Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
2008
Government loses key referendum on health-care reform; SZDSZ quits coalition, leav-
ing the socialists to form a minority government; Hungary is particularly hard hit by
the world economic crisis.
2011
In its most high-profile role on the European stage to date, Hungary assumes presid-
ency of the EU council; a number of key streets and squares in Budapest are renamed.
2012
A new (and controversial) Constitution of Hungary ratified by Parliament that deletes
the word 'republic' from the country's official name goes into effect.
2014
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is returned to power, with his Fidesz party handily win-
ning 133 of 199 parliamentary seats.
Early Inhabitants
The Carpathian Basin, in which Hungary lies, has been populated for at least half a million
years. But the first
permanent
settlement in this area - on the Buda side near the Danube -
dates from between 4600 and 3900 BC. Remains from that culture include bone utensils,
fishing nets and even a primitive loom.
In about 2000 BC fierce Indo-European tribes from the Balkan Peninsula reached as far
as the Carpathian Basin in horse-drawn carts, bringing bows and arrows and copper and
bronze tools. Over the next millennium, invaders from the west (Illyrians and Thracians)
and the east (Scythians) brought iron, but that metal was not in common use until the Celts
arrived in the early 3rd century BC.
The mystery surrounding the origins of the Magyars have led to some unusual theories.
When asked whether he believed extraterrestrial beings existed, the Italian-American No-
bel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi (1901-54) replied: 'Of course they do (and) they
are already here among us. They are called Hungarians'.
