Dear Hungarians,
I write this Open Letter, because I care about the future of Hungary as an integral part of the Western World. Moreover, as an American citizen, I am troubled by Viktor Orban’s criminal domestic and ruinous foreign policies.
The graveyards of history are littered with the skeletons of politicians who promised their peoples national greatness, if the latter only follow them blindly. In the overwhelming number of cases, such journeys into the darkness of the elusive utopia brought untold sufferings upon the peoples, before necessarily ending in irreversible national catastrophes.
The over thousand years history of Hungary is full of such national catastrophes. Listing them all will take several volumes. Here, it is suffice to state that most of them were the results of bad policy decisions, which were based on arrogant ignorance or sheer idiocy. Yet, throughout the centuries, Hungarians have wallowed in their misery and have steadfastly blamed everybody but themselves, while happily indulging in their favorite political pastime of continuously falsifying history.
This mentality of victimhood, coupled with an all consuming hatred for their frequently changing occupiers, their neighbors, the Jews, and the better off among themselves, have irredeemably poisoned their national consciousness. Today, almost three decades after Hungary regained its independence, ignorance of the country’s domestic and international realities may again result in the empowerment of individuals with no or little intelligence and morbidly radical ideas. History teaches that when the practical consequences of these radical political ideas engender chaos and anarchy, the peoples mostly turn to even more ruthless and unscrupulous ideologues.
Clearly, just two weeks before the 2018 fateful national elections, Hungary is at the casp of an impending national catastrophe. Therefore, these elections must be a wake-up call to every Hungarian. Indeed, Hungary faces extremely dangerous times ahead. The reasons for this dire prediction are manifold.
The nearly eight years of absolute reign by Viktor Orban and his FIDESZ party have been characterized by gross violations of human rights of Hungarian as well as foreign individuals alike. While having claimed to promote a better world and thus occupying the moral high ground, Orban’s and his accomplices’ actions have been extremely immoral, even criminal, and outrageously corrupt.
Economically, Hungary is almost the poorest country in the European Union both in terms of GDP per capita and Actual Individual Consumption (AIC). Four out of the ten poorest region of the European Union are in Hungary. The very survival of Hungary depends on the monies that Brussels sends every year back to the Hungarian treasury. Since Viktor Orban does not have the faintest idea about the economy, he utterly fails to grasp the essentials of a steady and balanced economic development. Presently, Hungary lagging behind the European Union average per capita income by between thirty to forty percent. This large gap will continue to exist until he understands that constant economic progress can only be sustained under normal political conditions and by adhering strictly to the rule of law.
Socially, the takers far outnumber the givers, and regrettably that will only increase in the years to come, if he and his party would be reelected.
Mentally, Hungarians are the most unhappy people within the European Union. The country’s suicide rate, historically the highest in the world, keeps Hungary on the top of the worldwide list.
In case of Viktor Orban’s reelection, the frequent demonstrations in Budapest and across the country are mere dress rehearsals for what lies ahead – years of unrest sparked by the increasing hatred of the unsuccessful who surely want to seize the wealth of the more successful. Their negative sentiments will be fueled additionally by the populist rhetoric and demagoguery of the boorish, badly educated, and mentally unstable Viktor Orban.
Internationally, Viktor Orban is toxic. His corruption is legendary and will certainly bury him and his accomplices. His megalomaniac desire to be a bridge between NATO and the European Union on the one side and Russia and China on the other, will prove to be an unmitigated disaster. The impossibility of such a reckless endeavour is only compounded by the perversity of his corruption.
The questionable deal with Russia to expand the capacity of Hungary’s nuclear power plant at Paks, the granting of permanent residency and even citizenship to known Russian criminals, and the suspicious release of a convicted Muslim fanatic murderer from a Hungarian prison, all attest to Viktor Orban’s limitless greed. These traits also make him a supreme security risk for the United States of America, NATO, and the European Union.
In this context, granting Viktor Orban and his party four more years would mean collective national suicide for the Hungarian nation. Furthermore, it would signal the continuation of the vicious circles that would swirl inexorably toward the bottomless abyss. Finally, Hungary would be a prime international pariah too. In this case, Hungarians could only blame themselves. They would not only lose their country but would also make themselves the laughing stocks of the entire civilized world.
Sincerely,
Dr. Miklos K. Radvanyi