Orbán at the inauguration of the monument on August 20 in Budapest
Photo: BERNADETT SZABO / REUTERSA hundred meter long ramp that leads downwards, granite walls to the left and right with the names of 12,537 localities carved into them, at the end, in the depths, a huge granite block made of seven parts, separated by narrow crevices, an eternal one burns in the middle Flame - this is what it looks like: Hungary's huge new national monument in the heart of Budapest, right across from the huge neo-Gothic parliament building.
It is called: "Monument of national togetherness". Because it is reminiscent of the former Greater Hungary, of all of its towns and of the "tragedy of the peace dictate of Trianon" - the treaty from 1920 through which Hungary lost two thirds of its territory and sixty percent of its population after the First World War.
On August 20, the day of the founder of the state Stephen the Holy in Hungary, the Hungarian government inaugurated the monument in a military ceremony. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave a speech that was as pathetic as it was ambiguous, in which he proclaimed the end of the "century of Hungarian loneliness after Trianon" and said that Hungary would experience "new size and new fame".
Hungary's new national monument in Budapest
Photo: BERNADETT SZABO / REUTERSAccording to Orbán, Hungary is the "most populous and economically strongest country in the Carpathian Basin" and will "never again afford the luxury of being weak". The prime minister proclaimed the "seven laws for the preservation of Hungary", including: "Only the country has borders, not the nation!", "Truth without strength is of little use!" and "Every competition lasts until we win it!"
At the same time, Orbán made an open declaration of war on the West, which was experimenting with "a godless cosmos, rainbow families, migration and open societies". On the other hand, Central Europe had to unite, the region had to regain "traditional life instincts" and "national pride".
It is a typical Orbán speech. One can interpret into it an unprecedented affront to the address of the neighboring countries and Great Hungarian revisionism. One thing is certain: the speech and the inauguration of the new Hungarian national monument are the preliminary climax of a decade of politics in which the Hungarian prime minister made "national togetherness" and the Trianon cult of mourning an ideological key element of his order. Because the topic has considerable mobilizing power and great political benefits.
Even before Orbán came to power in 2010 there was widespread Trianon pop culture in Hungary, ranging from ceremonies at the numerous Trianon memorials to clothing and souvenirs with Greater Hungarian symbolism and popular patriotic folk and rock music to nostalgia tourism in former Hungarian areas .
Orbán's government supports the Hungarian minorities in neighboring countries every year with sums in the three-digit million range. That pays off for Orbán's party, because many Hungarians abroad have Hungarian citizenship and the associated right to vote on lists.
Visitors to the new national monument in Budapest: places where no Hungarian had ever lived
Photo: BERNADETT SZABO / REUTERSAs recently as the 1990s, far more harmless manifestations of an alleged Hungarian border revision policy led to permanent diplomatic crises between Hungary and its neighboring countries. Today Orbán's "Politics of National Unity" repeatedly causes outrage among nationalists in the region. But most of the region’s governments are silent or at best are reassuring them.
The reasons for this are diverse. In Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia, Orbán's admirers, friends or allies have been ruling for a long time, with whom he maintains close relationships and who in some cases pursue domestic political projects similar to his. The guides of Austria, Romania and Ukraine, on the other hand, do not want to mess with Orbán for specific pragmatic reasons. In Romania, for example, the Orbán-loyal party of the Hungarian minority UDMR often tipped the scales for government majorities.
Nevertheless, Orbán's policy remains a game with fire for the region in the long term. His rejection of border changes and a possible revision of Trianon are not clear, but rather diffuse and leave a lot of room for interpretation. The way he supports the Hungarian minorities in neighboring countries promotes their political, cultural and social disintegration in their home countries, which for their part predominantly pursue a strongly marginalized minority policy.
Last but not least, Orbán's "policy of national togetherness" also prevents any debate about the causes of Trianon: Above all, the decades-long aggressive Magyarization policy in the Hungarian part of the Habsburg multi-ethnic empire meant, for example, that one had no chance in the country with a supposedly wrong name. In the end, this became unbearable for millions of non-Hungarians.
This can also be seen in the new national monument. Thousands of the place names engraved there, which come from a directory from 1913, were once forcibly Hungarianized. Places where no Hungarian had ever lived.
Icon: The mirror