The Socialist party opened its election campaign on Saturday with its prime-minister candidate promising to modernise the nation and at the same time providing a political home for voters disillusioned by neo-liberalist economic dogma but who feel close to left-wing and liberal values.
Attila Mesterhazy, a young economist and party stalwart, identified three “crisis areas” to be confronted: the economy, politics and democracy, and offered solutions in jobs creation, measures to tackle corruption and “knocking down the borders separating people” – drawing an analogy between Hungary’s internal situation now and the dismantling of the Iron Curtain 20 years ago.
While praising the achievements of current Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai, who is widely seen as having successfully steered Hungary through the financial and economic crisis, Mesterhazy also sought to draw clear blue water between himself and the party of the past.
“Lots of people have become disillusioned by the left, but in today’s Hungary there exists a political community for which there is a real political home; for those who regard the rule of law, liberty and left-wing and liberal values as important,” he told delegates.
Calling on the opposition Fidesz party to join the Socialists’ fight against extremism, Mesterhazy said that Hungarians now had a choice between living in fear and living peacefully day-to-day.
Mesterhazy added that it was time for the country’s politicians to talk straight, be honest and to discard casuistry.
He pledged to defend democracy, the rule of law, the dignity of people and stand by those who oppose ethnic discrimination and hate speech.
“In order to realise the dream of the change in political system [in 1989-1990], we need the kind of politics which strives to serve the nation rather than lord over it…” Mesterhazy said.
In power since 2002, the Socialists now govern in a minority and are riding low in the polls ahead of the two rounds of the election on April 11 and 25. The government turned to the IMF and EU for a 20 billion euro rescue package and have also struggled, largely unsuccessfully, to push through any meaningful reforms.
The conservative Fidesz party is widely expected to win a landslide and some polls predict that the party could secure a two-thirds majority, allowing it to change the constitution and sweep in structural reforms.
Mesterhazy said the focus of policymaking would be on economic growth, saying billions of forints of extra revenue would be used to cut taxes and debt. He also emphasised investments while at the same time vowing to maintain fiscal discipline.
Mesterhazy said the Socialists would reduce income tax by four percent over the next parliamentary cycle and he hoped this would lead to an extra one percent of employment each year as well as real wage rises.
The Socialists expect that Hungary should be able to enter the euro ERM-2 corridor in 2011 and adopt the single European currency in 2014.
