Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why Liberals Everywhere Hate Hungary’s Viktor Orban So Much
The Federalist ^ | 08/09/2021 | Sumantra Maitra

Posted on 08/09/2021 8:30:55 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Hungarian President Viktor Orban was a once a dissident against communism. Then he turned to faith and flag—and became a heretic against liberalism.

“The right’s entrancement with [Hungarian President Viktor] Orban has emerged fitfully over the last decade. One could find defenses of the Hungarian regime in places like the New York Post, the Federalist, the Heritage Foundation, and National Review. Yet, until recently, open support for Orban’s Hungary was an idiosyncratic minority position on the American right,” writes Jonathan Chait in one of his two articles last week on the topic, citing yours truly.

In the last couple of days, the leftist Twittersphere had a total meltdown over Hungary. The immediate cause was Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s visit to Hungary to shoot a documentary and take part in a conference.

“In Orban’s Hungary, +90% of media is controlled by the ruling party. Businesses are physically and legally harassed if they don’t toe the party line (or if someone wants them, cheap). Elections are manipulated. Party leaders are mysteriously rich. A model for Fox?” asked The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum on Twitter.

“Orban destroyed Hungarian democratic institutions, taking over the courts and using them as a weapon against his opponents and to enrich his family and friends. There are no more independent media. State contracts enrich his family. The US far right is going over there to learn,” claimed Yale University professor Jason Stanley.

“I visited Hungary in 2016. Again & again, I witnessed a gesture I thought had vanished from Europe forever: people turning their heads to check who was listening before they lent forward to whisper what they had to say. They feared for their jobs, not their lives – but still …” was the observation from The Atlantic’s David Frum.

I have often tried to understand the interesting phenomenon of anti-Orban rhetoric in the United States and Britain, purely from a historical perspective. Leftists have a curious obsession with Hungary. Orban is routinely called “far-right” by a section of the American journalist and pundit class who may never have heard of Jobbik nor have any idea of what the real far-right in Europe can mean or even look like.

Another layer of irony is that the same leftists who despise Orban also support Ukraine against Russia, even when Ukraine’s rebels include the Pravy Sektor, one of the most notorious ultra-nationalist groups in Europe. The entire logic is similar to the “Rambo 3” epilogue in which the film supported the “brave mujahideen in Afghanistan” fighting Russia.

At the same age Applebaum and Frum were shilling for a war that would lead to hundreds of thousands of casualties and more than $6 trillion wasted, Orban was an anti-Soviet dissident. That’s perhaps partially why he is hated so much.

Here’s the great hope, the Anakin Skywalker of post-Soviet Eastern Europe, suddenly turning into a Christian nationalist opposed to mass immigration and unchecked labor mobility as well as sexual “liberation.” Liberal criticism of Orban therefore also stems from his deviation from the anointed path.

One of the theological understandings of post-Cold War Central and Eastern Europe was that they were all trying to overthrow the Soviet superstructure because they were liberals. Poland and Hungary turning back to their pre-World War I roots, therefore, marks a deviation from that path. Apostates are worse than heathens for sacramental liberalism, and Orban is the man who turned heretic.

America isn’t the only one. Recently, the European Union published two reports. The first one was titled “2021 Rule of Law Report.” It explicitly states that “Respect for the rule of law and the equality of Member States in the EU requires EU law to have primacy over national law and the rulings of the CJEU to be binding on all Member States’ authorities, including national courts.” Consider the implications.

If you are a member of the EU, you have to know that EU laws and court judgments will supersede your democratically elected government, laws, parliament, presidency, and national laws. Essentially, this is an imperial system in which the nation-states are provinces, bound under EU supremacy.

The hint at this was explicit. Hungary and Poland cannot be members of the EU and have national laws opposed to any European Parliament diktats on anything from immigration to sexuality.

The second report, which was authorized by the European Commission, warns that memes are tools for radicalization from the far right. It says Doge and Pepe the frog are routinely used in “helping to normalize hostile attitudes toward minorities and political opponents” as well as “a kind of anti-elite arrogance and condescension.”

Once again, if you’re in a member state of the EU, you cannot in the future criticize the elite or use memes, or you’ll be considered a pawn of the far-right.

Let’s go back to the tweets from Applebaum and Frum. People fearing for their jobs due to imposed social taboos and state-mandated ostracism for anyone who oppose extreme social deviancy such as criminal thuggery, as well as unchecked sexual “liberation” and open borders fuelled by an ever-growing NGO-cracy. Does that sound like a “totalitarian Hungary” or the United States?

Orban is not even right-wing in the American parlance. He’s a statist Christian nationalist who uses the state power to impose (or roll back, depending on which side of the spectrum you are) a certain set of values. As David Harsanyi mentioned on Twitter, that has more in common with progressivism, but the progressives simply cannot stand Orban because he is using their own style against them, to impose policies they don’t prefer.

In that way, Orban is far more successful, measured purely by legislative achievements, than both contemporary British and American right, which would rather sit back and let Big Tech decide your morality. His popularity in Hungary and landslide victories are a testament to that.

Watching the meltdown over Carlson visiting Hungary and meeting Orban, I stumbled upon a hypothesis. In an earlier era, British and American liberals from Walter Bagehot to Margaret Sanger opposed any mass democracy or plebiscitary instincts. Now liberals are therefore baffled when that democracy results in normal people rejecting their radical policies. The Hungary meltdown is a sign of that disconnect.


Dr. Sumantra Maitra is an ECR member at the Royal Historical Society (United Kingdom), and a fellow at Martin Center (United States). He is a senior contributor to The Federalist. He can be found on Twitter, @MrMaitra.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: eu; eussr; hungary; liberals; viktororban
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-40 next last

1 posted on 08/09/2021 8:30:55 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Get out of the EU before they have an army of their own.


