It is possible that Viktor Orbán’s private meeting with Prime Minister Marcel Čolaku triggered a cascade of irony that was approved by the public in Tušnad on July 22 (partial translation here). But the source material for Orbán’s lofty and sometimes humorous speech was a verbal memorandum sent to him by the Romanian Foreign Ministry. Why did he do it, although it is not done?[i] Yes, the blunders in the letter almost irresistibly invited you to make fun of them. Don’t talk about national symbols! How to ask the representative of the state to avoid this very topic when meeting with his compatriots? Not to talk about the collective rights of minorities? This is a perennial theme of minorities everywhere in Europe where there are historical minorities. Not only have they been claimed by Hungarians in Romania for more than 30 years, but the Romanian state has legislated several of them (among them, official representation of national minorities in parliament, prohibition of discrimination against “national groups”). What better ball in the goal can be this: not to mention the non-existent administrative-territorial units in Romania! Answer: “I think they mean Transylvania and the land of Secuiesc, but I did not state that they are Romanian territorial units.” The mentality and understanding of things in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania seems to be catastrophic.

What is important, the Prime Minister of Hungary again, like last year, conducted a tour of the horizon, how he sees the world and Hungary’s place in these “years of change”. He pointed in particular to the rise of China, the return of a 5,000-year-old, 1 billion-person civilization to become the world’s most powerful manufacturing power. He insisted on the loss of American dominance, and did so in an almost enthusiastic tone. He smiled at Russia: “The EU can be disconnected from Russian energy, but this is only an illusion, because it is impossible to disconnect Russia from other regions of the world.” For Ukraine, there is only a grimace of antipathy: “So that attack by Ukrainians is nothing but Ugorophobia.”

Viktor Orban repeated anti-Western clichés. “For the first 45 years, the Anglo-Saxons gave us to the Soviets,” he claimed. He compared Europe to an “aging boxing champion.” He lamented that “this federalist government has led us into an empire that we cannot hold accountable.” The values ​​of Europe and the West would essentially be migration, LGBTQ and war. O God!

At the end, he made very pleased statements about the success of Fidesz’s economic and social policies in the 20 years since he was prime minister. As before, he assured the Hungarians listening to him that the future belongs to them: “In Europe, we will defend our rights. We have been building a new economic system for 13 years. It worked very well. Our plan was for Hungary to be safe and prosperous by 2030.”

With such statements, which sweetened the reality at home, Viktor Orban proves his electoral common sense. The coherence and power of the speech were once again extraordinary. The immediacy, the connection he achieves with those who listen to him is amazing. It is clear that the Transylvanian Hungarians were seduced and motivated by this extremely successful leader. This is evidenced by the enthusiasm of admissions at the Tusvanios Summer University, as well as polls and voting by Hungarians in Romania who have received Hungarian citizenship and are participating in parliamentary contests in Budapest.

In essence, the Transylvanian Hungarians were tempted and motivated to break political and cultural ties with the West. They become an anti-Western community that smiles at autocracy. A clash between the US and China, Orbán said in Tușnad, is much more possible than we see, or: “We don’t play this game.” This is a copy of last year’s statement regarding what is happening in Ukraine: “this is not our war.” Viktor Orbán is successfully promoting an ethnic egoism that compromises Hungarians all over the world. Russians and Chinese will not love them anymore, they just use them.

We condemn Hungary for being un-European. How much ignorance, how much hypocrisy?

The abdication of power in Budapest by institutions in Brussels and, under Joe Biden’s mandate, in Washington seems to have awakened enthusiasm at home. References to Viktor Orbán’s conflict with the EU appear very often in the Romanian press, although nothing is published about life in Hungary. The news suggests that Romanians are Europeans, and Hungarians are the opposite! Arguments for Hungary’s failure on what are commonly considered “tests of Europeanness” are readily available.

The problem is that the attitude towards Orbán’s regime does not reflect the Europeanism of the majority, but his anti-Hungarianism. I remain on one aspect: anti-LGBTQ mobilization in Hungary. I would rate this as one of the most stupid, pointless and counterproductive policies of the Orbán government. But are the Orbán government’s anti-LGBTQ policies hurting Romanians? Can Romania teach Europeanism lessons in this column?

