A few days before the Hungarian general election held on April 12 2026 the USA Vice president JD Vance flew into Budapest campaigning for the far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán. Vance, a high-profile member of the Catholic Church, picked the wrong place to boost a close ally. The self-described hillbilly bombed in Budapest.
Orbán was also strongly backed by the far-right president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Hungary joins a growing list of countries where candidates closely aligned with the far-right twins Trump-Putin sink to a humiliating defeat.
Adam Novak explores the issues in the interview below published on the Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières (ESSF) site:
Among the fascinating details in the article below, we highlight two :
For Trump and Vance, it is the loss of the most useful ally within the European Council — the one who blocked collective decisions on Ukraine, including the 90-billion-euro loan to Kyiv that Orbán had vetoed. For Putin, it is the loss of the most accommodating European government on energy and sanctions. For European far-right parties, it is the signal that the model is not election-proof.
Vance delivered a speech on Christ and the Christian foundations of European civilisation before a comparatively secular Hungarian audience. He invoked workers’ rights without saying a word about the tech billionaires enriched under Trump. And he denounced Brussels bureaucrats for “making millions” whilst saying nothing of the oligarchy that Orbán himself built. The electoral effect of the visit is close to zero: Vance is little known in Hungary, and it was not Trump who came.
Hungary 2026: An Autopsy of Sixteen Years of Illiberalism.
After Orbán: Electoral Fractures and the Programmatic Void
The Hungarian legislative elections of 12 April 2026 brought to an end sixteen years of uninterrupted rule by Viktor Orbán. Péter Magyar’s Tisza (Respect and Freedom [Tisztelet és Szabadság]) party won a super-majority of 138 seats out of 199, inflicting on Fidesz a defeat explained by judicial scandals, saturation of the identitarian discourse, a generational fracture, and the concrete effects of the freeze on European funds.
Dishonesty of Many Campists About China – Progressive International’s Adulation of “Whole-Process Democracy” Celebrates Capitalist Party-States
Ashley Smith Comments :
The dishonesty and delusion of today’s campists about China is truly astonishing. In one publication, a couple of authors deny the mass repression and internment of Uyghurs. In another, two more embarrass themselves by celebrating the capitalist police state as a socialist democracy. How can this pass as Marxist analysis? How can anyone on the left take this seriously?
Ashley Smith facebook page
Brian Hioe writes :
Progressive International’s Adulation of “Whole-Process Democracy” Celebrates Capitalist Party-States
Chinese Autocrat Xi Jinping With British Forelock-Tuggers, David Cameron (ex Prime Minister) and his Queen – Say Nothing About Human Rights
A RECENT ARTICLE by Paweł Wargan and Jason Hickel, published by the Progressive International, is adulatory about what it claims to be “whole-process democracy” in China. Nevertheless, interrogating the claims of the article finds that these claims to be in themselves contradictory.
“Whole-process democracy” is a term that apologists of the Chinese Communist Party have increasingly embraced in past years, as a term to describe what they claim to be the superiority of the Chinese party-state. Supposedly, rather than serving as a means of social control, the party-state serves to concentrate the democratic will as part of what is termed “whole-process democracy” or the “mass line.”
Of course, this claim is fanciful. Almost every single state under the sun claims that its political system is one that most perfectly embodies the democratic will of the people–and yet many of these states are, of course, authoritarian.
Wargan and Hickel gesture in grandiose fashion toward the usual claims about the wonders of Chinese modernization, while suggesting that it is because of the people’s participation in “whole-process democracy” that this resulted in a development process in which the people’s will was respected. But there is little, if anything, to suggest that this is true in China.
Yesterday Conor Gallagher in The Irish Times, working with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, revealed shocking details about the supply chain linked to the Aughinish Alumina plant in Limerick.
His report outlined how significant quantities of alumina from this facility are being exported to Russia, where they are being used to make aluminium, which is then sold to a trading company supplying over 100 Russian weapons manufacturers. It is deeply alarming to see that shipments of Irish alumina to Russia have increased significantly since Putin’s brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It is horrific to see this. It is unconscionable that a plant operating in Ireland could be contributing to materials used in the destruction of so many communities and so much civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and can be used to kill children in Ukraine. This is appalling to see and I do welcome the Taoiseach’s commitment to review this report, but the question is clear: what urgent action will the Taoiseach take to ensure that no Irish-based industry or business is complicit in supporting Russia’s war machine?
Ivana Bacik is right to insist that the Irish government must take “urgent action” on this issue – words and good intentions are not good enough.
