Jan 13th 2012, 17:53 by A.L.B. | BUDAPEST
THE honeymoon was brief and halting, and now it is over. Tamás Fellegi, Hungary’s chief negotiator, met Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, yesterday in Washington DC for talks about financial aid. They do not appear to have gone very well. Here's what Ms Lagarde had to say:
I indicated that, before the Fund can determine when and whether to start negotiations for a Stand-By Arrangement, it will need to see tangible steps that show the authorities’ strong commitment to engage on all the policy issues that are relevant to macroeconomic stability. Support of the European authorities and institutions would also be critical for successful discussions of a new program.”
Decoded, this means two things. One, the key phrase is “tangible steps”, which means that no funds will be forthcoming unless Hungary changes its erratic economic policies, such as nationalising pension funds to help plug the budget deficit or imposing crisis taxes on foreign investors.
Two, and perhaps more significant, Hungary will have to meet the European Union’s three conditions before it can receive any IMF assistance: changing the recent laws on the central bank; reconsidering or reversing judicial reforms that are forcing hundreds of judges into early retirement and that hand enormous power to a friend of the family of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán; and guaranteeing the independence of the data ombudsman.
Mr Orbán has said that although there may be room for negotiation on some points, the EU has no jurisdiction over judges’ retirement ages. Nor were threats to extend the EU’s excessive deficit procedure against Hungary justified. The country’s budget-deficit target of 2.5% of GDP this year would make it the EU’s eighth-best performer, he said.
Meanwhile Zsigmond Járai, a former president of the central bank who also served as finance minister under Mr Orbán, has added to the chorus of criticism of the government’s erratic decision-making. After resigning as head of the Budget Council, Mr Járai told Világgazdaság, a financial daily, that the government needed new economic policies to reassure investors and the IMF.
Still, if the hotseat gets too much for Mr Orbán there may soon be an attractive job vacancy. Hungary's president, Pal Schmitt—dubbed "Mr Rubber-Stamp" by some for his swift approval of any piece of government legislation that reaches his desk—is facing calls to resign after a detailed report in HVG, an economic weekly, alleged that he plagiarised his university dissertation.
HVG’s journalists claimed that Mr Schmitt had copied large parts of his dissertation, entitled "Analysis of the Programme of the Modern Olympic Games", from a similar work by Nikolae Georgiev, a Bulgarian sports historian. Mr Schmitt's submitted his work to the College of Physical Education in 1992, and it was graded summa cum laude. Hungarian Spectrum, a liberal blog, has a detailed discussion of the affair.
Mr Schmitt's office strongly denied the accusations, saying the fact that the dissertation's high grade "speaks for itself". The president acknowledged that he had known Mr Georgiev well, and said the two men had co-operated on their research.
Last year a similar scandal brought down Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg, the highly regarded German defence minister. The University of Bayreuth stripped him of his doctorate after he admitted substantially (although inadvertent) copying from other sources.
Under normal circumstances Mr Schmitt would probably survive, even if the allegations were proven. Resignations from public life, and the concomitant loss of salary and privileges, are extremely rare.
That is unless one is engineered. Budapest conspiracy theorists are feverishly whispering that moving from the prime ministerial to the presidential office might allow Mr Orbán to dodge any backtracking demanded by Brussels and the subsequent loss of face.
Now that Mr Orbán has finished much of his work rebuilding Hungary in his own image and placing his numerous nominees in office, why not take a break from the grind of daily politics and remodel himself as the father of the nation. So goes the theory, anyway. All weekend whimsy, of course—and doubtless no more likely than an economy minister deciding to declare war on the IMF even as the country asks for a bail-out.
Eastern approaches deals with the economic, political, security and cultural aspects of the eastern half of the European continent. It incorporates the long-running "Europe.view" weekly column. The blog is named after the wartime memoirs of the British soldier Sir Fitzroy Maclean.
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Interesting how Lagarde's coded language actually needs an interpreter to be understood...
I'm utterly disgusted with Hungarian politics especially with right wing parties.
Orban did nothing but try to destabilise the country while he was in opposition for 8 years. He did not only continuously attack the governments but also the main drivers of the Hungarian economy growth i.e. multinationals, foreign and speculative investors, etc. Nothing was good. He wanted reinvestigate all government contracts and make many invalid. Who benefited from such a move? Not the Hungarians as investors demanded a risk premium because of possible future troubles.
Property tax? No Good. Opening healthcare to the private investors? No good. Symbolic university fee (1998), no good (Now he makes ½ of the students full paid instead)
But he wasted no time to nationalise private superannuation funds to balance his budget.
Let's face it Orban and all of his supporters are COMMUNISTS, they just don't know it.
Orban is doing exactly what Rakosi (Stalinist communist leader in the 1950s) did: consolidating power, getting rid of democratic institutions, saying something and do the opposite, blaming the west for all the troubles and believing that opening to the east is the solution.