In 2009, Hungary adopted a law on the recognition of civil partnerships. At the moment, same-sex couples enjoy almost all the rights that flow from the institution of marriage. In our country, despite domestic appeals that have continued continuously since the 2000s, decisions such as those of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, etc., civil partnerships are still hostile.

Attitude on the level grass roots? In the colorful ensemble of religious life in Hungary, there is a vocal community of LGBTQ Christians. A 2020 poll found that 25% of Catholics in that country support same-sex marriage. In our country, with the exception of the Unitarian Church, all other religions are internally homophobic. After the last ECtHR decision in the case Buhuchanu and others v. Romania, in which Romania was condemned for not recognizing civil partnerships, the position of the parties regarding the legislative measures that must be taken immediately remains, to put it mildly, ambiguous. The exception is EDR, which has been submitting its own project for several years (here).

The majority of Fidesz managed to abolish the possibility of same-sex marriage in the revision of the Hungarian Constitution in 2011. However, Romania went ahead by revising the Civil Code in 2009, which defined marriage as “a union between a man and a woman based on voluntary consent.” A 2023 Ipsos poll found that 47% of Hungarians in Hungary support same-sex marriage. The same institute gives a figure of 25% for Romania.[ii]

Of course, Romania did not adopt the “Law on Combating Pedophilia” with amendments that prohibit “propaganda of homosexuality” to persons under 18 years of age. But at least in the Romanian educational system it is a practice. I do not claim from what I said that there is a hierarchy between homophobic politics in Hungary and Romania. It’s just that neither the Romanian authorities nor the Romanian society have the opportunity to teach others the lessons of Europeanism from the point of view of LGBTQ rights.

The extreme vulnerability that the Orbán administration’s policies against NATO and the EU bring to the Hungarian community

What I wrote before was rather a platform for what I want to say now: the entry of the Hungarian minority in Romania into the anti-European and anti-Euro-Atlantic politics of Fidesz puts the Hungarian minority in a very vulnerable situation. The consequences are already visible. For the first time in so many years, UDMR was expelled from the government.[iii] In June of this year, 15 deputies from the PNL and one deputy from the PSD signed a legislative proposal that raises the electoral threshold from 5% to 7%. The decline of the main parties was slow. No mention of the threat posed by the proposal for inter-ethnic balance in Romania. You can always return to the “idea”.

Polls show that the majority has a hostile attitude towards Hungarians. It was even more hostile in the 1990s, as the Open Society Foundation’s annual barometers show. All this at the same time revealed that the Hungarians were jealous. They were appreciated for the fact that they looked thrifty, persistent, proud, haughty. For more than two decades, the Bucharest administration has blamed local autonomy and decentralization. During all this time, the Romanian society learned the language from the Hungarians and the rest of this language of the modern government and gradually applied it. What can Hungarians offer today? Anti-Ukrainian lessons?[iv]

Hungary’s policy regarding the war in Ukraine, sympathy for Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China, which have become a community brand, have struck at the symbolic representativeness of Hungarians in Europe and the world. Because of the revolution of 1956, because of the cultural tradition of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (which was not defined by anti-LGBTQ policies) and because of the cosmopolitanism of Budapest, preserved as much as possible even during the period of “goulash” socialism, Hungarians were perceived as representatives of Central Europe. Without the addition “and from the East”.

Symbolic respect for Hungarians has declined throughout the institutionalized West to which they belong. Hungarians will find few allies if hostility towards them grows in response in countries where they form important communities (Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine). When in 1995 the new education law signed by Liviu Major abolished the possibility of mother-tongue exams, the Hungarian cycling students who arrived in Strasbourg were applauded. The Council of Europe protested and the Romanian authorities did not enforce the law. Can we imagine that the Western political world would still show the same solidarity with “Hungarian rights” today? It is difficult to find support from those who do not accept you as their own and whom you have repeatedly told that you are not like them. – Read the entire article and comment on Contributors.ro