Still almost two months to go until the final parliamentary vote on the new Hungarian constitution, but we already bet that none of the opposition parties will support the governing parties’ draft basic law. Fidesz has offered unprecedented concessions to LMP, but in light of the impractical conditions of the opposition parties, consensus is highly...

The Prime Minister caused some surprise when he chose not to specify his government’s eagerly awaited economic reforms, but simply prepared the ground for them. Orbán might not only leave the bad news for others but also tries hard to divert the attention from the most delicate issues.

With three largely unknown, but nevertheless major players behind bars, albeit only briefly, and further major targets in sight, the accountability machine finally graduates to the big leagues. Yet, there is a distinct possibility that it won’t stay there.

Fidesz’ dominant position is largely unchallenged, the opposition has failed to exploit the government’s weaknesses to improve its standing in the polls. There are some shadows for Fidesz, but at this point there are no strong indications that it might face strong competitors in the short run.

Politically, Fidesz stands to gain a lot by giving suffrage to newly minted Hungarian citizens across the border. Still, the opposition will be in a tough spot because Fidesz is right to argue that generally speaking, citizenship does not tend to be decoupled from suffrage.

The prime minister’s appearance in Strasbourg to introduce the Hungarian rotating presidency of the European Union yielded mixed results. From the government’s perspective, it is likely that what we posit was the overall goal – i.e. appealing to the Fidesz base at home without causing a serious backlash in Strasbourg – was achieved.

With the release and rapid removal from the internet of further recordings related to the UD Zrt. affair, the scandal that erupted two years ago came back into the limelight.

For months critics of the government’s more drastic measures have predicted that Fidesz will draw fire from the EU.

The end of the year is traditionally the time to compile top 10 lists. We gathered for a somewhat subjective list the top ten most important policies and measures enacted by the Fidesz-government since it took power.

For a few days Moody’s rating downgrading provided ammunition to everyone in the intensifying communication warfare. But while both sides of the political aisle engaged in mutual recriminations regarding the other side’s hypocrisy, a discussion of the underlying issues – whether the downgrading made sense and what impact it might have – fell by the...