A-Infos (en) Italy, UCADI #166: Sovereignty in crisis; Hungary (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

After 12 years of uninterrupted power, the Democracy built by Viktor Mihály 
Orbán, President of Hungary, seems to be starting to show the first significant 
cracks . The Hungarian oligarch's political project comes from afar, considering 
that he was already President from 1998 to 2002 and that he became one again due 
to the mistakes of his political opponents. Its history and its political 
strategies should make Italians reflect in consideration of the fact that the 
current Italian prime minister is an attentive follower of the Hungarian premier, 
shares his basic values and strategy with a view to giving life to a theory 
Overall right-wing policy in the 2000s.
It is not a matter of revisited Nazi-fascism, because if that were the case it 
would be relatively easy to fight it, but of a different institutional political 
theory which draws some "strong ideas" from fascism and Nazism such as racism, 
ethnic and racial identity, the pagan cult of Christianity , white suprematism to 
make it a melting pot that on an institutional level marries with a model that 
goes beyond the classic division of powers and even keeping alive the rule of law 
and the so-called liberal democratic institutions from a formal point of view, 
concentrates power in the executive bodies, sterilizing Parliament, violating the 
independence of the judiciary placed at the service of the executive, 
concentrates powers in the hands of the head of the state. In this context, 
elections are a periodic event controlled through a majority electoral law that 
excludes participation, marginalizes opposition, sterilizes dissent.
A minimally attentive observer will see many features and aspects of the current 
political situation in our country and will have to agree that both the center 
and the left oppositions, such as the extra-parliamentary opposition in Italy, 
have been so short-sighted and imbecile, incapable and inadequate to deliver the 
country into the hands of these forces. One by one the defenses of the Republic 
born of the Resistance were demolished: the extra-parliamentary opposition was 
defeated and marginalized politically and socially, then it was the turn of the 
workers' movement, then again the reformist parties. The modification of labor 
legislation through the Job Act and the passing of a majority law were the seal 
of this policy.
A careful reconstruction of the parallel and partly contemporary political events 
that have characterized the history of Hungary would allow us to clearly see the 
immediate similarities and convergences with the difference that the process, in 
the Hungarian Republic, is more advanced and is guided by the executive for 12
years.
In fact, Mihály Orbán has governed since 2010 with the "advantage" for us that we 
can see what is being prepared. At the beginning, the Hungarian premier 
intervened on the founding values of the country: his mission in the world as 
defender of Christianity as an ethnic, value and racial bulwark against the rest 
of the world, the call to mobilize to counter the "ethnic replacement" of the 
Magyar through emigration: From here the fight against demographic decline, 
policies to support maternity, the promotion of marriages, especially religious 
ones, through ad hoc legislation; labor policies of clear support for businesses, 
also through the imposition by law of free work for businesses. Restriction of 
civil liberties of the press, communication, assembly, association. Reform of 
teaching and schooling, as well as educational pedagogy: prohibition of sex 
education in schools, homophobic and sexophobic gender policies, attack on 
responsible motherhood and the right to abortion for women.
What is happening in Hungary should make us reflect on the strategic value for 
the government in charge of politics in some sectors and therefore on what will 
be the work of the ministries of education and of the university, of the family, 
of justice, as well as that of work, the economy and all the others. In fact, we 
perceive the first symptoms and we will deal with them in the rest of these 
pages, but in the meantime we limit ourselves to pointing out that the 
indications of the direction of travel, misunderstood by the non-existent 
opposition, are very clear.

