Many people ask me to summarize quickly what's happening in Hungary and why is that of any importance to the rest of the world. I'll put you in the picture in 5.
Hungary?
It's a country about the size of Kentucky in Eastern Europe. We are 10 million people, we speak Hungarian. Hungary is one of the 27 members of the EU.
Why is Hungary on the news?
Our Prime Minister Viktor Orban has declared a war against the European Union.
Wait, isn't Hungary a part of the EU?
I know. It's absurd. It's as if Texas declared a war against the USA.
But is Hungary a serious military threat to the EU?
Don't be silly. Hungary doesn't attack the UK, Germany, France and 23 other countries using traditional military force. Orban is using troll tactics to dismantle the enemy community. Orban declared a "war of economic independence" against the European Union, and his plan is that he will turn other members into trolls. So far he's winning the war. He's extremely good at this. He has successfully trolled Hungary into pieces, now it's Europe on his plate.
Why do you need a war of independence? Is Hungary occupied by the EU?
No, we're absolutely not. In fact Hungary was constantly begging the rather reluctant European Union for 15 years before they finally let us join in 2004. They made us sign a lot of papers in which we guarantee that we will play by the EU rules, and we will respect the European values.
I still don't get it. Can't you just quit the EU instead of declaring a war?
Ha-ha. Orban doesn't want to quit. War against the EU is very expensive; he needs all the funds from the EU. He's also asking for a ton of money from the International Monetary Fund to support the war. That's what all the hoopla is about. The IMF says no way. We can have some cash, but they want to make sure we're not spending it on wars against anybody, especially not the EU.
Tell me, what's really behind this conflict?
Okay, there was the financial crisis in 2009.
Orban brainwashed the Hungarian people that it was caused by the financial circles (Jews), but if they vote for him, he will protect the Hungarian people from Jewish things such as the EU, the IMF, and the New-York - Tel Aviv financial circles. These aren't his actual words, but the message behind his doubletalk.
He's very clever; he managed to turn Hungary into a racist country within 10 years. Then he promised that if the nationalist Hungarians vote for him, there will be no cutbacks, the Hungarian people will not pay the price of the financial crisis.
This led to his landslide victory in 2010. Of course his government is totally incompetent about everything that would be required to run a country decently, but in their worldview it's extremely simple to solve such trivial problems as money. They simply take away the money from where the money is :-)
First they "nationalized" the private pension funds. In English, they took the 3000 billion Forints that was on their accounts and spent it. :-) You see, they didn't need any cutbacks, something that would make the nationalist Hungarian people very angry. Economists warned them though, that it's silly, because that money will not last forever, they should consider more traditional methods of running the country, otherwise Hungary can easily "default", meaning the huge mess when a country goes broke.
But is this legal?!
Oh well, there's a lot of talk about this. Orban says that everything is legal in Hungary that the Hungarian Parliament votes to be legal. Folks in the EU are going crazy about it, but Orban lawyers them. Orban calls this "unorthodox" economy.
For example they invented a 98% tax on the past severances of their political opponents. The Constitutional Court said it was unconstitutional. Basically, there's no such thing as 98% tax, and in the EU, you can't just tax income that was made many years ago. You know, people may have already spent all that money, how should they pay 98% tax on it?
That can't be legal. You're joking, right?
No. This is dead serious. Here's a link about it if you don't believe me. Orban has an absolute majority in the Hungarian Parliament; and it means they can pass whatever law they like. When the Constitutional Court refused to pass their bill about the 98% tax, they responded by writing a law that forbids the Constitutional Court to refuse laws that are about money. It's ok if they lawyer them on silly things such as human rights or something, but money is none of their business.
Orban simply takes away the money from where the money is; banks for example. Why tax the Hungarian people, when there's a lot of money in the banks? It makes sense doesn't it? Banks of course pay a lot of taxes anyway, but he chose to make them pay a whole lot more. Banks of course say it's unfair, nobody told them when they came here that the Hungarian government can take away their money if / when they find it appropriate.
They lawyer Orban's government. So he passed another law that says if some international (Jewish) court will punish Hungary for taking away the money from the banks, the money for the fines will be collected from extra taxes. You can sue us fuckers; we'll tax you even more.
So is it really banks vs. Orban?
Not only. He found that there's also a lot of money at the multinational corporations too. So he made them pay extra taxes as well. Telecom companies, food companies, etc. The Hungarian people are very happy, when these companies are taxed, because the Hungarian people hate them too.
Vow. But why do Hungarian people demonstrate on the streets then?
Well, because they are paying the price for Orban's "unorthodox" ideas. One Euro cost 260 Ft before Orban, now it costs 320 Ft. This makes everything more expensive. Orban of course says it's because of Jewish attacks ("speculators", "financial circles"), but now that the Hungarian people have to pay the price of his doubletalk, they are becoming less happy about it. Some people aren't very enthusiastic about Orban doing whatever he wants either; they say it's not democratic and bla-bla-bla.
You sound racist.
I'm absolutely not racist. I'm just trying to tell you the things as they actually are. And I don't mind if you don't like the blatant truth. It's a very solid fact, that the majority of the Hungarian people don't like Roma people, Jews, the EU (controlled by Jews), the USA (controlled by Jews) and of course Israel. The majority of the Hungarian people don't like banks, multinational corporations, and "financial circles" either because they believe that these Jewish organizations are occupying their country and want to take away their land, their water etc. Sounds crazy, but if you don't believe me, I can show you at least 1 million comments on Hungarian discussion forums full of so racist stuff that you will throw up.
Good Lord, but isn't nationalism a dangerous thing?
Oh well, that was the reason for creating the European Union in the first place. Nationalism resulted in WWI and then soon WWII. A lot of people died because of nationalism. They thought it should be avoided, that different nations in Europe start wars against each other all the time. It's too messy. And the EU has worked for a long time, but now there's a financial crisis, similar to the one we had in the 1930's. Back then, it created a fertile ground for nationalism, and within a decade the mess was complete. Now Hungary's mess with the EU isn't really about money. Some people in the EU still think that nationalism isn't compatible with the founding principles of the European Union - that is to avoid nationalism.
You mean Viktor Orban is a Nazi dictator?!
No! He's a charming man. He really isn't just a dictator. A simple dictator couldn't have dismantled Hungary. He's much worse. He's a troll. He will deny it of course, but we all recognize a troll when we see one.
But you're demonizing him. It's a political attack against him.
Ok, that's it in 1500 words. You are among the very few who are capable of reading this much. You have an exceptionally long attention span, but even folks like you can't read much more than 300 words per minute. This is how I see Hungary's war against the EU from inside Hungary in 5 minutes. But you're free to continue reading whatever you wish about it, Google is your friend.
