At home: Orbán beats the battle drum to divert attention

In the midst of the coronavirus epidemic, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is once again at war with the Liberals, Hungarian nationIn his essay published in, he mentions the word liberal, liberalism 33 times and “liberny” four times. He became a bigger enemy in himself than George Soros. According to political analyst Zoltán Ceglédi, they are the main enemy because there is no real danger behind liberalization: there is no visible liberal political force in Hungary, and a part of the opposition uses it as an expletive, or at least is positioned differently.

“So with liberalization, Orbán is not raising anyone, that’s what serialization was all about.”

Ceglédi sees that despite talking about Orbán’s illiberal state or, more recently, Christian democracy, Fidesz has no ideological self-definition and therefore remains in debt even after the trial. “Orbán has done a lot in the last 10 years, which could fit or contradict several ideologies at the same time, so it is easier to say which is not the Fidesz government. There is no doubt that he is not liberal ”.

In any case, you have identified the counterpoints and, in addition to the relation to migration, you are adding new points here. For example, that he wants to integrate the church into society (he also drew attention to the wording of the Basic Law that the state and the church do not operate separately, but separately), and that for school education it is “to transmit established traditions can be patriots of our children ”that stay away from gender ideology and rainbow propaganda.

Contrast this with the liberal definition of the purpose of education, which is “to guide children to themselves, to enable them to fulfill themselves, to present to them the beauties of the universal political order, and to deprive them of the layers of tradition that have been imposed on them. the life of his great-grandparents. ” .

Orbán from his essay

He cannot imagine that the two, self-realization and preservation of traditions, can be reconciled.

The prime minister also declares victory when he writes that “his struggle for ‘intellectual sovereignty and intellectual freedom’ of years ago is slowly materializing. Orbán announced a cultural struggle in Tusványos in 2018, after the parliamentary elections, the last visible result of which is what is happening at the University of Theater and Cinematographic Arts, but here too the mutilation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences can be included.

Orbán justifies this fight by saying that getting rid of “the only correct way of speaking, the conception of democracy, the palette of European and Western interpretation” is not easy, the risk of punishment is significant. “Expulsions from academic life, layoffs, stigmatization, university career, the examples are gradually becoming everyday,” Orbán writes as if that was not exactly what happens now to those who think according to the logic and taste of non governmental.

They barely stayed around

The third line of Orbán’s struggle against the liberals, György Soros, and the Brussels bureaucrats is the stark contrast between East and West. It also contains a novelty in this, but not by saying that it is better for us to follow the East, because “the West has lost its appeal in the eyes of Central Europe.” A new element of this is that

and our life kit does not seem desirable to Westerners.

According to Orbán, a stalemate emerged in which the V4s remained allies. He criticizes the German and Austrian Christian Democrats for cooperating with the Greens and educates everyone, saying that the spiritual system of Christian Democracy is smarter than Bornir’s liberal worldview that dominates international organizations today.

It is no coincidence that the Prime Minister is dealing so much with the EU. Zoltán Ceglédi says that this is partly the reason why the article was written, because we had to start with the fact that criticisms are being made against Hungary and Poland that are “much stronger than the reserves”; One sign of this is that, compared to the July commitment, Hungary will swim to make conditional payments to the EU. And Orbán considered it important to explain why he thought it was happening.

Populist Tankönyvi

Orbán’s current essay is much deeper than a simple clay toss; militant-sounding and highly emotional wording can almost be attributed to a populist campaign text. We look at how the essay paints from this perspective: the textbook examples of populism can be clearly read from complex metaphors.

• “The European institutions are in the interests of George Soros, a financial speculator who enriches himself by destroying others who lurks in the corridors of Brussels to offer his selfless help to Europe.”

Orbán prefers to build on the classic parallel “clean people versus corrupt elite.” In fact, he claims that a position opposed to his is bad by nature and must be combated. Orban in the same paragraph blackmail-rulethe rule of law (i.e. the power of extortion) (Rule of law), thus suggesting almost unequivocally that those who question Hungary’s democracy are actually soldiers commanded by the international capital.

• “Liberal and conservative policies collide and even fight life and death on immigration issues. According to Liberians, there is no reason to fear large-scale immigration, even then the national and religious traditions of uninvited guests are very different. “

Although there were those who said that after the Cold War we had reached the “end of history” where there is a fundamental consensus about the common good, Orban’s reality is much more a reflection of the social science idea that the future will be. about the struggles of civilizations. societies collide with each other. The setting for this is what other experts call the key to populism: Populists tend to exploit religious and national values, to misrepresent their true meaning. In this case, the prime minister creates a gap on the issue of attitudes towards others.

• “Liberals divide the world of politics into two parts: all decent people must have the same political convictions, and those who have moved away from the space of liberalism out of ignorance or instinctive hatred because they cannot advance with history, they want to the happiness of the liberal world, ”he says.

The most important element of the populisms of the 21st century is related to social and political progressiveness. He calls the process of cultural reaction whereby populists who have not kept pace with globalization and remain committed to the conservative world order become the target audience for populists. Orbán puts the idea of ​​”cultural neglect” in the mouth of the Western world and expresses it as if he not only was not responsible for creating social division, but could be the savior of those who are excluded by the majority. Part of the same polarization is that social theories associated with the Western world (such as alternative family models and LGBT + adoption) are persistently portrayed in a negative light by the Prime Minister, while values ​​associated with Christian democracy are considered like a noble quest. The rhetoric of fear convinces people that values ​​are at stake that are important to them and that they would not otherwise be threatened.

The great battle comes and then it goes

Viktor Orbán’s vocabulary took a big turn after the first two-thirds victory, according to an analysis published in 2018, starting in 2014 the Prime Minister spoke in a stronger military tone, using more and more military terms, words that refer to to war and war.

The coronavirus epidemic put a shovel in this: He said about the extraordinary rule of law introduced in the spring that this is the phase between democracy and war, and has since ordered health, if necessary, ordered soldiers, mentioned a war plan and “armed to the brim”. waiting for the second wave.

The current trial is not peaceful either, Orbán, in addition to fighting the global elite, is also preparing for a “decisive battle” at home in 2022, and it is time for them to act against the opposition behind the Soros network.

“After difficult years of government, we need to return to the electoral battlefield. It is time for them to choose us to be able to leave at the right time. A great battle awaits us in 2022. Get ready, ”writes the head of government, who recently spoke about the moment of calm governance at last.

According to Zoltán Ceglédi, Orbán uses war rhetoric for two reasons: on the one hand, he learned in 2002 that he was defeating himself by campaigning with the content elements of governance, so he put the symbolic themes on the cutting edge of communication. On the other hand, in addition to the undeniable successes – such as the discipline of public finances in the face of the coronavirus epidemic, the fall in unemployment – there are many everyday issues that cannot be set aside because they contrast with what was previously announced before 2010: “ Orbán completely separated communication from everyday life from governance, content from governance, and there is no need to worry that there is still no soap in the hospital, he distracts people with constant fighting drums. “