and was standing
by an earlier offer in which early retirees
who are not willing to return to service
could have their pensions taxed at 16
per cent.
The government has said the practice
of able bodied personnel retiring early on
a full pension could no longer be justified.
Proposals would set the minimum retirement age at 57, five years before the
statutory retirement age for ordinary
employees, and the government wants to
get retired personnel back into work.
Unions had argued that the prospect of
early retirement on a full pension was
one of the only remaining attractions to
draw recruits into low-paid careers as
policemen, customs officers and the fire
brigade. In a TV interview on Tuesday,
Orbán said pensions would be calculated
in such a way that the last ten years in
work would receive additional weighting.
Currently their are 29,000 former
police officers and 10,000 soldiers
collecting early retirement pensions, the
news website index. hu reported. A third
of these are between 40 and 50 years of
age, the rest are 50 to 57. The average
pension is HUF 150,000 (EUR 564.10)
per month.
Teachers’ unions plan to go ahead with a
demonstration this weekend despite
union leader Istvánné Galló having “clarified” several points during a meeting
with state secretary for education Rózsa
Hoffmann on Monday. Gálló’s union, the
PSZ and four others plan to march on
the National Resources Ministry at noon
on Sunday and present a petition. Chief
among their grievances are the government’s lack of dialogue with unions and
the passage of laws “detrimental to large
parts of society”.
Gov’t alone seeks to
set minimum wage
New legislation would give the government
the power to set the minimum wage by
decree, according to a proposal presented
to parliament on Monday. The relevant
clause was included in the draft bill, accessible on the parlament.hu website, by
Economy Minister György Matolcsy that
deals with the establishment of a new
Economy and Social Council (NGTT).
The general secretary of employers’ organisation VOSZ, Ferenc Dávid, warned that
this means the state will be taking part in
BZT/Aaron Taylor
Teachers to protest
Last month János Lázár, the Fidesz parliamentary group leader and MP István Balsai,
submitted a proposal to parliament to reduce or abolish pensions for those who had retired
before reaching the statutory retirement age. The placard reads: János Lázár is a sh**ty
person “and that is what he is worth too!”
wage negotiations even in cases where it
has no direct stake. “If the government
decides on wages it must accept all the
consequences,” Dávid told financial daily
Napi Gazdaság.
The NGTT will replace the existing arbitration council OÉT and will be made up of
representatives of workers and employers,
civil groups, chambers of commerce, traditional churches and academics. The
government will not be bound by any decisions or opinions of the body.
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Nuclear strike
Unions representing workers at the Paks
nuclear power station formed a strike
committee on Monday. Committee head
László Lõrincz said the move was partly a
response to government plans to do away
with the arbitration body OÉT, which coordinates wage negotiations in the public
sector. Lõrincz said unions were also
concerned over the possible rescinding of
preferential early-retirement packages.
Budapest and Gödöllõ submitted a joint
bid to host the 2017 World Games after
the project received a HUF 6 billion
(EUR 22.53 million) guarantee from the
cabinet this week. The bid was handed
over hours before the 31 May deadline
to Joachim Gossow, the managing
director of the International World
Games Association. György Gémesi,
the president of the National Sports
Association, said that hosting the quadrennial meeting of non-Olympic games
has enormous potential. “We do not
have to build new facilities but the
country can get serious direct and indirect revenues,” Gémesi said. Hungary
ranks 26th for medals won in the history
of the World Games (ninth in the
regular Olympics). The games have
hosted numerous events over the years
that were later included in the Olympic
Games, such as Taekwondo, triathlon
and women’s weightlifting. The last
meeting in 2009 featured events such
as rhythmic gymnastics, power lifting
and squash, and some non-conventional sports such as fin swimming,
artistic roller skating, canoe polo, fistball and bowling. The host of the 2017
meeting will be announced towards the
end of 2011.
THE BUDAPEST TIMES
Analysis: Cheap energy
– the end of a dream
GÉZA MOLNÁR, ZSOLT HETESI
“When civilised man destroys in blind vandalism the
natural habitat surrounding and sustaining him he
threatens himself with ecological ruin. When he feels
the economic impact, he will likely realise his mistake,”
writes Konrad Lorenz in his 1973 book Civilized Man’s
Eight Deadly Sins.
Today ecological ruin is imminent and the economy
is feeling the effect: in 2010 the Hungarian agriculture
sector suffered damage of HUF 150 billion (EUR 563.01
million), chiefly due to environmental fluctuations triggered by the destruction of nature, while the sector will
have just HUF 200 billion (EUR 750.66 million) at its
disposal in the next three years.
And still we have not recognised the error of our
ways. We insist on pointing to external circumstances
and talk about havoc wreaked at nature’s whim. That is
sheer self-deception.
Szabolcs County Court had convicted a master
sergeant on three counts of demanding and
accepting bribes, state news agency MTI
reported on Wednesday. Tibor Hajdú, 33, was
sentenced to one year and 10 months in jail,
pending a three-year probation. He was ordered
to pay a HUF 200,000 (EUR 752.5) fine or face
jail time. Hajdú stopped three Ukrainian minibuses during a spot road-check on 30 November
2009 and fined one EUR 5 and the other two
EUR 10 each.
Robbery suspect nabbed
Budapest police have captured a middle-aged
man in a fake moustache who allegedly robbed
10 pharmacies, shops and a lottery kiosk in
Budapest in the past month, Béla Nyerges,
director of BRFK’s crime office, told
inforadio.hu.
The criminal began his spree on 4 May when
his attempt to rob a bank was foiled by a timedelayed lock, Nyerges said. He is then said to
have ransacked ten pharmacies in four weeks,
broken into stores and robbed a lottery kiosk.
A man was taken into custody after a brief
chase when police recognised him on Lajos
utca in District II. The suspect was allegedly
What we are suffering now is not the punishment of
a capricious and vengeful god. We are reaping the
unavoidable consequences of our own deeds. The
punishment is not calculated or vindictive; it is nature’s
logical response to our earlier actions.
We can isolate ourselves from those responses for a
time, but we have to devote more and more time and
consume increasing amounts of energy to neutralise
unwished-for effects and maintain at least or even
increase those effects that are desirable. Unfortunately
the only way to do so is by using up more and more
energy, which is an extremely damaging approach.
found elsewhere they too can be carried off, but once
those are exhausted such parasitic use of the land is
rendered impossible. Today we have almost reached
such a point of no return.
Mechanised mayhem
We will soon lose this fight
A second issue is the fuel consumed by mechanical
systems. Without mechanisation and the increase in
energy use that it entails, today the lion’s share of
nature would still be untouched – society would have
left it in peace. Instead mechanisation and the use of
non-renewable (mainly fossil) resources have allowed
nature to be exploited with greater efficiency and force.
Squeezed from both sides
Finite resource
The “relationship to nature” is often a disguised reference to a form of agricultural management that strips
nature of all its resources. Since such resources are
removed, rather than being left to develop in their
natural habitat, the most apt description is in fact “agricultural theft”. The land becomes exhausted; that
problem can be covered up for a time by using chemicals and artificial nutrients, but there comes a point
where fresh resources will no longer be available if
natural systems are destroyed. If resources can be
wearing a false moustache and carrying a gas
pistol that police said he used to commit the
robberies. They said he was probably
preparing to rob another pharmacy. Nyerges
said they have enough evidence to officially
charge the suspect.
Hungary escapes
E. coli outbreak
Hungary has not been affected by the E. coli
epidemic sweeping Europe that started out
from Germany, national medical officer Judit
Paller told parliament’s health committee on
Wednesday.
Paller said there have been cases of diarrhoea
reported but so far not in connection with E.
coli. She said that out of the 17 specimens
examined 11 did not reveal the suspect
bacteria, and for the rest laboratory results
have not yet arrived.
The disease has sprung up in Spain as well,
Paller said. Apart from Germany there have
been cases reported in Sweden, Denmark,
Holland, the UK and France, with a total of 867
people having been registered with the
disease.
Paller said that contrary to media reports only
10 deaths have been recorded. The disease
spreads through affected food. E. coli bacteria
has been found on the surface of cucumbers.
That is the point where these two topics touch.
Technological developments have enabled the even
more efficient and thorough exploitation of natural
systems. And so we have arrived at our current situation. The crisis is bearing down on us from two directions. The frailer and more damaged the natural
systems are, the greater the effort needed to extract the
remnants of their resources, and to ward off the consequences of the systems becoming defunct. The upshot
is an ever greater demand for fuel.
Start Malév trip at 2B
Even the International Energy Agency has issued
increasingly urgent warnings that within a few years
there will no longer be enough oil to satisfy demand.
The age of cheap and unrestricted energy has come to
an end.
The swift destruction of natural systems and the
insatiable demand for fuel lie behind the deepening
crisis. As long as we have cheap energy we can wage
war with water and the wind, and we can seek to defy
droughts, torrential rains, tornados and earthquakes.Yet
as soon as our resources prove insufficient, our war
against nature will also be over.
There is much to be done and our understanding is
only partial. Our interventions for the most part are
informed by the current system; the damage that will
ensue later is ignored for now. We are trying to plug the
holes in a sinking ship, when we should have got out the
lifeboats long ago.
– Géza Molnár is a writer and expert of the field of the
traditional agriculture of the Tisza valley. He was worked
on the development of the Vásárhelyi plan. Zsolt Hetesi
is a research fellow at the Eötvös University. His interest
is connected with sustainability and the systemic view.
Mobile phones: cancer risk debate
National airline Malév has switched to Liszt
Ferenc Airport’s terminal 2B – instead of 2A –
to check in passengers. Malév will operate
four more check-in desks than before and will
operate a travel agency only at terminal 2B.
Opposition MPs lose pay
for Constitution protest
House Speaker László Kövér has reduced
the salaries of some opposition MPs after
declining to accept the written excuses of
caucus leaders in the Socialist and Politics
Can Be Different (LMP) parties as to why
their members had stayed away from parliamentary work during the process to write a
new Constitution. Kövér told state news
agency MTI: “There was no other way to
decide.” LMP caucus leader András Schiffer
told MTI: “According to parliamentary regulations the wage of MPs can be cut if they are
not present during a number of votes.” He
said the MPs were aware of the consequences if they were absent. The Socialist
caucus said Kövér’s action was legally
acceptable but “such a petty political revenge
is unprecedented in the history of parliament”.
M
ore research is needed to establish whether mobile phones
increase the risk of cancer, director of the Pathology Institute
of Semmelweis University Professor József Tímár told state news
agency MTI. Exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation
emitted by mobile phones could be associated with brain cancers,
the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research
on Cancer (IARC) announced on Tuesday.
“The World Health Organisation (WHO) did not say mobile phones
are a proven cancer risk, they said that the possibility cannot be
discounted,” Tímár said. “There must be a threshold where the effects
do not yet manifest themselves.
“I think there is no need to stop using mobile phones but there might
be dangers to using them non-stop,” he said.
Mobiles do emit electromagnetic radiation that interferes with the
workings of the sensitive cells of the central nervous system, he said.
The amount of electromagnetic radiation in contact with the body was
an important factor.
József Bakos, head of department at the National Joliot-Curie
Research Institute of Radiation Biology and Radiation Health, said
Interphone Study, a research programme that ended last year, had
found a connection between electromagnetic radiation absorbed by
brain cells and certain types of tumors.
“There is no final data when it comes to the effect-mechanisms, that
is why WHO listed the use of mobile phones in the low-risk category,”
Bakos said. “The rating is based on epidemiologic research: tumors are
more common in mobile phone users. However, neither animal experiments nor cell research confirmed how it works.”
Phones should be used only for texting or calls should be put on
speaker, he said. “That way it’s significantly further away from the head
and less radiation is absorbed by the brain cells.”
– Judit Szilák
NEWS
Corrupt cop nailed
for five euro bribe
Cause & effect
COMMENT
Exploitation of farmland near point of no return
05
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THE BUDAPEST TIMES
E C O N O M Y /B U S I N E S S
Financial stability, then growth
Government
focusing on state
assets, transport,
tenders, energy
inister for National Development Tamás Fellegi’s recent talk
to the Joint Venture Association
could hardly have been better timed.
Only three days after the announcement
of reacquisition of a 21.2% stake in
national oil and gas company MOL from
Russia’s Surgutneftegaz, the minister,
who played a significant role in bringing
it about, was guest speaker at the association’s AGM. Fellegi also took stock of
his first year as minister.
M
Joint Venture Association
06
Minister for National Development Tamás Fellegi: The reorganisation of public procurements is a crucial aspect of creating a competitive economy.”
Rebuilding state assets
After a few words commending the
economic policy of his government, Fellegi
began by speaking about the MOL transaction, which he described as perfectly
fitting with the government’s strategy of
breaking with the dwindling of state assets
that occurred in the eight years before
Fidesz-KDNP took power, “or rather the
past 20 years”. While conceding that the
privatisation deals were not without positive
effects, Fellegi lambasted the failure to
invest more than just a small proportion of
the cash raised in the country’s development.
“In Hungary’s interest we must see an
end to such practices,” he said. His ministry
was now intent on increasing and
managing state assets properly, rather than
supporting their continued break-up. The
aim was to create the financial latitude
needed for the government’s economic
goals to be achieved, which ultimately
would serve the common good. The
ministry was in the process of developing
guidelines that would set out “the fundamental principles, priorities and conditions
of handling state assets” and a “trustworthy
and transparent inventory of assets” would
be compiled by the end of the year. “We
need to know once and for all what exactly
is still in our ownership,” the minister said.
Economic sense
One item to add to the inventory is the
MOL shares package, whose purchase
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced in
late May. Fellegi told the audience that the
government was guided in this decision
first and foremost by the purchase being a
good investment. MOL is one of the
country’s most valuable companies and its
shares yield attractive dividends, he said.
The deal would also have countless other
positive effects that could not be measured
in financial terms, including for energy
security.
Fellegi is also expecting the share
purchase to benefit foreign trade because
of the important role that MOL plays in the
region. Finally the acquisition had removed
“an important obstacle to the development
of Hungarian-Russian relations”.
No side deals, minister says
He rebutted rumours that there was
more to the MOL deal than met the eye. “It
was purely a business transaction. The
methods and conditions by which the transaction was carried out were fully in accordance with standard international practices.There were no political negotiations in
the background.”
The minister pointed out that “if there
had been such talks then the price would
have been significantly below or above the
market one”. He praised his Russian negotiating partners. “Surgutneftegaz’ negotiators behaved extremely properly. The business negotiations were entirely aboveboard and normal.”
As to MOL’s future, the government saw
no need to change the management or
strategy. “MOL is a success story. The
government backed MOL’s business
strategy in the past and will continue to do
so.”
Stability and autonomy
Returning to the real topic of his talk,
Fellegi asserted that the government has a
good strategy which has been well thought
through. The first task after coming into
power was that of securing, or rather
restoring, national stability and financial
autonomy, he said. The government also
needed to examine how much money was
still available in EU funds.
It had come as a nasty surprise that the
amount available is at most HUF 2 trillion
(EUR 7.51 billion) instead of the HUF 3.5
trillion (EUR 13.14 billion) assumed at the
time of the change of government. “It’s
conceivable that even that figure will need
to be corrected downwards because
several investigations are still ongoing into
irregularities that occurred in connection
with the award of funds.” The financing of
metro line 4 is one of the most problematic
issues, Fellegi said.
Stimulating growth
As soon as the country had been put
back on a stable financial footing, the
government had turned its attention to kickstarting economic growth through the new
Széchenyi Plan and then the Széll Kálmán
Plan, he said. “There has been a seamless
progression from the first steps of the new
government to the Széll Kálmán Plan.”
In addition to its general efforts to stimulate growth, the government was focusing
intensely on particular areas of the
economy in need of overhaul. Fellegi said
big changes are afoot in public transport. A
new structure would be created that was of
higher quality, more reliable and more
financially viable. “We can no longer
tolerate a situation in which state transport
companies require capital injections from
the state on a regular basis. That is not
good in terms of ability to plan the central
budget, nor does it motivate such companies to operate more efficiently.”
The public-procurements system is also
set to be overhauled.”The reorganisation of
public procurements is a crucial aspect of
creating a competitive economy.” (See
article at top right.)
Energy, communications
Another pivotal element was the fleshing
out of an energy strategy that would take
into account both climate issues and
economic development, and provide a
perspective for the coming 20 to 30 years.
The state cannot and does not intend to
decide questions of that scale alone, he
said. “The key players on the energy
market need to be involved in working out
the energy strategy.” The state had already
created an “energy round table” to which
both domestic and foreign energy partners
could bring their ideas.
Fellegi finished by holding up infocommunications as a further key element of
long-term competitiveness. He advocated a
switch to fourth-generation mobile technology enabling speeds of up to 15-20 MBit
per second within as short a time as
possible. The 900 MHz frequency would be
put out to tender; the government had
already made the relevant decision and it
was now for media authority MNHH to take
the next steps. The government had also
decided to lift the existing restrictions on
frequencies already in use in order to clear
the way for the new generation of frequencies. “That is an important strategic decision that will transform the whole market,”
the minister said.
