Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2006 (18. évfolyam, 1-50. szám)

2006-03-24 / 13. szám

MDF: No Coalition With Fidesz FIDESZ, the leading opposition party, has increasingly touted classical left-wing polices in an unprincipled campaign to win voters, and the Hungarina Democratic Forum (MDF) will not form a coali­tion with its former ally should the possibility arise after the elections, Ibolya Dávid, MDF leader said last week. “The MDF is a genuine center-right party. While our membership is closer to Fidesz, that party has, especially in the past year, turned to left-wing, populist rhetoric hearkening back to the [communist] Kádár era, along with unscrupulous behavior towards our candidates. There will be no coalition with Fidesz,” Dávid told the Hungarian Interna­tional Press Association on Mar 9. The Forum, which analysts say is likely to have difficulty gaining the 5% vote needed to stay in parliament in next month’s elections, would accept a role in a future coalition with its former ally only if it were allowed to appoint the prime minister, Dávid said. “That is the only guarantee we would have to keep these leftwing policies and bad behavior under control,” she said. The former justice minister admitted that Fidesz would be “unlikely” to offer that possibility, in which case “the MDF would continue in opposition,” she said. Dávid declined to comment on the possibility of supporting Fidesz as a minority government, saying only that it was a theoretical possibility. The MDF, which was the leading party in the first post-Communist coalition from 1990-1994, and a minority partner in the Fidesz-led government of 1998-2002, has always eyed Fidesz with slight suspicion. However, the atmosphere between the two former allies has significantly soured in recent weeks, fol­lowing the release of a tape recording in which a Fidesz candidate for the town of Kalocsa is heard to both cajole and threaten a rival MDF candidate into giving up his candidacy. While Fidesz leader Viktor Orbán denounced the move and replaced the candidate at the center of the row, Dávid insisted there had been “many” such incidents, but unlike the Kalocsa case, the party lacked hard evidence. The MDF leader had harsh words for the two leading parties (the Socialists and Fidesz), saying that in 17 years of politics she had never witnessed “such a campaign of lies and empty promises. “We all know the situation of the state finances, yet when one party promises a 13th month pension, the other offers a 14th month,” she said. However, while ruling out any chance of forming a coalition with either the current governing partners, she said that it was the “duty” of the MDF, as a responsible democratic party, to cooperate with both the Socialists and Free Democrats on “certain [vital] matters of government.” The MDF alleged this week that 27 of its parliamentary candidates had been threatened by Fidesz repre­sentatives. The party said it had deposited statements by the 27 with a lawyer. (The Budapest Sun) Few Mourners Come to See Milosevic Coffin BELGRADE - The flag-draped coffin of Slobodan Milosevic went on public display Thursday, but it drew relatively few mourners paying tribute to the former president who died while on trial for genocide and war crimes. Hundreds of die-hard Milosevic supporters — not the tens of thousands that organizers had predicted — lined up to view his casket in a museum dedicated to the late communist dictator Josip Broz Tito in Belgrade’s plush Dedinje district. A large, framed color photograph of Milosevic was placed in front of the casket, and Milosevic’s closest Social­ist associates took turns standing next to it in groups of six as an honor guard. Outside, supporters lit candles in the snow while waiting their turn, and women held red roses or bouquets of mimosas. But the turnout was nowhere near the huge crowds Milosevic once commanded. Authorities had formally rejected a state funeral, leaving it to Milosevic’s party to organize the ceremony. The Socialists maintained it was still a dignified moment, a “people’s burial.” Milosevic, 64, died March 11 at a detention center near the tribunal, which was trying him on 66 counts of war crimes, including genocide — the first head of state to be extradited by his country for trial by the U.N. court. Milosevic will be buried Saturday at a family estate in his hometown of Pozarevac, 30 miles southeast of Belgrade. Workers there dug the grave beneath Milosevic’s favorite linden tree as a steady stream of supporters left flowers and lit candles outside the walled compound. Milosevic's Death Bittersweet For His Victims The death of Slobodan Milosevic should be greeted with bleak satisfaction. Whatever the grim toasts made to his passing, there remains a lingering sense that he cheated justice and escaped a full accounting of the evils he fostered. Though Milosevic did not invent the theory of a “Greater Serbia,” his uncompromising politics opened a vicious cycle of self-fulfilling ethnic prophecies. His uncompromising style, battle cries, heroic postures and the particularly repelling combination of orthodox communism and extreme nationalism with which he came to be associated resurrected the 600-year-old dream of a Greater Serbia and provoked the bloodiest period in European history since World War II. With a Hitler-like obsession, Milosevic fanned the flames of Serbian nationalism, provoking war by organizing hate campaigns and ethnic cleansing in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Murder. Rape. Ethnic cleans­ing. Genocide. Death marches. Concentration camps. Words that Milosevic and his regime returned to the forefront of history. The only regrettable aspect of Milosevic’s death is that he was not brought before the world and the families of his victims. Although witnesses’ testimony from his trial is on public record, history will be denied the legal judgment of his personal guilt, and the survivors of his atrocities will be left with only a dismal record of what they endured. Michael Misetic (USA Today) DUNA Travel 8530 Holloway Dr. #102 W. Hollywood, CA 90069 SPECIÁLIS ÁR LAX-BUD-LAX $439.