Hungarian: should we also get our hopes up?

"–I don't understand why my son has joined this strike. They have a stable job and salary, what more do they want? If it were up to me, I'd send them all to prison. My son first."In these terms Sári néni, Aunt Sári, expressed herself, while she introduced her unbeatable pogácsa into the oven, small round and savory cakes, made from a wheat flour dough cut with a round mold. Very common as an accompaniment to hearty soups or as desserts throughout the European territory occupied by the former Ottoman Sultanate, the range of flavors is quite wide, but in current Hungarian cuisine, the most popular are generally made with lardons, curd cheese, or potato.The surprising reflection referred to a strike that the country's railway workers began in December 2008 to demand a series of substantial improvements in their working conditions, which were very precarious at that time.In Europe, as in other parts of the world, times of manifest political radicalization are being experienced, after the order that emerged at the end of the Second World War has failed. In the Hungarian country, this polarization is a seminal sin that dates back to the very creation of the first Kingdom of Hungary, one thousand and twenty-six years ago. Before adopting Christianity as the official religion, King Stephen, its founder in the year one thousand, had to defeat the army of his brother Koppány, defender of paganism and traditional Hungarian values. The country's most famous rock opera, István a Király, is based on this episode. In the current Republic of Hungary, democratic thought has never had the opportunity to emerge and manifest itself. Unlike all the nation-states that emerged from the ruins of Imperial Europe in 1918 (born as democracies and ending as dictatorships before World War II), in the new Hungarian state, a Soviet Republic led by Béla Kun, one of the founders of the Hungarian Communist Party, was immediately imposed. In such a turbulent period, a republic of these characteristics had its days numbered, one hundred and thirty-three to be exact. The war with Romania at a time when everyone was fighting to impose their new borders on their neighbors forced Kun to flee to Austria a few hours before General Rusescu's troops entered Budapest.After another brief period of violent instability, power was finally seized by Miklós Horthy, an old-school admiral who implemented a regime of clear fascist leanings for almost twenty-five years. Once World War II ended, during which Hungary gave unconditional support to Hitler until the very last moment, the communists once again took the reins of the country for more than four decades. In Hungary, the pendulum has never stopped in the middle.The 1956 Revolution, the first uprising against a socialist totalitarian regime in the Soviet Bloc, did not aim to establish a liberal, parliamentary, and multiparty democracy. As explained by Duncan Shiels, the Daily Mail's correspondent in Budapest, in his magnificent Los hermanos Rajk. Un drama familiar europeo (Acantilado, 2009), when Júlia Rajk, the wife of László Rajk, a historical communist leader purged by the regime, arrived in the capital to meet with Imre Nagy, the leader of the revolution was horrified to see "the reactionary right so close to the prime minister. A crowd of petty nobles, clicking their heels, using aristocratic language and behaving as if they owned the world. Seeing all those men who embodied the ultraconservative pre-war regime jumping back into the arena was unbearable for her."

Júlia Rajk was present at the massive event of tribute and rehabilitation of the martyrs of '56 that was held on June 16, 1989, in Heroes' Square in Budapest. At that historic event, the aggressive tone of the speech of a young and unknown orator impressed, who demanded the immediate withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungarian soil and the establishment of a democratic regime of Western-style freedoms. That young man was called Viktor Orbán.It is very difficult for a society where the right circumstances and conditions have never been met to develop a true democratic mentality, you don't need to go to Hungary to realize this.Péter Magyar, the politician who for the first time in many years has brought down Orbán's all-powerful regime, has emerged from the bowels of Fidesz, the ultraconservative party of the now former prime minister. I have serious doubts about the true intentions behind his program of opening up to Europe and about his authentic character. I hope I am mistaken, but just in case, let no one get too many illusions.In Hungary, néni is a term of respect that accompanies the first name of an elderly woman to address her, like senyora does here, but I find that tieta is closer and more affectionate. Its male equivalent is bácsi.Sári néni, a paradigm of hospitality and good nature from rural Hungary, has not been with us for some years now, but her pogácsa remains the best I have ever tasted. Her daughter, heir to the recipe and who last Sunday left home in the morning to vote for Magyar (which means "Hungarian") with a flag of Europe on her shoulder, has not yet been able to match it. We do not lose hope.