– Jan Mainka
New board
members at JVA
The annual general assembly of the
Joint Venture Association (JVA),
which celebrates its 25th birthday
this year, took place last Friday. JVA
president István Fekete praised the
association as a “vital player in the
formation and expression of opinions
of the Hungarian economy”. He credited the government with having
increasingly taken measures called
for by the association, whether as a
direct consequence of the association’s urging or not. Fekete said that
he sees no need for the association
to make major changes to its modus
operandi. Indeed, perhaps the
biggest change announced by
Fekete was that the association’s
logo is to be updated
The members present unanimously elected five members to fill
vacant positions on the association’s
board: Róbert Heinczinger, tax
partner of Ernst & Young Kft. and
chairman of the JVA’s tax
committee, Dale A. Martin, president
and CEO of Siemens Zrt., György
Mosonyi,
supervisory
board
member of MOL Nyrt. and earlier
JVA president, Péter Paál, CEO of
HP Magyarország Kft, and Paolo
Spada, leader of UniCredit Bank
Hungary Zrt’s corporate, investment
banking and private banking division. OTP human resources director
Ágnes Rudas, whose three-year
mandate had expired, was reelected by the members for another
term. The JVA’s Golden Rose was
also awarded to three people who
with their work have contributed to
the realisation of the JVA’s goals.
This year the accolade went to Zsolt
Becsey, state secretary at the
national economy ministry, Margit
Kocsi, editor at business daily
Világgazdaság and Iván Kovácsics,
deputy president of the National Tax
and Customs Administration.
Foreign policy coup with potentially risky consequences
Political Capital analysis on the MOL-Surgut affair
O
n 24 May Prime Minister
Viktor Orbán unexpectedly, although not without
preliminaries, announced the
government had acquired the
21.2 per cent stake of Russia’s
Surgutneftegaz in MOL for EUR
1.88 billion. While the acquisition
is a foreign policy success for the
state it poses risks in domestic
politics and may even undermine
MOL’s market position.
Prolonged stalemate
A few weeks before the
Gyurcsány-Bajnai change of
guard, in 2009 Surgut managed
to acquire OMV shares above the
market price after the Austrian oil
company failed in its takeover bid
for MOL. The Russian giant with a
murky shareholder background
invested in the Hungarian
company mainly to tap its strong
regional position, production
potential and its role in the
Nabucco project, i.e. instead of
short-term business objectives it
was motivated by long-term
strategic thinking.
In 2009 MOL management
successfully defended the
company against the Russians,
essentially resulting in a two-year
stalemate: despite being the
largest shareholder, Surgut failed
to exercise its rights while it had
no intention to exit either.
In the past two years there
have been regular, primarily
government-level discussions
looking for a solution. Based on
leaked information, the Bajnai
cabinet also planned to repurchase the Surgut stake, and
following the change of government Minister of National
Development Tamás Fellegi has
been the most active in leading
negotiations. The Orbán government has declared its intention to
increase state assets and consolidate strategic Hungarian companies (see article above).
Coup with risks
The agreement is a foreign
policy coup for the government
because the Russians had tried
to secure Surgut’s shareholder
rights and the profit realised on
the current transaction is not seen
as a genuine victory. At the diplomatic level the conclusion of the
deal is all the more important
because the impasse in the MOL
affair got in the way of resolving
other issues, such as the position
of Malév, long-term gas delivery
agreements and the expansion of
the nuclear plant at Paks.
While the current decision
doesn’t necessarily constitute
part of a larger package, a settlement of the above issues cannot
be neatly separated one from the
other.
Since so far Surgut has been
unable to influence MOL decisions, in theory the acquisition will
have no immediate and direct
effect on corporate strategy,
although, thanks to the transaction the Hungarian state has
became MOL’s largest shareholder, not to mention that in
connection with the nationalisation of private pension funds the
package will increase by an additional 2.4 per cent.
As a result the government will
exceed the 25 per cent business
share and thus would have to
make a purchase offer to other
shareholders.
However, in a more likely
scenario, it will put some of its
shares on the market. At the
same time the government’s
increased stake also poses the
risk that it will have a direct influence on management decisions,
i.e. aside from business considerations in future MOL’s strategy
may reflect political thinking as
well.
Croatian angle
The transaction may also have
an impact on MOL’s Croatian
subsidiary INA. Following reports
of the agreement, the Croatian
media presented the Hungarian
government’s action as something to emulate by the Croatian
leadership, suggesting that
strategically important INA should
be protected along the lines
applied by the Hungarian government in respect to MOL.
Incidentally,
following
the
upcoming elections in Croatia
MOL can expect to face strong
attacks as the likely winners, the
Social Democrats, plan to review
a number of decisions passed
since 2003 by succeeding cabinets led by the right-wing HDZ,
even as the first privatisation
agreement with MOL had been
signed by a left-wing government.
According to a statement by
Fellegi, the government is
financing the EUR 1.88 billion
acquisition with unused tranches
drawn from the IMF loan. Indeed,
in theory the transaction does not
affect the budget deficit or public
debt, although this is only a question of accounting: the IMF loan
will also have to be repaid in the
coming years.
Domestically, the takeover can
be communicated to the public as
a success story because the
largest Hungarian company has
been protected from the
Russians, to this day far from
popular in Hungary. At the same
time, the opposition can exploit
the affair in its attacks on the
government.
In the opposition camp the
LMP and MSZP can use the
amount spent on the MOL buyback scheme against the pain
suffered by the broad strata of
society afflicted by budget cuts.
Also, one year ago Fidesz had
claimed time and again that the
previous governments had spent
the entire IMF loan, and now they
admit financing the investment
using the very same funds. They
discredit their own arguments
promoting the need for austerity
measures.
Over the past year the government has emphasised the need
to break away from the IMF, yet in
this latest effort in the direction of
regaining independence is
financed with a loan from the IMF.
– Gergely Gimes
PPP overhaul to
help domestic SMEs
The government will submit new publicprocurement legislation to parliament in
July that will make state tendering
cheaper, simpler and more transparent,
Minister of National Development Tamás
Fellegi announced on Monday. “An
important goal of the new law is to
present new opportunities for domestic
small and medium enterprises and help
public-works projects,” Fellegi said. The
cabinet is planning to cancel all PublicPrivate Partnership projects, which
currently cost the state HUF 120-130
billion (EUR 451.19-488.81 million) a
year, he said. According to Fellegi the
cancellation of some of the more than
100 contracts could lead to lawsuits, but
the ministry had examined them and
contends that all the risks are assumed
by the state but nearly all profits are
realised by the private corporations.
Longer, lower bank
tax ‘European trend’
Unlike the crisis tax levied on other
segments, the extra duty on banks could
have a long-term presence, state secretary András Kármán said in an interview
with the daily Népszabadság. “It is,
however, our goal to reduce the amount of
the bank tax,” Kármán said. “We will cut it
in half from 2013.” He said all Europe is
going in this direction. Once the tax was
halved its consequences on the competitiveness of the segment needed to be
examined and a decision on the future of
the duty could only be reached after that.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said earlier
that if there is no Europe-wide bank tax
law by 2013 then the cabinet will initiate
negotiations with the financial sector.
State sugar on way
to bowl over prices
The tendering process to market 2,000
tons of sugar from the state reserve is
under way, Minister of Rural
Development
Sándor
Fazekas
announced on Wednesday. He said the
exact date of availability is unknown but
the sugar will be sold at wholesale
prices. Fazekas announced in early May
that the state reserve will be opened up
to combat rising prices. Central
Statistical Office data shows that from
June 2010 to March 2011 the retail price
increased from HUF 184 (EUR 0.69) to
HUF 350 (EUR1.32) a kilogram. This is
partly due to the European record-high
Hungarian VAT of 25% and to factory
closures that have forced Hungary to
import, with world prices also on the
increase. The local price is so high that
Hungarians have been descending on
stores in Burgenland, Austria, to stock
up on sugar that still costs about the
same as in Hungary a year ago.
Conference centres
on Chinese copycats
The Hungarian-Chinese department of
the National Chamber of Commerce and
Industry will host a conference about
“Entrepreneurship and the Protection of
intellectual property in China” in the Ybl
Palace in Budapest on Wednesday. The
event, which offers a comprehensive
overview about the business environment and the steps necessary to enter
the Chinese market, will provide a
chance for consultation with European
Union organisations present in Beijing.
Speakers include David Lavorel, the
director of the EU’s SME centre, Philippe
Girard-Foley, an authority on Chinese
Intellectual Property law; and other
Hungarian specialists including the
secretary of the National Board Against
Counterfeiting (HENT).
Investment levels
nothing to brag on
The volume of investments by business
fell 1.1% in the first quarter of 2011
compared to the same period of 2010 but
rose 1.7% from the previous quarter, the
Central Statistical Office announced this
week. Within the figure, construction
investments went down by 8% yr-on-yr
and the investment volume in transportation and storage was 32.3% lower, which
was caused by a significant decrease in
motorway and railway construction. But
investments in the export-oriented manufacturing sector were up 38.4% and there
was also strong 39.9% growth in the
energy industry as a result of power-plant
construction, network extensions and
developments.
THE BUDAPEST TIMES
MÁV leaves tracks
in red ink. Again
Courier service
pocketing cash
Hungarian courier service Sprinter
nearly doubled its income compared to
2008 and finished last year with HUF
1.05 billion (EUR 3.94 million) in
revenue, managing director András
Rácz has announced. “One of the main
reasons for our expansion is our strong
IT background and continuous development,” Rácz said. The market
seemed to be picking up after the
economic crisis.
Opel changes name
to honour town
The Opel factory in Szentgotthárd
formerly known as GM Powertrain
Hungary has been renamed Opel
Szentgotthárd to enhance brand recognition and create closer ties to the town.
A statement released by the factory
said that as a result of EUR 500 million
in development the role of
Szentgotthárd will expand within the
Opel family. Therefore it was important
to tie in the success of the company
with the name of the plant itself, it said.
Deal in the pipeline
on Wednesday
Minister of National Development
Tamás Fellegi will sign an agreement
about the Nabucco gas pipeline in
Turkey on Wednesday. “We have not
signed it so far because the contract did
not represent the interests of Hungary,”
said Fellegi, who will do so along with
representatives of participating countries. Austria, Romania, Bulgaria,
Turkey and Hungary signed an intergovernmental document in 2009
backing construction of the pipeline,
which is expected to begin in 2013. It
will transport gas to Europe from
Central Asia as an alternative to the
rival Russian pipeline South Stream.
10,000 to 170,000. The vast majority were
exported, with only 2,200 sold here. In 2009,
8,100 new Suzukis were registered. The decrease
saw the firm’s market share slip from 13.5% in
2009 to 5%. The decline is significant even in light
of data from the whole industry, which showed a
30% drop in newly purchased cars in 2010.
ITDH’s successor HITA hits its stride
Leaner, but not meaner, investment and trade office to boost FDI
T
he uncertain times for state investment development in Hungary
appear to be over. At a press
conference last week the Nemzeti
Külgazdasági Hivatal – which in English
goes by the Hungarian Investment and
Trade Agency (HITA) – let it be known that
it is essentially performing the same duties
as its predecessor, Hungarian Investment
and Trade Development Agency (ITD
Hungary), and gave an impression of
professional smooth running.
Tighter government oversight
In terms of its day-to-day business,
HITA
differs
little
from
ITDH.
Organisationally, however, there have
been changes: HITA, as an independently
operating unit with its own budget, is
directly under the control of National
Economy Minister György Matolcsy. As an
authority (hivatal) it now has somewhat
less freedom than ITDH – with all the
advantages and disadvantages that
entails.
The office’s enthusiastic president,
Erzsébet Dobos, said cost-effectiveness is
one clear benefit of the new setup. “Our
institution is cheaper to run,” she said. One
reason is that the number of staff has been
scaled back. While more than 200 people
were employed by ITDH at the last count,
the new office is to have a staff of 155. In
the five months since beginning operations
the full quota of appointments has not yet
Employment up, yet waiting time longer
U
nemployment stood at
11.4% in FebruaryApril, 0.4 percentage points
lower than the same period
of 2010 and a decline of
0.2 points compared to the
previous figures. The
Central Statistical Office
said 49.9% of jobless
people had been searching
Continuity
– Hungarian Investment
and Trade Agency
(HITA) president,
Erzsébet Dobos
New place, same purpose
The newly established office has only
existed officially since the beginning of this
year, and had been gradually getting into
its stride. It has had a fixed abode to call its
own only since 2 March. The new residence is in Honvéd utca and Szalay utca in
District V, in plain view of the National
Economy Ministry, to which the office
belongs as a supporting institution. The
building was splendidly refurbished by
Dresdner Bank in the 1990s and its high
pediments brings to mind a Hanseatic
trading post.
That is certainly a coincidence but it is a
fitting one: trade, or more precisely export
development, is one of the two raisons
d’être of the new office. The second is
investment development. Like ITDH, the
new office is a point of contact for
foreigners with thoughts of investing in
Hungary.
Dobos emphasised that although the new
office is controlled more strictly by the
state, the difference will barely be perceptible to clients in terms of flexibility and the
services offered.
“With our support,
contracts worth a total
of approximately
EUR 30 million have
been secured.”
BZT/Jan Mainka
State railway MÁV’s debt at the end of
2010 was more than HUF 300 billion
(EUR 1.13 billion) and the company is
planning to take out a loan of HUF 85
billion (EUR 319.38 million) this year, its
annual report has revealed. Declining
revenue saw MÁV close 2010 HUF
35.8 billion (EUR 134.52 million) in the
red, a loss of another HUF 1.9 billion
(EUR 7.14 million) compared to 2009.
T
he Hungarian affiliate of Japanese car maker
Suzuki closed 2010 with a decline in revenue,
a 45% smaller profit and a drop in output. The
balance sheet showed revenue down from EUR
1.59 billion in 2009 to EUR 1.53 billion, and aftertax profit falling from EUR 9 million to EUR 5
million. Cars rolling off the assembly line fell by
for work for one year or
more and the average
duration 18.5 months, 1.6
months longer than a year
before. Minister of National
Economy György Matolcsy
said that as of 1 July a new
public works fund will be
set up to better respond to
the challenges of creating
jobs. It will be overseen by
the Ministry of Interior. “The
expansion of employment
creates a sustainable environment for growth, therefore we remain committed
to our goal of creating
300,000 new jobs by the
end of 2014,” Matolcsy
said.
been made. Only 90 of the 137 positions in
Budapest and half of the 15 jobs outside
the city have been filled.
Admittedly the closer relationship to the
ministry also has its drawbacks. Dobos,
who was on the ITDH’s payroll, readily
concedes that the level of paperwork has
increased as a consequence of the more
stringent control exercised over the office.
Its deputy president, György Kerekes,
however, was quick to dispel doubts about
the necessity of the change from the
established name ITDH.
It was precisely for image reasons that
the decision was made to switch to HITA,
which rolls off the tongue better and recalls
the internationally used name “Hungarian
Investment and Trade Agency”, he said.
At the second press conference in its
short history – the first at the end of March
showcased the organisation and its new
premises – Dobos presented the first set of
figures on the agency’s work. According to
her in the past five months HITA has been
in contact with 125 foreign investors. Faceto-face discussions took place with 80
would-be serious investors. With the
support of the agency 15 specific projects
have begun, which will create an estimated
9,400 jobs.
When questioned as to whether there
was any gap in the service offered between
the closure of ITDH and the creation of
HITA, the president told The Budapest
Times that there was never any point at
which foreign investors were not attended
to or contact people were unavailable to
discuss investment issues.
The agency has also been busy when it
comes to export development. Dobos said
the office has organised 37 export development programmes since the beginning
of the year and been in touch with more
than 1,000 Hungarian exporters. “With our
support, contracts worth a total of approximately EUR 30 million have been secured,”
she said. As part of a special programme
the agency is working on identifying
Hungarian companies that could be
competitive on export markets, she added.
– Jan Mainka
Malév may land deep in red: paper
T
he annual general
meeting of Hungarian
airline Malév has accepted
the 2010 balance sheet
showing a loss of HUF
24.56 billion (EUR 91.64
million) and appointed
Lóránt Limburger as the
new CEO. A day after the
meeting the right-leaning
daily
Magyar
Hírlap
reported that the cabinet is
negotiating with Chinese
businessmen about the
purchase of Malév and an
agreement could be
reached as soon as midJune. The paper said the
investors are interested in
the airline only if they can
acquire at least part of Liszt
Ferenc Airport, because
their main path of development is cargo management. The paper said its
sources suggested that the
Chinese buyers would be
willing to build a direct highspeed rail line to both
airport terminals.
