Hungary: Towards the Abyss

Investigating why critics of Hungary’s authoritarian government believe it is leading the country towards fascism.

Spring came late to Budapest. When I arrived at the beginning of April the Hungarian capital still glittered with snow, giving the grand palaces that line the River Danube the appearance of huge iced cakes just begging to be eaten. It is an entrancing sight that attracts tourists from all over the world – drawn not only to the fairy-tale architecture of this ‘Paris of the East’ but also its vibrant street life and rich cultural traditions.

But appearances can be deceptive: like many central European cities, Budapest has endured a fair degree of turbulence over the last hundred years, and the uneasy memories of two world wars still linger amid its castles, monuments and cafes. Today, there are fears that some of the very worst aspects of that history have re-emerged; that elements of political extremism once consigned to the margins have now found their way back to the mainstream.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7ow9qa8whU

I had come here to make a film for People & Power that would investigate these changes and find out whether – as some feared – Hungary was really slipping back into the kind of crypto-fascism that saw it allied to Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich before and during World War II. From a distance it might seem a Iittle far-fetched that a modern European nation could ever embrace such ideas again, even though the most vocal critics include the governments of several fellow EU states. But as I was to discover very quickly, seen up close there is little doubt about Hungary’s slide into authoritarianism. The only thing left to find out was exactly how it had come about and how much further it was likely to go.

Aljazeera