Tires and piles of garbage burned at the intersections, smoking bins blocked the path of the cars, among which young people with their faces covered raced on their scooters. Five years ago, that fall, our driver said: let's get off, he can't drive into Beirut. We have to walk to our hotel.
The Gems Hotel was on the other side of the city, beyond the parliament and the presidential palace, where the protest started two days ago. In the afternoon, we walked in the park of the state president's residence, and in the evening we saw on television that tens of thousands of people took to the streets in protest against the government's 17-point austerity package, which the cabinet was forced to announce in return for a loan from the International Monetary Fund. In addition to the drastic increase in the price of fuel, it was also included that the communication system used by young people will be significantly more expensive. This is supposedly why they are the core of the rebellion.
"This is not Lebanon, believe me!" We are not like that - said the shop owner, who, seeing that we were not willingly walking in the "Paris of the East" in the sweltering heat, gave us each a small bottle of mineral water.
After three hours of wandering between barricades, we enter the lobby of our hotel, where a Czech group was waiting for the news outside. They didn't leave the hotel all day. The fact that we visited the Hezbollah base in Baalbek on this day, thanks to the courage of our Hungarian tour guide and the knowledge of the terrain of our local guide, caused astonishment among the Europeans. They listened in amazement as we saw the cedars of Csontváry, the former Héliapolis, which dominates the Bekaa valley even in its ruins, the "City of the Sun", but the Islamist Shia militia's militants stationed at checkpoints, as well as the half-house-sized portrait of the sheikh who led the organization for more than a quarter of a century.
Now in September, both he and his wife were killed by the Israeli air force during the bombing of downtown Beirut. But the machines also sprinkled Syria. As a result, government forces withdrew from several settlements.
Since then, the Syrian rebels have already controlled the country's second largest city, Aleppo.
After Russia intervened ten years ago on the side of the government in the civil war that has been going on since 2011, almost the same forces are facing each other on the Ukrainian battlefield as in Syria. In addition to some Arab countries, the mostly Sunni rebels are supported by the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Add to this the proposal from Brussels that the countries of the European Union spend a certain part of their GDP on military support for Ukraine in the future!
We are in the darkest month of the year, but deep down we hope. We are preparing for the victory of light, enlightenment, light over darkness. Meanwhile, the world is preparing for the spread of local wars.
There was also a breakdown in the center of the European Union. The shutter fell on all the windows of the MEPs from Strasbourg to Brussels. A specter roams Europe - a specter of darkness - I could freely write after Marx, if I did not step into the shadow world pushed away from the earth with my reference. The faction leader of the European People's Party directly claims that he must protect his beloved Europe from right-wing forces. According to Mr. Weber, these forces - from Germany to France to Hungary - are not political opponents of the European People's Party, but outright enemies.
He singled out Jaroslav Kaczynski, Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orbán by name. He put his faith in Péter Magyar and continues his fight against Fidesz and the Prime Minister of Hungary.
He sees the world darkly and looks back to Germany through his dark glasses in vain, where they do not weave a laurel wreath for him, after the Christian Democrat youth politician who once started in Bavaria has now forgotten so much about pushing the European People's Party to the left that it is only the mouth of socialists and liberals to listen. can according to In his actions and speeches, he assumed the role of the left-wing intercessor of the EP, whether it was about illegal immigration, support for the Russian-Ukrainian war, or family policy and child protection. And if he can spoil Hungary, then his eyes will also darken.
Dopamines of hatred gather in his head for informal meetings, and he allies himself with anyone from whom he can hope for the political slaughter of Orbán. Be it Péter, Márki Zay, which has now expired, or Magyar, which is currently being marketed.
In the meantime, European citizens preparing for the coming of the Lord listen to the news in terror as they walk among street attacks, assassinations that damage infrastructure, fairs surrounded by concrete blocks - de-Advented - and communication cables, gas pipelines and power plants that are under increased security due to the risk of terrorist attacks. Full of hope, he looks at the candles on the table wreath, clutches his lighter in his pocket, but does not dare to run the phosphor-headed stick along the side of the box, because
what will happen if this tiny flame that can overcome all darkness ignites not the Advent candle, but one of the fuses of a world strained to the point of explosion?
Does anyone want to, will anyone be able to put the tiny flame, which carries the danger of burning the world, into the service of light and clairvoyance?
Cover photo: Manfred Weber and Péter Magyar
Source: Magyar Nemzet/Teknős Miklós
