By Luis C Cano
My first experience with "populism" was in 1998, I was 11 years old and I still remember the very catchy jingle of the Chavez political ads on Venezuelan TV. Being on a bubble, I was immersed at an early age on political talks among adults. I would imagine that kids nowadays experience the same while listening to all adults talking about Trump and other authoritarian figures. Even as a kid, I knew something was wrong, I saw how democracy was being destroyed. Thus I decided to study law due to the reluctance of my parents to pay my studies on Political Science. Who can blame them? They were both immigrants from Colombia who escaped the violence in their home country experienced by our family since both my grandparents had high political profiles.
I was in University when the Venezuelan government forced the closure of the biggest Venezuelan critical TV broadcaster, RCTV. I remember it clearly as I was the teaching assistant for the head lawyer of the media outlet.
Went out, protested, and met up with thousands that like me, felt that democracy was being destroyed in front of their eyes. After other media outlets being taken bought by government affiliates, after the constitution being modified over and over to minimise checks and balances, after the economy was fully destroyed, I left.
I got burned out, I hated politics!
I came to Hungary to study Human Rights and Constitutional Law at CEU. Shortly, I married and made of Hungary my new home. In my studies At University, the many hours of lectures about Rule of Law, Media Freedom, Political Philosophy, did not match my experience in the field. Still, my childhood traumas were pushing me to focus on the theory only and to forget the scars of populism. I was aware of the political tone of FIDESZ in Hungary, but it did not occur to me to compare the communication styles of Orbán and Chavez.
Dejavú
In 2013, under government pressure, one of the main sites of critical news in Hungary, ORIGO, changed ownership and shifted their editorial line to be more supportive of the government.
I then realised it is happening again. For some reason, it always starts with the media being the enemy. It always starts with those nasty journalists criticising the patriotic government. This time was different, I was able to stand, I was an adult. My only issue was, I knew about Hungarian politics from the book, from articles, from others.
For years I stayed in fear as I saw the rise of Le Pen, Wilders, or Farage. The book told us, this is Europe, it cannot happen here. But it can! I was not brave enough to start something due to my language limitations. But then I found a civic movement that stood up against the government corruption and abuse of power in 2017. I joined them and somehow, the book disappeared. I was lucky enough to travel the country and meet many who were not aware of the fragility of our democracy. I met many others, visionaries, who saw the danger and decided to do something about it. I soon realised, all that was written in the book was a good reference, but it was not enough.
Is about the journey, not the destination
With Momentum, I visited more than 100 towns and villages across Hungary. Beyond the work done, the knowledge one gets from listening to the people cannot be described. Books cannot teach what the road can, many times I did not know what I was doing, but I knew I was learning.
(Campaign trip to Kalocsa in September 2019 with Anna Donáth)
In 2018, my alma mater, the Central European University was forced out of Hungary by the FIDESZ government. I then decided to do something more than learning, I decided to raise my voice. I remember speaking up in defence of my University in October 2018 in front of over 4,000 protesters. I told them out of script "I lost a country and I am not going to lose another one without a fight." From that day on, I decided to put on my skills to use, to share my knowledge from the road with other fighters.
I am still a fighter, I am a critical thinker, so I do not obey anything that contradicts the learning from the road. I am still learning, every town shows me new perspectives to understand the political DNA of populism. I teaches me where the cracks are, the good news are that, populism is cracking, and as many more like me join the road, the more we crumble the soil where authoritarians stand. Join me, I hope my journey is not enough to inform you, I hope to learn also from your journey. After all, one learns politics from the road, and then from the book.
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