See the American Hungarian Federation: AHF Reacts to Unmerited Criticism of Hungary
Excerpt:
1/24/2012 –
AHF reacts to what it sees as politically motivated, unfair, unmerited, biased criticism of Hungary. “While democratic institution building should be encouraged and debated, it should be done based on facts, and in a fair, unbiased and evenhanded manner [it must be] bereft of partisanship (or even the appearance of partisanship) and undertaken solely in furtherance of promoting Western values, not political expediency.”
Comment:
Yes, the current government of Hungary was democratically elected with a two-thirds majority. It then used that two-thirds majority to steadily and systematically erode democracy in Hungary and entrench its power with a new Constitution and autocratic measures that only a two-thirds majority in the other direction will ever be able to undo.
And, yes, the partisan politics in Hungary is appallingly polarized and vicious, but the current government is capitalizing on and stoking it shamelessly, by seeking revenge instead of reform, playing opportunistically on primitive populist and irredentist sentiments and slogans instead of acting honestly and constructively to solve Hungary’s mounting economic and social problems.
The concerted effort by the Hungarian government, in Hungary and abroad, to put a defensive spin on its transparently offensive policies and practices has found a familiar echo in this shamefully biased cry of “bias” echoed by the American Hungarian Federation (AHF).
The mounting worldwide criticism of Hungary’s government is not only far from being unfair and unmerited, but the strategy of portraying it as the result of Hungary’s being yet again victimized by villains, internal and external, will resonate only with the broad (but exclusively Hungarian) Manichean mentality of vendetta and vengeance (hinted at in the dark allusions to the former government’s prime minister in this AHF article) that the present Hungarian government is systematically cultivating at home and abroad, at the cost of Hungary’s present and future in the democratic world.