Friday, January 06, 2012

Hungary Under Pressure

Viktor Orban

Hungary has been in the news a lot in recent weeks, thanks to its government’s move to assert control over the Hungarian Central Bank. The European Central Bank has reacted strongly against the action, saying that the Hungarian government “could undermine [the central bank’s] independence.”

Well… From the point of view of Brussels, any institution that is not fully controlled by the European Union has had its “independence” compromised. Central control by the ECB is liturgically correct; control by a national government is rank heresy.

Central Control is Independence. Freedom is Slavery.

The following article from Politically Incorrect provides some background on the current situation in Hungary. One of the more interesting policies proposed by the new Hungarian government is an initiative demanding that the former Communists answer for their crimes against the nation — which can’t help but annoy the mandarins of the EUSSR.

Many thanks to JLH for the translation:

Hungary Under Pressure
by Eternia, PI Coblenz
January 3, 2012


All Europe is ruled from Brussels. All Europe? No, a small country is walling itself off from internationalism at the cost of its population. In the elections in 2010, the conservative party Fidesz received over 50% of the vote in the country.

Viktor Orban, who had already been minister-president from 1998 to 2002, was elected as new minister-president. Several reforms have already been introduced in Orban’s new term in office. Among them a new media law which emphasizes more strongly legal protection for children and a clause according to which the media are obliged to present balanced reporting.

Now German media are reporting mass protests in Hungary. The organizations there spoke of more than 100,000 demonstrators. The German media reported several times ten thousand or more than ten thousand. Why are they demonstrating? The rightist conservative minister-president Viktor Orban adopted several amendments to the constitution which take effect on January 1, 2012. Among other things:

  • Change of the country’s designation from “The Republic of Hungary” to “Hungary”.
  • Islam is no longer worthy of support, nor is Buddhism.
  • Marriage laws do not apply to homosexuals.
  • In an amendment to the constitution, the Hungarian Socialist Party is identified as the legal successor to the socialistic dictatorship Party USAP.

It is no wonder that the EU and the German media are now reporting negatively on Orban, who by democratic means of a direct mandate and the dropping out of smaller parties who did not clear the 5% hurdle, has earned over 50% of the vote and achieved a strong majority in the parliament, and is now using it. The EU is considering further steps. First of all, there will be no financial aid to the economically battered country. Legal measures against Hungary are also on reserve in Brussels. Whether there will be a political boycott against Hungary remains to be seen. In all this, the EU should keep in mind that the SVP is the strongest political force in Switzerland, the FPÖ at the moment is running ahead in the polls in Austria, Marine Le Pen has a good chance if she enters the presidential race in France, and in many other European countries, liberal to conservative forces do not wish to cooperate with the course of the EUSSR. Not least Geert Wilders in the Netherlands.

Background:

Before Orban, Hungry was governed by the Hungarian socialists under minister-president Ferenc Gyurcsany. The government knowingly led Hungary into bankruptcy, while, as in Greece, inflating the bureaucracy. In a confidential speech, Gyurcsany admitted to having lied to Hungarian voters and spoke contemptuously of Hungary. The speech was later published. The Frankfuter Allgemeine Zeitung writes that the demonstrations are initiated first and foremost by the Socialists.

The crux of the matter for the Socialists may be the constitutional amendment. The FAZ writes that protests are also directed at the constitutional amendment passed in Parliament shortly before the New Year, according to which the opposition Socialistic Party (MZSP), as legal successor of the Communist Hungarian Socialistic Workers’ Party (MSZMP) shares “in every respect the responsibility for the crimes of Communism.” The constitutional amendment further states that “the leaders of the Communist dictatorship have not yet been held responsible” and therefore now, “the state pensions and other emoluments assured the leaders of the previous regime are reduced.”

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah Hungary!

The reassertion of cultural confidence and self interests by European Christians. Witnessing this new European renaissance will bring joy to my heart.

EV

Anonymous said...

My favorite part has to be the removal of "The Republic of" - Monarchist aspirations, how else can that be interpreted?

