Sándor Kerekes: Letter to Angela Merkel

Dear Chancellor Merkel:

I am impelled to write to you on the occasion of your impending visit to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary in February. I have no doubt that your able staff is more than adequately preparing your visit; however, I wish to add to that a point of view representing the Hungarian perspective.

Surely, you are aware that the government of PM Orbán and his Fidesz Party have relentlessly attacked and emasculated most institutions of the democratic state ever since their election in May 2010. But, just to keep up appearances, they have maintained them as a façade, populating them with their own appointees, often for nine and twelve-year terms, thus rendering them unable and unwilling to carry out their original, constitutional functions, since the appointees only follow Fidesz instructions. From the outside they look like checks and balances to the unsuspecting viewer. However, nothing could be further from the facts. All those institutions are interconnected through the invisible network of personal and party connections, all serving to promote the political and financial interests of a selected few of Viktor Orbán’s friends. In fact, those institutions are only there to serve as a disguise, hiding the actual operations of a government whose single and concentrated aim is to siphon as much of the country’s resources to the hands of this small coterie, as possible.

The street demonstrations of recent days mobilizing tens of thousands of people almost every other day, demanding democracy and fair government, are largely concerned with the ever-increasing corruption of the government. Those thousands are in dire need of help that could surely come from you Madame Chancellor. This monumental, institutional corruption is seemingly unassailable by the people, because Parliament, as the Prime Minister’s voting machine, legislates and legalizes the constant, obvious thievery. And as it so often happens, if a superficially constructed piece of legislation should prove insufficient to cover up the crime, either a subsequent retroactive law will bend the rules after the fact, or all complaints will be rejected or ignored by the Prosecutor’s Office. Since the election in 2010, not one single corruption case was launched against any corrupt government official, despite the numerous cases submitted. It is not surprising; therefore, if many consider the government of Viktor Orbán as a well-functioning Mafia operation.

The presently concluded contract with Vladimir Putin’s Russia for the building and financing of the Paks 2 nuclear power plant is hugely disadvantageous to Hungary and yet a most rational pact in view of the rapacious corruption system. The contract includes a 20% Hungarian share in the financing – 2.5 billion Euros – that is available for stealing. Since the Hungarian state otherwise has run out of sources for available money to steal, this gigantic project will provide a copious source of corruption money for the coterie. At the same time, it may bankrupt the country, but by the time that will become clear, this Mafia will be long gone.

Under these circumstances, even the government of the United States raised a strenuous complaint and took the unprecedented step of banning certain government officials from its territory for reasons of corruption. At the same time, the United States government made it clear that it will not shirk from the confrontation, and insists that the Hungarian government must address the systemic corruption. So far, Viktor Orbán has resorted to lies, denial, and communications trickery, but taken no action.

Apart from some prestige projects, such as football stadiums and municipal beautifications, public investments ground to a halt years ago. Private capital is fleeing the country. If there is any investment at all in Hungary today, it is funded by European Union transfer money. In fact, over 90% of all public investment projects are financed by the European Union. But invariably, those projects are “one-off” short term ones that create neither lasting effect, nor permanent jobs for people. In fact, all that European Union financing is squandered on useless, short-term veneer, merely creating appearances and an opportunity for kickbacks. Presently, any government public bidding process is tailor-made for the single, Orbán-friendly bidder, and the general consensus is that the “usual” kickback is between 20 and 40%. Despite all this, the Orbán government is conducting an unrelenting verbal and political campaign against the European Union, the United States and most of all the ideals of liberal democracy.

The barren Hungarian puszta

When the European Parliament commissioned the Tavares Report, it was assumed in good faith that the problems of the Orbán Government were mere mistakes and with the help of the Report itself, with some good advice, and genteel prodding, the system could be corrected. Today it is clear that the Orbán government is by no means acting in good faith. In fact, the Tavares Report failed to recognize that Hungary is rapidly and intentionally sliding towards a one-party, single-ruler, authoritarian, illiberal regime. The Report was to no avail; the Hungarian government not only ignored it, but also legislated its rejection. All this was done in front of the uncaring eyes of the European Union.

While the officials and friends of the Orbán government are getting obviously and obscenely rich, the population of the country is sliding into deep poverty. Today, four million people are living under the poverty level, hundreds of thousands are starving and tens of thousands of children cannot get enough to eat. Poverty today is endemic in Hungary and it is increasing. Over the last four years, 500,000 of the mobile, enterprising people of Hungary have emigrated to other countries in the European Union, Germany amongst them.

Not wanting to extend needlessly the list of reasons for writing this letter, I wish to come to the obvious implications.

Hungary today is a disturbing foreign object in the very middle of the European Union. But because its transformation, running counter to everything European, is far from complete, it is likely that in the future she will be a cause for much more, and much more painful headaches within the European Union. The process of transformation is accelerating unbridled, and Hungary will be a source of an unhealthy inspiration, inviting any self-appointed tin-pot dictator to repeat the exercise: build an illiberal, single-ruler dictatorship and do it at the expense of the European Union. Why not? Nobody is raising any objections and the money keeps flowing to finance the process.

