CSU and Orban

Seeing things in black and white is great because it is easy to discern the difference between them. Germany's media agrees: Black stands for Viktor Orban, meaning evil, because he is having fences built on Hungary's borders. Although, it should be noted that refugees crowding into his country are treated in accordance with European laws, which means they are illegal immigrants.

Long live the bogeyman

The CSU, the Bavarian sister party of Merkel's CDU, can also be painted black, which is the traditional party color of the Christian conservatives in Germany. But also, the CSU often sets goals that Germany's journalists do not like. That's another reason why the CSU is evil. The term 'conservative journalist' can almost be referred to as an oxymoron in Germany. The CSU has ruled Bavaria with an absolute majority for decades and economically, Bavaria is the most successful state in Germany – these are mysteries still waiting to be unraveled by the country's journalists.

Now what if the evil CSU invites the evil Viktor Orban to attend a conference? Wicked – as a matter of fact, Orban's visit is so bad that the secretary general of the social democrat party (SPD) had the nerve to warn Angel Merkel publicly that her sister party CSU was backstabbing her.

Of course, people must demonstrate against such evil so the left-leaning parties - greens, social democrats and the far-left party - show up at the conference venue, but not quite on time. When Anton Hofreiter, the parliamentary leader of the Green party, arrived yet another half hour later, he was allowed to express his contempt for Orban and the CSU to any journalist who held a microphone in front of him.

Viktor Orban is not alone

The people in the leftist camp, equipped with banners and whistles, stood next to just as many people wearing t-shirts with "Thank-you Viktor" written on them, but the mixed crowd was barely mentioned in German media. Furthermore, the situation supports survey results presented by the CSU at its party meeting: two-thirds of Bavarians are in favor of measures that limit the influx of refugees. And 51 percent of the population is concerned about the developments in the past few weeks and expects politicians to respond to the concerns.

Of course, neither Viktor Orban nor the CSU has put forth a coherent plan to limit immigration to Europe. Aid for the people in the camps in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon, contact points for refugees at the external EU borders - all of these measures have long been debated in Brussels to no avail.

Orban and the CSU are united in their desire to choose who will be received and given aid. This sounds trite and obvious, but given a large number of people flocking to central Europe, it is no longer possible to do so. Orban and the CSU share the view that the signals sent out by the federal government, especially by Chancellor Angela Merkel, encourage even more people to travel to Europe. Orban calls Germany's policy "moral imperialism" – dictating what is human and, therefore, right and proper. And CSU chief Horst Seehofer smiles whenever Orban says things like that.

The difference between talk and action

The German media usually winces when foreigners accuse Germany of imperialism. In the case of Viktor Orban and the CSU, reactions had been cool and confident as they once were when East Germany or other communist states made accusations of imperialistic behavior. But now, anyone who thinks Orban and the CSU are impossible should keep a couple of things in mind.

First of all, Hungary has already received significantly more refugees per capita than Germany. Secondly, aside from help provided by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria is the German state that must cope with the huge crowds of refugees alone, because refugees traveling through the Balkans arrive in Bavaria. Until now, everything has been going very well thanks to perfectly run public agencies and extremely helpful citizens. Other large German states - such as the Baden-Württemberg, which is ruled by the Green party - refused to accept refugees from Munich only after a few days. What does one learn from this situation? There is a world of difference between politicians' statements and their actions – in the positive and negative sense.

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