Not to mention "communists" in the late 80s sit down with the opposition and agreed to hand over their power to democracy. In 1989 the "communist" parliament passed all bills that had been agreed with groups with no real power to clear the way to a peaceful tradition to democracy. But it was no good for Orban so after 22 years "communists" are still the biggest problem. Let's face it in the previous system it was very hard to achieve anything without joining the party. So many did. The only luck Orban has is that he never worked in his life so he didn't have to.
The sad thing is many Hungarians have no idea how a healthy economy works. They want extreme job security, a lot of state benefits, low retirement age, etc.
My father a big supporter of Jobbik (far right populist party) he is a big anticommunist even though he lives like a leech on the society.
He retired when he was around 53 (now 68), yet he is fully convinced that he worked more than enough. He was a fireman at the airport (not a single fire).
He ran a small family shop after that for several years, never paid tax, yet he hates multinationals which just come to Hungary to take advantage of government subsidises and leave after 5 years (most don't). When I asked him whether he leaves his money in the same bank if another bank offers a better return he said "of course not".
He hates the previous technocrat prime mister because he apparently stole everything to become rich and blames him the vows of some farmers which didn't get paid when one of his investment companies collapsed. When I said bankruptcy and limited liability is an integral part of capitalism he said it doesn't have to be, Hungary could have the same system as Switzerland (apparently not a capitalist country).
And so on.
While studying in a Hungarian university I was shocked how many young Hungarians have extreme nationalistic views. They blamed jews for everything and they wanted border revisions to get back old territories. It is totally agains European norms which moves towards exactly the opposite (demolition of borders). These people very hostile against bordering countries with ethnic Hungarians which is not good for the economy either. According to many studies Hungarians are one of the most unhappy people in the world which makes sense.
The main problem is that many smart Hungarians (actually whoever can) just leave the country to escape all this so the rest just becoming more and more extreme.
Note: I'm a Hungarian who moved to Australia 6 years ago.
I also live in Australia and can agree with every word.
Actually I was quite optimistic about Hungary until my last visit there three years ago. I was probably the last optimistic person. It seems that everyone with some sense and ambition has already left. Hungary has no future with the population it has.
If you are young, independent and self reliant the only advice I can give you is to get out.
Australia has its own problems, but of course not on this level.
The Hungarian politics is a true reflection of the society.
The society is just plain corrupt. It's not just the politicians but the whole society!
It is sickening when the president (who should be the moral leader of the country) thinks it is OK to copy/paste 200+ pages in his 225 page PhD thesis and his supporters defend him because "everybody" does the same. It is just sad.
Going back to my father, he blames "communists" to get many state assets for cheap, whereas it was OK to buy hectares of land in prime location (next to Budapest and the Airport) for a few dollars on state compensation auctions because they all "agreed" not to bid so everything was sold for the lowest price. A few weeks later he was offered 1000x more privately, but he didn't want to sell it for cheap.
Orban government missed the point. It's not about reducing the taxes here or there by a few percent, it's all about business confidence and curing the red tape.
I helped and Irish company to set up a R&D centre in Budapest which grew from 4 people to 70 in a few years. They were shocked by red tape, they wanted avoid hiring admin staff but the end they gave in and hired extra staff. But it doesn't stop there, they were continuously harassed by the tax agency because they didn't understand the business (IC development, no physical product was created). It also shocked them that hiring a 45 year old means an extra 15 days of paid leave (hello 50+ unemployment). At the end they left the country, more precisely, the company was bought and most people went to the parent company to either France or the UK.
Here in Australia I set up my business in 15 minutes online… No harassment, I pay my taxes and they leave me alone.
Yes the problems in Australia are excessive credit, too many people in finance, real estate, sales and marketing but society is sound.
I don't think the communists sold state assets for cheap. Normally the government wants to get as much money as they can. It's the assets they were selling that were not worth much. At the end of communism 95% of Hungarian companies were losing money big time. There was bad infrastructure, poor management, uneducated workforce. Where exactly was the value? There was a tender and whoever offered the most got it. If it was really so cheap FIDESZ could have bought it themselves.
I left Hungary 25 years ago so can't comment on the red tape. What really shocked me in my last visit was that even educated people were totally ignorant and believed any senseless nazi propaganda. Hungary has no future in my opinion and I wouldn't invest a nickle there. Once the forint collapses foreign investors who bought real estate there will be looking at 80-90% losses. They are already close to 50%.
I have seen this happen from within the borders: I came here in 1996 and immediately had a high opinion about the hungarian people (almost all my friend and aqcaintances are Hungarian, I speak the language, know the culture) - I admired them for their intelligence, open midnedness and inventiveness (see list of Hungarian inventions).
Since then, something has changed. People, copying the behaviour of the main political parties, are now divided in two camps fighting each other, more xenophobic and much less tolerant (just look at comments in forums like these). I really hope this change is reversible.
I suggest re-reading the article and replacing the word Hungary with, e.g. the UK. Suddenly it doesn't sound so outrageous: Prime Minister wants to bring stability to the banking system, wishes to reform pension policy etc. I think its a bit rich that the EU is lecturing on fiscal and democratic issues. Given the free range international companies have been hitherto given in C&E Europe, a little reigning in is probably sensible, although unpleasant to international buiness. And international business should not try to get its own back via the EU. Such heavy-handed policy does not work in Hungary which has had a lot of experience in dealing with 'foreign guests' over the past decades. Maggie also stood up for Britain. Good luck Victor!
A.L.B. is spreading bullsh*t about Hungary - whose interest ? - better look for a reliable source
There is now place to explanations; nobody can change the meaning of law. See:
"1997. évi LXXXII. törvény a magánnyugdíjról és a magánnyugdíjpénztárakról
5. § (4) A pénztártag követelése - a tulajdonlás elve szerint - a pénztártag tulajdona, amely az e törvényben foglaltak szerint örökölhető, illetve erre vonatkozóan kedvezményezett jelölhető. A pénztártag követeléséért a pénztár, illetve az e törvényben meghatározott feltételek szerint az Alap és a központi költségvetés tartozik helytállni."
Excuse me because I will not translate it to English. Nobody understand this law in another way; neither could the contribution court - that is why they did not make a decision. It was not financed by debt, it was paid in by the pension fund members, and the state made lots of different kinds of debt meantime. Now the state uses this money to fill the gap of the low one tier tax. If this money was given to the pension fund members - and so it became their property - it can't be taken back simply saying "I changed my mind", even if you are in need of money. But of course FIDESZ and its fans think something else about law.
If Hungary doesn't like the terms attached to the loans they don't have to accept it. Who said they needed to roll over all bonds? They can just spend less. Their government is big enough and there is plenty of room to cut. No reason for a default. How about living within your means and eat what you produce?
And if they don't like the EU rules they can get out of there too. There are countries doing fine without EU membership.
Enough of whinging and blaming others for your troubles.
"How about living within your means and eat what you produce?"
Martin, Hungary can not live within its means, because everything have been stolen from us. All factories have been sold to foreign multinational companies, who mostly closed them, since they can produce at their home country or elsewhere. They really just wanted market here. There is no production in the country. Small hungarian businesses can not compete because banks (all are foreign) do not give credits, plus multinationals kill all small businesses.
There are no jobs, everything is sold to foreigners and the country is left to rot.
The same situation in agriculture. Half of the land in the country is in the hand of Austrians and Germans, and guess who (the small Middle Eastern-Mediterranean country that is behind every misery inflicted on this country, you know they want our land and water because they have got a tiny problem with their nrighbours at home).
There is no way to fix this system, the only way is to get out of it. But we are too small and weak a nation to break the power of those who are running this system.
"Martin, Hungary can not live within its means, because everything have been stolen from us."
This is just loser talk. There are lots of countries that started from a much much worse position: Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea. Those countries had nothing and in addition had to fight wars and waste enormous sums on military. Hungary didn't even have a war.
"the small Middle Eastern-Mediterranean country that is behind every misery inflicted on this country"
Israel gained nothing from Hungary. They bought overpriced properties in a country with no future and lost at least 50% on everything. This is just pure nazi propaganda. If that's the way you think you deserve what you got.
The zionist bankers want to exterminate my nation by financial means, and you are saying we deserve it.
Do you think that the poor nation is nazi that is being wiped out, not those evil bankers who are carrying out this satanic plan, the Talmudnazis.
I have nothing to tell you after such a cynical and evil remark.
You are a truly racist and ignorant, and an evil person.
"The zionist bankers want to exterminate my nation by financial means, and you are saying we deserve it."
So why would they want to do it? Not to mention that there is no Israeli bank operating in Hungary. All banks are Austrian, German, Swiss, Italian. Where are the Jews exactly? And how would they do it after they bought up worthless Hungarian real estate at inflated prices? If someone bought my toaster for $100,000 I may say they were stupid but definitely didn't try to destroy me financially.
Let me see if I understand your thinking: First you killed the Jews, confiscated their property, then you sold it back to them at inflated prices and now you blame them for destroying Hungary? Well by this logic it's pretty obvious that I'm the racist ignorant evil person.
THe banks you listed are all in the hand of Zionist bankers living in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.
It is not the "chocolate factory worker Swiss Jürgen" or the "Italian pizzaiolo Giovanni" who are the owners of those banks. You know it well.
What you call "worthless Hungarian estate" is the best agricultural land in Europe, located on the most abundant thermal water reserve on Earth.
You are saying "you killed Jews, confiscated their property", which is so untrue, not even my father lived during WW2.
Hungary was the ONLY nation on the European continent where Jews were saved, the Hungarian National Army protected the Budapest ghetto from Germans, saving the entire Jewish population of Budapest.
And now the international bankers are coming back, and this is how they pay us. They bought up the country, made us debt-sdleves in our own land, and are exterminating the population by financial means.
THe banks you listed are all in the hand of Zionist bankers living in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.
It is not the "chocolate factory worker Swiss Jürgen" or the "Italian pizzaiolo Giovanni" who are the owners of those banks. You know it well.
What you call "worthless Hungarian estate" is the best agricultural land in Europe, located on the most abundant thermal water reserve on Earth.
