Hungary’s historic movement for change ‘grew out of community connections’
Tamás Scsaurszki, one of our international guests at the National Community Foundations Forum, shared the powerful story of how Péter Magyar’s landslide win over Viktor Orbán came after he spent two years visiting hundreds of communities in rural Hungary holding ‘talking groups’ about civic matters.
Tamás said that the vast network of local meetings – or talking groups – that emerged offers insights into how community foundations can play a role in strengthening civic engagement in Australia.
Tamás, a member of the Global Fund for Community Foundations board who founded Hungary’s first community foundation, spoke on a panel in May exploring how communities across Australia and the world are taking the lead during an era of uncertainty.
After calling for greater transparency on political issues, said Tamás, Magyar lost his former government position and became the target of personal attacks – a fate that has historically sidelined dissenting insiders in Hungary’s political system.
“But instead of retreating, Magyar took an unconventional path. He embarked on a nationwide tour of rural Hungary, visiting around 800 small towns and communities over two years – often returning to the same places multiple times.”
The gatherings were modest at first – sometimes just a dozen people – and carried the risk of job losses and social exclusion as speaking publicly was seen as defiance. Yet these gatherings proved transformative, said Tamás. Participants began to connect with one another, discovering that their concerns were shared by neighbours.
Tamás said that community foundations supported the groups in some areas by providing meeting space and the legal vehicle to collect donations to support communities in need. Often local board members were involved and took insights on what the community wanted back to their foundation.
“As trust grew, so did their sense of collective agency. Local groups formed, not as political party champions, but as independent civic circles focused on discussion and information-sharing about how they wanted their community to be as well as platform for local action,” said Tamás.
He said the groups focused on improving state functioning in relation to good-quality education, public transport and healthcare, for example. “The issues that affect the whole of society, not just the privileged few. There was also an intention to counter polarisation and end notions of the capital against countryside, rich against poor.”
The groups continued to meet regularly. Crucially, they developed a sense of critical thinking around civic issues, said Tamás. “Educating people from the top-down doesn’t work. We have to facilitate and support people to come together around ideas.
“The movement that came out of these meetings gives us a task for the next few years to keep the momentum going, to keep people engaged in public issues around the development of their communities. To keep people developing critical thinking and resistance to populism. I can see a role for community foundations there.”
Touching on the diminished influence of media to hold society to account, “we have to do it at the community level, in person, where there are individual groups and human relations,” said Tamás.
“Holding these conversations, listening to each other, accepting and recognising somebody else’s need, somebody else’s pain, somebody else’s point of view, and then, looking for solutions together that are inclusive not exclusive is an important role that community foundations can play.
“Most everybody is a change-maker. Look for leaders in small communities. It feels positive in Hungary now, a new era. The space is open, the space is big and community foundations have enduring credibility in their communities.”
Tamás also reflected on what he’s seen in the Australian community foundation movement while attending the Forum. “The most impressive point for me is seeing the message that it’s not all about money. That community foundations here are focused on relationships and creating a just and good society. The human relationships are so, so important, especially considering the vastness of the country. That’s something that’s relevant for many parts of the world.
“It’s also stayed with me how many community foundations started because of a bushfire or natural catastrophe. Seeing people’s response to something bad grow into something positive and lasting is very special,” said Tamás.
The movement in Hungary grew apparently to2,500 local groups within 18 months and went on to coalesce behind Magyar when he ran for the election. His majority of 141 seats in 199 was one of the most significant campaign outcomes in Hungary’s modern history.
The significance of the local meetings, said Tamás, is that now scores of Hungarians feel a sense of ownership in the process, having actively contributed to a dramatic new course for the country. It highlights how decentralised networks can complement and even reshape traditional structures.
“Imagine the pride of that local leader who contributed to a change that you heard about in Australia, 15,000km away,” said Tamás.
“We can get caught up in structures, but having trust and relationships, the kind of human-to-human connection that can really only occur when we have the opportunity to speak, when we have the opportunity to be face to face, is so very, very important.”