Szabolcs Panyi

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‼️Extremely important for Hungary: Viktor Orbán floods Facebook with hate ads via state funds & proxy groups. Meta (& Google) have long accepted this black money, helping distort democratic discourse. In reality, Orbán partly owes his grip on power to U.S. big tech. 🧵Example👇

💥"After years watching Hungary suffocate under the weight of its democratic collapse, I came to understand that the real danger of a strongman isn’t his tactics; it’s how others, especially those with power, justify their acquiescence." @AmbPressman nytimes.com/2025/07/23/opi…

🚫🇪🇺At his annual Tusnádfürdő speech, Viktor Orbán threatened to block the EU’s next budget unless Hungary receives frozen EU funds—suspended over government corruption and failure to meet the EU rule of law mechanism’s so-called milestones (judicial and anti-corruption reforms).

💥SCOOP: It seems the Kremlin has launched false-flag intel ops in Transcarpathia, posing as extremists on both sides to stoke ethnic tensions between Ukrainians & Hungarians and incite calls for violence. 🔗This and more in @VSquare_Project's newsletter: vsquare.org/goulash-kremli…

Trump’s approval has dipped to 37%, the lowest of this term and just slightly higher than his all-time worst rating of 34% at the end of his 1st term, per @Gallup. Trump’s rating has fallen 10 points since January and 17 points among independents, to 29%. news.gallup.com/poll/692879/in…

🌈💪Billboards across Budapest now display a photo of Hungary’s largest-ever Pride March—banned by Orbán, defied by 200K people, and turned into a mass anti-government rally—put up by the capital’s opposition-led leadership. No text—just a photo of a crowd like never seen before.

💥Viktor Orbán’s government banned Irish band Kneecap from entering Hungary over “antisemitic hate speech,” per gov’t propaganda paper Magyar Nemzet. Kneecap were set to play Sziget Festival on August 11, but Orbán's government urged cancellation—which Sziget organizers refused.

‼️🇺🇦 Today, Hungarian prosecutors have charged a 🇭🇺 man who voluntarily joined the Ukrainian army in spring 2024 to fight Russia. After brief training, he served in a combat and recon unit. He’s now accused of illegal recruitment and faces prison; his whereabouts are unknown.

Donald Trump hat den slowakischen Premier Berichten zufolge nach Washington eingeladen. Hintergrund ist ein 13 bis 15 Milliarden Euro schwerer Auftrag. diepresse.com/19926312/trump…

💥🇺🇸🇸🇰 SCOOP: Slovak PM Robert Fico was invited to the White House to sign a ~$12-15B Westinghouse nuclear plant deal, per a trusted source tracking CEE-U.S. diplomacy. The deal was recently finalized. According to current plans, Fico’s visit could happen very soon. 🧵 I’ll…

💥Last year, ~35% in Hungary, Bulgaria & Slovakia saw civil society groups as foreign agents. This year, 79% of Hungarians said their country should do more to support them—showing a sharp shift in public sentiment. @GLOBSEC @VSquare_Project @kateklingova vsquare.org/central-europe…

I just received a coffee from Heidi Sulander on @buymeacoffee! buymeacoffee.com/szabolcspanyi/…

💥"The Hungarian government's infiltration of American conservative politics and weaponization of the Heritage Foundation arguably represents one of the most direct and potent attacks on the US using strategic corruption... Orbán did it all out in the open." @DekleptoProject 🧵👇

💥Viktor Orbán says spending 5% of GDP on defense is “impossible,” that it “would kill us”—and hints at trying to make some deal with Russia instead. This comes just after Hungary pledged more defense spending at the NATO summit. Here’s my analysis of CEE military budgets.🧵👇