WILL THE REAL VIKTOR ORBAN PLEASE STAND UP?

by

William A. Gralnick

Who is this person that Donald Trump keeps citing as a one man support group for his presidency? Inquiring minds want to know, so let’s look into it. Victor Orban is the Prime Minister of Hungary. NPR says of him, “Orbán, who has turned into a hero of Trump’s followers and other conservative populists, is known for his restrictions on immigration and LGBTQ+ rights. He’s also cracked down on the press and judiciary in his country while maintain a close relationship with Russia.” Hmmmm.

And this country? Hungary is a nation with fewer than ten million residents and is slightly smaller than the state of Kentucky. It is the 17th European Union country in size and 110th worldwide. Mighty Mouse would be overstating its power. His military is under 28,000 soldiers and his air force numbers approximately 30 jets. It is a landlocked country and therefore has no navy. Orban is not the leader of a large or influential state, but what he is is a political and social carbon copy of Donald Trump who would have little if no influence outside of Hungary were it not for the former president.

picture credit State shield of Hungary public domain pix

Democracy is a good place to start. When it comes to Orban and the law, one has what is written on the one hand and what is done on the other. Hungary has a fairly new constitution designed to break it away from its past Communist governance. On paper, it looks pretty good democracy wise. Orban said it completes a transition to democracy and allows for sound finances and clean government after years of mismanagement and scandals. However, the opposition accused Fidesz (the governing party) of using its two-thirds majority in Parliament to push through its own constitution without cross-party consensus. Before and during the vote to adopt the constitution, thousands of protesters demonstrated in Budapest against its adoption; among their complaints are that it is an attempt by the government to cement its power beyond its term, force its Christian ideology on the country, and limit civil liberties. Lack of opposition participation was also mentioned…” Anything sound familiar here?

When it comes to human rights, we find another Trumpian/Orban alignment. Here are several statements from agencies and organizations commenting on Hungary and Human Rights. Amnesty International and the ECtHR found that Hungary had violated the rights of transgender people by failing to provide an adequate procedure for legal gender recognition. Human Rights Watch calls out Hungary for similar violations too. In its human rights report the US Department of State wrote: “Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; arbitrary or unlawful interference with governmental institutions.” ‘hear an echo?

picture credit map of Hungary public domain pix

It went on to say, “Beatings with belts and batons, kicking, punching, various forms of humiliation, use of pepper spray and teargas were reported to be common deterrence practices. Politico, citing the US State Department report of 2022 points out that,” For the past three years… Hungary has been operating under consecutive states of emergency that allow the government to pass laws by edict, bypassing parliament, which elects the president (the head of state) every five years.”

A sub-set of the Human Rights category contains two groups the Roma or Romani better known as Gypsies, and the Jews. Hungary has the largest Roma population in Europe. It is interesting to note that the government says 3% of the Hungarian population is Roma while non-governmental, non- Hungarian agencies put the figure at about 8%. In an opinion article, Hungarian Journalist Barbora Cernusakova writes for Politico, “The state’s response to violence against Roma has been feeble. Police regularly treat hate crimes as ordinary crimes without considering the hate motive. For example, when assailants broke into the house of a Roma family in Eger in 2015, assaulting the family and shouting “Filthy Gypsy, you will die,” the crime was recorded by the police as merely “illegal entry.” Can this relate to the fear being poured onto Springfield, Ohio?

Here is a quote from a Roma victim. “It was like hell. Bottles and stones were falling on us like a hailstorm,” Alfréd Király recalls. “All the children were terrified. We asked the police to protect us but they wouldn’t.” More than four years after hundreds of violent demonstrators surrounded his home shouting anti-Roma slogans and throwing rocks through his windows, Király is still shaken by the memory. But last week he and other Roma families won an important victory in a long struggle for justice that took them all the way to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

The U.K.-based Institute of Race Relations has concluded that there could be collusion between “elements within the criminal justice system and the paramilitaries … [who] terrorize Roma in villages of central and eastern Hungary.”

The writer went on to say that the impact of threats and violence can be severe and enduring. “In the summer of 2015, I met Roma families in the town of Gyöngyöspata who suffered threats and harassment from self-proclaimed vigilante groups in 2011. Four years after the harassment, many of them were still traumatized.” It has been shown that Holocaust trauma is extending to the second and third generation of the victims.

In recent months, Hungary’s discriminatory treatment of Roma and other minority groups has largely been overshadowed by the appalling treatment of refugees and migrants, a group Orbán has described as “poison.” Asylum seekers — including unaccompanied children — suffer violent abuse, illegal pushbacks, and unlawful detention.” Sound familiar in terms of suggestions?

