A statement of interest is in order here: the writer is a Magyarophile. As a Portuguese and as a European, I have good reason to think fondly of the great people of the Carpathians who have given the world so much. It is to a son of Hungary, Mardell Károly, that much of the reconstruction of Lisbon, following the horror of the 1755 earthquake, is owed. Hungarian sacrifice at Mohi, in 1241, helped turn the tide of Mongol advance into the heart of Europe; disaster at Mohács, in 1526, made Hungary the suffering frontier of Christendom against the Ottoman onslaught. Yet, despite this tumultuous history, Hungarians have—in the field of battle and in the world of sciences and the arts, from music to literature and architecture—persistently been at the forefront of European achievement. Our civilisation would be much poorer, indeed, without Liszt, Kós, and Petőfi. Europe is also the daughter of King Saint Stephen and Corvinus.
Great little Hungary will be asked to make a momentous decision this coming April 12th. For Brussels, the next legislative election presents it with the hope that now, at last, the Hungarian nuisance might be taken out of the picture; that Hungarian determination in safeguarding its independence, its sovereignty, and its national interests will be silenced. For this purpose, the Brusselians have built a Trojan horse, Péter Magyar, and concocted an absurd coalition uniting everything from pro-EU liberals and centrists to reformed communists and former neo-Nazis. In several constituencies, candidates of the once vilified Jobbik party withdrew in support of Tisza, Magyar’s party. Magyar also enjoys the support of a good number of former Communists. Ágnes Forsthoffer, vice president of his party, comes from a wealthy family of Kádar-era communist nomenklatura; another Tisza vice president, Zoltán Tarr, is similarly alleged to have been an informer of the hated Communist political police, the Third Department of the Ministry of the Interior.
This post-ideological mishmash is obviously unfit to govern, and ultimately it doesn’t care about governing. After all, it was not born from Hungarian soil, but from the machinations of Brussels bureaucrats who loathe Hungary. In Magyar, they found a man ambitious and gullible enough to sign their Faustian bargain. If he were to prevail, he would not be a Hungarian prime minister, but a European satrap in Budapest. It is unfortunate to notice the excitement with which Magyar himself yearns for that supremely undignified role.
Brussels dreams of a weak, compliant Hungary. They could never quite understand how a tiny country of nine million, landlocked, still recovering from decades of communist oppression, might have the audacity to resist them. It doesn’t help that, time and again, the Hungarians showed themselves to be the last bastion of European common sense. When Brussels and Berlin were merrily destroying Europe’s nuclear sector, Budapest was infuriating them by modernising and strengthening its own. When Merkel and the Brusselians were proclaiming “Wir schaffen das” and opening Europe’s borders to tens of millions of non-European immigrants who never were nor ever could be integrated, Prime Minister Orbán was a lonely voice of wisdom and realism in reminding Brussels that, in fact, hyper-immigration would lead to catastrophe.
When the Establishment was busily demolishing the very foundations of European industrial prowess and economic prosperity by severing oil and gas imports from Russia, Hungary warned that doing so would lead to desindustrialisation and a loss—not an increase—of strategic autonomy. Now, with the Middle East on fire and oil prices on the way to 200 dollars per barrel, the profound wisdom of Orbán’s warnings is visible for all to see. In all those cases, the Hungarian prime minister stood alone, isolated, and maligned by a hopelessly foolish European establishment. He held his ground. And he was proven right.
Of course, there is no denying that a long period of government, however prescient or successful, will inevitably take its toll. Viktor Orbán has been at the forefront of Hungarian politics since the fall of communism. He was first elected president of the right-wing Fidesz in 1993. He first served as Hungary’s prime minister from 1998 to 2002. He has continuously been his country’s head of government since 2010. While the final result is highly uncertain, opinion polls for April 12th do suggest that the race will be incredibly tight. Eventually, success becomes normal; normality is then taken for granted. Instead, Hungarians must reflect on why their country is seen with such admiration by so many around the world. Hungary, with a debt to GDP ratio of just 66% and a GDP per capita that is now on the same level as Western European countries like Portugal, should not forget how much it has advanced since its liberation from communist tyranny—neither should it forget the men and the ideas that made such progress possible.
Most importantly, when they visit the unsafe, dirty, collapsing, and deracinated cities of Western Europe, they should compare them with the quality of life they enjoy at home. Orbán’s greatest legacy is not the transformation of Hungary into a prosperous, first-world European nation. It is demography: no more than 2% of those living in Hungary are immigrants; Hungarians remain 98% of the population in their ancestral land. That much is inestimable — it is a victory more important than any other and that will spare Hungary the tensions and instability that, in Western Europe, are already the cause of such mayhem.
For Hungary, April 12th will be historic. Its proud people will be called to choose between virtue and adherence to the national interest in governance and the same sort of Brusselian occupation that has led so many other European nations to decay. Throughout Europe, patriots, sovereignists, and friends of Hungary are hoping that Hungarians will once again reward their indomitable prime minister with a victory that will shock and humble the European political class. As was always the case in the past, Hungary’s enemies would be advised not to underestimate it.
Courage, Hungarians! Europe Counts on You To Beat the Eurocrats Once More
Miniture from a copy of Hayton of Corycus’s La Flor des estoires de la terre d’Orient in the Austrian National Library, illustrating his account of the Battle of Mohi in 1241 between Hungarians and Mongols.
