Hungary Throws Out Monsanto AND the IMF

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/27444-hungary-throws-out-monsanto-and-the-imf

In the years since, precious little attention has been and is being devoted to the former eastern bloc countries in the Anglo press. We know most of the countries are now members of the European Union, but only a few have been allowed to enter the hallowed grounds of the eurozone.

One thing I did pick up on last year was the news that Hungary's PM Victor Orbán had thrown chemical, food and seed giant Monsanto out of the country, going as far as to plow under 1000 acres of land. Now, I have little patience for Monsanto, infamous for many products ranging from Agent Orange to Round-Up, nor for its ilk, from DuPont to Sygenta, all former chemical companies that have at some point decided they could sell more chemicals than ever before by applying them on and inside everyone's daily food. Patenting nature itself seems either unworthy of mankind or its grandest achievement. I don't care much for either one. So Orbán (who has a two-thirds majority in parliament, by the way) has my tentative support on this one.

<snip>

There was more international reporting earlier this year, when Orbán again faced up to two other major forces, in this instance the IMF and the EU. On January 1, the Hungarian parliament and president signed a new constitution into law. And it contains a number of things that the Troika members don't like. In particular, they are probably at odds with taxes levied on bank transactions, and especially central bank transactions. Not the kind of thing the IMF is likely to ever agree with. It all gets clad in protesting (the EU even threatens with courts) the independence under fire of the central bank, the media and other parts of Hungarian society.

The IMF and EU, like the tandem team of Monsanto and Washington before them, act like schoolyard bullies. It's become their standard MO, and it usually works. Portraits of Orbán as a fool, a reckless idiot and a dangerous populist, on par with that of Hugo Chavez or newly found international enemy Rafael Correa, are much easier to find than those links to Wikileaks Monsanto cables. It would be good to see Orbán continue to stand up to the IMF bullies, but he may not have that choice. They can simply financially bleed him dry, like they have so many other countries and their leaders. It's a time tested model.

[malaise]

1. Now they will whip up the elites and their subaltern

lackeys, destabilize the country and remove Orbán.

[grahamhgreen]

2. Similar to Ukraine.

[malaise]

3. Let me see

and similar to then British Guiana (Guyana) in the late 50s/60s, Jamaica in the late 70s, Central American countries, South American countries and anyone else on the planet who objects to the agenda of the imperialists. (wink!)

But they all hate America for her freedoms and values

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Orban is a right wing piece of shit

Long reads from Paul Krugman's colleague Kim Lane Scheppele on Hungary:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/?s=hungary&_r=0

Those Roma the OP article mentions?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/hungarian-journalist-says-roma-should-not-be-allowed-to-exist-a-876887.html

Orban and his feelings about liberalism (plus this article shows he's not some great eco-warrior, either - see what happened to the organic farm):

Budapest autumn: hollowing out democracy on the edge of Europe

Rightwing prime minister Viktor Orbán is using his huge electoral majority to rewrite the rules, and not just for Hungary

...
Bernadett Szél, MP and co-leader of a small Green liberal party, cites the events in Kishantos and Budapest as a prime example of the “endless cynicism” of the prime minister and his party, Fidesz, whose actions and policies set him apart in the European Union, and are setting off alarm bells in Brussels and Washington. “Kishantos is a symbol of what Orbán is doing. It’s pure power and pure destruction. Fidesz is the state. The party is the state. We don’t know how to end that.”
...
The number one item on Orbán’s destroy list appears to be the western democratic model. In an infamous speech to supporters in Romania in July, he declared the western model dead and cited the authoritarian regimes of Russia, China, Turkey and Singapore as the templates to follow. “We are parting ways with western European dogmas, making ourselves independent from them,” he declared. “We have to abandon liberal methods and principles of organising a society. The new state that we are building is an illiberal state, a non-liberal state.”
...
To his many critics in Budapest, this means hollowing out democracy, retaining a semblance of pluralism while controlling all the key levers. Orbán has used his power to rewrite the constitution and has appointed 11 of the 15 supreme court justices to guarantee himself a two-thirds majority on the constitutional court.
...
Orbán has used new media laws to turn public television into a mouthpiece for his government, and used tax inspectors and advertising money to intimidate, impoverish and weaken critical media.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/29/budapest-viktor-orban-democracy-edge-hungary

Hungary is no longer a democracy

More particularly, the Constitutional Court is no longer allowed to give its opinion about the content of laws and to refer to its own case-law – which results in the loss of almost all monitoring power on the legislature and the executive.

