Kertesz: Talk of Dictatorship “Empty, Ideological”

Budapest, November 12 (MTI) – To call Hungary a dictatorship today is “empty ideological language”, Nobel-prize laureate Imre Kertesz has said.

In an interview to The Hungarian Quarterly published in April 2014 — a translation of which has recently appeared in the Hungarian press — the Hungarian author said that a journalist from the New York Times (NYT) had come to him last year “with the intention of getting me to say that Hungary is a dictatorship today which it isn’t”.

“That only means that he has no idea what a dictatorship is. If you can write, speak openly, openly disagree, even leave the country, it is absurd to speak of a dictatorship,” Kertesz said in the Quarterly’s interview.

“I am not pleased with everything happening in Hungary. I do not think there was ever a time when I was pleased with everything happening here but certainly Hungary is no dictatorship. This is empty ideological language to call Hungary a dictatorship today. And the interview was never published, which a friend of mine very accurately said is a kind of censorship.”

Photo: kotvefuzve.postr.hu

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters