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Hungary signals possible delay on Sweden's NATO bid
The Hungarian parliament will likely further delay voting on Sweden's bid to join NATO, parliament speaker Laszlo Kover hinted on Sunday during a TV interview. Kover's comments about Hungary not being sure about Sweden's request to join the military alliance come after a Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto wrote a letter to his Swedish counterpart Tobias Billstrom about Hungary's "unfair" portrayal in the Nordic country. Szijjarto informed Billstrom that unless Swedish politicians and the national public radio stop criticizing the state of democracy in Hungary, they won't ratify Sweden's NATO accession.
"These accusations have challenged the democratic nature of our domestic political system and questioned the maturity of the Hungarian people to make decisions about the future of their own country." the letter was published on Twitter by Viktor Orban's spokesperson, Zoltan Kovacs reads. Besides Hungary Turkey is also yet to ratify Sweden to NATO.
Political Capital: People who get their news from government-controlled outlets are more susceptible to war disinformation
According to a recent survey by the Hungarian think-tank Political Capital, people who consume news from government-controlled outlets, are more susceptible to war disinformation than those who get their news from independent news outlets. The polling also found that susceptibility to disinformation was higher among Fidesz voters. The media consumption factor was shown to be stronger than political affiliation.
The research revealed that people were more susceptible to disinformation about Ukraine than the US disinformation narratives on Ukraine used for the survey included allegations that Ukraine had "committed genocide against the Russian minority", the "Ukrainian leadership consists of nazis and represents nazi ideology", and that the Hungarian minority in Ukraine is in "danger due to Ukrainian nationalists".
Nearly 600 teacher vacancies as the school year begins in Hungary
The Hungarian government consistently denies the issue of teacher shortages, however, an analysis of the public sector revealed there are nearly 600 teacher vacancies in public education, investigative portal Átlátszó reports. Gergely Gulyás, the Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office said it is challenging to find teachers in certain subjects.
The Public Service Job Portal allows anyone to browse job vacancies in the public sector, including open positions in Hungarian public education. Searching for the terms “teacher”, and “educator”, Atlatszo found a total of 557 advertisements on 4 September. This number varies almost daily, with more than 1,000 job vacancies in August. Mathematics teachers are the most in-demand, and there is a shortage of teachers with science qualifications. There are also many vacancies for music, English, physical education, and IT teachers.
Orban accuses European leaders of fearmongering over threat of climate change at Demographic Summit
“Europe is acting out of fear and fear makes us defeatist,” said Hungary's far-right prime minister Viktor Orban during the Budapest Demographic Summit. “We say there’s no future, and as such, this is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.” In his speech at the two-day event, Orban said European leaders should focus more on demographics instead of "carbon quotas" and creating fear around the issue of climate change.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also attended the pro-family conference for the first time this year where he called Hungary a “perfect example” of how to use investment to solve the birth rate problem. “In Hungary, the declining trend in birth rates has been halted, jobs have increased, and female employment has also increased. A great battle is needed to defend families, God, and all the things that built our civilization,” the Italian leader said. She also referred to demography as a key challenge “to defend our civilization”.
Hungarian president Katalin Novák, the organizer of the summit also spoke at the event: “While alarm bells are ringing about climate change, little attention is being paid to the real problem (....) The demographic winter is turning into an ice age," Novak said.