This meticulous destruction of democracy and its values – whose starting point was the landslide election of Fidesz in 2010 – has taken place over months and months, under everybody's eyes.

The attack was clear and continuous: crippling restriction of the freedom of the press, political direction of the Central Bank, inclusion in the Constitution of Christian religious references and of the "social utility" of individuals as a necessary condition for the enforcement of social rights, deletion of the word "Republic" in the same Constitution to define the country's political system, condemnation of homosexuality, criminalisation of the homeless, attacks against women's rights, impunity afforded to perpetrators of racist murders, the strengthening of a virulent anti-Semitism . . .

Only a few days ago, prime minister Viktor Orban officially decorated three extreme right-wing leading figures: journalist Ferenc Szaniszlo, known for his diatribes against the Jews and the Roma people, who he compares to "monkeys"; anti-Semitic archaeologist Kornel Bakav, who blames the Jews for having organized the slave trade in the Middle-Age; finally, "artist" Petras Janos, who proudly claims his proximity to the Jobbik and its paramilitary militia, responsible for several racist murders of Romani people and heiress of the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party, that organised the extermination of Jews and Gypsies during the Second World War.

http://www.newstatesman.com/austerity-and-its-discontents/2013/04/hungary-no-longer-democracy

If the IMF did remove him, it wouldbe the best thing they've ever achieved.

[malaise]

6. Thanks for the links

I will never support a pro-capitalist multi-lateral lending agency overthrowing any government.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Well, it was only your suggestion that they'd try; the OP article was written in Sept 2012

The original: http://www.theautomaticearth.com/hungary-throws-out-monsanto-and-the-imf/ (I don't know why it turned up on 'Reader Supported News' over 2 years later)

What happened since then was Hungary repaid its IMF loan early in August 2013. No attempts to overthrow Orban's government or destabilize the country. Maybe you shouldn't automatically think the IMF is an evil empire.

[pampango]

7. Indeed he is. "Orban ... shows increasing disdain for liberal democratic principles."

The far right is very much against the EU, the WTO and pro-Russia. They believe in conservative, "family values", homophobic, 'illiberal' government in which national governments can do whatever they want without worrying about what their neighbors or the rest of the world thinks. Kind of typical of conservative adherence to hyper-patriotism/nationalism.

The EU has been pressuring the Orban government for some time to restore full democracy and the rule of law - so far to little effect.

A leading Czech governing politician says there needs to be more support for tolerant social and economic views domestically and in Europe ... This is happening all the while the Hungarian government moves in the opposite direction and shows increasing disdain for liberal democratic principles. ... Illiberal policies must be part of the political toolbox, Mr. Orban says, and he openly praises the current Russian political system led by President Vladimir Putin and cites it as an example for Hungary.

Hungary leader Viktor Orban has said he wants to build an illiberal state based on national foundations, citing Russia and China as examples.

http://euobserver.com/political/125128

My guess is that most Hungarians would rather live in a country like Germany or Norway than in Russia or China. The latter, of course, are much better places for an "illiberal" political system like the one Orban is trying to create.

[eridani]

12. Quite a few Teahadists are also against WTO and banksters

That isn't at all inconsistent with being reactionary on social issues.

[Quantess]

5. That man is brave.

He's a David vs Goliath, but maybe other Davids will be inspired to confront this Goliath together.

[newfie11]

8. The world needs more like him

I wish him much luck as unfortunately he will need it.

[DFW]

11. The guy is Dick Cheney on steroids

We should be wishing him something other than luck.

[pampango]

14. No the world has too many like him. The fact that a right-winger hates the FDR's IMF hardly

makes him worthy of our support. I wish his ultra-conservative government no luck and I hope they come to need it.

[renegade000]

9. Jesus Christ people, the enemy of your enemy is not your friend.

If this regime/party was pro-IMF, we'd be hurling every invective at them in the book. I guess all one has to do is pick the right "big baddy" and all your sins can be forgiven, or at least conveniently ignored.

[woo me with science]

13. K&R