Madame Chancellor:

The interest of the European Union, the people of Hungary, and basic common sense dictate to submit to you the humble request that you, a dominant person in the European Union and in the World, give an unmistakable expression of disapproval to Mr. Orbán about what is happening in Hungary. It is inconceivable, and yet a strange fact of life, that the European Union and its citizenry should generously finance Hungary’s corruption, its war against Western Values and Mr. Orbán’s campaign against the people of his own country. Why should the European Union pour billions of Euros into a few people’s pockets, just to enable them to steal even more?

The suspension or denial of the transfer payments would bring the insane policies of the Orbán government to a screeching halt since nothing but these payments keeps it going.

The European Union, on the other hand, would greatly benefit from saving those billions by using them for more worthy purposes than stuffing the pockets of a corrupt regime that uses them as an opportunity to conduct a surreptitious anti-European, anti-liberal, people-busting war in peace time.

Dear Madame Chancellor:

I fervently hope that my suggestions coincide with your own intentions, and that your highly anticipated visit to Hungary will bring the beneficial results most of us are hoping for. It would be a bitter disappointment for the entire country if Prime Minister Orbán could in any way interpret your visit as a public relations success and a stamp of approval on his policies.

Very truly yours,

Sándor Kerekes

—-

Sándor Kerekes is a freelance journalist whose articles regularly appear in Kanadai Magyar Hírlap. He also wrote several articles in the past for Hungarian Spectrum.

Goodbye to democracy: An interview with Gáspár Miklós Tamás about Viktor Orbán’s speech

Since there is a debate going on about the art of the translator, I am happy to publish a translation by George Szirtes, Hungarian-born British poet, writer, and translator. He has translated many important Hungarian literary works into English, including such classics as the nineteenth-century verse play of Imre Madách, The Tragedy of Man, and novels of  Gyula Krúdy, Ferenc Karinthy, and Sándor Márai. His last translation, Satantango [Sátántangó in Hungarian] by László Krasznahorkai, received the Best Translated Book Award in 2013.

So, enjoy both the translation and the thoughts of Gáspár Miklós Tamás or, as he signs his publications in English, G. M. Tamás. The interview took place on Egyenes beszéd [Straight talk] on the television station ATV on July 28. The original interview in Hungarian can be seen here. This dramatic interview should help foreign observers realize the seriousness of the situation in Hungary.

Only today two important editorials were published. The New York Times calls on Jean-Claude Juncker to act more forcefully because otherwise “the commission would diminish its credibility.” The Wall Street Journal wrote that the “West’s victory in the Cold War led to a complacency that the liberal idea was triumphant–that it was ‘the end of history,’ in the fashionable phrase of the day…. Western Europe needs to set a better example of what freedom can achieve by reviving economic growth, and the American President who ostensibly still leads the free world ought to break his pattern and speak up on behalf of the liberal idea.” 

I’m grateful to George Szirtes for allowing me to publish his transcription and translation. The text originally appeared on his blog.

* * *

GOODBYE TO DEMOCRACY

‘On Saturday Hungary officially, ceremonially, openly, publicly, said goodbye to democracy.’ 

[My transcript is very close but here and there I have cut a passage for brevity or shaped a phrase in what I believe is a faithful fashion.  In it TGM [TGM here since Hungarian puts the surname first] argues this is the beginning of a very dark chapter in Hungarian history.

I am somewhat amazed that the UK press hasn’t picked up more on the Orbán speech. It is, after all, quite something to declare the end of liberal democracy and to suggest that the prime minister should not be answerable to other state checks and balances. GSz]

one-to-one
Interviewer recounts views of other parties on Viktor Orbán’s speech then turns to Gáspár Tamás Miklós. She asks if there are any points in Orbán’s speech that the opposition and the press have left undiscussed.

TGM replies that this is a speech of extraordinary importance. He credits Orbán with being a highly  intelligent man, a significant historical figure and a charismatic politician, one whose place is assured in Hungarian history. This, he claims, is the proclamation of a new political system, the seeds of which had already been sown. The speech was clear and simple to summarise. 

TGM counts on his fingers and summarises.

TGM:
1. He is building an illiberal state. This is demonstrated by his rewriting of the constitution and by his ending of the separation of powers. He joked about this saying that if there were any attempt to impeach or obstruct him that would mean he wasn’t the leader of the country. In other words he knows what the game is, as do I.

2. His stated his doubts about democracy

3. He announced that the concept of human rights is out of date. That human rights are finished

4. He declared  the country must abandon any notion of social support (or welfare state)

5. He declared that his preferred state models were Singapore, Russia, Turkey and China.

6. He declared that all NGOs working in the cultural or social sphere were foreign agents, traitors paid by alien powers

Gáspár Miklós Tamás

Interviewer asks which of these six points was new.

