Hungary made front page in the newspapers of the world only a few times during its post-World War II history: in 1956 when its anti-Communist uprising was shattered by Soviet tanks, in 1971 when Cardinal Mindszenty was allowed to leave the country by Communist authorities, and in 1989 when Hungary contributed to the collapse of the Soviet system in Central Europe. (...)
Now Hungary is mentioned again in front page articles, but this time for a very different reason. From the New York Times to Le Monde we read that the country’s government is sliding toward “authoritarianism.” Trotted out as proof are the moves of Prime Minister Viktor Orban to consolidate his party’s hold on power, new rules that supposedly threaten the independence of the judiciary, and most of all the suspiciously Christian, pro-life and pro-family clauses in Hungary’s new Constitution. All these are out of step with the aggressively secular oligarchy that runs the European Union, and Hungary is being threatened (for instance, by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) that if its government doesn’t back down, the nation will face potentially crippling sanctions. (...)
In its present form, the Hungarian Basic Law is a politically moderate legal document formulated along the lines of the conservative liberalism of an Edmund Burke or a Russell Kirk. It is, in fact, very close in its words and spirit to the Constitution of the United States of America. If anything, this resemblance demonstrates that we live in a world of common values. (...)
Ajánljuk Mezei Balázs írását a Crisis Magazine-on:
Hungary Under Siege - Again