I remember that I was a university student in Veszprém in the early seventies, when on March 15 the British cartoon "Yellow Submarine" based on the songs of the Beatles was shown to the young people. At that time, the infamous János Pap was the county party secretary, and the KISZ secretary of the chemical industry university was Imre Szekeres, the minister of national defense of the second Gyurcsány government, who, by the way, was also the deputy president of the Hungarian Socialist Party between 2004 and 2010.

Whose idea it was to send the students to the cinema on the national holiday so that they don't remember to "behave incorrectly" is irrelevant today. This day was also used for much more serious and crude political purposes. In 2006, a reminiscing historian wrote about it as follows: "from the chronicle of the 15th of March of the Kádár era, it is clear that the measures leading to the desecration of the holiday and the splitting of life paths originated from the Political Committee of the MSZMP. The top leaders of the party directly instructed the internal affairs officers and, through them, the administrative apparatus to use retaliatory and deterrent means."

Then, year after year, came the Revolutionary Youth Days (with a memorable abbreviation FIN), which were also centrally organized, and when they were over, came the Milla demonstration (who remembers that name), the student demonstration, the demonstration organized for the freedom of education, the anti-opposition demonstration, and we could list more...

Of course, on the national holiday - subject to certain conditions - everyone demonstrates as and for whatever reason they want. This is true even if the majority of the nation has always imagined and experienced this day in a different way.

The national radical, right-wing party Mi Hazánk has now joined the ranks of the organizers of the demonstration. Dóra Dúró, the movement's deputy president, announced the event on Facebook, highlighting the iconic Petőfi quote: "We will no longer be prisoners!"

Of course, the event is now only a "march", because gatherings are currently prohibited and punishable. (According to their promise, if someone is punished, Mi Hazánk will organize a collection for him.) But why are they marching from Vigadó tér to the Parliament? Well, against "excessive closings". I quote: "And now they are introducing the strictest lockdown so far, when they are bragging that next week we will have the highest number of vaccinations in the EU. In such circumstances, several of our neighbors have decided to open, and in general, the surrounding countries are characterized by lighter rules."

I've been paying attention to the comments so far, which show a very mixed picture, from "we shouldn't even wear a mask" to "quite a lot of stupidity".

If it matters, I'm more sad.

When the Mi Hazánk movement was founded after Jobbik's change, I hoped that a reasonable, national-conservative party, but more radical than Fidesz, would be created.
Which will be the "conscience of the nation" in the same way as what so many people expected from Jobbik at the time. Until now, Mi Hazánk has tried to keep its distance from Fidesz, and of course, I understand that if its support is really 3 percent, then by any means I would like to grab the extra 2 percent with which they could enter the Parliament next year. However, this "retreat", especially now, during an epidemic, is a serious political mistake and, in my opinion, does not really serve the goals of our country.

Maybe not the goals of Mi Házánk either.