the meaning of Karácsony's victory – 2024 Elections in Budapest

"élet" means LIFE
("LIFE" and the arrow is the editor's addition in the picture)

Gergely Karácsony has won (see this article by TELEX, one of the few independent media)!! But what does this mean? Life instead of death, brightness instead of darkness – but seriously! :)

We know Fidesz… We know them now. We've been learning since 2010, and finally we can say we know them. The invader Turks in the 1500s and 1600s? The invader Russians from 1945 till 1991? Same thing. Fidesz looks like a democratic party (they even used to have ‟democratic” in their name, as well as ‟young”), but it is a fake, made up entity. Under the disguise of a party it is a large group of corrupted people who abuse the rules of democracy, take a chip of the democratic practice every day (every hour), and abuse the society. They are horribly arrogant, to say the very-very least.

Had the Fidesz won in Budapest, an unprecedented dark, soot black 5 years would have come. No, it wouldn't have been what you (might) think… The city wouldn't have been locked down. Not at all, tourism would have been roaring, vast buildings, even scyscrapers would have been built, trees would have been planted with party logos on them, and in every possible office people would have been fired and replaced by Fidesz-men and women. The change would have been invisible to most eyes, and we Budapesters would have had to explain it for 10-15 minutes every time it would have come up in a conversation.

But the disaster didn't happen!! This is a GIFT!! Divine Grace!! This is a fellowship prize! A wonderful chance! But it also has a meaning. I mean, two possible meanings. It makes a difference which way you choose…

Way A: one can say that Budapest's citizenship is strong and free, and can't be broken, spoiled, corrupted, and that a vast change has begun, and that from now on, Gergely Karácsony will only move upwards, and so will freedom in Budapest.

Way B: one may see that this was the very-very last time that the old opposition (the parties that ruled before 2010) with a sympathetic face, Gergely Karácsony, could make it. Or, from Karácsony's angle, this was the very-very last time that he could make it as the ally of that old opposition. It is time for new alliances!

For my friends, it is (hopefully) needless to say, I view the situation in the B way.

a crucial update: Peter Magyar and the TISZA Party

What you might have missed in the past 2 months was the emergence of a new person and a whole new party. The person is Peter Magyar (yes, magyar means Hungarian :)), and his party is TISZA Party, the party of respect and freedom, ‟Tisztelet” / ‟SZAbadság”.

He represents a valid opposition (he and his party hasn't been tried at an election and found guilty of abuse of power, and refused for ever on the national level, whereas Gyurcsány and his parties have). Peter Magyar and the TISZA party (yes, Tisza is a Mayor Hungarian river, in the countryside, not in Budapest like the Danube) represents a change, a revolution, if you will. He represents unifying right and left, as well as Budapest and the Country.

Okay, a word on unifying right and left. This might sound stupid, and populistic. But it means a real thing, the concept is valid. Right and Left has been formed by two groups of parties, just like in England back in the day, when Left and Right was established. It only meant the location, this or that side.

Since 2010 Hungary has been in the trap of the old left-right approach. Cause if you hated the government and they were the RIGHT, you had to vote LEFT. But when the other side has been found guilty and been sentenced to ‟life in prison”, that is, refused for ever on the national level, what can happen? Nothing. Or rather: a slow self-salami catastrophe, a self-slicing-salami effect. During that, the opposition becomes smaller and smaller. They live in a shrinking ghetto, live in an island that is shrinking gradually. Such a lethal trap. Their media surface (the potential of reaching masses) would also shrink. It's just a slow and systematic going down. It was a trap in the worst sense. The victim would keep repeating what used to help them – vote on the LEFT – but that would only separate them more, and make them shrink more. A lethal trap with no way out.

Peter Magyar broke out of this trap. Established a new party. In just two months he as been to 199 events in the country, and one in Budapest. Yes, he campaigned in the country! This is the ‟zone”' where the old opposition (the old-old ruling parties) would never venture. However, the countryside is where Orbán had collected his ‟heads” (voter persons), put them in a matrix (a statistical device) and used them ever since. This is where he grew his empire. To see the powers of the countryside, you have to realize that unlike in Budapest, in the country people have one step more to the world. Two steps. In Budapest only one step is to be made to the West. This is enough for a whole group of people to play a mediator role, to interpret the West to the people of Budapest. In the countryside, however, even Budapest is one step upwards, one wall farther, and another layer of mediation is possible – even required. This is the role that Orban had taken (back in 2001), and where he's been acting recklessly.

the hyperreality trap in the Hungary

To elucidate what he has been doing, I have to refer to a film, Les Miserables with Belmondo in the lead role, directed by Claude Lelouch. It is an incredibly beautiful adaptation. Okay, I've never read the book, nor have I seen any other adaptation. But it's easy to see that this is the one and only best adaptation, cause it is universal. Just like the Hungarian Gábor Bódy's incredible film, Narcissus and Psyché, or Sally Potter and Virginia Woolf's Orlando, it involves a time trip. It extends the present and make the scene travel to the future without the main characters dying out in the mean time. Lelouch's Les Miserables involves the WWII and the Holocaust. There is a Jewish couple who want to flee to Switzerland but they get caught at the border in the forest. The young woman is taken to a concentration camp, her husband remains in the forest cause he was shot and thought to be dead. But a nice French man finds him, and takes him home.

