> This was the last place where you could ask meaningful questions
>
> Over the past year and a half, in the public space in front of the Carmelite monastery (office of PM Orbán Orban), we could ask questions from ministers and state secretaries from time to time. It was expected that this situation would end one day for some reason. Five months before the election, that moment has come.
>
>
> In the middle of November, we started filming a video to show what figures, not officially attached to the government, turn up in the court of Viktor Orbán, in the building of the former Carmelite monastery. On November 25, we were still filming undisturbed in Színház Street, which was considered a public area, and the next morning we unexpectedly found that the full length of the street, through which the Prime Minister’s building complex could be approached, was closed.
>
> It is possible that all this happened not because of us, but because Gergely Karácsony and some opposition politicians went to protest there on that day. But it could also be that the opposition’s move was just a good excuse to finally fence the way to the entrance, where from time to time we asked senior government politicians about sensitive public affairs. Of course, if we remain in good faith, the official justification may be valid, and indeed, five months before the parliamentary elections, the refurbishment of the Army Headquarters building needs to begin, necessitating the fencing off of the area.
>
> This statement is questioned by the fact that on November 30, days after closing, the situation on Színház Street is exactly the same as it was a week earlier: government cars are coming and going, bureaucrats and backgrounds working in the office are walking without protective equipment, and the only sign that there is construction going on is that the building of the Army Headquarters is scaffolded, and the logo of the family company of Mészáros Lőrinc (Fejér B.Á.L.) can be seen on it.
>
> Considering the way how power treats public relations, the closure of the area is not surprising. Essentially, every time when we did our on-site filming, we discussed among our colleagues about when will they make it impossible for us to ask questions.
>
> It is also because, in the past few years, the room where the press can ask questions in the Parliament building has been so narrowed that journalists can only address politicians when confined to a few square meters. Even if MPs do not take the opportunity to avoid the confined area, which 99 percent of them do, including quite a few opposition politicians. The situation is the same in the MEP’s Office Building, while there are hardly any press conferences and announced political events, and there are rarely substantive answers to written questions.
>
> To make the picture complete, we need to admin that the government’s press conference, held every two or three weeks, is seemingly not a bad forum, and from a distance, the minister in charge of the PM’s cabinet may seem to be answering every question together with a government spokesman. On the one hand, this is true, however, public life does not work in such a way that it is enough to answer questions once every two weeks, and in most cases Gergely Gulyás, who answers the questions as proscribed to him by the Information Ministry of Antal Rogán, is not the one who’s competent to answer.
>
> In this narrow and rather controlled space of communication of power politics, there was a somewhat visible valve on Színház Street, where politicians from government meetings and secretary-state meetings could be addressed from time to time. When we started, we went there – probably the first in the Hungarian press – because we saw that we might be able to ask questions there that we couldn’t have elsewhere. Our first shoot immediately became memorable thanks to Antal Rogán:
>
> https://youtu.be/O_hRlSu_-XU
>
> Viktor Orbán’s most important employee no longer showed up when we stood around the entrance to the Carmelite, instead he immediately drove to the underground garage with the ministerial minibus, showing his attitude towards the public as the minister responsible for information. On another occasion, the government spokesman told us that she thought we were going beyond the journalistic framework and are exposing politicians to harassment; we showed what this “harassment” looks like in practice:
>
> https://youtu.be/C6QgB96cylk
>
> It was also telling how the authorities treat the press when it was revealed that Joseph Szájer had climbed down the gutter after a gay orgy in Brussels. We tried to ask the members of the government about what happened, Zsolt Semjén, the vice-PM and head of KDNP, stated that he shouldn’t need to say anything about it, and then a dozen police officers squirted out of the building and surrounded the prime minister’s office.
>
> https://youtu.be/YShz12VIDpQ
>
> A couple questions resulted in newsworthy speeches at the Carmelite. After the outbreak of the Pegasus spying case, Judit Varga told us that the secret surveillance was not authorized by her, but by his deputy, Secretary of State Pál Völner. Months later, we also caught Völner coming out of the Carmelite , who indicated on one hand that we should rather ask his boss, Judit Varga, and on the other hand he ended the conversation by saying that he would say nothing in this matter.
>
> https://youtu.be/A2p1K_pF2ZQ
>
> If it is true that the restriction imposed on construction on Színház Street could take years, we will not be able to make such videos taken before government meetings for a long while, as we will not be able to enter the area where ministers get out of their service cars. In other forms and places, however, we will continue to try to ask questions about public affairs that are reluctant to be answered by those in power.
>
> Soon we will also show who regularly visits the court of Viktor Orbán. If you consider our work important, click here and support Telex !
The American press has been asking Joe Biden questions for almost a year now without getting a single answer.
