Maelström Europe
Last time we left Hungary in a state of collapse in late 1988, when Kádár was put to rest in the largest state funeral in our history, accompanied on his last journey by literally millions of people. It was also a hysteric time of triumphalism among the new elites that sprang to life from the ashes of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party, or MSZMP. It was going to be a time of Liberalisation, Individual Rights and Prosperity, of our Great Reunion with the Cultured Western Family in Europe, after our period of Eastern backwardness. On paper, at least.
We will now abandon the topic of Communism and a Socialist society, just like my country did on that day. You don’t need to know the history of each bastard offspring party to understand the changes that came next, but you will need to know about two. The transition back to the capitalist mode of production was carried out by the first, called MSZP, our “Hungarian” “Socialist” Party, which – again on paper – looked Social Democratic, the kind of dime-a-dozen formation that vowed to tame the machine of capitalism by little reforms, a tweak here, a little twist there. Capitalism with a kind, human face. What would become apparent over the decades was that not only did they betray the word Socialist, they also betrayed the word Hungarian. Among their top hits are the initial decimation of Hungarian Industry – built over half a century – bought up for pennies by foreign “investors” and simply closed, or stripped of equipment and technology – quickly shipped to the West, like LEHEL Electronics was gutted by the Swedish Electrolux – and left to decay.
It was also under their leadership that we received “assistance” from the IMF, with the usual conditions attached : Structural reforms, which invariably means more privatization of public property, and public or state-owned companies. This is how the Hungarian Oil and Gas Trust was split up and what was left was converted into MOL – Hungarian Oil and Gas Public Limited Company – freed from her obligations to our people, now only accountable to quarterly profits. Four of the six power distribution companies were privatized by German investors, like RWE Energie, Isar Amper Werke, and Bayernwerk, all survivors of the Reich, and all but RWE now belonging to the familiar E-ON group, which is not, never was Hungarian. It is also noteworthy to point out that Telekom Publicly Operating Joint Stock Company, our largest telecommunications company – established in 1991 – is OWNED by Deutsche Telekom.
Finally, it was under MSZP Prime Minister Medgyessy on 1 May 2004, that we joined the European Union, with stars in our eyes, looking forward to our thriving future among these lovely friends. Oh how naïve I was, at the age of 22, for the life of me I could not see this organization, nor its sibling the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for what they really were. After a tiny early intermission under some nationalist, crhristian-democrats – it was my sorrow of sorrows to see Bertalan Farkas, our only Cosmonaut join these people – the main rival appeared on stage : Orbán’s FIDESZ, originally founded as a centre-left Liberal ( not kidding ) activist movement a year before MSZP, in 1988.
As even the last supporters of the old system were disillusioned by the dismal performance of these fake Socialists, Orbán’s “Young Democrats’ Alliance” – now renamed “Hungarian Civic Alliance” – first wrestled power from them in 1998 for a single four year term, and by that time they had morphed into a populist, conservative party. Their slogans and speeches were all about the return of former glory days, of a renaissance of Hungarian Greatness, but it was soon apparent that under the populist façade the economic program was essentially the same. An over-reliance on foreign – especially German – investment, the continued loss of well-paid jobs and an increased loss of young people to emigration, me among them a few years later. The real economy continued to be hollowed out.
This was followed by a last little flirtation with the EU-cialists in power between 2002 and 2009 – suffering a complete collapse of legitimacy in 2006 when, to quote Prime Minister Gyurcsány’s leaked speech at Öszöd : “Elkúrtuk” or “They f*cked up”, admitting that they did nothing in their previous term – after which Fidesz took advantage of this fact and the ensuing financial crisis of 2009. They consolidated power and remained there for a dozen years, leading up to today. Institutions were renamed to sound more traditional ( like our high court now called “Kúria” like in mediaeval times ) and the Constitution of Hungary was re-written in 2012, which interestingly initiated a reduction of foreign ownership in the banking sector at least, from about 70 percent at the time, to 40.5 percent by the end of 2020.
Another interesting twist that same year ( still 2012 ) came in the form of a nationwide ban on the foreign ownership of Hungarian farmland, so immediately you begin to see a hidden dimension between the two parties, one being national in character, the other in favor of what they call “integration”, in other words becoming the servile colony of the Union, in other words the German Economic Machine. On the surface, on the domestic level – sloganeering aside – they look the same, but if you dig a little it is apparent that cautious moves towards independence from this Bloc began a decade ago.