In the letters page of the Irish Times (Friday May 27) Conor O’Neill – Head of Policy, Christian Aid Ireland; Chair, Irish Coalition for Business & Human Rights points out :
Aughinish exposes a general trend in State attitude to Ukraine, Palestine, human rights …
Simon Pirani offers extremely useful insights which are relevant to every European country, including Ireland.
Insight 1
On the political side, socialists in Nordic countries are streets ahead of us in the UK, perhaps because they are geographically closer to Russia. Bjarke Friborg of the Red-Green Alliance in Denmark underlined in a recent interview the “very real” threat posed by Putin’s regime, “not necessarily in terms of ‘tanks rolling into Paris’, but certainly as a threat to democracy, sovereignty and the principle that borders can not be changed by brute force”. He continued: We oppose Russian imperialism just as we have opposed American and NATO imperialism: not by supporting one bloc against another, but by defending the right of peoples to self-determination and supporting democratic and progressive forces in Russia and its client state, Belarus.
Britain : A Westminster Member of Parliament leaves the Tory party and joins the far-right Reform outfit :
“Conservative MP Danny Kruger has defected to Reform UK, the first time a sitting Tory has joined the rightwing populist party led by Nigel Farage. The defection means Reform now has five MPs in parliament and is a big blow to Kemi Badenoch, Conservative leader, ahead of her party conference next month…..
With Reform leading UK opinion polls since the spring, Kruger’s defection will give further credibility to the party, as will his withering departing words aimed at the Tories. “The rule of our time in office was failure,” Kruger said at a press conference in London. “Bigger government, social decline, lower wages, higher taxes and less of what ordinary people actually wanted.” He added: “The Conservative party is over, over as a national party, over as the principal opposition to the left. “The flame is passing from one torch to another. The new torch is already alight, already brighter than the one it is replacing, held aloft in firm and confident hands.” – Financial Times Report.
These developments, which will continue, are encouraging the far-right in the 26 and 6 county bits of Ireland. The Reform party leader Nigel Farage is already threatening to alter the Good Friday Agreement, and make it worse :
Speaking yesterday, Mr Farage said he wanted to remove human rights law from the peace accord to make it easier to deport illegal migrants.
Reform has signalled that if it gets into power in Britain the party will leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), repeal the Human Rights Act and pass the Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill.
The ECHR is incorporated into the 1998 Northern Ireland Act, which codified the Good Friday Agreement into law.
Mr Farage said that as prime minister he would, in time, be able to renegotiate the agreement.
“We are not far away from major civil disorder,” he told a press conference.
Source, John Manley, Irish News August 27 2025
The Fermanagh and Omagh District Council adopted a progressive policy in 2022 which is an excellent start :
Despite Common Travel Area “There is an Invisible Hard Border in Ireland That leads to Racial Discrimination”
Council Meeting – 5th July 2022
Fermanagh & Omagh District Council notes that the Common Travel Area (CTA) enables free movement within the island of Ireland. However, it excludes people of other nationalities, in particular citizens of countries in Africa, Asia, and South America.
Voters in the 6 County bit of Ireland rejected Brexit in the 2016 British State referendum by a large margin : 55 to 45 per cent. This was a unique political event – opposition to Brexit broke down the normal sectarian divide on an important constitutional development in the north of Ireland : Almost all nationalists voted against Brexit, and they were joined by a significant number of Unionist (perhaps ex-Unionist) voters.
Afterwards a decision was needed : would a new European Union (EU) – Britain border divide the 6 and 26 county bits of Ireland – or would a new border emerge, dividing the island of Great Britain from all of Ireland?
Everybody knew a new Brexit border could not be imposed on Ireland. The British government needed window-dressing for its Unionist allies : the “Windsor Framework” was unveiled with a walk-on part for the reluctant British monarch King Charles.
This rickety constitutional construction kicked a sleeping dog. The 1998 Good Friday Agreement. copperfastened an imperialist crime – the 1922 partition of Ireland. A promise that partition could be ended through an internal 6 county referendum is part of the GFA – but this was never meant to happen. The architects of the GFA reasoned, correctly in 1998, that an anti-partition majority in the north of Ireland was extremely unlikely. The Unionist Veto was safe. After Brexit, not any more.
The former Fine Gael leader and taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, is saying out loud what many people know is true but do not want to hear :
A Nigel Farage-led UK goverment could herald a united Ireland – Varadkar
The latest convoy of vehicles left Trim on May 3rd with 16 vehicles and 31 drivers taking turns to drive through France, the Netherlands, Poland and on to Lviv in western Ukraine
A Co Meath-based group has just returned from Ukraine where they delivered their 107th vehicle to the war-torn country for humanitarian use.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine the group has delivered four-wheel drive vehicles, ambulances, buses and vans, most of them filled with medical supplies.
