Watching the Inauguration in Hungary

I worked with the Hungary for Obama group to plan a big event for the inauguration. I had a great time, and it was a good event. We were able to fill both an auditorium and a bar to capacity to watch the inaugural address at 6pm. Guess where I watched the event...!

We then headed to Szabadság tér ("Freedom square") for a peaceful, candelit "show of lights." Now, I admittedly went to this part of the event with a degree of skepticism - I am not a woman prone to attending candelight vigils. However, it was definitely worth it, if simply as a really unique inauguration memory and as another window into what it means to live in Hungary.

Some political demonstrations in Hungary turn violent, driven partly by anger at the government (two years ago, the prime minister was taped boasted about lying to the country about the economy) and partly by the existence of extremist parties. In fact, the US Embassy emails all registered Americans in Budapest to tell us where and when demonstrations are happening, with the following caveat: "We remind American citizens that even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and possible escalate into violence. American citizens are therefore urged to avoid the areas of demonstrations if possible, and to exercise caution if within the vicinity of any demonstrations."

As a result of these factors, it is mandatory to apply for a demonstration permit with the police beforehand. The guy in our group who orchestrated the vigil had to jump through multiple hoops in order to do so. At first, people at the police station were incredulous that someone would want to host a peaceful gathering like this. And second, they were rather impressed, and wanted to attend themselves. Actually, the police had to attend - the rules require police presence at all demonstrations, even if only to handle extremists who happen to show up. Szabadság tér ("Freedom Square") is a good candidate for disturbances:

1. It is blocks away from Parliament
2. It is the home of the US Embassy
3. It contains the only monument to the Soviets still in the city
4. As a result of #3, it also contains a teepee erected by an extremist group who is campaigning to tear down the Soviet monument and replace it with a map of Hungary's traditional (pre-WWI) borders. This issue could be the subject for a full other post, but know that even the issue of Hungary's borders is very contentious: Hungary lost 70% of its land in the treaty that ended WWI - many neighboring nations still have sizable Hungarian populations, and this causes political tension to this day. (See below for a map: present-day Hungary is in light-green. The red parts of the bars indicate the size of the Hungarian population in neighboring countries.)

The candlelit vigil went fine - there weren't any disturbances at all, we got a good crowd at the square and media coverage was really strong.

After getting a drink with friends, I stopped into the final event we had planned for the evening: a dinner with a speech by the political affairs officer from the US Embassy. A few items of note:

• First, as an aside, you may be interested to know that, while at business school, President George W. Bush dated the woman he appointed as Ambassador to Hungary.
• The embassy official highlighted some of the big things the US Embassy had been working on over the past year. I knew about the first item: Hungary is now a member of the "Visa Waiver Program," which allows Hungarians to travel to the US visa-free. However, while the process is now much easier, it's still pretty complex: I recommend visiting https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/ to see how easy/difficult it is for people to visit American just for tourism. (The US Government can deny your request to enter America without giving any explanation, and you cannot appeal, etc.)
• Another item was actually pretty cool - last year, the US embassy brought in a speaker to smaller Hungarian towns to discuss the steps that California had been taking, without full federal approval, to tackle climate change. The point was to reassure the Hungarian towns that they didn't need to wait for national government action before taking steps to fight global warming.
• Finally, it just so happened that the Manhattan String Orchestra was in town. The 80-member group attended the inaugural address watch party and two of them played at the dinner. They were really good.

So, that was how I spent Inauguration Night. It was absolutely awesome to be a with a group of other people who cared just as much about what was happening as I did, and to have helped put the event together. If you want to see evidence of my existence, check the video in this link around minute 4:50. (I'm famous!)