Elections

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They say you can live without food for weeks. Without water for days. But without hope?

You can not live without hope.

The nation has decided.

Yes, I'm the "Eastern European Muslim", I wanted to keep my background as general as possible but today being Hungarian means more than just living through dictatorship as a child.

The people of today, many of them my age or younger said they are OK with having only the circus but no bread. They said hating people who are different from the majority in any way is fine. They agreed that the teachers who deal with the future generations don't deserve more than street sweepers - who should also be able to support themselves from their salary, obviously over here it's not the case. They decided that having a school system where children are moulded into not thinking, obedient robots is what they want for the future generations. They said that half years of waiting lists in hospitals are fine, when they finally get there, the building nearly collapses above their head. They decided that it's alright for politicians to steal the country's money and to make their friends oligarchs. I won't even continue. Whatever you can imagine about corruption you will find it in Hungary.

I'm not even blaming the Fidesz fans. They supported the party the last two decades, they got all the privileges, they have a nice life. Their businesses are running smoothly, or they got great jobs with high salaries, they can afford private healthcare, private schools, they have at least two holidays a year, they don't see why they shouldn't keep on voting Fidesz. I understand them and I'm even happy for them. In every civilised country you will have people who think differently and there's nothing wrong with that.

The other group of people I can't be angry with is the functional illiterates. People who vote for Orbán because "he sent them ham" (literally!), or because "he gives them benefits". Forget universal credit, their benefit is about 25 pounds once a year and their salary is half of minimum wages, they do public labour for about 130 pounds a month. (Yes, that's half of minimum wages). And these people love him because of ham, potato and 25 pounds. I have nothing to say.

The group I have hardest time to understand is those who complain 24/7, who are constantly negative, who see problems in everything yet when it's time to do something, when they could change something, they get scared and go back to the same old ways because "they already know it".

Yes, it's true, the opposition is a disaster. They even had to include former nazis to have enough support. But the people fail to realise that "politicians" are not the "Messiah on duty", they are everyday people, they are us. And democracy still exists in a way that anyone can join the political groups. It's not "them" who need to be perfect and provide a pret-a-porter democracy. It's all of us, it's some dedicated people who work with what they have, what they have learnt in these circumstances. And as such, they won't be perfect.

A quote repeated thousands of times is the metaphor of the elections, that it's not like a marriage but like public transport. The party you vote for is not your true love. It doesn't need to be exactly what you want. It's a bus that can take you somewhere closer to where you want to go, or at least away from the place you don't want to be. Unfortunately many people in Hungary don't understand that and expect politicians to be perfect, otherwise they won't vote, or they vote for the government because "that's at least safe".

Obviously the Ukraine war had an influence on the situation as the government, even though being an open ally to Putin, played the role of the "peacekeeper" in Hungary and lied that the opposition wanted to join the war. Zelensky, celebrated as a hero all over the world is a negative figure in the Hungarian media, following Russian propaganda.

As we can see, main factor of these results is that the majority of the Hungarians, more than 30 years after the end of communism still do not speak foreign languages in a level that they could be able to understand the news. It's not an everyday need for most people to get informed from different sources - thank to the school system that not only doesn't encourage people to think, but it requires them to accept ready answers and not use their minds.

Even though it was a predictable result, I am deeply saddened by it. It means that the following 4 years nothing will change, if not for the worse, as there's no force to stop the government to do whatever they want. 

I feel disappointed and lonely. I have no face the fact that according to the great majority of the people the way I see the things is what's wrong. They don't have any problem with the low wages, with the state of the healthcare or the education system, even the war going on in our neighbourhood is fine for them. They don't mind if politicians steal everything, if the justice system is corrupt. Their biggest problem is that a handful of "libernyák" (derogatory term derived from "liberal" - used basically for anyone who doesn't agree with Fidesz) have a different opinion. 

I'm Eastern European and I'm also Muslim. It's Ramadan. A lesser known feature of this month is clarity. Scholars talk a lot about whether all the shayateen (plural for shaitan - satan) are locked or only the most evil ones - well, concerning the current events, I tend to accept the latter option. Anyway, there are enough conflicts in this month too, but what I have noticed is that they somehow come to an end, to a solution sooner than other times and we get to have a clear understanding of the situation and the people involved. 

Interestingly, my private life is at a similar turning point. I had hopes and dreams but now I have to rewrite my plans. I hoped that my life would continue in a certain way but I had to face that the reality is different. 

One cannot live without hope. I'm happy that I see the reality - of the country, of my opportunities and of the people. The hopes I had collapsed. Now I need to create a new plan - tailored perfectly to our needs. 

And if there is anything I learned from these disappointments is that the moment I feel that I need to give up something of who I am should be the moment I say goodbye to that situation.