Hungary

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary will extend its border closures to fight the spread of the coronavirus pandemic until the end of October, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s cabinet chief said on Thursday.

Hungary closed its borders to foreigners on Sept. 1 and decided that Hungarians returning to the country from abroad have to go into quarantine.

Hungary recorded 27,309 cases of coronavirus with 781 deaths as of Thursday, with new cases spiking in recent weeks.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called for the resignation of European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova over what he described as her “derogatory public statements” about democracy in Hungary.

Orban, 57, has repeatedly clashed with European Union leaders over his moves to increase state control of the judiciary, media and academia under his vision to transform Hungary into an “illiberal democracy.”

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary will extend a moratorium on loan repayments for some households and companies until the middle of 2021, as its finance minister warned the economy could struggle to grow next year unless a coronavirus vaccine is found.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban introduced the moratorium for all companies and private borrowers in March as one of his government’s key measures to help reduce the economic fallout from the pandemic. It was due to expire at the end of the year.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary wants the European Union to pursue dialogue with Belarus and avoid ostracising it, its foreign minister said on Thursday, after days of violent protests in Minsk where President Alexander Lukashenko claimed a landslide re-election victory.

“We are interested in the EU making decisions based on dialogue, which do not make it impossible for the European Union and Belarus to build their relationship in the future, or set back the Eastern Partnership Programme,” Peter Szijjarto said in a Facebook post.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary has imposed new restrictions on cross-border travel as of next Wednesday in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus after a surge in new cases in several countries, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff said on Sunday.

Hungary lifted most of its lockdown restrictions in May and opened its borders to travellers from European Union states and neighbouring non-EU members.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday the EU’s coronavirus recovery plan would be unacceptable if funding were linked to rule-of-law conditions, and Budapest could veto any deal as a last resort.

Orban, a right-wing nationalist who has accumulated unprecedented powers since winning election a decade ago, has clashed with the European Union executive for years over his perceived backsliding from democratic governance.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary will on Thursday review rules on travel to neighbouring Austria, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia where numbers of coronavirus cases have been rising, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff said.

The landlocked country lifted most of its lockdown restrictions and opened its borders to travellers from European Union states and neighbouring non-EU members in June.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary is ready to give financial support to Audi (NSUG.DE) to allow its Hungarian manufacturing plant to run at full capacity in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Viktor Orban was reported as saying on Monday as he visited the plant.

“We have to fight for the Audi plant as well,” state news agency MTI cited Orban as saying. Orban said Audi was key to the Hungarian economy’s recovery from the adverse impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

BUDAPEST, June 7 (Xinhua) -- More than 1,000 people gathered at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in front of the U.S. embassy in downtown Budapest on Sunday, protesting against the police killing of African American George Floyd in the U.S. city of Minneapolis.

Almost all of the protestors wore masks. The police presence was strong, but they did not intervene. Demonstrators, mostly young Hungarians, held up banners reading "Black Lives Matter" at the front of the demonstration.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary needs to prepare for a potential second wave of coronavirus cases in October and November after a likely slowdown in the outbreak’s infection rate in the summer, the prime minister told state radio on Friday.

Viktor Orban also said restrictions on movement in Budapest and surroundings, where 80% of the country’s coronavirus deaths have been recorded, would not be eased until the fatality rate fell in that area.