24 February 2013
For some time now, the political opposition in Hungary has resembled a skydiver without a parachute. This week, however, the harsh reality of an uncomfortable landing began to hit home.
The LMP has disintegrated and no longer exists. Its MPs, none of them directly elected in a vote, sit aimlessly wondering what next. For the people who sold you the myth that politics could be different, this was as ignoble as it was humiliating. The truth is they were not different – not even marginally different or better then their political predecessors. In fact they were woeful from their leadership down to their rank and file. What an abuse of trust in such a short space of time.
Next we have former Prime Minister Gyurcsány threatening all sorts of legal retribution against any member of the Prosecutor’s Office who had been involved in the state investigation into his abuse of power. I am not sure what is worse, this anti-democratic threat or the fact that he actually thinks he will return to power. Has he never heard of the rule of law or is he suggesting that he is above the law? Either way, surely Hungary’s voters deserve better?
It is also interesting to note that Gyurcsány also believes that the main opposition, the MSZP cannot defeat the incumbent, Viktor Orbán. I wonder how Attilla Mesterházy is reacting to this vote of confidence?
Actually, the Socialists must be familiar by now with the constant dismissal of their chances of victory at the next election. Perhaps its just me but I have a sneaking suspicion that the Socialists hired Ron Werber not to oust Fidesz but to ensure that the MSZP remain the main opposition party in 2014, by then affording time for the Socialists to rid themselves of all remaining vestiges of their tainted past. Have you heard the MSZP say anything of policy, of aspiration or vision? Nothing! They have nothing to say. Their battles lie internally and with the shadows of the past and externally with their former Prime Ministers and the party that became home for many socialists, Jobbik.
Turning to Gordon Bajnai, we are now becoming more familiar with his technocrat solutions to changing Hungary’s fortunes, namely going back to the future. Hungary – in his view – needs austerity, needs higher taxes, it needs accommodation with the banks and submission to the IMF. Sounds familiar?
With the recent opinion polls suggesting that Bajnai is losing what little support he had, his ‘credibility’ seriously undermined and his challenges to Prime Minister Orbán for a public debate becoming more ludicrous by the minute, I say again that Hungary deserves better.
The reality is that Hungary’s political opposition do not deserve power.
The reality is that Hungary is a country with insufficient work for its population and insufficient taxes to maintain public services without serious and imaginative stimulus. In a dysfunctional Europe with its dysfunctional monetary policy and an international financial system held hostage by serious banking failure and not an insignificant element of irregularity within it, how can Hungary realistically contemplate more austerity?
Fidesz might not have all the answers – indeed I am convinced they do not – but who does? Certainly not the opposition. Viktor Orbán is rightly suspicious of liberal utopias and the myth of progress. Perhaps his policy of improvement, not progress, should be given time to run its course – after all, it was orthodoxy, incompetence and deceit that brought Hungary to its knees in 2010. Back to the future is not a credible option!