Both the Munich municipality and Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder, a politician of the Christian Social Union — a party which has seen better days — is supporting lighting the Munich stadium in rainbow colors for Wednesday night’s German-Hungarian match. All this, of course, in the spirit of openness and acceptance.— while it is true that the idea comes from a petition, is it also obviously a response to the adoption of the Hungarian Child Protection Act.
In Hungary, we know very well how seriously UEFA takes the ban on politicization in matches, but this is of course of secondary importance in this case, which also happens to be the case with Manuel Neuer, the German team captain, who has played with rainbow-colored armbands in previous matches. These cases are exceptions because it serves a good cause, the UEFA and German officials claim.
But where does this confidence come from, dear Germany? According to a recent survey, which was also quoted by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in his recent speech, only 45 percent of Germans said they were free to express their views, and 44 percent were of the opposite opinion. Respondents say they can easily get in trouble if they say what they think about Islam or patriotism. This is how much freedom of opinion there is in Germany, the poster child for many other countries.
According to another survey commissioned by the right-wing Junge Freiheit, Germans are more patriotic and conservative than we think based on actions like the one planned by Munich. Among those surveyed, 61 percent said that schoolchildren should be offered a more positive image of Germany, 58 percent were disturbed by the enforced usage of politically correct language, gender language and — hold on, Mr. Söder — 57 percent said a family is primarily composed of father, mother and child.
We must add, of course, that the “long march” of liberal forces in institutions is not ineffective, as only 39 percent of 18-29 year olds think a family is defined by father, mother and child, and 45 percent outright reject the primacy of the traditional family model.
The above opinion polling does not matter to German decision-makers, key players in the media and culture, because just as they want to educate us — the Hungarians and the Visegrád group — they also want to decide what is good for ordinary German people. The hypocrisy, as always, is outrageous. Gerhard Papke, the president of the German-Hungarian Society, aptly pointed out on Twitter that they are protesting against Hungary in Munich, which is a guest in Germany during the match, even though there is a legal option for registered same-sex partnerships in Hungary, while in World Cup host Qatar homosexuality is a criminal offense.
It would be reassuring to know that aggressive foreign propaganda actions that politicize football would also be met with a unanimous rejection on the part of Hungary’s domestic politics. Unfortunately, this is far from being the case. The liberal side of Hungary outright enjoys its own country being ridiculed, outdoing one another in seeking the graces of politicians and officials who have the opportunity to impose any kind of sanction on Hungary.
András Fekete-Győr, the president of [centrist party] Momentum, proudly announced the other day that he had convinced a French pro-government MEP to intervene in Hungary somehow. He even assured that “after 2022, Hungary will return to the Western way”.
Well, that about completes the picture. We are faced with an aggressive liberal push that disregarded national sovereignty, and then there is the Hungarian liberal side, which will happily throw the country under the steamroller.
Title image: The Allianz Arena, home of local football team FC Bayern München.
