The New Geography of Eastern Europe
In December 2019, the mayors of Budapest, Bratislava, Prague, and Warsaw—all of them at odds with their countries’ populist governments— signed a pro- Euro - pean declaration called the “Pact of Free Cities.” Claiming that their capitals are “free cities,” these four mayors bypass the political programs of their nations’ rulers. They commit to “protecting and promoting [their] common values of freedom, human dignity, democracy, equality, rule of law, social justice, tolerance and cultural diversity.” 1
This initiative is provocative because the national governments of Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and the Czech Republic are critical of the European Union and aggressively oppose its relocation system for immigrants and refugees. Originally, this group of countries, known as the Visegrád Group, was created after the Cold War to promote these four states as candidates for membership of NATO and the European Union. Today, however, the national governments act as an illiberal solidarity group, jointly facing down threats and reprimands from Brussels. The governments of Poland and Hungary have described themselves as “illiberal democracies” that turn away from the liberalism and “open society” that they see represented by Western European nations.
THE CELEBRATION OF FREEDOM
The question I ask is whether it is possible for cities officially to go against the political commitments of their rulers. If Central Europe becomes, as Hungarian president Viktor Orbán has repeatedly demanded, a bastion of traditional and conservative values, can “free capitals” of Central Europe sustain a political counterideology?
The four mayors represent a young liberal urban population or perhaps even a bohemian urban elite. The independent mayor of Bratislava Matúš Vallo ( age 42) is an architect and leader of the popular rock band Para (Steam), known for its “unrestrained live performances.” As a Fulbright scholar Vallo had worked at Columbia University on a project called “City Interventions.” Prague’s mayor, Zdeněk Hřib ( age 38), is from the Pirate Party, which was founded in 2009 as a student-driven grassroots movement. Budapest’s Gergely Karácsony (age 44) is a Green politician and a former lecturer of political science. Warsaw’s Rafał Trzaskowski (age 48) is a former simultaneous interpreter and son of the famous jazz pianist Andrzej Trzaskowski.
The idea of the “free city” that the four mayors’ pact announces arises against the backdrop of a gap between urban and rural political cultures. “Free cities” are reminiscent of “freie Städte” thriving mainly in Germanspeaking regions between roughly 1400 and 1700 but extant until the nineteenth century. Those cities were autonomous communities not submitted to a territorial prince such as a baron, duke, margrave, or count.
Some of these cities became free because dominant families had become extinct. Others became so because rich families used their wealth to win the right to self-government from the barons. However, those cities were not really free but were usually subordinate to the Holy Roman Emperor, to whom they paid taxes directly. They also had to provide men for the Imperial army when required.
Free cities had their own jurisdiction, could wage war, and control their trade. For wars they sometimes employed professional mercenaries. Growing economic power had led to political independence, and “the medieval towns became islands of freedom in a sea of feudal obligation.”
The tolerant and open medieval city has some foundation in reality. If a serf escaped to a free city and managed to survive there a year and a day, he could become officially a “free man.”
However, the concept of freedom should not be exaggerated. Especially in Eastern Europe, cities owed their growth to immigrant artisans and merchants as well as to immigrant scholars. After the passing of the Tatar and Mongol invasions, urban colonization flourished, but the local populations lacked skills. Foreigners of various nationalities filled the gaps, and immigrants became the source of wealth and culture. Some of those cities also accepted refugees fleeing religious persecution. In this sense, free cities were indeed islands of toleration and openness. 5
In another sense, those cities were the opposite of open because they isolated themselves from the surrounding political sphere and functioned like self-enclosed organisms. All aspects of life (politics, business, culture, and religion) were organized by guilds and churches.
In some cities even brothels were under municipal protection and the prostitutes were managed by guilds. 6 The closed organic unity of social order was only broken with the advent of the nation state and industrialization. Then, in the words of Lewis Mumford, the city became “a battleground for conflicting cultures.” 7
The association of “free” with “open” emerged at a much later age. In the 1950s, Berlin was called a “free city” in the sense of an “international city.” However, it was not free but rather the epicentre of the Cold War. The sovereignty of other international cities is limited by the requirements of international organizations. At one time, the Polish city of Gdansk had a similarly international status because its integration into Poland was difficult. As a result, Gdansk was submitted to the League of Nations.
THE EMPEROR AND EU
Absolute freedom is impossible but sometimes one can choose to whom one wants to submit. The free cities of the Middle Ages chose to respond to the Emperor, and free international cities usually also respond to international institutions. At present, the four Central European mayors have chosen to respond to the European Union rather than to their own governments. That the European Union is more progressive, tolerant and liberal is a coincidence; it bears no logical link with the fact that the cities choose to align with them rather than with their national governments.
Mayor Karácsony has asked European city-level subventions to be directly allocated to municipal budgets. If this is accepted, the subventions can no longer be controlled by the Hungarian ruling parties, which is important given that the government has been accused of corruption and politicized disbursals of EU funds. The four mayors also push for direct European funding for fighting the climate emergency. Because climate does not stop at the borders of cities, the mayors become much more than mere administrators of their cities. The self-confidence gained through the recent wins on the city level even has an impact on international relations. While the Visegrád Group’s national governments seek closer ties with Russia and China, Prague mayor Hřib rebuked, in a provocative move, the Chinese ambassador during a meeting with foreign diplomats in 2018 when the latter asked him to expel the representative of Taiwan. 8 Hřib also criticized a clause of the sister city agreement between Prague
The tolerant and open medieval city has some foundation in reality