Christmas in the shadow of Covid-19

In their Christmas opinion articles, a conservative and a liberal commentator ponder the broader implications of the pandemic.

Magyar Nemzet’s Zoltán Hegyi writes that the pandemic has reminded us of our vulnerability. The conservative columnist thinks that the coronavirus is a wake-up call for humanity. Unless we change our daily habits and replace consumerism with a more sustainable lifestyle, we may jeopardize the future of our planet, he warns. As both the pandemic and the widespread destruction of natural resources have shown, mankind is both the origin and the main victim of its own cruel and mindless actions, Hegyi concludes.

In Népszava, former leading liberal MP Gábor Horn looks back on 2020 to claim that the Orbán government has lost its mojo. He thinks that the government did not do enough to contain the pandemic or to help Hungarians suffering from its impact on the economy. Horn interprets the alliance of opposition parties (see BudaPost December 23) and the protest of the students of the Theatre and Film University (see BudaPost September 9) as harbingers of the Orbán government’s eventual defeat.

Tags: coronavirus, environment, opposition