2 comments
https://telex-hu.translate.goog/video/2021/12/01/karmelita-lezaras-orban-viktor-hivatal-sajto?_x_tr_sl=hu&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=hu
> This was the last place where you could ask meaningful questions
>
> Over the past year and a half, in the public space in front of the Carmelite monastery (office of PM Orbán Orban), we could ask questions from ministers and state secretaries from time to time. It was expected that this situation would end one day for some reason. Five months before the election, that moment has come.
>
>
> In the middle of November, we started filming a video to show what figures, not officially attached to the government, turn up in the court of Viktor Orbán, in the building of the former Carmelite monastery. On November 25, we were still filming undisturbed in Színház Street, which was considered a public area, and the next morning we unexpectedly found that the full length of the street, through which the Prime Minister’s building complex could be approached, was closed.
>
> It is possible that all this happened not because of us, but because Gergely Karácsony and some opposition politicians went to protest there on that day. But it could also be that the opposition’s move was just a good excuse to finally fence the way to the entrance, where from time to time we asked senior government politicians about sensitive public affairs. Of course, if we remain in good faith, the official justification may be valid, and indeed, five months before the parliamentary elections, the refurbishment of the Army Headquarters building needs to begin, necessitating the fencing off of the area.
>
> This statement is questioned by the fact that on November 30, days after closing, the situation on Színház Street is exactly the same as it was a week earlier: government cars are coming and going, bureaucrats and backgrounds working in the office are walking without protective equipment, and the only sign that there is construction going on is that the building of the Army Headquarters is scaffolded, and the logo of the family company of Mészáros Lőrinc (Fejér B.Á.L.) can be seen on it.
>
> Considering the way how power treats public relations, the closure of the area is not surprising. Essentially, every time when we did our on-site filming, we discussed among our colleagues about when will they make it impossible for us to ask questions.
>
> It is also because, in the past few years, the room where the press can ask questions in the Parliament building has been so narrowed that journalists can only address politicians when confined to a few square meters. Even if MPs do not take the opportunity to avoid the confined area, which 99 percent of them do, including quite a few opposition politicians. The situation is the same in the MEP’s Office Building, while there are hardly any press conferences and announced political events, and there are rarely substantive answers to written questions.
>
> To make the picture complete, we need to admin that the government’s press conference, held every two or three weeks, is seemingly not a bad forum, and from a distance, the minister in charge of the PM’s cabinet may seem to be answering every question together with a government spokesman. On the one hand, this is true, however, public life does not work in such a way that it is enough to answer questions once every two weeks, and in most cases Gergely Gulyás, who answers the questions as proscribed to him by the Information Ministry of Antal Rogán, is not the one who’s competent to answer.
>
> In this narrow and rather controlled space of communication of power politics, there was a somewhat visible valve on Színház Street, where politicians from government meetings and secretary-state meetings could be addressed from time to time. When we started, we went there – probably the first in the Hungarian press – because we saw that we might be able to ask questions there that we couldn’t have elsewhere. Our first shoot immediately became memorable thanks to Antal Rogán:
>
> https://youtu.be/O_hRlSu_-XU
>
> Viktor Orbán’s most important employee no longer showed up when we stood around the entrance to the Carmelite, instead he immediately drove to the underground garage with the ministerial minibus, showing his attitude towards the public as the minister responsible for information. On another occasion, the government spokesman told us that she thought we were going beyond the journalistic framework and are exposing politicians to harassment; we showed what this “harassment” looks like in practice:
>
> https://youtu.be/C6QgB96cylk
>
> It was also telling how the authorities treat the press when it was revealed that Joseph Szájer had climbed down the gutter after a gay orgy in Brussels. We tried to ask the members of the government about what happened, Zsolt Semjén, the vice-PM and head of KDNP, stated that he shouldn’t need to say anything about it, and then a dozen police officers squirted out of the building and surrounded the prime minister’s office.
>
> https://youtu.be/YShz12VIDpQ
>
> A couple questions resulted in newsworthy speeches at the Carmelite. After the outbreak of the Pegasus spying case, Judit Varga told us that the secret surveillance was not authorized by her, but by his deputy, Secretary of State Pál Völner. Months later, we also caught Völner coming out of the Carmelite , who indicated on one hand that we should rather ask his boss, Judit Varga, and on the other hand he ended the conversation by saying that he would say nothing in this matter.
>
> https://youtu.be/A2p1K_pF2ZQ
>
> If it is true that the restriction imposed on construction on Színház Street could take years, we will not be able to make such videos taken before government meetings for a long while, as we will not be able to enter the area where ministers get out of their service cars. In other forms and places, however, we will continue to try to ask questions about public affairs that are reluctant to be answered by those in power.
>
> Soon we will also show who regularly visits the court of Viktor Orbán. If you consider our work important, click here and support Telex !
The American press has been asking Joe Biden questions for almost a year now without getting a single answer.