Hungary: The Politics of Lies

 

On the anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution, October 23^rd 2021, the Hungarian government of Victor Orban decided to have a so-called Peace March in downtown Budapest on the prominent corner of Andrassy and Bajci-Zillinsky streets.  As I walked along Andrassy, one of the main streets of Budapest and a Unesco heritage site.  Buses parked on both sides of the road to Heroes square, several kilometres away.  The buses brought supporters, primarily elderly from neighbouring cities and perhaps even from distant parts of the country, to support the ruling dictator Victor Orban in the peace rally.  Although the buses were mainly empty, a handful of elderly pensioners in each bus quietly sitting in their seats, who came along primarily for the day's excursion and the few thousand forints the government put in their pockets to show up.  Many of them did not leave the bus. 

The march took place during the height of Covid deaths in Hungary, and once I was in the crowd, I began to feel uneasy as many people were maskless, and it felt as if people were closing in on me.  I tried to get near the front of the line near Oban's podium.  The police guiding the crowd asked me to stop at Andrassy and move behind and further through into a crowded viewing area. I persevered and started taking photographs of the people.  There were few young people there. They were mostly elderly and carrying placards implying the dictator was a god.  The young people bearing slogans and placards were unsure of what they were there for as they came for the bus ride and enough money to buy a few beers in their pockets. 

To live in Hungary is to live in a nation of rules and confusing bureaucracy.  If you do not pay a parking ticket, many of which are fake, the fine doubles each month.  The country operates on various levels of corruption, both municipally and federally.  The prime minister and chief oligarch is Victor Orban himself.  He has feasted on the Hungarian people for over twelve years and enriched himself through his friends and family, who find ways of extorting funds through government contracts.  The press and media are all owned and controlled by Orban, and his cronies and the justice system are rigged to favour the government, not allowing prosecution for the government's crimes.  Hungary is modelled after Putin's Russia.  Orban is Putin's only friend in Europe, and now with the war in Ukraine, Putin and Orban are shunned and isolated. 

 

During the speech, Orban spoke of his nemesis George Soros, the Jewish philanthropist and humanitarian who is a continual object of hatred in the propaganda ministry of Victor Orban.  He referred to Mr Soros as the big bad wolf who came into the village and ate people's grandmothers.  The crowd cheered, and Orban gained energy during the speech.  He threatened the European Union, and it appeared as the enemy, as the Union planned to stop regional payments to  Hungary unless they established freedom of the press and a responsible judiciary. 

I believe Hungarians are terrified of Democracy.  They feel comfortable ruled by dictators and knowingly accept the corrupt nature of absolute control.  Perhaps it is a result of two lost world wars and over fifty years of communism.  Over one hundred years of trauma, the Hungarian people have fallen back on themselves and lost faith in almost everything.  They blindly accept the continual propaganda and lies, much like a traumatized person who agrees with the constant abuse of a spouse, parent, teacher, or prison guard.   They tend to soften and cling to themes of lost glory and nationalism, which resonates in the speeches of dictators.  The distant memories of lost glory comfort their minds, whereas their mental imprisonment's irrationality is forgotten. The thousands of people eventually walked back to their buses for the ride home into their villages, again feeling proud of a nation long lost. 

 Photographs copyright Gabor Gasztonyi 2021