You are saying "you killed Jews, confiscated their property", which is so untrue, not even my father lived during WW2.
Hungary was the ONLY nation on the European continent where Jews were saved, the Hungarian National Army protected the Budapest ghetto from Germans, saving the entire Jewish population of Budapest.
And now the international bankers are coming back, and this is how they pay us. They bought up the country, made us debt-slaves in our own land, and are exterminating the population by financial means.
"THe banks you listed are all in the hand of Zionist bankers living in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy"
Those banks are all publicly listed companies. Where did you get the information that they are controlled by Zionists? Private banks had more sense than to invest in Hungary. To me it's pretty obvious that the public in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy owns those banks, mostly via pension funds. But you are probably too stupid to even understand the term 'public company'
By the way, regarding the sold state assets: It never belonged to the government anyway. Those assets were stolen from their legal owners by the communists. So basically you are complaining that the government didn't get a good price for what it stole? How about giving it back to the people it took them from???
"the Hungarian National Army protected the Budapest ghetto from Germans, saving the entire Jewish population of Budapest"
Really? So why is there a memorial on the banks of the Danube in Budapest where the Hungarian nazis shot 15,000 Jews into the river? I guess it's a Zionist conspiracy too.
"And now the international bankers are coming back"
I thought the problem was that foreign investor are not coming back, stopped buying Hungarian junk assets at inflated prices and therefore the current funding crisis.
All banks in HUngary are controlled by Zionists. Everyone knows that. And the UK in ran by Zionist bankers too, it is in the pocket of the Rothschhild family, including all politicians, the royal familiy, large businesses, the whole City, banks, real estates, even you are their property.
"Those assets were stolen from their legal owners by the communists", here probably you mean Zionists who acted like communists all from the same origin, like the Hungarian communist leaders Kun (born Cohn), Rakosi (born Rosenfeld), Aczel (born Appel), Peter (born Eisenberger), and I could continue the list of these evil Zionist murderers who are responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of Hungarians died in gulag.
"memorial on the banks of the Danube in Budapest where the Hungarian nazis shot 15,000 Jews into the river? " They were 153 people, check wikipedia for example. Some the they were traitors who during the Soviet siege collaborated with the enemy. Their number has apparently inflated to 15,000, probably due to the immense business potential.
"I guess it's a Zionist conspiracy too." Probably this is your only trueful statement.
"And the UK in ran by Zionist bankers too, it is in the pocket of the Rothschhild family"
I guess Richard Branson, Lakshmi Mittal have no influence in UK finance, only the Jews. The Rothschilds are a small private bank now. With no real influence. Not much different from any of the private banks in Switzerland.
"Zionists who acted like communists"
Those "Zionists" you mentioned never recognized Israel and helped Palestinian terrorists every way they could to kill Israeli civilians. While on the subject, Kun wasn't even Jewish. His mother was Christian. Just another piece of nazi propaganda.
"They were 153 people, check wikipedia for example"
I don't know who wrote that article but my grandmother and grandfather said that the Danube was red from blood. Only 50% of the Jews in Budapest survived. There were 800K Jews in Hungary before the war and 100K after.
You are obviously a delusional nazi suffering from some major mental illness. You haven't presented a single valid argument except "It's the Jews, it's the Jews". As I said earlier, you deserve what you got. Isten nem bottal jar.
Martin, the Rotschilds own the UK, better if you get over it. What you call small private bank hides the largest private fund behind, the Rotschild familiy trust, estimated 500 trillion USD. All FED banks are held by the Rothschilds, practically US dollar is their private currency used by Americans.
Your argument is "nazi this, nazi that", and the usual Holomyths: The Danube was red from blood...Only 100 K survived... how about those hundreds of thousands in Israel (250K of Hungarian origin), and 6 million in the USA (of 0.5 million of Hungarian origin)???? They have been resurrected from their ashes?
No other nation suffered as much as the HUngarians in the 20th century. But we forgive, because we are a people oF God (Joisten). This is the difference with the "chosen people" (of Devil or Yahve) who are always crying for revenge ("you deserve what you got"- as you said), and are full of hatred.
Everywhere you go people hate the followers of the Satan, the Germans are bad, the Poles are bad, the Hungarians are bad, the Palestinians are bad, the Arabs are bad. Is it not possible that not the whole world is wrong but you?
Martin, Martin... turn away from Devil. Think why everyone hates those who follow the dark and evil tribal godess, Yahve. It is never too late. I forgive you and recommend you to convert and search for God.
You pretty much managed to convince me that you are insane. There is no point in having a discussion with someone who is out of his mind.
Maybe Hungary just has a higher incidence of mental illness and that's why there are so many spreading nazi propaganda. Thanks for the advice but you'd better see a doctor if you are not being treated already. Maybe during treatment you would also find out how much Jews contributed to psychiatry.
You are brave to try, but I don't think it makes much sense trying to comment the posts of guest-iilnwjn...
Fascinating comments. It is sad how conspiracy theories are distracting from how to make Hungary competitive and successful.
