The Hungary You Won't See in the Guidebooks - The 'Consett' of Magyarország - but Where? UPDATED

KesterTester 31 - Excuse me for the British bias - Consett was an industrial town in the Pennine foothills of NE England with one industry, until that was closed by Margaret Thatcher's Govt in 1979. Perhaps Americans would say the 'Cleveland' of Magyarország?

This pic was taken in, I think, 1991. The municipality, according to one then-youthful Nick Thorpe writing in The Independent newspaper (UK) in around 1987, hosted the first ever "Job Centre" in Hungary, opened in response to unemployment (which, by law, couldn't exist in a socialist state at the time - at least, to be unemployed was illegal).

I think I might win this one this week - ok, some clever cloggs among you may guess the location - but my bet is none, not even our seasoned Hungarian readers, will be able to positively identify it. Prove me wrong!

I'll give you another day to answer KT30 since it's on 99 hits (and of course, I want to see that turn past 100). There have been a number of entries, but some of them display a silly mistake or two resulting, I suspect from over-confidence. I'll update this post tomorrow with the answers and news of the exhalted Winner, for whom Fame & Fortune await!

UPDATE: Answers to KT30 - Political Montage

Well, this attracted numerous entries of varying quality and accuracy.

I think the easiest to know and indentify was male 4 - almost every entrant recognised the former Socialist Foreign Minister in the Horn administration - László Kovács.

Probably the next most accurately identified was the sole lady in the pack, Etelka Pataky Barsiné, who was ambassador to Vienna for a period in the last decade, although she was probably more famous (or infamous, depending on your pov) as Government Commissioner in charge of planned Expo 96, which the Horn government abandonned within days of coming to office in 1994. She was also the Commssioner for Danube Strategy (or some such title) in 2010-11 when Hungary took over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. (According to her Wiki page, she was also an MEP for 2004-2009, which had totally passed me by.)

I certainly hope she was more successful as ambassador and MEP than she was as commissioner, because those to projects sank without trace, and the first was contentious, to say the least. She left this world in 2018.

That leaves numbers 1 and 2.

Well, number 1 was probably the next best identified - somewhat to my surprise, as I would have struggled had I not taken the photo - but then several readers were sloppy with his Christian name, causing hot debate and heartache in the Competition Committee as it wrestled with the issue of whether an error such as this could be allowed. (It wasn't.)

So, it had to be Imre Mécs, engineer and civil activist, who was on a death sentence and in a cell with Árpád Göncz after the 1956 Uprising until the sentence was commuted.

That leaves number 2, who was probably the most difficult of all, in part because I don't suppose many ex-patriates around today had much to do with him, and even for older Hungarians, I probably covered up a bit too much of his face (to get everyone in the montage - it was not really intentionally done to make it difficult).

Hence Éva P thought it was György Szabó (sorry Éva - I know you wanted to buy me those two beers) when in fact it was .... Lajos Fűr, Defence Minister in the Antall government. Lajos passed in 2013.

All told, there were five fully correct entries, whose numbers went into the EU-conform black wooky hat and the winner was ... most fittingly now, I realise, as he even correctly identified the very day of Imre Mécs piccie as 15 March, 1989 ... step forward and take a bow Sándor Németh! How you will stand the adulation, even in lockdown, I do not know.

Hard lines to the other four contestants - but you can have a good go at this week's Tester. Good luck and have a safe week!