Hungary will get ‘EUtopian’ when it moves on from its past

Budapest lives 24 hours a day. There are plenty of places where you can go, from the average Hungarian taverns called söröző, to very popular discotheques where you can spend thousands of forints. Whatever you choose, it’s always nice to cure the hangover with a good kebab in the early morning. These small restaurants are everywhere, and usually owned by immigrants. When I ask some how they feel in Hungary, the majority reply that they felt better ‘before’. ‘For the past decade, Hungarians haven’t really liked foreigners,’ says one, referring to one of the consequences of the growth of the right-wing. This peaked in 2010, when the extreme-right jobbik (movement for better Hungary) party won 43 seats in parliament. In their election campaign, they mostly targeted the ‘non-privileged’ roma and ‘privileged’ jewish minorities.

Cafe Babel