Edward Lucas and on Hungary-Slovakia.

Edward Lucas has written on the recent spat between Orban's new Fidesz government and Slovakia over holding dual citizenship or Hungarian Slovaks being given passports by the government in Budapest.

Lucas writes quite reasonably on his blog about this in a way he does not when Russia tries this on in Georgia.

The reason for this is that he is a first rank hypocrite of sickening proportions who is surely intelligent enough to know what to include and what to omit in his propaganda tract The New Cold War.

Lucas writes,

In some parts of the world, having two or even three passports is nothing unusual. Plenty of people in Ireland (north and south) have both British and Irish passports; a sprinkling have American ones too. Even countries that frown on dual citizenship rarely make much of a fuss about it (not least because it is so hard to police).

In which case why should it be such a problem for South Ossetians in Georgia not to hold Russian passports as well. The reason is because that's part of a dastardly plot by Russia to break up Georgia, at least the current nation state boundaries created by that wonderfully democratic beacon of progress Joseph Stalin in 1920-21.

Bemoaning the embarrassing spat in Central Europe, Lucas opines,

That lesson seems to be lost on Slovak and Hungarian politicians, who are cooking up an almighty row about the Hungarian new dual citizenship law which will give all ethnic Hungarians outside the country the near-automatic right to a Hungarian passport.

The new law, passed by parliament on May 26th, removes the requirement for permanent residency in Hungary; in future, applications will simply need to show they speak Hungarian and have some Hungarian ethnic roots (such as a Hungarian grandparent).

For Hungarians, that salves a wound that has been open since 1920, when the Treaty of Trianon dismembered old Hungary, leaving more than three out of ten Hungarians stranded in other countries such as newly independent Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia and a much bigger Romania.

Giving passports to these Hungarians, who now number around 2m, appeases the radical right in Hungary and also signals to other countries that the Magyar minorities have a protector. ( My Italics )

This is, of course, deeply embarrassing to Mr Lucas' whose deeply paranoid and propagandistic thesis of 'The New Cold War' in which only Russia is playing on ethnic nationalism is undermined somewhat.If this is what politics in Hungary-Slovakia is like, imagine Georgia and the Caucasus !

"Reform" minded states like Georgia have Bumpy Rides on their Inexorable March to Natopia, including vicious ethnic nationalism, reigning down grad missiles on civilians in Tskhinvali in South Ossetia and then blaming Russia by progecting Saakashvili's aggression onto a heinous plot by Russia to dismember Georgia when it reacted.

Naturally, in accordance with the Orwellian doublethink that is the hallmark of Lucas' writing, when Hungary and Slovakia start ethnic nationalist stirring it's most curious. Never to to with the failure of neoliberal policies and a populist-nationalist backlash.

The fact that the repellant and destructive neoliberalism this ideologue has promoted just might have contributed towards creating a "democratic deficit".

History has proved time and time again that Utopian laissez faire policies have an in-built tendency to create political instability. Georgia's appalling descent into even greater poverty after the Rose Revolution of 2003 created popular discontent

Thus Mikheil Saakashvili's war was a divertionary measure amongst other forces driving him towards a General Galtieri style invasion ( i.e as in the Falklands ). The exact reasons are now for historians to work on. Lucas is not one. So his mere propagandistic slant is of little consequence.

Again, if Russia gives passports out to South Ossetians, Lucas parrots the line of Brzezinski that it's 1938 and Hitler's technique of dismembering Czechoslovakia. When Romania tries the same in Moldova and resucitates the wartime far-right dictator Antonsecu it is omitted and unmentionable.

As only Russia is essentially Evil and Sinister. Not least after it rejected being ruled by a bunch of rapacious oligarchs and thugs who took advantage of the Young Reformers shock therapy reforms to sell on oil and gas assets by buying them cheap and selling them high, making a killing in the process.

That Hungary is offering passports to ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia is just glided over as a funny old pointless spat. The idea that Greater Romanian nationalists have done the same in Moldova is a fact that is conveniently omitted. Because it's on what Lucas calls aggressively "the new battle lines in Eastern Europe" in The New Cold War.

As is the fact that the heroic and thrusting democrats of the Twitter Revolution of April 2009 like Oleg Brega were part of the same network of visceral anti-semitic far-right wing nationalists who call themselves "Liberal Democrats" so that those like Lucas will peddle their cause to advance US geostrategical aims against Russia.

In the context of Hungary and Slovakia, Lucas conveniently blames it on pressure from right wing nationalist-populists. True, but this is a popular reaction to the systemic mismanagement and neoliberal policies implemented by the MSZP, the absurd "Social Democratic" Party run by a kleptocratic multi millionaire until 2007 called Ferenc Gyurscany.

Roger Heyes, an amateur blogger and translator who wrote for the Slovak Spectator, before it became a pure propaganda rag distributed within Bratislava's University Campuses, gave a laconic but accurate description of the argument thus,

New Hungarian PM Orban wanted a feel-good story to start his government, which is going to be pretty grim with Greek-style cuts. So, he decides to allow the Hungarian minority in neighbouring countries to apply for Hungarian passports (redressing historic injuries blah blah) but he doesn't negotiate with the governments of the neighbours.

Slovakia got in a huff and claimed its territorial integrity was under threat and "something must be done" so they made a law that if a Slovak takes another nationality they forfeit their Slovak one. The law was pushed hard by PM Fico and even had support in the right wing opposition from the Christian Democrats.

Everyone seems to love a bit of ethnic stirring, especially when it takes minds of hard questions.

In Britain, it will be interesting to see how Cameron's neoconservative coalition will fare in this regard when faced with massive Greek style cuts. Probably in diverting discontent by pointing to Fifth Columnists such as "Islamic extremists" whilst continuing to support the USA's uncritical support for the aggressive militarised democracy that is Israel.

Like the chump Michael Gove does in Celsius 7/7, a leading foreign policy neoconservative in the Henry Jackson Society which is patronised by those like Richard Perle, a key architect in the resource war which was Iraq. What is so sinister about this fanaticallly neoconservative group is that it contains New Labour MPs like Denis MacShane.

And this is what is known as democracy in Britain.