TGM`: Every one of them.

Interviewer doubts that but TGM insists that they are completely new. Was it not just a matter of actually articulating them in a new way? asks the interviewer.  TGM repeats that it was utterly new, in every respect

TGM: Yes there was this kind breast-beating before but that’s not important.

He goes on to Orbán’s idea of the state founded on work, the ‘work state’, the ‘illiberal state’ the ‘populist state’ the ‘national state’ etc.

TGM: This is a complete break with the post-1945 consensus as espoused by what we call the free world, not only with 1945 but with the less-free post-1989 political, social and moral consensus. Its abandonment of social responsibility represents a break with the ideas of freedom, and equality. What does a ‘work-based state mean?  It means a non-social state, a non-welfare state, a state that offers no support or aid – it is a case of arbeit macht frei isn’t it? It means that work is what people do not because they want to but because they have to so that capitalists may prosper, the kind of work the unemployed would be forced to do against which, in a free country, there would be mass demonstrations….

Interviewer returns to her earlier question. ‘But what is new in all this?’ Again TGM replies: everything. The question is what is to come?

TGM: So what is to come? What is new is that this has become a political programme to be enacted by the state. On Saturday Hungary officially, ceremonially, openly, publicly, said goodbye to democracy. The prime minister, the autocratic leader of the country, has declared that he is opposed to civil society. Have you noticed we no longer have a governing party by the way? When was the last time we heard anything of Fidesz as a factor, a genuine player? – all we have recently been hearing is a state apparatus in which not a shred of democratic process remains and when we see the Secretary for Defence using a violent thug [a named army officer from Hungarian history] as a role model for new army recruits we may be certain what kind of violent, thuggish, and repressive state is being promised to us… a state that, since the prime minister’s speech was given in Romania, believes in provocation, [a speech] that did in fact elicit a storm of protest in the Romanian press and many declared that they had had quite enough of Hungary.

So here we have, in this truly terrifying speech, given to his friends and a highly enthusiastic audience, one of the darkest moments in Hungarian history, a moment of darkness provided by Viktor Orbán. Meanwhile everyone goes, ‘oh dear, there he goes again, isn’t that just the kind of thing he tends to say ‘ But that’s not what is happening here. It is time to take Viktor Orbán seriously so that we can take up arms against  him and save Hungary. I don’t despise him, I don’t look down to him. What we have here is an almost fully achieved dictatorship.

In any dictatorship the person of the dictator is important. Viktor Orbán is not going to let power slip from his hands now. All dictatorships depend on the dictator so now we have to concern ourselves with the kind of person Orbán is.

He told us that he will not be removed by elections. [That means] that those who are against him must be prepared for the grimmest struggle. Either that or he remains in office as long as his health permits, directing the affairs of the country by his own authority, while the country descends ever further into darkness in every possible respect in economic, political, cultural, social, or moral terms until we become a waste land, a wreck, a terrible place, a black hole in the map of Europe, a place more backward and more tyrannous than any of our Eastern European neighbours, and we will have to start envying the Bulgarians and Macedonians who will be in a far better condition, far freer, more cultured.

Interviewer asks what happens if Orbán refuses to be voted out through normal elections.

TGM: Blood and chaos. That’s the way it usually goes when elections don’t work. It’s what happens when people’s social plight becomes ever more desperate. Our social circumstances are bound to worsen and there will be people desperate and violent enough to bring down the country in the process.

We really can’t take this seriously enough. What was said in that speech is highly dangerous.

Interviewer asks whether people are in the mood to rise in defence of such high ideals.

TGM: Not at all, not at the moment. This is a browbeaten society that has utterly bought into [the Orbán persona?]. But it won’t always be so. Nothing lasts for ever. At the moment there is no ideology to confront this dark chauvinism, this cult of the state, this cult of force, full of anti-democratic sentiment.

Interviewer: Why isn’t there?

TGM: We are exhausted. We Hungarians are too tired to argue. You can’t expect people to sacrifice themselves without a hope of success. People are resigned. Like it or not, they accept they can’t change it.

Interviewer:  So what hope is there?

TGM: [Thinks] The one hope lies in continuing to uphold the ideals of freedom and equality as long as we can. The hope is that, despite everything, we don’t give up on the ideals of 1918, 1945 and 1989. Those  [ideals] belong to us. No one can take them from us. We might have to prepare for a long and very bad period. I myself might not live to see the end of it. Who knows? The fact remains that if we wish to live a moral life and to protect the culture of freedom we have to maintain a cool but obstinate resistance and to repeat our own commonplaces.

Interviewer: How can you maintain these high ideals when the prime minister offers hard facts? When he takes banks back into Hungarian control? When he forces banks to pay back what they owe. Has anyone ever made a bank pay us? So he doesn’t go on about ideals, about constitutional details.

