Pilis, a town of 12,000 inhabitants an hour from Budapest, resembles many other towns in the Hungarian countryside. A shopping centre with ABCs, the grocery stores where you can find everything. A Kossuth Road, a key figure in the 1848-1849 uprising against the Habsburgs, crossed by the national highway. A street and even a small park named after Petofi, the iconic 19th-century poet. A monument to the Treaty of Trianon, which dismembered Hungary after the First World War and permeated the national narrative.
But since September 1st, Pilis has stood out by implementing radical measures to prevent settlements deemed undesirable. The far-right municipality, which came to power last fall, is closing the town to criminals, drug users or dealers, people without employment or social security for more than a year, applicants who do not speak or understand Hungarian, and business owners with tax arrears or those under bailiff proceedings.
Roma, of course will fall under some of those categories, whether true or not …
- En Hongrie, une ville fermée aux «indésirables». In: Le Temps. 07.09.2025. https://www.letemps.ch/monde/europe/en-hongrie-une-ville-fermee-aux-indesirables
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