Hungary downloads meteorologists due to mispregation

What was named as the “biggest feature in Europe of fireworks” to be held on the evening of August 20th to celebrate St. Stefan's Day was postponed by the Government, hours after the National Meteorology Service issued an extreme weather warning.

That night, however, the weather was stable, leading to the dismissal of weather service director Cornelia Radics, and its deputy, Gyula Horvath.

The downloads, which was announced by Minister of Technology and Industry Laszlo Palkovics, were delivered with criticism of the meteorological service by Hungarian government-related media.

Festivals for St. Stephen's Day needed “to describe a brief chronice of 1,000 years from the birth of Christian Hungary down to this day, focusing on the lessons of national values”, the website that has planned this show with fireworks.

The festivities, according to organisers, were meant to highlight the most important moments of Hungarian history and the key national values that can also provide moral lessons for daily life”.

Right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has sought to promote Hungary as the protection bastion of so-called Christian values and national traditions. In this context, in 2015, his government erected a wall on the southern border to prevent the passage of hundreds of thousands of refugees, fleeing the conflict in the Middle East.

But, the Orban government is also accused by the European Union, where Hungary is a member, of corruption, nepotism and anti-democratic tendencies.

Almost 100,000 people have signed a petition to call for cancellation of fireworks at the time when the state is facing economic crisis, but also because of the war in neighbouring Ukraine.

“In a state where the national currency value falls daily and prices are kept rising, there is no room for such luxurious specs”, the petition said.

The meteorology service, meanwhile on August 23rd, has demanded that fired leaders return to work, arguing that the government “ignored scientific, scientifically accepted uncertainty, in terms of meteorological predictions”.

In 2006, five people were killed and over 300 were injured on St. Stefan's Day due to bad weather. At that world, the winds reached up to 60 miles [100 km] an hour in Budapest, as 1.5 million people had gathered to watch the festivities closely. / REL/