5 Mar 2026 | Europe and Central Asia, Features, Hungary
This article first appeared in the Winter 2025 issue of Index on Censorship, Gen Z is revolting: Why the world’s youth will not be silenced, published on 18 December 2025.
The year 2025 was the “Dirty Fidesz” summer for Hungary. This was the chant that could be heard at events across the country, from small concerts to the international Sziget Festival. When the anti-government slogan first emerged in 2023, it was primarily heard at concerts by musicians openly criticising the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
By 2025, it had reached the mainstream media.
In January, Hungary’s most popular rapper and former reality TV star Majka released his music video Csurran, cseppen (Drip by Drip). The song tells the story of a corrupt dictator from an imaginary country called Bindzsisztán (literally translated as Kleptistan), who having been given a truth potion confesses in an interview about how he took over the country.
“I can survive anything; the laws are written on me,” sings the autocratic leader, as heaps of banknotes fly through the air.
The video went viral within a day, reaching 28 million views by October in a country of 9.5 million. Without any direct references, viewers quickly drew parallels between the fictional state and Orbán’s Hungary.
Other Hungarian musicians used even stronger language. The 23-year-old Hungarian superstar Azhariah, who sold out the 60,000-seat Puskás Stadium for three consecutive nights, angered government supporters when in an Instagram post, he called Fidesz voters “mentally and intellectually retarded creatures”, for which he later apologised.
However, it is not only musicians who are expressing deep anti-government sentiments in Hungary. Tension and frustration are particularly high among the young generation, who feel that they have not been able to express their views through elections for a very long time.
“We don’t like what we see,” explained Eszter, a 19-year-old university student from Budapest. She believes that the country’s problems are complex, but that Gen Z is particularly affected by the high cost of living, inflation, and social issues.
“The healthcare system is in ruins, the education system does more harm than good, wages are ridiculous, and it’s almost impossible to buy a flat unless you were born into wealth,” she told Index.
Eszter also believes that young people in Hungary lack a vision for the future. Her words are supported by demographic data. According to 2024 figures, 546,000 Hungarians are officially registered as living in other EU countries, or the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway. If we add the USA, Canada, South America and Israel, the estimates are around 700,000. This is around 7% of the population.
The figures are even more alarming when we consider the so-called active population, defined as people between the ages of 15-64. In 2023, there were already a total of 420,000 people in this age group living abroad, which is having an impact on the Hungarian economy.
According to researcher Ágnes Hárs, the exodus is primarily driven by the cost of living crisis, low wages and high inflation. Younger generations are also leaving for western Europe to study, as an increasing proportion of students in Hungary now have to pay for their higher education. The situation is made worse by the fact that 21 Hungarian universities have been banned from participating in EU-funded Erasmus exchange programmes because they were taken over by public trusts filled with people from Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party.
According to a recent survey by Fay Andras Foundation, only six out of 100 Gen Z Hungarians are certain to stay in the country. A staggering 57% of young people envisage living abroad within ten years. Of those who leave, the majority are unlikely to return.
For an increasing number of people, the economy is only one of the problems. Since Viktor Orbán came to power in 2010, he has steadily undermined the rule of law and democratic norms. Corruption has become rampant, prompting the EU to suspend a significant portion of the funds allocated to the country. The government has also started a culture war to dismantle the independence of academic institutions, including universities. When teachers at several secondary schools began acts of civil disobedience in response to restrictions on strikes, the authorities fired more than a dozen of those who participated.
Fidesz has also become increasingly vocal in its opposition to the LGBTQ+ community, and the introduction of a new law banning Pride parades has sparked a backlash at universities. Pázmány Péter Catholic University initiated disciplinary proceedings against three psychology lecturers who, after the ban was announced, published a newspaper article supporting the view that a loving family is more important to children than the gender of their parents, using scientific evidence. Ultimately, all three resigned.
But Gen Z are fighting back. In June, over 200,000 people defied the Pride ban and marched in Budapest to celebrate freedom. Among them was 20-year-old Zsolt, who was attending a public demonstration for the first time.
“I don’t want to care about politics, but I have no choice. It has become part of my life, whether I like it or not. Fidesz’s politics and ideology are everywhere, including my school and among my friends. Half of my classmates went on to study at foreign universities, and although I stayed, I increasingly feel suffocated by the atmosphere around me,” he said.
With fewer and fewer spaces available for young people to express their political opinions, music festivals and the ballot box are all that remain.
