Thursday

28th Mar 2024

Feature

How Hungary's Orban blamed migrants for coronavirus

  • As the first corona patient was reported, Viktor Orban's government quickly resorted to its anti-migration ploys. The first patent seemed to be an Iranian student – studying legally in Hungary - so "migration is responsible for the spread of epidemic" (Photo: European commission)

It feels like a lazy Sunday morning in August. Streets are deserted in Budapest; public transport runs with a handful of passengers. Children and dogs are playing in parks. Just some homeless people hang around in groups, smoking and chatting undisturbed.

People look suspiciously at each other and practice "social distancing": no handshakes or kisses. Surprisingly disciplined, they are queueing up in front of the pharmacies, where only as many people can enter as there are counters.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Shops are half empty, there is a frenzy of piling up food or anything you can get. At a local food store, a woman in front of me stores up 10kg of turkey breast in her trolley, I have to ask her to leave one piece for me.

She gives me an offended look. There is a sign at the door asking customers not to buy in "industrial quantities", but apparently nobody cares.

I haven't seen empty shelves in a food stores even during the times of the socialism, now it feels like a psychological experiment.

Do we really need 10kg of flour, five kg of rice and six litres of oil? Hundred rolls of toilet papers and a dozen cans of mustard?

Paraphrasing the Darwinian expression, it is not the survival of the fittest but the fastest. Or the fattest.

From today on, soldiers will take over strategic companies and patrol the streets, but everybody wonders about their real goals. Should we prepare for a curfew, like in Serbia?

Or is this just part of a communication strategy, transmitting an impression that "the government keeps the situation under control"?

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is no doubt a master of crisis communication.

He has been tirelessly alarming the society of a migration crisis in the last five years. Just at the beginning of March, he extended the "crisis due to mass migration" for the eighth time since 2015, without any substantial migratory pressure on the borders.

But now he has a real crisis at hand.

Migrant scapegoat

Old routines die hard. As the first corona patient was reported, the government quickly fell back to its anti-migration communication scheme. The first patent happened to be an Iranian student – studying legally in Hungary - so it became evident that "migration is responsible for the spread of epidemic".

Since then, it has in fact been confirmed that first case in Hungary was of a Hungarian woman, who caught the virus probably in Italy.

Nevertheless, the government ordered 13 Iranian students into custody ready to be deported from the country – allegedly, some of them misbehaved in the quarantine in the hospital, threw chairs at the medical personnel and wanted to leave the building.

The students later said the hygienic circumstances were terrible and the medical personal did not share any information with them regarding their condition and those being in the same room with them.

Following up on the communication offensive, the Hungarian government appointed an Operation Corps which informs the public every day about the current developments of the corona virus and the measures taken.

But many journalists complain that the information is incomplete and there is a feeling that the government conceals some key data.

According to a recent opinion poll of Median, the majority of the public trust the government, although there is a lot of speculation whether the number of COVID-19 patients (73, as of Thursday 19 March) reported by the government are accurate.

Erratic measures

Officially, only one person died so far from coronavirus related pneumonia, but the major preparations the government announced – vacating hospital buildings and the building of container hospitals for possible patients – indicate that they are preparing for a major outbreak.

It is still unclear whether the somewhat erratic measures taken so far are enough to slow down the epidemic.

Hungary first only reintroduced checks at the Schengen borders but as of Tuesday (17 March), closed down the borders to passenger traffic and - after some uncertainty - the Ferihegy International airport as well.

On Wednesday, a 50km queue was reported at the Austrian-Hungarian border, indicating that the suspension of free circulation of goods could be even more painful than the restrictions on free movement.

Orbán and his foreign minister, Peter Szijjártó, declared several times that borders should remain open to trucks transporting goods and production should not come to a halt.

Closures and recession

But key factories – Audi, Mercedes, Opel and Suzuki – closed down within a day.

Finance minister Mihály Varga already talked about a possible economic recession of 0.3 percent, which is a huge drop from the 4.9 percent GDP growth last year.

Unemployment will surge, as some sectors will soon hit rock bottom.

As a sign of mismanagement, last Friday (13 March), the prime minister said in his usual radio interview that there was no reason to suspend teaching in Hungarian schools, and even threatened teachers that if that happened, they would not be paid.

Public uproar was immense and it even convinced Orbán's Fidesz party, which – in an unseen union with all opposition parties – pleaded him to change his mind.

In less than 12 hours, Orbán announced the closure for all schools in the country and the start of "digital teaching".

Evidently, most schools and teachers haven't been prepared for an abrupt shift from the usual frontal teaching methods into the technology of the 21st century, but surprisingly, a lot of creativity emerged.

After the first two days of chaotic preparations, from Wednesday on, most children get materials via Skype, Google classroom, or in emails and spend most of their mornings studying at home – under their parents' supervision, which makes teleworking somewhat less productive than expected.

As experts already warned, this can lead to the much-needed transformation of Hungarian education, but the vast regional and financial difference in Hungarian education will now further deepen.

Although internet penetration is high even in the countryside, many families, especially with more children will not have the possibility to provide laptops for each child to work on.

But the good news is, shops selling and servicing computers, laptops and tablets enjoy a real bonanza, as home office and digital schooling require updated IT facilities. IT will surely emerge as a winner of the crisis.

The government is engaged in a two-front struggle: slowing down the epidemic and keeping the economy afloat.

If either of them succeeded, it would be a huge success.

Author bio

Edit Inotai was a journalist and foreign editor at Nepszabadsag, a Hungarian daily, until 2014. She now works for German public TV ARD, Balkan Insight, and is a senior fellow of the Budapest-based think tank CEID.

Opinion

Dear EPP: Please, please expel Orban

As a member of Orbán's opposition in Hungary and Renew in parliament, I am here to remind you whom you are choosing between. Is your political home in the pro-European centre or in Orbán's camp of far-right authoritarian nativists?

MEPs complain of 'no action' on Hungary and Poland

Five European Parliamentary groups warned EU member states that if they don't act on breaches of EU rules and values in Poland and Hungary, the EU's integrity and credibility will be undermined.

Analysis

EPP's Orban struggle exposes deeper mainstream dilemma

Europe's largest political alliance was once reformed to dominate EU politics and band together like-minded, but at times, very different parties. Now increasing political fragmentation in Europe seems to pull it apart.

Hungary's Orban seeks indefinite power in virus bill

In a draft bill Hungary's ruling government seeks special powers uncontrolled by parliament, election, referendums, courts for an indefinite amount of time, rights' groups worry. The bill could be vote on within eight days.

Orban granted indefinite 'authoritarian' power

Ushering in a new era for Hungary - and for the EU - the central European country becomes the first to be ruled by decree, after Orban's party forced virus emergency laws through parliament.

EU commisisoner Šuica sounds alarm on demographic shift

The EU will have to step up its efforts to tackle looming demographic challenges over the next five years. If not, the bloc faces "sleepwalking into dark scenarios", warns EU commission vice-president Dubravka Šuica.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us