Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper) Fidesz has recently grown to cherish, and even proclaim, the need to end the use of implicit and polite language, claiming that it is more reasonable to call a spade a spade and simply ignore others’ sensitivity. I am not one for this propaganda-style simplicity, devoid of moral restraints and common-sense formulas of politeness, but for once, in this writing, I shall make an exception and step outside the cultural boundaries marked out by my upbringing, because I want to shake people up who have been misled by propaganda.
I am infinitely fed up with the manipulation of the masses by the highest circles of the NER, with vile, demagogic messages and conscious lies that poison our shared homeland for generations. These scoundrels have not been afraid to transgress certain European (hah, Christian!) moral values of sorts, but in recent months they have really been playing the most despicable game in order to pursue their petty, money-grubbing goals loaded with personal frustrations.
They were already committing the ultimate infamy when, after the murderous incursion of the Russian aggressor, they mongered fears among Hungarian families that the politicians and their supporters in opposition to the ruling party were trying to drag Hungarian young people ripe for conscription to the front, in simple terms: send them to their certain death. Initially, there were just vague hints here and there; over time, however, this blatant lie was spread with unvarnished directness. “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they are doing,” could be their absolution, but no. There is no forgiveness. There’s no bloody forgiveness for this because it was a deliberate, despicable, scum of the earth act and they know it. If these people are genuinely devout, God-fearing Christians and their recent bowing to the Vicar of Christ on earth was not just cynical hypocrisy, they had better prepare themselves because the hour of judgement will be particularly distressing for them when they are held to account for their sins.
There was hardly a more disgusting thing than when the oligarchic circle around Fidesz – with state support – had the nerve to make a contemptible profit even on the covid epidemic that killed tens of thousands of Hungarians; by taking a cut from overpriced or even tailored procurement tenders. What a vile disgrace this was again!
But the NER’s [Orbán’s so called “National Cooperation System”] senior leadership still continues to drink wine and preach water in a stomach-turning manner, even at a time of senseless and violent Russian aggression that has killed hundreds of thousands of adults and even children. They have the nerve to piously demand and preach peace, while nothing else keeps their all-time belligerent regime going, but constant warfare, most of the time against non-existent adversaries. They have the nerve to call for peace in a pious tone, and yet again, in a bloody disgusting manner, accuse everyone else who is not a blind believer in the ruling parties of wanting war, i.e., to dumb it down: economic harm, human death, suffering. What vile disgrace yet again!
Yet what prompted this outspoken note is the ‘peace’ demanded by Fidesz and its vileness without substance. Allow me to use a sharp parallel to illustrate for you what Fidesz’s peace is, which it so vociferously demands; after all, the ruling party says nothing more than that the parties should stop fighting and come to an agreement. They never attach any conditions or basic requirements; why would they amidst their current flip-flopping? In ushanka hats.
Fidesz’s peace proposal can be summed up most simply like this: we accept rape, the rapist who breaks into the house doesn’t even have to climb off the victim completely, just pull his pants up a little, because, hey, come on; in return, the woman promises not to shout so loudly and not to bite the hands that gag her mouth. The main thing is for everyone to calm down, there’s nothing serious going on here; and this Bucha-thing can happen to anyone, really. Fidesz’s top leaders think that it is okay to arrow backwards on every battlefield, to play it both ways with a Kurutz spin. But the bear is not a toy. And rape cannot be interrupted on the basis of everyone meeting halfway. You cannot stand by the bedside with your hands in your pockets and say to the victim, lying on her back, pinned down and stripped of her clothes: let’s have a ceasefire and discuss that this penetration was not that painful, swear to God, it won’t happen again, and the lady can even get to keep the top part of the torn underwear, see, there’s no need to scream here, “poidem-poidem” [move along, move along in Russian].
Anyone who says that the Russian aggressor can impose any conditions is also saying that the aggressor must button back his trousers, but he can still grope with his hands from the waist up. Harsh? Vivid? An outrageous comparison? True, though. Anyone who says that siding with the Ukrainians in this conflict is “pro-war” is also saying that anyone who wants to defend a raped woman is in fact “pro-violence.” Absurd? Gibberish? True though. Fidesz is committing the most disgusting lying possible when it calls those ‘pro-war’ who believe that if the Russians have taken up arms, they must also be the first to lay down their weapons and that the first, minimum condition for peace is that every last soldier leaves sovereign Ukrainian territory. Just as they withdrew from Hungary after a young man called Viktor Orbán talked about this on Heroes’ Square, Budapest – these days they say that this is what gave the occupying Russians the initial impetus to pull out back in the day.
I am a proud Hungarian patriot. No matter how government party haters spit on me, I still believe in a shared homeland with them, a European Hungary. And I am not prepared to accept, I am not able to tolerate that the current leaders of the country – out of who knows what dark compulsions or sheer petty profiteering – are actually assisting a dirty rape. When a secure and sustainable peace finally comes (soon, we hope), it will not be enough for them to say of the violation, “I was just watching it, not doing it.” It will not suffice as defence to just say “but that man was so big and strong, no one could have stopped him anyway, why didn’t she let just him get on with it, it would have been over quicker.” Anyone who tolerates this or turns a blind eye while this is happening next door is an accomplice to rape. Preventing gross abuse, defending the persecuted and ensuring that it does not happen to others: well, that is PEACE in block capitals. It is not pro-war, but the strongest and surest expression of the desire for peace.
All systems fail eventually. It is true of Putin, Orbán, but it is true of Biden, Macron, anyone and everyone. It is a question of who leaves a mark and what kind of mark and at what cost. Hungarian remembrance is now dominated by Viktor Orbán, but there is a firm law in the cycle of history: there will always come a time when everything falls into place and everyone will be called what they really are. Dishonest people will be called dishonest, and rapists will be called rapists. Inerasably.
