“Why did Hungarians become such Orbáns?”

According to mno.hu, two German newspapers published articles about Hungary in connection with the October 2 referendum on migrant quotas. The two papers, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) and the Bild am Sonntag, are quite popular opinion leaders in Germany.

In FAS’s They already know the answer article the author, Stephan Löwenstein emphasized: Hungary is having a referendum on migrant quotas but the “result is certain” so the question of the reason behind the referendum arises.

In the report, where he asked the opinions of analysts and dwellers of Harsány and Lyukóvölgy, government spokesperson Zoltán Kovács said that according to the predictions of the government, the migrational pressure will strengthen from Syria and Turkey, therefore the referendum will help the government’s work politically and legally.

The author noted that there’s a “cliff, which could wreck the proposition” and this is the participation rate, which is currently predicted to be somewhat under the level needed for validity. However, analysts reckon a “final spurt” in the “Fidesz campaign”.

We seclude ourselves

The German Bild am Sonntag, a countrywide Sunday paper of the biggest circulation, published a compilation titled Why did Hungarians become such Orbáns? in their Travel around Europe report series. The author highlighted that the article presents a country, which “secludes itself from strangers”.

He added: when Germans think about Hungarians, the first thing that comes to their minds is the 1989 border opening and that the German constitution is the base of the “operative Hungarian constitution since 1989”. But they also remember last year’s photos of refugees at Keleti railway station and that Hungarians protect the Serbian and Croatian border with barbed-wire fences to keep refugees away.

The author asked – among others – a 22-year-old student who thinks that the referendum is senseless. This is followed by the statement that this student is “an exception”.

He also explains that the transparency of businesses is not evident and that the government previously had corruption scandals, “but Hungarians still voted for Orbán”. He came up with an interesting metaphor: the Rubik’s cube can be solved in 20 steps but in his opinion Hungary will need a few more steps to solve the issues that pose a problem for the country.

Photo: MTI

Copy editor: bm

Source: http://mno.hu/