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Cardinal concerns: the new super laws are coming

The constitutional process is far from over: phase two is just about to begin. In the autumn the government parties will introduce the so-called cardinal (or supermajority) laws that will flesh out various areas that were only addressed in broad strokes by the Constitution.

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Work: Can there be too much of a good thing?

The government is seeking fundamental change in the way work works in Hungary. It seeks to simultaneously increase labour supply, employment and the time each worker spends at work. The latter appears unnecessary: a comparative review of European working times reveals that those already in employment work more than the average European.

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Vikinomics vivisected

In a stunning policy reversal, the government was briefly contemplating last week the introduction of a solidarity tax, which in effect would mean the abandonment of its most treasured reform, the flat tax.

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Cooler weather but politically hotter than usual summer

From plans to tinker with the election laws, over Swiss franc-based loans all the way to debates how political accountability could be turned into criminal liability, here are four significant events that turned a low-key season into an active one.

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Europe - How its president sees it

A public opinion survey project conducted jointly by Policy Solutions and Medián shows that Hungary’s term at the helm of Europe had little effect on the popular perception of the EU. Though most citizens have heard about Hungary’s position as the rotating leader of the Union, they know little about the details of the presidency and (rightly) perce...

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Hungary – where Thatcher and Keynes meet

Following up on its ambitious rhetorical pronouncements on the subject, the government has unveiled its National Labour Plan. Mostly the government counts on the measures reducing workers’ rights to incentivise private enterprises to create jobs. Even if this works, it will end up making a lot of people unhappy.

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Fidesz on the warpath against the state’s addiction to credits

The Orbán government is fighting a lot of wars, some of which don’t even appear to be real. The war against the national debt and low employment is very real, however. While the government’s commitment to handling these challenges is not in doubt, some of the measures it plans to enact to achieve progress are dubious.

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Is Orbán's strongest opposition in the streets?

Street demonstrations have been among the most powerful manifestations of opposition to the government.Now that the Orbán-government is cutting key benefits and entitlements, the number of those adversely affected by the government’s policies is growing, as is the ratio of those willing to express their dissatisfaction publicly.

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Agressive foreign policy – only in rhetoric

Hungarian foreign policy manoeuvres between an occasionally aggressive rhetoric, an ambitious ideology and a more sober and less ambitious diplomatic reality. While Fidesz has rarely gone beyond rhetoric in challenging major countries and international institutions, the few acts it has done and its occasionally loose cannon rhetoric might cause the...

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On things well done

After a relaxed start, the government has been very active enacting changes in many walks of life. A lot of it seems to lack planning, while another portion seems wrongheaded or dubious. This week we are going to take a look at the third group: we will review the measures that we find most positive.

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About Us

Policy Solutions is a progressive political research institute based in Budapest. It was founded in 2008 and it is committed to the values of liberal democracy, solidarity, equal opportunity, sustainability and European integration. The focus of Policy Solutions’ work is on understanding political processes in Hungary and the European Union. Among the pre-eminent areas of our research are the investigation of how the quality of democracy evolves, the analysis of factors driving euroscepticism, populism and the far-right, and election research. 

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