A possible beginning of the crisis

Returning to the Hungarian situation today, after 12 years of the regime, we note 
that perhaps the first cracks are beginning to be felt at the instigation of the 
European Parliament which asks Hungary to suspend the funds of the PNRR if it 
does not adapt to the European parameters on rights, respecting the 
constitutional freedoms and elections, the independence of the judiciary, freedom 
of expression, including media pluralism, the rights of minorities, voting a 
resolution passed with 433 votes in favour, 123 against and 28 abstentions. The 
European Commission then unanimously voted on the proposal to suspend 65% of the 
funds of three operational cohesion programs destined for Hungary, because the 
risk posed to the EU budget in the context of violations of the rule of law 
"remains", despite the measures promised by the Budapest government to fix the 
problems indicated by the Commission and the consequent ban on making legal 
commitments with public interest funds for programs implemented under direct
and indirect management. The value of the funds in question is 7.5 billion euros, 
about a third of all Cohesion funds destined for the country and almost equal to 
the sum that Hungary has requested with its Pnrr.
The body is very hard because Orbán's family clan and the FIDEZ associates who 
surround him live and thrive on European funding by resorting to non-transparent 
procedures to take over the contracts relating to projects financed with EU funds 
on which the country's economy depends strongly. It is no coincidence that 
corruption in the country is a very high proof of this and that the European 
Commission has insistently asked the Hungarian government to set up an 
independent anti-corruption authority, reform procurement and other key measures 
to fight against corruption.
These measures have finally obtained a large majority also due to Poland's 
withdrawal from support for Hungary due to the ambiguities of the Hungarian 
government in the Ukrainian crisis with respect to which Orbán not only withdrew 
from the sanctions but despite having welcomed 250,000 Ukrainian refugees he done 
by hosting those coming in
majority from Transcarpathia, a region inhabited by Hungarian populations and 
claimed by Bucharest which distributes their own passports to the population, 
while the Ukrainians practice a policy of assimilation by closing schools, 
forbidding the use of the language. It is no coincidence that Orbán presented 
himself in public, welcoming the refugees, with a scarf on which Great Hungary of 
the Habsburg times was depicted: a sort of geopolitical manifesto in the style of 
the sweatshirts that Salvini uses, which is not liked in Poland and the other 
neighboring countries such as Romania and Slovakia which have Hungarian 
minorities in their territories: Meloni and Salvini remained to defend Orbán.

A people in struggle

Already at the beginning of the year the economic situation was dire: hence a 
wave of strikes and wage demands against average salaries of the equivalent of 
650 - 700 euros. The disadvantage of school and university workers is 
particularly serious. A first-nominated employee earns just over 400 euros; 
therefore, the claims of Hungarian teachers are one of the hottest points of 
Hungarian internal politics and for years there have been protests against 
starvation wages and against a system, that of education, which is highly 
precarious. Funds for education have fallen by 16% since Orbán came to power and 
this has increased the protest. Therefore the government decided in February, 
through a decree, to impose a "minimum service" on teachers to be guaranteed in 
all schools: the time slot to be covered, however, is essentially that of the 
regular conduct of lessons. The strike, consequently, would have become totally 
irrelevant: hence the "civil disobedience".
During the year, with the energy crisis and the reduction of European funds due 
to repeated violations of the rule of law by the government, the economic 
situation worsened and inflation jumped to 20%: this led to further growth of 
social disadvantage to the point that teachers and students took to the streets 
in October to oppose a corrupt system, starvation wages and restrictions on the 
right to strike. Not only in the capital, in front of Parliament, but in many 
other cities, marches invaded squares and streets to protest against a decree 
limiting the right to strike in schools.
Taking advantage of the special powers attributed to it to counter the covid 
epidemic, the government had in fact issued theGovernment decree - on certain 
emergency regulations affecting public education institutions, 36/2022. (II. 11.) 
containing special rules applying to the right to strike in public educational 
institutions during a state of emergency. The legislation defines the scope of 
sufficient services required for the duration of the strike, while clarifying 
that, if an appeal procedure against a court decision on the illegality of the 
strike is pursued, the court decision cannot take effect until when the decision 
is not subject to a second instance judgment which can only intervene 60 days 
after the first instance sentence has been pronounced. It is quite clear that in 
this way every guarantee of the rule of law on the effectiveness of a judge's 
sentences is violated.
This despite the reopening of the schools, the strikes resumed with vigor and the 
education minister announced that several teachers will be fired, because they 
are guilty of "civil disobedience".
At this point, however, the demonstrations and protests are not exclusively about 
wage demands, but are also directed against the growing centralization of 
education. All teachers have been forced to join the National Chamber of 
Teachers, municipal schools have been nationalised, the Central Authority of 
Education decides which textbooks are to be used and directors are chosen by the 
central or at least regional authorities, with a selection of a political nature.
In an attempt to shift the responsibility for what is happening onto others, the 
government has announced that it is not possible to increase teachers' salaries 
because the necessary money is blocked by Brussels without saying that those 
blocked are funds which, in any case, would never have ended up in the pockets of 
teachers, but would instead replenish the wallets of Orbán's friends. The 
European Commission - as we have explained - has proposed to suspend 7.5 billion 
euros of the Cohesion Fund for violating the rule of law in Hungary precisely 
through those measures that the demonstrators deem illegal. For the Hungarian 
government, Brussels should stay away from the education system, but it would be 
up to the EU to pay the salaries of the country's teachers when instead it is 
known to all that European funds can be used for investments and infrastructures 
but not to meet the expenditure current (wages). The fact remains that thanks to 
the gag placed on the press, the media coverage given to the demonstrations is 
non-existent. Few (or none) traces of protests in newspapers and television news 
close to the regime, while the silence of the opposition press has now become 
almost total.