Opinion polls currently show that the new opposition party Tisza, headed by Péter Magyar, has a steady lead ahead of general elections in Hungary in 2026. Magyar, who is the ex-husband of Orbán’s former Justice Minister, Judit Varga, was once a beneficiary of the system. Now he is hoping to topple the regime.
Unlike Orbán, a 62-year-old grandfather who reportedly still uses an 18-year-old Nokia phone, Magyar is dynamic, sporty and stylish, and is particularly popular with younger people. Opinion polls show that Fidesz has fewer and fewer voters the younger the age group, being especially unpopular among 18–29-year-olds. According to a Medián survey published in June this year, Gen Z have almost no personal memories of any other prime minister besides Viktor Orbán, yet 58% still support the Tisza Party.
Fidesz is well aware of this and has been searching for a way to win back young people. Initially, they tried to engage with young people on social media, particularly TikTok. They are now also offering economic incentives: such as exempting people under 25 from paying personal income tax and introducing extremely favourable loans to help them buy their first home.
Some high-profile government politicians have also dismissed criticism by saying that it is only natural for younger generations to rebel against the system. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén argued that young people in Hungary have never received more support than they do under the current government.
What they probably don’t realise is that Gen Z is not just after money. They also want a better quality of life and freedom.
“These loans aren’t free. We’re just getting into debt while our education and healthcare systems are failing. The government can’t find common ground with young people – they’re on a different wavelength – but that’s fine by us. Let’s keep it that way,” said Zsolt.
We can be the change
Hungarian pop star Marci Mehringer reflects on being a Gen Zer in Budapest today
Pop star Marci Mehringer, who rose to fame on X Factor in 2021
I often wonder how much my perception reflects reality from my somewhat privileged position. I can at least do what I love. This in itself is a luckier situation than most young people find themselves in. Nevertheless, I think our problems are exactly the same. We have always lived in democracy, and we never thought that we would have to fight for this freedom again.
As dystopian as it may sound, I think most young people feel this way. They feel that they have to raise their voices over and over again so that they can live their lives the way they want to. Even though – on paper – this is everyone’s right.
The biggest problem facing young people today – apart from the housing and livelihood crisis – is perhaps that politics has permeated everything in Hungary. Our politicians have forgotten that they are there for us and not the other way around. Young people have not. And as they have nothing to lose, they can be braver and more honest than anyone else. Even if it sometimes means making less considered decisions.
In Hungary, life has become overly politicised. This is why, even at such a young age, we are so deeply involved in certain issues and want to bring about change, primarily in people’s attitudes. But what young people really want goes beyond material goods and our livelihood. We want to live in a united society that is not filled with so much unnecessary hatred.
We do not want to live in a country where people condemn each other’s views, Hungarians turn against each other, and our corrupt politicians divide us in order to retain power. We want an accepting, European Hungary where everyone can live together in happiness and peace, regardless of their background. In short, young people want a slightly more collectivist and accepting society.
All this may sound utopian, but this is how we were raised. Therefore, I am not asking whether change will come, but when it will come and how long we will have to tolerate those responsible for this chaos.
I am also convinced that these principles are present not only in young people, but in the older generation too, they just find it more difficult to express them. Perhaps the younger a person is, the easier it is for them to want to effect change. After all, isn’t it customary to rebel when you’re young?
In any case, the future of our country is in our hands. We will live here for another 50 or 60 years and it is our duty to rebuild the country from the current ruins, creating a place where what has been said will be second nature to future generations.
I believe that we can be the change; that we can be the ones to put our hearts and minds in order for the greater good.
Marci Mehringer is a Hungarian musician who rose to fame on the 2021 series of X Factor. He regularly sells out concert halls in Budapest with his band, Mehringer. His songs often criticise the current Hungarian regime and highlight the issues facing younger generations
9 Feb 2026 | Asia and Pacific, Australia, Israel, Middle East and North Africa, News, Palestine
Australia has been described as having some of the “democratic world’s most draconian anti-protest laws” after a state government invoked special powers ahead of the Israeli president’s visit on Monday.
On the first day of Herzog’s visit, there have been reports of police using pepper spray on protesters in Sydney, as hundreds tried to march despite protest restrictions, as well as in Victoria, where demonstrations were also held.
Nationwide demonstrations were set to take place against the five-day visit of Isaac Herzog, who a UN commission of enquiry found incited genocide against Palestinians, in what was described in the lead-up as the most potentially divisive state visit since the peak of the Vietnam War. [Editor’s note: the role of president in Israel is largely ceremonial and executive power is vested in the Cabinet and the Prime Minister.] The demonstrations come after Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese invited Herzog to visit, following December’s terrorist attack at Bondi Beach, during which two gunmen killed 15 people and injured 40.