Unknown said...

"the former Communists should answer for their crimes against the nation"

My feeling exactly..Even though I live in Amsterdam, where they think that we have a friendly social democracy, and besides communism is dead and buried. People would think you vengeful, exacting and intolerant if you suggested that it is high time to de-marxify the west, and thoroughly identify and deconstruct the communist ideas that have permeated western society
There is no chance to maybe correct our course if we don't

Pierre_Picaud said...

This is an elegant, though somewhat rose-tinted piece. Mr Orban leads the most staggeringingly corrupt party.

Politics in Hungary has always largely been about graft, this is its tragedy.

The profundity of the landslide which Orban won was calculated at the time as meaning that had Hungary had the plurality system, every single parliamentary seat would have been theirs: and yet they have used the most underhanded means to bring about legislative and constitutional changes that have circumvented all semblance of consultation.

The missing piece here is the cunning of the EU. The question is not why the Commission conducted coups in Greece and Italy, but why they've been able to get away with it so smoothly: why no Tahrir style occupations until democracy was restored?

This is because the people in these lands actually, truthfully, trust distant technocrats more to their own rampantly corrupt representatives.

Pierre_Picaud said...

This is an elegant, though somewhat rose-tinted piece. Mr Orban leads the most staggeringingly corrupt party.

Politics in Hungary has always largely been about graft, this is its tragedy.

The profundity of the landslide which Orban won was calculated at the time as meaning that had Hungary had the plurality system, every single parliamentary seat would have been theirs: and yet they have used the most underhanded means to bring about legislative and constitutional changes that have circumvented all semblance of consultation.

The missing piece here is the cunning of the EU. The question is not why the Commission conducted coups in Greece and Italy, but why they've been able to get away with it so smoothly: why no Tahrir style occupations until democracy was restored?

This is because the people in these lands actually, truthfully, trust distant technocrats more to their own rampantly corrupt representatives.

Anonymous said...

Serbian President's convoy stoned in Kosovo as he marked the Orthodox Christmas on Friday

- We will never acknowledge Kosovo as a state
Serbian President Boris Tadic, on Saturday

Anonymous said...

What do - you - Hungarians think?

How does this look from the inside, or from the outside seen by a Hungarian?

Nador said...

Well, it is definitely not as rosy as the Politically Incorrect article describes. It is true that Orbán and his party Fidesz aggressively replaced the leaders of many formerly somewhat independent institutions. It is clear, that they mostly disregard all criticism without consideration.
They also de facto socialized private retirement savings.

While I certainly do not think Hungary should obey to everything the EU or the IMF orders, that doesn't mean all their suggestions are wrong.

The regime also fights its "financial independence war" very stupidly. There is really no point to insulting IMF delegates during/after their meetings, and then asking them for money a few weeks later.
The minister for economy, György Matolcsy, is clearly a crackpot. One could argue that an unorthodox economy policy is necessary since the financial foundation of western countries are not particularly sound, but his economic policy is not just unorthodox, it is stupid. He hoped he could create a stark economic boom and avoid deficits by simply introducing a proportional (not progressive) income tax system. Well, that didn't work out well and instead of admitting failure they started to introduce new taxes that somehow would not be felt by the people - only by those "evil" banks (although they previously promised to reduce the number of taxes). To fill the gaps in the budget they raided the private pension system and introduced many ad hoc taxes on banks and some companies - sometimes ex post facto.

The old constitution was a patchwork of the socialist one - clearly far from the best imaginable. E.g. people had the right "for work, health" - which is very problematic since if taken seriously would mean that the state must provide jobs and basically unlimited healthcare for everyone. It was not followed literally for obvious reasons. The new one is unfortunately no better. Here is one rather collectivist part:
"Képességeinek megfelelően mindenki felelős önmagáért, és lehetőségei szerint köteles az állami és közösségi feladatok ellátásához hozzájárulni."
which approximately means: "Everyone is responsible for himself according to his abilities, and must contribute to state and community services according to his potential"