Free Democrat chairman Gábor Fodor will offer his resignation at a specially summoned meeting of the party executive today, as the election result is a disaster for the party, he announced Sunday night.
“Voters have punished us, and this must be acknowledged,” he said, adding that the causes must be analysed.
Fodor described the surge of the far right as an extremely sad phenomenon, adding that the liberal ideas espoused by the Free Democrats are needed all the more as a consequence.
The voters have passed a verdict on the coalition policy of the past few years, and the result must be acknowledged as a warning, he observed.
“the causes must be analysed”
Could it possibly be continued support of a massively unpopular Socialist government?
@Zoltan: Actually, I’d say that only explains part of the cratering; to get to 2.2% you need to do other idiotic things as well. Especially since you have to assume that the typical SZDSZ voter is probably much more engaged than the average Hungarian with EU issues. So really, it’s way more than their water-carrying for the Reds.
SZDSZ deserve everything they have got!
The 5% party becomes the 2% party, LMAO
That is their punishment for siding with the commies for so long and a just one at that!
The question is where their voters went?
As Erik points out, they should be more than average interested of EU and go and vote.
MDF and LMP have been suggested.
MDF’s Bokross is the one hardest pointing out that real reforms are needed.
@Erik,
Of course it only explains part of it, but I think it’s a huge part of it, which leads me to the point raised by Viking. I don’t believe MDF picked up votes from SZDSZ (MDF essentially get the votes of the right who can’t stand Orban), but in terms of LMP, that’s who I’d say took most of the votes from SZDSZ. If you add their poll numbers together, it’s just shy of 5%, meaning that a lot of former SZDSZ voters went over to LMP, with the greatest reason for that being what I said in my first comment. Additionally, LMP doesn’t carry the taint of communism either directly or by association, which probably also contributed to them stealing votes from SZDSZ.
@Viking: Well, they stayed home and sulked, like most everyone else associated with the government, and probably lost a few older votes to the MDF and younger voters to the LMP. And speaking of younger voters, they are probably also losing some of these because, you know, Hungarian Liberals DON’T HAVE CHILDREN.
None of the commenters actually said the real reason why they got punished so bad. But the truth is very simple. SZDSZ started a negative, anti-Hungarian campaign very early on and they kept going on with it even when they saw the polls that it was not working. Instead of saying what they would do differently or in fact saying why are they any different from the ‘far right’ who they demonize, they used a nasty smear campaign, lies, libel and slender to discredit people who dared to speak up against the establishment. Hungarian people were wiser than they thought and they did not buy the smear campaign.
Now of course Hungarians who want a true change in the system will never forget that it was the SZDSZ who called the mob on the streets and encouraged them to blockade the roads back in the fall of 1990 and it was them who later forced a shameful pact out of the government in which it was promised that the former communists could stay in their previous positions without any fear of retaliation. Technically it was the SZDSZ who stole the real change in the system and controlled Hungary since the shameful MDF-SZDSZ pact in early 1991. They had the media and all the key positions since then even when they were not in the government.
So it is time for them to go and it is time for a real change to come. Whatever was stolen need to be taken back. The thieves need to go to jail. Whoever was a leader position in the MSZMP should be barred from holding public office forever.
One more thing to add to the previous comment. Punishing the guilty people by sending them to jail and by taking their fortunes away is nothing new. It was done in the Czech Republic right after the fall of the communism. And it is never too late to hunt down and punish the perpetrators and bar them from public office forever. It was done in Poland after a long 16 years. Now it is time to do it in Hungary. If the Simon Wisenthal Group has the right to hunt down and prosecute nazis for war crimes that happened over 60 years ago, then Hungarians have the right to hunt down and prosecute criminals from petty thieves to billionaire money launderers and embezzlers as well. The crimes of these money launderers and embezzlers destroyed the lives of thousands and thousands of people many even to the extent that the victims who lost their life savings committed suicide. Justice finally needs to be served.
Roamer,
“it is never too late to hunt down and punish the perpetrators and bar them from public office forever”
Wrong, in a country ruled by law all crimes have a defined time in which alleged criminals must be taken to court.
“Hungarians have the right to hunt down and prosecute criminals from petty thieves to billionaire money launderers and embezzlers as well”
Well that is what Police is doing every day, but they need proof, not just loose speaking, so if you have any proof – report it.
“The crimes of these money launderers and embezzlers destroyed the lives of thousands and thousands of people many even to the extent that the victims who lost their life savings committed suicide”
I know you refer to the time after 1990, when the current laws applies, same thing as above applies. Where is the proof? If you do not like capitalism, tough luck, because it is *not* a crime to do business. The people who you claimed killed themselves were obviously not good Christians, then suicide is against the Church.
Your 1st post about the “the shameful MDF-SZDSZ pact in early 1991″ just shows how off you are with society. For you it is more important ‘to hang the few, than to liberate the many’, but as you write you belong to the “Hungarians who want a true change in the system”. Well, if the guys like you had been in charge of the situation 1989-90 Hungary would had lost a lot of lives unnecessary, like in 1956.
Politics is what is possible now, not what is impossible.
Roamer, I think you are right in that punishment is appropriate for MSZP types who had their snouts in the trough, and are guilty of the neglect of duty of care that their public office demanded of them. Like the Russian ‘oligarchs’, they made the laws that licensed them to steal a nation’s assets. You are right, too, that the passage of time does not prohibit the punishment of crime. The clock begins to tick on felony from the time that evidence can be adduced against the felon. Orbán is clearly aware off that. He addressed the issue only recently. I hope he has a plan of action ready, and has targeted just a small number of the biggest offenders whose assets he can seize. Putin did that one nicely. I’m sure there is lots of scope in, say, transfer pricing and capital transfer alone, not to mention ICSID contracts that favoured the contractor at the expense of national asset preservation.
Sophie,
You miss the old communist show trials, right?
Proof is not needed,
Verdict is already ready at start of ‘trial’,
Interpretation of law is up to the wanted outcome,
The court is there just to rubber-stamp the expected outcome.
In Europe, where Hungary is, you cannot put people on trial just because they lost the last election.
Try to get that in your head.
If you have any proof, go to the Police, that is what they should do for all tax money we pay them.
If the Police does not listen on you, publish your proofs on the Internet for everyone to see and make their own ‘judgement’.
So where is your link to your proofs?
I disagree.