A friend called my attention to a summary of a speech delivered by László Kövér at this year’s plenary meeting of the Forum of Hungarian Members of Parliament in the Carpathian Basin (KMMK). Kövér, as president of the Hungarian parliament, is also the president of the forum. Reading Kövér’s speeches and interviews is almost always disconcerting to those who consider themselves more or less of sound mind. His world is rife with hidden enemies of the fatherland and, lately, of Europe as well.
A few months ago, a University of Cambridge study revealed that conspiracy theories have become “mainstream rather than marginal beliefs” in certain countries where politicians themselves spread untrue stories about both their political opponents and real or imagined threats against the nation. For example, Trump voters are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories than non-Trump voters for the simple reason that their idol diligently propagates them. The same is true of Hungary, where the government and Fidesz politicians spread conspiracy theories and fake news.
Kövér’s speech was about the “hidden power” that lies behind all the country’s troubles. A quick internet search reveals a long history of the notion of a “hidden power” in Hungary, which is the driving force behind all facets of life past and present. This hidden force is rarely named because few people are ready to be labelled anti-Semitic, but László Szentesi Zöldi, a journalist who writes for Demokrata and 888 and is a member of Echo TV’s far-right Sajtóklub, had no problem calling Soros “the shammes of the hidden power.”
The high priest of the “hidden power” conspiracy theory in Hungary is László Bogár, who as with so many of these characters, has a colorful past, starting with membership in the communist party from the age of 27, moving over to MDF after 1989 to become undersecretary in the Antall government, and after 1998 serving again as an undersecretary in Orbán’s first administration. It is hard to fathom, but, according to Bogár, “the global superstructure tried its best to brutally liquidate” the 1956 revolution. That hidden power “recaptured the whole East European region,” including Russia, in 1992 and took it as the spoils of war. The Prague Spring was a “spurious revolution,” which was an attempt by the hidden power to test the Czechoslovak people’s will for independent existence.
Katalin Kondor, another far-righter who during the first Orbán government became president of Magyar Rádió, is convinced that “the lords of the hidden power want to create a mixed, stupid, docile, intimidated mass in Europe.” László Földi, the Orbán regime’s favorite national security expert, believes that the leaders of “hidden power” generously finance civic groups so they can purchase special systems that allow them to collect data, the kinds of systems that earlier only secret service organizations had. And naturally, they are spying on the legitimate government.
Source: Varánusz–Blog.hu
László Kövér, when addressing the Hungarian members of parliament from Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, Ukraine, Slovenia, and Croatia, had to compete with these fake news mongers in his speech. The global “hidden power” has existed for a long time, but Kövér believes that in the 21st century “a new kind of warfare is taking place, which aims at the liquidation of the national identity of the European community.” What he is talking about is a kind of mind modification which “will prevent communities and individuals from recognizing, vindicating, and if necessary, defending their own interests.” Currently, under the surface, there is an unprecedented clash between “identity protection” (identitásvédelem) and “identity destruction” (identitásrombolás). The struggle between these two ideologies is behind the debate about both immigration and the future of Europe. “The final goal of those who promote immigration and want to create a federalist Europe is a world government of the hidden power which will slowly but just as surely as cancer eliminate the sovereignty of nations and the decision-making ability of democratic countries.” The European Union is siding with the “identity destroyers,” and thus the fight against Brussels is an obligation in which Hungary can lead the way because “ever since 1920 there has been no more experienced nation than the Hungarian in identity protection.” Of course, Kövér is talking about the Treaty of Trianon and the Hungarians who remained outside of the new borders.
When I came upon his line about “identity protection” coupled with the date 1920, I immediately associated the word with the Hungarian “fajvédő” movement, which aimed to defend Hungarian stock, mostly against Jews and Jewish influence but also against other non-Hungarians. Kövér, of course, didn’t mention Jews or even George Soros in the speech, but the coded message is pretty clear.
The sad fact is that many Fidesz politicians, including Viktor Orbán, have made references to the undesirability of a “mixed” population. In Kövér’s case, one has the feeling that he finds even intermarriage between Hungarians and other Europeans undesirable because that may lead to a loss of explicit national identity. For people like Kövér, the 1960s and 1970s offered a soothing, self-contained world. In those days, life was simple and choices very limited. Inside impenetrable border walls, one didn’t have to worry about “hidden powers” and the loss of national identity.
