“Toppling the (barrage)system”

Visegrad Lecture Series

Toppling the (barrage)system” - Symbolism and strategy in the Hungarian Danube movement of the 1980s

by Edit Király, Eötvös Loránd University

As a reaction to neglected environmental problems environmentalist movements emerged in various Eastern block countries by the late 1980s. In Hungary, the construction of the Gabčikovo-Nagymaros barrage system and its perceived danger to water supplies and the living environment became a particularly hot issue. What was unique about the Danube movement and its protest against the power plant, was the central political significance it acquired in the endgame of the socialist system.

The issue of the dam became a rallying point for opponents of the regime. Due to their increasing political importance the construction works were suspended in May 1989 by the socialist government, but surprisingly the popular appeal of the issue did not play out in form of a strong Green Party after the fall of Communism. Instead, participants of the movement were partly syphoned off by the newly formed parties and green issues became marginal in the 1990s.

In her presentation Edit Király discusses the peculiar and sometimes diffuse political profile of this environmental movement and attempts to link its succes to the symbolic meanings of the river. Using archival material from the Archivum, she focuses on the significance of intellectual networks, in particular the connections between scientists and writers for the movement.