The curtain rises: the elites are naked

EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON

The erosion of judicial independence and press freedom, often noted by Hungarian and foreign observers in recent years, has turned Viktor Orbán into a nationalist and populist leader increasingly removed from liberal democracy. It is not an exceptional case that the Prime Minister of Hungary since 2010 has opted for a head-on clash with the liberal idea of ​​Europe that has dominated until now, nor that from Budapest he promotes his ideas throughout the West, his main ally being the Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu.

Both Orbán, 59, and his acolytes denounce that "global elites" without morals or values, considered "progressive" by a part of society, are ending the freedom of individuals and, above all, of peoples. In his narrative, the main supporter of the global conspiracy would be the Hungarian-born Jewish American billionaire George Soros, an unprincipled progressive who would be pulling the strings of the “radical left” and supporting it with million-dollar donations.

In reality, we are witnessing a conflict of elites, not only on the side of Soros, as Orbán claims, but also on the side of the Hungarian prime minister, represented among others by Steve Bannon, a former adviser to Donald Trump, since any ideology has the orientation that have, you need elites. The two camps fight to impose themselves by moving a lot of money. "Whoever controls the media controls the mentality of society and controls the country," said an Orbán adviser.

In Budapest there is the MCC university, Mathias Corvinus Collegium, the most visible institution in Orbán's field. A few weeks ago he organized a three-day international conclave attended by Yair Netanyahu, son of Israel's prime minister, among others. Yair lashed out at Soros, stating that Orbán's campaign against him is not anti-Semitic, since it responds to the reality that globalists control the press in Israel. "The curtain has risen and everyone can now see what is happening," Yair told a news conference in the Hungarian capital.

In his opinion, the Hebrew media is controlled by a small sector of leftist elites that do not represent even 10 percent of Israeli society. Something similar would happen in other Western countries, hence the phenomenon of recent years, that is, the exponential multiplication of "free" platforms and social networks, constitutes a great advance in the fight against globalist ideas since they make brainwashing difficult. characteristic of traditional media. Among the objectives of these globalist media is to end the borders between all the countries of the world, according to Yair.

The son of Benjamin Netanyahu, who in his country is accused of remotely controlling him, defended that attacking Soros cannot be anti-Semitic since the Hungarian-American philanthropist is causing a lot of damage to Israel, the only Jewish state, promoting NGOs that support the Palestinians and they want to blow up the Zionist state from within. Throughout the world, Yair continued, the media is dominated by the left, and this is also the case in Israel, where conservatives, who are the only democrats, are demonized and minority globalist ideas are defended, such as that we must suppress the borders.

Yair Netanyahu, 31, still lives with his parents in Jerusalem and is not known to have any employment. Recently, he was sentenced to pay a little over 100.000 euros to a journalist from the Hebrew portal Walla! in a libel case. Yair is constantly in the media acting like a troll for his father, according to his detractors. His recent trip to Budapest was reported from the Israeli embassy in the Hungarian capital, despite the fact that it was theoretically a private trip. The MCC university receives substantial support from the Orbán government to promote neoconservative ideas in Hungary and beyond its borders. Although MCC is formally a private institution, it recently received financial aid worth more than 1.000 billion dollars, according to Hungarian and international media such as Haaretz.

The central problem lies in the danger that Orbán, Netanyahu and other populists and nationalists of a similar lineage that swarm the world represent for the liberalism that has characterized the West for decades. It is an obvious danger not only for Hungary and Israel, since from there it is projected throughout Europe. The situation is aggravated if one takes into account the lack of authority that is observed in Europe in the face of the thrust of the nationalist and neoconservative movements.

In recent years, Orbán has made his nationalist views clear by speaking on behalf of Hungary. “We have to say that we don't want to be diverse and we don't want to mix. We do not want our own color, traditions and national culture to be mixed with those of others. We don't want it. We don't want it at all. We don't want to be a diverse country." She said it in 2018. And last year Orban stressed: "We (Hungarians) are not a mixed race and we do not want to become a mixed race."

Eugenio Garcia Gascon He has been a correspondent in Jerusalem for 29 years and is a Cirilo Rodríguez journalism awardee.