TakarékBank Weekly Economy Watch
Risks remain but economic growth set to accelerate
New government:
one year on
A
s the Orbán government took
office on 29 May 2010 it has just
celebrated its first anniversary. In
retrospect one can argue that it conducted
landslide changes in economic policies by
adopting a so-called non-orthodox policy
approach. This included a considerable
cut in personal and corporate income
taxes, counterbalanced by the introduction
of three sector-specific crisis taxes and
the bank tax.
One can also remember an abrupt end
of the financing agreement with the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
the curtailment of the prerogatives of the
Constitutional Court in economic matters.
Most painfully from the point of view of
long-term economic perspectives such as
the financing capacity of the private sector
and the long-term balance of public
finances, an effective nationalisation of the
mandatory private pension pillar took
place, eliminating a considerable part of
private savings and increasing the socalled implicit public debt. On the other
hand the takeover of pension fund portfolios leads to a sizeable reduction in public
debt, by about 5% of GDP this year.
Institutional changes resulted in a
significant rise in the government’s powers
and a weakening of the system of checks
and balances, also manifest in the new
Constitution to be enacted in January
2012. Meanwhile Hungary’s external
vulnerability has decreased, partly due to
the takeover of pension fund portfolios
and partly to the large current-account
surplus that has been strengthening the
forint and other forint-denominated financial assets.
Markets also appreciated the
announcement of long-term budgetary
consolidation, embodied in the so-called
Széll Kálmán Plan and the subsequent
Convergence Program, submitted to the
European Union in spring 2011.
After one year the economy is placed
on a growth trajectory, partly on base
effects, but also due to improving internal
and external balance positions.
Although government consumption is
to decrease once again this year, private
consumption as well as investments is to
expand. On our part we predict 3% GDP
growth for 2011 followed by 3.6% next
year. These figures are admittedly above
both the market consensus and forecasts
by international institutions such as the
European Commission, the IMF and the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development.
Nevertheless, an improving German
economic outlook and an expected sharp
rise in investments make us believe that
this can indeed be attained. Meanwhile
inflation can approximate the 3% mid-term
central bank target around the middle of
the next year, because economic growth
continues to rely on external demand and
investments while private consumption
dynamics remain moderate.
Negative outside factors
Yet the economy continues to be
exposed to external developments both
in terms of export performance and
impacts of the Greek sovereign financing
crisis. In fact the manufacturing
purchasing manager index (PMI) that
reflects the mood in manufacturing
industries and was published this week
for May showed considerable deterioration, from 56.7 in April to 52.3 last
month. This was the lowest Hungarian
PMI figure since last September, fitting
the pattern of deteriorating manufacturing performance across the Central
and East European region that is taking
shape in the wake of a global deceleration in growth.
Although it will remain high
throughout the entire year, German
manufacturing growth seems to be
slowing from the levels observed in past
WE’RE AT HOME CREATING VALUES
Takarékbank forecasts in comparison to those of major institutions & market consensus
Takarékbank
MNB
European
Commission
OECD
Reuters poll
May 2011
2011 2012 2011 2012 2011 2012 2011 2012 2011 2012
GDP growth
3.0
3.6
2.9
3.0
2.7
2.6
2.7
3.1
2.8
3.1
Private
consumption
1.7
2.3
2.8
3.0
2.7
1.0
1.6
2.1
-
-
Investments
3.5
6.5
1.2
3.6
1.5
4.5
0.6
2.9
-
-
Public
consumption
-2.2
0.2
-
-
-0.8
0.5
-2.6
-0.2
-
-
Consumer
price index
4.0
3.1
4.0
3.4
4.0
3.5
4.0
3.3
4.3
3.6
months, making CEE industrial growth
decelerate and constituting structural
barriers for economic expansion in the
region. Yet such a deceleration had been
expected and hence was part of our
baseline scenario.
What is more difficult to predict is what
happens to the most indebted European
Union member states, most prominently
whether Greece defaults on its sovereign
debt. As this seems to be an increasingly
realistic option, Hungarian asset prices
may come under pressure in the forthcoming period given the fact that the
country remains a vulnerable debtor due
to its still large external debt and high
public indebtedness.
Potentially the immediate consequence
could be another wave of forint weakening
and rise in government bond yields.
Although costly to many, including the
government, this is still not likely to alter
scenarios on economic growth, however,
and hence GDP would continue
expanding at an accelerating rate
throughout 2011-12.
– Zoltán Ádám, Head of Research
E C O N O M Y /B U S I N E S S
2010 uphill
for Suzuki
1222 Bp. Nagytétényi út 48-50 • Tel: (+36-1) 382-9000
Fax: (+36-1) 382-9003 • e-mail: [email protected]
www.fox-autorent.com • open: 8am-8pm 7 days a week
07
THE BUDAPEST TIMES
NEWS
From have to
have not
Shelter helps homeless
manage as best they can
ELISABETH KATALIN GRABOW
t is only really quiet at the
Menedékház (hospice) in the
middle of the night, and even then
not for long. Throughout the night
homeless people can find a place
to sleep in one of the 80 beds, as
long as there are still some free.
After 8pm the barred entrance
door of the Menedékház buzzes every
quarter of an hour and one of the city’s over
7,700 homeless people is allowed access
to the basic, so-called fapados (wooden
bench-class) accommodation. In most such
shelters the beds are occupied by different
people every night, but Menedékház allows
homeless people to “reserve” a bed after
the first night.
“There are several important aspects to
that,” says Zoltán Nagy, the shelter’s
director. “It means that the residents can
leave their belongings here at the shelter,
rather than having to lug them around all
day. The rooms are locked during the day.”
That makes it easier for the homeless
people to do day work, if they have any. It
also has the result that Menedékház
provides at least a certain degree of continuity and security, something to which most
homeless people have become unaccustomed.
How the homeless spend their days
varies, from begging at junctions to
collecting bottles that can be exchanged for
deposits. János* is in his early 40s but looks
much older. He has missing teeth and his
face and hands are weather-beaten. They
say that a year on the street counts as four
I
years, and János’ appearance seems to
confirm that. Together with his “business
partner” he acts as a courier between the
countless second-hand bookshops in
Budapest.
“We know which book shop specialises
in what,” János says. “If a shop gets a big
load of books it’s possible that many of
them might be better suited elsewhere.
Books aren’t thrown away! We pick them up
and take them to other book shops.” He has
to do a lot of the work on foot. “The
Budapest Public Transport Company has
increased the number of inspectors. That
makes it harder for us. The city could let us
homeless people travel for free if it wanted
to but it can’t do that for political reasons,”
János says with a smile.
Homeless despite two degrees
It soon becomes clear that János is out
of place here. Homeless single people are
housed on the ground floor of the
Menedékház and János has been resident
for several weeks. “I’ve been living on the
street for 11 years. Earlier I was a teacher
and I have two degrees: one as a primary
school teacher and one as a special education teacher.”
János makes no bones about how he
ended up on the street: “I was up to here
with my life.” As he tells it, János decided
from one day to the next that he had had
enough of being a deputy school head.
After the death of his parents, both also
teachers, he became depressed, fell out
with his brother over the inheritance and his
only wish was to get away from the situation.
“I’ve been living on the street since then.
There’s nobody apart from myself that I can
blame for my situation.” János admits dryly,
but his next sentence reveals the toll that it
has had on him: “That’s what often makes it
so hard but I have a task that gives me a
reason to get up in the mornings and that
helps me a lot.”
On some days the amount that János
and his work partner earn together is barely
enough for a loaf of bread, but it is always
sufficient to feed the cats behind the shelter
and their kittens, which are just a few weeks
old. “Animals have a very different significance for homeless people than for people
with a roof over their head,” he muses.
János admits that in the mornings he often
cannot see any point any more in getting up
at all, but the feeling of responsibility that
comes with looking after such small creatures always brings him to his senses.
“That’s the way it is with a lot of homeless
people. All of us who look after a pet always
feed it first. Almost all homeless people treat
their animal companions as more important
than themselves.” The Menedékház is an
exception in this respect too. Behind the
building are two kennels where pets are
welcome.
The Menedékház is one of the best shelters, János says. In other night shelters up
to 20 men are housed in one room on bunk
beds. “You can’t rest there or bear it for
more than one night and people always
pinch things.” That is not a problem at the
Menedékház, he says. “But we take care of
each other here. If a new arrival makes
problems, for example if they don’t wash
regularly or are permanently drunk, we
throw them out pretty sharpish.” The homeless people settle such matters among
themselves rather than relying on the social
workers.
“What else can we do?”
On the next floor are the temporary flats
for families. From around 4pm to 8pm the
noise is incredible. More than 40 children
live here. The youngest is a few weeks old
and is carried by its 19-year-old mother up
and down to get it to fall asleep. One of the
children is Gábor*. The Roma child has
dark eyes, almost bronze-coloured skin and
jet-black hair. Gábor is 12 years old and
lives with his parents and three brothers in
a 20-square-metre flat. They don’t have
their own kitchen or separate bathroom but
Gábor does not complain. That is not his
style.
He dances hip hop, is a keen athlete and
enjoys attending school. “It’s already my
sixth school,” he says. Almost all of his
sentences are accompanied by a shrug of
the shoulders, including when he is asked
what it is like living with his family in one
room or what he would like to be when he is
older. Resignation and apathy show on him.
It is only when he talks about his sporting
accomplishments that a smile steals across
his face.
Gábor’s brother Balázs is 15. He is
repeating the ninth grade after he was
mistakenly placed in the ninth grade instead
of the eighth grade after moving schools.
The teachers put his poor marks down to
his previous schooling. None of the
teachers paid any attention to him, he says.
That is one of the problems of changing
schools so frequently.
Gábor previously learnt German as a
foreign language but is now at a school
where only English is taught. He takes part
in the lessons but is excused from being
marked and getting homework assignments. It is not hard to see the improbability
of making progress under such circumstances. The 12-year-old reacts to that too
with a shy smile and another shrug.
Gábor repeats the same sentence over
and over: “What else can we do?” How
does he find the unstable way of life? “What
else can we do?” How does he get on with
his brothers? “What else can we do?” Why
did the family move away from Ózd? “What
else could we do?” It is a sentence that
seems strangely at odds with his young
face with just a hint of peach fuzz above his
upper lip.
Emese, the mother of Gábor and Balázs,
hesitates when asked about how her family
lost their home but she soon steels herself.
“We had everything back then, in Ózd. We
had a nice family home with a large garden.
My husband and I only thought of having
children when we both had work and we
were sure that we could provide for them.”
They lived in the house for 14 years and her
four sons were born in Ózd.
Eight years ago everything went downhill
very quickly. “We both lost our jobs. We had
just had our kitchen redone. Because we
couldn’t make the mortgage payments, I
borrowed money from the wrong people.”
After the loan sharks cut off their electricity
as a “warning”, Emese and her husband
decided to take their children to safety: “We
didn’t know what else they were capable
of.” Emese left behind not only the house
but also her relatives. “At first we didn’t keep
in contact because we were afraid of the
people who lent us money. We didn’t want
them to find out where we were. And then
after such a long time, somehow the family
ties were broken.”
Since then the family has moved from
shelter to shelter. “I can’t keep in my head
any more all the places we’ve been to,”
Emese says. Without anger but with pained
resignation she explains how difficult it is to
get their life back on track: “I’ve been trying
for three years to get a rented flat. My
husband always has work. But who wants
to give a flat to a Roma family with four children?”
While they are at the Menedékház,
Emese cannot go out to work. The house
rules dictate that one of the parents must be
at home when the children get out of
school. Two years ago, however, she
managed to find a job: “That was only for a
limited period of six months but my boss felt
sorry for me and got us a rented flat for that
half a year.” Those six months were necessary to stop her from going crazy, she says.
“Not knowing today where you will be living
with your children tomorrow wears you
down over time.”
Emese finds it particularly painful having
to pack up their few belongings again and
again and tear their children away from
familiar surroundings. She misses the
house in Ózd but doesn’t know if she would
go back. As she speaks it becomes clear
where her son has picked up the expression “What else can we do?”.
Families can stay in shelters such as
Menedékház for a year and a half at most.
The rule is that they can stay for a year but
if the end of that period falls in the middle of
the school year, then the family can wait
until the children have finished the term
before they have to move. The waiting lists
are long. All the rooms in the Menedékház
are occupied and a lot of families are
waiting to be admitted. If Emese could have
just one wish she would like a home for her
family. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s a
house or a flat. The only important thing
would be for it to be ours.”
There are social housing programmes
for families like Emese’s. “The problem is
that there are a dozen applicants for every
flat,” says Györgyi, one of the social workers
Getting
involved
Menedékház is a charitable foundation.
For more information about the shelter,
see its website www.menedekhaz.hu (in
English). All in-kind and financial donations
are welcome because the number of
those in need is expected to rise dramatically when the moratorium on foreigncurrency mortgage foreclosures expires.
Menedékház is grateful for help of any kind.
at the Menedékház. Nobody seems to
know exactly what the criteria are for allocating the flats. “But we are fairly certain
that belonging to a minority plays a role,”
says Timea, one of Györgyi’s colleagues.
It is the job of the family carers, as they
are called, to offer all-round support to the
families and to keep an eye on the welfare
of the children. That is why regular discussions with the parents and room visits are
just as much part of their work as helping
the parents to make applications for jobs or
flats. The carers also help to organise freetime activities. Árpád, for example, teaches
the children how to
use tools to repair
bicycles. “Children
treat the bikes that
they have repaired
themselves quite
different.
They
learn to value their
work,” says Árpád,
who
with
a
shaven, tattooed
head and three piercings in his lower lip
does not look like a typical social worker.
“I pretend that I haven’t heard”
One of the keen bicycle repairers is
Róbert*. He is nine years old and has been
living with his three brothers and sisters and
parents in the Menedékház for a little over
two months. His mother Boglárka* and his
father László* are trying to get back on their
feet by running a mobile fruit stand.
Boglárka stands in the communal
kitchen for that floor and prepares the
dinner – chicken leg with rosemary potatoes. The aroma spreads along the corridor
and entices a few children out of the rooms.
Boglárka lives for her children and loves
entertaining guests. “I miss that the most.
Our house in Esztergom was like a dovecote; the doors were always open.” She
does not invite any of her friends or relatives
to her room in the Menedékház. She would
like to paint the walls to make the surroundings more colourful for her children, but that
is not allowed under the house rules.
“And actually I can understand that,”
Boglárka says. She is grateful above all that
there are institutions such as the
Menedékház. “Here I can put my children to
bed in the evening, cook meals for them
and wash their clothes.” Her two young
daughters, aged three and six, do not know
yet that they will not be able to go back
home. The younger of the two, Sára*,
sleeps in the same bed as her parents.
“Sometimes she lies next to me at night and
asks where her little bed is,” Boglárka says
quietly. “I normally pretend that I haven’t
heard or that I’m already asleep.”
László worked for seven years for a large
enterprise in Esztergom. “He was a skilled
worker, a welder. One time he was even
given special praise in writing,” Boglárka
says with a touch of pride. Then, from one
day to the next, he was laid off “for operational reasons”. At the same time the bank
increased the mortgage repayments. “And
then I had to decide whether to pay the
mortgage or feed my children,” Boglárka
says.
After three months the bank wanted to
repossess the house. “Right until the very
last minute we hoped that we would find
some kind of solution but it was too much
for us. We had to sell off our things. We
exchanged our beautiful leather sofa and
armchairs that we had bought from my
husband’s bonus for a car.” Boglárka does
not seem really angry as she says these
sentences; perhaps the situation is still too
new to have taken away her courage and
assurance.
Her children, like many Roma, are
musical; they sing and make music a lot
together. It is astonishing how much joy
there is at the shelter despite all the deprivations. There is a constant sound of children laughing, shrieking and calling out for
their mothers. The building is alive and at
that moment all one could wish for would be
for such carefree moments to have a
permanent place in the lives of these families.
*Names have been changed
BZT/Aaron Taylor (5)
08
THE BUDAPEST TIMES
M
Cutting the IWC’s cake marking its 30th
anniversary are former chairwomen (from
left): Maria Takacz, Archenuer Birch, Ingrid
Ortgies (present chairwoman) and Tasleem
Lalji.
embers
from
Austria,
Azerbaijan, Egypt, France,
Germany, Great Britain,
Hungary, India, Japan, Taiwan, Turkey
and the United States danced the
night away to celebrate the 30th
anniversary of the International
Women's Club of Budapest (IWC) at
the IWC Ball at the Marriott Hotel last
Saturday.
IWC chairwoman Ingrid Ortgies
welcomed everyone to the auspicious
occasion. She thanked all the ball
sponsors and partners who made the
night such a success. Guests who were
lucky enough won prizes such as a trip
to the Greek islands, jewellery, a wellness weekend and fashion accessories
from leading labels.