2 posted on 08/09/2021 8:36:18 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

people turning their heads to check who was listening before they lent forward to whisper what they had to say. They feared for their jobs, not their lives”

sounds like America today.....


3 posted on 08/09/2021 8:37:46 AM PDT by ConservativeDude
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

There are TWO COUNTRIES in that part of the world whose governments protect kids from gay recruitment - Hungary and Russia.

There are TWO COUNTRIES in that part of the world that liberals HATE - Hungary and Russia.

This isn’t complicated.


4 posted on 08/09/2021 8:38:05 AM PDT by BobL (I shop at Walmart and eat at McDonald's, I just don't tell anyone, like most here.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BobL

> There are TWO COUNTRIES in that part of the world that liberals HATE - Hungary and Russia. <

I don’t know about Russia. But the EU elites sure hate Hungary and Poland.


5 posted on 08/09/2021 8:42:15 AM PDT by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Leaning Right

They hate Russia for abandoning Communism.


6 posted on 08/09/2021 8:42:39 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: BobL

Frankly as for the leadership of their country they’re more advanced than we are as far as allowing the freedom of their citizens....political freedom is another story though.


7 posted on 08/09/2021 8:45:59 AM PDT by caww ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
“In Orban’s Hungary, +90% of media is controlled by the ruling party. Businesses are physically and legally harassed if they don’t toe the party line (or if someone wants them, cheap). Elections are manipulated. Party leaders are mysteriously rich. A model for Fox?” asked The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum on Twitter.

This is the funniest piece of satire I have read in weeks. Reciting the Democratic Party playbook and then accusing Orban of being a bad guy for following it? Priceless…

8 posted on 08/09/2021 8:46:58 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: caww

Securing borders, language and culture is freedom.


9 posted on 08/09/2021 8:47:27 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Poland and Hungary are both based as heck because these countries are run by the grandchildren of the generation that watched as the communist Bolshevik Revolution moved from the heart of Russia out across one Eastern European nation after another from Belarus to Azerbaijan, to Turkmenistan, to Georgia, to Latvia, and Hungary and Poland.

Their grandparents taught them well the nature of the beast and thus they are wise to the games being played and the outright propaganda in the controlled press.
10 posted on 08/09/2021 8:48:28 AM PDT by softengine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: softengine

A warning though on Poland, Warsaw is becoming a very liberal city. You are starting to see Rainbow Flags pop up there, which would have been unheard of just a few years ago.


11 posted on 08/09/2021 8:49:52 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

We have none of those.


12 posted on 08/09/2021 8:51:58 AM PDT by caww ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Easy.
Austria, Hungary and Poland are rejecting the Gay Mafia


13 posted on 08/09/2021 8:52:42 AM PDT by Zathras
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

If homoglobo doesn’t rule, then it’s a problem. Policy has nothing to do with it.


14 posted on 08/09/2021 8:55:40 AM PDT by IDFbunny (Fat shaming works.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BobL

Poland is also purging the communists and queers from their government and society. They’re also catching hell for it from the deviants who run the EU.


15 posted on 08/09/2021 8:57:27 AM PDT by MercyFlush ( According to the New York Times "Freedom" is an anti-government slogan. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I am half-Hungarian and own a house there. I have many relatives and friends in Hungary.

Let me start by saying Orban has been the best leader Hungary has had in at least a century.

But, like anyone in government, there is the graft and enriching of family/friends. Orban has been in power for too long and there is corruption.

HOWEVER

Orban has put Hungary first and ensured that the Hungarian family decides their own destiny, not the Hungarian government nor the EU.

The EU has been trying to dictate to Hungary over and over on non-economic issues. The EU was supposed to be more of an economic union, but it has morphed into the typical socialist dictate on every issue.

Hungary’s “anti-LGBT law” merely prohibits the teaching of children about homosexuality, etc by anyone other than their parents. If their parents choose to teach their children about transgenderism, then that is a family choice.

The EU and global media think government should teach such things and parents should not have any say in the matter.

Orban has been hard on the press because so much of the press is really fronts for agenda-driven groups such as the socialists, communists, environmentalists, etc. These media organizations do not care about being a watchdog over the Hungarian government as much as installing one that they agree with.

Hungary is also filled with many political parties and they have been unable to unify on any issue against Orban. We may see that next year, but I doubt they will win.

But Orban is past his expiration date and should hand the reigns over to others. Unfortunatley, he wants to stay in power past 2030. That is too long for anyone, even if we mostly agree with them.


16 posted on 08/09/2021 8:58:02 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (We are being played by forces most do not understand)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Frum is simply a liar. I was talking to a Pole who works teaching English in Budapest a few weeks ago. She said the city was newly restored and the economic situation was enormously better than 10 years ago.

Her only complaint: Orban's government lets too many Third Worlders in as students who are allowed to work and then overstay their visas and contribute to criminality.

I just came back from a six week stay in Poland. They still have a free press, very much unlike the US.

17 posted on 08/09/2021 9:11:25 AM PDT by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens" )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

Yep. The agitators are pushing hard. I hope the Polish people call them out for who they are and give them the response they deserve.


18 posted on 08/09/2021 9:15:28 AM PDT by softengine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Tucker’s reporting from Hungary all last week and his interview with Orban was excellent; just think, a country that actually enforces borders, language and culture.


19 posted on 08/09/2021 9:17:04 AM PDT by PROCON (Our rights do not come from government, therefore they cannot take them away.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MercyFlush
"Poland is also purging the communists and queers from their government and society. They’re also catching hell for it from the deviants who run the EU."

Yes! Good on them. Our time is coming too.
20 posted on 08/09/2021 9:17:25 AM PDT by softengine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-40 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson