Orban’s “Club of Battlers” is exactly as mad as it sounds
The Prime Minister of Hungary began playing hard.
Dear readers, dear readers,
« Hallo, warriors! Welcome! I welcome fighters for the freedom of the digital world, » shouted Viktor Orbán, and it seemed as if the Prime Minister of Hungary was introducing a great wrestling show. At the same time, he only opened the first meeting of the « fighter club » of his party Fidesz.
If the head of the reader emerges the name of the iconic film with Brad Pitt « Battles Club », it will not be a parallel purely coincidental. It is a film about a secret club where men ventilate their aggression by physical fights, but the club will gradually grow into a dangerous movement.
Recently, Orbán called on the Hungarians that if they love their homeland, they should be ready to fight for their homeland. Of course, the peacemaker Orbán does not mean any protection of the Hungarian territory from hostile troops.
In his despair, Orbán, from the growing influence of Péter Magyar, legitimizes his army of trolls and calls others into the fight. From now on, this army will officially do what the trolls have been secretly doing so far by Russian paying: attacks of all kinds on the opponents.
I had the opportunity – like many other colleagues from Hungary – to experience some of the forms of this struggle. I am enriching my Hungarian for synonyms of the word prostitute, which I haven’t even known so far.
At the same time, Orbán forms a more militant Fidesz, a party that identifies with expressions such as struggle and counterattack.
Orbán 18. May at the « opening ceremony » of digital wrestlerov announced that Hungary is under the attack and the warrior club has to « defend » their homeland, because if they do not do it, no one will do it. He said that the Hungarians had always had to rely only on themselves, so he indirectly denied the importance of memberships in international groupings.
He himself had to protect Hungary from migrants, Soros and Brussels bureaucrats. Now they will have to protect the homeland from the shares of the Ukrainian secret service, because according to Orbán, his country Kiev and Brussels attack together and want to make Hungary their colony.
He even called on people to bring new members to the warrior club and to be prepared, that everyone would emerge from the shadow. At the same time, it does not specify what is the real work of this club. It relies on everyone to be able to spread the official propaganda of the state and push decent people out of the digital space.
In fact, it’s exactly as crazy as it sounds.
Orbán does not attack specific journalists on his presses, it does not name them as Robert Fico does. He has his army of trolls for it, he does not get his hands with attacks on specific persons. Fico’s verbal attacks on journalists have their paradoxes: he makes the named journalists of the targets, but also admits that they are important to him. He attributes them to the power that Orbán is no longer doing.
The Prime Minister of Hungary began playing hard. He proposed a law that could also envy the unofficial association of autocrats. If it goes into force, for journalists and independent media this will mean bullying, police supervision and threat of liquidation. The media that the state will include on the list will not be able to receive one percent of taxes, the state can make a raid in their premises, confiscate computers and block bank accounts. Why? For Viktor Orbán said they are part of the enemy forces for the disposal of the state.
Since Fico copies Orbán in many ways, if the European Union does not interfere with the Hungarian government, we can be more or less sure that we will soon have the Slovak Sovereign Authority.
Solidarity of the Editor -in -chief from 23 countries
Hungarian journalist and colleague from Daily N Veronika Munk initiated a statement to Orbán’s liquidation bill. Almost 90 editors and publishers from 23 countries, as well as important media as the British Guardian, French Libération, Austrian ORF and Polish Gazeta Wyborcza, were joined by this statement. SME also joined the statement.
« Survival of free press is not a local matter – especially in the region where more and more populist leaders are taking over Orban’s techniques. It is in our common European interest to declare as much as possible that freedom of information, independent and facts based on the media and critical voices in the public space are necessary. Contact with the Treaty on the European Union and the Charter of the EU fundamental rights.
Read: Survival of free press is not a local matter (Solidarity statement)
Orbán’s law also applies to us
We know similar talks about « foreign agents » or « anti -Slovak NGOs » well from Robert Fico. We know that Fico is often inspired by Orban – in rhetoric, in attacks on critics and in the way he subjects institutions. Therefore, I express full solidarity with all Hungarian journalists, activists and organizations that Orbán wants to silence.
Read: Orbán attacked the media and NGOs as hard as never before
Pellegrini had a dream
After his election as chairman of the voice in November 2020, Peter Pellegrini said that he was « not even dreaming » that before the establishment session, his party would reach first place in surveys of political preferences. According to Focus, the voice was 19.1 percent and Direction feeds to 9.5 percent.
Pellegrini, of the will of the voters, no longer occurred to the President, or even in the dream that his party would overtake the Republic built on fascist pillars, representing the single coalition potential of Robert Fico. Thus, except for the voice, if the party in the future elections at all gets to parliament.
If the voice wanted to be a dam against the fascists, it is no longer a dam against anything, as the duration of its declared values would necessarily have to mean the end of the coalition. The fact that they are verbally opposed to something, but Fico’s demolition crews further demolishes no value for a voter concerned about a democratic institution.
Read: What did Pellegrini dream of?
The infamous year of Šutaja Eštoka
Colleague Michal Katuška explains why the voter experiment called Matúš Šutaj Eštok did not work out and why he lost the positions won by Peter Pellegrini after the elections, except that he is an inexperienced politician. Will the Eštok end up in the voice leadership?
Single -use voice
Colleague Peter Tkačenko reminds that after the elections the voice was in an excellent situation. As the only party, he could be part of two coalitions, which made it upgrading the overport number of cities in the government and exhausted « his fantasy thirteenth pensions ».
« But this has been exhausted by their policy, they have become an appendix of Direction and today they do not have the power, even if they wanted to, » writes Tkačenko about voice members, a party that he believes was made for disposable.
Read: Single -use voice
Does the Creator ESET pull the threads?
Unlike other Slovak super -rich people Miroslav Trnka did not help the wealth of government contracts, privatization or shops on the border of the law. Paradoxically, part of society perceives it as an oligarch that pulls the threads. Is that really that way? Colleague Tomáš Vašata tells you his story.
Read: In Slovakia he created a world megafirma, Blaha et al. him for the reward they raised abroad
Kristína from Cannes
Colleague Kristína Kúdelová brings her lyrics from the Cannes Film Festival. They are not just ordinary interviews or reviews. He catches us with hands and takes us in the projection hall, explaining some nuances of movies that might be missed.
Here is a selection of texts that it pays to read:
Thank you for reading us.
Beata Balog, editor -in -chief of the SME daily
