Contrary to Katalin Cseh's claim, Europe is not threatened by Viktor Orbán, but by sleepwalking liberals like Katalin Cseh. Written by Mátyás Kohán.

With their permission, they would waive mandatory treason. It is right, but it is also incredibly boring to wonder why Katalin Cseh all kinds of flat, non-Hungarian nonsense for the Guardian. It's good for him, he hasn't realized yet that spitting on the homeland ultimately falls on the head of the one who spits on the homeland;

he would follow his Polish and Romanian friends anywhere in the world, except to the street of loyalty to the homeland. (Ulica Interesów Narodowych; Calea Intereselor Naţionalilor.)

Fortunately, the Hungarian voters honor this in the appropriate way.

Let's not deal with the Guardian, but with Népsva . With the fact that Katalin Cseh expressed her flat, un-Hungarian nonsense to the Guardian in Népsva (stuffed with government advertisements in the spirit of illegal press captivity), where the foreign audience open to ritualistic Hungarian self-flagellation is guaranteed not to read them, but potential Hungarian voters will.

Katalin Cseh therefore considers the statements made there to be valid political ideas, and this is horrifying for the future of our small country.

"In the Hungarian democratic opposition, we have long been aware of the dangers of Orbán's switch to the authoritarian camp. But Hungary's Western allies, including the EU institutions - which have real influence and legal mechanisms to maintain the rule of law and democratic values ​​in the member states - did not take them seriously enough," complains Katalin Cseh about Viktor Orbán's speech to Putin in Beijing, and then she doesn't say anything directly, what dangers this holds for Lithuania, Portugal and Ireland.

(Also, what makes you think everyone else switches to anyone they meet.)

He's just fighting. "Orbánism is spreading, and this is already a global danger: right-wing populists around the world are happy to copy Orbán's recipe" - that's what one of the dangers would say, although it doesn't seem to have reached Lithuania, Portugal and Ireland spectacularly; bite me, even then I don't see the dangerous Orbánist turn of the world.

The other would say that "Viktor Orbán sits in the European Council, in a decision-making role, so he has a say in the laws and decisions concerning the entire European Union. And since the Union has to decide unanimously on foreign affairs issues, Putin is also sitting there." Broken down to its logic, the statement sounds like this:

whoever you meet once, you carry him everywhere in your political work like a backpack, and when you represent anything anywhere, you also represent him there.

So, because Katalin Czeh met Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsyhanouszkaia in mid-September, the Belarusian opposition has since been sitting with her in the committees responsible for foreign affairs, budget, human rights and American relations of the European Parliament, and she will also represent the Belarusian opposition in the Hungarian EP campaign. This must necessarily be the case, because if it is not, then it is also an obvious logical fallacy that Orbán would represent Putin in the European Council starting from his meeting with Viktor Putin.

But it is not only about dangers, there is also admonition in the Czech literature: according to him, when the European Commission will decide on the fate of the 13 billion euros for the judicial reform implemented in May, "it is worth considering that Viktor Orbán at the commemoration on October 23 again incited against the EU" . As if this has anything to do with the division of powers of the National Judicial Office and the National Judicial Council, as well as the independence of the courts, which is what the procedure enthusiastically approved by Katalin Czech together with the required reforms speaks of, right?

In addition, "it is extremely important to abolish the rule of unanimous voting in foreign affairs, as proposed by the French-German proposal on reforming the EU," writes an MEP representative from a small member state whose most basic interest in existence is

that, despite its small population and economic weight, it can apply the emergency brake on the speeding train of an EU decision, if it were to run over it.

Well, Katalin Cseh considers these to be valid political ideas in the fall of 2023: that the sporadic strengthening of conservative forces here and there is a "global danger"; that Viktor Orbán represents the interests of Vladimir Putin in the European Council; that the rule of law procedure should be used for foreign policy (member state competence!) blackmail, regardless of whether Hungary fulfills the conditions set out in it; and that the veto is bad, let the elders decide on everything.

I am forced to draw a painful conclusion from all of this: contrary to Katalin Cseh's claim, it is not Viktor Orbán who poses a threat to Europe, but sleeping liberals like Katalin Cseh. Those who are really able to see the strengthening of the right as a threat when the world order is in flames around them, and the main squares of Europe. The ones who really think that everyone you shake hands with is your friend. Those who really see that it is unnecessary for the European member states and institutions to cooperate with each other in a fair and honest way.

And those who, as representatives of small countries, are able to feel the interests of the great powers as their own.

This is the Guy Verhofstadt school of worldview; the marzipan dream world in which some people can really believe that it would be easier to work with the staunchly conservative, deeply corrupt, orthodox Ukraine and its agricultural wild east in the EU Council than with Viktor Orbán's Hungary.

TIME magazine is written for them, the sleepwalkers, on the cover of which in December 2022 was still celebrated, the Man of the Year standing at the gate of victory, in November 2023 a loser with a slightly broken mind, whose dreams of victory even his own staff do not believe.

And these unfortunates believe these two diametrically opposed narratives to be true; each in its own time, when this is the canon.

Without a doubt, Viktor Orbán has his weaknesses - but God did not beat him with a habit that cannot prevail anywhere in the world except in the quadrangle bounded by Léopold park, Trône and Belliard streets, and Régent avenue. Leaders with similar views to Viktor Orbán are running around the world, from the United States to China to the middle powers of the BRICS, asserting their interests - sometimes with more and sometimes less success. But liberal sleepwalkers who are unable to recognize their own self-interest do not represent anything, anywhere.

Real politicians simply walk through them. Also those who disguise themselves as their allies.

And finally, the voters will also walk through them. This will be one of the two small pieces of good news for next year's European Parliament elections: that, in addition to a modest right-wing advance, the liberal faction in which Katalin Cseh is also a politician will weaken.

One of their massive losses will be Katalin Cseh, who, according to the current situation, will be expelled from the European Parliament.

and is forced to return home to Budapest, where he will feel rather alien. It is not only honesty that pays off in the long run, but also thinking. And sooner or later, the voters will find out who is not thinking.

Mátyás Kohán / Mandiner

Featured image: MTI/Zoltán Máthé