The Level of Hungarian Public Discourse is at an all-time Low. It is Only Going to get Worse.
An attack on a former foreign minister, ministers’ comments about Budapest Pride, and an anti-Ukraine campaign video reveal the depths of the crisis in Hungarian public discourse. - writes Ábel Bede
Serving Satan
On 2 June it was reported that Géza Jeszenszky, the foreign minister of Hungary between 1990 and 1994, was in hospital after being brutally attacked in public with a hammer. His wife also sustained injuries. Jeszenszky was taken to hospital and released quickly before shortly being readmitted due to an infection in his wound.
Jeszenszky claimed that this is the second time he had been attacked by the same individual and suspected a political motivation behind the attack, namely his longstanding public support for Ukraine, as well as a far-right conspiracy theory from the 1990s that his government did not fight enough in diplomatic circles to re-incorporate Transcarpathia into Hungary upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union. At court, the attacker claimed that the attempt was not targeted.
The attack in itself is shocking. Politically attempted physical attacks on high-profile politicians are rare in Hungary (the 2007 case of far-right thugs beating up MP Sándor Csintalan springs to mind). But in a way, the tensions fuelled by the constant hate campaigns in the country were bound to result in something similar. Not so long ago, several stands of Tisza received verbal and a more minor form of physician abuse while collecting signatures.
But what perhaps is even more shocking is the afterlife of the case; a day after the attack on Géza Jeszenszky was covered by the news, his son, Zsolt Jeszenszky (or Jeszy), a long-time supporter of Orbánism and a chief contributor to the government-affiliated Pesti Srácok published a bizarre opinion piece. In the article, while he expressed his relief that his father is doing okay, he claimed that the attack on Jeszenszky Sr’s life was a “warning from God” because his father has been “serving Satan” with his public appearances for years. Jeszenszky Sr. said he feels sorry for his son, who was clearly radicalised and fanatised by the Orbán regime.
LGBT Horse Race
But official government communication also reached a new low point in the past two weeks. The question of Pride has been dominating Hungarian public discourse more than usual, after earlier this year, the government decided to ban it from public spaces. The organisers still intend to go ahead: Yesterday, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony announced that Pride will be co-organised with the Budapest City Council, and as council events do not need police approval, Pride looks to go ahead in central Budapest after all..But before such resolution was founded, and upon the official announcement that this year’s pride will indeed be banned, Justice Minister Bence Tuzson published a video in which he suggested the organisers should choose Budapest’s Kincsem Park, a national horse race course, to hold the event, where they could march safely. Such dehumanising language (directed at the country’s own citizens) and the suggestion that protesters should walk around in circles like horses is a new low in the government’s anti-LGBT rhetoric.
But construction minister János Lázár managed to push it even further by filming a video with his son in which his son suggests he would never go to Kincsem Park or Puskás Arena again if Budapest Pride was held there. Lázár replied to him saying that he should not worry, as for “the sake of the horses,” Pride would not be allowed to happen even in Kincsem Park or Puskás Arena.
Ukrainian Human Traffickers
Amidst their inability to counter the surge of Tisza, Fidesz are not only accelerating their hate campaign against the LGBT community but Orbán’s newfound enemy as well: Ukrainians. Fidesz clearly think that for this year, their number one political topic is opposing the EU accession of Ukraine. These attacks are an escalation of the anti-Ukraine rhetoric of the previous years. While previously Fidesz primarily attacked Ukrainian politicians and the idea that Hungary should militarily help the country, the latest attacks bring forward negative stereotypes about Ukrainians as a people.
Orbán in his communications started pushing the idea that phone scams are primarily initiated by Ukrainian gangs. According to 444’s analysis, three weeks ago, the word “Ukrainian” appeared 25 times in Orbán’s weekly interview, two weeks ago 29 times, and last week 33 times. Last weekend, the former Fidesz Budapest mayoral candidate Alexandra Szentkirályi once again managed to reach lower than one could realistically expect. She posted a bizarre video featuring an open car trunk which had a man gagged and hands tied in it, saying that with the possible EU ascension of Ukraine, Hungary would be full of “drug-, weapon-, organ-, and human traffickers.” A few days later, a Fidesz influencer posted that if Ukraine joined the EU, Hungarians would run out of cucumbers.
Hungarian politics has not been without corrosive and brutal propaganda in the past ten years. But the above examples, all of which are from the past two weeks(!), indicate that a panicking Fidesz is willing to go all out with its comms in the next year, even into uncharted territory. It is also a worrying sign for a potential post-Fidesz Hungary; if such rhetoric will circulate freely in the country, how long will it take for the population to heal, even when this chapter of Hungarian history ends?
Ábel Bede