Computer Jacks vs. Jackboots

The Hungarian government’s proposal to tax Internet service may be exactly what was needed to mobilize Hungarian liberals. These Hungarian citizens along with their political counterparts across the European Union have watched in horror as Hungary, once thought to be the most liberal of the post-Communist successor states, experienced a resurgence of right wing extremism. In April, the anti-Semitic, anti-Roma, anti-immigrant party Jobbik won 20% of the votes for Hungarian parliament. In 2013, Human Rights Watch, the Council of Europe and the European Union criticized changes to the Hungarian Constitution limiting judicial independence, endorsing state discrimination of some religions, and limiting political advertizing to state-run media. Indeed, the European Union pursued legal action against Hungary to pressure it reverse some of these constitutional changes. So, where are Hungary’s liberals? On December 2, 2012, Hungarian MPs from the left, right and center spoke out against an anti-Semitic speech by Jobbik MP Marton Gyongyosi. They were met by thousands of concerned Hungarians.

Yet, in February of this year, only several hundred people turned up to stage a counter protest to a Jobbik meeting in a former synagogue, reading the names of Hungarian victims of the Holocaust. This number pales in comparison to the thousands who turned out in the past week to protest the tax that would have imposed the equivalent of a 60-cent per gigabyte of data. What are we to make of this? It seems that the idea of taxing access to information is capable of mobilizing more Hungarians that the specter of Holocaust deniers meeting in a synagogue. Could it be that to be a liberal in Hungary simply means behaving as a rational, self-interested individual motivated by threats to one’s access to the Internet and a hit to one’s pocketbook rather than a commitment to the liberal values of tolerance and protection of minorities? To be fair, some have interpreted the Internet tax protests as an indictment of the Orban government, not simply an economistic response to this single policy. The real significance of the protests this week is that they did cause the Orban government to drop the tax proposal. When people mobilize for or against fascism, what is a government to do? Crack down on liberal rights to free speech or freedom of assembly? Reacting to economic demands is much simpler. One simply withdraws one’s proposal.

To repeat the oft cited words of Marx and Engels, “a specter is haunting Europe….” The specter haunting 21st century Europe is the specter of exclusive, virulent nationalism. Combatting this specter requires European citizenry to fight extremism at the ballot box and in the halls of parliament, not just on cell phones and in the streets. And, it requires that European governments develop solutions to the unemployment and stagnating standards of living that are driving their citizens into the arms of the extreme right.