by Dr. Miklos K. Radvanyi

Hungarians, throughout their boomerang-like Orwellian history that almost always manifested itself in variegated fiascos, have never been able to objectively comprehend their country’s actual place and its realistic role in the European continent and beyond.  Amid the regularly recurring protracted occupations by foreign powers and the rare intervals of national independence, Hungarians have developed a self-pitying victimhood mentality that has become the hypocritical cornerstone of their national identity.  Composed as a prayer by the 19th century poet Ferenc Kolcsey, the national anthem called “Himnusz” (in English: Hymn) cries to the Lord to “pity…the Hungarians who are tossed by waves of danger” and to “bring upon those a time of relief who suffered for all the sins of the past and of the future.”  

Under such dire circumstances, no wonder that the boundaries between truth and lies have almost entirely disappeared from the nation’s illusionary culture.  Even paradigm shattering events, such as the two World Wars in the 20th century that first resulted in great territorial as well as population losses and later in the enormously destructive Soviet occupation, have been unable to correct the righteous sense of false moral entitlement coupled with the rationally unexplainable sentiments of ubiquitous jealousy as well as hatred toward the rest of the world.  

After the liberation from the Soviet occupation in 1990, the general happiness has gradually turned into a nightmare.  The first freely elected government was composed of a bunch of totally unfit and absolutely incompetent amateurs.  Four years later, the old guard Communists returned.  In 1998, they were booted out by much younger but equally unfit and incompetent misfits with perfect communist credentials.  Another four years passed and the pre-1990 Communists returned to power.  Then, it took eight years to get rid of them.  As a result, the young misfits of the late 1990s and of the early 21st century returned with absolute majority and an all consuming greed for power, material riches and unlimited desire for blind vengeance.

Since 2010, volumes have been written about the legendary mental instability of Viktor Orban the Prime Minister, the staggering degree of corruption, the Orbanization of the economy, the cooptation of the judiciary, the expropriation of the media and the gradual elimination of almost all freedoms by the ruling party hilariously called the Alliance of Young Democrats (Hungarian acronyms:  FIDESZ).  Today’s Hungary is rotten to its very core.  Internationally, Hungary is a Trojan horse of Russia and China within NATO and the European Union.  As such, it is a steadily growing cancer for the Western World and a major obstacle to real unity as well as enduring stability within both alliances.  The never ending preposterous saga of blocking Sweden’s accession to NATO and the incessant dehumanization of Ukraine as a state as well as a nation have validated the destructive nefariousness of the country that rejects the West’s values, but embraces Eastern autocracy with its bombastically lying rhetoric.  

Meanwhile, Western leaders have vacillated for decades to call the Hungarian government to account because they erroneously judged Viktor Orban’s gangsterocracy as an indispensable part of the West.  Yet, nothing could be farther from the truth.  The notion that Orban’s Hungary is a loyal member of NATO and the European Union is a highly dangerous myth.  In reality, Viktor Orban’s membership in both alliances is only a cover for his corrupt autocracy and extreme nationalism with Communist characteristics.  Plainly, it is a Western boondoggle.  Since most Hungarians bought into the autocracy’s fallacious rationale, according to which the country’s treaty obligations are akin to the colonial subjugation under the Soviet occupation, many have grown into hardened and, therefore, uncompromising anti-Americans cum anti-Europeans.  Even after his recent humiliation by the European Union regarding the aid to Ukraine, Viktor Orban continues to bark at home like a Rottweiler.  Moreover, even with monstrous eggs on his face, he is trying to divert attention from his spectacular defeat by turning up the volume of his libelous anti-Western frame-ups regarding the irreconcilable differences between Hungary and its allies.  In this manner, the message to his voters is resistance without knowing what he is doing and to what purpose.

Clearly, the leaders of both alliances must harden their policies vis-a-vis Viktor Orban who, in turn, must be stopped.  Attempting to endlessly seek compromises with an evil politician will only lead to the weakening of NATO and the European Union.  The choices are really no-brainers.  Western civilization or Russian cum Chinese barbarism?  Prosperity or decline?  Positivism or negativism?  Freedom or subjugation? And ultimately, life or death?  Viktor Orban’s gangsterocracy or democracy for Hungary and its people?  Sides must be chosen.  Therefore, the time is now to act and take back the values that have made the West great.  Freedom must be restored in politics, the rule of law, the economy, finances and in the media.  Viktor Orban and his pawns must be held accountable for their crimes to the Hungarian people and beyond.  The same people must be put in a situation, in which they can choose freely between the bright light of liberty over the darkness of tyranny and destructive hate.