This is a
day to meet friends. Viktor drops me and my bicycle at the Danube and I start
to make my way to Obudaiszeget (Obuda island) in the Danube, where every year a
well-known Rock festival takes place. There I meet Zsolt, a friend from the
latest European project on marketing of cycling. He and his Hungarian made ‘Babboo
cargo bike’ get a lot of comments. This is not a familiar sight in Budapest
yet.
I talk with
him about the political situation in Hungary, just as I did with Viktor and his
girl friend. Their view is not very positive about the latest changes of the
constitution. Mentioned are the
connection between the constitution and the Christian religion. It mentions
that life starts with conception and that the only legal and correct family
form is between one man and a woman. This creates conflicts with the European
Parliament.
Also there
is concern about the change – towards a politically centralized control – of
the educational system. Political friendship, having the right connections and
nepotism, seems to gain strength again. I remember. This used to be the case
after gaining their freedom in Poland, but at a certain moment the checks and
balances became more powerful and from that moment this system started to
collapse. In Hungary my friends do not see such change yet.
Viktor, who
has started a small business, feels no support, not from the state, nor from
society. People seem to find it weird you don’t have an employer. This makes
both younger persons feeling that they should maybe leave. But both also want
to contribute to the development of their country, but not under these
political circumstances.
I receive a
slightly different idea, when I speak to a self-educated person from 60. He is
religious and lives in a small village, grew up under the suppression of
communism, saw and knows about the cruelties that were committed and how
political non-conformists were treated. He hopes that the current changes of
the constitution are a sign of religious conservative politics. “Time will
learn, he says”. He is however of the same opinion about the nepotism. Playing
along and giving up your personal ethics, he will never do. Using as minimal as
possible from the state and for food, housing and earning money trying to be as
much self-supporting is his survival strategy.
All in all
this is not a very promising picture for Hungary, I think.
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