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According to the French revolutionary Robespierre, "If the mainspring of popular government in peacetime is virtue, the mainspring of popular government in revolution is both virtue and terror: virtue, without which terror is disastrous; terror, without which virtue is powerless' (Žižek 2007, viii). The Fidesz revolution was called the "revolution of ballot boxes' and was in effect since the April 2010 general election. The period since then has been one of the juxtaposition of virtue and terror. In the words of Orbán, the constitutional revolution of Fidesz is a citizen/bourgeois revolution; not a bloody one like the Bolshevik Revolution, but aimed at ensuring that revolutionary morale be anchored in Hungarian democracy (Speech at Kötcse Civic Picnic May 30, 2010). In an assertive and defiant manner, Fidesz literally made even its own constitution to generate Hungary that the right wing has craved for decades. Simultaneously, Fidesz commenced a revolutionary economic transformation to beat the two inherent problems of Hungarian economy, that is, high debt and unemployment. Therefore, as this chapter depicts, the conservative reaction came out to disparage the wrongdoings of liberalization with a newly acquired virtue and to terrorize its foes.

DOI: 10.1057/9781137075673_6

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