I hope that we Hungarians we manage to get out of the present 'new world order', where debt-slavery is forced on nations, communities and individuals by greedy usurper bankers (and their institutions, such as EU, IMF, Worldbank).
What the Economist calls a "democracy" is the worst tyranny in history. We (the entire humanity) are suffering under an invisible but always present money dictatorship, that is inflicted on us by the few banker families who are hiding behind international banks, multinational corporations and the system of useless global financial bureaucracy.
The "prosperity" brought by the European Union is well visible here in Hungary. Our country where living standard was one of the highest in the developed world before the fall of socialism, today looks like an impoverished 3rd world country in Central America after a natural disaster. Hungary, once the richest East European nation today is plagued by homelessness, unemployment and an apocalyptic poverty. Shame on the EU, IMF, Worldbank and the present evil world order.
Wow... talking about blaming someone else! You blame practically the whole world! Well, that's easy. Now I blame you for all my troubles, just for fun. Give me back my stolen bicycle at once! ... I feel better already.
You wrote "debt-slavery is forced on nations": how? Who forces nations to have a budget deficit in the first place?
You twist my words. I do not blame the whole world, I was talking about the present evil world order forced on us by the few bankers who made (or trying to make) the entire mankind their debt-slaves.
How they force entire nations into debt-slavery? They used to do it by financing wars, usually both sides, so whoever won they (these banker families) always got their prize.
Today they work in a different way. Just look what they are doing with Hungary. If you do not want their money (IMF loan) they will wage a financial and propaganda war against that nation. The government that resists suddenly becomes "nazi, fascist, anti-semite, populist, dictatorial". They attack the country's currency (just like in the case of Hungarian forint recently), they finance the destabilisation of the country, uprisings, civil wars (they did this in Lybia, a country that had not take any loans from IMF). This is how the present world order works.
"Schmitt (unlike his Bulgarian colleauge) failed to provide references."
Either show me a reference or inline citation in the work of the Bulgarian, or admit that you have made that up. Show just a single shred of proof that the Bulgarian provided inline citations or exact references for anything.
About the daughter, the source I linked is newer, January 14th
http://www.magyarhirlap.hu/kulfold/a_schmitt_pal_elleni_tamadas_tavaly_i...
and absolutely contradicts what you are saying. Not to mention that the daughter was not a member of the International Olympic Committee. Schmitt and the Bulgarian guy were.
"and absolutely contradicts what you are saying. Not to mention that the daughter was not a member of the International Olympic Committee. Schmitt and the Bulgarian guy were."
You should decide whether we care about what the daugther is saying. It's not exactly fair that as long as she says what you want her to say you believe her, once she doesn't she becomes unimportant.
The article from Magyar Hirlap doesn't seem to contradict what I am saying, since all it has from the daughter is an out of context citation. (Why do we even believe they talked to her?) I linked a full interview from HVG. Bulgarian TV confirmed the same.
""Schmitt (unlike his Bulgarian colleauge) failed to provide references."
Either show me a reference or inline citation in the work of the Bulgarian, or admit that you have made that up. Show just a single shred of proof that the Bulgarian provided inline citations or exact references for anything."
This is what was said by the people who judged Schmitt's work in 1992.
I repeat: show me a reference or inline citation in the work of the Bulgarian. The Bulgarian guy. Show me a reference in his Bulgarian work. You claimed there are references there. Yet you cannot link them or show them. Therefor I conclude that you made your statement up.
And just to clarify some of the "proof" is idiotic. For example both people have written that on the 29th of November 1913 The International Fencing Federation was founded. That is some good proof! I mean surely Schmitt should have written 1924 December 22 to make his work different! You cannot claim ownership of historical facts first of all. Obviously both are citing the historical record as found in some archive.
Next you will say that random Bulgarian guy has ownership of historical facts? Maybe he invented the date when the IFF was founded. The other information is similarly "valuable", like what happened in certain IOC meetings and what are certain sports. I see absolutely nothing that could be considered the own research of the Bulgarian and not a part of the historical record as recorded by the IOC or basic facts (Fencing: is it really done by both men and women? shocking.) You see when the IOC held meetings on these issues they wrote down the contents of said meetings. So I presume that instead of getting a time machine and personally researching these facts, Bulgarian guy used these records and translated them into french.
"I repeat: show me a reference or inline citation in the work of the Bulgarian. The Bulgarian guy. Show me a reference in his Bulgarian work. You claimed there are references there. Yet you cannot link them or show them. Therefor I conclude that you made your statement up."
Once again, I quoted his daughter and the people who judged Schmitt's dissertation. I think that's enough on this matter.
"And just to clarify some of the "proof" is idiotic. For example both people have written that on the 29th of November 1913 The International Fencing Federation was founded. That is some good proof! I mean surely Schmitt should have written 1924 December 22 to make his work different! You cannot claim ownership of historical facts first of all. Obviously both are citing the historical record as found in some archive.
