The verdict of the Budapest court on German left-wing extremist Simeon T., who publicly presents himself under the name "Maja" and identifies as non-binary, has revealed one of the darkest maladies of contemporary European politics: the ability of ideology to drown out the truth, overshadow victims, and turn violence into a moral stance.
The individual in question was sentenced to eight years in prison for grievous bodily harm and membership in a criminal group. A group of radicals traveled with him to Budapest and attacked people identified as political opponents.
However, the court's verdict is not a verdict on "identity" but on the act itself. On brutality. On a coordinated attack on people who were selected as political opponents.
No sooner had the judge finished speaking than a wave of solidarity swept across Europe. Paradoxically, not with the victims, not with the injured, but with the perpetrator.
Violence is not activism
The facts are simple. In February 2023, he arrived in Budapest with the intention of attacking. Not to discuss. Not to protest. Not to express an opinion, but to beat people up.
Nine people were injured. Four seriously. Telescopic batons, rubber hammers, spray cans. Attacks from ambush, on the street, on people who fell to the ground and were further kicked and beaten. This is not "anti-fascism." This is street terror, more reminiscent of Gestapo practices than the actions of progressive "fighters for democracy."
Here is the first big problem: the European left today often uses the word "anti-fascism" as a magic formula to justify anything. As if it were enough to put the right label on violence and the blood on the sidewalk would turn into "resistance."
But evil cannot be sanctified with the right slogan. Violence remains violence, even if it is committed under a rainbow flag.
A martyr without victims
The most frightening thing about this whole affair is not the act itself, but the reaction to it.
Suddenly, slogans such as "siamo tutti Maja T." (we are all Maja T.) are being heard in Brussels. No, we are not. We are not all people who travel to foreign countries to brutally beat people up.
This is a moral revolution in real time. Good is beginning to be called evil, and evil, on the contrary, good.
Solidarity has shifted from the victims to the perpetrator. What is even worse, the very identity of the convicted person has become a shield. The media and politicians repeat it as if it were the essence of the case. However, this is far from the truth.
The essence is that the man was part of a criminal group that attacked others.
When identity is used as a protective shield against responsibility, society falls into a state of moral chaos. People are worthy of dignity, but at the same time, every person is responsible for their actions.
Orbán as a universal excuse
This is followed by another framework and accusations against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of repression, authoritarianism, and a political trial against the convicted man.
They take the case to an absurd level, in which the Hungarian court did not convict a violent criminal, but a "political dissident." It's a cheap game. Orbán can be criticized for many things, but in this case, it is a simple matter of the rule of law and the proper functioning of the judiciary.
Interestingly, the court did not even grant the prosecutor's request for 24 years. It gave the attacker only eight. This does not fit very well with the image of a "dictatorship." But propaganda does not need facts; propaganda needs a story.
This is modern ideological liturgy.
The obstacle of the big story
Ultimately, we can see once again that ideology has become an idol. Not God, not truth, not justice, but a manifesto of progressive superiority and a patent on the only correct opinion unfortunately shapes the public's view of this case.
When the right commits a crime, the left cries out (often justifiably). When the left commits a crime, suddenly people look for context, explanations, psychologizing, identity, and political framework. This is not justice. This is tribal blindness.
This trend is also dangerously spreading to Slovakia. Here, too, an atmosphere is beginning to develop in which the act itself is no longer important and labels are decisive. Those who are "right" are forgiven. Those who are "wrong" must be destroyed. Ideological marketing is replacing justice.
In this atmosphere, the real victims are lost. The injured in Budapest do not have rainbow campaigns, they do not have MEPs shouting "we are all them." They are just beaten bodies on the ground that get in the way of the "big" story.
We must stand on the side of the victims, not on the side of romanticized violence.
The truth is harsh, but liberating
The case of Simeon T. is not a story about non-binary identity. It is not a story about a "political trial." It is a story about how a group of radicals went to physically destroy people with different opinions, and the court subsequently gave space to justice.
Everything else is ideological fog.
This fog is dangerous because it teaches society that violence is forgivable if it is properly explained. That the perpetrator can be a martyr if they have the right label. That victims are secondary if they don't fit into the narrative.
Evil is evil, even if it has a nice or catchy slogan. Violence is violence, even if it has the "right" ideology.
Justice begins when we stop bowing to tribal loyalty and return to the truth. Europe does not need more political martyrs from the ranks of extremists. Europe needs a return to reason, responsibility, and morality that does not apply double standards.