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Hungary marks treaty centenary as Orbán harnesses 'Trianon trauma'

<span>Photograph: Tamás Kovács/AP</span>
Photograph: Tamás Kovács/AP

Church bells rang out across Budapest, public transport came to a halt and people have observed a moment of silence, as Hungary commemorated the centenary of the Treaty of Trianon.

The treaty, signed in the aftermath of the first world war, still forms a major part of Hungary’s national identity and memories of the harsh settlement have helped fuel the nationalist agenda of the current prime minister, Viktor Orbán.

László Kövér, parliament speaker and a close ally of Orbán, said on Thursday that young Hungarians should “engrave in their hearts and minds” the lessons of Trianon. “We Hungarians can’t change the past, we can only change its most painful consequences,” he said, in a special parliamentary session devoted to the anniversary.

The treaty, formalised on 4 June 1920, was one of several signed in the aftermath of the first world war and imposed by the victorious Allies on the defeated Central Powers. It stripped Hungary of three-fifths of the territory and two-thirds of the population it had controlled as part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

“Trianon – the word and the subject matter – has been stirring passions in our country for a hundred years,” said Gábor Koltay, the director of a “rock opera” about Trianon that premiered in Budapest two years ago.

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A huge new monument to “national solidarity” has been constructed near Hungary’s parliament in central Budapest and was due to be opened on Thursday, though the ceremony has been postponed due to coronavirus restrictions. The monument bears the Hungarian name of every settlement in “Greater Hungary”, the majority of which are now situated in neighbouring countries.

“Trianon trauma” is felt across the political spectrum in Hungary, but Orbán has harnessed these feelings during the past decade and used them in his quest to show Hungary as a resurgent nation and keep out migration and supposed “globalist influences”.

While never speaking directly about reclaiming lost territory, Orbán’s government has made Hungarian minority populations in neighbouring countries a cornerstone of its foreign policy, pumping money into cultural centres, media outlets, churches and football clubs in the region and handing out Hungarian passports to those who want them. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Hungarians have taken up the offer, and the vast majority have cast votes for Orbán’s Fidesz party, cementing its control over Hungarian politics.

Last month, Orbán caused consternation in a number of regional capitals by posting a map of historical Hungary on his Facebook page as part of a post wishing students good luck with their history exams. Slovenia’s president, Borut Pahor, expressed “rejection and concern” over the map. The rights of Hungarian minorities have caused tension in relations with both Romania and Ukraine in recent years.

Opposition politicians have also condemned Trianon as unfair but said 100 years later, the discussion should move on. “We don’t need to forget Trianon. That would be impossible,” said the Democratic Coalition, an opposition party, in a statement. “But mourning about Trianon can no longer be the focus of Hungarian politics, because, apart from the fact it leads nowhere, it paralyses, makes it incapable of action, it also consumes the moral and political power of the homeland.”