The picnic by Matthew Longo

The picnic by Matthew Longo – an escape to freedom and the collapse of the Iron Curtain – was a book I wanted to read because of the great reviews it received and a book I found lacking in analysis. Also, he mentioned Hannah Arendt so many times that it got annoying. Although, I would have given the book 3-4 stars if it wasn’t for the poorly presented situation in Romania. For example, he wrote in the same paragraph that the Austro-Hungarian Empire lost territory to Romania at the Treaty of Trianon. Right… maybe on those territories in Transylvania there were a few Romanians too, under Hungarian rule because that’s what an empire does?

He also mentioned that Hungarians trying to flee communist Romania were shot by Romanian border guards. He failed to mentioned that Romanians trying to flee communist Romania were also shot by Romanian border guards. It was not about ethnic conflict, but a brutal dictatorship. There are many graves on the Serbian shore of Danube of Romanians who were shot in the back while they were trying to swim across the river. Framing it as if Romanian guards were only attacking Hungarians trying to escape the regime creates a distorted image.

Keeping this line of thought, he failed to mention that Romanians were the only ones to execute their leader, so much for “only the Hungarians were suffering in Romania”. He mentioned that the Hungarians are “the only country that border themselves”. Really? The Hungarian minority close to the border with Hungary is about 20%. The place where they are a majority is in the middle of Romania and not on the border… or the author thinks that Hungary should get about 30% of Romania so their Hungarians can live in peace. It’s something that Orban wants, with his scarf with the “greater Hungary”, the totally-not-an-empire scarf.

Longo is happy to say that Austria and Germany are now as one under EU, but it seems that Hungary really really needs their borders enlarged, otherwise, the Hungarians and the Hungarian minority from Romania are too separated, despite being both in EU. Also, Hungary was betrayed by the EU because they don’t have Hungarian-owned supermarkets (that’s what he said in the book, it’s just bonkers). This happened in ALL former communist countries. Let’s see, Poland has a higher average wage than Hungary, Romania and Hungary have the same wage. In 2003 though, Hungary’s average wage was 2.8 times higher than the one in Romania and higher than the ones Poles earned. That’s down to Orban and the choices the Hungarians made, it’s not EU.
In 2003, before Hungary joined EU, it had a higher salary than Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia. Now it is under all these countries. All countries are within EU. Romania joined 3 years later, it’s not in Schengen, and it had limitations on freedom to work for another 4 years… and it still managed to bridge the gap to Hungary.

Besides that, the story of the picnic/escape is interesting, but, if you get the book, keep in mind that this is told from the perspective of Hungarians who were, as mentioned above, part of an Empire. As all empires, they were not happy to contain themselves within their borders.

The picnic, which is the title of the book and why I borrowed this book from the library in the first place, was an event organised in August 1989 by Hungarian activists who entered the forbidden militarised zone to have a picnic. This led to thousands of people from East Germany to go to the border between Hungary and Austria “on holiday”. Hundreds of them fled the communist east towards the freedom of the west.

The picnic by Matthew Longo

Details about the picture: –
My rating: 2/5 Stars
Would I recommend it: no
Published by: The Bodley Head
Year it was published: 2024
Format: Hardcover
Genre(s): History of modern Europe
Pages: 320

About the author: Matthew Longo is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Leiden University, where he teaches political theory. His work focuses on problems of borders and migration, with a thematic interest in questions of sovereignty, authority and freedom. He also runs an annual conference on the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt.
He is the author of two books, The Picnic: A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain (W.W. Norton, 2024), which won the 2024 Orwell Prize for Political Writing, and The Politics of Borders: Sovereignty, Security, and the Citizen after 9/11 (Cambridge University Press, 2018), which won the 2018 Charles Taylor Book Award (APSA).
Website & Social Media Links: –