Magyar Nemzet on Hungary’s international image

The leading pro-government daily opens its pages to contributions about why Hungary has international image problems and what she should do to improve her reception in the world.

In his opening essay, Magyar Nemzet editor Attila Ballai reminds readers of a legendary debate on ‘Hungary’s Place in the World’ in 1943 on the pages of a progressive patriotic journal whose authors found that, more than on the frontlines, Hungary lost the First World War in the hearts and minds of the world public. She wasn’t just punished for her real sins, but also for her imaginary ones, they wrote. Ballai thinks international misconceptions were then due to ignorance, while today they are consciously disseminated. He admits nevertheless that some international criticism is worth paying attention to.