U.S. Now Sticking Its Nose Into the Affairs of Hungary

The Empire can't stop. The planet will spin at the speed and angle the U.S. deems proper, or there will be consequences.

From Economist magazine:

HUNGARY is beeping ever louder on Washington's radar. Budapest’s chattering classes are this week dissecting a pointed opinion article by Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis, the US ambassador, published in Heti Valász, a moderate conservative weekly.

In her piece the ambassador urges Hungary's ruling Fidesz party to consider the consequences of its centralising reforms. Her main concern is the "cardinal laws"—which can only be changed by a two-thirds majority in parliament—that the government is seeking to write into the constitution.

Ms Kounalakis notes that Fidesz won power in a free and fair election last year, and says that Hungary is a friend of the United States. But however delicately phrased, her article is just the latest in a series of public warnings from Washington to Hungary. Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, expressed her concerns in June during a visit to Budapest. She called for "a real commitment to the independence of the judiciary, a free press, and governmental transparency".

Two months later, Thomas Melia, a senior state department official with extensive experience of the region, described his “significant concern” about Hungary’s “democratic trajectory”.

This is, of course, very rich criticism coming from a country where more and more power is falling into the hands of the executive branch, and where the federal government interferes with more and more aspects of life.