While Hungarians in Hungary often tend to look with pity upon their ethnic kin in neighboring Slovakia, the ceaseless political crises in Hungary now seem to have left some of these “stranded” Magyars sounding like they feel equally sorry for their cousins down here. Case in point is a piece published last week in the Hungarian-language daily Új Szó, which highlighted the extend to which politics in Hungary is based on lies.
The article, which we got wind of via Gazdasági Rádió (for obvious reasons, it got a fair amount of attention in the local media here) bemoaned the extent to which Hungary’s political parties feel they have to lie about their plans, the situation in the country and what the consequences of postponing urgent reforms are.
While saying that it is difficult to predict what the outcome of all this lying will be, the paper says “it seems that the current situation might last longer than we would think,” adding that Hungarian politics have been “absurd” for several years, and that is shocking that it always seems to be able for the debate to sink ever lower.
Új Szó points out that after the split of the governing coalition, the Socialists immediately revoked the health care reforms that it had celebrated as a huge success just a few months earlier. Meanwhile, the Fidesz-led opposition labels every attempt at reforms as a betrayal of the nation, even though his party has secretly developed policies that are similar to those of the Socialists. “As opposed to its official rhetoric, Fidesz would introduce austerity measures, halt government investments and freeze pensions once in power,” the daily says, adding that these measures should be welcomed in a country where the situation is what is in Hungary currently.
However, the paper notes, “things like these cannot be discussed openly around there, only at closed meetings,” referring to Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány’s famed 2006 speech, in which he admitted to his party’s failure to enact needed reform.
The paper also calls attention to the curious situation in which “the MSZP and Fidesz have swapped roles,” with the once business-minded MSZP is now turning its back on reforms, and criticizing Fidesz for its “secret” reform plans.
