Peter Kreko

Orban's foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, the most vocal critic of the EU, is also full of praise. He sees the Turkic states, whose energy ministers he recently hosted in Budapest, as offering "more than a pure energy friendship".

Currently, Hungary has enough vaccines for just 35,000 people, but according to the government it has secured 17 million doses overall, 4.4 million of that from the first-approved vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech.

But analysts say "Trianon Syndrome" is also useful for nationalist-populists keen to portray themselves as protectors of the nation. And few do that better than the ruling Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

In this modified history, critics say Orban has cast himself as saviour of a pure nation steeped in Christian values but besieged by external threats: migrants, Muslims, liberal ideologues.

For the story to be believable, academic, educational and cultural institutions have to play along.