Now to the Jews. Whitewash would be a good word to use when one speaks of Hungary and the Holocaust. What history says of Hungary’s participation with the Third Reich and what Hungarians say are miles apart. The numbers however tell the truth. The Jews of Hungary were rounded up and segregated and then shipped out to be slaughtered. Through 1944 about 430,000 Jews shared that fate. For some reason, the Jews of Budapest seemed to live a protected existence until near the end of the war in Europe. Eighty thousand Jews were killed by the end of the war. Another kind of horror occurred when survivors returned to their homes and businesses. Thousands were slaughtered and countless others had their legitimate claims ruled invalid.

Here is a description from the archives of Yad Vashem from which the above account comes, “Accompanying the German occupation forces was a Sonderkommando unit headed by Adolf Eichmann, whose job was to begin implementing the “Final Solution” within Hungary. Additional anti-Jewish decrees were passed in great haste. Judenrate were established throughout Hungary, with a central Judenrat called the Zsido Tanacs established in Budapest under Samu Stern. The Nazis isolated the Jewish population from the outside world by restricting their movement and confiscating their telephones and radios. Jewish communities were forced to wear the Yellow Star. Jewish property and businesses were seized, and from mid to late April the Jews of Hungary were forced into ghettos. These ghettos were short-lived. After two to six weeks the Jews of each ghetto were put on trains and deported. Between May 15th and July 9th, about 430,000 Hungarian Jews were deported, mainly to Auschwitz, where most were gassed on arrival… Anyone hear a politician talking about mass-deportations?

The Arrow Cross picture credit Public Domain

The Arrow Cross, Hungary’s Gestapo, immediately introduced a reign of terror in Budapest. Nearly 80,000 Jews were killed in Budapest itself, shot on the banks of the Danube River and then thrown into the river. Thousands of others were forced on death marches to the Austrian border. In December, during the Soviet siege of the city, 70,000 Jews were forced into a ghetto. Thousands died of cold, disease, and starvation.

Picture credit Yad VaShem Deportation of Hungarian Jews

Today Hungary is seeing a new kind of anti-Semitism as reported by the UK’s Guardian Newspaper. It could be called a “new/old” anti-Semitism because the billboard attacks being used are reminiscent of those used by the Nazis except the pictures are different.

“A newly announced billboard campaign is raising concerns that the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, is once again using anti-Semitic tropes to further his political goals at home.

For years, the Hungarian leader promoted the idea that shadowy global forces were conspiring to meddle in Hungary’s politics, prompting criticism that he was using antisemitic narratives to distract from the country’s challenges.

In 2019, a controversial Hungarian government-funded campaign took aim at the Hungarian-American businessman George Soros and then-European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, prompting the commission to accuse Budapest of promoting a conspiracy theory.

Now, Orbán appears to be returning to the theme.”

And Yet Viktor Orban is a supporter of Israel and a supporter of its embattled Prime Minister. Another neat fit by Orban into the Trump pea pod?

And the beat goes on. According to a poll reported on by the Israeli Newspaper Ha’aretz, “Around one-third of Hungarians hold either moderately anti-Semitic views or strong ones,” the country’s largest Jewish group claimed last week,” It is also important to note that 83% of Hungary’s Jews suffered losses in the Holocaust so when the alarm bell of anti-Semitism rings, it rings loud in the heads of Hungary’s Jews.

What is ironic is where Putin could play into this. One wonders about the fate of Poland if Russia takes Ukraine. If, as it is expressed by political scientists, that Putin’s aim is to reestablish the USSR with another name, then after Poland comes Hungary, and there won’t be much Mr. Orban and his 10 million people, 27,000 thousand soldiers, and 30 airplanes will be able to do about it. One wonders what the nearly 1.4 million Hungarian-Americans, mostly living in Cleveland and northern Ohio think about that as a potential future for their homeland.

So, again one must shout “Wake Up, America!” Viktor Oban is no friend of the values of the United States and to have him be treated to state visits and positive public relations is frankly an embarrassment to this nation and its citizens.

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The news is so unsettling and so grim that Bill has taken to re-reading his Trilogy to remind him of a sweeter, simpler time. He invites you on the same journey. Plug his name into Amazon and all three books will come up or hit him up on his author’s pages https://www.williamgralnickauthor.com

He closes this time with three reminders: register to vote, vote, and read. All three are good for all of us.

#politics #trump #orban #hungary #ukraine #news