"text":"Hungary became a Christian kingdom in A.D. 1000 and for many centuries served as a bulwark against Ottoman Turkish expansion in Europe. The kingdom eventually became part of the polyglot Austro-Hungarian Empire, which collapsed during World War I. The country fell under communist rule following World War II. In 1956, a revolt and an announced withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact were met with a massive military intervention by Moscow. Under the leadership of Janos KADAR in 1968, Hungary began liberalizing its economy, introducing so-called \"Goulash Communism.\" Hungary held its first multiparty elections in 1990 and initiated a free market economy. It joined NATO in 1999 and the EU five years later."
"text":"the upgrading of Hungary's standards in waste management, energy efficiency, and air, soil, and water pollution to meet EU requirements will require large investments"
},
"Environment - international agreements":{
"party to":{
"text":"Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling"
},
"signed, but not ratified":{
"text":"none of the selected agreements"
}
},
"Geography - note":{
"text":"landlocked; strategic location astride main land routes between Western Europe and Balkan Peninsula as well as between Ukraine and Mediterranean basin; the north-south flowing Duna (Danube) and Tisza Rivers divide the country into three large regions"
"text":"Hungarian 85.6%, Roma 3.2%, German 1.9%, other 2.6%, unspecified 14.1%",
"note":{
"text":"percentages add up to more than 100% because respondents were able to identify more than one ethnic group (2011 est.)"
}
},
"Languages":{
"text":"Hungarian (official) 99.6%, English 16%, German 11.2%, Russian 1.6%, Romanian 1.3%, French 1.2%, other 4.2%",
"note":{
"text":"shares sum to more than 100% because some respondents gave more than one answer on the census; Hungarian is the mother tongue of 98.9% of Hungarian speakers (2011 est.)"
"text":"the Byzantine Greeks refered to the tribes that arrived on the steppes of Eastern Europe in the 9th century as the \"Oungroi,\" a name that was later Latinized to \"Ungri\" and which became \"Hungari\"; the name originally meant an \"[alliance of] ten tribes\"; the Hungarian name \"Magyarorszag\" means \"Land of the Magyars\"; the term may derive from the most prominent of the Hungarian tribes, the Megyer"
"text":"UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)"
},
"daylight saving time":{
"text":"+1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October"
}
},
"Administrative divisions":{
"text":"19 counties (megyek, singular - megye), 23 cities with county rights (megyei jogu varosok, singular - megyei jogu varos), and 1 capital city (fovaros)",
"text":"16 November 1918 (republic proclaimed); notable earlier dates: 25 December 1000 (crowning of King STEPHEN I, traditional founding date); 30 March 1867 (Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy established)"
},
"National holiday":{
"text":"Saint Stephen's Day, 20 August; note - commemorates the date when his remains were transferred to Buda (now Budapest)"
"text":"previous 1949 (heavily amended in 1989 following collapse of communism); latest approved 18 April 2011, signed 25 April 2011, effective 1 January 2012; amended several times, last in 2013 (2016)"
"text":"18 years of age, 16 if married; universal"
},
"Executive branch":{
"chief of state":{
"text":"Janos ADER (since 10 May 2012)"
},
"head of government":{
"text":"Prime Minister Viktor ORBAN (since 29 May 2010)"
},
"cabinet":{
"text":"Cabinet of Ministers proposed by the prime minister and appointed by the president"
},
"elections/appointments":{
"text":"president indirectly elected by the National Assembly with two-thirds majority vote in first round or simple majority vote in second round for a 5-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 2 May 2012 (next to be held by May 2017); prime minister elected by the National Assembly on the recommendation of the president"
"text":"Janos ADER (Fidesz) elected president; National Assembly vote - 262 to 40; Viktor ORBAN (Fidesz) elected prime minister; National Assembly vote - 130 to 57 (in 2014)"
"text":"unicameral National Assembly or Orszaggyules (199 seats; 106 members directly elected in single-member constituencies by simple majority vote and 93 members directly elected in a single nationwide constituency by party list proportional representation vote; members serve 4-year terms)"
"text":"percent of vote by party - Fidesz-KDNP 44.5%, Unity 26%, Jobbik 20.5%, LMP 5.3%, other 3.7%; seats by party - Fidesz-KDNP 133, Unity 38, Jobbik 23, LMP 5"
"text":"Curia or Supreme Judicial Court (consists of the Curia president, vice president, and approximately 76 judges organized into 16 civil chambers, 3 criminal chambers, and 4 administrative chambers); Constitutional Court (consists of 15 judges including the court president and 2 vice-presidents)"
},
"judge selection and term of office":{
"text":"Curia president elected from among its members for 9 years by the National Assembly on the recommendation of the president of the republic; other Curia judges appointed by the president upon the recommendation of the National Judicial Council, a separate 15-member administrative body; judge tenure based on interim evaluations until normal retirement age; Constitutional Court judges elected by two-thirds vote of the National Assembly; members serve single renewable 12-year terms with mandatory retirement at age 70"
},
"subordinate courts":{
"text":"5 regional courts of appeal; 19 regional or county courts (including Budapest Metropolitan Court); 20 administrative and labor courts; 111 district or local courts"
"text":"Christian Democratic People's Party or KDNP [Zsolt SEMJEN] ++ Democratic Coalition or DK [Ferenc GYURCSANY] ++ Dialogue for Hungary or PM [Javor BENEDEK, Timea SZABO, co-chairs] ++ Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Alliance or Fidesz [Viktor ORBAN] ++ Hungarian Liberal Party or MLP [Gabor FODOR] ++ Hungarian Socialist Party or MSZP [Jozsef TOBIAS] ++ Movement for a Better Hungary or Jobbik [Gabor VONA] ++ Politics Can Be Different or LMP [Andras SCHIFFER, Bernadett SZEL] ++ Together 2014 or Egyutt [Peter JUHASZ, Peter KONYA, Viktor SZIGETVARI]"
