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At a Budapest book fair, certain books on display were wrapped in plastic — as if the Iron Curtain was back, and we were all behind it again

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Orbán's Budapest is decaying, literally and metaphorically

At a book fair in Budapest at the end of September, a woman bought the Hungarian edition of my book comparing the European Union with the Habsburg Empire.

She asked me to dedicate it for her son. He was still at school, she said, but graduating he wants to study somewhere in western Europe and then "work for Europe". The more prime minister Viktor Orbán vilifies the EU, she added, the more the boy wants to "work for Europe".

I ...

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The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s, not those of EUobserver

Author Bio

Caroline de Gruyter is a Europe correspondent and columnist for the Dutch newspaper NRC. She is also a columnist for Foreign Policy and De Standaard. This piece is adapted from a column in NRC .

At a Budapest book fair, certain books on display were wrapped in plastic — as if the Iron Curtain was back, and we were all behind it again

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Author Bio

Caroline de Gruyter is a Europe correspondent and columnist for the Dutch newspaper NRC. She is also a columnist for Foreign Policy and De Standaard. This piece is adapted from a column in NRC .

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