Hungary fought Russia. Now it’s a Putin ally
Hungary has been described by MEPs as a “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy.” It is making headlines as PM Orbán stands isolated in the EU in his stance on the Russia-Ukraine war and his government complies less and less with EU values.
Orbán’s stance on Russia is upsetting for me personally, as I have experienced the harsh rule of the USSR over Hungary in the 50s, and the revolution of 1956 which led to my family fleeing to Austria. I remember stories of Hungarians being taken from their homes in the middle of the night never to be seen again by their family. After the revolution was defeated, Hungary’s elected PM Imre Nagy was hanged by the Russians. They were the enemy who ruled the country with the iron fist of a Russian-trained, much-hated political police.
My family experienced their power after a visit to Budapest in the late 60s. We were detained at the border to Austria and questioned for six hours. We were forcibly strip-searched. I was 17, my sister 13 and my brother nine years old. The soldiers told us children that our mother would be held in Hungary while we were going to be put on a train to Vienna. They told our mother that we children would be held in Hungary. We were finally allowed to leave only after my mother signed an agreement that she would return to Budapest within a month and report to the headquarters of the feared political police.
For several years after that episode, we did not dare visit family in Hungary for fear of being detained. We never figured out why they targeted my mother, but I assume they had a job for her. I know that our family is not an exception. The population suffered many years of fear and despair. How can Orbán now consider the government of Russia a friend of Hungary?
My family’s experience with Russian soldiers goes back to World War II when occupying soldiers had attempted to rape my mother, who was then 13 years old. She was shot in the leg when she went out during the revolution to get some food for the family. The brief but bloody 1956 Revolution resulted in thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of refugees to Western countries.
How can Hungary have forgotten?
Hungary and the West
Hungary is on the cusp between East and West. The origin of the population is supposed to be Mongolian and the Turkish occupation and migration between the Slav neighbours created the mixture which shows in the Hungarian language. It has some Turkish, German and Slav words. Through the close connection between the capitals, Vienna and Budapest, especially during the Austrian Empire, Hungarians have always looked to the West. Most of the Hungarian aristocracy had residences in Austria and some spoke German better than Hungarian. The Hungarian language is not Slavonic which sets it apart from Russian and the languages of the other Visegrad countries. When Russian was a compulsory subject at school, as a sign of passive resistance to the occupiers, parents did not scold children for failing their Russian exams.
Hungary’s only close relationship with its Eastern neighbours was with Poland. Now the historical ‘brothers in arms’ are drifting apart with a destructive effect on Europe and on the Visegrad 4 group, which I described in my previous article.
Hungary’s dangerous path
Orbán’s illiberal and undemocratic tactics in Hungary are concerning for Europe, with similar tactics being adopted by other countries in the region.
Orbán’s pro-Russian stance has held up vital support for Ukraine by the EU and the PM’s actions take him further and further from European values and policy. He is still following the dangerous path of populism and right-wing propaganda.
His most recent foreign trip in January 2024 took him to the US to lobby Republican groups to stop support for US funding for Ukraine. At home, his hold on the media is increasing with a new law, called the Sovereignty Bill, which does not allow any NGOs, media or political parties to receive funds from abroad. International NGOs and charities, as well as some independent media, are adversely affected. Some EU countries are calling for Hungary to be stripped of its voting rights in the Council and are worried about the upcoming Hungarian EU Presidency.
French President Macron hosted Donald Tusk, the new Polish prime minister, in Paris. The pair met ahead of a get-together later that day of the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland, a grouping nicknamed the “Weimar Triangle”. These are also the main countries that the Russian campaign is designed to target. “We are in a moment of vulnerability” ahead of the European elections, said Stéphane Séjourné, the French foreign minister. The last thing the EU needs in this pivotal year of its elections, along with the Ukraine and Middle Eastern war, is a rogue member state.
