There is censorship on the European woman Dobrev's side, but not on the authoritarian dictator Orbán's side.
When one of our compatriots moving abroad describes their new place of residence as Arcadia, which is livable in all its flavors, and describes Hungary at the same time (with strong pity) as Mordor grafted into Gilead, it is supposed to be seen as an instructive analysis of the situation by a world-viewing outside observer. That's why we can be happy when the situation is reversed: foreigners moving to or visiting Hungary write about us, comparing the situation here with the state of their country. After all, they are obviously very experienced, unbiased judges, and in addition, due to the lack of citizenship, they cannot even allegedly be bought with potatoes - it is certainly worth paying attention to their insights.
This time, a liberal conservative German publicist visited us after (sensing his frustration) a compatriot who lives here invited him to come and relax a little, recharge in a relaxed environment. And what is the word with which this liberal German friend of ours summed up his impressions of our country at the end of his trip? "FREE", in all caps. Here, he finally felt free again: faces without masks, calm night walks, no gender pressure, citizens are not harassed by "post-masculine eco-socialists", moreover, the people are also friendly and hospitable, "even if they do not approach them arrogantly and demanding". Although the country looks like an evil empire when viewed from a woke bubble in Berlin, the Hungarians with Fidesz simply "decided that they don't want to live in a motley Bronx", states the author, to which a retired couple who moved here three and a half years ago nod enthusiastically: "Relax, life here is peaceful and friendly". And to all this, a German commentator who has lived in Hungary since 2015 (so far beyond the honeymoon period after arriving, now in his seventh year) adds: "in my new, chosen country, I feel that I am living, not that I am being governed. (…) Anyone who thinks he can play the German macho here or arrogantly denigrate the way of life of Hungarians will not be popular".
While their hymns of praise seem almost exaggerated, even the most radical Orbán-phobe can confirm that these people seem to choose us directly of their own free will, because they simply like to be here. From which it may even follow that
native Hungarians can easily feel good and even feel free in this country, without being brainwashed or financially dependent on the NER.
We would be better off if everyone finally managed to accept this, instead of compulsively dumbing down the other.
At the same time, it is also striking how these Germans, based on their experience, unanimously laugh around the press freedom ranking, in which Germany - the homeland of Haltungsjournalismus, which mixes news reporting with ideological public education, where you can also run into full-length feature films of the type "Mother Merkel has a hard day" in the public media - is the 25th. place, while Hungary is the eighty-fourth (by the way, Ukraine is the 111th in the row). But Germans can also gain personal experience in this field if they try to comment on the articles of the leading German newspapers concerning our country: my comment has not yet been accepted on a mainstream (leftist) portal, even though God sees my soul, I inflect the adjectives properly.
Speaking of comments. Here was the other day Klára Dobrev's heartbreaking story about the little girl from Lviv, who traveled to Warsaw alone to her mother, but for some reason passed through Moldova and Budapest, and during the transfer she met the president of the DK, who took her to the Citadel to see the city. Given the circumstances, I can't imagine that the whole thing was a fabrication (I wouldn't even expect the Gyurcsány couple to abuse such a situation for campaigning purposes; since a sane person shudder at the thought of it), but I was really interested in how the poor little girl got involved in Moldova , while it is in the exact opposite direction, and it is as far away as Warsaw, where you can also take a bus from Lviv without a transfer in nine hours for HUF 7,500. It looked like a film, so I politely asked under the EP representative's post if it was possible to know why the multi-day odyssey was necessary - curiosity about the most astonishing details does not qualify as hate speech. Well, this comment is not visible on the page: out of the first seven hundred comments, the ones that explicitly canonized Ms. Klára slipped through the filter (there must have been a shift change around nine in the evening, because by then a doubtful comment was forgotten outside for a few minutes; of course, carefully in the morning all were wiped out).
Now, if you click from the page of this great European woman to the authoritarian dictator Viktor Orbán, you will see in amazement: hey, diversity flourishes there. Everyone can laugh at the "sheep procession" as they like, have mini-poutine and make worms to their heart's content;
but anyone who would link to the writings of the allegedly non-existent opposition media in an informative manner will also find their calculations on the prime minister's Facebook page. I understand that all of this is natural for the opposition voter in a (so to speak) anti-democratic hybrid regime, and there is nothing wrong with it, only then maybe a weak objection would fit on Klára Dobrev's side as well. It's really just an indicator, because the current Facebook support, which surpasses Lukasenka's rates, is (let's face it) blood-curdling.
Or should it not be surprising if, together with the German liberal journalist, masses of Hungarians also say hello, compared to the world of proud chief democrats beating their chests, even the Orbán "dictatorship" means refreshing freedom to them.
Featured image: Ferenc Isa / AFP
