Hungary has been shamed by Viktor Orbán’s government
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Version 0 of 1. One night, after the failed uprising of 1956, when I was just eight, my family walked illegally across the Hungarian border into Austria. It was 1956. It was dangerous to do so but at least we didn’t have to face the possibility of a sinking boat or suffocation in a truck. Why did we do it? No one discussed it with me then, just as no one has told the young children crowding at the Hungarian-Serbian border. Related: Refugee crisis: Hungary uses teargas and water cannon at Serbia border – live Europe was well prepared for us. There were Austrian camps ready, and within three days we were offered a flight to England, a country we had never visited or dreamed of visiting, but which was also well prepared for us. A couple of weeks ago I was back in Budapest meeting a friend at the Keleti railway terminus. It was very hot. We emerged from the escalators leading up from the metro and saw the refugees: families, individuals, children aged eight and under. A crowd of 70 or so at the front of the station was chanting: “Germany! Germany!” faced by a line of cops equipped for riot. There were more cops inside and outside the station, impassive, a little bedazzled, perhaps a little bored, preventing refugees from entering and boarding the train for which they had tickets but no papers. A man slunk by, muttering: “Welcome to Hungary.” The waiter at the buffet added that it was like 1,000 years ago: once again Hungarians were the border guards of Christian Europe. That’s not strictly accurate, of course. About 1,000 years ago it was the non-Christian Hungarians who were the migrants, taking over, entering and settling the Carpathian basin and the Hungarian plains. The borders of Christendom came later. But we are back with Christendom. It is Christian Europe Hungary is defending from Muslim hordes and terrorists, says the prime minister, Viktor Orbán. He wants to save Hungary for “genuine” Hungarians: not all Hungarians are genuine Hungarians, after all. Needing the genuine Hungarians’ support, he sent out a questionnaire implying that migrants were spongers or terrorists, and put up billboards, addressed to the refugees, in Hungarian – a language none of them can read – telling them that they would not be allowed to take Hungarian jobs. Hardly any actually want to stay of course, but you have to reassure the natives – especially after frightening them in the first place. Hungary has a history with the Ottoman empire, and Orbán is busy conjuring it. The Ottoman empire is striking back, he warns. They’re taking over! Hungary will never be the same again! He must act the strong man because the would-be even stronger men of the far-right Jobbik party could supplant him at the next election. Hence the wire; hence the army; hence, as from today, the state of emergency; hence the fierce, unrelenting rhetoric of hatred. Because that is what it has been from the very start: sheer, crass hostility and slander. There is certainly a logistical and moral problem for Europe, which has signally failed to deal with a tide of refugees not seen since, well, the Hungarian ones in 1956. But it’s bigger now, harder to regulate and place. Germany and Austria have already accommodated a good number but cannot keep taking. David Cameron says the UK has given generously to millions of refugees trapped just beyond the Syrian border. But the refugees who have paid to take the dangerous route, who have survived and are now at the Hungarian border and were at the station, are from today, contrary to the Geneva convention, criminals to be jailed for up to three years for evading or damaging the fence. It is of course shameful that the UK, whose actions in Afghanistan and Iraq helped in the long term to precipitate the crisis, has done so little for them. But it is even more shameful how the Hungarian authorities have not only mistreated but demonised them as a matter of policy. That is different from an organisational or even moral failure. It is what Orbán and his government will regard as an organisational and moral success. Fear, hatred and racism is their business. A Roma leader yesterday said the government had referred to his people as a problem Hungarians have been generous enough not to foist on Europe. Roma too are Hungarians, and have been for 600 years. But the whole world is witness. The reporters and film crews are there. Hungarians, as a people, are no worse than anyone else – thousands of volunteers have been helping the refugees for weeks – but they don’t act for the government. Despite their good work, thanks to the actions of the government, the name of Hungary stinks to high heaven. |