What do you think?
Rate this book
Budapest Twilight: Hungary in the Time of Orbán
Budapest Twilight
144 pages, Paperback
Published March 16, 2023
1 person is currently reading
10 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 16, 2023
Loose notes/summary:
- Aims to be a foreigner-friendly introduction to Budapest, Hungary and Orban
- Contains disclaimer that book is not for ‘far-right snowflakes’
- Preface explains why the hell Spanish guy is writing about Budapest, Hungary and Orban. Describes his first trips to Budapest in the 90s. Back then, distance between Western and Eastern Europe was much greater. Budapest seemed to him remote, exotic, foreign. Not a lot of tourists. The imponent art nouveau architecture widespread in Budapest inspired him to walk for hours on end.
- The post-communist era provided a plethora of opportunities for entrepreneurs. The city had an unfinished air, ripe for newcomers. This is in opposition to western European capitals like Madrid or Paris which seem both complete and full. This is reflected on the prices of real estate: vastly cheaper in Budapest.
- The author starts the history of Hungary with the arrival of the Magyars, a nomadic tribe from Central Asia that arrived in modern day Hungary in the 9th century. They ravaged and pillaged all across Europe, even reaching as far as Barcelona.
- I am not sure who occupied the land corresponding to modern day Hungary before the Magyars. Germanic tribes, presumably?
- Eventually, Germanic tribes manage to defeat the Magyars and drive them back to the east of Europe.
- Somehow the Magyars decide that their previous pagan-and-pillaging ways of life are no longer tenable so they decide to convert to Christianity and establish a Kingdom. The author gives no further details as to why this happens. Crusades?
- They found their Kingdom around the year 1000, the first king being St. Stephen.
- The existence of this Kingdom is the basis for Hungarian claims of a 1000-year history.
- The Kingdom prospered for something like 500 years, expanding to conquer Vienna and large parts of modern Croatia and Romania, but was eventually absorbed into the Ottoman empire.
- Occupation by the Ottomans lasted for roughly 150 years, and was followed by occupation by the Austrians.
- These consecutive occupations caused territorial and populational shifts, with the result that Hungary and Hungarians became poorly defined terms: ethnical Magyars and native speakers of Hungarian became minorities in “Hungary”.
- A revolution in 1848 was somewhat successful, despite opposition by both the Austrians and the Russian tsars: it resulted in the Austro-Hungarian empire, two states forming a confederation.
- The fifty years that followed, i.e., the period leading up to WWI were the very prosperous for Hungary. The beauty and opulence of Budapest is owed to this period.
- Hungary found themselves on the losing side of WWI, into which they were dragged by Austrian imperial ambitions w.r.t. Serbia.
- The Treaty of Thrianon, which striped Hungary of 2/3 of its previous land and left many ethnic Hungarians outside Hungary’s borders, was seen as disproportional punishment by the Hungarians.
- This sounds an awful lot like Germany's interwar story, and in fact Hungary allied itself with Nazi Germany in WWII, participating for example in the invasion of the Soviet Union. This fact is conveniently glossed over in House of Terror, a museum in Budapest about the Nazi and Soviet occupation.
- It was only in 1944, when it became clear that the Nazis would lose the war, that Hungary switched sides. This prompted Nazi occupation of Hungary and spelled doom for Hungary's then-sizeable Jewish population.
- Post-WWII Hungary became a Soviet satellite. However, given Hungary's previous alliance with the Nazis, the Soviets did not see Hungary as an ally but instead as a conquered enemy, a possession.
- The author claims (and so does House of Terror) that this led the Soviets to be particularly harsh with the Hungarians: many were deported to labor camps in Siberia and the country was stripped of its resources.
- It was my impression that this was also the case for many other Soviet and Soviet-adjacent territories, so I don't understand what's unique about Hungary's case. Maybe the sheer scale?
