Ákos Szilágyi on the dangers of mass hysteria in Hungary

The ongoing political and economic crisis in Hungary is jeopardising the basic tenets of democracy, writes the poet and essayist Ákos Szilágyi in the weekend supplement of the left-liberal daily Népszabadság: "In view of the global economic crisis that broke out last autumn, the level of domestic and foreign debt as well as the acute political crisis, Hungary's middle class is becoming increasingly resigned. This atmosphere of crisis ... is also very conducive to feelings of panic. The cold civil war which rages in Hungarian political life is shaking the Third Republic to the core. The liberal democracy which has become so discredited in recent years will soon have nothing to counter the creeping spready of lethargy and hysteria in society. ... To avoid mass hysteria, the cold civil war which has brought Hungarian democracy to the verge of functional disability must immediately stop. ... Failing that, the swelling mass hysteria will sweep away democracy altogether, along with its parties, its institutions, its openness and its tolerance."

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