Crisis. For the past eighteen months this word has brought to mind mostly one thing: the financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the shockwaves it has sent throughout the world leaving no country unaffected, including Hungary. While every effort is being made to avoid further risk on the global scale, Hungary – a country with a fragile economy – has started losing foreign investors and their financial trust. Ever since the crisis began in 2008 its moral aspects have been the subject of an intense debate, particularly the fact that the real cause of the crisis is what […]

On 11 April the Hungarians go to vote. Observers expect a massive swing to the right. Hungarian essayist and critic László F. Földényi explains why. Földényi, born in Debrecen in 1952, is one of Hungary’’s most prominent intellectuals. He teaches comparative literature at the Loránd Eötvös University of Budapest and has written numerous essays as well as books on Heinrich von Kleist, Caspar David Friedrich and melancholy. His most recent book is a lexicon of Imre Kertész’s Fatelessness.  László F. Földényi talks to Paul Jandl about Hungary’’s ongoing crisis, racist incidents and the new anti-Semitism. The forthcoming election in Hungary […]