- The Hungarian narrative about Hungarians is broadly as follows: Hungary is a small country with a very long history that has always done what it must to survive. What else could they have done, sandwiched between Austrians and Ottomans, between Nazis and Soviets? Surely no blame can be assigned to the Hungarians for their actions, and if someone tries to, they are surely also only after whatever is left of poor Hungary's land, people and wealth.
- This narrative has some relationship with reality, but does not seem particularly accurate. Which is not so different from other countries’ national narratives.
- The picture painted by the author very much matches the tone of House of Terror, so I'm inclined to believe that that is indeed a good model for how Hungarians see themselves.
- This brings us to Orbán, Hungary's right-wing populist prime minister for ~17 non-consecutive years.
- According to the author, Orbán has done a tremendous job of taking advantage of Hungarians’ nationalism and ‘inferiority complex’.
- Further he has done much to cement himself in power:
- Rezoning (gerrymandering?) and changes to electoral laws (winner-takes-all per district) have allowed his party Fidesz to get more seats with less votes. They regularly achieve supermajorities (2/3 of Parliament, enough for constitutional changes) with less than 50% of the popular vote.
- Measures to discourage opposition parties from running together have been employed to some success (more funding if you run in every district, creation of puppet parties to further spread the vote). In a winner-takes-all system, dispersion of opposition vote is of great interest to leading party.
- Progressive takeover of media institutions. Author estimates (how?) that 90% of media institutions in the country are now government aligned. Journalists are discouraged from questioning the party line through impaired career progression and extra scrutiny by authorities. Think intimidating visits by taxmen.
- Takeover of educational system. Many universities have now been handed off to foundations which are run by friends of Fidesz.
- Capture of judicial system. Courts have similarly been taken over by friends of Fidesz by appointment of new positions.
- European money is awarded on basis of loyalty to the party.
- …
- The book is extremely light on sources, but the author points to “Tainted Democracy: Viktor Orbán and the Subversion of Hungary” as a book following a similar argument but properly supported by citations.
- The author’s predictions regarding the 2022 election was completely off. Fidesz won with an even greater margin than before. I commend him for being honest about this and including an appendix discussing it, but I found the discussion of why he was wrong lacking.
- Aims to be a foreigner-friendly introduction to Budapest, Hungary and Orban
- Contains disclaimer that book is not for ‘far-right snowflakes’
- Preface explains why the hell Spanish guy is writing about Budapest, Hungary and Orban. Describes his first trips to Budapest in the 90s. Back then, distance between Western and Eastern Europe was much greater. Budapest seemed to him remote, exotic, foreign. Not a lot of tourists. The imponent art nouveau architecture widespread in Budapest inspired him to walk for hours on end.
- The post-communist era provided a plethora of opportunities for entrepreneurs. The city had an unfinished air, ripe for newcomers. This is in opposition to western European capitals like Madrid or Paris which seem both complete and full. This is reflected on the prices of real estate: vastly cheaper in Budapest.
- The author starts the history of Hungary with the arrival of the Magyars, a nomadic tribe from Central Asia that arrived in modern day Hungary in the 9th century. They ravaged and pillaged all across Europe, even reaching as far as Barcelona.
- I am not sure who occupied the land corresponding to modern day Hungary before the Magyars. Germanic tribes, presumably?
- Eventually, Germanic tribes manage to defeat the Magyars and drive them back to the east of Europe.
- Somehow the Magyars decide that their previous pagan-and-pillaging ways of life are no longer tenable so they decide to convert to Christianity and establish a Kingdom. The author gives no further details as to why this happens. Crusades?
- They found their Kingdom around the year 1000, the first king being St. Stephen.
- The existence of this Kingdom is the basis for Hungarian claims of a 1000-year history.
- The Kingdom prospered for something like 500 years, expanding to conquer Vienna and large parts of modern Croatia and Romania, but was eventually absorbed into the Ottoman empire.
- Occupation by the Ottomans lasted for roughly 150 years, and was followed by occupation by the Austrians.
