by Daniela Patti*
Ilaria Salis is detained in Budapest in inhuman conditions on charges of having taken part in the attack of two neo-Nazis during a demonstration last February 11th. The injuries sustained by the two protesters, who did not press charges, were judged to heal in 6 days. The Hungarian prosecutor’s office asks 11 years in prison. The harshness of the punishment and even more so his chains in the courtroom they shock us, yet this story tells something that does not only belong to Hungary Orban, which he himself defined as an illiberal democracy. Democratic principles, anti-fascism and militancy against the far right are increasingly contested values in Italy too. This is why the dramatic story of Ilaria Salis must be for us a warning.
Are we sure that the situation in Italy is profoundly different?
I lived in Hungary for long periods between 2013 and 2018 and I saw how the evolution of Orban’s government increasingly impacts the daily lives of Hungarians, to the point of often making them unaware of what is happening in their country. Orban has dismantled the Constitution, made the judiciary dependent on the executive and redesigned the electoral districts to favor his party. He secured the power of the press and TV, thanks to the assignment of special powers to the National Media and Information Control Authority and the Media Council, chaired by loyalists of his party, responsible for the supervision and acquisitions of the media Hungarians.
In Italy the Meloni government is proposing the Premiered: the direct election of the head of government, the abolition of senators for life and the “anti-reversal rule”, to silence any future critical voices of the majority. Furthermore, the Meloni government presented the so-called Gag lawwhich, against article 21 of our Constitution, limits the activity of journalists and therefore the right of citizens to be informed.
See also
Ilaria Salis, Travaglio on La7: “Lollobrigida? Someone may have told him to shut up but he managed to make another gaffe.”
Both in Hungary and in Italy there is a dissolute use of European funding. There they are passed off as national resources recovered thanks to rebranding operations of the Széchenyi programme, in which the wording of European co-financing appears small in a barely visible corner of the billboards promoting the projects. Here the Bridge over the Strait will be financed thanks to a diversion of the Development and Cohesion Fund, intended for Sicily and Calabria on the priority of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr).
In Hungary we have witnessed the eradication of all independent cultural spaces, that is, many associations and non-governmental organizations have been accused of being secret spies of foreign governments, or of Soros because of the funding they received. In fact, severe controls have been put in place by the competent authority and restrictions on funding from abroad have been implemented, forcing many of these spaces to close. Thus many experiences were born that today explore ways of Self-financing of their activities with the purchase of spaces, as is the case of Golya. Last but not least, in July 2021 a law came into force in Hungary making it a crime “promote” sexual differences and gender, a systematic aggression of dissonant voices, be they women, minorities or homosexuals.
In Rome the fascist far right is not hiding, like CasaPound in the Esquilino district which has been increasingly evident for 20 years now, and Fratelli d’Italia which in the VII Municipality voted against the cancellation of the Celtic cross of Acca Laurentia All this is told very well by Tonia Mastrobuoni in his essay Erosion, how sovereignism is wiping out democracy in Europe. The book opens with the story of an Italian friend of mine who had to leave Hungary, where he lived, due to the attacks he received following his satire on far-right groups during the Gay Pride in Budapest.
See also
Ilaria Salis, Travaglio on La7: “Lollobrigida? Someone may have told him to shut up but he managed to make another gaffe.”
Orban’s illiberal democracy is brazenly so obvious, even in the handcuffs of Ilaria Salis that we all saw yesterday. It therefore surprises me that the minister Lollobrigida did not want to make a statement on the matter because he had not been able to see the images.
Today the European balances in view of the June elections lead to very different relations between the Commission and the governments of Orban and Meloni, let us not deceive ourselves but this means that the relationship between the two has deteriorated. On the one hand, the European Parliament is putting great pressure on the Hungarian government not to veto arms financing in Ukraine, on the other Von der Leyen demonstrates great appreciation for the work of Premier Meloni, not least on the occasion of the presentation of Mattei Plan. In fact, just today Meloni spoke with Orban about the Salis case, “in full respect of independence and autonomy of the Hungarian judiciary. Let’s not forget that just a few weeks ago, Fratelli d’Italia and Lega voted against a resolution that stigmatizes Hungarian autocratic tendencies, approved by a large majority of MEPs, including those of Volt. With our MEP Damian Boeslager for years we have been asking, against Hungary, for the activation of Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union which can lead to the suspension of a member country’s right to vote.
Volt, pan-European party present in all Member States and in accession countries, such as Albania and Ukraine, it is committed to a democratic, inclusive and anti-fascist Europe. We do not give up on the idea of a Europe that renounces the rule of law to protect all the Ilaria Salis of Europe.
* Daniela Patti is co-president of the pan-European party Volt Europa in Italy. She is an Italian-English urban planner, she has studied and worked in various countries and is co-founder of Eutropian, an organization that deals with collaborative urban development in Europe.