To “help manage the visit safely and responsibly”, the New South Wales (NSW) government declared Herzog’s visit a major event under the Major Events Act 2009, it announced over the weekend. The declaration is usually reserved for sporting events.
On Monday afternoon Sydney time, the Palestine Action Group lost a court challenge against the special powers given to NSW police by the state government.
The extra powers allow police to order people to move on, shut certain locations and give lawful directions to prevent disruption or risk to public safety. They insisted they didn’t ban protests or marches and people could still “retain the right to express their views lawfully”. But anyone who fails to comply risks a fine of up to $5,500 or exclusion from the major event area.
Greg Barns, spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA), a not-for-profit national association of lawyers, academics and other professionals, told Index that governments in Australia had legislation allowing police to regulate protest activities which “ostensibly” seek to balance freedom of speech with community safety.
“It is highly unusual to prevent protests, or severely restrict their scope when a foreign leader visits Australia,” he said. “Famously in the 1960s there were large protests in Sydney against US President Lyndon Johnson.”
He added that because Australia didn’t protect freedom of speech in its constitution, it was easier for governments to pass legislation prohibiting protests.
According to news reports, police ordered an issue to a man in Bondi to move on, after he climbed onto an electrical box and screamed at Herzog’s motorcade. He complied with the direction. Police said two others displaying placards in Bondi were given move on orders under the Summary Offences Act, which they also obeyed.
Professor Ben Saul, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter terrorism, said on X on Monday: “Australia now has some of the democratic world’s most draconian anti-protest laws. Today a man was arrested as an ‘agitator’ simply for peacefully yelling ‘shame’ in the direction of the visiting Israeli President, on the basis it may have ‘incited’ fear”.”
Meanwhile NSW premier Chris Minns said: “This is about keeping people safe, lowering the temperature and ensuring Sydney remains calm and orderly.”
Palestine Action Group Sydney accused Minns of a “scare campaign” and said on their Facebook page that it was “absolutely lawful” for people to gather to protest, as they encouraged protesters to gather at Sydney’s Town Hall for a march.
“The streets of Sydney belong to the people, not to the head of a genocidal state,” they said.
Just a week after the Bondi attack, NSW Parliament passed The Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, which allows the state’s police commissioner or deputy commissioner with the police minister to restrict authorised assemblies in specific areas for 14 days after a terrorism declaration.
“This is designed to deter divisive, inflammatory public assemblies which put community safety and cohesion at risk in the immediate aftermath of an attack,” the NSW government said on 24 December.
After a declaration, no public assemblies are allowed in designated areas. Police can move people on if their behaviour or presence obstructs traffic or causes fear, harassment or intimidation, they said.
The notice can be extended by two-week periods for up to three months. It does not prevent quiet reflection, prayer or peaceful gatherings, the government said. However, a video has emerged of police seemingly dispersing Muslims praying during the protests.
In early February, the Public Assembly Restriction Declaration (PARD) was extended for two weeks until 17 February, restricting public assemblies in Sydney’s eastern suburbs area, which includes Bondi, and parts of the city.
Critics of the law including Greens MPs have described Minns as pro-Israel and said that it was clear he was targeting pro-Palestine protesters, including those opposing Herzog’s visit, with the moves.
An NSW parliamentary review into hate speech has also recommended the state government introduce legislation banning the phrase “globalise the intifada”.
With several days of Herzog’s visit left, it remains to be seen whether those opposing the Israeli president’s visit will have the opportunity to raise their voices, and whether they can do so safely.
15 Jan 2026 | Asia and Pacific, Australia, Europe and Central Asia, Israel, Middle East and North Africa, News, Palestine, United Kingdom
What do a book festival in Adelaide and a secondary school in Bristol have in common? Both were in the news this week after being mashed up in rows over Israel and Palestine and both for doing the same thing – cancelling speakers they’d invited. Neither organisation went looking for an argument but they found themselves at the centre of rows where reputations were trashed, as in the Australian case, and parents, students and a politician doubtless feel less safe, as in the Bristol case. Now most people looking at either of these cases will be less likely to invite controversial figures to schools – even a local MP – or to have outspoken speakers at book events.
