“After today’s festive assembly, we’ll have the Easter spring cleaning - the stink bugs [parasites] weathered the winter”, said Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán in his 15 March national commemoration speech, referring to his opponents, judges, civil society.
Stink bugs.
(“Poloskák” in Hungarian. No linguistic connection to Poland.)
First, it starts with dehumanization.
Then comes the propaganda war.
When the cult brainwashing reaches the required level, action can begin.
Law is no longer a backstop because the opponents, who are not limited to the political opposition, are “enemies of the people”.
And with such enemies, anything is permissible since they don’t deserve any rights.
This is fascism/nazism/totalitarianism, North Korean, Belorussian etc. style.
p.s.: and don’t kid yourself, Hungary is not about to exit the EU. It’s aiming to blow the entire edifice up.
p.s2: the image is a historic poster from Nazi Germany using the same metaphor
*This was originally posted on Andras Baneth's LinkedIn account.