TGM: I never said he was an unsuccessful politician. He is that, among other things. He is the only man who can give us hard facts because he is in charge of the government.

Interviewer: So there you are, hard facts. Isn’t it better to have hard facts than to be dreaming about ideals?

TGM: Are you talking about those four million people currently in desperate straits in this country? Do you think they like it? Do you think they don’t believe in ideals such as a better life? That too is an ideal: they believe their own children deserve as much as the better off, the middle class and the rich. That ideal is called equality.

It’s not the way they refer to it every day, of course. But that is the proper word for it. These things are connected. These ideals are not a matter for a few specialists divorced from reality. Equality means that the bottom four million have a right to food, electricity, to a heated home, to read, to enjoy their pleasures. That is an ideal but it’s not the reality.

This ideal concerns the poverty of four million people and the servitude of ten million,  and opposes the torrent of state funded lies with which Viktor Orbán and his underlings flood this small country. Yes, there are ideals in which people believe, that, for example, they should be able to live a decent honourable life. That ideal has roots in Christianity, in liberalism, and in socialism. That is not something they are obliged to know, but they know it. And Viktor Orbán is telling you directly, in your face while laughing at you that that is what you have to live without.

And if, dear fellow Hungarians, that is what you accept that is what you’ll get. There’s nothing anyone can do for now except to regard this terrible speech with hatred and contempt. Because society is weak but it is possible for it to know these things.

  * * *

[That is the end of the interview. It is a very dark vision of Hungary’s future and TGM is clearly angry.  It is fascinating – and liberating – to hear a man talk of socialism with such conviction. It is fascinating that he should include Christianity and liberalism in the struggle for freedom and equality.

What that shows is that TGM is not an old-system communist. He was part of the opposition to the pre-1989 order. He is part of the spectrum that any democratic society should be proud to represent. It is the spectrum Hungary is on the point of leaving. GSz]

 

An exceptional Roma village and the situation elsewhere

A rather lengthy article appeared in Népszabadság about a public works success story in Gyulaj, a village of 1,000 inhabitants in Tolna County. The population of Gyulaj is 65-70% Roma, up from ten to fifteen years ago when Roma made up only 40% of the village’s population. Unemployment in villages with a majority Roma population is very high. In the past the unemployed lived on state assistance. There was limited opportunity to move from welfare to work, even publicly funded work. Although these villages received government grant money aimed at easing Roma unemployment even before the public works program of 2010, the funds were not always put to good use by the local authorities. Gyulaj is lucky because its mayor, Mrs. Károly Dobos, has vision and uses the funds to promote self-sustenance, not just for activities like street cleaning. But, as the article also notes, “it is a heroic struggle to keep the village alive.”

Source: Népszabadság

The village can employ between 80 and 100 men and women on the village’s small, twelve hectare farm. They grow vegetables for use in the kitchen owned by the village, with some left over for sale. They raise animals as well. The mayor claims that they are self-sufficient as far as food is concerned.

The village got not only public works money but also grant money to buy agricultural equipment and a separate freezer unit. New furnaces that use wood chips heat the municipal buildings; apparently three men are kept busy by chopping and and making wood chips.

The village also received a grant to train people to perform small repairs in municipal buildings. The Knights of Malta are also active in the village. The Hungarian section of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta sent social workers to Gyulaj. These social workers live with the Roma families, helping them with their myriad problems.

But what will happen when there are no more public works projects? The mayor claims that they are planning for the day when they will no longer receive 70-80 million forints a year. The municipality, together with the Knights of Malta, is planning a cooperative to grow mushrooms. They already raise rabbits for sale. So, everything seems to be well under conrol.

Before we praise the public works program, however, we must keep in mind that the story of Gyulaj was published because it is the exception rather than the rule. The Orbán government claims that the public works program will lead to employment in the private sector. But shoveling snow or cleaning ditches is no path to private sector employment. Unfortunately, in most villages public works programs are dead ends. And dead ends with very low wages.

One of the public workers interviewed in the article seems satisfied. He and his wife have eight children and, with the additional child support from the state, he earns 77,300 forints a month. That is 250 euros for a family of ten. They can survive on that amount of money because the children receive their meals in school, meals that are supplied from the 7 hectares the public workers cultivate. Also, the municipality’s rabbits can be bought cheaply: 700 forints a kilogram–and we know about rabbits. There will be no shortage of them, so the price should drop further.

Gyulaj is a rare exception. Soon there will be no more money for the public workers, whose numbers swelled to boost the government’s popularity before the election. Mayors report that in some cases the number of workers will be cut  in half. Keep in mind that no dole will be forthcoming because the Orbán government abolished it. Gyulaj’s budget, however, will not be cut. Either the mayor is a very lucky woman or the government thinks it needs a few success stories.

Poverty remains a serious problem in Hungary. According to estimates, half a million children live in poverty and over 40,000 go to bed hungry. These children receive some meals in nurseries, pre-school institutions and schools on weekdays. But during the weekends there is often nothing to eat at home.