The Adelaide Book Festival should have been a little more aware than the Bristol school that they might find themselves in a spot of bother. They invited the Palestinian Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah to appear at the festival. Abdel-Fattah is a novelist, lawyer and academic and had been asked to come and talk about her new book Discipline, published by the University of Queensland Press. The book ironically is about a journalist and academic navigating censorship in the wake of the Israel-Gaza war. In September, The Guardian in London, which has a large presence in Australia, interviewed her. The interviewer made clear that she was a controversial figure: the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship grant she had been using to create a digital archive of Arab activism had been suspended after criticism from Jewish groups. She’d made several anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist comments on social media, including saying that Zionists had “no claim or right to cultural safety”. And she’d already withdrawn from the Bendigo Writers Festival last August after a code of conduct was issued telling panellists to “avoid language or topics that could be considered inflammatory” when some 50 other authors walked out with her. Abdel-Fattah has made a point of being outspoken, and other authors had shown themselves inclined to follow her lead.
So there is no way that the Adelaide Book Festival could claim that they didn’t know. And if further proof be needed, she had spoken at the book festival two years and joined others in asking for New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to be de-platformed. He didn’t come because of “scheduling issues”. If the book festival didn’t want her to speak, they could have quietly not invited her. They obviously felt she had important things to say.
But following the murder of Jewish people celebrating Hannukah on Bondi beach, Abdel-Fattah’s remarks looked very different, or as the board wanted to “reiterate” (before they resigned) in an apology to Abdel-Fattah about the way she was disinvited, “this is not about identity or dissent but rather a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of freedom of expression in our nation following Australia’s worst terror attack in history.” Abdel-Fattah, as you might expect, has hit back accusing the board of being “disingenuous”.
The Adelaide Book Festival is now in crisis and has been cancelled. Zadie Smith and 180 other participants, including the former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the British novelist Kathy Lette, refused to appear in protest at the treatment of Abdel-Fattah. Rescinding her invitation to speak has meant the loss of an opportunity for difficult conversations about her views to be had, and a book festival brought down with it.
The Bristol Brunel Academy should not have expected to find itself in such a difficult position, because all the headteacher there had done was to invite his local MP to visit, on the topic of democracy no less. Except Damien Egan is vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel and is married to an Israeli man. The school had some unionised teachers, who told them that if Egan came they would all wear keffiyehs (Palestinian scarves) and demonstrate outside the school along with parents and members of the public. School leaders took fright and cancelled the visit at the last moment.
The visit should have gone ahead, but the safeguarding of students at schools is all important and teachers can become easily spooked. The academy trust has now said they have taken police advice, and the visit will be rebooked. The Times has run a further story saying that the same teacher group boasted about cancelling a speaker from an Israeli tech firm at the school’s summer conferences. All this is in the wider context of a bitter political fight between Labour and the Green Party in Bristol, and a direct action protest movement around the Bristol-based Israeli arms company Elbit, for which Palestine Action activists are being prosecuted for aggravated burglary among other charges.
While it is understandable that the school, in this kind of atmosphere, might want to act with caution and also that the MP might feel aggrieved (though he has said nothing so far), it’s another matter how Steve Reed, the Secretary of State for Communities, waded in. He highlighted the case at a Jewish Labour Movement conference months after the incident thus: “I have a colleague who is Jewish, who has been banned from visiting a school and refused permission to visit a school in his own constituency, in case his presence inflames the teachers”. He went on to say it was “an absolute outrage” and vowed to hold school leaders to account.
It looks at least from the outside as if Reed was playing politics with the school. As a cabinet minister he is the government not a campaigner. Why hadn’t he just reported the issue to the Department for Education and Ofsted? It might well have been a serious immediate issue, particularly for any Jewish young people at the school. But let’s assume school leaders were trying to do the right thing. They have now found themselves in the middle of a battle between politicised teaching unions (who of course have the right to protest, but also to teach young people in a non-biased way) and a senior government minister inflaming the row between the Greens and Labour in Bristol, all fought under the proxy banners of Israel and Palestine.
The protesting teachers clearly don’t want a debate; the school and Egan perhaps do. Either way the real-world losers? Free expression and the students who are seeing grown-ups trying to shut each other down rather than learning about how to debate in a democratic society on difficult issues.
If we are to have a world where free expression is to be encouraged, literary festivals and schools should be safe spaces to talk about uncomfortable ideas. Instead, they are being laid waste by those who won’t stand by decisions to invite controversial speakers when the heat is on, and others who want to make political hay at the expense of young people. All this too shuts down a proper discussion of what is actually going on in the Middle East.