The guests won prizes including a trip to the Greek islands and jewellery. The IWC is always on the lookout for new members.
The goal of the IWC is to support
charitable activities related to healthcare and education in Hungary, and
proceeds from the ball will go to
supporting children and hospices. Dr.
Muszbek from the Hospice of
Budapest was guest speaker and
thanked the club for its donation.
Master of Ceremony for the evening
was
György
Banlaki,
former
Hungarian ambassador to the United
States.
To learn more about the IWC visit
www.iwcbudapest.hu. The club wants
new members to come and make a
difference in the company of international women.
– International Women’s Club
O
quite intolerable. For
example, Republicans.
5. He likes Westies, the
sweetest dog breed around.
Like father, like canine.
6. He is married to a former
nurse whom you can call
when you can't figure out
what the Hungarian doctor
said to you and you are not
completely sure if you are
going to live or die.
7. Mike is a true leader: energising, motivating, inspiring,
visionary and makes his
team believe nothing is
impossible, even when it is.
8. Mike stands up for his
people, fights for his people
and leads by example. That's
why he's not in politics.
9. He is the father of delightful
twins who endlessly torment
each other because they
quickly learned the negative
consequences of tormenting
their father.
10. Mike has travelled the
world, so no matter where
you go he can probably
recommend a good restaurant.
world, so no matter where
you go he can probably
recommend a good hotel.
world, so if you don't know
where to go Mike can probably suggest where to go.
13. Mike is a fighter. He's not
afraid to tell anyone where
to go.
14. Mike has many fabulous
friends and some of them
are Nutts.
15. There is a good chance
Mike might actually know
his 1,199 Facebook friends.
16. Mike had paid subscriptions to The Budapest Times.
You gotta love that.
17. If there is a fact about
JFK that Mike doesn't
know, the fact is probably
wrong.
18. If there is a fact about
Bruce Springsteen that
Mike doesn't know, the fact
is probably wrong.
19. Mike is quite OK leaving
his own party and putting
on his pajamas. His guests
are glad he doesn't sleep
naked.
20. Mike would frequently go
on travels and invite
people to house sit and
look after the Westie.
Never once did he ask
about any of the ensuing
parties.
21. Mike looks as natural and
comfortable in a pair of
jeans as he does in a
tuxedo. Or pajamas.
22. Mike is a fabulous dinner
guest. He comes. He
cooks. He does the dishes.
He leaves.
23. Mike will drop anything to
help a family member in
need.
24. Mike treats friends like
family. (See previous point.)
25. Mike is always looking at
the bright side. Even here.
26. Mike always wants to make
things better and motivates
others to think the same
way. Even Hungarians.
27. Mike is proud to call New
Jersey "home" while some
people from New Jersey
pretend they're from New
York.
28. Mike is the perfect person
to tell a secret if secretly you
no longer want it to be a
secret.
29 Mike can make all his
comments on Facebook
sound intelligent, even if
they aren't. That's talent.
30. Mike can make up a song
about anyone in no time
and can usually have his
back-up band there within
the hour.
31. His line after every meal he
prepares is, "Isn't that the
best damn thing you've ever
eaten?"
32. Mike doesn't just donate to
charities; he gives them
office space.
33. Mike never forgets his
humble beginnings. He just
left the "humble" part
behind.
34. Mike knows more about
sports, music and politics
than anyone. Maybe even
Steve Pearson. Maybe.
35. Mike has an infectious
laugh. Anyone who can
keep from laughing when
Mike laughs probably has
issues.
36. Mike is smart enough to
know that one of the
smartest things he ever
said was, "I do."
37. When asked to toe the
party line, Mike's response
is always, "Did someone
say 'party'?"
38. Mike is shy, reserved and
quiet. When he is
sleeping.
39. He is such a regular at
Comme Chez Soi, people
think he is one of the
owners. Maybe he is.
40. Saying you are a friend
of Mike is a good way to
get into a restaurant with
no reservation.
41. Behind every great man
is a great woman. Behind
Mike is a miracle worker.
42. Mike is not the life of the
party. Mike is the party.
43. Mike is one of the few
Americans who can identify most countries on a
map. Even Canada and
Texas.
44. He is an exceptional
mentor.
45. His cheeks turn red when
he laughs or drinks. His
cheeks are often red. No,
he laughs a lot.
46. In his work, he is the man
and raises the bar.
47. At social gatherings, he
just mans the bar.
48. Mike is extremely innovative. He has created
colourful, insightful and
inventive descriptors for
both the Boston Red Sox
and the Dallas Cowboys.
Sadly we are not allowed to
print them.
49. If you could have but one
friend in life, Mike is the
friend to have.
50. With the 49 reasons listed
above, what's not to like?
Last year, I wrote about
"The season of leaving" and it
is upon us again. Mike will
soon be returning to the US
and will leave a very conspicuous hole in our expat
community. I do not envy his
successor. Happy birthday,
Mike. You will be missed.
– William Lower is a freelance
writer and advertising/marketing
consultant now living in
Budapest. You may contact him at
[email protected].
Unlike Mr "Yuhas" (Letters, ‘Good riddance & stay
away, Mr Field’, The Budapest Times 27 May – 2
June 2011) who claims to love Hungary and yet
makes his home abroad, I had actually lived and
worked in Hungary for 21 years, married a
Hungarian and was raising two Hungarian citizens when the government falsely accused me of
sedition.
Were Mr Yuhas to read all ten articles I wrote
for The Budapest Times on subjects ranging from
agriculture to debt he would realise they were
written by a Hungarian patriot, not a traitor. For
Mr Yuhas to brand my articles as "anti-Magyar
hate speech" is to employ the Orwellian tactic of
cynically accusing his opponent of the very practices of which he, himself, is guilty.
In this respect Mr Yuhas is no different from
Jobbik politicians when they talk about "Gypsy
terror" and "the systematic murder of
Hungarians" when, in fact, the only "terror" and
"systematic murder" taking place in Hungary is of
Roma at the hands of right-wing fanatics.
(Editor’s note: a court case on murders of Roma
is in progess).
The Hungary I came to know and love was a
country of great hospitality to foreigners. What is
"alien" to Hungary is the hateful xenophobia
(itself the unintended by-product of 19th-century
nationalism) that periodically rears its ugly head
to the inestimable harm of the Hungarian
people.
That Mr Yuhas considers President Obama a
"tribal leader" as opposed to the democratically
elected president of a multicultural, pluralistic
society merely proves that Hungary does not have
a monopoly on ignorant chauvinists. Unlike
Viktor Orbán's Hungary, where citizens live in a
state of continual fear and uncertainty, and where
civil servants can be fired with immediate effect
without cause, in the United States a free press
and an active civil society keep politicians and
government officials in check, and federal law
protects the jobs of civil servants. In this respect
there is much Hungary and other aspiring
democracies can learn from the United States.
While attending Columbia University I lived in
a small apartment in Spanish Harlem. The only
"white" in my street, I never feared for my safety.
And yet I would give Gábor Vona, Tamás Eszes or
any other white supremacist presuming to police
or intimidate a minority neighbourhood in the
United States all of 30 seconds before the guns
came out and they got a well-deserved "cap in
their ass". How's that for "crude American slang",
Mr Yuhas?
Sincerely,
Richard Field
LETTERS
Call me a Hungarian patriot, not a traitor
Dear Editor,
WHAT LIES BENEATH
Fifty reasons why we like Mike
ne of the most
enriching aspects of
expat life here in
Hungary is the breadth, depth
and richness of expats whom
you meet, socialise with and
ultimately are privileged to
call "your friends".
I give you Mike Coliccio, an
effervescent, quick-witted and
warm-hearted American business leader who has been a
Budapest transplant for the
past four years. On Saturday
friends will be gathering to
celebrate his 50th birthday.
Directly and indirectly, Mike
has given significantly to the
Hungarian community. So in
the spirit of reciprocity and in
celebration of his 50th year, I
thought it only fitting to
publicly list a few of his many
charms,
strengths
and
endearing quirks.
1. That boy can cook. (This
could be a sibling rivalry
thing. His brother is a top
chef in the United States.)
2. That boy can sing. (He has
done so in public with a
back-up band and received
genuine ovations although
any kind of on-going royalties may be another issue.)
3. He has a great sense of
humour.
4. Mike is very tolerant, often
graciously tolerating people
who, by most standards, are
COMMUNITY
IWC ball has world on its feet
09
10
THE BUDAPEST TIMES
F O U R T E E N -D AY G U I D E
Hey Joe, where you goin’ with that bottle in your hand?
Joe Cocker in
Budapest Sunday
his second unforgettable rock
moment: an intense, twitching,
contorted performance of the song
that surely must be up on the top
floor of the Tower Of Song. You must
have seen it.
Since then Cocker has made many
an acceptable album and tour, drunk
his way through enough booze to
destroy several livers, been arrested
once or twice for over-indulgence
(the Australians tossed him out of the
country in the 1970s) and enjoyed a
solid career.
Pushing 70 – he turned 67 last
week – he’s still going. A “living
legend” as they say. He has been
married for the past 24 years, lives in
Colorado and appears a contented
man. How’s the voice? Has he
shrunk? Do the hands still twist? The
answer is coming up in Budapest on
Sunday night.
A
ll it took was five minutes and
11 seconds for Joe Cocker to
achieve instant rock ‘n’ roll
success – that was the running time of
his astonishing version of the Beatles’
“With A Little Help From My
Friends” in 1968.
The Beatles were rock’s untouchables – had been for years – permanently out in front of a burst of
British creativity throughout the
1960s that saw hundreds of spotty
teens pick up an instrument, grow
their hair and form a band. When the
Beatles brought out a new record it
was plundered for cover versions.
Most people who covered a Beatles
song did so reverentially. Cocker, with
heavyweights Jimmy Page and Steve
Winwood leading a high-calibre
studio band, didn’t. He ripped apart
Ringo Starr’s one-song-per-album
contribution to Sergeant Pepper’s
Lonely Hearts Club Band and rebuilt it
from the first note up.
It must have taken much more than
five minutes and 11 seconds to record
but the result was a sensation: Cocker,
whose fledging career had included
one minor hit to date (“Marjorine”),
– Christopher Maddock
The ticket
flew to number one in about 500
countries. And then it got even better
for him. His performance of “With A
Little Help From My Friends” at the
gigantic Woodstock Festival in 1969
took him even higher. Many great
bands played Woodstock and many a
reputation was made there – if you got
in the film. Cocker did and achieved
Joe Cocker
Sunday, 5 June at 8pm
Papp László Budapest Sportaréna
District XIV, Stefánia út 2
Tickets: HUF 7,500 – 25,000
www.budapestarena.hu,
www.ticketa.hu
Friday, 3 June
Sunday, 5 June
Classical entertainment
HUNGARIAN STATE OPERA HOUSE at 6pm: Snow White
HUNGARIAN STATE OPERA HOUSE at 11am: Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs – ballet choreographed by Gyula
Harangozó to the music of Tibor Kocsák. Venue: District VI,
Andrássy út 22. Tel. (06-1) 353-0170. Box office open
Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-show time. (When there are no
shows, open 11 am – 5 pm). www.opera.hu
Harangozó to the music of Tibor Kocsák. Details: Friday,
3 June
FUGA CENTRE OF ARCHITECTURE at 6pm: Eszter Krulik,
Angéla Bálint (violin), Péter Tornyai (viola) and Balázs
Pintér (cello) will perform works by Bartók. Venue: District
V, Petõfi Sándor utca 5. Tel. (06-1) 266-0837.
www.fuga.org.hu
ÓBUDAI TÁRSASKÖR at 7pm: Concert to celebrate the
100th anniversary of the birth of composer Endre
Szervánszky. The Liszt Ferenc Chamber Orchestra, Zoltán
Gyöngyössy (flute), Krisztina Jónás (voice), Rita Temes
(piano) and the Lajos Vass Choir of the Vasas Artistic
Ensemble Fondatin will perform Endre Szervánszky’s
Serenade, Two choral works to the poems of Petõfi,
Sonatina; Three Sacred Songs, Bless us, O Lord!, Mother
of all Angels and Remember all that happens O Lord.
Venue: District III, Kiskorona utca 7. Tel. (06-1) 250-0288.
www.obudaitarsaskor.hu
Harangozó to the music of Tibor Kocsák. Details: Friday,
3 June
PALACE OF ARTS FESTIVAL THEATRE at 6pm: Lilla
Orosz, Dániel Pataki Potyók, Lúcia Megyesi Schwartz,
Lajos Geiger, Géza Gábor (voice) and the Danubia
Orchestra of Óbuda conducted by Zsolt Hamar with Bea
Tisza and Zoltán Bodnár (puppeteers) will perform
Wagner’s Lohengrin – for children, transcribed by Zsolt
Hamar. Details: Saturday, 4 June
Popular entertainment
NATIONAL DANCE THEATRE at 7pm: 20th anniversary of the
Budapest Dance Theatre – Choreographer confessions /
Rhapsody in Blue. Venue: District I, Színház utca 1-3 in the
Várszínház building. Tel. (06-1) 201-4407 www.nemzetitancszinhaz.hu
BUDAPEST JAZZ CLUB at 8.30pm: Harmónia Jazz
Workshop: concert by students of the Bartók Béla Music
Secondary School. Venue: District VIII, Múzeum utca 7. Tel.
(06-1) 267-2610 (5pm to 11pm on concert days), (06-70)
413-9837 (10am-3pm on weekdays). www.bjc.hu
A38 SHIP at 9pm: Bands from Central and Eastern
Europe: River’n’Dance: B.A.R.T.O (Poland), DJ Sid Data &
The Gypsyfunkmachine (Austria), DJ Karol (Slovakia),
Demon Superior (Hungary), N.O.H.A-Circus Underground
(Czech Republic). Venue: Ship moored on Buda side of
Petõfi Bridge. Tel. (06-1) 464-3940. www.a38.hu
Saturday, 4 June
HUNGARIAN STATE OPERA HOUSE at 11am: Snow White
Harangozó to the music of Tibor Kocsák. Details: Friday, 3
June
Budapest Summer Festival
begins with a banging
G
NATIONAL DANCE THEATRE at 7pm: Dance Calendar
A38 SHIP at 8pm: English rock band Asia – The Omega
PALACE OF ARTS FESTIVAL THEATRE at 6pm: Lilla Orosz,
H UNGARIAN R ADIO S TUDIO 6 at 7.30pm: The
Dániel Pataki Potyók, Lúcia Megyesi Schwartz, Lajos
Geiger, Géza Gábor (voice) and the Danubia Orchestra of
Óbuda conducted by Zsolt Hamar withBea Tisza and
Zoltán Bodnár (puppeteers) will perform Wagner’s
Lohengrin – for children, transcribed by Zsolt Hamar.
Venue: District IX, Komor Marcell utca 1. Tel. (06-1) 5553300. www.mupa.hu
A38 SHIP at 9pm: French electro-dub formation Brain
MOHA at 7pm: Paris – Rio de Janeiro – Buenos Aires:
Harangozó to the music of Tibor Kocsák. Details: 3 June
(piano). Venue: District VIII, Pollack M tér 8. Tel. (06-1) 3288388
BUDAPEST CONGRESS CENTER at 8pm: The 100Member Gypsy Orchestra and the Budapest Klezmer
Band. Venue: District XII, Budapest Jagelló út 1-3. Tel.
(06-1) 372-5429
Gocco
Tuesday, 7 June at 8.30pm.
Margaret Island Open-Air Stage
District XIII, on Margaret Island at the base of the
water tower.
Reachable by the number 26 bus from either Árpád
Bridge or Margaret Bridge or on foot from the
number 4 and 6 tram stop on Margaret Bridge.
Tickets: HUF 3.900 – 12,000.
Tel. (06-1) 340-4196. www.szabadter.hu
A musical journey between three world cities. Éva
Bodrogi (voice), Kata Koltai (guitar) and Zsolt Bartek
(clarinet) will perform works by Piazzolla, Satie, VillaLobos and more (A Barefoot Musicians Production).
Venue: District XI, Bartók Béla út 11-13. Tel. (06-1) 2090658. (For information about the production see
www.mezitlabaszeneszek.com)
HUNGARIAN RADIO MARBLE ROOM at 5pm: György Pataj
Martin Archives 2 performed by the Honvéd Dance
Theatre (dance workshop follows the performance).
Details: Friday, 3 June
ocoo is one of the first acts to perform as part of the
Budapest Summer Festival that runs from June
through the start of September. The group’s seven
women and four men capture their audience with original
grooves woven with Japanese drums, Taikos. They bring
their beats to Budapest this Tuesday night on the Margaret
Island Open-Air Stage. With almost 40 drums it is a musicspectacle beyond imagination. Reviews have said that the
cosmic beats and uniquely complex poly-rhythms are of
such primal nature that they reflect all known music styles
and consequently unite people of all ages, ethnic and social
origins and of any taste in music.
