A chara, – Suzanne Lynch refers to Viktor Orbán's alleged "lurch to the far right" ("Madrid congress provides forum for delegates from EU centre-right parties", October 22nd).
The far right actually exists in Hungary in the form of Jobbik, a political party with 24 seats in the Hungarian parliament and which protested at the World Jewish Congress meeting in Budapest and which has links to the banned paramilitary group Magyar Garda.
Viktor Orbán, meanwhile, has instituted a Holocaust memorial day in Hungary and made Holocaust education mandatory.
His Fidesz party has elected three Roma MPs and the first female Roma MEP. How many TDs and MEPs have been elected from Ireland’s Travelling community?
As for his “clampdown on media and internet freedoms”, the Fidesz government responded to widespread criticism and withdrew the proposed legislation.
Mr Orbán won an uncontestably free and fair election with a large majority and replaced Hungary’s communist-era constitution with one that, according to German constitutional expert Rupert Scholz, “conforms to the charter of basic European rights to an extent that I have not yet seen in other European constitutions”.– Is mise,
ANDREW CUSACK,
London.