Hungary’s re-elected PM Viktor Orbán shares Putin’s hostility towards feminists

It is no surprise that both countries have alarmingly low numbers of women among their governing politicians, writes Lili Rutai

The Fidesz party, led by Orbán, advocates the traditional, Christian nuclear family (Getty)

I don’t deal with women’s issues,” Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister said in 2017, during his second term.

At the time, this remark sparked outrage and laughter among Hungary’s feminist community. Little did feminists know that within a year, Orbán’s government would try to disempower the whole movement.

It banned gender from studies at universities, started portraying feminism as trying to disrupt the traditional family, started claiming feminists would either try to push men down or send drag queens to nurseries. It refused the ratification of the Istanbul convention, despite the dozens of women murdered every year. It blocked discussion about endometriosis in parliament, although it affects one in 10 women. It ignored every attempt to lower the tampon tax, among the highest in Europe.

Now, as Orbán scores his fourth consecutive term, feminists continue to battle institutionalised misogyny. The new president-elect, Katalin Novák – the first woman in the post – is only as much of a feminist as “Mrs America” Phyllis Schlafly was. She fits Orbán’s idea of an adequate woman: she has a husband and three children, comfortable advocating against closing the pay gap and women leaving the kitchen. She’s happy to wear an earring engraved with Orbán’s initials and always eager to show that she’s doing the housework on social media.

Orbán’s government, ultimately, loves women, as long as they are Hungarian, white, heterosexual, cisgender and feminine, marry young and give birth to multiple children, have a career but put their family first.

His Fidesz party advocates the traditional, Christian nuclear family. This unity, despite the fact that 42 per cent of marriages in Hungary end in divorce, is the cornerstone of many recent campaigns. It claims the traditional Christian family needs to be protected against migration (2015), against feminism (2018), against Brussels (2019), and against the “gender-craze” and LGBT+ people in 2021.

Hungary never really had a proper feminist movement since those women whose fight for voting rights led to full suffrage in 1945. During the Second World War, the Feminist Association was banned and its head, Eugénia Meller Miskolczy, was sent to a concentration camp to die in 1944.

During the socialist years, there was one feminist group, the Democratic Association of Hungarian Women, but they were rather a club for female members of the governing party. The widespread view was that thanks to socialism, women are already equal to men, so there’s no point in feminism. True, the number of nurseries rose during this period, and every university, institution and job opened for women. They were, however, only accepted in lesser positions and received lower pay. They ultimately had to work two jobs: one at the workplace and another at home.

The sexual awakening, the second wave of feminism, never happened in Hungary, nor did the third. But women were allowed – no, praised – to work as tractor drivers since the middle of the 20th century. Isn’t that equality?

Hungary is not the only post-socialist country where feminism isn’t thriving. Take Lithuania, where feminism is ridiculed, or Poland, where women’s rights activists face threats. And, as a fact, Russia.

It should not come as a surprise that Orbán and Putin share similar ideologies, including the mistreatment of feminists in the name of religion and family values. And it is also not a surprise that both countries have alarmingly low numbers of women among their governing politicians.

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Both Orbán and Putin like to portray themselves as hyper-masculine father figures of their country. They portray themselves as protecting the female members of their herd against attacks from all sides, including feminism, which could corrupt the beautiful, successful women working hard and giving birth to multiple children at the same time.

In Russia, where Pussy Riot singlehandedly revealed the unbalanced coexistence of authoritarianism and the seemingly liberal constitution, President Putin praises women for their work, for uniting the family with their love, and for staying in shape (Women’s Day, 2019). This is the country where, in 2018, domestic violence legislation was softened. At least 12,000 women die at the hands of their abusers each year. And a country whose soldiers reportedly committed horrifying sexual assaults during the ongoing war in Ukraine.

So where does this leave feminists in central and eastern Europe? “Our job is to create spaces for each other, which help to survive the next four years for those who stay,” Rita Perintfalvi, a Hungarian feminist theologist and author, said in a bitter post after Orbán’s victory.

Because in her words: “Every dictator fails once.”