A charitable organization, the Children’s Nutrition Fund of Hungary, is working to alleviate this problem. (For more about the American branch of this non-profit see the post below.) The organization has been active since 1993. In 2012 80,000 families benefited from donations collected by CNFH, and last year 4,000,000 kilograms of food were distributed to children in need. And there is need because poverty is growing in Hungary.

Of course, not all those under the poverty line are Roma, but many of them are. They are also discriminated against. Gyulaj’s school is almost completely segregated and therefore, as the principal of the school told the Népszabadság reporter, students are not prepared for the kind of discrimination and hatred that is awaiting them once they step outside their village. In a way, they live in a bubble, unprepared for Hungarian reality.

CNFH believes that easing poverty can reduce racism as well. It is certainly a step in the right direction.

They cannot wait for the net—a call for donations, by József Barát

Can I have your attention for ten minutes? I would like to tell you about those Hungarian children who have no past yet but who are also losing their future. They are hungry, and it is not merely an unpleasantness till the next dish.

OK. Suppose ten minutes is too long, I can tell it in five. According to a member of the UN Committee for the Rights of Children, 200,000 Hungarian children go hungry from time to time. But there are 40,000 children who regularly starve when the school cafeterias are closed. There are 162 such days in the year.

The number of those in danger is growing. The statistical agency of the EU, the Eurostat, has pointed out that the number of Hungarians living in poverty is increasing. Last year it rose by 3% or 97,000 people, from 3,188,000 to 3,285,000. OECD data show that Hungary has suffered the largest decrease in social welfare expenditures of the Visegrad countries and Slovenia since the start of the economic crisis. It is the only country where between 2008 and 2013 the GDP decreased (7.1%) and at the same time social expenditures were cut (10%). As a result the number of impoverished has grown by 17%.

And of course children are the poorest of the poor. They make up 51% of Hungary’s impoverished, and as UNICEF’s Budapest office says, 50% of Hungary’s children live in conditions of material deprivation.

This article is not about politics, it is just to say that hungry children have to be helped now. I know the importance of giving people a net instead of fish. But nets are not for hungry children. They must eat today. They cannot wait till the net is ready to use. Hungry children will never make healthy grownups. Their physical, intellectual, and social development will be disturbed. And Hungarian society is going to suffer together with them. It will have to pay the price in social and healthcare expenses as well as the growing price of a huge system of penal institutions.

I want to tell you about a new organization, the Children’s Nutrition Fund (CNF).  CNF is the US based international sister organization of a well-known 20-year-old Hungarian charity of good standing, the Gyermekétkeztetési Alapítvány (GYEA). In 2010 it was able to distribute 6,148,000 kg worth of food, but last year this amount was only 1,828,000 kg. The need grew but donations fell sharply.  That is why founder Gabor Kiraly established a new international foundation registered in California. Last year it was granted 501(c) (3) status by the IRS.

Hungry children need your help now. Have you got the price of a holiday meal for them? Or if this is too much, just the value of a quick fast food restaurant lunch once a month? It is tax deductible. Or are you ready to be our volunteer? You can donate or get in touch with us through our website: www.childrensnutritionfund.org or www.childnfund.org .

Or you can just write me an e-mail or call. Thank you.

The poor in the Budapest Hilton

Somewhat belatedly I will spend some time today on a singularly distasteful event that took place on December 22, the fourth Sunday of Advent.

Advent is now celebrated widely in Hungary. When I was growing up I never heard of it. The first time I encountered an Advent wreath with four candles was in Canada in the home of a German-Hungarian Lutheran family. But then one never heard of Santa Claus or Halloween in those days either. Life has changed a lot since.

In any case, the Hungarian Reformed Church Charity (Református Szeretetszolgálat) came up with a “fantastic” idea. They collected forty kids ranging in age from six to eighteen who live in poverty and organized a luxury dinner for them in the Budapest Hilton Hotel. The chief sponsor of the event was Zoltán Balog, minister of human resources and himself a Hungarian Reformed minister. The reaction to the event was eerie silence on the right and loud condemnation on the left.

One thing is sure. It was a singularly disgusting affair that included a close to incomprehensible and offensive speech by Balog. Naturally, MTI simply reported the bare news, but it seems that even Magyar Nemzet thought that perhaps mentioning the name of the hotel was too much and only announced that the dinner took place “in a Budapest hotel.” Magyar Hírlap ignored the event altogether, and therefore readers of this far-right paper learned about it only yesterday when an MSZP politician condemned the Hilton gathering in connection with the general poverty of the population. She called the invitation of forty poor children to the Hilton Hotel a sign of “government cynicism.” Fidesz’s website also failed to mention the lavish dinner.

