'Freedom is just another word, for nothing left to lose…' - says a very popular country music song written by Kris Kristofferson in 1969 and sampled by many performers from Janis Joplin to Kenny Rogers. However, freedom in Europe today, unlike the song 'Me and Bobby McGee', means that we have a lot lose if we do not stand up for our freedom. Especially in Hungary.

People get used to good things very fast. They do not look back to appreciate liberties like freedom of travel, freedom of the press, freedom of employment or freedom of education across Europe. People of my generation (a boomer born in the late 50s when Hungary was still in the Warsaw Pact) do remember the long road leading to present day freedom, from the fall of the Berlin wall to Hungary's accession to the EU, the family of free nations back in 2004. It took fourteen years from the fall of Communism until our country was able to join, together with Czechia, Slovakia and Poland. In my view, right now we have another fourteen years behind us, with Hungary slowly sliding backwards, falling behind, beginning with the vanguard of civil liberties and press freedom in the early nineties to today's populism, autocracy and constitutional dictatorship, which is a contradiction in itself.

The government in Budapest has almost openly declared war on common European values: its narrative calls 'Brussels' an enemy, paints the EU as the devil itself. This has been going on for almost 14 years now and demonstrates the difficulty in supporting any pro-European campaign, either from the opposition (or what is left of it) or civil society and NGOs (also what remains of them). Yet, we refuse to give up - we refuse to let European values go down the drain just because some Hungarian politicians have decided to play music composed far away, perhaps in the Kremlin.

Recent polls in Hungary still show that almost 68-70% of the voting age population supports and enjoys the benefits connected to the European Union and common European values. The big question is whether they are ready to go the polls in large numbers on 9 June 2024. In Hungary, this vote is on the same day as the municipal elections and, with discontent growing in the country, the prospects are not bad. A protest vote against the government's policies will also mean a pro-European vote.

Mihály Hardy is a Hungarian journalist, Editor-in-Chief of the Klubrádió