ALERT: Bócsa, the town that shakes off the fear that paralyzed Orbán’s Hungary | International
In breaking news, the following story has emerged from the international scene.
On the day of the most consequential elections in Hungary’s recent history, the mayor of Bócsa, a small town of 1,900 inhabitants in the center of the country, exploded. Mihaly Szoke-Tóth, from the party of ultra-conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, had been feeling enormous “psychological, spiritual pressure” for two days. Early in the morning, the Fidesz politician voted, took a photo, shook off his fear and shared it on Facebook with an unprecedented message. His ballot was for Tisza, the formation that that same night overthrew the system of which he had been an active member for the last 16 years. “I couldn’t remain silent,” he says in his office at City Hall this Tuesday. The idea had been on his mind for years, however. But he did not dare: “If I had done it so openly before, my village would have suffered, our funds would have been cut off; and I did not want to sacrifice the people,” he continues. “But this party can no longer reform, we have reached a point of no return,” he says, and regrets having reached “this conclusion too late.” The last 16 years of Orbán’s government, the same ones that Szoke-Tóth has led in Bócsa, about 115 kilometers south of Budapest, have turned Hungary, in the words of political scientist Bálint Magyar, into a mafia-state. The mayor agrees that, as in organized crime, “you enter Fidesz, but you cannot leave.” Péter Magyar led the way. The winner of Sunday’s elections achieved a historic victory against the party whose elite he also belonged to until two years ago. He denounced a system corroded by corruption and the dilapidated state of public services. The discontent that had been brewing in the country for years emerged as hope for change. The system began to crack. Figures from the police, the army, the intelligence services and government analysis centers have emerged from the depths of the State in recent months and weeks to denounce Fidesz’s abuses. Szoke-Tóth was always very critical of the party. They told him he had to behave and made him see that he was being problematic. “That’s how an autocracy works: you can’t express your opinion, but follow orders.” Now that, as he says, he has become “the black sheep” and his Facebook post has spread throughout the country’s independent media—considered enemies by Orbán—he speaks openly. The four consecutive terms of the national-populist prime minister have created “a new economic elite with millionaires close to his figure.” While they were getting rich, he points out, “the party was incapable of lifting millions of people out of poverty.” Local authorities are fundamental pillars of this clientelist network. “They gave me instructions so that the municipal concessions would go to members of the party and since I didn’t do it, they considered me an uncomfortable element,” he says. “But I survived because I do my job well, I have a good image and I have won several elections; attacking me would be counterproductive.” In the last elections, Szoke-Tóth obtained more than 71% support. Bócsa lives mainly from agriculture and some local industry. The town is quiet streets of single-family homes with gardens. It is not one of the most depressed areas of the country. In these, there are villages with substandard housing without running water and systematic complaints of electoral fraud by Fidesz. “There are dark places in rural areas where people depend on the mayor and residents sell their vote for money or to keep their jobs. This is real and works especially with the gypsy minority,” says the 42-year-old councilor. In his Facebook post, Szoke-Tóth, who speaks English and German, and studied international relations in Austria, stated that he was voting “against Russian influence and in favor of European values.” Also, he chose hope and a project for the future over the Government’s warlike rhetoric. Two days later, he stated that he was “ashamed of the propaganda” of his party. Orbán has focused his campaign, with the help of his media machinery, on pointing out Ukraine as a direct military threat to the country’s security, while conversations have been disseminated that demonstrate his servile relationship with Russia. PropagandaIn Bócsa, as in much of rural Hungary, the information that citizens consume comes through propaganda. 80% of the country’s media ecosystem is in the hands of people related to Fidesz. In the countryside, all local radio stations and regional newspapers are pro-government. The narrative of fear that Orbán and his party have instilled has resonated, especially among the elderly. Dr. Hajnalka Kokrehel, 64, says that her older patients, those reported on public television, come to her office “desperate,” with high blood pressure. “They voted for Fidesz because they said that if Tisza won, war would come.” But even at the outpatient clinic where she also consults in a nearby town, a nurse who is in her thirties “is terrified because she thinks they are going to take her husband to Ukraine.” Dr. Hajnalka Kokrehel, in her clinic in Bócsa, this Tuesday.GR-P. He has also seen an increase in cases of depression: “Scaring people with war has had a lot of impact.” In their environment, “even people with a good level of education, on Saturday and Sunday they were very nervous, they felt like their world was ending.” Kokrehel, who in 2010 campaigned for Fidesz, has not voted for them for several years and this year he has elected Tisza, like 3.3 million other Hungarians, a record. “The Government has done a lot of damage to healthcare, especially in the last 10 years: they suspended the guards, the waiting lists are enormous. They have cut the budget and it is difficult for us to order tests. They push people to private healthcare,” denounces the doctor. In another nearby village, where people have fewer means than in Bócsa, they see that their patients “have to choose between buying food or medicine.” Health has been one of the central themes of Magyar’s campaign. Also education. Túnde Szolobodáné Rakonczay, a 51-year-old German teacher at the village primary school, has also turned her back on Fidesz this year in the expectation of a turnaround. In 2022, the party obtained 63% of the support of the residents of Bócsa. This year Tisza won, with 50.1%. “In the town it was not felt as much, but at the national level it has been a very dirty campaign,” laments the teacher. Low salaries and the imposition of textbooks are some of the demands of the sector, which called for massive protests against the Government in the last legislature. Túnde Szolobodáné Rakonczay, German teacher, at the Bócsa primary school. But corruption is a complaint that runs through everything. Kornel Mülbert, 50, also voted for Fidesz in 2010. He stopped voting in 2013, when he started working at a state-owned building materials certification company. There he was scandalized by the level of “invasion of politics in a company that had to be professional.” “People appeared who tried to speed up the processes. Or approve material after the fact that was already incorporated into a construction.” A year ago, Mülbert left that job and started an agricultural business in Bócsa, where he has become an activist in the Tisza campaign. Until then, he was unable to get involved: “Even a like on Facebook could get you fired,” he says. “One or two months ago someone told me that he didn’t want to speak in the street, especially when the mayor was from Fidesz.” The town’s priest, Tibor Farcas, thanks the Orbán Government for the opportunities he received. Farcas, 29, was born into a gypsy family without resources and says that thanks to scholarships he was able to study and prosper. Like the doctor, the entire town passes through her parish and feels the mood of the neighbors: “There is a lot of uncertainty.” The priest avoids speaking out about corruption or the lies of Fidesz propaganda, a party that bases its morals on Christian values. Farcas does admit that “the method of political communication, the hatred that is expressed between parties, filters and generates conflicts between families and friends.” “That is not very Christian,” he acknowledges.GR-P.Fear has crossed Hungarian society, just as the Government proposed. Szilvia Balog, a 21-year-old waitress at the Flora restaurant, also hears older customers express that concern. “We young people are very happy, but other generations are scared of change.” Tisza has managed, however, to release and channel a desire for change that was contained in a social majority where boredom reigned. And it has given confidence to those who did not dare to share their opinion. Like the mayor whom some now consider a traitor. Or Dr. Kokrehel, who openly campaigned for Fidesz when the socialists ruled and yet, with Orbán in power, she would never have spoken to a journalist to criticize the Government. Now yes.
Analysis and Perspective:
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Source: This article was originally published in another language by Internacional en EL PAÍS and has been translated and adapted for our global English-speaking audience. Read the original article here.