Origo was the first to express the disgust journalists who were invited to witness the event felt. Here are forty poor children who most likely have never been inside any hotel, and here is the five-star Hilton’s unimaginable luxury. The children looked not just ill-at-ease but outright sad and perplexed. One child was quite honest and said that he really didn’t want to attend but “my mom told me that I must.” It turned out that his “mom” isn’t his own. His father is an alcoholic and the mother is mentally ill. He was referring to his foster mother whom he likes very much. As for the food, he loves pizza, hamburger, and gyros. Another one, after seeing the menu, announced that he doesn’t like mushrooms and can hardly wait for the dessert. A twelve-year-old girl announced that her favorite is “túros tészta,” a Hungarian dish made out of egg noodles, sour cream, cottage cheese, and bacon. But, she added, she will manage to get the dinner down somehow.

The enthusiasm is overwhelming

The menu was not exactly kid-friendly. The first course was goose consommé served with vegetables and rottini. Then came chicken breast with a mushroom sauce prepared with Calvados, an expensive French cognac made out of apple cider. A bottle here costs between $50 and $80. In addition there was vegetable lasagna, broccoli, and rice. The dessert was yogurt strawberry cake. But for a while they were unable to taste these “delicacies” because first they had to listen to the Reverend Balog’s elevating speech about darkness, disorderliness, light, and order. A fascinating story followed about his own church’s explanation of what Advent is all about. Then came the story of a darkened room in which all sorts of obstacles were set up by the adults but as one candle after the other was lighted, the children instinctively began to put things in their proper place. Order was restored.

So what is the lesson one learns from this elevating story? Right now there are poor people in Hungary, the cause of which is “disorder.” But one day this will change and perhaps these children when they have a job or “perhaps even go to college, who knows” will be able to afford to eat in a restaurant like this. Or perhaps they will be able to visit Paris or Cluj/Kolozsvár. Why Cluj? I guess he realized that Paris is too western and one must pay attention to those territories lost in 1920. They will be able to go wherever they want to. All this was told in a way that demonstrated Balog’s total inability to talk to children in a non-condescending way. The best was when he turned to a child who looked about six and asked him how many corners a room has. Do these people really think that these children are not just poor but also imbeciles?

At the end each child received a box of gifts, but the wonderful organizers of the Hungarian Reformed Charity didn’t even bother to personalize the parcels. The labels simply said: “For a 6-8-year-old girl,” “For a 8-12-year-old boy,” etc.

Yes, the parcels. The organizers decided to call them “the Misi Nyilas packets.” And now we must turn to Hungarian literature. One of the great Hungarian prose writers of the twentieth century was Zsigmond Móricz (1879-1942). In 1920 he published one of his early novels, Be Faithful unto Death /Légy jó mindhalálig), whose young hero is Misi/Mihály Nyilas, a very poor boarding student at the famous Debrecen Reformed College. Clearly Misi is Móricz himself, who studied there between 1891 and 1893. He was one of seven children of a family who fell on hard times. They were poverty stricken. His tuition was paid by his maternal uncle, a Reformed minister.

A large portion of the second chapter in the novel is about the incredible excitement that a package from home caused in Misi’s life. He was told that he cannot expect to get care packages because the family can barely scrape by. But comes the day when he is told that there is a package for him at the post office. For all sorts of reasons Misi can’t open his parcel immediately, and in his absence his fellow boarders eat all the food in the package, including, as it turned out, some cream his mother sent him to put on his chapped hands and shine his shoes with during the winter. One can only wonder why these good Calvinists decided to name their Christmas boxes “Misi Nyilas packets.” Most likely they didn’t even read Móricz’s book. After all, Misi got nothing out of the package.

Few politicians said anything about the whole sordid affair, but the few who did didn’t hide their feelings. One MSZP politician sent Balog and his whole gang straight to hell. Actually it was a bit stronger. Today Ildikó Lendvai (MSZP) came out with an op/ed piece entitled “Cinderellas in the Hilton.” Lendvai admits that “Cinderella” was not one of her favorite tales when she was little. She simply couldn’t understand how a fairy who is also a godmother could allow Cinderella to be treated so badly by her stepmother and stepsisters. How could she think that sending her a fancy dress and a glass slipper could make up for all that suffering? Lendvai was certain that if the prince didn’t show up, the poor girl most likely would have had to return to her earlier miserable existence. Princes don’t show up very often.

Something like that happened to the forty little Cinderellas the other day who don’t even have names, faces, characters, talents. Each is simply called “a poor child.” As for naming the boxes these children received, perhaps it wasn’t a mistake because earlier this government took away benefits children had previous received automatically. Just this year parliament voted on 1,700 bills but not one had anything to do with feeding the 200,000 children who are malnourished. Instead they busied themselves with employing school policemen, lowering the age of compulsory education, making sure that even fourteen-year-olds can end up in jail for minor misdemeanors. Elsewhere Balog told 300 Roma children in state custody that “the government works hard to better the lives of children.” Ildikó Lendvai very much hopes that during the holidays the government will take a little rest.

