In his weekly Friday morning interview with the state-run Kossuth Rádió, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán asserted that the government’s openly xenophobic and highly controversial billboards telling immigrants to respect the country’s culture, not to steal the jobs of ethnic Hungarians and not to break the law are actually “mild” in tone. “They emphasize that Hungary is an open and friendly country. They don’t say that one cannot come here, but simply that our laws have to be respected,” noted Mr. Orbán. The prime minister then claimed that the billboards were aimed primarily at human traffickers and “economic migrants.” The government has been demonizing the latter group for the past several months.
“Hungary is a place that they must avoid,” added the prime minister. He also noted that the majority of the Hungarian population believes that mass immigration, as such, is both dangerous and unrealistic, and that those who oppose the government’s plans and message are part of a small minority of “liberal intellectuals” who tend to “completely stand opposed to life experience.” Next Wednesday, the Fidesz-KDNP government will discuss proposals on how to handle the influx of refugees and migrants arriving to Hungary transiting through Serbia, who are in large part fleeing conflict in Syria and Afghanistan. One proposal that Prime Minister Orbán confirmed is on the table is to completely seal the country’s southern border. Earlier this week, György Nógrádi, a national security strategist, recommended on public television that the government erect a barbed wire fence along the border with Serbia, noting as a precedent a similar barrier constructed along the border between Bulgaria and Turkey. Liberal news sites such as Index, referred to this as a new “iron fence.”
Prime Minister Orbán said that his preference was for the European Union to establish reception and processing centres outside of its borders, where all arrivals would be kept, and which would give member states the option of allowing some of these refugees on their territory. Additionally, Hungary and Serbia will hold a summit in July, and the issue of illegal migration will be at the top of the agenda. The Orbán government is miffed that Serbian authorities aren’t stopping refugees and illegal migrants on their territory and are allowing them to cross over into Hungary.
Viktor Orbán in Kossuth Rádió’s studios on June 12th, 2015. Photo: Szilárd Koszticsák / MTI.
But what was the Orbán government’s real objective with the billboards? We know that they are not aimed at immigrants or refugees, but rather at Hungarian public opinion. According to an analysis by publicist Balázs Böcskei published in Népszabadság, Mr. Orbán’s calculated and cynical goal was to provoke the left-centre opposition and liberally-minded activists into responding precisely as they did: by defacing the billboards, launching a counter-campaign and publicly supporting liberal and multicultural policies around immigration and diversity, that the government believes are unpopular with the vast majority of the country’s population, the liberal opposition is seen as out of touch and “extremist.” Mr. Böcskei quoted Bence Tuzson, Fidesz’s spokesman, who quipped: “What’s next? Should we prepare ourselves for even more extremist action? Are they going to turn to arson next?”
The liberal and left-centre opposition does have an ethical obligation to speak out against the sort of xenophobia that was plastered across the country by the government, even if this won’t win them many votes. The left also has a duty to actually formulate responses and concrete policy proposals relating to these issues, in addition to very visible campaigns, such as the protests surrounding the billboards. That’s one thing that the opposition really hasn’t done in the past years: they are big on making statements, giving television interviews and publicity stunts, but their capacity to formulate ideas and propose policies, and then share these with the public and explain their relevance to everyday life, has been weak.
But most disturbing is how cynically Machievellian Mr. Orbán has been on this, and many other issues. While the government’s billboard campaign may look like a grand and clumsy debacle from abroad, in Hungary it is entirely possible (and likely) that the average voter will see Fidesz as the defender of order, jobs and national culture from shadowy foreigners who lurk in their midst, while the opposition will be seen as out-of-touch idealistic and weak-kneed liberals on the fringe, who would cause chaos and disorder if ever allowed back to power.