Next you will say that random Bulgarian guy has ownership of historical facts? Maybe he invented the date when the IFF was founded. The other information is similarly "valuable", like what happened in certain IOC meetings and what are certain sports. I see absolutely nothing that could be considered the own research of the Bulgarian and not a part of the historical record as recorded by the IOC or basic facts (Fencing: is it really done by both men and women? shocking.) You see when the IOC held meetings on these issues they wrote down the contents of said meetings. So I presume that instead of getting a time machine and personally researching these facts, Bulgarian guy used these records and translated them into french."
It seems that from the "Schmitt and Georgiev worked together on this work" excuse you have now moved onto, the "they just copied the same stuff" excuse. Which one are you now choosing or are they by any chance both true? The problems with your new excuse are numerous:
(1) Since the Bulgarian guys thing came 5 years before Schmitt's and Schmitt knew about it (it's listed in the bibliography of his dissertation, though incorrectly!, further note about the bibliography: the professors who judged Schmitt's work in 1992 reported back then that his bibliography could not have been enough to produce the work) then Schmitt did not produce any original work (as the Office of the President is now claiming), which means he should not have been awarded a doctorate.
(2) Moving beyond this concern, there are multiple parts in his work which are translations, though they are unrelated to the factual part. Such as:
-the contents (for example, in the second chapter called "Analysis of the Program of Individual Sports" and the third chapter called "Analysis of the Program of Team Sports" the sports are listed in exactly the same order)
-on the 91st page, talking about the history of fencing, there is a direct translation, though this could have hardly come from documents of the IOC
and so on...
(3) If things came from documents of the IOC, then Schmitt should have made references to those and put them in quotation marks, as that counts as plagiarism too.
Just to have some more interesting examples for point (2): the conclusion is word by word the same too. Do you think that somehow the concluding remarks came from some IOC document too? Then really Schmitt had nothing new to say. Or did they work together with Mr Georgiev on the conclusion too? Or that's just a coincidence?
For example: http://hvg.hu/itthon/20120119_Schmitt_Heinemann_doktori_masolas
on the plagiarism affair. i wouldn't say that these are merely allegations. the fact of plagiarism is so apparent one has to wonder why schmitt didn't even make any efforts at the time at least to make it more glaring.
here you can see extracts from schmitt's thesis and from the original book in French:
http://hvg.hu/document/SchmittPal.pdf
even the table of contents is _identical_. amazing.
My guess is that Viktor Orban's first love is power and therefor will not give up without a fight.
By the way does anyone know about the article in "Scotland on Sunday"? It is making quite some waves in the Hungarian press, for example:
http://mno.hu/kulfold/megdobbento-velemeny-a-magyar-alaptorvenyrol-1043725
Well, I am happy that Scotland on Sunday likes our new constitution. Until they become a leading paper, I will stick to Le Figaro, FAZ, NZZ and The Economist, all of which are conservative and have been a tad more negative.
To take it a step further:
Do you think Jobbklikk and Mandiner are left-wing outlets attacking Schmitt?
http://mandiner.hu/cikk/20120113_jobbklikk_szerkesztoseg_szerintunk
Is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung one too?
http://hetivalasz.hu/vilag/lanya-szerint-egyedul-dolgozott-44872/
One is also left to wonder why you are not anxious about the presidency being given to someone with such clear links to the former communist regie. I certainly am, this is a step back after Mr Goncz, who spent years in prison after 1956, after Mr Madl, a knowledgeable conservative lawyer and Mr Solyom, whose role was instrumental in the democratic changes of 1989, the beginnings of Hungarian constitutional jurisprudence (under his chairmanship of the Constitutional Court between 1990 and 1998), and who is also well-known to be conservative. Schmitt is nothing but an idiotic careerist, who was put in place because Orban was afraid that Solyom is too smart and moral to remain silent when he is screwing up.
Daniel please be more careful with judging the past presidents. Remarkably little is known about the recent past in Hungary. Let me present to you and others reading this the case of Kakukk.
Kakukk was a communist agent in the leadership of SZDSZ, who reported to the communist authorities the complete plans of SZDSZ including planned the 1989 Nagy Imre burial plans. We know that Kakukk was the member of the highest SZDSZ leadership as of October 1989. To this day we DO NOT know, who he was only that he existed and that his reports, submitted as codename Kakukk were found.
http://index.hu/belfold/2009/06/16/ki_lehetett_a_kakukk_az_szdsz-ben/
The leaders of the SZDSZ were the following at the time:
Göncz Árpád, Iványi Gábor, Kőszeg Ferenc, Magyar Bálint, Mécs Imre, Solt Ottilia, Szabó Miklós, Szentiványi István, Vass István.
One of them was the communist agent, Kakukk, but to this day, we do not know, which one.
Another source claims that Kakukk could be someone on a little bit larger list:
Göncz Árpád, Iványi Gábor, Kőszeg Ferenc, Magyar Bálint, Mécs Imre, Solt Ottilia, Szabó Miklós, Szent-Iványi István, Vass István
Demszky Gábor, Haraszti Miklós, Kis János, Kőszeg Ferenc, Magyar Bálint, Mécs Imre, Pető Iván, Rajk László, Szabó Miklós, Tamás Gáspár Miklós, Tölgyessy Péter
http://konzervatorium.blog.hu/2009/06/17/az_szdsz_kakukkja
I would just love to know, who he was. And why are we not allowed to learn his name after all this time?
