Hungarian Blues

I spent much of last year in Hungary, leaving just before the IMF cobbled together a rescue package to prevent the nation's economy from imploding. A full-scale implosion has been averted, at least for now, but Hungary is still in dire shape. Its economy is projected to shrink by 6 percent this year, unemployment is rising, and the country's disgraced socialist leader, Ferenc Gyrunscany, recently had to step down after several years of feckless rule that boosted the popularity of the Hungarian right.

This is bad news for all Hungarians, but especially for the country's Roma gypsies, a favorite scapegoat of the Hungarian Guard, a fascist group that has also seen its popularity grow in recent years. A number of gypsies have been killed recently in unsolved murders presumed to be the work of right-wing vigilantes, and the level of anti-Roma sentiment in Hungarian society has apparently increased dramatically. "You now hear anti-gypsy sentiment at every level of society," a prominent politician recently told the Financial Times.

I found this statement alarming in part because, frankly, I heard anti-gypsy sentiment at every level of society a year ago, including from young people in Budapest who thought of themselves as open-minded. In fairness, I also met Hungarians who marched in demonstrations against racism and intolerance. The current economic upheaval has not yet brought the far-right, much less the fascists, to power in Hungary. But it has made expressions of hatred more frequent and more casually permissible, an ominous development in a place where insecurity is rising.

Comments (7)

1. I think that the economic crisis definitely creates an environment suitable for intolerance and radicalism. It's a matter of national security, then, that the U.S. should increase its efforts to help the world's poor.

   The Borgen Project has good info on the estimated cost of ending global poverty:

   $30 billion: Annual shortfall to end world hunger.

   $550 billion: U.S. Defense budget.

   Posted by davidwaters at 05/18/2009 @ 3:44pm

2. Posted by davidwaters at 05/18/2009 @ 3:44pm

   Dave, it's a "nice" trick....but still a one-trick pony.

   Posted by Mask at 05/18/2009 @ 3:46pm

3. E.P.:

   In your time in Hungary, did you find an increase in sentiment that perhaps the price tag of NATO membership was too high? These former Pact nations had the great expense of tearing down, then rebuilding, their own militaries to integrate with the NATO model.

   Not cheap.

   Posted by schnellerheinz at 05/18/2009 @ 6:14pm

4. $30 billion: Annual shortfall to end world hunger. Posted by davidwaters at 05/18/2009 @ 3:44pm

   Preposterous. Whoever believes that is also shopping for shoreline property in Arizona.

   Posted by jimmylove at 05/18/2009 @ 6:40pm

5. "But it has made expressions of hatred more frequent and more casually permissible, an ominous development in a place where insecurity is rising."

   Oh I guess the far LEFT is running the country which is why they worry about the right!

   Posted by comancheamerican at 05/18/2009 @ 11:25pm

6. PRESS: "....This is bad news for all Hungarians....."

   Huh???? After its economy "is projected to shrink by 6 percent this year, unemployment is rising" and having the IMF bail them out.....

   Isn't that enough reason for a Hungarian version of Hopey and Changey with destination UNKNOWN, but for sure, CHANGE THEY CAN BELIEVE IN!

   Posted by Happy at 05/18/2009 @ 11:50pm

7. Whoever believes that is also shopping for shoreline property in Arizona.

   Posted by jimmylove at 05/18/2009 @ 6:40pm

   buy now when it's cheap.

   in 2112 it'll be worth quintillions.

   Posted by frosty zoom at 05/19/2009 @ 12:03am