­­+TX. Információért hívják ZSUZSÁT TEL: (310) 652-5294 FAX: (310) 652-5287 1-888-532-0168 Március 24, 2006 Prime Minister Asks Fidesz to Help With Campaigning BUDAPEST - Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány of the governing Socialist party (MSzP) has asked opposition leader Viktor Orbán to make sure the Fidesz party does all it can to make the elections a fair playing ground, and to make sure Fidesz activists don’t work to hinder the MSzP’s campaign. Speaking last week in Esztergom, the last venue of a nationwide tour, the PM addressed pensioners and said when he arrives at a town with strong Fidesz support a small number of those gathered are not willing to discuss common affairs. As with the elections four years ago, this year’s election campaign­ing has been marred by backbiting and dirty tactics. However, last week saw the release of footage showing a softer side to Orbán, albeit an Orbán talking about Gyurcsány some 17 years ago. “Someone that must be taken seriously for anyone involved in negotia­tions - because his capabilities offer a challenge - is a person called Gyurc­sány; everyone else is frivolous,” said Orbán in a television documentary from 1989, reported Hungarian daily the Magyar Hírlap. At the time, Gyurcsány was a member of the official Communist youth movement. When speaking of the video footage on his weblog, the current PM said he was “surprised” by the comments, but conceded he too had been impressed by the young Orbán . But perhaps that is as pleasant as the run-up to the elections will get, for most of last week it was back to business for all parties as their leaders continued the campaign trail, speaking about their party pledges. Gyurcsány’s focus for the party’s campaign platform “New Hun­gary” was on healthcare and employment. Speaking in Vác last week, the premier said the healthcare system’s current problems could not be solved through funding alone. Rather, doctors themselves and pri­vate initiatives had to take an active role in reforms; employees of the sector, he said, had to work to make it service-orientated. In addition, serving Hungarian needs was also not enough; health care must open itself to other countries and exploit the fact it is “highly competitive in a number of branches.” Gyurcsány said this was par­ticularly so when the sector was compared with its Austrian, British, French and German counterparts. If an operation cannot be performed in Hungary, patients should be able to go abroad to another EU country for treatment and their health insurance cover the cost, he said. The PM also spoke on Saturday of creating 300,000 jobs in con­struction and related sectors. Some 170,000 of the new jobs would be available for unskilled workers, and 130,000 jobs would provide employment for skilled workers in construction and assembling, Gyurcsány said. In the agricultural sector, the PM said cereal farming needed to shift focus to Europe’s demand for bioenergy. Hungary, he explained, could become the “second or third largest supplier of biofuels in Europe.” On the campaign trail Fidesz also focussed on healthcare, saying it would be a priority if the party were to win April’s election. Former health minister István Mikola, who was on Sunday nomi­nated as candidate for the new post of deputy prime minister by Fidesz, said a new government structure would be created, a structure which would give priority to both “health and human resources issues.” Mikola, referring to a referendum held in December 2004, said it was “important to respect the decision of the two million people who voted no to hospital privatization.” Fidesz would limit the role of multinational-financial investors in the healthcare sector, as this, based on experience seen in other coun­tries, would cause a rise in the price of services, Mikola said. Accord­ing to Fidesz vice chairman Tamás Deutsch-Für, a new government structure and the appointment of a deputy prime minister was needed in order to “separate and treat individually the goals of economic and socialdemographic prosperity.” Orbán said one of the roles of the new deputy PM would be to see how people could be healthier and live longer with as many children as they want. The move was made possible as by the decision of Fidesz’s running partner in the last two elections, the Hungarian Democratic Forum, has said it will not run on a joint ticket this time round. ON Sunday the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), which could struggle to get the 5% of votes needed to retain parliamentary repre­sentation, presented its youth policy plans, including a youth ministry and a proposal for a new law on youth affairs. The Magyar Nemzet reported that Free Democrat (SzDSz) chair­man Gábor Kuncze said the party will run a separate campaign in Budapest as voters in the capital could “swing the whole campaign.” Magyar Hírlap said Mayor Gábor Demszky believes liberal voters will “decide whether Budapest will be the ‘first city’ of the central European region.” GDP per capita in Budapest, the mayor said, is 25% higher than the EU average. The SzDSz has launched a campaign for MP candidates to sign an agreement with voters to keep election promises, Kuncze, who was named candidate for prime minister, said over the weekend. The SzDSz would focus on healthcare reform, adopting a 20% flat-rate tax and reducing the number of MPs. Last Thursday also saw three of Hungary’s four major parties adopt a code of ethics for the election campaign. While the MSzP, Fidesz and the SzDSz all agreed on the code, the MDF said the party would not partake in “a game of not being honest but at least pretending to be so.” Gábor Horn, campaign chief for the SzDSz, said recent “incidents” between the competing parties showed an agreement “on basic rules” was, unfortunately, necessary. (The Budapest Sun) AMERICAN Hungarian

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