Orbán: guardian of liberal freedoms

IT NEVER FAILS. On a recent sojourn into Western Europe from my Budapest hideout, I ran into old friends I hadn’t seen since I moved to Hungary last fall. They were being a bit coy, and I knew exactly why. Eventually the penny dropped: “Isn’t the place, you know, fashy?” To be fair, they didn’t drop the actual f-bomb, but that’s what they meant. It’s what they always mean. They talk to me about my love affair with Viktor Orbán’s Hungary in the way Truman Capote’s friends must have kibitzed with him when he fell in love with an air conditioner repairman. One of my concerned Dutch friends declaimed that gay people get beaten up on the streets of Budapest. “Absolutely untrue!” I shot back. Later in the conversation, he…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, November 2023

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