Sunday, February 19, 2012

Fascism Returns to Hungary

In the form of the Fidesz Party.

"Democracy in Hungary threatened, critics say

BUDAPEST - He paid youths to at­tend his speech and clap. He championed laws to si­lence crit­ical journalists. He rammed through a constitution aimed at re­making Hungary on conservative Chris­tian val­ues.

Prime Min­is­ter Viktor Orban, who made his name protest­ing Hungary’s communist dictator­ship, is now confront­ing protesters chant­ing “Viktator!’’

As a student rad­ical, Orban wrote a sting­ing anal­ysis of the dirty tricks communists used to cling to power. He now faces accu­sa­tions of playing by a similar handbook as he consol­idates power for his right-wing party and erodes the democ­racy he once fought for with zeal.

Hungar­ian crit­ics are alarmed by a creeping move in the EU nation to­ward centralized one-party rule under his Fidesz party.

“Orban is a big threat to Hungar­ian democ­racy,’’ said Jozsef Debreczeni, au­thor of two Orban bi­ogra­phies and a for­mer advis­er who broke with him in the 1990s because he be­lieved that Orban was be­ginning to abandon his lib­eral principles. “I am convinced he is ru­ining the country.’’

Since Orban’s party swept to power in 2010, it has used a two-thirds major­ity in Parlia­ment to re­shape laws in a way that has star­tled po­lit­ical oppo­nents, the EU, and the United States.

The overwhelm­ing victory was the result of deep disillu­sion­ment with the for­mer Socialist govern­ment, which mis­man­aged the econ­o­my so badly that Hungary became the first Eu­ropean country to need a bailout when the glob­al financial cri­sis took hold in 2008.

But Orban de­clared his victory a “rev­olution in the voting booth,’’ and took it as license to push through a new constitution and hun­dreds of new laws that fit his vi­sion of a conservative Chris­tian state.

The constitution rec­ognizes “the role that Chris­tian­ity played in preserving the nation’’ and vows to pro­tect the life of human fetuses from the mo­ment of conception, while defining marriage as a union be­tween a man and woman. Some lib­eral Hungar­ians fear that en­shrining those be­liefs into the constitution could pave the way for re­strictions on abortion and same-sex le­gal partner­ships, both of which are now per­mitted in Hungary.

Orban con­tends that a sweeping overhaul of the country’s in­stitutions was needed to free the country of all influ­ences of for­mer communists, many of whom con­tinued to hold sway in Hungary in the 22 years since communism’s collapse.

Last year, young people were paid around $8 each to at­tend and applaud a speech, accord­ing to reports in independent me­dia.

In a meeting with for­eign correspondents re­cently, Orban said he long shared the frus­tration of millions of Hungar­ians and their long­ing to “finally complete the change of regime.’’

“What we wanted to do in 1989, we were nev­er able to,’’ Orban said.

Last June, Sec­retary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ex­pressed her concerns dur­ing a vis­it to Budapest about the perceived threats to the independence of the ju­dicia­ry, free press, and govern­mental trans­parency.   

Not behind this particular regime change, 'eh?

But these days, for­eign leaders rarely vis­it Hungary. And the EU said last week that it might take le­gal action against Hungary over the dis­puted constitution.

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Also see: Hungary, embroiled in rights dispute, facing EU challenges
 
Hungary’s prime minister offers to change controversial new laws

The fascism is now in the form of the E.U.