Andras Schiff in the footsteps of Casals and Toscanini

Andras Schiff, the world famous Hungarian pianist and conductor refused an invitation by Zoltán Kocsis, leader of the state-supported Philharmonic Orchestra, himself a pianist of high reputation (but as a conductor only of limited achievements) to give a concert in Budapest. He wrote to Kocsis that he will never again play in Hungary and, as his mother is no longer alive, he will not "put a foot in Hungary again". In his long and brave letter Schiff renounced his long friendship with Kocsis.

Kocsis has identified himself totally with the new, rightwing government, but has stressed that he is not anti-semitic and has even boasted of the number of Jewish and Roma musicians active in the State Orchestra which he leads, and enumerated some of his Jewish friends. This made Schiff even more furious.

The Orban Government's actions, driving further and further into a jingoistic, clerically supported farce, are even more irrational than the Horthy Regime's that led to the tragedies of 1944-45 and everything that came after.

Poor Hungary. Nominally, it is still a Parliamentary democracy and the opposition is not imprisoned in camps. But, inch by inch, the freedom of expression of the opposition media is curtailed by restrictive press laws and changes in a drastically revised Constitution.

Orban's absolute majority was achieved by just over half of the votes cast by only half of the electorate. In simple terms that means an authoritarian government supported only by a quarter of the registered electorate, with 17% of the votes cast for the ultra-reactionary and proto-fascist "Jobbik" Party. The awakening will be sad and ominous.