Orbán´s Decadent Plot Against Freedom

Orbán´s Decadent Plot Against Freedom

By: Erreh Svaia

We Hungarians are full of fear, people in Europe are full of fear because they see that the European leaders ... are not able to control the situation.

Viktor Orbán

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been exhibiting his vast ineptitude towards leading his country into the waters of today´s global volatile surroundings, Orbán, a former democrat (as you can recall him in his 20´s claiming that communism and democracy are incompatible) and liberal, now in love with Putin's illiberal democracy (How ironic isn’t it?), was the only European Union leader to praise the presidential candidacy of the lunatic Donald Trump (perhaps he felt identification with Trump´s anti Muslim stance), nowadays Orbán is already getting into trouble by rebelling (at his convenience) against the European Union refugee policy, at times leading a small block of countries along Poland and Slovakia against the EU refuge quotas (but enjoying subsidies from Brussels and taking advantage of the EU policies of free mobility within countries for Hungarians, who work in places like Poland where economy is better and are able to send money back home benefiting Hungary, How convenient isn’t it?), suffering from the same nationalistic wide spread virus as his fellow Polish neighbors in power (The PiS Party of Jaroslaw Kaczynski), Orbán set up his own populist plot in which outsiders are to be blamed for all of Hungary's problems, building barbed wired fences to prevent refugees from entering the country, ironic, considering the historical fact that Hungary was the first place where the infamous “Iron Curtain” was torn apart letting people form the communist bloc escape towards west Europe (People from East Germany who crossed to Austria via Hungary, to be exact), now Orbán is setting his eyes straight on the supposed evil inference of foreign institutions on Hungarian soil, doing whatever it takes to close down and to block ever institution that he perceives as an obstacle towards totalitarian power, denouncing the “evil” presence of George Soros, Soros, a world known financial funder of educational institutions, social integration organizations and human rights and free thought think tanks, has been perceived as Orbán government´s public enemy number one, a threat and a nightmare for Orbán's autocratic populist dreams of complete control over the country.

Orbán's awkward internal and external policies have been precisely producing an adverse effect, whereas a couple of years ago there was no opposition to talk about in Hungary, today it looks as civil society are aligning against Orbán's absurd initiatives with thousands of civilians now participating in street protests, now, just as Orbán's current target, the legendary Central European University (seen widely as one of the oldest and last democratic bastions in the country), an educational unity in Budapest founded after the fall of communism with the mission of studying contemporary events on nascent democratic and open society issues, and to start eradicating the remains of communism is about to be close in the middle of absurd laws promoted by Orbán´s government and party Fidesz, to render it nonoperational, ironically, Orbán was benefited in his youth from a Soros Foundation scholarship and now precisely Orbán's main obsession is to close the University (first and then other NGO´s next in order to erode civil society and the rule of law) in order to stop one of his main funders supposed interference in the country (in reality Orbán wants no interference from independent judiciary or pluralistic media), yes, George Soros, paradoxically the same man whose scholarship helped Orbán's studies is the actual main target of Orbán's crusade against foreign inference, as he claims that Soros and the CEU's influence have been determinant in the degradation of Hungarian Christians values with Soros depicted as the country main boogey man, coming at night to haunting Orbán´s placid dreams, which might be about government only funded schools that can indoctrinate Hungarian youngsters about the beauty of Populist Autocracy.

But Orbán´s autocratic dreams might be enjoying small success this days, as he has managed to unsuccessfully bribe (just like a true fear monger) society under the premise that his style “strong man” rule has been determinant to stop the advance of the dangerous far right Neo-Nazi parties like the increasingly popular Jobbik, and at the same time keeping Hungary “independence” from the European Union policies, a strange kind of autocracy in the middle of a conglomerate of democratic countries, just as Turkey´s main man Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Orbán might be playing with fire as he is trying to counter pose some of his opponents to his convenience, but this little Machiavellian game could end up turning against him in the end, as Orbán appeal remains a thing of the past, with his brand of traditional conservativism could end up surpassed by the more radical far right, just as in France, where traditional left wingers and traditional conservatives started aligning behind Marine Le Pen´s National Front, so it might not be too long for Orbán´s ending crushed between Jobbik far right advances and the people street protests against Orbán´s charmless attempt at “Making Hungary Great Again”, he must try to make a strong effort in order to remember how strong he clung to freedom in his 20´s he must keep in mind that once people are set free, it would be hard to take it away from them again as Hungary is not Russia, Orbán might see himself as the next Putin or the next Trump, but in fact he is no more than a small piece in a conquest game, and one day he will be used by more extreme politicians in order to drive Hungary towards the extreme right.