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Oct. 31 - Nov. 7, 2004 |
12 - Hungary:A Stillborn Utopia
Election a snapshot of national mood and now join the European Union
By Antonio Maglio
Originally Published: 2004-08-22
Jurgen Habermas, the greatest living German philosopher, says, "The elections for the European Parliament were not European elections, but the mirror image of each Member State's mood."
Here in Hungary, like elsewhere, this election took a snapshot of the national mood; in other words, it was a test of the government's popularity. The government came out of it with a lot of bruises. However, here, more clearly than elsewhere, one can perceive a feeling that pervades Eastern Europe: on the one hand, old Europe keeps fascinating these people; on the other, new Europe - the Union - doesn't warm them up yet. That's understandable. Now that the Union has a Constitution at last, some processes will gain steam, because the Member States will go from being spectators, albeit in a VIP box, to main actors. Having one Foreign Minister, for instance, will do much to prevent centrifugal trends such as those that, on the issue of the attack on Iraq, split Europe between faithful friends and loyal friends of the United States. Faithful friends aren't always reliable.
But the Constitution was still in the delivery room when, on June 12 and 13, Europeans went to vote, so the Hungarians were scarcely interested in Strasbourg. The important date was May 1, 2004, when they officially returned to the Common Home. Even though the Berlin Wall had fallen in 1989, this is the date that marks the watershed between the virtual Europe of the past and the real one of the future.
Anyway, the pragmatic and unceremonious Hungarians did not join the Union wearing a cowboy hat. The situation is summarized nicely in a poster that is plastered all over Budapest. It bears a significant title, "Gierek" ("Come"), and addresses the youth. In the background, it shows several young people; in the foreground, a direction sign with three arrows. One says "Hungary", another "European Union", and the third "USA". The arrows reveal the popular mood: "European Union" and "Hungary" point in the same direction, "USA" points the opposite way. One does not need to be Sigmund Freud to understand the poster. There is no antiamericanism, but there's indifference, which is possibly worse. It's the same indifference I noticed 20 years ago towards the Soviet Union, just below the façade. And just like yesterday people here did not rejoice for the deeds of the Red Army in the Baltic Republics or in Afghanistan, today they liquidate the U.S. war on Iraq with a dismissive comment, "They don't know history."
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