What do Hungarians give a damn about?
What do Hungarians give a damn about? Not much it seems. The government can collude with opposition parties to rob ordinary Hungarians of their favourite radio stations, Roma and the Hungarian Guard can start a civil war, endless meetings can be held to decide which further cuts to make to public services, local mayors and officials can sell off historic properties to their friends... none of this matters much at all. On all of those topics just mentioned a maximum of 5% of the population gives a damn.
Still, at least 50% feel that the H1N1 may have something to do with them and 10% were interested in a triple murder case from early November. Apart from these, apathy reigns.
By political persuasion MSZP ('left') are three times more likely to be concerned about wider social and political factors than Fidesz ('right') supporters. Jobbik (far right) supporters seem most concerned about the Roma clashes and 'Rádiógate' - the replacement of the two favourite radio channels with consortiums close to Fidesz and MSZP.
n.b. Results come from research carried out by Századvég-Forsense.
http://hvg.hu/itthon/20091127_forsense_szazadveg_h1n1_uj_influenza.aspx?s=hl
Hungary and energy independence
According to this morning's HVG Orbán is looking to Russia to help Hungary achieve energy independence. The claim is made there that he met with Putin on Saturday during the United Russia party congress in St. Petersburg. He was invited to speak by duma speaker Boris Grizlov. http://hvg.hu/gazdasag/20091125_orban_orosz_energiafuggetlenseg.aspx
Energy independence is one of his favourite themes at the moment, which is not surprising given how little Gyurcsány did to exploit existing natural resources.
Still it is difficult to see how Orbán can argue that he is making progress towards energy independence when the South Stream pipeline agreements worked out by Gyurcsány will likely conflict with these aims - even if it isn't expected to be ready before 2015. South stream is a venture between Gazprom (Russia) and Eni (Italian), so I don't see much energy independence there. http://www.nytid.no/en/news/20090319/hungary-forges-closer-energy-ties-with-russia/
Persona non grata?
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