Paul

Married to a Hungarian from Ungvár, whose family now live in Debrecen, I have a slightly unusual (i.e. non-expat, non-Budapesti) perspective on matters Hungarian. I first visited Hungary in 2001, just 12 years after the change of regime. I immediately felt at home there (despite - or because! - of not speaking a word of the language) - it reminded me so much of the England I had grown up in in the 50s and 60s, and was such a change from the brash, ugly, world of modern-day UK. We bought a flat in Debrecen and spent as much time as we could in Hungary (I was out of work, having just been made redundant, and my wife was self-employed, so we could stay there months at a time). Then we started a family, determined that we should bring the children up as near half Hungarian-half English as we could. In the early days we managed this quite well, but the realities of earning a living, the ever increasing cost of flying, and, latterly, the school timetable, has reduced us to just spending the Easter and Summer holidays in Hungary (we can no longer afford the cost of flying at Christmas). At one time, we thought of moving to Hungary, and even put our eldest into Ovi for a term to see how she got on. But the Orbán's election put paid to this idea. But we still do our best to bring the children up in both cultures. Both are fluent in both languages and the eldest can read and write in Hungarian. And we do our best to give them as 'Hungarian' an education as we can at home. As someone who has committed so much of my life, both financially and emotionally, to my adopted country, it is so sad to see it committing such a slow and painful suicide. At first I couldn't believe that Orbán could get away with what he was doing, then I hoped the Hungarian people would rise up and stop him. But now I am afraid I think it's too late, he's there for the duration. And his impact on Hungary will be so awful, that, however it ends, when it does eventually end, the country will be so broken as to take decades to get back on its feet again. As I'm now in my 60s, I sadly doubt I will ever again see the Hungary of hope and prosperity I discovered all those years ago, but maybe my children will one day still be proud to be Hungarian - and have a country (and people) that deserves that pride.