The ticket
OLD MUSIC ACADEMY at 11am: István Lajkó (piano) will
perform works by Schubert, Liszt and Donizetti and
Gounod transcribed by Liszt. Venue: District VI, Vörösmarty
utca 35. Tel. (06-1) 322-9804
NATIONAL DANCE THEATRE at 7pm: Kalotaszeg – Living
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by
Balázs Horváth, Stephen D’Agostino and László
Tihanyi will perform Balázs Horváth’s Looking back –
Version 1 and 2, István Láng’s Sinfonietta, József Sári’s
Divertimento sereno for clarinet and strings and László
Dubrovay’s Spring Symphony. Venue: District VIII,
Pollack M tér 8. Tel. (06-1) 328-8388
1960-1970 performed by the János Bihari Dance
Ensemble, Csillagszemõ Dance Ensemble, Ferenc
Erkel Folk Dance Ensemble and Fáklya Dance
Ensemble. Details: Friday, 3 June
A38 S HIP at 8pm: Monkey6 Summer Starter:
Metrosection, Peacetones, Ludmilla, TMX, Bergi &
Svindler, Max Factor, VJ Flux and many more. Details:
Friday, 3 June
A38 SHIP (ROOF TERRACE) at 8pm: Singas (blend of
acid jazz, swing, trip-hop and folk influences). Venue:
Ship moored on Buda side of Petõfi Bridge. Tel. (06-1) 4643940. www.a38.hu
Damage, DJ Madd, Kebab, Jahfar. Details: Friday, 3 June
Monday, 6 June
FÉSZEK ARTISTS’ CLUB at 7pm: János Balázs (piano)
will perform jazz improvisations of works by Liszt. Venue:
District VII, Kertész utca 36. www.feszek-muveszklub.hu
HUBAY MUSIC ROOM (HOTEL VICTORIA) at 7.30pm: Júlia
Pusker and Ágnes Pusker (violin) will perform works by
Jenõ Hubay and others. Venue: District I, Bem rakpart 11.
Tel. (06-1) 457-8088. www.hubayzeneterem.hu
Tour. Details: Friday, 3 June
Tuesday, 7 June
HÁLÓ COMMUNITY CENTRE at 7pm: Ágnes Pintér
(soprano), Anna Rákóczy (flute), Dóra Sík (cello) and
Gábor Barta (piano) will perform works by Debussy,
Messiaen and Ravel. Venue: District V, Ferenciek tere 78. III. 2nd floor 9. Tel. (06-1) 266-0723. www.halo.hu
HUNGARIAN STATE OPERA HOUSE at 7pm: Rossini’s Il
barbiere di Siviglia. Details: Friday, 3 June
www.dentist-online.hu
THE BUDAPEST TIMES
PALACE OF ARTS FESTIVAL THEATRE at 7pm:
Queen Ballet performed by the Ballet
Company of Gyõr. Details: Saturday, 4 June
A38 SHIP (TERRACE) at 8pm: Random Trip
(funk, jazz, underground). Details: Friday, 3
June
Rock You Like a Hurricane, one last time
The Scorpions Get
your Sting and
Blackout farewell tour
in Budapest Monday
O
BUDAPEST JAZZ CLUB at 9pm: Hungarian
jazz singer Thea Soti with her Berlin-based
group Manivolanti. Details: Friday, 3 June
THE WINEBAR at 9pm: Live Flamenco. Venue:
District V, Hercegprímás utca 4. Tel. (06-1)
266-2929. www.winebar.hu
CAFÉ
DEL RIO at 10pm: Latin Passion –
Venezuelan DJ Enrique. Venue: District XI,
Goldmann György tér 1. (Buda side of Petõfi
Bridge). Tel. (06-30)297-2158 (between 8pm
and 5am). www.rio.hu
Wednesday, 8 June
HUNGARIAN STATE OPERA HOUSE at 7pm:
Verdi’s Macbeth. Details: Friday, 3 June
NÁDOR ROOM at 7.30pm: Csaba Klenyán
(clarinet) will perform works by István Sárközy,
Pierre Csillag, Mihály Hajdú, Emese Maróti,
Szervánszky, Zsolt Serei, Máté Hollós, Jenõ
Pertis and István Bogár. Venue: District XIV,
Ajtósi Dürer sor 39. Tel. (06-1) 344-7072
NATIONAL DANCE THEATRE at 7pm: Bodies’
Philosophy performed by the Szeged
Contemporary Dance Company. Details:
Friday, 3 June
Exam concert preview of the Hungarian
Dance Academy. Details: Saturday, 4 June
IF CAFÉ at 7.30pm: Armenian-born accordionist David Yengibarjan (fusion of
Argentinean tango, folk music and jazz).
Venue: District IX, Ráday utca 19. Te. (06-1)
299-0694. www.ifkavezo.hu
KOBUCI KERT at 8pm: Ferenczi György és a
rackajam (blues). Venue: District III, Fõ Tér 1.
Courtyard of Zichy Castle. Tel. (06-70) 2057282. www.kobuci.hu
BUDAPEST JAZZ CLUB at 9pm: Kiende
(acoustic/roots/minimalist). Details: Friday, 3
June
THE WINEBAR at 9pm: Trio Midnight (jazz).
Details: Tuesday, 7 June
Thursday, 9 June
BARTÓK BÉLA NATIONAL CONCERT HALL at
4pm: Alfred Muff, Burkhard Fritz, Camilla
Nylund, Béla Perencz, Petra Lang, Michael
Nagy, József Mukk, Tivadar Kiss, Antal Bakó,
László Jekl (voice), the Honvéd Men’s Choir,
the Budapest Studio Choir, the Hungarian
Radio Choir and the Orchestra of the
Hungarian State Opera conducted by Ádám
Fischer will performWagner’s Lohengrin.
Venue: District IX, Komor Marcell utca 1. Tel.
(06-1) 555-3300. www.mupa.hu
HUNGARIAN RADIO MARBLE ROOM at 6pm:
Péter Kiss (piano) will perform Liszt’s
Chapelle de Guillaume Tell Sposalizio, St.
François d’Assise – La Prédication aux
oiseaux, St. François De Paul Marchant Sur
Les Flots, and Brahms’ Sonata in F minor.
Details: Saturday, 4 June
BUDAPEST OPERETTA AND MUSICAL
THEATRE at 7pm: The MÁV Symphony
Orchestra and Kristóf Baráti (violin)
conducted by Zoltán Kocsis will perform
Bartók’s Romanian Dance No. 1, Violin
concerto, Transylvanian Dances, Two
pictures and Dance suite. Venue: District VI,
n Monday Klaus Meine (vocals), Rudolf
Schenker (guitar), Matthias Jabs (guitar)
and James Kottak (drums) will bid
farewell to Budapest. It was in the Hungarian
capital that the band, albeit with a different lineup,
made its first-ever appearance in one of the then
Eastern Bloc states in 1986.
Schenker launched the band Scorpions as far
back as 1965. Meine joined five years later, and the
two have been the hard core of the group ever
since. The Scorpions set their sights on becoming
big stars of the international hard rock scene, which
is why they wrote their songs in English from the
start.
The debut Scorpions’ album Lonesome Crow
garnered enthusiastic reviews and gave the band its
breakthrough in Japan and England. In 1973 and
1975 the band toured Europe, sharing top billing
with KISS on the latter occasion. By 1976 their
album Virgin Killer was voted LP of the year in their
home country, marking the Scorpions out definitively as one of the top German hard rock bands. In
1979 the band conquered the US market, and sellout world tours followed with more than 100
million albums sold.
Hard rock and more
Germany’s most successful hard rock export was
still on the lookout for fresh challenges. The band
created a subgenre of its own: the power rock
ballad. Anyone who has ever switched on the radio
knows songs like “Still Loving You” (1984) and
their later massive hit “Wind Of Change” (1990).
But there was more to come. In 2000 the Scorpions
embarked on an unprecedented crossover project
with the Berlin Philharmonic. “Moment of Glory”
became the official anthem of Expo 2000 in
Hannover and the title of a joint album. The
following year saw the band undertake another
unusual project in the shape of the purely acoustic
album Acoustica. After those diversions, the
Scorpions returned to their hard ‘n’ heavy roots
with Unbreakable in 2004.
Retiring at the top
The band’s 17th studio album Sting in the Tail is
to be its last although they will re-record some old
tunes in the autumn. The band’s announcement
that they would retire was met with a hail of tributes. Last year the Scorpions were the first band
from continental Europe to have the honour of
being immortalised with their handprints on
Hollywood’s Rock Walk of Fame.
Schenker has said that the musicians “focused
entirely on finding their base” during their work on
the new album. That seems to have paid off: Sting
in the Tail is even now one of the band’s biggest-
Nagymezõ utca 17. Tel. (06-1) 312-4866.
www.operettszinhaz.hu
Cherubini. Venue: District I, Szentháromság
tér 2. Tel. (06-1) 355-5657
HUNGARIAN STATE OPERA HOUSE at 7pm: In
the Vortex – five ballet pieces to the music of
Schubert, Mahler, Weill, Richter and Glass.
ÓBUDAI TÁRSASKÖR at 7pm: Gergely Gyõrffy
(violin) and György Oravecz (piano) will
perform works by Liszt, Paganini, Ladislav
Kupkovic, Franck, as well as Liszt’s transcriptions of works by Schubert, Rossini and
Gounod. Details: Friday, 3 June
A38 SHIP at 8pm: DAV Trió (alternative rock,
jazz), Vinylstrings Trió. Details: Friday, 3 June
BAKÁTS TÉR from 3pm: Ferencváros Festival.
Rutkai Bori és a Hébe-Hóba Banda at 3pm, Ez
a divat at 7pm, Fatima Spar & The Freedom
Fries at 8.30pm. Venue: District IX, Bakáts tér
GÖDÖR CLUB from 7pm: Athe Sam Roma
Culture Festival. Kathy Horváth Lajos és
Zenekara at 7pm, Rományi Rota at 8.30pm,
Khamoro at 10pm, Esma Redzepova &
Ensemble (from Macedonia) at 11pm, DJ
Kokali at 12.30am. Venue: District V, Erzsébet
tér. Tel. (06-20) 943-5464. www.godorklub.hu
FÉSZEK ARTISTS’ CLUB at 7pm: Budapest
selling albums. On the farewell tour, which will last
until 212 and take in every continent, the band will
tear it up to both new and classic songs. It is not just
veteran Scorpions followers in the audiences; the
band’s concerts have attracted increasing numbers
of younger music fans eager to experience the idols
of their current favourite bands live in concert. The
Scorpions are a natural-born live band – they are in
the business because they love being on stage. And
they want to stop while they are still having this
much fun.
– Ann Kristin Lins
The ticket
The Scorpions – Get your Sting and Blackout World
Tour 2011
Monday, 6 June at 7pm
Venue: District XIV, Stefánia út 2.
Tickets: HUF 8,990 – HUF 12,990
www.budapestarena.hu
OLD MUSIC ACADEMY at 11am: Tekla
Boros, Gergely Kovács, Ádám Szokolay,
László Váradi, Mónika Vida (piano) will
perform Liszt’s Twelve Etudes. Details:
Saturday, 4 June
HUNGARIAN RADIO STUDIO 6 at 3pm:
József Balog (piano) will perform
Debussy’s Images, books 1 and 2. Details:
Saturday, 4 June
TELEKOM ISLAND FOR CHILDREN at 11am:
Alma Együttes’ concert for children. Venue:
District III, Óbuda Island
Klezmer Band. Details: Monday, 6 June
BUDAPEST JAZZ CLUB at 9pm: Bolla Gábor
Quartet feat. American drummer Jimmy
Wormworth. Details: Friday, 3 June
Friday, 10 June
BARTÓK BÉLA NATIONAL CONCERT HALL
at 4pm: Christian Franz, Evelyn-Herlitzius,
Jan-Hendrik Rooteringk, Tomasz Konieczny,
Judit Németh, Lajos Geiger, Zoltán Megyesi,
Ákos Ambrus, István Horváth (voice), the
Choir and Orchestra of the Hungarian State
Opera House conducted by Ádám Fischer
will perform Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde.
Details: Thursday, 9 June
Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. Details:
Friday, 3 June
MATTHIAS CHURCH at 8pm: The Hungarian
Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra with Ingrid
Kertesi, Tünde Frankó, Balázs Fellegi
(voice), Miklós Szenthelyi (violin), Judit
Faludi (cello), László Tóth (trumpet), Ella
István, Király Caba, Hock Bertalan (organ)
will perform works by Bach, Mozart, Tartini,
Telemann, Franck, Schubert, Vivaldi and
NATIONAL DANCE THEATRE at 7pm: Barocco
Rustico – The Four Seasons performed by the
Duna Art Ensemble. Details: Friday, 3 June
BAKÁTS T ÉR from 7pm: Ferencváros
Festival. Armenian-born accordionist David
Yengibarjan at 7pm, Hot Jazz Band at
8.30pm. Details: Friday, 10 June
PALACE OF ARTS FESTIVAL THEATRE at
7.30pm: Hungarian Motifs – Hungarian
contemporary music, folk melodies and improvisations. Details: Saturday, 4 June
N ATIONAL DANCE T HEATRE at 7pm:
Variations performed by Varidance –
Bertalan Vári Company. Details: 3 June
ROHÁM CAFÉ AND GALLERY at 8pm: Reggae
A38 S HIP at 8pm: Norwegian band
Katzenjammer. Details: Friday, 3 June
Soul Club. Venue: District VIII, Vas utca 16.
BUDAPEST JAZZ CLUB at 8.30pm: Lantos
Zoltán Live Act, followed by the Tzumo-EgriEmilio Trio’s jam session at 11pm. Details:
Friday, 3 June
A38 SHIP at 11pm: American techno
producer and DJ Robert Hood’s “Omega:
Alive” album release party, Isu, Dork. Details:
Friday, 3 June
Saturday, 11 June
HUNGARIAN STATE OPERA HOUSE at 11am:
Puccini’s Manon Lescaut. Details: Friday, 3
June
Sunday, 12 June
GÖDÖR CLUB from 6pm: Athe Sam Roma
Culture Festival. Romano Glaszo at 6pm,
Sátoraljaújhelyi fiúk at 8pm, Sofi Marinova
(above, from Bulgaria) at 10pm, Parno Graszt
at 11pm, DJ Dany-Anty-Pisty-Bency at 1am.
BAKÁTS TÉR from 7pm: Ferencváros Festival.
HUNGARIAN STATE OPERA HOUSE at 11am:
Párnizcky Quartett at 7pm, Ralf Gauck, Szabó
Sándor, Major Balázs trio at 8.30pm (jazz).
Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. Details: Friday,
3 June
NATIONAL DANCE THEATRE at 7pm: Tango
4pm: Alfred Muff, Burkhard Fritz, Camilla
Nylund, Béla Perencz, Petra Lang, Michael
Nagy, József Mukk, Tivadar Kiss, Antal Bakó,
László Jekl (voice), the Honvéd Male Choir,
the Budapest Studio Choir, the Hungarian
Radio Choir and the Orchestra of the
Hungarian State Opera House conducted by
Ádám Fischer will perform Wagner’s
Lohengrin. Details: Thursday, 9 June
Moments performed by László Budai and
guests (Milonga dance workshop follows the
performance). Details: Friday, 3 June
CAFÉ DEL RIO at 10pm: UK dance music
producer Chicane live, Julia Carpenter, Mr.
Kaufer, Lacora. Details: Tuesday, 7 June
A38 SHIP at 11pm: DJ Palotai will play a set
surveying his 20-year career from Tilos az Á to
A38. Details: Friday, 3 June
11
F O U R T E E N -D AY G U I D E
12
THE BUDAPEST TIMES
1 4 - D AY G U I D E
THE WINEBAR at 9pm: Live Flamenco. Details:
Monday, 13 June
DÜRER KERT from 8pm: Tilos Rádió
Tuesday, 7 June
4pm: Christian Franz, Evelyn-Herlitzius, JanHendrik Rooteringk, Tomasz Konieczny, Judit
Németh, Lajos Geiger, Zoltán Megyesi, Ákos
Ambrus, István Horváth (voice), the Choir and
Orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera
House conducted by Ádám Fischer will
perform Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. Details:
Thursday, 9 June
Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. Details: Friday,
3 June
MATTHIAS CHURCH at
7pm: Sonoran Desert
Chorale (from the USA)
conducted by Jeff Harris
will perform works by
Gallus, Schutz, Liszt,
Halmos, Whitbourn,
Hogan and Wilbergs.
Marathon. Szexlightkór concert at 8pm,
Bringás Break Party: Vida G, Piry, Slicz, Nixon,
Vektor at 9pm. Details: Friday, 10 June
CAFÉ DEL RIO at 10pm: Latin Passion – DJ
Enrique (from Venezuela). Details: Tuesday, 7
June
BAKÁTS TÉR at 8.30pm: Ferencváros Festival.
