Magyar News, 2001. szeptember-2002. augusztus (12. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2002-07-01 / 11-12. szám

follow úngf- the' W attonal Elections Ov Hungary.

by Dr. Alexander Havadtoy

Following the second round of the parliamentary election the MSZPSZDSZ coalition, the Hungarian Socialist Party ( formerly the Communist Party) and the Alliance of Free Democrats ( the cosmopolitan Social Democratic Party), with a majority of 51.29%, took over the Hungarian administration. The coalition of the former prime minister, Victor Orbán, the FIDESZ-MDF, Fidesz- Hungarian Civic Party and the Hungarian Democratic Forum, on a joint ticket won 188 seats in the parliament, The Communists 178, the Alliance of Free Democrats 19, and the Communist-Free Alliance joint ticket 1 seat. As a consequence, the MSZP-SZDSZ coalition has a majority of 10 seats in the parliament.

How was it possible that after four years of the very successful administration of prime minister Victor Orbán his party lost the elections? This is the puzzle that so many Hungarians outside of Hungary find so difficult to understand.

We tend to forget that the Soviet occupation of Hungary in 1944-45 covered not only the country itself but also the thinking, the intentions and the actions of the people. The constant brainwashing that took place between 1945 and 1989, and which continued during the past 12 years by the same party officials did not pass by without serious affects. They succeeded in many instances to eliminate the Christian democratic values which were so powerful following the Second World War. Slightly more than one half of the nation turned once again against the conservative patriotic Christian program of the József Antall and the Victor Orbán administrations.

The lies spread by the Communist Party were so outrageous that Victor Orbán did not even deem to refute them. This was a major error, for in the hurly-burly of political elections a charge that remains unanswered, can be repeated again and again until it sticks. Orbán believed that his achievements were so positive that the entire nation would support him. Did he not create a program that included the well being of the entire Hungarian nation inside and outside of Hungary’s borders? Did he not enhance the educational, economic and cultural life of all the Hungarian patriots by establishing schools and universities and theatres? Did he not give tax incentives for women to have children? Did he not set up private accounts for pensions and create a system of student loans and an entire mortgage market (backed by state

Orbán addresses the rally of 100,000

guarantees for bank loans)? Did he not build super highways with Hungarian companies, the Maria Valeria bridge, the National Theatre, and did he not set up a searing museum, the House of Terror? Did he not cut corporate tax rates to 18% from 36%, and an inflation rate from 16% to 6%? Did he not support the Hungarian minorities in Transylvania, Slovakia, Carpatho-Ukraine and Serbia by granting them the Status Law? Did he not bring Hungary into NATO and enhance its acceptance into the European Union?

The Communists belittled all these achievements by calling him a “corrupt nationalist neophyte”, who “destabilized Hungary’s international standing” and whose only aim was to “abort the change of administration.” They called the Hungarian University established for the Hungarian minority of Transylvania a “University made for Romanians”, and the Status Law for the improvement of the economic life of the Hungarians in Romania a “favor for Romanians.” The leader of the MSZ promised 19,000 forints for every retired persons as a pension supplement if they vote for him.

Unfortunately one half of the people, particularly in the capital city of Budapest, could not think in terms of the interests of 15 million Hungarians in the Carpathian basin. Their selfish private goals, particu-MSZP-SZDSZ leaders after the election

larly the pension supplement, was more important than the national program for the benefit of all Hungarians, and opted once again for the Communists. After all, was not the” happiest gulag” of the old Soviet empire more beneficial to them, when there was absolute job security, when it was not necessary to produce as long as they could show a feverish activity, and when it was not necessary to think and to strive, for the party did all the thinking and striving for them?

The MSZP-SZDSZ coalition far surpassed in the technique of electioneering their FIDESZ-MDF opponents. They hired from Israel Mr. Werber as their campaign manager, an internationally known political strategist, who came to Hungary with the firm resolution to defeat the center right parties. The tricks used are just too numerous to describe them. In certain districts the number of votes received were twice as many as the number of eligible voters. The MSZP-SZDSZ managers at the electoral wards insisted that the voters use their pencils to fill out the cards. Later on it was observed that the writing with those pencils faded out completely in three hours, thus making the vote invalid. Late in the afternoon of election day, computers were used to ascertain the name of the voters, who had not shown up for the election. Their votes miraculously appeared at the tally. By the time these tricks were discovered, it was too late to amend the elections, since according to Hungarian law election frauds must be presented to the courts within 24 hours.

The greatest losers of the election are the Hungarian minorities outside the borders of Hungary, who make out almost one third of the entire Hungarian nation. During the years of the Orbán administration, they began to feel that the motherland has not forgotten them and is trying through educational, cultural and economic means to lift them up and to bring them closer to herself. To them Victor Orbán was the best chance the country has had in a few hundred years. And now their fellow Hungarians in the motherland for shortsighted selfish reasons let them down and sold them out. This became evident by the first act of the new administration which through its spokesman, Mr. Andrew Barany, declined to demand the restoration of stolen Hungarian church properties in Transylvania to their rightful owners. Hungarians are looking forward with grave foreboding to the next four years.

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