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Budapest – It was a cold afternoon. Yet hundreds gathered on the edge of the Hungarian capital to bid farewell to their own philosopher, Gaspar Miklos Tamas.
Communist-era dissidents were present-day politicians, writers, journalists and youth activists – a crowd that told the story of Budapest over the last four decades, and today produced the seeds of protest against Viktor Orbán, the far-right Hungarian Prime Minister. They sat quietly in the Farkasreti cemetery.
To some, Tamas was a brother of dissent in Budapest from the 1980s, when he was active in an underground democracy movement. For a younger generation, the Transylvanian-born Marxist ideologue and academic was also a beloved speaker at protests and events where he denounced Orban. That was a Hungarian outlet SaidAn intellectual “rock star.”
But as the crowd dispersed – after eulogies from Budapest’s mayor and some of the city’s best-known figures – mourners clashed with other locals who live in a different Hungary.
“Whose funeral was it?” asked a bereaved fellow passenger as the grieving man tried to board a public bus back to the city centre.
The question echoed an emerging reality – or perhaps a dual reality – in Orban’s Hungary. There is increasingly one group of people living within the Orban-curated narrative, and another group living outside it.
Orbán has built up – and also straddling – his influence in Hungary’s media, judiciary, education system and the arts. Before toying hard for the nationalist right, the Hungarian leader was once a liberal dissident himself, moving in the same circles as Tamas.
That’s why this growing chasm was punctuated by the inadvertent passing of Tamas when Orban posted a picture of the late intellectual on Facebook in a tribute to his (former) friend.
“The old freedom fighter is gone,” the Prime Minister wroteReferring to Tamas simply as TGM – the ubiquitous byline of the author.
Who asked some of the Prime Minister’s supporters in the comments section, is TGM? Can someone explain?
Others were confused as to why Orban was suddenly showing respect to someone who ideologically opposed his government. Some expressed their condolences anyway.
Meanwhile, fans of Tamas were furious. How dare Orbán, whose government critics call traitors, post about his beloved philosopher as an “old” fighter?
The post of prime minister was a most personal gesture: he once belonged to the same left- and liberal-leaning circles as the mourners in the cold cemetery. Tamas himself once said that he believed that Orban privately respected some of the intellectuals he now hated politically.
He argued that the prime minister had “no principles” – and that his political position was merely opportunism.
Whatever Orban may feel privately, he has done much to discredit his opponents. His party has taken control of state media and spread conspiracy theories portraying any rival as acting to undermine Hungary’s national interest.
The result has been a deepening polarization of Hungary – and the rise of two parallel bubbles in the country.
In the capital city and some other urban pockets, many Hungarians believe that Orban is dismantling Hungarian democracy. They want stronger ties with the European Union and an end to high levels of corruption.
But elsewhere, especially in rural areas and some smaller towns, Orban has solid support despite high inflation. Many supporters of the prime minister blame the US and Ukraine for the ongoing war and believe the narrative that Brussels and shadowy interests are out to destroy Hungary.
In these places, many Hungarians do not read news that is not filtered by the ruling Fidesz party, which has wielded influence over most of the country’s institutions. The government has also covered Hungary’s streets and highways with billboards – all paid for with taxpayers’ money – to deliver misleading and disparaging messages about harsh EU sanctions against Russia.
“No to 97 percent of sanctions,” declares a current government video ad. “It’s time to finally hear the voice of the people, even in Brussels.”
The government’s anti-ban rhetoric is so pervasive that many citizens – a full 50 percent of Fidesz supporters, according to one vote late last year – are under the impression that Hungary actively opposes them. the opposite is true. Budapest has approved every package currently in force.
But beyond his party’s strong influence on the flow of information, there are still questions as to why Orbán is still successful, at least within a bubble, given the dire state of the Hungarian economy and the visible enrichment of people affiliated with the ruling party. .
Hungary’s opposition struggled in the 2022 election, winning only 34 percent of the popular vote. Tamas criticized the opposition coalition in that race as a “product of desperation” that was not offering a clear enough alternative.
Asked why the prime minister was so successful at appealing to his political base, Tamas told Politico a few years ago that Orbán capitalized on a voter base that already existed within Hungarian society.
Tamse said, “Coming from outside – he used to be an anti-national and anti-religious leftist – he managed to re-unite the fractured right and give it confidence.”
“There was,” he said, “a large right-wing voting base, but disorganized; they needed a leader.
Another important factor, according to the late philosopher, is Orban’s “courage to harness the long-dormant anti-Western resentment that has been an essential part of Hungarian and Eastern European politics since the defeat of the liberal revolutions of 1848.”
In far-right and nationalist circles, for example, Western powers are blamed for Hungary’s loss of territory after World War I.
The use of anti-Western rhetoric by Orban, Tamas said, is “in keeping with the main tradition” and “that is why he has been forgiven by his supporters – despite the corruption.”
“He is familiar,” he said, “as a type of national leader – more than anyone else in recent history.”