Increasing poverty in Hungary

It was only a couple of days ago that I mentioned MSZP’s complaint that the data on the number of people living at the subsistence level and below the subsistence level (in poverty) in Hungary still hadn’t been released. One of the MSZP politicians whose expertise is social welfare issues claimed that the report was ready to be published at the beginning of May but that the government put pressure on the Central Statistical Office (KSH or Központi Statisztikai Hivatal) not to release it at that time. Well, at last the figures are out together with an indignant denial of MSZP’s accusations. Yes, said the press release, normally the figures are published before July 1, but this year because of the work that had to be invested in the census–which by the way was also late–KSH was a bit behind.

Before we go into the details of the figures and what they mean, let’s go back a bit in time. In early 2012 Zsuzsa Ferge, a well-known sociologist whose main field of interest is the Hungarian poor, predicted that if the trend of the last few years continues the number of people who live at the subsistence level will reach 4 million by the end of 2012. The trend was definitely moving toward growing poverty. In 2000 there were only 3 million people who were living at the subsistence level; by 2005, 3.2 million; and by 2010, 3.7 million. That was 37% of the population. Today’s figure is, as Ferge predicted, a shocking 40%.

The growing number of poor people (and here I use the term “poor” loosely to include both those living at the subsistence level and those living beneath it) come mainly from the ranks of the middle class–teachers, nurses, and other low-paid workers. The Orbán government’s social policy clearly favors those who belong to the top income bracket. Sociologist Balázs Krémer also wrote a study published alongside that of Ferge in which he demonstrated how the rich are getting richer while the poor are becoming poorer in Hungary. Between 2009 and 2010 per capita income grew on average from 910,000 to 940,000 forints per annum. However, during the same period the incomes of the poorest 10% decreased by 12,000. The top 10%, on the other hand, became 98,000 forints richer and later, when the Orbán government changed the tax law,  they saw their income grow by 314,000 forints per year.

Központi Statisztikai Hivatal, subsistence statistics per household

According to KSH estimates, a family of four (two working adults and two children) need a minimum of 249,284 forints to maintain themselves on a subsistence level. That means 62,421 per person. A single-person household needs at least 86,000 and a two-person household 150,400 forints. KSH’s table is self-explanatory with the possible exception of  the last three items that refer to pensioners, living alone or with one or two others.

In Hungary 60% of the family income goes for food and shelter. For comparison here are a few figures from the United States. Shelter is a large chunk of the family income here too. About the same as in Hungary or a little more (34%), but an American family spends only 12% of their income on food as opposed to 31% in Hungary.

In addition to the 4 million people in Hungary who live at the subsistence level there are 1,3800,00 people who live below it. That number constitutes 13.8% of the population. So only 46% of the Hungarian population live above the subsistence level.

It’s no wonder that more and more people are seeking a new life abroad. Mostly in Germany and the United Kingdom. Last year Tárki estimated that about 20% of the adult population planned to leave the country. Since then these numbers have only grown. According to some recent polls, half of all high school and university students are contemplating leaving Hungary. Naturally, it is a lot easier to talk than to act. Most of these people will end up staying at home, but the numbers are still very high.

A few months ago György Matolcsy referred to the half a million Hungarians who live and work outside the country. He didn’t give any source, but journalists figured that he must have based his numbers on some statistics that were available only to government insiders. Now we have an official figure from KSH that accounts for part of this “diaspora”: 350,000 people still have a permanent address in Hungary but have been working abroad for some time. Most of these individuals, I suspect, are young people who are still registered as part of the family household.

This brings up an interesting point about the way that KSH calculates its employment statistics. KSH includes among the employed even those who actually work abroad, including the 350,000 people we are talking about here. KSH inquires whether József Kovács, who is living abroad, has a job; if so (and presumably if he’s in another country he is gainfully employed), he is counted among the Hungarian employed. If KSH didn’t include these people in their statistics, the Hungarian unemployment figures would be significantly higher.

Hungary has seen modest employment gains in the public sector due to the public works program.  But the salaries that workers in this program receive are way below the official minimum wage and are only about half the subsistence level for an individual. (And since only one member of a family is eligible for public works, he’s earning less than 20% of what a family of four would need to subsist on.) Yesterday Zoltán Kovács, undersecretary in charge of the public works program, refused to answer Olga Kálmán’s question as to whether 43,000 forints, the salary of a full-time (40 hours per week) public worker, is enough to live on. The interview is already available on YouTube.

Given the economic realities in today’s Hungary, I don’t expect any improvement in the living standards of Hungarians in the near future. And I think we should anticipate an even higher emigration rate, for both economic and political reasons.

The new parliamentary guards in action

Everybody was waiting to see what the new parliamentary police force, created to keep order in the House, would do once the spring session of parliament convened. Well, we have the answer. They will interfere with citizens’ freedom of speech even if the protest is outside of their jurisdiction. On the other hand, the new force will assist “civic groups” who want to “defend” the government from its own citizens. Not exactly an auspicious beginning.