The vehicles are used by the army mainly in ferrying injured soldiers and civilians to hospital from either the front line or from Russian drone attacks.
The latest convoy of vehicles left Trim on May 3rd with 16 vehicles and 31 drivers taking turns to drive through France, the Netherlands, Poland and on to Lviv in western Ukraine.
Volunteer driver David Duignan of Dunderry, who has been on a number of such trips said the experience was emotional, having visited a cemetery in Lviv where more than 1,000 new graves of Ukrainian soldiers, added since the war broke out, are accompanied by images of the young men who died.
An important left-wing conference in solidarity with Ukraine took place in Brussels on March 26 and 27 2025. We will present a number of reports from this conference in the next few days. Here is the first item – written by Simon Pirani who publishes a People and Nature blog.
By Simon Pirani. Based on a talk given at a panel, “What peace?”, at the Solidarity with Ukraine event this week in Brussels
“What peace?” is a wide question. To narrow it down, we can ask: what sort of peace is being discussed among Ukrainians?
In an interview about the Trump-Putin talks, and the prospects for any agreement, our comrade Denis Pilash, a member of Sotsialnyi Rukh, said that “Ukrainians have two things in mind when thinking about any deal: the fate of people in the occupied territories, and how to prevent Russia from restarting the war.”
The photo is courtesy of a Ukrainian anarchist group that provides soldiers at the front with “all the necessary equipment that can increase their safety and efficiency in resisting the imperial onslaught of the Russians”.
These points could frame areas for agreements, he argued. He pointed to the Ukrainian government’s position that it will not recognise illegal annexations, but would accept a ceasefire followed by negotiations.
There is only one civilised response over rows about offering decent accommodation to refugees and asylum seekers : the Irish state must help and support human beings fleeing from wars, famine, destruction and poverty in their native lands. Protests against accommodation centres, hotels, and hosting schemes are a magnet for racist attacks on immigrants.
In other words :
Socialism With a Human Face Versus Liberalism With a Shark Smile
These protests are often presented as demands for local “consultation”
Claims are broadcast that refugees and asylum seekers are getting favourable treatment
Vulnerable people are threatened with the old ugly policy of “Go, Move, Shift”
The real story is an old one : Go, Move, Shift. Christy Moore’s song says it all :
Six in the morning out in Inchicore The guards came through the wagon door. John Maughan was arrested in the cold A travelling boy just ten years old.
CHORUS
Mary Joyce was living at the side of the road No halting place and no fixed abode. The vigilantes came to the Darndale site And they shot her son in the middle of the night.
Similar racist protests have stained many parts of Ireland since 2023 : O’Connell Street, Coolock, Darndale, and the East Wall area in Dublin; Newtownmountkennedy (Wicklow), Athlone (Midlands), Ballaghaderreen (Roscommon) and Roscrea (Tipperary) are other examples.
In recent days this political cancer has erupted again – this time in Galway.
Sad to say, we witness more shameful dog-whistle racism, again dressed up as “consultation” with the local community. It continues. Sinn Féin TD for Galway West Mairéad Farrell is following the wretched example set by a number of her party colleagues – lessons have not been learned.
The story is covered on the Cedar Lounge Site – a link is here :
“According to the department, an appraisal of the offer has been paused for three months to allow locals to advance a proposal to develop a community hotel at the site.
A meeting took place earlier this month inviting members of the community to voice their concerns over the possibility of using the hotel to house asylum seekers.
Local councillors and TDs have spoken out over the issue, attempting to assure locals that a proper consultation process will be followed through.
TD for Galway East Mairead Farrell said: “I have organised a meeting with the department for tomorrow morning. I have been in constant contact with the department from last night to this morning.
“They have told me categorically that no one has been moved into Carna and I have organised a meeting, I will give an update at that point.”
In a statement, the department have confirmed that a pause on the appraisal of the hotel remains in place. They said that there was no current contract in place for IPAS but that some people fleeing the war in Ukraine were still being housed there.”
Irish Independent, online, March 26 2025
Ukrainians in Ireland feared cut in ‘vital’ accommodation payment – Red Cross Payment to hosts worth €800 a month was due to expire on March 31
The Irish government is jumping in; part of its agenda is the old tactic of Divide and Rule.
A payment to hosts worth €800 a month, enabling Ukrainian refugees to get accommodation was due to expire on March 31. The state authorities have backed down temporarily, thanks in part to protests by welfare agencies such as the Red Cross and the Ukrainian community in Ireland. Here is a link :
There has been an increase in reports of uncertainty and anxiety among Ukrainians living in Ireland, as the Government is expected to make a decision on the continuation of payments to accommodation hosts, the Irish Red Cross has said.