Hungary loses an ally
In terms of Hungary and Poland, there were significant links between Fidesz and the former semi-autocratic Polish government PiS. Before PiS came to power in Poland, Hungarian government officials organised formal sessions in Brussels to train Polish embassy staff on how to resist the EU. Historically there is a long list of shared anti-democratic measures adopted by both Polish and Hungarian governments. Now that Donald Tusk won the Polish elections and ousted PiS, Orbán has lost an ally.
With this background in mind, at the 9 January Roundtable, we asked a Hungarian panel if the Polish change of government meant hope for a similar change in Hungary.
Hungary as presented by members of the opposition
Hungary was represented by Dr Peter Hein, the International Secretary of the largest Hungarian opposition party, the Democratic Coalition (DK). He is also the head of the party’s EU Affairs Cabinet and the policy director of the DK’s delegation to the European Parliament. Having served 15 years in the Hungarian state administration, among others as Deputy Chairman of the National Development Agency managing EU funds for Hungary, he worked for eight years as an EU affairs consultant for the European Union, the OECD and other international donors, mainly on the Western Balkans, Ukraine and Georgia. He has been an accredited policy advisor at the European Parliament since 2018.
He was joined by two investigative journalists, Edit Inotai and Szabolcs Panyi. Inotai has a PhD in International Relations and worked for 20 years at the Foreign Desk of Hungarian leading daily Népszabadság. Specialising in European affairs, she is currently the Budapest correspondent of German public TV ARD and a regular contributor of regional online news.
Szabolcs Panyi is a journalist and editor at the Hungarian non-profit investigative journalism centre Direkt36, and VSquare.org, an independent, cross-border journalism initiative dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting and independent press in the Visegrád region (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia). He is active in anti-corruption work and won a prize from Transparency Hungary for his investigative reporting.
Journalist view of Hungary
Edit and Szabolcs talked about the differences between Poland and Hungary’s approach to democracy. Poland has a regionalised government and independent media, while Hungary’s centralised government controls media narratives. The Hungarian population is bombarded by government messaging. The role of civil society, particularly women, in Poland’s democratic resistance contrasts with Hungary’s lack of major street protests. However, there are strong sentiments for European cooperation in both Hungary and Poland, despite political differences.
In Hungary, the atomised society and government manipulation of fears and resentments, inciting historical grievances, made it easier for Orbán to influence politics. Poland has more organised civic associations and religious institutions. Orbán, like the Leave campaign in Britain, took people back to supposedly glorious times of empire. People’s overblown expectations after the fall of the Iron Curtain of high living standards, as seen in US films, created grievances playing into his hands. The government has been using propaganda and media control to consolidate more and more power.
Facebook as a propaganda tool
The Hungarian government has been using Facebook as a cost-efficient propaganda tool, spending millions of euros annually on advertisements. Passivity and disinterest have become common in Hungarian society due to this effective propaganda. Corruption scandals are so numerous that it is challenging for journalists to publish extraordinary stories that capture the public’s attention.
Is there hope for Hungary?
Despite the landslide victory of Orbán in the last elections, our panellist Peter Hein rejects the notion of hopelessness among the Hungarian political opposition and highlights their efforts to produce results through practical work and engagement with voters. The capital Budapest has always supported the opposition and an alliance of all opposition parties with one elected leader had high hopes for success. Hein explained the alliance’s loss by their mistake in choosing the wrong candidate and the wrong approach. They should present a credibly different alternative to Orbán’s regime. Sadly, instead, they engaged in internal bickering and debating who had the moral right to form a coalition. Hein told us about successful events held in rural areas which are most vulnerable to Orbán’s propaganda machine.
EU must act
The EU has a responsibility to act in Hungary due to past misuse of funds. The tools to do so are available. Hopefully, the EU Commission will have the courage to use these tools to address issues, despite past mistakes. The EU needs fundamental change to address issues of consensus building and respect for member states, but Viktor Orbán’s government is not constructive towards the EU. The EU must understand that unanimity is not possible with Orbán’s approach and Hein hopes the EU sees the importance of reforming Hungary’s democracy and bringing the country back to its European roots.
I have the same hope for Britain.
