Following the example of the series of demonstrations in Serbia, far-left activists, a former creative professional close to the SZDSZ, and some employees of the Partizán media channel, previously supported by American Democrats, are organizing a series of anti-government actions to incite university students.
According to Magyar Nemzet sources, a coordinated subversive political action is being prepared at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME), which is one of the first model-changing – i.e., foundation-run – universities. The protest against the reform of MOME apparently started from the bottom up, i.e., from the students, but numerous clear facts indicate that we are actually witnessing the first steps of an externally organized, nationwide, anti-government political action series, writes MN.
It further says that the series of demonstrations in Serbia may provide the model, and in Hungary, they would “build on” the demonstrations of several large sectors – judges, healthcare workers, even civil servants – to incite an increasingly strong anti-government mood.
Aside from appealing to a wide range of workers, in a speech last Saturday, Péter Magyar said that the Tisza Party is preparing for an unprecedented action in the spring.
MN points out the “absurdity” that such protests are starting at the very university where salaries have been increased the most since the model change, scholarships are high, a new campus has been built, and there has been only good news about the university for years.
The main instigator, the paper says, is the Partizán staff led by the political activist from the far left, Márton Gulyás. Its sources say the blood-red creative materials and online communication of the MOME Front “student” campaign, all eerily reminiscent of early Soviet propaganda, are being designed by Marcell Kenczler, a senior associate at Partizán.
Also, the speakers behind the aggressive demands and slogans are not current students of MOME, but rather its alumni who work as political activists, including architect Ákos Takács, one of the hosts of Partizán.
It is worth remembering that the channel previously received more than half a billion forints in funding from the USAID organization, which was recently dissolved by the administration of the new U.S. President Donald Trump, and which funded left-wing and liberal activists around the world.
A publicist close to the liberal SZDSZ party is also among the speakers.
Magyar Nemzet says both the old and the new left are playing an important role in the project using the students. One of the key figures is Balázs Vargha, a graphic designer, an external collaborator, and a permanent author of Magyar Narancs, whom its sources mentioned as a creative professional close to the SZDSZ. It is a fact that from 2005 Vargha was responsible for the logo and image of the Magyar Narancs party, which was close to the former liberal party, as well as for its cover designs. Furthermore, in the same year, he also designed the image of the Budapest 2010 – European Capital of Culture program.
Balázs Vargha barely conceals his view of the action as personal revenge for the fact that the board of trustees of the MOME foundation did not appoint him as the head of the institution due to professional and ethical concerns.
He recently announced on Tilos Rádio that he believed the decision was “illegal,” but that he “forgot” to raise a legal objection for a whole year, and he did so at the same time as the MOME Front was being organized. Meanwhile, Vargha launched a press campaign in his own newspaper against the university.
The political action taking place at MOME is of course also enthusiastically supported by the far-left portal Mérce.
According to information, MN has confirmed from several universities, MOME is only the first stage of left-wing organizing. The ultimate goal may be to build a national political action spanning several universities, which could unfold by March. Here it is worth recalling Péter Magyar’s words on Saturday about the large-scale action announced for the spring.
The student government of the University of Fine Arts has already been renamed “MKE Revolutionary HÖK”. The political coordinators of MOME and MKE also maintain a common internal interface called “MOME-MKE People’s Front,” and an activist meeting will soon be organized at the ELTE BTK under the name “Autonomous Hall”, but far-left organizing has also begun in Miskolc, far from the capital. It is worth noting that the red-black color combination known to anarchists is recurring on the stickers of the MOME protesters, who put on another “performance” on Monday afternoon and sprayed the walls of the university with red paint.
All of this is eerily reminiscent of the demonstrations in Serbia and the ideological commitment of its speakers, says MN.
It is worth remembering that in the late 1990s, the leader of the Serbian organization Otpor (Resistance) was Srgya Popovic, the author of the infamous book of anarchist subversives, Guide to Revolution. In the spring, domestic and foreign actors working to overthrow the government will certainly be looking to apply the recipe of the Serbian far left in our country, the paper concludes.