On that point, I’d like to add an observation about Gyurcsány who in my opinion no longer deserves Hungarian citizenship. His party may have faded into irrelevance, but the guy just doesn’t seem to want to disappear. So this historic year, when Hungarians were asked to the ballot box, a veritable alphabet of Opposition parties united ( with ideologies from right to center, and massive funding from abroad ) to challenge the government, among them Gyurcsány’s Democratic Coalition or DK. I read their program – written in part by the disgraced Gyurcsány – and it contains the word Európa a whopping 118 times. Every time he talks about anything Central, this remarkable document does not mean Budapest, it explicitly means Brussels. Even more recently, I watched an interview with him on the Partizán YouTube channel ( which I suppose is some kind of anarcho-whatever political channel, based on their titles ) where he squirmed more than that Bankman-Fried guy. Some key sentences stuck out to me: He said things like he’s selling the family villa, because he and his wife ( Klára Dobrev, the so-called “leader” of the so-called “centre-left” ), and I quote “spend most of the year in Brussels”, and “love to read the news, but usually in english”. I say move there, today, and don’t come back.
This is the short history of the two leaders and their respective clubs of plutocrats – what are known as Oligarchs in bad countries, and good Philanthropist Billionaires in the nice ones – who both like amassing small fortunes, but the vector is drastically different when it comes to foreign policy. Let’s not forget that Orbán was once one of the “chosen”, the golden boy that studied law at Oxford, and took the Soros grants. Then he turned around and banned CEU ( Central European University ), and the Open Societies foundation – a soft power organization banned in Russia – 2015 – and China – 2022 – recognized as “threats”. Domestic and social policy between the two is only marginally different, mostly focused on the family, gender or god. Of course the Gyurcsány wing borrows from actual left language ( worker’s rights, wages etc. ) but it is mere symbolism, materially none of those conditions have improved under either party. I’m pretty sure that sounds familiar to most European and American readers.
And then all hell broke loose in February this year, and the entire monolithic European media went mad with blood lust for the old enemy. The story of a supposed “unprovoked aggression” was overwhelming, and everybody cried blue and yellow tears. Only a few took account of at least eight, if not thirty years of history leading up to this event that shook the world, and I’m sure you are one of them. This put Orbán in a difficult position, because he spent most of his life relentlessly bashing anything Soviet ( and by extension Russian ) banking on yet another case of “Loss and long held Grudge”, as distractions from nothing changing for our people. The truth being buried and dead, our two spheres of media ( government and opposition ) went to a war of narratives with each other. This was preferable to – for example – British media, but it left the average Hungarian in a constant state of confusion, and people went quiet – they’re not quiet now! Both parties share the blame for this, but at this point in time, to stand with Russia, would have meant political suicide. Only Serbia had the guts to do it from day one. So Viktor played the Erdoğan game, as best he could, dancing from one side to another, going along with some condemnations and sanctions, rejecting others, until it was obvious the situation in the whole of Europe became untenable.
The moment “someone” blew up the Nord Stream pipelines, the game changed forever. Everyone knows who was hell-bent on destroying the European economy, taking away the mere possibility of reconciliation, in the middle of a NATO dominated pond. This will be in the history books, and so will these figureheads in Western Europe, who have no qualms whatsoever borrowing ( creating Eurobonds ) to pay for their own deindustrialisation, or as Chinese media eloquently puts it the “harvesting” of Europe by.. You know “someone”. And now that Winter has only just begun, even that famed European “unity” is cracking. Poland can’t decide if it hates Germany or Russia more – while it contends with burning rubbish for heat, and a 60% jump in shoplifting – the Baltic midgets are rabid for war while collapsing, the South ( even Italy ) is opposing the core especially on the topic of immigration. The World Health Organization is forecasting 2M refugees from the East, while that country’s own energy provider is expecting – nay encouraging – more like 8 million, creating a strain on Europe’s already faltering economy never before seen. While the UK has a shortage of eggs – blaming avian flu, of all things! – and half of her pubs have filed for bankruptcy.
