8 June 2012
A few weeks ago, Prime Minister Orbán spoke eloquently on the subject of Hungary’s role in Europe. His opponents, both at home and abroad, castigated his view of Europe as being petty-minded, nationalist and misguided.
Yet what are we to make of the current developments in the EU, which has been plagued by crisis after crisis as it seeks and repeatedly fails to get to grips with economic stagnation, political sclerosis and public resentment?
The political ferment in Greece, the instability in the Netherlands and the recent election of a new President in France all clearly points to dysfunction and disagreement at the heart of European fiscal policy. It also reinforces the lack of transparency at the European level concerning the European project itself – the mismanagement and falsification of economic data which underpins much of Europe’s financial crisis was well known but quietly swept under the carpet. In recent times, Germany’s bitter economic model has only served to open old historical wounds, not cement a better tomorrow for all EU citizens.
As I write, the Spanish Authorities are frantically denying there banks are in trouble when we all know the opposite is true. The EU of today has become the home to ever-growing scepticism about politics and politicians, the market model and the very idea of a political Europe.
In Hungary, the political opposition – whether it be Socialists, LMP or Jobbik – are either wilfully ignorant of these facts or are simply choosing to ignore them. Their attacks on Viktor Orbán lack any substance on what it means today to be a nation state within a dysfunctional EU.
However, what these parties and their leadership are failing to appreciate is that the question of Hungary’s role in Europe is critical. The Fidesz leadership has clearly outlined its vision of a future Hungary, within the EU but without a slavish adherence of current European versions of liberalism and progressiveness. Orbán has literally challenged EU orthodoxy and his Brussels speech in April 2012 was fairly reminiscent of another Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, as she lambasted the EU in her famous Bruges speech. Orbán is no Thatcher but he has a strong appreciation of what it means to be Hungarian.
The Hungarian Socialists and the LMP have no competing narratives. It’s one thing to mimic the mantras of the left-liberal communities in Brussels but quite another to translate this into a coherent position on Hungary’s future.
Allied to the ignorance of the politicians, one must add the even more startling ignorance of the Hungarian media. Read, listen and look carefully at this vital section of the community which doesn’t even know what it doesn’t know. Time and again, the Hungarian media and what passes as political analysts compete to demonstrate just how ignorant they really are on European politics, global finance or foreign affairs. There is really no excuse for this lack of knowledge and expertise. The poor Hungarian citizen is quite literally fed a diet of media mush as a substitute for informed analysis and debate. Does the average Hungarian actually have any idea how life in the country compares to other societies? Do they really understand that the economic crisis in many other EU Member States would suggest that Fidesz and Hungary is actually not that bad?
There is one man who recognises this fact and is probably laughing out loud as the political opposition and the media once gain fail to appreciate and understand the seismic shifts taking place in Europe. That man is Viktor Orbán.