Andrea Szego, Sociology professor at the Budapest College of Management, sent the following assessment of the situation in Hungary on the eve of the national elections April 12.
The unique nature of the election in Hungary is that this time two questions arise:
What will happen on April 12?
What will happen on April 13?
The reason for the increasing tension is that all major world powers have placed their bets on one of the two competing parties. However, these powers are deeply divided on the issue. The United States, Israel, and Russia support the governing party, while the European Union and Great Britain support the main opposition.
Great Britain is once again very active in this arena, as it was during the regime change of 1989–90. This time, however, it is not acting as part of the Anglo-Atlantic formation; rather, the City of London appears to have taken a more independent position. Globalization today seems to have two distinct wings.
The use of media manipulation, together with NGOs acting as agents of major world powers, has become the “normal way of doing business” in elections held since 1989 (the period of political transition in the so-called socialist countries).
What makes the situation particularly tense today can be traced back to two factors. First, there are indications that the intelligence services of major powers are playing an active role in everyday developments. Second, there are signs that these organizations may have embedded their agents within sensitive parts of the Hungarian state bureaucracy. If this is indeed the case, then state power has become very fragile.
That is why the questions of what will happen on April 12—and also on April 13—are of vital importance.
