The conflict of mirrors: how Ukraine got its own Orban

Source: Author’s Facebook page

After the scandal involving the seizure of Ukrainian tax collectors in Hungary, along with their cars and money, Viktor Yushchenko addressed an open letter to Viktor Orban, who was the first prime minister of his country at the same time that our future president also held a similar position, only in Ukraine.

The question is not even how Orban responded to this bitter letter from his former negotiating partner and – let’s be honest – political like-minded person. The question is that the Orban to whom Yushchenko is addressing does not actually exist – not even from the point of view of political views and morality. The “first” Orban does not exist institutionally.

Viktor Yushchenko met with the head of the government of the Republic of Hungary. Today, Viktor Orban has been the head of the government of Hungary for 16 years – the name “Hungarian Republic” has been officially abandoned in the neighboring country. I can be told that Ukraine does not have this word in its name either, which does not prevent our country from remaining a democratic republic. But the question is not even in the name as such, but in the essence.

After his return to power, Orban consciously and confidently engaged in dismantling republican institutions.

First, he changed the composition of the electorate when he extended the right to vote to all ethnic Hungarians – and thus transformed his small country into the political heir to the pre-Trianon Kingdom of Hungary.

Secondly, he introduced the mention of God and the Christian faith in the Constitution – symbolically, it refers to traditions, but changes the very character of the modern state.

Thirdly, he downplayed the role of the president, parliament, judiciary, and free media, and in fact, in his influence on decision-making, he became similar to the pre-war regent of the Hungarian state, Admiral Miklós Horthy, whose numerous monuments began to appear on Hungarian squares just after Orbán returned to power.

And so, after this return, Orban spoke of an “electoral revolution” – and he was not lying. In fact, his Fidesz returned to power and formed a constitutional majority as a party of new people, opposing the fed-up corrupt nomenclature, former communists, narcissistic and incomprehensible to the “common man” liberals – all those who formed governments and promoted changes in the abolished republic.

Thus, of all the European politicians of recent years, the closest analogue to Viktor Orban is not Viktor Yushchenko at all.

Viktor Orban’s closest analogue, his political brother, is the one he hates the most, whose posters he has hung all over Hungary, whose name he scares his voters with – especially after they promised to give his address to the Ukrainian military.

The closest analogue of Viktor Orban is Volodymyr Zelenskyy. If you look closely, he is almost our Orban.

Zelensky also carried out a real electoral revolution against the existing political elite (which came to power after the real Revolution of Dignity of 2013–2014, not a revolution invented by Zelensky, just as the Hungarian elite came to power after the real anti-communist revolution of the late 1980s, not a revolution invented by Orbán).

Zelensky did not need to rename the country, but he also deprived it of the essence of republicanism after the party formed under him effectively leveled the functions of parliament and government, when independent media began to lose their role against the backdrop of the war, and judicial procedures were replaced by a sanctions mechanism. As in the case of Orban, people connected to the first person or absolutely loyal to his wishes appeared in key positions. And therefore the conflict between Ukraine and Hungary is a conflict of mirrors.

The difference is that Orban leads a state that has lost imperial lands (but not imperial thinking) and was formed after the territorial losses of the world wars – therefore, he can afford to remain in Europe and form special relations with Putin, Trump and Xi Jinping. And Zelensky leads a state that was enslaved by empires and is currently going through a period of territorial losses and asserting its own sovereignty – and therefore cannot afford relations with authoritarian rulers who try to deny him subjectivity and question the very existence of the country he leads.

In addition, Orban’s dependence on Europe is a dependence on money and nothing more. And Zelensky’s dependence on Europe is a matter of survival not only of his government, but of the state itself.

Therefore, despite the process of dismantling the republic, which only intensified in our country during the war, Ukrainians have every chance to return to republicanism, and therefore to responsibility, even with Zelensky at the head of the state. Although paradoxically, the same chance has appeared for the first time in the last 16 years for Hungarians – only, of course, without Orban.

Also follow “Pryamim” on Facebook , X , Telegram , and Instagram.

• Materials published in the “OPINIONS” section reflect the opinion of the author of the publication, who bears full responsibility for the accuracy of the information.
• The editorial staff of prm.ua may not share the opinions expressed in the author’s material.
• The owner of the webpage in the “OPINIONS” section is the author of the publication.