Good Bye Marx! Hungary cleans up for Orban's revolution
AFP / Attila Kisbenedek
A statue of German philosopher Carl Marx is seen in Corvinus University in Budapest on September 4, 2014
When communism fell in Hungary 25 years ago, so did the many statues of Lenin and other heroes but the monument to Marx remained standing at the prestigious institution in the capital.
Last weekend, the four-metre (12-foot) statue of the father of communism -- installed just three years after Soviet tanks crushed an uprising in Hungary in 1956 -- finally went.
"We have to strengthen and show our Corvinus identity, which is lacking now," said Zsolt Rostovanyi, rector of the university in Budapest, known until 1990 as Karl Marx University.
"The Marx statue is not part of that identity."
For many students - not yet born during Hungary's more than four decades of communist rule -- this is a shame.
AFP / Attila Kisbenedek
A statue of German philosopher Carl Marx is seen in Corvinus University in Budapest on September 4, 2014
New students were photographed next to him on their first day and again when they graduated, slotting their diplomas into Marx's outstretched hand to be snapped by family and friends.
"At freshers' parties the bar is in front of the statue, so it's like Marx is serving the drinks," Patricia, a third-year student, told AFP before the statue was taken away.
Other pranks included putting a heart in Marx's hand on Valentine's Day. Used study books were often sold in front of it, and "Let's meet at Marx" was a common refrain among undergraduates.
- 'Racist and classist' -
But the fate of the statue -- it was taken to a historical exhibition at the university, with its replacement yet to be decided -- throws up more serious questions.
Even though Rostovanyi denies any political pressure, an open letter to the university from state secretary for human resources Bence Retvari in January said that Marx was "racist and classist".
AFP / Attila Kisbenedek
A man walks past the spot where a statue of German
philosopher Carl Marx used to stand in Corvinus University in Budapest
on September 16, 2014
Others suggest the statue's removal is part of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's "revolution" to revamp this country of 10 million people, and not just aesthetically.
A former anti-communist radical turned dyed-in-the-wool conservative, the 51-year-old -- returned to power this April, again with a landslide -- is seen as bent on reforming Hungary's economy, institutions and social fabric after decades of left-wing misrule.
Father-of-five Orban has vowed to create an "illiberal democracy" and has praised Russia under President Vladimir Putin as a "successful model" -- prompting some pundits to label him a populist autocrat .
Following on from independent media, activists say his latest target appears to be foreign-funded non-governmental organisations, which he calls "paid foreign activists".
In recent weeks, police raided several such NGOs for alleged financial irregularities. Human Rights Watch called it "yet another step to intimidate civil society".
Part and parcel of Orban's mission, critics say, has been the renaming and rearranging of public squares, and Marx's removal -- no matter how tiny the appeal of Marxism to students today -- fits into this.
"It could be an important symbolic part of the government's narrative of spearheading a revolution since their election victory in 2010," said historian Andras Mink from the Central European University.
"For them Marx represents continuity between communism and the two chaotic decades of post-communism. The government feels that after their new election win in April, they can have a final caesura and break with the past," Mink told AFP.
"No matter what affect he and his thoughts had on history, this is only a statue, it belongs to the university," said Erzsebet Ham
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