He and her wife will hide him and take care of him in the next years. Our Jewish man recovers and lives in a ‟room”, in the barn, separated from the world. He gives money (an authorization to take money from the bank in Switzerland) to the couple who have him. The war finishes. But the couple decide that they won't tell their guest the news. Instead they keep telling him the worst ever imaginable news about the Nazis winning the whole world, on a daily basis. Our man is their captive, literally. Lost and desperate. They don't use weapons or any type of force. Only information. Manipulated, corrupted – poisoned – information. This is exactly what Orbán and his fleet (propaganda army) has been doing to the countryside ever since 2010.

Today, people in the countryside are afraid of war, and they know that Orbán wants peace. They believe that they would have to pay 10x as much for their bills (electricity, gas and water), had Orbán been toppled by the evil opposition. They are afraid, trembling. Lost and desperate. And in their need, they eat info from the Regime's hand, on a daily basis. They eat news from that hand – that is, from those hundreds of omnipresent media outlets.

Hungarians in the countryside hate the European Union. They hate ‟Brussels”, and they like Orbán's friendship with Putin – cause that's independence from the EU. They believe basically anything that Orbán's propaganda machine spits out. Oh, I forgot to say: they don't believe anything that other sources tell. Pretty gross…

Peter Magyar leashed a campaign against this propaganda system, also against the old opposition and their invalid messages. He's been breaking through from day one. Orbán's propaganda machine went crazy. The propaganda büro's head, Antal Rogan made media attacks against him every new day, involving messages that Peter Magyar was beating his ex-wife, or that he lived on drugs. Now, this Rogán guy is really unscrupulous, he is famous for having staged immigrant scenes in the countryside with actors who's faces were painted black, just to keep the people in the right mood (fear and despair). Peterr Magyar took a drug test and called Rogán and his mate to also do that.

Rogán's propaganda büro is the epicenter from where hyperreality is flooding over the country. Their campaigns basically use billboards with idiotically blatant ‟photoshopped” images of the opposition. Incredible, really. But Hungary has been treated like this since day one – since 1990. People believed that Izaura, the slave girl in a Brazilian soap was real. Now they know that she's only a character, but they still love her, and there is a TV channel called Izaura channel…

Hungarian people have been trapped in this poisoned hyperreality. This is what Peter Magyar went against, and started replace it with clean images, clean (uncorrupted) info on reality. Hungarian people, since two months ago have been coming to their sense. They have begun to re-explore reality. This time, for real.

Karácsony's victory

His victory is incredible. Orbán and his regime did everything to win Budapest. They made it impossible to vote for Mayor from abroad or in other cities. There are about 1 million Hungarians in emigration, and about 99% of them would vote LEFT, against Orbán and his gang.

Anyway. Karácsony has won, I mean, Budapest has won, Budapest has claimed autonomy, or as the Orbán-Rogán machine puts it on a daily basis, ‟sovereignty”. Thanks to everyone who took this threat seriously. My sister, who (first time since 1990) wasn't able to vote for Mayor cause she is abroad, thanked me for traveling from the countryside to Budapest to vote for Karácsony. She said, my vote and effort (sitting for 4 hours in a hot, packed train) counted, and of course, this is what is true for all of us: our votes and effort counted!! We have made it.

In my interpretation, this victory means a new beginning. Karácsony represents Budapest's citizenship and our sovereignty. But this was the last time that we voted for the old opposition. Gergely Karácsony is good, really GOOD in every sense and by all means. He is a sympathetic, intelligent young man, who is also sincere, and Budapest-friendly. He has been a good Mayor, he was one of the firsts in Europe to regulate the scooters, for example. He is calm and intelligent, and good.

I wish he can be elected for Mayor in 2029 too! At the same time, I'm certain that the party alliances that supported him (including Gyurcsány's own party, the DK) must be deprecated, and replaced with TISZA Party, or (theoretically) any new party that is good enough to unite the whole of Hungary for a democratic course.

The future is extremely bright! Soon (sooner than it seems), in 2026 Hungarian citizens can get rid of Orbán and his regime for ever. So, let's welcome Karácsony, say good-bye to the old opposition, and welcome the new one, the TISZA party, and start working on the future, together…

Peter J.