The Hungarian referendum on immigration left me feeling pretty disgusted by all involved. All the players appall me.
The liberal media wags from the BBC and Channel 4 were delighted to interview a raft of fat old Hungarians dressed in national costume heading off to vote. One woman insiated in sitting on the back seat of the car facing backwards with her ample arse in the air so as not to crumple her hideous dress which reminded us of folks in old Nazi propaganda movies from the thirties. Naturally 99% of those voting wandered to the station wearing jeans and looking normal. But the media wanted to show that all those voting to stop migration were old, inbred and stupid. We have seen that agenda before.
But the fact is that 98% of those voting did so because they wanted their constitution changed so that there would be no refugees forced on the Magyars by the EU. In this they are egged on by a loathsome Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, who says that the EU plans will destroy the Christian and Hungarian culture in his country. That is a blatant lie. The population of Hungary is just shy of 10 million. The EU set a quota for refugees of just 1300.
i am afraid that the Hungarian leader lied but his people must have known that he was talking nonsense but lapped it up anyway. Hungary appears keen to continue its long tradition of nationalism and intolerance of minorities which saw it side with Germany during the 1930s and in World War two as a willing ally. And so I find the attitude of the Hungarian nation mean spirited and frankly revolting.
But there is another player: the EU. It has simply imposed quotas on countries such as Hungary which are poor and whose people are hostile. There has been no consultation just a diktat by large unelected souls thousands of miles away. That is how the EU operates and it is something that is causing growing resentment by folks outside the elites across the continent.
I too am revolted by the actions of the EU on so many matters, notably the appalling way that the poor of my alternate homeland of Greece have been treated. The EU will cause folks across Europe to react against it in so many way. Brexit in Britain, this referendum in Hungary, by voting for fascists like Le Pen in France or Golden Dawn in Greece. Most of those outlets for anger fill me with horror.
None of the players in this Hungarian tale emerge looking like the good guys. They all deserve each other.