Wir spiegeln hier einen weiteren Text von Anarchist*innen aus Ungarn, welcher auf direktakcio.noblogs.org erschien. Die ersten zwei Absätze sind im Original nicht übersetzt worden und wir haben sie mittels deepl ebenfalls übersetzt. //
We mirror another text from anarchists from Hungary, which was published on direktakcio.noblogs.org. The first to paragraphs weren’t translated in the source but we added them using deepl.

(At the end of January 2026, a text appeared on the website feketelobogo.org that did not fit well with the other texts published on the site, criticizing phenomena experienced by the author in the course of international anti-fascist solidarity. A detailed critique of the text can be read below. The original text was published in English only, but the response here can also be read in Hungarian.

Incidentally, at the time of writing, the slogan rejecting EU colonization found at the end of the text is one of the official slogans of the authoritarian Orbán regime.)

Firstly, it is of utter significance to mention that this text represents the opinions of a few people not the whole Hungarian antifascist or anarchist millieu. In addition, it seems that those who had written the text were moderately active in the international antifascist struggle in the recent years. The main mistake of the text is that the author is “prone to universalise his own experiences”, which means he is – allegedly – doing precisely the same as the people he criticize. We’re not arguing that he was confronted with opinions which may have been contradictory to him, but these could have been individual cases which could certainly not describe the entire movement.

The publication urges dialogue, but it does not tell what would it say during in a dialogue.

Let’s take it step by step:

• What sort of debate is going on about „how does international soildarity look like”?

• In 2023 three people immediately after the protests were arrested. One of them was let free, one of them got one year in prison after a short trial, since then he is in prison in Germany. Ilaria was freed after more than a year by becoming a representative in the European Parliament, thanks to an Italian party. The campaign for their extrication was connected to the „Antifa-ost” lawsuit, which was active for a long time even then. (The „Antifa-ost” is basically a „criminal organization” which was created by the German state, the most important evidence of the charge was made in a plea bargain as a „confession”. This confession was also the most important evidence in Maja’s case.) Since Ilaria is Italian, to her trial came supporters first and foremost from Italy, so it was not some sort of a „German case”. We have no clue what kind of judgemental or instructive foreigners could have the author meet with, since we, who are in contact with these foreign supporters have never experienced such attitudes. The article suggests that the campaign was useful for the „demonisation of Hungary”. Why would it be „demonisation” to say that the Orbán regime is the vanguard of European fascism? Orbán is authoritharian and has built an increasingly fascist system – it is a fact.

• All campaigns on the side of the incarcerated is clear about that it stands against the system which made the prisons. The naming of a captive or imprisoned group does not mean that the other captives are not important. However, you cannot make a campaign without mentioning the concrete captive.

• The article does not understand the operation of a solidarity campaign. While we are questioning the foundations of the capitalist rule of law, we cannot accept the logic of criminal justice. There are countless spaces to debate about political methods and there are a lots of debates raging on concerning that matter. A solidarity campaign is not like that, it is not a debate club.

• It is not true, that violence against fascists was anywhere considered as the only effective method. There is no and there have never been any sort of consensus like this. Antifascism struggles against fascism with countless assets, direct violence is just a meager part of that and it is mainly self-defence. Nazi street violence is generally everywhere, even in Hungary. The systematic intimidating nazi marches, the violence mainly against minorities – although they are not happening everyday, they are well-known phenomens. Everyone in the rebel subculture has experienced nazi violence. Considering multiple decades, we can find cases, when people used violence against nazis as defence. Suddenly, the article switches to the topic of mobilization against fascist movements like as if it would be exchangable with violence. It is a complete misunderstanding. Again: the struggle against fascism has a plethora of forms and assets, nobody states that there is a sole effective method. Antifascism is not like gang warfare.

• Hungary is the part of the Eastern European semi-periphery. It is not missing from any sort of maps. There are local problems here as well, but the situation is similiar in the entire region. Without doubt, a false picture may have been created about the level of nazi terror, in the international community – but was it that false? The march of hundreds of nazis in uniforms without resistance could not mean that a lots of people do not dare to protest them? Intimidation does not always need direct violence. Orbán always built his authoritarian regime without police terror ont he streets. If someone was striving to cooperate could always find the Hungarian contacts, but about the action in 2023 – it would have been extremely complicated to negotiate.

• On the discourse. Those who were active participants of international campaigns cannot prove the author’s experiences. Anyone who we have met, first asked how the repression affects us. We have not faced any sorts of lecturing. Nobody wanted to give us advice and everybody cared about the Hungarian situation.

• Anyone can be the target of fascism, so we can not really make a priority list. Nevertheless, if we are talking about WW2, than it is only natural that the Holocaust is in the centre of the discourse. Noone criticizes that someone stands up against the fascist incitement of hatred against the romani people. The existing international cooperation works as the article desires: based on mutual exchange of experience and the intention of understanding.

• The author considers himself as a left-wing radical, a leftist, who is more radical than the others. But we see it clearly, that anarchism is outside of the systems boundaries, so it is not just one of the many leftist ideologies. As a matter of fact: in the capitalist world order, outside the imperial core, nowhere can the capitalist economy function under the rules of liberal democracy. Eastern Europe is a region of semi-pheriphery, here the authoritarian systems are parts of capitalism. We can safely assume, that every anarchist is familiar with the operations of capitalist hierarchies. We never experienced that western anarchists considered the easterners „children”. This does not mean that there is no need for political education, development. Our experiences suggest that mutual education is the basis of cooperation. But to experience this, people need real, long-term relationships.

• There are no anarchists who are not seeing that Orbán’s xenophobia does not discern much from the racism of the imperial core. Neoliberalism is an economic policy. Orbán’s economic policy is neoliberal. Neoliberal economic policy has nothing in common with liberal democracy, it can exist without it. The author thinks that sincet he 1980s the chance for countries to „determine their own path” is decreasing. Why, when did they have the chance? For instanced, during the several hundred years of capitalism, Eastern Europe could not reach the level of Western Europe. There were never such thing as an own „national way”. What sort of anarchist is one, who „distracts attention” from the EU or NATO? The foundation of anarchist antifascist struggle is the struggle against capitalism. Antifascism is simply necessary self-defence, a struggle against the stronger form of capitalism – but all anarchist fascism interpretations have in common that fascism is just one of the forms of the rule of capital.

• How the author imagines the „independence from western economic interests”? Does he seriously think that a seccession from the global capitalist world order is possible? At most it can happen in the various social-democratic utopies. It is only natural, that people do not feel well under capitalism, but if this wrath would someone try to channel against the west, that person would merely defend capitalism. Naturally, Orbán is our enemy, since here he is the primary defender of the rule of capital.

• It is not true, that 2023 radically influences the political battleground. It certainly gave an excuse for the fascist propaganda, but that is not the cause of the persecution of antifascism. Orbán’s authoritarian system heads straight towards fascism. In the September of 2025 – two and a half years after 2023(!) – was antifascism officially banned, but that came from the system’s inner logic and the beneficial foreign shifts.

• How can we be „liberated from western dominance”? Who is „we”? What sort of dominance are we talking about? What does the „praxis of the struggle against EU’s colonisation” mean? The article is based on superficial impressions, and unfortunately nothing can be peeled of it, which could lead to any sort of dialogue.

other anarchists from hungary