Wednesday, 15 June
Muzsikás Zenekar (folk music). Details: Friday,
10 June
Tuesday, 14 June
IF CAFÉ at 7.30pm: Váczi Eszter Quartet
(jazz). Details: Wednesday, 8 June
A38 SHIP (ROOF TERRACE) at 8pm: Irish folkpunk band Paddy and the Rats. Details: 3 June
COLUMBUS SHIP at 8.30pm: Fábián Juli-Sárik
Verdi’s Otello. Details: Friday, 3 June
Sun Legend performed by the Hungarian
State Folk Ensemble. Details: Saturday, 4 June
Inferno performed by the Szeged
Saturday, 4 June
A38 SHIP at 7.30pm: American post-hardcore
bands Boysetsfire and Letlive, Dutch punk
rock trio Antillectual. Details: Friday, 3 June
A38 SHIP (ROOF TERRACE) at 8pm: Random
7.30pm: The Rondeau String Quartet (Áron
Dóczi, Dávid Pintér, Péter Tornyai, Orsolya
Mód) will perform works by Mozart, Brahms
and Dohnányi. Details: Monday, 6 June
Carmina Burana performed by the Szeged
Saturday, 4 June
HUBAY MUSIC ROOM (HOTEL VICTORIA) at
Trip (funk, jazz, underground). Details: Friday,
3 June
BUDAPEST JAZZ CLUB at 9pm: Harcsa
Veronika & Gyémánt Bálint Duo. Details:
Friday, 3 June
Péter Duo (jazz). Details: Wednesday, 15 June
BUDAPEST JAZZ CLUB at 9pm: BorbélyDresch Quartet. Details: Friday, 3 June
A38 SHIP at 9pm: Shantel & Bucovina Club
THE WINEBAR at 7pm: Live Blues – Jenõ
Fekete and friends. Details: Tuesday, 7 June
COLUMBUS SHIP at 8pm: Senegalese and
Hungarian band Afro Night Show. Venue:
District V, Vigadó square, harbour 4. Tel. (06-1)
266-9013. www.majazz.hu
Orkestar (mix of South-European & Balkan
music and club-friendly electronics), DJ Suefo.
PECSA CAFÉ at 8pm: ZiZi Rock, Börgyári
Capriccio, Custom Blues Band. Venue: District
XIV, Zichy Mihály út 14. Tel. (06-30)677-5832.
www.pecsacafe.hu
DOWN
HUNGARIAN RADIO MARBLE ROOM at 6pm:
WEDNESDAY, 22 JUNE at 8pm: Roger Waters
BUDAPEST JAZZ CLUB at 9pm: Sárik Péter
Trio Klub – The New Soul Band. Details: Friday,
3 June
Bálint Zsoldos (piano) will perform works by
Liszt and Liszt’s transcriptions of works by
Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Schumann and Bellini.
Details: Saturday, 4 June
TUESDAY, 28 JUNE at 8pm: Ringo Starr at the
THE WINEBAR at 9pm: Trio Midnight (jazz).
THURSDAY, 30 JUNE at 8pm: Sting at the Papp
Verdi’s Otello. Details: Friday, 3 June
László Budapest Sportaréna
Details: Tuesday, 7 June
Thursday, 16 June
A38 SHIP at 11pm: Africa Hitech (UK),
Shigeto Live (USA), Cadik, Takeshi, Ozon.
THE ROAD
at the Papp László Budapest Sportaréna
BOOKS
Sympathetic look at lives of soldiers in a complex & brutal war
Review: Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-89 by Rodric Braithwaite
BOB DENT
A
fgantsy is the plural of the
Russian Afganets, meaning an
inhabitant of Afghanistan, a
hot sand-laden southwest wind or a
veteran of the Soviet war. It is the
third meaning which provides the
theme for this book.
Angles of attack
Like any good book, this one which
deals with the decade-long war the
Soviets fought in Afghanistan can be
read on a number of different levels or
from different perspectives. It can be
read as a straightforward, informative
account of the war – how it began, what
it involved in terms of aims, strategy
and tactics, and how it came to an end.
It can also be read as a work about
war in general – about “the complex
and confused way in which decisions
are taken by most governments”,
particularly when it comes to war
matters, about the shifting sands of
international diplomacy and about
how war aims are always hopeful and
positive, despite past experience.
When a Soviet deputy foreign
minister visited the British Foreign
Office in early 1980 and was given a
historical account of British failures in
Afghanistan, his response was: “This
time it will be different.” Rodric
Braithwaite adds that that’s the usual
argument advanced by people “when
they set out to repeat the mistakes of
their predecessors”. You can’t help
reading an unspoken message into
that regarding the current involvement with Afghanistan on the part of
the US and its allies, including Britain.
A third level on which to read this
book can be to take it as a commentary on the Soviet system with its
“mixture of inefficiency, brutality and
creative flexibility”. As a former
British ambassador to Moscow and
someone knowledgeable about
Russia, its language, history and
culture, Braithwaite is well placed to
understand and convey in a balanced
manner a picture of Soviet Russia.
Deal-making on the ground
However, perhaps the most interesting, compelling and indeed
moving theme of this book involves
the sympathetic insight it offers into
the lives and fate of the ordinary
Soviet soldiers sent by the Kremlin to
do its bidding in a vast and for them
initially unknown country. We learn
not only about the fighting between
the Soviets and the mujahedin, which
was often confused and sometimes
extremely brutal, but also about how
the two sides – in the manner of the
famous 1914 Christmas truce across
the trenches in World War I – could
sometimes come to an accommodation or working arrangement which
diffused the conflict and reduced the
frequency of violent exchanges.
“Quite junior commanders worked
out their own deals with the local
villages
and
mujahedin
commanders… The relationship was a
complex one. Fighting alternated with
cooperation and compromise: an
informal ceasefire, a willingness to
turn a blind eye to smuggling provided
weapons were not involved.” Small
Soviet detachments posted to the
countryside “had little choice but to
get on with the local villagers: they
could not otherwise have survived”.
Thus they were supplied with goods
such as canned food, cigarettes and
soap for purposes of barter and bribe.
As the Americans learnt in Vietnam,
the enemy often included some of
those villagers.
Sorry plight of soldiers
The life of the soldiers when not
fighting is also portrayed – the tedious
tasks producing boredom, the
comradeship and the tensions, the
desire to go home and until then just to
survive. An intriguing cultural aspect is
brought to life in the accounts of how
singer-songwriters among the troops
used music to record their often bitter
experiences of the war. They were
experiences which could not be shared
with those back home in Moscow,
Leningrad, Kiev and elsewhere across
the sprawling Soviet Union.
Most bitter of all was the experience of the soldiers when they did
eventually return home, due to injury
or because their period of military
service or the war itself had ended.
Far from being treated with respect,
let alone as heroic veterans, they were
neglected – abandoned might be a
better word – both by the authorities
and by wider society. The Afgantsy
struggled to re-integrate, to find jobs
and accommodation, to obtain benefits, even those they were formally
entitled to, and, most of all, to receive
some recognition and acknowledgement of what they had gone through.
In their desperate situation, many
turned to alcohol, others to crime
and not a few ended as suicide cases.
“The soldiers who do the actual
fighting come home having seen and
done terrible things which return to
haunt them. The stories of heroism
and comradeship help them to
manage their memories and give
meaning to what they have been
through. Some claim that the war years
were the best of their lives. Many more
say nothing, and go to their graves
without telling even their nearest and
dearest what it was really like.
“So it is after all wars,” concludes
Braithwaite. “So it was after the
Soviet war in Afghanistan.”
Buy the book
Afgantsy: The Russians in
Afghanistan, 1979-89
By Rodric Braithwaite
Hardback, illustrated, 417 pages
Profile Books, 2011, GBP 25
Q UICK G UIDE
I N T E R N E T GUIDE
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Fire:
105
Domestic directory: 198
Intl: 199
Where to find what
198
Foreign language police hot line:
438-8080
Fault-clearing service:
143
AUSTRALIA: XII. Királyhágó tér 8- 9.
Arrivals: 296-8000. Departures: 2967000 Lost & Found: 296-8108
INTERNATIONAL BAPTIST CHURCH
OF BUDAPEST: II. Móricz Zsigmond
events, sights, tourism info
WWW.BUDAPEST.HU: Info, news, culture
WWW.BZT.HU: Daily news updates, archive
WWW.GOTOHUNGARY.COM: General tourism
info
WWW.TOURINFORM.HU: General tourism info
WWW. HUNGARY. COM : Tourism, hotels &
festival info
Travel
WWW.VOLAN.HU: Bus timetables
MAV-START.HU: Hungarian railway timetables
and information
WWW.TRAVELPORT.HU: Hotels, restaurants,
travel in and out of Hungary
WWW. WIZZAIR . COM ,
WWW. JET 2. COM ,
WWW. RYANAIR . COM ,
WWW. EASYJET. COM :
locally based budget airlines
WWW.BKV.HU: Urban transport in Budapest
Classical music
W W W. K O N C E R T K A L E N DA R I U M . H U :
Comprehensive classical listings (in English
and Hungarian)
WWW.OPERA.HU: Detailed programme of the
State Opera at the Opera House and the
Erkel Theatre in English. Booking online
WWW.MUPA.HU: Classical concerts and other
entertainment at Hungary’s principal venue
for the performing arts
WWW.OBUDAITARSASKOR.HU: Concerts at
the Óbudai Társaskör. Online reservation
possible.
to popular culture in Budapest
WWW. BUDAPESTBLUES . COM :
Upcoming
blues performances
WWW.PECSA.HU: Rock gigs at venue in the
City Park
WWW.A38.HU: Ship which hosts gigs on the
Danube
WWW.NEMZETITANCSZINHAZ.HU: Goings-on
in the National Dance Theatre
WWW.OPERETTSZINHAZ.HU: The programme
of the Operetta Theatre in English
WWW.HUNGARIAKONCERT.HU: Folk events,
organ concerts, concerts of the Danube
Symphony Orchestra and boat trips can be
booked on the website
Culture
WWW.FESTIVALCITY.HU: Info on the capital’s
wide range of seasonal festivals
WWW.HUNG-ART.HU: A guide to the fine arts
WWW. MUSEUM . HU : Links to Budapest’s
museums
WWW.BUDAPESTSPAS.HU: Guide to bathing in
the capital
Food and drink
WWW. BUDAPEST. COM / RESTAURANTS . HTM :
Links to lots of restaurants in Budapest
WWW.BUDAPEST-TOURIST-GUIDE.COM: Food
and wine info in addition to usual tourist advice
24-hour pharmacies
ARANYHORGONY PATIKA:
IV. Pozsonyi út 19
Tel.: 379-3008
DÉLI GYÓGYSZERTÁR:
XII. Alkotás út 2.
Tel.: 355-4691
ÓBUDA GYÓGYSZERTÁR:
III. Vörösvári út 86
Tel.: 368-6430
SZENT MARGIT PATIKA:
II. Frankel Leó út 22 Tel.: 212-4311
Tel.: 457-9777
BRITAIN: V. Harmincad utca 6
Tel.: 266-2888
CANADA: II. Ganz utca 12-14
Tel.: 392-3360 Fax: 392-3390
FINLAND: XI. Kelenhegyi út 16/A
Tel.: 385-0700
IRELAND: VII, Szabadság tér 7-9.
Bank Center. Tel. 301-4960
ITALY: XIV, Stefánia út 95.
Tel.: 460-6200
KOREA: VI. Andrássy út 109.
Tel.: 351-1179
SWEDEN: II, Kapás u. 6-12.
Tel.: 460-6020
TAIPEI REP. OFFICE: VIII Rákoczi út
1-3. 2.emelet. Tel: 266-2884
UNITED STATES: V. Szabadság tér
12 Tel.: 475-4400
TERÉZ GYÓGYSZERTÁR:
COMMONWEALTH
VI. Teréz krt. 41
without an embassy can register at
www.britishembassy.hu to be
eligible for emergency assistance.
Tel.: 311-4439
MÁRIA GYÓGYSZERTÁR:
XIII. Béke tér 11
Tel.: 320-8006
Airlines
Taxis
6x6
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266-6666
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296-8860
KLM (SMS f. #) +44 77 81 488747
Lufthansa
411-9900
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Malév
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Community
BRITISH WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION:
Gimnázium, Törökvész út 48/54.
Services @10:30 am, Sunday.
www.ibcbudapest.info
INTERNATIONAL
C HURCH
OF
Meets last Friday of every month
10am – noon. Contact Fiona
Whiteside (chair) on +36 30 5699767, [email protected]
BUDAPEST: Óbuda Culture Center
District III. Kiskorona u. 7. 10:30 am
Sundays www.church.hu
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S CLUB
FOUNDATION: IWCA Office; Hajós
K APOSVÁR
INTERNATIONAL
CHURCH: Hotel Kapos, Ady Endre
utca 1. 1065 Bp. Tel./fax: 321- 4604
www.iwc.org.hu
u. 2 in Kaposvár @11 am Sundays
[email protected] 06-30-255-5014
ROTARY CLUB BUDAPEST-CITY:
NEW COVENANT CHURCH: 10 am
First Tuesday of the month 19:30
Dinner. Other Tuesdays 12:30
Lunch. Location: Hotel Kempinski
Budapest, Erzsébet tér 7-8
Budapesti Módszertani Szociális
Központ, District XIII, Dózsa György
u. 152. Tel.: 06-30-624-0599
Churches in English
THE R EDEEMED C HRISTIAN
CHURCH OF GOD 11-13 Üllõi utca.
A BIBLIA SZÓL VIII. Golgata ut. 3.
10 am Sundays. Tel. +3630 7377543
Rhema Community Center. Sun.
@ 10:30am & 6pm & Wed. @
6.30pm.
DANUBE INTERNATIONAL CHURCH:
District XI, Etele út 55. Sunday at
10:30 a.m. www.danubechurch.org
GREATER GRACE INTERNATIONAL
CHURCH: XII. 22/b Szilágyi E. fasor
S T. C OLUMBA ’S C HURCH OF
SCOTLAND: VII. Vörösmarty utca
51 Tel.: 246-2258
S T. MARGARET ’S A NGLICAN /
EPISCOPAL CHURCH: District VII.,
Almássy u. 6. Sundays @10:30 am
Tel.: 06-23-452-023.
THE BUDAPEST TIMES
tions covering life in a medieval village, viticulture, plants and more. The temporary exhibition A Taste of Europe runs until 31 August.
Open Tues-Fri, 10am-4pm, Sat-Sun, 10am5pm. Closed on Mon. District XIV,
Vajdahunyad Castle in City Park. Tel. (06-1)
363-5099. www.mezogazdasagimuzeum.hu
AQUINCUM MUSEUM Archaeological findings
Hard to see wood
for trees when art
lacks labels
from the remains of the Roman military
garrison and trading settlement Aquincum.
Open daily 10am-5pm except Mon. The
outdoor ruins are open from 9am. District III,
Szentendrei út 139. Tel. (06-1) 250-1650.
www.aquincum.hu
BÉLA BARTÓK MEMORIAL HOUSE Concerts
featured in one hall, also a memorial room with
original furniture and Bartók’s folk art collection, photos, letters and notes on his life. Open
Tues.-Sat. 10am-5pm. Closed Sun. and Mon.
District II, Csalán út 29. Tel. (06-1) 394-4472.
www.bartokmuseum.hu
BUDAPEST HISTORY MUSEUM Permanent
exhibitions covering the history of the capital.
An exhibition of 18th-19th paintings of PestBuda runs until the end of September. Empire
of Illusions – stage designs of Jesuit dramas
runs until 19 June. Open daily 10am-6pm
except Mon. Buda Castle building E, District I,
Szent György tér 2. Tel. (06-1) 375-9175.
www.btm.hu
CAVE HOSPITAL A formerly secret underground military hospital and nuclear bunker.
Open daily 10am-7pm except Mon. District I,
Lovas utca 4/C.Tel. 06-30 689-8775 www.sziklakorhaz.hu
ELECTRO-TECHNICAL MUSEUM Open Tues.Fri. 10am-5pm and Sat. 9am-4pm. District VII,
Kazinczy utca 21. Tel. (06-1) 342-5750
EVANGELICAL
NATIONAL
MUSEUM
Permanent exhibition covering the Protestant
faith in Hungary. Open Tues-Sun, 10am-6pm.
District V, Deák Ferenc tér 4. Tel. (06-1) 3174173. www.evangelikusmuzeum.hu
GEOLOGICAL MUSEUM
OF HUNGARY The
museum has a huge collection of rocks and
fossils, but for many people Ödön Lechner’s
exquisite building is the highlight of a visit.
Open Thurs., Sat., Sun. 10am-4pm. District
XIV, Stefánia utca 14. Tel. (06-1) 251-0999
www.mafi.hu
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER Museum
covering the fate of Hungarian Jews in the
Holocaust. Open daily 10am-6pm except Mon.
