It took the Hungarian government months of increasing budget qualms to realise that it’s better to have an IMF umbrella than not to have one. Yet it appears that the realisation was theoretical.

We will probably never know for sure whether PM Viktor Orbán meant to say no to the agreement reached at the EU summit, but the major question for now is whether Orbán’s quick reversal heralds an actual willingness to enter into the fiscal union proposed by Germany and France.

With its two-thirds majority Fidesz dominates the present, with the Fundamental Laws supplanting the current Constitution it seeks to control the future, and now Fidesz seeks to make its view of history the definitive one as well. To this end, it has introduced a law on communist crimes and how belated justice might be achieved at least in some cas...

Fidesz’ electoral law is now almost complete and most of the crucial details have been submitted in a bill to Parliament. Most of these details reflect the trends we outlined a couple of weeks ago in our analysis of the bill’s rough draft. The most important novelty – and the one we focus on in our review below – is that Fidesz has also designed th...

With news about impending state default proliferating, the government has finally abandoned its stubborn refusal to talk to the IMF. For the time being, this has soothed markets and analysts alike, who were all concerned that by wedding itself to its anti-IMF stance, Fidesz would be unable to make this tough call even when it would offer the only w...

Hungary is headed for an extremely tough year when neither the budget nor GDP will likely meet the government’s already significantly reduced projections. Orbán and Fidesz insist that everything is all right, but their dogged refusal to acknowledge reality only serves to stoke fears that they are not on top of things.

Fidesz set out to turn Hungary into a low and simple tax country. Realising one of its central campaign promises, it introduced a flat income tax early in its term. With the reality of the declining economy and the budget crunch setting in, however, both low and simple are out the window.

Well-attended as civil rallies may be, in the long-run Fidesz can only be defeated at the ballot box. One of the prominent organisations behind the street demonstrations, 4K!, has drawn the appropriate conclusion and is turning into a political party. Others may follow.

Debt was one of the major issues this week, with several online publications pointing out that despite the government’s insistence that victories have been achieved on the debt-reduction front, the real numbers look disquieting. In major part due to the forint’s deprecation, the budget’s net total debt was at an all time high in September, official...

In Part II of our electoral law analysis we take a look at the more technical aspects of the new election law, analysing how changes to electoral system will affect seat distribution, voting behaviour and future majorities. We argue that Fidesz tinkers with the system in a way that will increase the likelihood of emerging victorious from a battle w...