They feel like they have lived in two different countries. Ákos and Adam both settled in Budapest after growing up in rural, conservative Hungary. An attractive and liberal city, the Hungarian capital contrasts with the nationalist policy pursued by the country’s government. These two young Hungarians tell us what it means to be 20 years old under this authoritarian power.
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“My arrival in Budapest was like a culture shock.” When he moved to the Hungarian capital ten years ago, Ákos began a new life. Originally from a small village in the southeast of Hungary, this 29-year-old LGBT+ activist grew up in a conservative family. “My grandfather ran in local elections under the colors of Fidesz, Viktor Orbán’s party. He is one of his great admirers.”
Prime minister since 2010, the nationalist and conservative leader Viktor Orbán had already held this position between 1998 and 2002. In April 2022, he won a fourth consecutive term. Which means that, at the age of 20, young Hungarians have known him in power… for half their lives.
An invisible LGBT+ community
In Ákos’ family and school environment, homosexuality is a taboo and little accepted subject. “I know certain teachers who were featured on the front pages of pro-government media just because they had mentioned LGBT+ subjects in class,” relates the young man. He therefore waited until he left the nest and flew to the big city before admitting his sexual orientation to those close to him.
Today, he has made a place for himself in the very active activist community of the capital by working alongside an association for the defense of LGBT+ rights. And the agenda is busy: two years after the entry into force of the law prohibiting the “promotion” of homosexuality to minors, LGBT+ activists like Ákos continue to suffer the consequences. This text contributed to reinforcing the invisibility and discrimination of the LGBT+ community, in a country which “no longer considered a democracy” by the EU.
The omnipresence of the conservative and traditionalist model
From his residential area in the Budapest suburbs, Adam lives in a completely different reality. However, he does not feel considered by his government either. And for good reason: he doesn’t want children. “In Hungary, you are obliged to start a family to receive government aid. If you are over 25 but you don’t want children, you are completely neglected,” explains this young television presenter and influencer.
This traditional conservative model is promoted en masse on social networks by the Orbán government, in the context of a declining birth rate in the country and a brain drain. Over the past ten years, more than half a million Hungarians have gone to study or work abroad, according to Deutsche Welle.
But this is not in Adam’s plans, nor those of Ákos. “I really feel useful here”, explains the latter, “I would not have launched into activism if I did not see the immense potential of my country“.