District IX, Páva utca 39. Tel. (06-1) 216-6557.
www.hdke.hu
HOUSE
OF TERROR MUSEUM Former headquarters of the secret police during both the
fascist and socialist periods with permanent
displays covering these subjects. The temporary exhibitions are Hungarian Tragedy –
Southern Territories 1944-1945 and an exhibition in memory of Polis historian Andrzej
Przewoznik. Open Tues.-Fri. 10am-6pm, and
Sat.-Sun. 10am-7.30pm. Closed Mon. District
VI, Andrássy út 60. Tel. (06-1) 374-2600.
www.terrorhaza.hu
HUNGARIAN RAILWAY MUSEUM Over a
MAI
MANÓ
HUNGARIAN
HOUSE
OF
PHOTOGRAPHY Shows works by Hungarian
and foreign photographers. The exhibition
Moving Pictures by Bálint Szombathy runs
until 26 June. Open weekdays: 2pm-7pm,
weekends: 11am-7pm. District VI, Nagymezõ
utca 20. Tel. 473-2666 www.maimano.hu
MUSEUM
OF FINE ARTS Huge collection of
Hungarian and international painting. Open
daily 10am-5.30pm except Mon. (ticket office
closes at 4.30pm). The exhibition The Eight
(Róbert Berény, Dezsõ Czigány, Béla Czóbel,
Károly Kernstok, Ödön Márffy, Dezsõ Orbán,
Bertalan Pór, Lajos Tihanyi) runs until 12
September. On Thurs. the museum is also
open until 9.30pm with a Museum + events
ticket. District XIV, Hõsök tere. Tel. (06-1) 3632675. www.szepmuveszeti.hu
Exhibition
Forest of Future, the Future of Forests
Runs until 17 June. Free entry.
Millenáris – Pixel Gallery
District II, Kis Rókus utca 16-20,
Open Thursday to Sunday 10am to 6pm
www.millenaris.hu
– Ann Kristin Lins
MÛCSARNOK An exhibition of the work of
Belgian artist Michaël Borremans titled Eating
the Beard runs until 26 June. Open Tues.Sun.-10am-6pm except Thurs.12pm- 8pm.
Closed Mon. District XIV, Dózsa Gy. u. 37. Tel.
(06-1) 460-7000. www.mucsarnok.hu
NATIONAL THEATRE “Colour” – an exhibition of
the Middle Ages. Open Tues-Sun 10am-6pm.
Closed Mon. District I, Táncsics Mihály utca
26. Tel. (06-1) 225-7816
MEMENTO PARK Huge Socialist-realist statues
of Marx, Lenin and other Communist-era
figures in a park on the edge of town. Direct
buses leave from Deák tér at 11am; look for
the bus stop with the Memento Park timetable.
Open daily from 10am till dusk. District XXII,
Balatoni út, corner of Szabadkai utca. Tel. (061) 424-7500. www.mementopark.hu
MUSEUM
OF
APPLIED ARTS Open daily
except Mon. 10am-6pm. The exhibition
Aristocratic Textiles from the Esterházy
Treasury runs until 4 September. The exhibition On the Border of Two Ages – Persian Art
in the Qajar Period (1796-1925) runs until 18
September. District IX, Üllõi út 33-37. (06-1)
456-5107. www.imm.hu
LISZT FERENC MEMORIAL MUSEUM A recon-
MUSEUM OF MILITARY HISTORY The history of
OF PRAYER The
collection sheds light on the life of Jews during
LUDWIG CONTEMPORARY ARTS MUSEUM
PALACE OF ARTS Collection of contemporary
art with temporary exhibitions. An exhibition of
works by Mladen Stilinovic runs until 3 July.
László Moholy-Nagy – The Art of Light opens
on 9 June and runs until 25 September. Open
daily 10am-8pm except Mon. On the last
Sunday of every month entrance is free for
visitors under 26, and up to two adult relatives
accompanying a child under 18. District XI,
Komor Marcell utca 1. Tel. (06-1) 555-3444
www.lumu.hu
I
n an effort to call attention to Hungary’s forests, WWF
Hungary ran a contest for its exhibition Forest of Future,
the Future of Forests. The winning entries are at the Pixel
Gallery of the Millenáris centre until 17 June.
The exhibition is small but diverse. Entries were invited
in six categories, including pictures, films, photos and
architecture. Of these the pictures offer the most variety.
Many make a strong impression, including black-andwhite drawings resembling a comic, billboard motifs and
a piece in the style of a traditional oil painting.
Several artworks show man-made architecture fused
with nature, such as the image of a tree composed of highrise buildings instead of branches (right).
A picture of a woman’s head with hair turning into fine
twigs offers another perspective; the background shows
electrocardiograph recordings and medical reports.
Lettering is frequently used as a stylistic device. In one
picture, for example, the shape of a tree is created by an
arrangement of letters. Here, non-Hungarian speakers
might wish for an English translation or at least an explanation. However, even those who speak Hungarian are
not much better off because there is a distinct lack of
information panels. Of course there should be room to
interpret art freely, but an exhibition staged by a
renowned environmental organisation with the intention
of raising awareness might reasonably be expected to
offer background information. Taken purely as an art
exhibition, however, visitors can enjoy a variety of creative
contributions on an issue close to their heart (and lungs).
MUSEUM
MEDIEVAL JEWISH HOUSE
KOGART GALLERY The oeuvre exhibition of
painter József Egry (1883-1951) runs until 31
July. Béla Kondor’s graphic art series –
commemorative exhibition marking the 80th
anniversary of the birth of the artist runs until 1
July. Open daily 10am-6pm. District VI,
Andrássy út 112. Tel. (06-1) 354-3820.
www.kogart.hu
Forest of Future,
the Future of Forests
hundred railway vehicles, ancient steam
engines, operational turntables, the largest
roundhouse in Central Europe with entertaining interactive programmes like driving a
hand cart and travel on a self-powered rail car
and engine driving. Open daily 10am-3pm
except Mon. District XIV, Tatai út 95. Tel. (06-1)
238-0558. www.vasuttortenetipark.hu
struction of Liszt’s last Budapest flat on the first
floor of the Old Music Academy containing his
original instruments, furniture, books, scores,
some personal objects and memorabilia.
Open Mon.-Fri. 10am-6pm, Sat. 9am-5pm.
Closed Sun. and on national holidays. District
VI, Vörösmarty utca 35. Tel. (06-1) 3229-804.
www.lisztmuseum.hu
works by Anne and Patrick Poirier runs until 17
July. Attempt to Flee – an exhibition by painter
Tamás Komoróczky runs until 7 August. Open
daily 10am-6pm except Mon. District III,
Kiscelli út 108. Tel. (06-1) 388-7817.
www.btmfk.iif.hu
OF ETHNOGRAPHY The permanent
exhibitions cover traditional customs and
clothing.The temporary exhibition Ferenc Liszt
and Gypsy Music runs until 29 August. Open
10am-6pm daily except Mon. District V,
Kossuth Lajos tér 12. Tel. (06-1) 473-2400.
www.neprajz.hu
mankind at its most inventive. Open daily
10am-4pm except Mon. District I, Tóth Árpád
sétány 40. Tel. (06-1) 325-1647. www.militaria.hu
MUSEUM OF TRANSPORT Permanent exhibitions covering the history of road and rail transport in Hungary. The aerospace collection is in
the nearby Petõfi Csarnok (Zichy Mihály utca
3). Open Tues.-Fri. 10am-4pm, and Sat.-Sun.
10am-5pm. Closed Mon. District XIV,
Városligeti körút. 11. Tel. (06-1) 273-3840.
www.km.iif.hu
NATIONAL MUSEUM Permanent exhibition
covering the whole of Hungarian history, from
the ancient origins of the Hungarians, their
journey to the Carpathian basin and events
until 1990. The Light of the Soul – an exhibition
of portrait photographs by Ghitta Carell runs
until 26 June. The exhibition Pop City Trash –
photographs by Hubertus von Hohenlohe runs
until 31 July. More than Solidarity – a thousand
years of Polish-Hungarian relations runs until
30 September. Open daily 10am-6pm except
Mon. District VIII, Múzeum körút 14-16. Tel.
(06-1)
338-2122,
(06-1)
327-7749.
www.hnm.hu
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM Permanent exhibitions covering botany and zoology. The
Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010 exhibition runs until 22 August. The interactive exhibition Empire of the Six-Legged Creatures
runs until November. “Camera Naturae et Artis
Productorum” – Natural History in the 19th
century runs until November. There is something new under the earth – Minerals discovered in the Carpathian region runs until 21
November. Open daily 10am-5pm except Mon.
and Tues. District VIII, Ludovika tér 6. Tel. (061) 333-0655, (06-1) 313-0842. www.nhmus.hu
PALACE
OF MIRACLES Interactive games,
experiments and laser shows on scientific and
technological themes. Open Mon-Fri 9am6pm, Sat.-Sun. 10am-6pm. District III, Fény
utca, 20-22, Building C. Tel. (06-1) 350-6131
STAMP MUSEUM Permanent exhibition of
stamps from around the world. Open daily
10am-4pm except Mon. District VII, Hársfa
utca 47. Tel. (06-1) 341-5526
GALLERIES
the work of Hungarian painter Júlia Vajda
(1913 to 1982) runs until 14 June. District IX,
Bajor Gizi park 1.
ARI KUPSUS GALLERY An exhibition of works
PLATÁN GALLERY (POLISH INSTITUTE)
by Belarussian painters Hadun Nadzeya and
Yeresko Yan runs until 1 July. Open Tues.-Fri.
2pm-7pm and Sat. 10am-2pm. District VIII,
Bródy Sándor utca 23/b.Tel. (06-20) 322-0334.
www.arikupsusgallery.com
CITY PARK LAKE Contemporary art exhibition
on the lake of works by sculptors from the EU
member states, including Hungary runs until 4
September. Open daily 10am to dusk. District
XIV, Olof Palme sétány 5. Tel. (06-1) 469 7100.
www.artonlake.hu
ERNST MUSEUM The exhibition Winter
Garden – exploration of micropop imagination
in contemporary Japanese art opens on 10
June and runs until 28 August. Open daily
11am-7pm except Mon. District VI, Nagymezõ
utca 8. Tel. (06-1) 413-1311. www.ernstmuzeum.hu
HUNGARIAN NATIONAL GALLERY Mihály
Munkácsy’s Christ Trilogy has been extended
until 31 August. Without Borders – Croatian
Sculpture – Hungarian Reflections runs until 3
July. Károly Markó and his Followers – From
Myth to Vision runs until 2 October. Paintings
on paper: watercolours in the collection of
prints and drawings 1900-1950 runs until 16
October. The exhibition Private Labyrinths –
works by autistic artists opens on 3 June and
runs until 18 September. Open daily 10am6pm except Mon. Wings B, C and D of the
Royal Palace. District I, Szent György tér 2.Tel.
06-20 4397-325 or 06-20 4397-331.
www.mng.hu
KISCELLI MUSEUM Permanent exhibitions of
paintings. The exhibition Vertiges / Vestiges –
Oneness – an exhibition by Polish sculptor,
graphic artist and performance artist Iza
Taresewicz runs until 2 September. Open
Tues.-Fri. 11am-7pm. District VI, Andrássy út
32. Tel. (06-1) 331-3911. www.lengyelkultura.hu
TRAFÓ GALLERY California – group exhibition
featuring the works of Sándor Bodó, János
Fodor, Tibor Horváth and Csaba Uglár runs
until 19 June. Open daily except Mon. 4pm7pm. District IX, Liliom utca 41.Tel. (06-1) 4562040. www.trafo.hu
2B GALLERY The exhibition Transport –
design for a Holocaust memorial by András
Böröcz and László Rajk runs until 15 June.
László Böröcz (voice) and Dániel Dinnyés
(piano) will perform the song cycle Five Songs
by Hans Krása (Prague 1989-Auschwitz 1944)
at the opening. Open Tues.-Fri. 2pm-6pm and
Sat. 10am-2pm. District IX, Ráday u. 47. Tel.
(06-1) 215-4899. www.pipacs.hu/2b/
VASARELY MUSEUM Huge permanent collection of works by the Hungarian-French artist
Victor Vasarely, the founder of op art. The exhibition Works for Water – Plans and Models
runs until 26 September and is connected to
the exhibition on the City Park Lake (see
above). Open daily 10am-5.30pm except Mon.
District III, Szentlélek tér 6. Tel. (06-1) 3887551. www.vasarely.tvn.hu/
VÍZIVÁROSI GALLERY Story of my Youth – a
photography exhibition by Edit Molnár runs
until 22 June. Open Tues.-Fri. 1pm-6pm and
Sat. 10am-2pm. District II, Kapás utca 55. Tel.
(06-1) 201-6925. www.vizivarosigaleria.hu
Eating the Beard tastes of irony
M
ichaël Borremans knows exactly what he is
doing: the Belgian artist, who was born in
1963, gives his works matter-of-fact, at
most gently ironic titles that on first impression
describe exactly what is shown. It is only on closer
inspection that the painting, drawing or film takes on a
quite different meaning. The Eating the Beard exhibition of Borremans’ enigmatic works runs until 26 June
at the Mûcsarnok.
At the exhibition opening Borremans, whose works
hang in the New York Museum of Modern Art as well
as other major museums, was sporting a red beard,
but it was certainly far too short to eat. But does the
title of the exhibition Eating the Beard actually mean
what it says? The picture of that name (right) shows a
girl looking down forlornly and eating a brown beard
that seems to be bleeding. Whether it is her own beard
or a foreign beard remains a mystery.
The work certainly does not lend itself to clear-cut
interpretation, but perhaps the artist wished to depict
an utterly incongruous act, something that is socially
unacceptable, to expose people’s ridiculous obsession
with rules and intolerance of “abnormal” behaviour.
Social criticism and political side-swipes are equally
present in Borremans’ works.
His art has a distinctive style. The colours that he
uses are typically subdued. While the paintings and
drawings can hardly be described as joyful and light,
that does not detract from their impact.
Certain motifs recur such as hands and faces
portrayed as masks. Borremans often paints screens,
projections or stages with tiny figures watching or
passing by.
It is precisely such uninhibited engagement with
people and with both the human and inhuman that
makes Borremans’ works so fascinating and moving.
Even the most trivial gestures and movements gain
an emotional depth that inspires empathy in the
viewer.
The piece Man Looking Down At His Hand (left)
shows precisely what the title promises: a man,
wearing a black jumper, looking down at his hand. But
there is more to the picture than that: the man’s mouth
is slightly open, perhaps in concentration or because
he is speaking. At that moment his hand seems to tell
him something entirely new. Borremans’ subtle way of
conveying powerful emotions is what makes his works
so remarkable.
– Lisa Weil
Michaël Borremans – Eating the Beard
Runs until 26 June
Mûcsarnok, District XIV, Dózsa György út 37 (Hõsök tere)
www.mucsarnok.hu
13
GALLERIES & MUSEUMS
MUSEUMS
AGRICULTURAL MUSEUM Permanent exhibi-
14
THE BUDAPEST TIMES
CULTURE
eclectick by name, eclectic by nature
Designers in Hungary – Part XIII: Edina Farkas and her shop eclectick
E
dina Farkas’ shop can
be found in the heart of
the city, a few minutes
from busy Ferenciek
tere. Its style is so
colourful that from the outside it
could almost be mistaken for a
comic-book shop. The name
eclectick captures its essence.
She originally wanted to be a
graphic artist: “Even in primary
school the only thing I wanted was
to be a graphic artist. When I
applied for a graphic art
programme of study at vocational
secondary school I was turned
down on the grounds that I was too
good with colours.”
Farkas adds with a smile that she
didn’t want to have anything to do
with textiles: “I was furious but took
on the programme anyway and
finally fell in love with it.” Her
enthusiasm only increased, the more
she studied: “During the course I
became familiar with textiles and
learned how to make patterns. That
was what I enjoyed the most and it
convinced me that I wanted to
become a fashion designer.”
Appreciated abroad
Farkas has had her own shop for
nine years now. “During my
Erasmus semester at the Design
School in Berlin under the guidance of Vivienne Westwood I
opened the first eclectick shop in
Berlin with another student. We
ran the shop together for two
years. Now my former colleague
manages it. Then I opened a shop
next to the Basilica in Budapest
and then moved from there to here
in Irányi utca. For six years now
I’ve had my shop and workshop
under one roof. Three years ago we
also opened a shop in Vienna.”
eclectick is already an international presence, as Farkas proudly
tells us: “In addition to having our
own shops, our clothes are sold in
Switzerland, Great Britain, Ireland
and sometimes France in concept
stores. Roughly 60 per cent of our
current collection goes abroad,
including to the shop in Vienna.
We’ve also opened a webshop now.