In the middle of Maelström Europe is my tiny Hungary, a landlocked, agricultural and service economy. And now, the game is about survival. I’m sure most people not “informed” by the Western press know the source of 80-100% real increase in the price of – especially – dairy, bakery and meat items that are hitting us in the stomach. And then a few things happened on a single day : The EU announced their little price-cap on Russian seabound oil, Hungary got an exemption, and Hungary stopped another 17 million Euro slush-fund from being borrowed to aid one of our Eastern neighbors. And all of a sudden – early this week – there was no petrol in a quarter of Hungarian pumps. There was – on Sunday – certainly none in my city. It has since been explained that MOL – mentioned earlier, a private company unlike Rosneft – during a supply squeeze like this, simply couldn’t service the entire country via the Duna Refinery in Százhalombatta alone – which is struggling to come to full capacity after maintenance – and was looking for more expensive import replacements. So we had to drop the price-freeze on our fuel on Tuesday, jumping the price by more than 50%, and we are waiting for the system to catch up.
This would be simple to address during normal times, but not during a worldwide supply crisis. MOL has three refineries, one in Bratislava ( Slovakia ), one in Rijeka ( Croatia ) and the largest one in Hungary. But pipeline oil to all three comes through Druzhba ( Friendship ) which has gone through price-hikes and supply outages. By pure coincidence this pipeline comes through the country of Time’s and Financial Times’ “man of the year”, who is by no means happy with us. On top of that, Europe is not happy with us.
I remember that back in 2006 Gyurcsány’s speech caused massive unrest, and a two year political crisis. There was a member of the European Parliament ( Krisztina Morvai ) asking then Commission-head José Manuel Barrosso about a response, he famously answered “no European body is occupied with this, because it is the internal matter of Hungary”. And today – as the Polish know very well – we are now held hostage because of certain “rule of law” discrepancies, not even being paid what we are owed from two years ago. These are Ursula’s “tools” in case people vote the wrong way. For the life of me I couldn’t see it before, but it is now obvious : as NATO is the foreign policy arm of the US, the EU is simply the domestic policy arm, with no room for disagreement. Points – bribes, grants – are only earned through complete compliance, it doesn’t matter who suffers at home. This is not to mention how much of a wealth siphon it has been from small, Southern and Eastern countries to the core.
I honestly don’t know how I would proceed if I were Orbán, but we need friends and supplies. The time for media campaigns and costly citizen “consultations” is over, and he has a Mandate from the people, so – one way or the other – decisive action is needed. In order for public order, and government power to remain, people have to eat, and travel. Never mind the media circus, we need tangible solutions, now. We’re lucky enough to have gas – my recent bill actually paid me back, halving my rent, a very welcome development since I’m dead-broke. If we follow Europe, we will be in the dark, hungry, but for now, at least we’re not cold.
So to quote Munkáspárt ( the Workers Party, a tiny pink communist but non revolutionary party, the second child of the 1989 dismantling of MSZMP ) all the way back in 2013 : get out of both organizations, don’t send our money, and don’t expect any from them. Don’t cling on to Zombie Europe, it’s dead, it just doesn’t know it. A better life will never be gifted to us. I would look towards the Balkans, and look towards the Rising East if I were you. And if they call you “Ruble-Right” while the opposition is known as “Dollar-Left”, who cares? We need an Independent, Sovereign nation before we can even think of anything else. So F*ck Borrell’s Garden, you need to provide for the people now, or the people will very quickly abandon you.
—-
Sorry about the length and rantyness, please take this as more of an Opinion Piece than anything else. I mostly wrote it to see if I still could, coherently, and to check if I hadn’t completely lost my mind. I know Hungary is a tiny corner of a global conflict, but it’s where I am. We’ll look at more of the broad strokes soon. It is surreal, how a traditional right-party ( called Mi Hazánk, or Our Motherland ) is pressuring the Prime Minister from the Left, on ending the aid, on expanding Nuclear energy with Russia, on medical workers and teachers wages, even lamenting the loss of the pioneer movement, while these Eu-cialists don’t lift a damn finger for us but that’s where we are. It explains a great deal about the Polish and German protest organized by communists, and right wingers demanding that NATO f*ck off.
Have a lovely Thursday morning, afternoon or evening whatever sky looks down on you reading these lines.
Peace, Land and Bread
From Facebook Archives : 8 December 2022
I’d like to see the comment format, please.