The humanitarian charity said there has been “a significant rise” in calls from concerned individuals since late last year.
The Accommodation Recognition Payment (ARP) is a tax-free payment of €800 for those providing accommodation to Ukrainians who arrive in the Republic under the EU Temporary Protection Directive. The scheme is due to expire on March 31st.
The Government is expected to extend the scheme with consideration being given to a €200 reduction in the monthly rate.
decision is “most likely” to be announced towards the end of this week, according to a source, with meetings taking place between the Department of Integration and Department of Justice.
“There has been no final decision yet, with nothing signed off,” the source added.
The Irish Red Cross said on Monday that the payment has been “a vital financial support” for 19,000 Irish hosts.
The organisation is due to present findings of the largest survey of Irish hosts to date to the Government on Tuesday.
Niall O’Keeffe, head of international and migration with the Irish Red Cross, said the accommodation programme has been “a lifeline for many very vulnerable people”.
“It’s not just a value-for-money accommodation solution, many hosts have become invaluable support networks, helping their guests in the transition to life in Ireland and guiding them to access essential supports and training,” Mr O’Keeffe said.
“Reducing support for vulnerable people will force them to make difficult decisions: living in poverty or returning to danger.”
Minister for Integration Norma Foley said last week there would likely be changes to the monthly €800 payment with an announcement due shortly.
Ms Foley said the issue was being dealt with and required engagement with the Department of Justice. The Fianna Fáil TD said she would not “pre-empt” the decision but was conscious that the scheme was due to expire at the end of next month.
Deirdre Garvey, secretary general of the Irish Red Cross, said the conflict in Ukraine has dramatically changed the lives of millions of people and has had a devastating impact on individual lives that “we can never measure”.
“Ireland has recognised this suffering and continues to respond generously. The Irish Red Cross has worked with the wider Red Cross Movement to provide humanitarian assistance in Ukraine and in the surrounding countries that have hosted most of those fleeing conflict in Ukraine,” Ms Garvey said.
“The needs now are as great as ever. Many of the millions who fled are unable to return home, and those who remain face dire conditions, with limited access to water, heat, healthcare and other essential services. Three years on, the mental health toll is huge, both for those who remain and those who fled to safety.”
In a remarkable development, the Sinn Féin migration spokesperson Matt Carthy TD (Cavan-Monaghan) criticises the government’s temporary climbdown : See the link here :
The Red Cross and Ukrainian community protests persuaded the government to back off. Vigilance is necessary, because the state may come back with cutback proposals later this year.
At this point it should be obvious to all anti-racists that saying the ARP is “unfair” to other renters is a racist cop-out. The issue is whether it should be scrapped, or extended to others in need of housing. Leftists should argue the latter as a matter of principle. A possible slogan could be “ Don’t End…Extend “. In other words Extend the ARP to extend to all asylum seekers and refugees as a first step.
Some public representatives have got the balance right :
Example 1 is Ruth Coppinger TD (Solidarity – People Before Profit) :
“A rightward change in government in Germany, and a similar likely change in government in France in 2027, means that Europe will no longer present a united front on the issue.
Much like the initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the John Lennon-esque vision of a country truly united in the face of a societal challenge gave way to good old-fashioned pessimism.
The (Sinn Féin) manifesto read “the special status of Ukrainians under the Temporary Protection Directive should come to an end no later than March 2026. We believe that continually extending temporary measures is not a sustainable solution and is problematic for everyone.”
“If a beneficiary of Temporary Protection is from a part of Ukraine that is safe then, save for exceptional cases, return should be assisted.”
Socialism With a Human Face Versus Liberalism With a Shark Smile
Ukrainian refugees are targets of state racism; left-wing public representatives should support them :
240 refugees are housed at Hubble Student Accommodation; of the 240 Ukrainians at the site, there are 49 school students and 77 are in employment. Following pushback, plans to move the refugees with six days’ notice were paused. Local Labour TD Marie Sherlock said, “the reasoning put forward by the government does not add up” and stated that the decision by the government is “unconscionable.” The government claimed that there was a need to vacate the rooms in a bid to protect the rent pressure zone status of the accommodation, a claim which Sherlock refuted. “The RPZ exemption has already kicked in because the student accommodation units have not been rented out to students for more than two years.” “This flies in the face of a stated government intent to try and help Ukrainians integrate into the communities they live in,” she stated. The term “socialism with a human face” is closely associated with the Prague Spring of 1968, and it appears the new government is pursuing a “liberalism with a shark smile” approach with regard to immigration.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 