Hungary, left alone, is reverting to its national character of a bitter, aggressive, fascist Eastern European enclave. Unique in Europe, they are honouring the Nazi troops defeated by the Red Army, they are organizing forced-labour-camps for the gypsies, they are disenfranchising "unrecognized" churches, they are fomenting conflict with the South Slavs. The State-owned media's favorite subject is the eternal Jewish conspiracy against Hungary, but in a way mysteriously unconnected to the real - and flourishing - Jewish community. The Germans are uneasy with the glorification of the Wermacht and its Hungarian fascist ally's heroism in the East; in fact, Hungarians are increasingly perceived as embarrassing operetta-Nazis. Even the emergent European right wing cannot swallow them.
7 comments:
They look very overweight compared to average Hungarian men who are normally trim and fit.
Come on, even that biased Spiegel article cannot plausibly spin public work for welfare money into forced labor camps.
As far as the state-owned media is concerned, they prefer not to mention Jewish issues at all. Now, that is not to say one can not find sites like kuruc.info which are obviously anti-Semitic, but those are definitely not state-owned.
The disenfranchisement of many churches is true. Though my personal view is that all churches should lose their state support and tax exemptions.
Csaba,
I cannot vouch for the veracity of everything Der Spiegel writes. But my impression is that the Germans dislike Hungarian antics. They dont like their over-enthusiasm with Hungarian homages to the WWII "heroes".
My father, who did two campaigns in Ucraine with the Hungarian Army, had a low opinion of the Hungarian "vitezek".
Regarding government media's avoidance of Jewish subjects, I find that the thing is very much in their minds, sometimes overly enthusiastic and others shockingly ignorant and distorted. Never balanced. For example, Hungarian reaction to President Peres (he is now 88 y.o.) unfortunate comment or the presence of Israeli jets over Budapest.
Other than that, I remarked that real Jews have a good life in Hungary and there is zero actual, physical antisemitism.
The War Nerd unloads on Hungary's wartime government.
J,
well, the Hungarian army has been rather laughable since the 15th century, so overt admiration of it is indeed somewhat strange.
Regarding the two-faced nature of the Hungarian media i cannot come up with a too convincing explanation. It seems there are several Jewish people in the media - though i can not really prove it - which would explain the occasional enthusiasm. One could assume an opposition to them within the media, which would explain the swings to the other direction. But this is pure speculation of my part.
German liberals seem to dislike Hungary these days, whether that is true of Germans generally I do not know, but suspect to be not.
I read the War Nerd's attack on Simonyi, but it is out of place. The man may have changed his name to avoid being noticed as a Goldman Sachs man - now regulating his alma mater. I cant imagine he did it out of some sudden longing for Admiral Horthy.
German liberals seem to dislike Hungary these days, whether that is true of Germans generally I do not know, but suspect to be not.
Csaba, I suspect to be yes, but for other reasons. Germans these days are worried of having to pay other countries irresponsible debts, and Hungary is suspected to be another potential financial burden.
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