Monthly Archives: January 2015

Strange this great fuss about the arrival of the new American ambassdor. After or, she is just an ambassador from another country. Of course, American. But how strange is zhe environment where she arrived on Monday. The State Secretary, Mr. Magyar was critisising the move of Mr. Goodfriend and initiating his removal from Budapest is on the tarmac of Budapest airport and welcoming Ms. Bell as an old schoolmate,and President Ader will meet her on Wednesday which is out of the normal diplomatic protocole, rather an extraordinary gesture. Somehing has happened behind the scenes. Gossips about a warning from Washington seem to be true…

No doubt, Germany was always leading force in European foreign policy. We still well remember the role of Konrad Adenauer or Willy Brandt, let alone Helmut Kohl. In this foreign policy, the relation with Russia – and the former Sovier Union – was always decisive and also example for other countries in the continent. What we see now is a hesitating Angela Merkel who sometimes wishes to educate the Kremlin, and sometimes plays the role of the best friend of Putin in the democratic world. And there is the similar two-faced diplomacy towards Beijing, where she must keep the balance between the human rights quesion and the business opportunities. How long can she keeep these issues in the balance? Is there a real trust towards Obama? Or is she waiting for the next President? I presume that now this is what she is doing most of the time: waiting.

The comment of the Hungarian Prime Minister created a smaller storm. After attending the international street march in Paris, Viktor Orbán warned about the possible negative effects of an increasing number of immigrants to Hungary. Journalists and political analysts think this was not the right moment or mode to talk about this issue. The attack on the editors of the Charlie Hebdo naturally caused a kind of a panic in Europe but this fearful act can not be connected to those people who came to Hungary for a better living or just looking for a place to make business. During the past decades immigrants in Hungary played an important part in our cultural life and we can not close our doors in order to protect Hungary agains a terrorist attack. The key question in my view is how you handle the religious background of the minorities. This is a sensitive issue and the worst possible solution is – again, this is a personal point – to make a joke of the founders of these classic religion. I suppose that in Hungary these rights are provided and I hope this will be the case also in the future.

The situation is much more complicated. Even if the French police would find the two suspected, the institution or organisations behind the crime would not be harmed. The simply loose two activists who were probably fanatized or well paid. But the risk of a next terror attack is in the air because of the political and social tensions raised by the great number of immigrants who think diffefently about the cultural merits of theif new country. And one more word about the liberty of the press. In my eyes, jokes about minorities or religion should not be topics of humour. If anybody can laugh on these jokes, that is not the way these problems could be solved.