“Dear employees, we advise you to demonstrate for the government”

Yet again, a true gem. 

CBA is a household name in Hungary; it is a huge food retail chain with the largest network of stores. Also, it is known that the persons behind the company have been early and ardent supporters of Fidesz and Viktor Orban.

Orban’s government has not been unthankful; with a number of measures it ensured CBA's swift growth and weakened its competitors. To name just one issue from a long list, the punitive sectoral special tax on retail companies was designed so as to exclude CBA and instead hit the likes of Auchan, Tesco and Spar.  

But CBA knows money is not the only way it can support the government. And hence a cute little letter, published today by Hungarian media, was sent to all CBA store managers for dissemination to all employees.

In essence it called for participation on the October 23rd ‘peace march’, periodical grand demonstrations designed to show the mass support behind the government to the world.

The letter, signed by the owners of CBA and sent to store managers reads like this (admittedly my humble English cannot nearly deliver the sheer beauty of the Hungarian original, but I'll give it a try) :

‘László Baldauf and Vilmost Lázár {the owners of CBA} have an appeal of private nature to make to the members of our alliance system, the members of the grand, supportive CBA-family.   

On October 23rd we commemorate the heros and martirs of the 1956 revolution. However this celebration also presents a good opportunity to show the support for our national government. Affirmation and sticking-together is important, given that only by uniting we are able to limit and counter the ugly jiggery-pokery of postcommunist, liberal thugs who are again and again traitors to our country, serving the interests of multinationals, thereby sacrificing the Hungarian peoples’ well-being and development.

All who care for our nation’s strengthening and systematic and even development are called upon to come and participate together on the peace march and then listen to the Prime Minister’s {capital letters in the original] speech.  It is important that all of us, national-minded true patriots support our Hungarian politician of greatest format, our nation’s prime minister, Viktor Orban.

[Information on timing and route of peace march]

We ask upon the store managers to inform all employees on this letter and its important contents.’

By the way, there’s a continuous dispute among Hungarian intellectuals whether there is dictatorship in Hungary or not. The overwhelming majority is of the opinion, that there’s no (not yet a) dictatorship.