16 August 2012
Hungary woke up this morning to the news that Gordon Bajnai’s own Foundation has completed a study on how to win the next election. Would it have reported it was not possible? I don’t think so. That is not the kind of objectivity you get when you buy your own think tank. However, it will be interesting to see how the Hungarian media reacts to this report and more importantly, how it will perceive this in the light of Mr. Bajnai’s political ambitions.
From where I look, this is simply another attempt by a political opportunist to seek power. It says little to nothing on the question of the future political direction of Hungary but a lot on the manoeuvring of those who seek influence. Indeed, if we look at the case of Gordon Bajnai, we can clearly see that Hungary has yet to reach a decent level of political maturity twenty years after the demise of the communist system.
Mr. Bajnai’s public career – both as an entrepreneur and politician – has been tinged with gross mismanagement and failure. By his own admission, his involvement in the animal husbandry sector was an abject failure. He lacked business acumen and his corporate policy decisions led to the demise of a hitherto going commercial concern. Indeed, it has been claimed by some of the victims – the commercial collateral of his decision-making – that personal greed and his linkage to dubious financial schemes contributed to their predicament.
In politics, Bajnai has tried to portray himself as a steady and reliable technocrat, much admired and respected by the international banking and financial system and the EU. Yet when you look closely at this claim, you can see that the veneer of competence is a chimera. Let the facts speak.
Mr.Bajnai has never been elected to any political office. He was a minister in a government that led Hungary to economic penury and many of his decisions contributed to this state of affairs. He became and remained a minister in a government which presided over unheard of limits of public corruption and was a minister in a government which – according the former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány – lied day and night to the people of Hungary. Whether he cares to remember this or not, Gordon Bajnai was a part of that failure and embarrassment and his role should not escape media and public scrutiny.
As an unelected Prime Minister, Bajnai and his supporters frequently peddle the line that he was the man who stabilised the economic situation in Hungary. In fact he contributed to the blocking of the democratic will which wanted to hold the Socialist and Liberal Government of 2006 to account. Like Lajos Bokros before him, Bajnai and his finance minister Péter Oszkó were more than capable of making budget cuts demanded by the IMF and EU. Where was the economic growth? There was none. In fact Bajnai and Oszkó between them managed to implement policies which eventually led to the demise and fall of MALÉV. The election of 2010 confirmed once more that Gordon Bajnai was a political and public failure.
Now, he teases Hungarians concerning his political intentions for the next election – will he, won’t he they ask. Actually what the media and the Hungarian public should be asking is what does he stand for? Talking up alliances one day with the Socialists and LMP the next does not represent a coherent political philosophy. Supporting Foundations to analyse how to win elections is not the same as a comprehensive analysis of how to run a country.
This absence of substance is actually a failure to find meaning. Too many of Hungary’s politicians, across all parties, have no meaning but self-promotion and personal development. Politics is a platform for personal advancement and in some cases, access to wealth and influence. Bajnai typifies the new breed of Hungarian politician but the people still have the right to ask about the meaning and in particular what it would mean for Hungary if Gordon Bajnai returned to political power.