- These consecutive occupations caused territorial and populational shifts, with the result that Hungary and Hungarians became poorly defined terms: ethnical Magyars and native speakers of Hungarian became minorities in “Hungary”.
- A revolution in 1848 was somewhat successful, despite opposition by both the Austrians and the Russian tsars: it resulted in the Austro-Hungarian empire, two states forming a confederation.
- The fifty years that followed, i.e., the period leading up to WWI were the very prosperous for Hungary. The beauty and opulence of Budapest is owed to this period.
- Hungary found themselves on the losing side of WWI, into which they were dragged by Austrian imperial ambitions w.r.t. Serbia.
- The Treaty of Thrianon, which striped Hungary of 2/3 of its previous land and left many ethnic Hungarians outside Hungary’s borders, was seen as disproportional punishment by the Hungarians.
- This sounds an awful lot like Germany's interwar story, and in fact Hungary allied itself with Nazi Germany in WWII, participating for example in the invasion of the Soviet Union. This fact is conveniently glossed over in House of Terror, a museum in Budapest about the Nazi and Soviet occupation.
- It was only in 1944, when it became clear that the Nazis would lose the war, that Hungary switched sides. This prompted Nazi occupation of Hungary and spelled doom for Hungary's then-sizeable Jewish population.
- Post-WWII Hungary became a Soviet satellite. However, given Hungary's previous alliance with the Nazis, the Soviets did not see Hungary as an ally but instead as a conquered enemy, a possession.
- The author claims (and so does House of Terror) that this led the Soviets to be particularly harsh with the Hungarians: many were deported to labor camps in Siberia and the country was stripped of its resources.
- It was my impression that this was also the case for many other Soviet and Soviet-adjacent territories, so I don't understand what's unique about Hungary's case. Maybe the sheer scale?
- The Hungarian narrative about Hungarians is broadly as follows: Hungary is a small country with a very long history that has always done what it must to survive. What else could they have done, sandwiched between Austrians and Ottomans, between Nazis and Soviets? Surely no blame can be assigned to the Hungarians for their actions, and if someone tries to, they are surely also only after whatever is left of poor Hungary's land, people and wealth.
- This narrative has some relationship with reality, but does not seem particularly accurate. Which is not so different from other countries’ national narratives.
- The picture painted by the author very much matches the tone of House of Terror, so I'm inclined to believe that that is indeed a good model for how Hungarians see themselves.
- This brings us to Orbán, Hungary's right-wing populist prime minister for ~17 non-consecutive years.
- According to the author, Orbán has done a tremendous job of taking advantage of Hungarians’ nationalism and ‘inferiority complex’.
- Further he has done much to cement himself in power:
- Rezoning (gerrymandering?) and changes to electoral laws (winner-takes-all per district) have allowed his party Fidesz to get more seats with less votes. They regularly achieve supermajorities (2/3 of Parliament, enough for constitutional changes) with less than 50% of the popular vote.
- Measures to discourage opposition parties from running together have been employed to some success (more funding if you run in every district, creation of puppet parties to further spread the vote). In a winner-takes-all system, dispersion of opposition vote is of great interest to leading party.
- Progressive takeover of media institutions. Author estimates (how?) that 90% of media institutions in the country are now government aligned. Journalists are discouraged from questioning the party line through impaired career progression and extra scrutiny by authorities. Think intimidating visits by taxmen.
- Takeover of educational system. Many universities have now been handed off to foundations which are run by friends of Fidesz.
- Capture of judicial system. Courts have similarly been taken over by friends of Fidesz by appointment of new positions.
- European money is awarded on basis of loyalty to the party.
- …
- The book is extremely light on sources, but the author points to “Tainted Democracy: Viktor Orbán and the Subversion of Hungary” as a book following a similar argument but properly supported by citations.
- The author’s predictions regarding the 2022 election was completely off. Fidesz won with an even greater margin than before. I commend him for being honest about this and including an appendix discussing it, but I found the discussion of why he was wrong lacking.
Displaying 1 of 1 review