Hungary under Orban
Under the direction of Corentin Léotard
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What do we know about Hungary and the Hungarians? Some keep in mind a weekend in Budapest, the thermal baths, the banks of the Danube. Political enthusiasts have remembered the name of the current Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, the terrible child of Europe, champion of illiberal democracy, singled out by Brussels for his autocratic excesses.
“I think now everyone knows who I am,” he dropped on Saturday February 12 as he officially embarked on his legislative campaign, paraphrasing the ” You know me “ by Angela Merkel. The depth of the Magyar country remains largely unknown. Hungary under Orban undertakes to make useful presentations, a month and a half before the general elections, on April 3.
Beyond Orban
The collective work, written under the direction of Corentin Léotard with the team of Central European Mail, is not a monograph on the Hungarian leader who is seeking his fourth term in a row. There is no analysis of his speeches, nor exegesis on his political maneuvers. The biographical elements on his career are few. This is what makes it interesting. The figure of Viktor Orban is present there without being the main character.
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The neoconservative regime that he established in twelve years appears in the hollow of a gallery of reports and portraits written in the vein of narrative journalism. Throughout the pages, the floor is given to popular supporters of pro-government demonstrations, local elected officials, Roma, farmers, and members of the Jewish community, divided over national identity.
We leave the capital to explore local clientelism: the ten poorest villages in the country voted on average 94% for Fidesz d’Orban. We go to the Serbian border to meet disappointed old comrades, then we go to Ozd in the old mining basin, on the vestiges of communism. We finally realize that there are still pockets of resistance in culture and the media. Short, “that Hungarian democracy still breathes”, summarizes the epilogue.
Roots of the present
In almost each of the stories, a key is given to a component of Orban’s power, with returns to earlier times. The first chapter recounts the excesses and lies of the liberal period, after the fall of communism.
The country eventually found itself under the tutelage of the IMF, the World Bank and the European Union, when in 2006 the Social Democratic Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, the “Hungarian Tony Blair”, can no longer hide the disastrous state of the finances of an over-indebted country. Two years later, the subprime crisis worsened the situation. Holy bread for a nationalist flashback.
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As for systemic corruption and vote buying, they are hardly surprising. The socialists already practiced it before, the “conservative counter-revolution”. The book ends with the specific training of elites close to the government. It outlines an ideological horizon that can span several generations. Unless the ballot box decides otherwise. Sunday, April 3, the six opposition parties will present a common candidate, despite their differences, with the sole objective of dislodging Viktor Orban.