My flight had just landed at Budapest’s Liszt Ferenc International Airport on Saturday morning. I was arriving back in Budapest from the coastal town of Burgas (Bulgaria), after spending five insightful days exploring both the Romanian and Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, and beyond. After my Wizz Air flight landed, I made my way over to passport control at Terminal 2B. As most of our readers will know, at this time Romania and Bulgaria are not yet members of the European Union’s Schengen Area, which means that landing at Budapest Airport from these two countries still entails passport control.
I have dual citizenship (Canadian and Hungarian), but it was my Canadian passport that happened to be at hand, whereas my Hungarian one was buried somewhere in my fairly chaotic backpack. I handed the Hungarian border agent, a young man likely under 25 years of age, my passport and greeted him in Hungarian with “Jó napot kívánok!” (good day). He took my passport, passed it through a machine and inspected my entry and exit stamps. The only question he had for me, in Hungarian, was where I was coming from. I answered that I had arrived from Bulgaria. That was the extent of our exchange. He could see that I spoke some Hungarian, despite having a thoroughly English-sounding name and a Canadian passport, though he probably could not tell from those few words that I am fluent.
He leaned over to his colleague–an older female sitting directly next to him at the adjoining counter–and said: “Soros ügynök” (an agent of Soros). The female agent remained stone faced, offering no reaction, while a few seconds later my agent slapped my passport onto the counter and ushered me through without another word.
Budapest’s Liszt Ferenc International Airport – Terminal 2B
I cannot tell from this brief exchange if the young Hungarian passport control officer was merely making a joke at the fact that the paranoia of Soros agents hell-bent on destroying the Hungarian nation permeates Hungary today or if he seriously thought that I was an agent of the American-Hungarian billionaire. As a coincidence, however, the Hungarian government launched its newest billboard campaign in Budapest the day before, plastering the city in signs that show Mr. Soros with a sinister smile and with the words: “Let’s not let Soros have the last laugh.” This billboard campaign follows a previous one declaring that Hungary is a “proud and strong European country,” and the one before that screaming from every street corner: “Let’s stop Brussels.”
Regardless of whether the young border agent at Ferihegy bought into this campaign and whether or not he actually thinks that I am an agent of Mr. Soros, I would expect a minimum of professionalism from Hungary’s border control officers–something that this agent in particular was unable to provide.
Hungary’s newest propaganda posters. Photo: C. Adam.
When I arrived at JFK, I showed my Hungarian passport, and was requested to wait. Then I was interrogated, and in spite of the fact that I was invited by my friend to visit her, got my vise issued by the US consulate in Budapest, I was deported back to Hungary.
When I arrived at JFK with a regular visa issued in Budapest by the U.S. consulate, I was interrogated. I told the guys that I was visiting my friend. I was then deported without any explanation.
Dandy, Bamboozled, I hope your third personality got through.
Strange. The system is in accordance of the law, that the person have to give a US address where the Notice to appear before an Immigration judge can be sent. Than let go.
You really had to have something out of order to be refused entry while alleged to have a valid entry Visa.
Now what was that ?
Dandy / Bamboozled…….your split personality is showing.
Guess who is a threat to Democracy and Patriotism, brainwashing College students? ONE guess!
A zero event or non-event at all resulted in writing this article. This is a modern political journalism!
Lol, good luck on your way out. The screening officers will be much more unprofessional, with more shitty jokes. And no, they don’t care if you can understand them, they doing the same with hungarians too. As soon as someone gain a little power in Hungary they turn into fucking assholes. That just something inevitable, and it’s not going to change any time soon.
@Christopher Adam I feel your pain. As far as the age of the border guard is concerns it is immaterial, but the information he spew over the other must have been displayed on his screen. Unless of course he is one of your readers and formed his own opinion.
But quite frankly what did you expect? As I read your blogs (and you can bet your last penny that the Hungarian authorities also do so) I cannot find a single nice thing you ever wrote about the situation there, thus leaves me with the same feeling that you are one of Mr. Soros’ affiliate. Whether you are paid for your venomous articles or not is beyond me to comment on but your activities must have been recorded in the computer system somewhere.
And let’s just see some of the reasons you might be kept under surveillance:
– You used your Canadian Passport not because you are a messy person but you wanted to make sure that you are protected by the strength of your Canadian Passport. Please do not insult the intelligence of your readers.
– You politicize everything and blame the Orban government for whatever is wrong as reflected in your recent post “Budapest’s metro disaster: Russian metro cars and the saga of the M3 line”. What does it say about you? Is it not a direct suggestion that you are a Soros agent, unless you are a technical expert on subway cars of course.
I found it very disturbing that some blog operators in Canada and the USA are so hostile toward Hungary (and that includes the people as well not only the Orban and Fidesz entities) that is outrages and despicable. I wonder why do you hate everything that is in Hungary today. Just because it is not a liberal oriented country that is not enough justification to wage a smear campaign against it from seven thousand kilometers. There is only one explanation for this … being a Soros agent. Prove me wrong if it is not true.
As the incidence took place in Budapest, I would be inclined to think that the officer was being sarcastic- as you know yourself, the regime is despised and satirised mercilessly in the capital and their pathetic little hate posters are largely vandalised within 24 hours. If it had been the land border at Serbia or Ukraine then probably a different story. But, yes, not very professional.
