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https://theconversation.com/viktor-orban-is-gone-but-scores-of-public-monuments-show-the-potency-of-his-legacy-and-hungarian-nationalism-285865>
"When newly elected Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar delivered a June 4
address to mark Hungary’s Day of National Unity, he did so facing a long stone
trench known as the Monument of National Unity. The memorial pays homage to the
Treaty of Trianon in 1920, which formally ended Hungary’s involvement in
World War I but also resulted in the nation losing about two-thirds of its
territory, economy and population.
The monument is provocative in several ways. Its walls are covered with the
Hungarianized names of more than 12,000 towns and cities that were once part of
“Greater Hungary.” That’s the colloquial name for Hungary’s territory before
World War I, when it was still a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The
monument incorporates thousands of places now in Slovakia, Romania, Serbia,
Ukraine, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria and Poland. The names are intermixed rather
than grouped geographically, suggesting the indivisibility of Greater Hungary
despite modern borders.
When former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán unveiled such a nationalistic monument
in Budapest, the cosmopolitan bastion of the Hungarian political left, it was
interpreted as a victory lap. Orbán, a pro-EU capitalist turned right-wing
populist, was ousted in April 2026 after 20 total years in power. He was
replaced by Magyar, a former member of Orbán’s Fidesz party whom many observers
hope will be a more cooperative international partner.
However, those same individuals across the United States and Europe who cheered
Magyar’s surprising victory with hopes it might signal a significant break from
Orbánism will likely be disappointed. That’s because Magyar’s huge political
mandate should be understood as a referendum on the endemic corruption in
Hungarian politics and a desire to return to the political norms of civil
society.
What it was not was a clear repudiation of Orbán’s national-historical
worldview. Such an outlook, shared by Magyar and a majority of Hungarians, is
evident in the more than 125 public monuments built under Orban as part of his
Civic Circles movement. Indeed, as a geographer who studies the symbolism of
monuments, I see them as a visible manifestation of a nationalist spirit that
is pervasive throughout Hungary’s society and politics."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
