Political Battles Heat Up in Hungary

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Friday, Feb. 15, 2002
The Hungarian political scene is heating up further as the April general elections get closer, with the opposition Socialist Party saying it will boycott all parliamentary debates until the vote, after Prime Minister Viktor Orban allegedly said the opposition deputies were "traitors" during a debate on the controversial Hungarian Status Law.

The dispute prompted Hungarian President Ferenc Madl, who was on a state visit to Ukraine, to call a meeting of all parliamentary parties in an attempt to resolve the issue. The president's aides said Madl would try to mediate because he believes that international issues such as the Status Law should not become election campaign issues.

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Orban made the incriminating remark during a 5 February debate in parliament on the controversial Status Law, which grants ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring countries certain rights within Hungary. After the Socialist Party introduced a motion calling for a review of the recently signed memorandum of understanding signed with Romania in connection with the Status Law, Orban told Socialist deputy Laszlo Keller that opposition parliamentarians were "traitors."

The prime minister's comment immediately echoed by other government parliamentarians. The Socialists staged a walk-out to protest against the remark. The next day, the party announced that it would boycott all sessions of parliament until the elections, saying any further debate was "pointless" since the prime minister considers those who disagree with him to be traitors. Another opposition party, the Alliance of Free Democrats, also criticized Orban's comments but said it would not boycott parliament. The Alliance had submitted a motion to amend the controversial Status Law during the 5 February debate, but it was rejected.

In his weekly address on Hungarian National Radio on 6 February, Orban said he had made the comment during in a private conversation with Keller and that it was not part of the parliamentary debate on the issue. "Nothing nasty happened," Orban said on 6 February. "I just told my opinion to my fellow parliamentarian, quietly and calmly." But Orban's version contrasted with that of Keller, who said the prime minister lost his nerve during an important debate about a crucial issue.

The next day, in a speech to a half-empty parliament, Orban described the Status Law as a very successful initiative, despite criticism from neighboring countries and the European Union. "We have created the status law because the nation is like a family: The bigger it is, the stronger it is," he said. But the law has been blasted by EU representatives as well as representatives of countries with ethnic Hungarian minorities, such as Slovakia and Romania, who have described it as an unnecessary tension-builder in the region.

The controversy over the prime minister's remarks comes at a time when Orban is fending off criticism related to a new unauthorized biography about him as well. The book, which bears the conspicuously odd title The Viktor, focuses on Orban's character rather than on his career as a politician and includes descriptions of Orban's family and friends. However, author Peter Kende also includes stories about the alleged misuse of billions of forints, secret support for seemingly independent companies, and abuse of power. While Orban himself has not commented on the book in public, one of his former advisers has called the book a "personality murder" and has pointed to the author's use of unnamed sources as an example of its lack of trustworthiness.

The book sold out very quickly, with three reprints totaling more than 100,000 copies disappearing from the market almost immediately. But the overwhelming success of his own book apparently seemed suspicious to Kende, who has speculated aloud that someone may made bulk purchases of the book in a pro-government attempt to prevent it from reaching the public.

This article was edited and adapted from Transitions Online: Intelligent Eastern Europe. A longer version is available at: www.tol.cz.