Next Question
Fourteen years of life in Hungary—and the question I may finally stop answering.
For the last 14 years that I’ve been going to Budapest and establishing permanent residency in Hungary, people keep asking me a single question: How can you plan your life in a country that has a leader like Viktor Orbán?
Even in from 2017 through 2021, and again from 2025 through today people would ask that same question. I’d give them a look suggesting they look in our own collective American backyard. They’d shake their heads, then press harder.
Today is the first day I don’t have to answer that question. My iMessage and DMs were full this weekend of people asking what a win by the newly formed TISZA party (a portmanteau of TIsztelet (respect) and SZAbadság (freedom)) would mean for Hungary.
Let me answer that last question first.
For all of its faults, Hungary has been a haven for me. I can walk around mentally free from gun violence, from fear that my black son will be targeted and killed by police, from people treating me poorly based upon my skin color, from fear that a medical emergency will bankrupt me.
It’s not all about the negative.
There have been positives as well. I get to live in a late nineteenth century building. As a lover of old buildings, it’s truly a dream come true. I get to have fresh, organic food for a fraction of the price of the same here in Los Angeles. I get to buy cosmetics free from many chemicals known to harm humans. I can live a car free lifestyle without having to live in the single American city that makes that realistically possible (even if that’s the city of my birth).
All that said, I don’t know what the future holds for Hungary. Péter Magyar ran without offering detailed positions on many major issues—a strategy that avoided early pigeonholing and broadened his appeal. It was a brilliantly calculated strategy to avoid being pigeonholed, then dismissed by voters.
But I’ve found that people, voters have a habit of projecting their values on politicians and elected officials. People did it with Barack Obama, only to be disappointed when he opposed same sex marriage, or when his administration accepted the moral hazard of rescuing banks while dismissing similar arguments for relieving borrowers trapped in predatory loans.
In the short term, I hope this man who has been described as self-involved, and short-tempered will stop blocking money from flowing to cities, and will work with the European Union to benefit Hungary and the greater bloc.
I’m not a prognosticator. Only time will tell.
If you’d like to read more about my experiences in Hungary over the past decade, my essay “The Mistakes That Made Us Local: Missed Ferries, Wrong Platforms, and the Kindness That Got Us Home,” will appear in the forthcoming anthology Narratives of Hungary, published by the Panel Literature Association. More information is available here.
Aime Austin is the author of the Casey Cort and Nicole Long legal thriller series, weaving sharp social commentary into gripping crime fiction. Born in Brooklyn, Aime graduated from Smith College and Cornell Law School before practicing family and criminal law in Cleveland, Ohio. She now splits her time between Los Angeles and Budapest, writing thrillers, hosting the podcast A Time to Thrill, and interviewing brilliant women creators. When she’s not chasing down a plot twist, you’ll find her in a yoga pose, with knitting needles in hand, or lost in a good book. Aime is a 2025 recipient of the Mystery Writers of America Barbara Neely Scholarship.