Catching up with Spiegel Online this evening, i scrolled past all the radioactive wastelands articles to learn that the Hungarian parliament, under Viktor Orbán's inspired tutelage, has finally voted on a new constitution. On Kossuth tér these days, it is 2011 going on 1935. The Germans and various EU others are not very pleased. Spiegel quotes Süddeutsche Zeitung:
"The constitution enshrines a spirit of ideological, ethnic intolerance, both externally and domestically. Some are being reminded of the fascist rhetoric in Europe between the world wars. Neighboring countries are getting unpleasant memories of the cultural arrogance and power of the Hungary of old, whose Magyarization programs they were subjected to. The new constitution claims that the state of Hungary represents all other Magyars, meaning the three million living in neighboring countries."
Orbán's spokesmen responded to the barrage of criticism coming from Germany with true freedom fighter spirit. "Hungary had to tolerate being instructed what to do or what to include in its constitution from the capitals of other countries for long decades. That era is now over." We have to give the Hungarian political establishment high marks when it comes to never learning from their own history. The purgers later become the purged. This new constitution is so heavily laden with nationalist rhetoric that one can't help but wonder if the motivation is not so much to pat themselves on the back for being Europe's most outstanding race as it is to convince themselves they didn't need papal payouts to set themselves up as an independent kingdom in the first place. Hungarians, in my experience, are even more schizophrenic than Americans when it comes to their identity.
The Fidesz party constitution takes a deep bow towards hefty domestic breeding and enshrines marriage as a solely heterosexual union, which inevitably means the Budapest police can stop whining about traffic obstruction and just ban the annual gay pride march on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. Yet the principle points of contention that have got the Hungarian left-center oppostion and all the centrist EU politicos up in arms involve the extent to which the ruling party will be allowed to cement their economic, judicial and social policies for years to come by making it virtually impossible to change them, even if Fidesz falls out of polling favor in the next elections (2014?). Thankfully, the media law enacted earlier this year should go a long way in ensuring that radical, aka 'anti-Hungarian', opinions are kept out of the public sphere, at least for as long as Fidesz remains in power.
i'm sure i'm not alone in thinking there is serious irony here, considering the circumstances at the root of King Viktor's re-ascension to power. i've been saving this video link for just the right moment... The names of liars in residence may have changed some, but the perversion of truth remains ever constant. Spoken word by Henry Rollins.
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