Even here in the shop we’ve found
that around half of our customers
are from abroad.”
The look
Her passion for graphic art has
not let up: “Graphic art has a hold
on me. It’s no coincidence that my
clothes reflect that. I still create a
lot of graphic designs.” Farkas
describes her style in a nutshell as
“colourful”. The clothes often
feature recurrent motifs and she
says that contrasts are also important to her, both in terms of colour
and cut. “My designs are young,
bright, friendly and strongly influenced by graphic art.”
Her work is often described as a
blend of retro and Japanese influences, although she says that’s not
intentional: “I gave my company
the name eclectick for a reason.”
She describes the creation of a
collection as a fluid process: “The
label has certain distinctive
features. There’s a key mood. I
always have a lot of ideas, and new
ideas spring from those. When I’m
working on something, then new
things occur to me. I jot them down
and come back to them later. Then
I look to see what can be done in
textiles or what has been a particular hit with customers and
develop it further.”
Customer wants
The designer has a clear idea of
what her customers like and does
her utmost to put it into practice:
“Experience and feedback have
shown which textiles and cuts are
particularly popular with my
customers. In terms of textiles,
high-grade cotton with a small
percentage of spandex has proved
to be a winner. Cotton is very good
for graphic designs and we need
the spandex for stretch so that all
sizes can be covered, because we
can’t produce one-off pieces.”
The eclecticism referred to in
the name of the shop is true not
only of the young mother’s designs
but also of the range of pieces by
other designers that the shop
carries. “Most of the designers are
people I studied with but a lot of
designers also contact me who
don’t have their own shop and
would like their pieces to be sold
here. I make the choice based on
whether the pieces suit the mood of
the shop. The presence of other
designers should give customers
something extra, which often
means accessories and bags, but
clothes aren’t ruled out either. We
sell clothes by Auquanauta, bags
made from bicycle tubes by Balkan
Tango, and small accessories and
jewellery by Pucc and Red Aster,”
she said.
Farkas prefers not to keep
changing the designers whose
pieces she sells. “Once the relationship with the designer is good and
they meet the approval of the
customers, I prefer to continue to
work with them rather than
switching.”
Brisk business
eclectick Budapest
District V, Irányi utca 20 (opposite
the Centrál Café)
Tel. (06-1) 266-3341
Open Monday to Friday 10am to
7pm, Saturday 11am to 4pm
www.eclectick.hu
Customers could dress themselves from head to toe in the
eclectick style if they wished. Bags
featuring graphic design are the
only items in short supply. “The
truth is we have an incredible
amount of work at the company
and we need to design both men’s
and women’s collections. I do a
huge amount myself. Apart from
designing I take care of choosing
textiles, deliveries, the accounts,
cutting, marketing and correspondence. I’m happy when the
women’s collection is ready, and
then comes the men’s collection
and there’s simply no time left over
for bags.”
With any luck that might soon
change, however. She regularly
takes on designers as apprentices.
“They learn how to design in the
eclectick style. I’m getting an
apprentice as part of the Erasmus
programme who will design bags.
If he’s good, then the bags will be
included in the collection and will
go into production.”
– Elisabeth Katalin Grabow
BEST WESTERN JANUS BOUTIQUE **** HOTEL & SPA
A SMALL BOUTIQUE HOTEL AT LAKE BALATON, A FAMILY
ATMOSPHERE WITH INDIVIDUALLY DESIGNED ROOMS,
SUITES AND SPA SERVICES.
Depending on their mood or taste, guests can choose
among several types of rooms. They can can feel like they
are in a different world – every day if they want to – without
leaving the hotel, but by moving into the neighbouring room.
BEST WESTERN JANUS BOUTIQUE **** HOTEL & SPA
• H-8600 Siófok, Fo u. 93-95. • Tel.: +36 84 312 546 • Mobile: +36 30 500 6315
Fax: +36 84 312 432 • www.janushotel.hu • Email: [email protected]
THE BUDAPEST TIMES
Budai Gourmet moves
from Buda Castle to
Millenáris Park
T
he best restaurants, fine wines, fiery fruit
brandies and delicacies such as cheeses,
salamis, hams and honey await visitors to
the Budai Gourmet Festival from Friday to
Sunday (3 to 5 June) at Millenáris Park.
The gastro festival Budai Gourmet has become
more and more popular from year to year with
good food and a spectacular view of the Danube
panorama from the castle. This year the Sziget
Festival organisers have taken over and are
ditching Buda Castle in order to lay on a bigger
event at Millenáris Park (and hike the day ticket
price by HUF 900 to HUF 2,900).
Top-notch restaurants
The purveyors of fine food and drink are
taking part by invitation only; the organisers say
they have handpicked just over 100 representatives of their craft to present their wares.
Restaurants hailing from the countryside such as
Château Visz alongside those from Budapest and
the surrounding area such as Arány Kaviar, Nobu
and Costes will offer tasters for small prices. The
portions will be sized so that guests can comfortably sample at least ten to 15 dishes. The website
does not reveal how much you can expect to pay
for a typical taster or beverage.
Marketplace of regions
One new feature this year is the marketplace,
where various regions of Hungary will showcase
their specialities. The foodstuffs will be sold from
tables and blankets laid out on the grass, with the
idea of evoking the atmosphere of a countryside
farmers’ market. It is hoped that visitors will be
inspired to visit those regions of Hungary in the
future. Beer lovers will be pleased to hear that a
beer garden will be set up, where Hungarian
V. Zoltán u. 16
(next to Szabadság tér)
Reservations:
331-4352
To advertise in
THE BUDAPEST TIMES
BUDAPESTER ZEITUNG
RESTAURANTS
call 453-0752
Budapest’s favorite Italian
restaurant for over 10 years
Real Tuscan cuisine
1056 Budapest, Belgrád rakpart 13
Tel: +36 (1) 327 0045
w w w. t o s c a n a . h u
w breakfast from 9am
w international cuisine
w pleasant atmosphere
w private and company events
SUNNY LOUNGE
Bp., 1035 Szentendrei út 36/a
Tel.: +36-1-367-3494
[email protected]
www.sunnylounge.hu
brewers will serve their finest. Guests will also be
able to admire and purchase beautifully and originally presented food at the WAMP design
market, called the “WAMP Larder” on this occasion.
Payment at the festival will be cash-free:
together with their ticket guests will be given a
card that can be topped up with money and used
to make purchases. Any remaining amount can
be exchanged for cash at any time during the
festival. To make enough room for visitors to sit
comfortably at tables, two of the lakes inside the
park will be temporarily covered over.
Budai Gourmet
Friday-Sunday, 3-5 June, from noon to midnight
Millenáris Park, II. Fény utca 20-22
www.budaigourmet.hu
Tickets: HUF 2,900 including tasting glass. Free
entry for under 11s.
E A T I N G O UT
Gourmand weekend
15
16
THE BUDAPEST TIMES
SOCIETY
Liszt Year at the Kempinski Hotel Corvinus
Classics for the ears and tastebuds
Alex Szilasi entertained guests at the Kempinski’s
Liszt evening on Wednesday with anecdotes,
biographical information and stories of
how the individual works came to be.
T
he celebration of Liszt Year at
the
Kempinski
Hotel
Corvinus last Wednesday was
far from your average concert. It was
unusual above all because the star of
the evening, the Hungarian pianist
and exceptional interpreter of Liszt’s
work, Alex Szilasi, not only played the
piano but also spoke to the audience.
Interspersed with music ranging from
the first piece that Liszt composed at
the age of 11 to the Hungarian
Rhapsody No. 12, Szilasi entertained
guests with anecdotes, biographical
information and stories of how the
individual works came to be.
Szilasi’s descriptions, accompanied
by illustrations on the piano, of how
Liszt went about transcribing the
works of other composers were
particularly interesting. The pianist
used the popular Paganini transcriptions and Liszt’s lesser known
reworking of Rossini’s very well
known opera melodies as examples.
Special menu
The concert evening was also out
of the ordinary because it offered
something for the tastebuds. Head
chef Roland Holzer composed a
special Liszt Menu for the evening,
served with wines including a red by
the name of Liszt. The dessert of
mousse au chocolat, presented in the
form of a grand piano, was a visual
highpoint.
Kempinski and Liszt Year
The hotel’s commitment to Liszt is
no coincidence; the Kempinski Hotel
Corvinus is the official hotel partner of
Liszt Year 2011 based on an agreement
with Hungarofest, the company
commissioned to organise the Liszt
Year in Hungary. The hotel is not just a
place for international guests to rest
their heads; it is keen to give all its
patrons an appreciation of Liszt’s work,
including by putting on a Liszt 5’o
clock Tea in the afternoons, at which
the music of the great Central
European piano virtuoso is of course
performed. The hotel hosts regular
NEWS
Agreement with banks over
troubled debtors is no bail-out
A blanket ban on foreclosures will be lifted on 1
July. Orbán acknowledged that it was unsustainable.
“At the same time it is necessary to protect people
from the hyenas of the property market,” he said.
Hence a cap on how many homes can be repossessed in a given quarter.
The Hungarian National Bank issued a statement on Tuesday outlining the various risks to
financial stability it perceived in the government’s
scheme. The currency fixing offered debtors “the
false illusion... that they are free of exchange-rate
risk”, the central bank said. Furthermore, those who
avail themselves of the artificial exchange rate
might simply fritter away any money saved and then
face a shock after 2014 when the accumulated
difference must be repaid.
The scheme should therefore be limited to those
facing real difficulties meeting repayments today,
the bank said. It also criticised the foreclosure
quota, which it said was too low and risks creating
the same market distortions as leaving the moratorium in place.
The roots of the problem lie in the explosion in
mortgage lending in the years until the financial
crisis hit Hungary in late 2008. With the Hungarian
central bank’s interest rates stubbornly high, banks
realised that they could offer customers mortgages
denominated in foreign currencies at far lower
rates, even after a hefty and profitable mark-up.
Swiss franc mortgages offered the lowest interest
rates and some two-thirds of home loans are
denominated in the Helvetian currency.
The trouble was that while a Swiss franc cost less
than HUF 150 in 2007, the exchange rate shot up
to well over HUF 200 during the crisis and has
remained there since. Borrowers saw their monthly
repayments in forints jump by as much as 50 per
cent. Their outstanding debt to the bank, the principal on their loan, also jumped in forint terms, so
many people effectively owe more than they
borrowed even after several years of repayment.
The left-liberal daily Népszabadság noted that the
100,000 or so debtors who are already over 90 days
in arrears will lose their homes regardless of the
five-point plan. Their last hope would appear to lie
in the prospect of a state buy-out or a subsidised
downsizing of their family accommodation.
Five-point plan
The government has a five-point plan for forex debtors. Orbán
noted that the details have to be hammered out and numerous
legislative measures made. Further, he said, the government
is awaiting the results of a “national consultation” – a series of
multiple-choice questionnaires mailed recently to all voters.
(1) Exchange rate “fixed” for foreign-currency mortgages.
Mortgage payers can opt to pay monthly repayments on
the basis of fixed exchange rates of HUF 250 to the euro,
180 to the Swiss franc and HUF 200 per 100 yen. Those
who choose can enjoy these rates until the end of 2014,
and once they have signed up they cannot opt out. The
difference in forints between the artificial rate and the real
one will go into an “overflow” bank account, guaranteed by
the state until the end of 2014. From 1 January 2015
borrowers must start repaying the accumulated debt at the
central bank’s BUBOR interest rate, currently 6.1 per cent.
The state will probably guarantee this debt for a fee to the
banks of 1.5 per cent.
(2) Cap on foreclosures. With a moratorium on foreclosures
due to expire on 1 July, quotas will be enforced to avoid the
possible damaging effects of thousands of repossessed
homes being dumped on the market. In the first three
months banks have agreed to foreclose only on homes
worth over HUF 30 million (EUR 112.817) with outstanding
mortgage debt of over HUF 20 million (EUR 75,209). In the
final quarter of this year, only 2 per cent of mortgages in
arrears can be foreclosed. This figure will be 3 per cent per
quarter in 2012, 4 per cent in 2013 and 5 per cent in 2014.
(3) State asset manager to buy up homes, build new ones.
A new state asset management body will be established to
buy out the mortgages of home owners who face foreclosure. The property would then be rented back to the occupant. The state would pay 55 per cent of the original
purchase price in the case of properties in cities, 50 per
cent in smaller towns and 35 per cent elsewhere in the
provinces. The institution will oversee a programme of
subsidised home building to assist those who do lose their
homes due to mortgage arrears.
(4) Ban on forex lending to be lifted. A ban imposed last
year on forex lending will be lifted but banks will only be
able to lend to people who earn at least 15 times the
minimum wage, and whose wages are paid in the foreign
currency in question.
(5) Mortgage subsidies for downsizers. Troubled debtors
who move into a smaller property will be able to claim an
interest-rate subsidy of as much as 3.5 per cent for up to
five years.
salon concerts, and has created a
special Liszt cake.
Hotel director Emile Bootsma
(above) is now even planning to erect a
bust of Liszt. As to why the hotel has
taken up the topic of Liszt so enthusiastically, Bootsma explained that classical music, like fashion and design, is a
very good fit for the image of the hotel.
His establishment became the official
hotel of the Liszt Year not on the
request of the central organiser, but
because it contacted Hungarofest on its
own initiative, he added.
– Jan Mainka
8 regions with all levels
of healthcare planned
City red-light areas to
become mandatory
State secretary of health affairs Miklós
Szócska revealed some details this week of
the cabinet’s Semmelweis Plan to restructure
the healthcare system, although no exact
numbers were announced and no soon-toclose hospitals were named.
“It does not make sense to finance poorly
equipped hospitals,” Szócska said. “We need to
find a new purpose for these facilities because
patients will be willing to travel further for
quality healthcare.” He said the money from the
sale of these hospitals and revenue from the
“hamburger tax” (an extra duty levied on
unhealthy foodstuff) would be used to give
more competitive salaries to those working in
healthcare.
Based on the information available, there will
be eight regions in the system, with the goal of
providing all levels of care in each one.
Compared to a similar, 2007 plan of then
healthcare minister Lajos Molnár, the borders
of the regions would not be linked to county
limits but rather to hospital capacities and main
transportation routes.
Szócska said the highest level of care will not
necessarily be found in one hospital of a particular region. One facility could feature an
oncology centre, while a different hospital
could be the home of a cardiothoracic unit. The
Semmelweis Plan also calls for the establishing of a national healthcare organisation
centre, the main responsibility of which will be
to decide on the shutdown of parallel or redundant services and to help cooperation between
hospitals in the same region.
Only Tiszaújváros has created a red-light zone
despite the government legislating to make it
mandatory for cities to designate zones where
prostitutes can work legally. Now, the government’s commissioner responsible for Budapest
is planning to implement the regulation and
force the capital to create the necessary
decree. “I will examine the law thoroughly and
take the needed steps,” Imre Pesti said. “If
necessary my office will designate the areas
where prostitutes will be allowed to work.” Pesti
said prostitutes will have to undergo regular
medical examinations and register as entrepreneurs. Mária Szûcs Somlyó, the communications director of the Budapest Mayor’s Office,
said: “For now our main focus is the case of
metro cars and other problems created by the
previous administration.”
Reopened prison eases
pressure on population
The renovation of the prison in District I’s
Gyorskocsi utca was completed this week with
the help of 40 inmates and the building has
reopened after nearly two years. The refurbishment means the jail can accept 237 more prisoners than the about 220 before, which will
bring down the 139 per cent utilisation rate of
the nation’s prisons by 3-3.5 per cent and the
212 per cent utilisation rate of the capital’s
three jails by some 50 percentage points.
During the HUF 100 million (EUR 375,000)
reconstruction HUF 58 million (EUR 217,700)
was spent on a new roof, the bathing facilities
were renovated and the prison now features
modern technical equipment.
Taxis, airport at odds in
parking kerfuffle
The Airport Police Directorate has launched an
investigation into hundreds of cab drivers who
protested against a recently signed agreement
on the taxi service at Budapest’s Liszt Ferenc
Airport by blocking traffic with their slow driving
on the road to Terminal 2. The drivers are upset
because the new contract restricts entry to only
airport taxi service provider Fõtaxi, putting the
other companies at a considerable competitive
disadvantage.
The vehicles of other firms may enter the payparking area, where they have five free-ofcharge minutes to walk up to the arrivals area
and pick up their passengers. The companies
say this is practically impossible and drivers
have to pay HUF 700 (EUR 2.63) for parking.
The National Taxi Association will request a
State Competitive Authority ruling on the matter.
Sick raise government’s
temperature, again
After cutting the amount of sick benefit in half
in early May, a proposal submitted by the
government last Friday aims to reduce the
days spent on sick leave. The new legislation
would allow hospitals to examine those incapable of work out of turn if a check-up is necessary for a diagnosis or it has therapeutic
purposes.

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