SEE ORBAN’S PROPAGANDA AD IN HUNGARY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30AEBSTcK7w
Turn on the subtitles for translation of Hungarian to English
It is trivially false that Mr. Soros is “the most influential billionaire in the world” (that would, of course, have to be Trump).
But Mr. Soros is certainly one of the most decent billionaires in the world (whereas Trump is perhaps the most despicable).
(Orbump (Lilliputin), already a billionaire in forints bled from Hungary’s slaughtered (Mészárolt) economy, is merely odious; his fiefdom and depredations are too inconsequential to measure up to those of his 3 P/E/T mentors…)
Robert M és Tsa
Thanks for being a frank little fascist, who finds it quite normal that:
Any dissident should be wiretapped, kept under survailance and have a secret police file (back to the DDR or USSR) ..
Than nobody should report or point out any venomous facts about the total corruption of the Orban mafia state, but rather joint the din of silly propaganda pouring out of all media outlets (but a couple).
So RM is disturbed because someone is Hungary, well not to H, but
– hostile to Rogan and cronies because of the 300 BILLION forints they stole through the resident bonds, or
– hostile to Garanacsi for the 180 BILLION stolen through the MET gas deals, or
– hostile to the Orban for the 85 BILLION wealth parked on the Meszaros name, and
– hostile to the orba mafia for the hundreds of billions stolen at every level
– outraged that there is no 30 billion for the M3 line and Hungary had to buy outdated Russina subway cars, just to mention a few examples of the corruption orgy.
Surely the current regime “is not liberal orientated”, not at all, actually it is a fascist one, as you proved it, and a criminal at that.
what he can’t buy is time.. economy poor all over Romania, Hungary, simple explanation: the Jewish smarts were murdered, and thankfully the new generation is staying away – (and should).
@Observer thank you for your enlightening comment. I am so used to having all kind of labels stuck to my forehead by disgruntled ultra-left-lib activist that your single “fascist” sounds almost like admiration. I am so sorry for your limited views and knowledge that prevent you from understanding what I wrote and what the whole issue is but I can assure you that I still recognise you as a human being. Keep on insulting me if that keeps your blood pressure in check.
Robert M vagy akárki,
I’m not impressed by your self contradicting response enlightening or misunderstanding?
Secondly, why do u feel insulted by my ” single fascist” label? You choose your position of an Orbàn apologist/supporter. Don’t u stand by it?
BTW I’ve been a conservative all my life and I’ve always hated the fascists. Now I hate Orban even more because he’s a thief as well.
@Observer I am so sorry that you feel neglected. Just to clarify it for you; I am not here to impress you. To the contrary, when someone takes the disrespectful attitude to label the other without having the slightest knowledge about him just because they do not agree on issues I simply despise the one and try to get under his skin …
I got you brother … 🙂
Robert Morrison, just because you pretend to be more knowledgeable on the subject, doesn’t make it so. I have been reading HFP for a few years now and one thing I noticed about the “fascist” types like yourself (since you like that compliment), is you confuse the Hungarian nation with its government. The people are not represented by their government in Hungary, so they are also not the ones criticized here, nor is the country itself. The Hungarian populace is very liberal minded, which is why they initially elected Orban, as his voice was very liberal when embarking on his political journey. The problem here is that they are not informed of the total severity of the actions of the government and much of the media is muzzled when it comes to informing the public of what is transpiring within their government. Also, I would like to point out that because Hungary is still very new to democracy, they have no clue where to start to change it. As far as HFP and the articles that criticize the government, well, it is hard to say something nice about a government who is stealing heavily from its people. Most of us have family roots in Hungary and are very concerned about the state of our former homeland and our ancestral lands. You go ahead and claim you are more knowledgeable, but I highly doubt you know very much at all, except you seem very well versed in the right wing ideology you wish to have sweep over Hungary. I ask you this, why do you want Hungary to have a autocratic regime? What do you have to gain by having Hungary become isolated in Europe? As for the article about the M3 railcars, do you honestly think that buying outdated rail cars with the billions granted for the project by the EU is the best use for that money? And what does all this say about you really?
@ Liz Aucoin … thank you for your kind comment on my comment. I like when misguided liberals get involved in political science with born misunderstanding. Your dream of separating the current government from the people voted them into power shows some major concern about the well-being of the country as a whole in case the liberals run EU start acting upon the advices to rape the youngest members (since 2004 or later) of their family.
Just to clarify something for your once upon a time democratic mind … I am not a conservative (or as you labelled me “fascist” which I like because in the second you wrote it you already lost the arguments), I do not agree with a lot of things happening in Hungary but as long as Victor Orbán stands firm against the invading nomad hordes I am standing with him against the mindless left liberal nation-rapist, culture destroying politicians and bureaucrats.
On the M3 issue let me give you two pieces of information (if you want to take it at face value), – I am a retired electrical engineer, – Any project of a size like the M3 ALWAYS have problems that need to be dealt with at the beginning. It was the same with the street cars that – Chris praised in his article- when they were brought in from the EU.
Thirdly I wish to live in a utopian world when politicians are honest, do not misuse public money and people being happy with what they have rather than grabbing more and more. It would be hi-time for someone to expose the origin of Gyurcsany’s wealth as well as the reason Hungary is being brutally penalized for the Demszky scandal and tell me with clear conscience that Orbán is worse than these two traitors. At least he put forth honest efforts to save our Judeo-Christian culture against the sworn enemies of my Brothers and Sisters.
@ Liz Aucoin
Appreciate your effort at injecting a small dose of sanity into the discourse in this underpass.