"text":"Civil Osszefogas Forum (\"Civil Unity Forum,\" nominally independent organization that serves as the steering committee for the pro-government mass organization Bekemenet (Peace March), supporting ORBAN government's policies) ++ Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (Tarsasag a Szabadsagjogokert) or TASZ (freedom of expression, information privacy) ++ Hungarian Helsinki Committee (asylum seekers' rights, human rights in law enforcement and the judicial system) ++ MigSzol (Migrant Solidarity Group of Hungary) (independent advocacy group on migration crisis) ++ MostMi (\"Now Us\") [Bori TAKACS, Zsolt VARADY](Facebook group that was a major participant at anti-government demonstrations in late 2014-early 2015; pro-Europe, anti-establishment movement that blames Fidesz for the state of the country, but also blames all established political parties for perceived political and economic failures since the fall of communism) ++ Okotars (empowerment of civil society in Hungary) ++ ",
"text":"Ambassador Colleen Bradley BELL (since 21 January 2015)"
},
"embassy":{
"text":"Szabadsag ter 12, H-1054 Budapest"
},
"mailing address":{
"text":"pouch: American Embassy Budapest, 5270 Budapest Place, US Department of State, Washington, DC 20521-5270"
},
"telephone":{
"text":"[36] (1) 475-4400"
},
"FAX":{
"text":"[36] (1) 475-4764"
}
},
"Flag description":{
"text":"three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and green; the flag dates to the national movement of the 18th and 19th centuries, and fuses the medieval colors of the Hungarian coat of arms with the revolutionary tricolor form of the French flag; folklore attributes virtues to the colors: red for strength, white for faithfulness, and green for hope; alternatively, the red is seen as being for the blood spilled in defense of the land, white for freedom, and green for the pasturelands that make up so much of the country"
},
"National symbol(s)":{
"text":"Holy Crown of Hungary (Crown of Saint Stephen); national colors: red, white, green"
"text":"Hungary has made the transition from a centrally planned to a market economy, with a per capita income nearly two-thirds that of the EU-28 average. ++ ++ In late 2008, Hungary's impending inability to service its short-term debt - brought on by the global financial crisis - led Budapest to obtain an IMF/EU/World Bank-arranged financial assistance package worth over $25 billion. The global economic downturn, declining exports, and low domestic consumption and investment, dampened by government austerity measures, resulted in a severe economic contraction in 2009. In 2010, the new government implemented a number of changes including cutting business and personal income taxes, but imposed \"crisis taxes\" on financial institutions, energy and telecom companies, and retailers. The IMF/EU bailout program lapsed at the end of 2010 and was replaced by Post Program Monitoring and Article IV Consultations on overall economic and fiscal processes. At the end of 2011 the government turned to the IMF and the EU to obtain a financial backstop to support its efforts to refinance foreign currency debt and bond obligations in 2012 and beyond, but Budapest's rejection of EU and IMF economic policy recommendations led to a breakdown in talks with the lenders in late 2012. Global demand for high yield has since helped Hungary to obtain funds on international markets. ++ ++ Hungary’s progress reducing its deficit to under 3% of GDP led the European Commission in 2013 to permit Hungary for the first time since joining the EU in 2004 to exit the Excessive Deficit Procedure. The government remains committed to keeping the budget deficit in check and lowering public debt by using sectoral taxes, while relying on state interventionist measures to lower utility prices and boost growth and employment."
"text":"Hungary has been under the EU Excessive Deficit Procedure since it joined the EU in 2004; in March 2012 the EU elevated its Excessive Deficit Procedure against Hungary and proposed freezing 30% of the country's Cohesion Funds because 2011 deficit reductions were not achieved in a sustainable manner; in June 2012, the EU lifted the freeze, recognizing that steps had been taken to reduce the deficit; the latest EC forecasts project the Hungarian deficit to increase above 3% both in 2013 and in 2014 due to sluggish growth and the government's fiscal tightening (2015 est.)"
"text":"general government gross debt is defined in the Maastricht Treaty as consolidated general government gross debt at nominal value, outstanding at the end of the year in the following categories of government liabilities: currency and deposits, securities other than shares excluding financial derivatives, and government, state government, local government, and social security funds"
"text":"competition among mobile-cellular service providers has led to a sharp increase in the use of mobile-cellular phones since 2000 and a decrease in the number of fixed-line connections"
"text":"country code - 36; Hungary has fiber-optic cable connections with all neighboring countries; the international switch is in Budapest; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean regions), 1 Inmarsat, 1 very small aperture terminal (VSAT) system of ground terminals (2015)"
"text":"mixed system of state-supported public service broadcast media and private broadcasters; the 5 publicly owned TV channels and the 2 main privately owned TV stations are the major national broadcasters; a large number of special interest channels; highly developed market for satellite and cable TV services with about two-thirds of viewers utilizing their services; 4 state-supported public-service radio networks and 1 major national commercial station; a large number of local stations including commercial, public service, nonprofit, and community radio stations; digital transition completed at the end of 2013 (2016)"
"text":"bilateral government, legal, technical and economic working group negotiations continue in 2006 with Slovakia over Hungary's failure to complete its portion of the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros hydroelectric dam project along the Danube; as a member state that forms part of the EU's external border, Hungary has implemented the strict Schengen border rules"
"text":"transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and cannabis and for South American cocaine destined for Western Europe; limited producer of precursor chemicals, particularly for amphetamine and methamphetamine; efforts to counter money laundering, related to organized crime and drug trafficking are improving but remain vulnerable; significant consumer of ecstasy"