Anonymous illumination, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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A statement of interest is in order here: the writer is a Magyarophile. As a Portuguese and as a European, I have good reason to think fondly of the great people of the Carpathians who have given the world so much. It is to a son of Hungary, Mardell Károly, that much of the reconstruction of Lisbon, following the horror of the 1755 earthquake, is owed. Hungarian sacrifice at Mohi, in 1241, helped turn the tide of Mongol advance into the heart of Europe; disaster at Mohács, in 1526, made Hungary the suffering frontier of Christendom against the Ottoman onslaught. Yet, despite this tumultuous history, Hungarians have—in the field of battle and in the world of sciences and the arts, from music to literature and architecture—persistently been at the forefront of European achievement. Our civilisation would be much poorer, indeed, without Liszt, Kós, and Petőfi. Europe is also the daughter of King Saint Stephen and Corvinus.
Great little Hungary will be asked to make a momentous decision this coming April 12th. For Brussels, the next legislative election presents it with the hope that now, at last, the Hungarian nuisance might be taken out of the picture; that Hungarian determination in safeguarding its independence, its sovereignty, and its national interests will be silenced. For this purpose, the Brusselians have built a Trojan horse, Péter Magyar, and concocted an absurd coalition uniting everything from pro-EU liberals and centrists to reformed communists and former neo-Nazis. In several constituencies, candidates of the once vilified Jobbik party withdrew in support of Tisza, Magyar’s party. Magyar also enjoys the support of a good number of former Communists. Ágnes Forsthoffer, vice president of his party, comes from a wealthy family of Kádar-era communist nomenklatura; another Tisza vice president, Zoltán Tarr, is similarly alleged to have been an informer of the hated Communist political police, the Third Department of the Ministry of the Interior.
This post-ideological mishmash is obviously unfit to govern, and ultimately it doesn’t care about governing. After all, it was not born from Hungarian soil, but from the machinations of Brussels bureaucrats who loathe Hungary. In Magyar, they found a man ambitious and gullible enough to sign their Faustian bargain. If he were to prevail, he would not be a Hungarian prime minister, but a European satrap in Budapest. It is unfortunate to notice the excitement with which Magyar himself yearns for that supremely undignified role.
Brussels dreams of a weak, compliant Hungary. They could never quite understand how a tiny country of nine million, landlocked, still recovering from decades of communist oppression, might have the audacity to resist them. It doesn’t help that, time and again, the Hungarians showed themselves to be the last bastion of European common sense. When Brussels and Berlin were merrily destroying Europe’s nuclear sector, Budapest was infuriating them by modernising and strengthening its own. When Merkel and the Brusselians were proclaiming “Wir schaffen das” and opening Europe’s borders to tens of millions of non-European immigrants who never were nor ever could be integrated, Prime Minister Orbán was a lonely voice of wisdom and realism in reminding Brussels that, in fact, hyper-immigration would lead to catastrophe.
When the Establishment was busily demolishing the very foundations of European industrial prowess and economic prosperity by severing oil and gas imports from Russia, Hungary warned that doing so would lead to desindustrialisation and a loss—not an increase—of strategic autonomy. Now, with the Middle East on fire and oil prices on the way to 200 dollars per barrel, the profound wisdom of Orbán’s warnings is visible for all to see. In all those cases, the Hungarian prime minister stood alone, isolated, and maligned by a hopelessly foolish European establishment. He held his ground. And he was proven right.
Of course, there is no denying that a long period of government, however prescient or successful, will inevitably take its toll. Viktor Orbán has been at the forefront of Hungarian politics since the fall of communism. He was first elected president of the right-wing Fidesz in 1993. He first served as Hungary’s prime minister from 1998 to 2002. He has continuously been his country’s head of government since 2010. While the final result is highly uncertain, opinion polls for April 12th do suggest that the race will be incredibly tight. Eventually, success becomes normal; normality is then taken for granted. Instead, Hungarians must reflect on why their country is seen with such admiration by so many around the world. Hungary, with a debt to GDP ratio of just 66% and a GDP per capita that is now on the same level as Western European countries like Portugal, should not forget how much it has advanced since its liberation from communist tyranny—neither should it forget the men and the ideas that made such progress possible.
Most importantly, when they visit the unsafe, dirty, collapsing, and deracinated cities of Western Europe, they should compare them with the quality of life they enjoy at home. Orbán’s greatest legacy is not the transformation of Hungary into a prosperous, first-world European nation. It is demography: no more than 2% of those living in Hungary are immigrants; Hungarians remain 98% of the population in their ancestral land. That much is inestimable — it is a victory more important than any other and that will spare Hungary the tensions and instability that, in Western Europe, are already the cause of such mayhem.
For Hungary, April 12th will be historic. Its proud people will be called to choose between virtue and adherence to the national interest in governance and the same sort of Brusselian occupation that has led so many other European nations to decay. Throughout Europe, patriots, sovereignists, and friends of Hungary are hoping that Hungarians will once again reward their indomitable prime minister with a victory that will shock and humble the European political class. As was always the case in the past, Hungary’s enemies would be advised not to underestimate it.
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