Weeklies on where Hungary stands in today’s world
June 3rd, 2024Leftist and liberal authors accuse the government of turning its back on western allies, while pro-government commentators believe Hungary’s leaders are simply desperately trying to preserve peace on the continent.
In Élet és Irodalom, veteran liberal economist Lajos Bokros suspects that western allies have ceased to share sensitive information with Hungary. The reason he presumes, is that Hungary has become a fifth column at the service of Russia. While the Russian bear and the Chinese dragon exploit the ‘fat mouse’ representing Hungary, he fulminates, Hungary is being slowly excluded by western powers from the alliance of democracies.
In a very similar vein, Magyar Narancs vituperates against the government’s decision to vote against a UN general assembly resolution designating 11 July as Srebrenica genocide remembrance day. In its first page editorial, the liberal weekly dismisses the argument that the resolution pinpoints the whole of the Serbian population as war criminals. The relevant chapter of the resolution doesn’t even mention Serbs, the editors write. They accuse the government of opposing the UN resolution because Russia opposes it and also because the Hungarian government has cultivated friendly relations with Milorad Dodik, the leader of the Bosnian Serb Republic. In Bosnia, a negative memorial will be erected with the names of the countries opposing the resolution which will leave a lasting stain on the name of Hungary, the editors write.
Magyar Hang’s István Dévényi rejects as completely absurd the government’s claim that Brussels wants to introduce mandatory military service throughout the European Union and send Hungarian conscripts, among others, to fight against Russia in Ukraine. He believes Peter Magyar’s sudden success prompted the government side to realise that its previous threats about the looming spectre of nuclear war were insufficient, and its propagandists decided to raise the stakes by suggesting that the lives of young Hungarians are in jeopardy. In reality, he remarks, EPP leader Manfred Weber is the only established European politician to argue for a return to compulsory military service, and only in Germany at that, while young Germans in his proposal would still be free to choose between civilian and military service.
In his Demokrata editorial, András Bencsik describes the stance of the Hungarian government on Ukraine as an effort to avoid being drawn into a new war, after Hungary’s tragic mistake of taking part on the losing side in both world wars. This is why Prime Minister Orbán’s government is urging a ceasefire and peace talks among the warring parties, he explains. This doesn’t seem to be easy, he adds, as proven by the attempted assassination of Robert Fico, Slovakia’s ‘pro-peace Prime Minister’. The Hungarian government, however, is backed by the commitment to peace of huge masses of Hungarians, Bencsik writes. (The weeklies were already on the stands on Saturday when the ‘peace march’ organised in support of the government was held in Budapest.)
In an interview with Hetek, Balázs Orbán, who serves as political director in the Prime Minister’s office accuses unnamed forces which see confrontation between NATO and Russia as inevitable, of being opposed to the political stability of ‘pro-peace’ countries. As a result, he says, they managed to exacerbate polarisation in Slovakia, which led to an attempt to assassinate the Slovak Prime Minister. Those forces, he continues, are trying to ‘put into place’ new forces in Hungary as well, by bringing up matters that seem apt to to undermine the government’s legitimacy. The forthcoming European elections, he says, will be about whether those unnamed forces can shake the position of a ‘pro-peace’ European government.
In Mandiner, Dániel Kacsoh claims that NATO is only one step away from appearing in Ukraine in an offensive posture, despite being a defensive alliance, at the risk of igniting the Third World War. After weapon supplies, he continues, initiatives like sending soldiers and introducing compulsory military service in Europe are now also being considered. Anyone warning that hundreds of thousands of people are dying in Ukraine is branded a friend of Vladimir Putin, he complains.