"And why are we not allowed to learn his name after all this time?"
A point of agreement between us. I would love to have the state security documents made public like they were in Germany. But I am afraid since Mr Orban is in power now, one would have to ask him that. But how does this add anything to the issue with Schmitt?
I do not want to compare Göncz (possible Kakukk) to anyone let alone Schmitt, before that issue is settled and historical research proves conclusively the identity of Kakukk.
To me even the possibility of being Kakukk is a much bigger issue than anything with Schmitt. Schmitt was working together with a friend of his from the Olympic Committee. Where they were both members where they both had access to the same non-public internal documents, minutes of meetings, background analiysis etc. Of course the HVG (which shouldn't be called a Hungarian paper as it is foreign owned), made sure that the friend in question was dead. It would be embarrassing if he was alive: he could put an end to this story within a few minutes.
But once again they checked every angle before releasing the story and double checked that the person in question was long dead...
"I do not want to compare Göncz (possible Kakukk) to anyone let alone Schmitt, before that issue is settled and historical research proves conclusively the identity of Kakukk.
To me even the possibility of being Kakukk is a much bigger issue than anything with Schmitt. Schmitt was working together with a friend of his from the Olympic Committee. Where they were both members where they both had access to the same non-public internal documents, minutes of meetings, background analiysis etc. Of course the HVG (which shouldn't be called a Hungarian paper as it is foreign owned), made sure that the friend in question was dead. It would be embarrassing if he was alive: he could put an end to this story within a few minutes.
But once again they checked every angle before releasing the story and double checked that the person in question was long dead..."
Well, first of all Schmitt had high political positions before 1990 and also worked as the director a hotel. There is zero doubt that he wrote reports to state security.
The daugther of the Bulgarian guy in question said just the opposite of what you just said and what the Office of the President claimed.
Do you actually believe yourself when you say this? The Bulgarian guy published his stuff 5 years before Schmitt published his dissertation. You are simply neglecting several questions: the two documents are almost word by word the same, that would have to be a rather huge coincidence. Schmitt (unlike his Bulgarian colleauge) failed to provide references. His dissertation is full of grammar and spelling mistakes and did not satisfy the requirements of a dissertation as it was pointed out by the dissertation committee too. This stuff just does not add up.
"The daugther of the Bulgarian guy in question said just the opposite of what you just said "
Ahh yes the daughter. See this article. "My father cooperated with Schmitt"
http://www.magyarhirlap.hu/kulfold/a_schmitt_pal_elleni_tamadas_tavaly_i...
"The Bulgarian guy published his stuff 5 years before Schmitt published his dissertation."
Not true. The Bulgarian's "stuff" was not actually published, it was made in 'two' copies which he typed on a typewriter. What he published was a book in 1996 almost ten years later.
"Schmitt (unlike his Bulgarian colleauge) failed to provide references."
Now you are just making stuff up aren't you? As far as I know the Bulgarian's work is not available online, if it is please feel free to link it.
Dude, seriously. You believe that it just so happens that something typed in 1987 by some Bulgarian guy is word by word the same as something written by someone else 5 year later, and it had not been copied?
That's a massive stretch of imagination.
About the Bulgarian guy's daughter, here is an interview with her which confirms what I said and contradicts what you said:
http://hvg.hu/itthon/20120112_malina_georgiev_schmitt_pal
About the references, see here, the opinions of the people who judged his work. They confirm both the lack of references and the abundance of spelling errors:
http://hvg.hu/itthon/20120112_Schmitt_doktori_opponensnek
Schmitt would not pass if he were to get a PhD today:
http://hvg.hu/itthon/20120112_schmitt_plagium_szakdolgozat
And finaly, here is some first-hand stuff, a pdf with quotes from the Bulgarian guy's work and from Schmitt's dissertation:
http://hvg.hu/document/SchmittPal.pdf
Let me just ask you this: if nothing wrong was done by Schmitt (so his work has proper references, does not contain spelling and grammatical errors and the liek), he would have a very simple way out, he should post his whole dissertation on his website. Why does he not do that?
you can see some extracts here: http://hvg.hu/document/SchmittPal.pdf
does the fact that the table of contents (!!) of the two works are ****completely identical**** seem suspicious at all to you? isn't it a BIT strange?
have you ever seen two books which are unrelated, by separate authors with the same goddamned table of contents???
all extracts shown are word-to-word translations with some abridgments. what are you trying to prove exactly? the guy is a petty thief.
"Like tell me what's the deal on President Schmitt, who was a communist before 1989 and has been messing up badly since being elected in 2010."
