Is Hungary unfairly demonised in the West? – Documentary answers
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The 2022 Hungarian Parliamentary election is just around the corner, and it will decide whether the current government could hold its position for another four-year term, or the Hungarian joint opposition will eventually dethrone Fidesz after twelve years.
Mandiner reported that the British The New Culture Forum put together a nearly hour-long documentary on the situation of conservativism in Hungary trying to find answers on why Hungary has gotten demonised by Western politics.
General history
Over the past three terms of the Hungarian government, the country, or maybe more accurately Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has been widely demonised by the Western media. But what is the reason behind it and how well-founded it is?
Hungary is a country with a rich history, but its people were oppressed during the majority of the past five decades, most recently by the communist regime that ended only three decades ago, the documentary said.
The demonisation began not long after the election of Fidesz in 2010. This event marks the time when the relationship between Hungary and the European Union, or the West in general, started to worsen. The change became painfully clear following the events of the 2015 migration crisis in Europe.
“One would be forgiven for thinking that Viktor Orbán was the head of an authoritarian regime, but in reality, Hungarian conservative thinking has always been about the preservation of the country’s sovereignty and freedom in the face of threatening forces from whatever direction and in whatever form they may come,” – Peter Whittle, the interviewer and narrator of the documentary said.
Why has Hungary been demonised?
The Hungarian government led by Viktor Orbán had a clear stance on migration that opposed the mainstream thinking within the EU, which has led to debates and the distancing between the two parties in a growing number of aspects of political thinking since then.
“Essentially a lot of it is down to political spite, […] unfortunately, Hungary has had a bad reputation because people have been attacking Orbán,” Tibor Fischer a journalist and Head of Literature at the Matthias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) said.
The Hungarian government said that they wanted to replenish the population of the country keeping to the traditional family model and supporting existing families as well as encouraging couples to have children, as opposed to strengthening the country’s population through outside sources, such as migration.
“Every year for 40 years, more Hungarians have died than born but rather than look to immigration to solve this problem, the Hungarian government decided to incentivise the growth of families from within,” – Peter Whittle highlighted.
I have never read so much nonsense. You can tell that this whole thing was not cobbled together by the DNH – the standard of the English language is way beyond what they write. No, it is piece from ‘above’.
I’d love these guys to explain this to all of our well qualified youngers (holding Hungarian university degrees we paid for) who we see leaving to other EU jurisdictions, in droves. @DNH – there surely must be numbers, available, somewhere?
Every time one of our twenty or thirty something professionals walks into my office saying “I need to tell you something”, my heart sinks.
Usually, it is: “I’ve had a great offer from abroad and I am handing in my resignation”. Jobs they applied for. Why leave our very own Land of Milk and Honey?