After the government had made an attack upon the CEU and the non-governmental organizations, a noteworthy phenomenon emerged. Intellectuals who declare themselves conservative, rightist, Fidesz voters criticized Viktor Orbán's politics publicly.
Since 2010, the political will, Fidesz's will, the prime minister's will sweep off almost every other will.
Zoltán Balázs, political scientist, former municipality member of Fidesz:
Fidesz has moved very far away from everything that one can support with full heart.
Géza Jeszenszky, former minister for foreign affairs of the Antall government, former ambassador in Washington and Oslo of the Orbán government:
Every government puts a halter round its neck if it detrudes the intellectuals.
Diána Ürge-Vorsatz, professor of CEU (in the weekly Heti Válasz, 13 April):
Dear Prime Minister,
Where can we find the "humility" mentioned in your speech celebrating the election victory in 2014? ... There are no more restraints, there is no limit, there are no checks and rational professional considerations, consultations, traditions or acquired rights. The quality of education does not matter either. Actually, no such point remained in decision-making and legislation where attention could be drawn to the rational consideration of the highest political will. Legal certainty and forseeability have been lost. So, this is why we protest.
Miklós Király, legal professor, former dean of Faculty of Law of Eötvös Lóránd University on the Facebook:
As a citizen with national feeling, I have always voted for Fidesz since 1994, but something happened after the election in 2014. The politics, moral and honour of Fidesz has changed and continued to increase the division of the Hungarian society that was already divided anyway.
Tamás Kovács, fencing trainer, former sport director of the Hungarian Olympic Committee:
This instigation has a dramatic consequence in Hungary already now. Only one opinion can be correct. Only we can be right. We need to always fight. Past eight years, private pension funds, Gyurcsány, Bajnai, exploitative multinationals, migrants, EU, Simicska, Brussels, Soros – we should stop everyone, everybody is against us. Always other persons are to blame and not us.
"Is your palm itching? Wash it and hold it out to your brethren as long as it is Easter" – Gábor Pósfai, managing director of Decathlon in Hungary wrote this in a Facebook post to Viktor Orbán as a response to his Easter statement saying that even the palm of peaceful and brave Christian people is itching, online portal 444.hu called attention to this.
On Tuesday an article appeared in Magyar Nemzet written by Attila Körömi, a former Fidesz member of parliament representing Pécs. He joined Fidesz at the end of 1989. As a 30-year-old, he became a member of the Pécs City Council and then, between 1998 and 2006, served as a member of parliament. After 13 years of silence he wanted to explain what made him leave Fidesz in 2004. His disillusionment had begun already in 2002, but what really opened his eyes and prompted him to act was an April 5, 2004 meeting of the Fidesz parliamentary caucus chaired by Viktor Orbán. At this meeting Orbán apparently announced an entirely new program based on his recognition that, despite the change of the political system in 1990, "it is the Kádár regime that won." If Fidesz wants to be successful, it has to follow policies that were characteristic of the Kádár era. Moreover, the ideal of the autonomous citizen will be abandoned from now on, and Fidesz "will talk to the people." Instead of moving forward, Orbán was going to lead the country backward to a one-party system. About a week later, Körömi left the party.
The story of that 2004 meeting is enlightening. It tells us what we have long suspected, which is that at some point Orbán recognized that, after all, today's Hungarians are "the people of Kádár" (Kádár népe). What is surprising is how early Orbán came to that conclusion. The other unexpected piece of information is that, according to Körömi's recollection, Árpád Habony has been around Fidesz for much longer than most of us realized. Körömi first encountered the mysterious shadowy adviser of Orbán sometime between 2000 and 2002 and again at that fateful April 5, 2004 caucus meeting, sitting right beside Viktor Orbán.
The next noteworthy document is an open letter to Viktor Orbán from Miklós Király, professor of law and earlier an adviser to Ferenc Mádl, a Fidesz-supported president between 2000 and 2005. His main complaint is the state of Hungarian education but, being a legal scholar, he also has some harsh words about the government's total disregard of constitutionality and its disrespect for the opinions of representatives of higher education and science. After the enactment of the anti-CEU law, everybody in higher education feels threatened. Legal certainty and predictability have disappeared. Orbán in his latest radio interview wanted to know why professors and students in Hungarian state universities complain about curtailing CEU's privileges. They complain because from now on they will never know what will happen to them. Király also calls attention to the underfinancing of education, with the result that by 2016 not one Hungarian university could be found among the top 500 universities on the Shanghai list when other universities in the region–Vienna, Cracow, and Prague–are there.
He reminds Orbán that by now both science and higher education are international, and therefore the government must realize that Hungary as a part of the European Union cannot turn inward. Király adds, "I'm sorry that until now nobody told you that." He calls on Orbán to consider his arguments and to do some soul searching for Easter.
In addition to the above-mentioned persons, other right-wingers like Frigyes Solymosi, academician, also expressed their similar views.
Opinion