The "deal" is that Schmitt supports the present reforms in Hungary. (A BBC article, "Are Hungary's reforms a step too far?" is worth to read on the topic). Since Schmitt supports the reforms he became a target for left-wing attacks. There is also something that just makes the left go berserk: Schmitt is an Olympic hero with two gold medals several world championship medals etc. A former member of the European Parliament and a former vice president of the European Parliament. In other words he is a somebody and that just makes a lot of nobodys mad as hell.
Well, I am not sure how being good at sports qualifies one to be a competent president. I think having a law degree, knowledge of constitutional law and similar stuff would go a long way in this.
The fact that Mr Schmitt has signed into law every single act of Parliament, yet several of them were later partially striked down by the Constitutional Court is a good indication of his understanding on these matters.
A familiarity with the basic rules of the Hungarian language (especially if one is so keen on making the protection of our language the focus of his presidential program) would be helful too.
It seems that he plagiarized his doctoral dissertation: the smaller problem is that this is a crime, the bigger one is that it makes it hard to have any faith in him.
Okay, let's be clear before we go any further: do you think he plagiarized his dissertation?
Just a bit more on the CHF debts.
We truly have a great problem since many people could become homeless and the government should help them. But with the policy they are implementing, they are helping the wealthy and middle classes at the expense of the poor, while messing with private property and private contracts. It's just one example of the incompetence of the Orban cabinet.
Good Morning my Jewish brother Prinz.You haven't answer my previous question..Let me than repeat : "does your father was a part of communist establishment in Hungary? I hope you have enough personal integrity to face this question..
"Good Morning my Jewish brother Prinz.You haven't answer my previous question..Let me than repeat : "does your father was a part of communist establishment in Hungary? I hope you have enough personal integrity to face this question.."
Sorry, haven't seen this question.
The answer is no.
If you are interested in my family's involvement with the communist regime, I have to refer you to Wikipedia: http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prinz_Gyula
I keep thinking, why Daniel Prinz is writing these long comments, and how he has time for that.
Once he mentioned that he is studying in the USA politology.
I would not be surprised if he returns to Hungary and will work for some of the post-communist/liberal "think-tanks". I can even imagine that they are now paying his studies.
In fact, this is one of the reasons for such attacks. The left in Hungary has an incredible apparatus on a low level propaganda. They bring out all kinds of nonsense, for example about the doctorate of the of Schmitt. The point here is that the main aim is to bring these abroad. Of course, no-one can check the claim, etc. And, at the moment, this is not the most important thing.
Then, when they get the power, they cannot govern.
In the future, the biggest problem will be that this very big apparatus of "left"-wing political "think-tanks" (sort of resurrection of political propaganda units during the socialism), with people would could not do any other job, will go on by inertia, at least until these people retire.
One or two such people more, and Economist will run into disk storage problems.
Bilboko:
"I keep thinking, why Daniel Prinz is writing these long comments, and how he has time for that.
Once he mentioned that he is studying in the USA politology.
I would not be surprised if he returns to Hungary and will work for some of the post-communist/liberal "think-tanks". I can even imagine that they are now paying his studies."
Interesting hypothesis, but sadly false.
I am studying Economics, and my scholarship is paid for by the university I am attending. Your concern about how I have time for this is not unreasonable, I did take a break from commenting on some other articles about Hungary before this one (I think three of them), since I am on holiday in Hungary and also have some work to do. By the way, the answer to I have the time, is that I enjoy debating with people :-)
"In fact, this is one of the reasons for such attacks. The left in Hungary has an incredible apparatus on a low level propaganda. They bring out all kinds of nonsense, for example about the doctorate of the of Schmitt. The point here is that the main aim is to bring these abroad. Of course, no-one can check the claim, etc. And, at the moment, this is not the most important thing."
Well, I thought there was plenty of evidence in the HVG article which claimed that Mr Schmitt plagiarized. And if Mr Schmitt has evidence to the contrary he can always post it on his website. Or if you have any arguments, perhaps you don't mind sharing them with us.
I am also not too sure why you assume that I am liberal or communist, considering the fact that I was happy about Fidesz coming into power, and even worked for the present cabinet during the Summer of 2010.
In any case, namecalling instead of arguments is not that productive.
When I first started reading the comment section there were 35 comments they were mostly thoughtful comments pointing out mistakes in the article. Then the next day there were 100 comments. Then today there are 88 comments. It should have increased and their number decreased! What happened to the rest of the comments??
When you read the first page, the earlier comments which pointed to mistakes in the article, almost all disappeared! Censorship?
And now what we find is almost all, the comments of "Daniel Prinz" A person who is according his own words a person of "Jewish origin, living in the United States". At least half of all comments are written by this person. And while other comments are deleted his keeps increasing! What is going on here?
It is sad to see these nationalists in Hungary. They are blaming people today for things that happened over 90 years ago. Unbelievable.
They are good at blaming others, but will not take any responsibility on their own. And of course they think that they know everything better than anyone else.
The Hungarian government (Fidesz) and Mr. Orbán is doing the same.
Mr. Orbán only cares about staying in power and his actions are only serving this purpose.
As Mr. Orbán stated: "they are only lawyers, not economists".
This is why they are only making law to support their own, and not caring about fixing Hungary's economy.