EDITOR: The Budapest Beaconis a sister publication to NewsLanc. For a sample of the Beacon’s work, view its recent interview with the acting American Ambassador to Hungary.
Seasons of Change (based on the song “Seasons of Love” from the hit musical “Rent”).
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes.
How do you measure, measure a year?
In thumbs-up? In retweets? In followers on Twitter?
In friends, in hits, in shares, in hashtags, in likes?
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes.
How do you measure a year in the life?
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The Budapest Beacon turns one year old today.
Although we did not time the Beacon’s launch so that its first anniversary would coincide with municipal elections, it is a fitting occasion for us to rededicate ourselves to writing fact-based news about Hungary in the hope of bringing about positive change.
With national, European Parliament and municipal elections behind him, Fidesz chairman and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is now free to continue the task of “building an illiberal state in the heart of the European Union” and all that implies: police harassment of NGOs, peaceful demonstrations broken up by hired goons, paid political operatives in the guise of civil activists, and so-called prosecutors who refuse to investigate, let alone indict, government officials for corruption.
While it is easy to point the finger at Viktor Orbán and Fidesz, Hungary’s descent into kleptocracy and authoritarianism start just over a decade ago when Hungarians woke up one morning to discover prime minister Peter Medgyessy had resigned (reportedly for refusing to cooperate with the Alliance of Free Democrats, the ruling Socialist Party’s junior coalition party) and been replaced by a virtual unknown, former minister for sport and youth affairs, Ferenc Gyurcsány.
Those of us living in Hungary at the time just shook our heads and asked: “How can this be? Why should the prime minister resign because he opposes corruption? Where is this leading?”
Two years later, Gyurcsány refused to resign despite acknowledging that his party had won the 2006 general election by “lying morning, noon and night”. This extraordinary admission prompted Fidesz MPs to leave the chamber every time Gyurcsány rose to address parliament. In the ensuing political paralysis we just shook our heads in disbelief and asked: “How can this be? How can Gyurcsány admit that he lied to voters and yet refuse to resign? Where is all of this leading?”
A few months later on the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising of 1956, radical right-wing hooligans took advantage of a peaceful demonstration in Budapest’s Freedom Square to pelt policemen with cobblestones and set fire to the national television station. A month later riot police were charging demonstrators on horseback and shooting protestors with rubber bullets. We shook our heads in amazement and asked: “How can this be happening in Hungary of all places? Where is all of this leading?”
After three years of political paralysis and unbridled corruption, during which time an entire generation of Hungarian youth became radicalized, Gyurcsány finally resigned in 2009. Hungarians everywhere rejoiced over the prospect of national elections being held. Instead, for the second time in under five years, a man no one had voted for was installed as prime minister. Whatever Gordon Bajnai’s merits as a “caretaker” prime minister, the failure to call general elections in 1999 seriously undercut respect for democracy. It also reinforced the general feeling that the main stream parties were corrupt and unresponsive to the will of the people.
Those of us witnessing these events just shook our heads in disbelief and asked: “How is it possible general elections haven’t been called? What is the meaning of this? Where is this leading?”
In the run-up to 2009 European Parliament elections, political pamphlets and posters unlike anything we had ever seen appeared throughout the country: “Hungary for the Hungarians!” The country was suddenly awash in virulent, neo-Nazi propaganda. In the EP elections Hungary’s radical right-wing party Jobbik won nearly 12% of the popular vote, enough to send three delegates to Brussels. In general elections held the following year Jobbik won nearly 17% of the vote.
All of us shook our heads in disbelief and asked. “How can this be? Where is all of this leading?”
And then the landmark national election of 2010 came and went without any public discussion of public policy taking place whatsoever. The winning party alliance, Fidesz-KDNP, offered no program and no vision for the future. Just cheap political slogans and a vague promise that Viktor Orbán was somehow “the right man at the right time for the job of prime minister”.
Those of us watching Orbán use bis victory speech to proclaim a “revolution of the ballot box” on national television just shook our heads in amazement and asked: “What is the meaning of this? Doesn’t be realize his party got fewer votes now than in 2010? Where is this leading?”
Well, now we see where all of this was leading: to the creation of an illiberal state in the very heart of Europe.
Fidesz’s first act was to grant virtually anyone claiming to be of Hungarian descent and speaking a few words of Hungarian the right to vote in Hungarian elections. This law permanently shifted the country’s political locus to the right. An unrelenting torrent of legislation followed, most of it drafted by Fidesz legal experts without consulting independent experts or civil society and submitted by individual MPs so as to avoid having to order independent studies.
The second Orbán government implemented a radical program of nationalization even as it systematically dismembered Hungary’s system of checks and balances. The supreme court was abolished and replaced with the Curia under a new chief justice. The Constitutional Court was enlarged and loaded with Fidesz appointees. New extra-governmental agencies endowed with extraordinary powers and led by Fidesz appointees were established to oversee the judiciary and the media. The powers of the office of the prime minister and the police were greatly expanded. The speaker of parliament was given his own parliamentary security force authorized to make arrests and conduct house searches. Legal niceties like search warrants and limits on pre-trial detention were abolished.
Independent media was compelled to practice self-censorship for fear of ruinous fines or prison sentences, even as pro-government media owned by various Fidesz oligarchs manipulated public opinion and publically assassinated the character of anyone who dared criticize the government.
On the economic front the Fidesz-KDNP government deprived thousands of Hungarians of their livelihoods–grocery store owners, farmers, textbook publishers–and awarded them to Fidesz supporters. And it did so without fear of political consequences, having rewritten electoral and campaign finance law to virtually rule out all chances of being defeated in a general election.
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A year ago a few of us decided we had had enough of just shaking our heads and leaving everything to chance and decided to launch our own online newspaper about Hungary. Some 950 posts (1900 if you include the Hungarian translations), 6558 Facebook likes and 259 followers on Twitter later, we’re just getting started. So wish us luck. We’re going to need it.
