Kim Lane Scheppele published an analysis in the New York Times on “Hungary’s Constitutional Revolution”. A, in my view, very good, and fairly depressing analysis of the current situation in Hungary. How can a country possibly slide into some sort of authoritarianism dominated by one single ideological view, following a path that is perfectly “legal” (though morally objectionable) at every step of the way. A sad example:-(
I have already blogged a few weeks ago on the sad success of right wing extremist parties in Europe. One of the toughests and, in my view, most frightening one among those is the Hungarian “Jobbik” party, with its openly racist, anti-Semitic message. Being Hungarian, I feel embarrassed and saddened by their success… However, a new Facebook group, set up recently to fight against this Hungarian phenomenon, has made me realize a sad irony, too.
One of the historical figures of Hungary is St Stephen I of Hungary, the first king of Hungary. He established the Kingdom of Hungary more than a 1000 years ago, ensuring the future of his nation. As such, he has become, among others, the reference point for all nationalists and, of course, racist movements in Hungary.
St Stephen had a son, Prince Emeric (Imre); and St Stephen wrote a text to prepare his son to play his a role as a king. This old text, known as “Saint Stephen’s admonitions to his son Emeric”, is available on the Web thanks to the National Library of Hungary (sorry, only in Hungarian, I could not find an English translation). It consists of 10 general admonitions, the 6th being on the role of foreigners (the text actually uses the word “guests”) in the country. It would be a bit long to translate, but the title of this blog may be the most important sentence of the paragraph:
Because a country using only one language and having only one custom is weak and frail
(If you are interested by the original: “Mert az egy nyelvű és egy szokású ország gyenge és esendő.”)
Wise words coming from the “dark” middle ages! Worth for a number of people, from the Netherlands to Hungary, to think about…
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The right-wing extremists on the move—in Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Denmark, the Netherlands. It is a shame— for the large people’s parties and for the voters, which did not participate in the elections.
This is a quote from a blog published on the Web site of the German ZDF television (see the German original). I couldn’t agree more. I live in the Netherlands, where Geert Wilders’ rasist party became one of the strongest parties in the country; I carry a French passport and the Front National will still send representatives to the EU Parliament in the name of France; and I also carry a Hungarian passport and the local right wing “Jobbik” party of Hungary has made a breakthrough yesterday evening. This is not a good day…
(Somme “nuggets” from the declarations of the EU representative of Jobbik: “I would be glad if the so-called proud Hungarian Jews would go back to playing with their tiny little circumcised tail rather than vilifying me”,…“We had a dream that we would not become a second Palestina. This dream has just come true…”. Wonderful…)
One can of course be optimistic: these movements come and go, they are in a minority. And I hope optimism is till o.k. But when I see these people marching on the streets of Budapest where I grew up, or when, as a foreigner in the Netherlands, I am indirectly accused by an official party of stealing the job of locals, then, well, it is not easy to keep up my optimism…
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