This was the second time that a few hundred people embarked on a walk in the dead of winter to call attention to the extreme poverty that exists in certain regions of the country. Just to give an idea of the seriousness of the situation,  out of the seven regions in Hungary six are among the poorest regions of the European Union. That’s one of the reasons that Hungary is receiving relatively generous subsidies from Brussels for the next seven years. The Hungarian government is supposed to do something to alleviate the unspeakable poverty, backwardness, and unemployment in these regions. I have don’t have high hopes that the money will be well spent.

Last year there was only one hunger march. The participants came from the region around Miskolc in the northeastern part of the country. This year, the decision was made to have not one march but eleven starting off from different parts of the country and converging on Budapest.  MSZP joined the organizers, as one would expect from a social democratic party. Fidesz mayors and activists kept provoking the people walking through their towns. For example, government sympathizers threw rolls at the marchers. We might find this kind of behavior more than low, perhaps even disgusting, but such unfeeling boorishness is part and parcel of Fidesz politics.

From day one Gábor Kubatov, the infamous campaign manager of Fidesz, labelled the hunger marches the “power hunger march of the socialists.” CÖF (Civil Összefogás Fórum), an allegedly independent organization that has been responsible for organizing the peace marches on behalf of the Orbán government, liked Kubatov’s label and decided to wait for the marchers in front of the parliament building with a very professional looking banner reading “Greetings to the marchers for socialist power hunger.”

When Népszabadság inquired from Sándor Csizmadia, the chairman  of CÖF, whether permission was asked and/or granted to put up the banner, the head of CÖF announced that “the organization didn’t ask permission because it was put up as part of a spontaneous flash mob.”

But what Csizmadia and other older organizers of CÖF don’t seem to realize is that with modern technology, especially those pesky omnipresent cell phones, lying is becoming increasingly difficult.  Someone who writes a blog called “The heart of the city” (A város szíve) just happened to be zooming by when he noticed that workers from a professional banner firm with the assistance of the parliamentary police were putting up the CÖF banner. One can clearly read: Házőrség (Parliamentary police) on the back of the blue-uniformed policeman standing by.

A day later Milla decided to put up their own much more modest banner. Hand made, not professional like CÖF’s. And what a difference between the two messages. While CÖF’s text demeaned the four million Hungarians who live below the poverty line, Milla’s text read “Az ország házon kivül van.” It is subtle message that Milla’s activists can be proud of. For those who don’t know Hungarian here is a brief language lesson. In Hungarian the name of the parliament building is “országház,” literally “house of the country.” Thus, Milla’s banner said “the country is outside of the House.”

The subtlety of the banner’s message didn’t impress an official in civilian clothes who rushed out of the building and ordered Szelim Simándi, a political scientist and Milla activist, off the ladder. But Simándi and the others who were assisting him were not easily intimidated. As someone wrote in an opinion piece, these guys are not like the youngsters in the Kádár regime. After all, Szelim was born in 1988. He knows his rights. He told the unnamed member of the police force of the House that he has no jurisdiction over the area where Milla is planning to put up the banner. Here is the scene, although surely our unnamed policeman in civilian clothes is not happy with it. He even wanted to forbid a newspaperman from taking a picture of him.

What followed is truly bizarre. Photos, video, and eyewitnesses don’t convince the press department of the Hungarian Parliament that lying is not the best response to being caught red handed. The official communiqué  stated that “no steps were taken in the case of either banner because the posts on which the banners were attached are outside of the territory that is under the supervision of the house police.” Yet at the same time Szelim Simándi received an e-mail from someone (Laszlo.Polyak@parlament.hu) in which he was told that because the Office of the Parliament/Országgyűlési Hivatal (the head of the office is László Kövér) didn’t receive a request from him to place the banner in front of the building Simándi will have to pay a 107,400 Ft fine. Plus he will have to remove the banner.

Apparently, at least this is what the Office of the Parliament claimed, they also fined CÖF  for their transgression. Not surprisingly the Milla activists don’t believe them and asked their supporters to write to Laszlo.Polyak@parlament.hu and ask for a copy of the letter sent to CÖF. That is, “if you are curious.”

I have the feeling that Mr. Polyák’s mailbox has been jammed since this request. I’m also certain that no letter was ever sent to CÖF. Moreover, one can always produce one ex post facto.

This incident demonstrates how the Orbán government can manipulate public opinion by financing and otherwise assisting a phony “civic” organization that is actually an arm of the government that serves up its own propaganda. At the same time the government does everything in its power to restrict the movement of the opposition. Szelim Simándi’s interview on ATV’s Egyenes beszéd is definitely worth watching.

By the way, Milla is organizing a demonstration in front of parliament for Monday and is asking for hundreds of banners to protest the government’s underhanded behavior in this case.