Democracy and rights

To grasp the scope and exceptionality of what we have reported, it is necessary 
to consider that for the Hungarian legal system the strike is the last resort, 
and can only be justified by the defense of the economic and social interests of 
the employees, not by political objectives: the political strike is forbidden. 
The strike is therefore a procedure legitimate, but that does not mean that it 
can be used without restrictions. It is necessary to maintain the good 
functioning of the public administration, therefore the law on strikes severely 
limits the participation of employees of the state administrations, and this also 
applies to teachers. In essence, the guarantee of the functioning of essential 
rights prevails over the right to strike, i.e. of the service, especially that 
which is public and until there is an agreement between the parties in conflict 
on which essential services are, it is not possible to strike.
It follows that usually the conflict is resolved with the agreement between the 
parties and that both public and private employers can bring numerous actions 
before the courts to induce workers to withdraw from their requests. When the 
parties do not reach an agreement, the workers can resort to "civil disobedience" 
but in that case they accept all the consequences of their action which becomes 
illegitimate and can also lead to dismissal. This provision can be challenged 
before the judges but the subjugation of the judicial system to the regime leaves 
no hope of a positive solution to the dispute.
For this reason, the teachers' struggle actions must be seen as a courageous and 
desperate gesture of taking sides against the employer and ultimately the 
political regime in the face of unbearable work and wage situations. And 
therefore as a courageous gesture of breaking the existing social order which 
marks an incurable fracture with power and is a harbinger of radical opposition 
to the government and to the entire control structure of society.
This is the world, this is the society dreamed of by sovereignists, even our own, 
who think of proposing a modern and updated version of a society characterized by 
the presence of corporations, where social conflict is recomposed in the name of 
the interests of the nation, interpreted by the government and employer class, 
whether they are private entrepreneurs or state managers, it doesn't matter.
The mistake is deluding ourselves and cultivating the false illusion that this 
will not be possible in our country; nothing more false, it's just a matter of 
time, as it was for the electoral law as it threatens to be with presidentialism, 
as it should be with education which must educate by exalting merit and 
practicing humiliation, as it must happen with family policies, with those on 
emigration, on marriages, on the most diverse ethical values.
Faced with this programme, the only effective response can be to take the defense 
of our rights and interests directly into our own hands, organize ourselves to 
fight in every sector, respond blow by blow, first of all driving back into the 
sewers the false opponents of this project who are , as in war, the collaborators 
and then the profits idiots who cultivate a facade opposition, punctuated by many 
convergences, stimulating and seeking alliances with those who in fact oppose 
this project and above all:

Don't let them work!

The editorial staff

http://www.ucadi.org/2023/01/02/sovranismo-in-crisi-lungheria/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
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