If you ever read my blog you know I always limited the expression of my own opinion and was try to show what Hungarian bloggers are writing about. This (hopefully once time) I’m going to make an exception.

I want to write about four topics: the violence, the lies, the media and the path ahead.

Most of the protests were not as violent as some of the most covered incidents (e.g. the siege of the Hungarian State TV) would imply. One of the largest dailies in Hungary recently had an article that organized criminal activities are behind the continuous violent activities. The first day events might have been spontaneous (or not?), but the upcoming are events are organized and there seem to be little clue about how is the “puppet master” behind all of this. Some seem to recognize the fanatic and bounder fans of certain soccer team and one of the assumptions is that they just seek trouble. I don’t not and for the time being I don’t care whichever theory is true. Why? I think violent actions have to be put to a halt! They are undermining every effort of peaceful protestors. As a matter of fact this could also be the reason for it, I can’t know. So based on pure speculation any side can be behind the violent actions and I have a doubt we will ever know the truth about it. Anyhow these should be stopped.

The Prime Minister in his incriminated May speech had a remark about the upcoming economical restrictions:
“There are going to be protest. It is allowed to protest in front of the Parliament. Sooner or later they will get tired of it and go home.”
Eventually and sadly he is going to be right, but in a slightly different context. I bet that the protestors’ persistence of not giving up is also at least partially powered by these sentences. They want to show that they do not give up. It is almost ironic to see how differently the two major political sides see the reason of the protests. Left wing tries to focus on the restrictions and how inevitable these are, as if this would be the main reason. If that would be the case, people would have been on the streets months ago. Right wing tries to shape our vision to see a country-wide consensus of impeaching of the government which is again a strong shift. The country is divided again and I think one of the most disgusting and worst sins of politics is when they try to force conflicts on citizens just to get a necessary amount of voter support. This is so lame and so unfortunately and tragically typical of the Hungarian political landscape in the past two decades (or it might even date back much-much longer…).

On the other side there is an aspect the Prime Minster desperately tries to move attention away. In his speech he clearly admits that his government under his first term and during the elections was lying . Under normal circumstances if a country leader admits in a recorded “testimony” (even if it was only a close-audience party speech) that he won the elections by lies this should be the Watergate case of Hungary. So it seems for some reason these are not normal times. And yes, probably these are not normal times. What shook me even more are two words I heard this week in the news about the recent meeting of the Prime Minister and the Ambassadors delegated to Hungary. The spokeswoman in the radio interview was referring to one of the PM’s statements, when he was assuring the Ambassadors that he wants a Hungary of “less lies” . I might be wrong, but for me this does not mean a Hungary without lies. Less lies means we will continue to lie, just … ehm… less. And this interpretation really troubles me. I don’t know if there is any proper way to ensure accountability of politicians and to give responsibility in what they are doing. It would be a sad and disturbing statement that in our democracy accountability and responsibility do not exists. So I guess the only logical conclusion can be that at top levels there is none who would have interest in building such a control mechanism and that the will and well being of people (i.e. seen and considered only as voters) is only important until they vote and then for four years we do not care.

The other interesting thing is the media response and I want to concentrate on one channel: the Hungarian State TV. For years now, they are struggling to get higher viewer ratings. And then finally came a once-in-a-century opportunity: the protestors go there to present their petition. This was such a rare occasion of grabbing the attention of gigantic portion of the viewers. I mean isn’t one of the most important competitive edge of a media source at this level is “you heard it first hear”. Even if they do not allow one of the protestors to read it, one of the anchors could do it. What bad would have happened if they would have read the petition? It has been widely presented by other channels in a short time. And the country did not exploded because of a short petition. If contra-protestors bring their contra-petition lets read that too. Party neutrality is NOT declining access to public attention, but to give the opportunity to all sides to respond. And this mediated conversion would have happened live, “only on” that TV channel. The short-sighted leadership of TV channel foolishly has missed to grab onto this opportunity. And they paid a terrible price: the siege and all the damage in the people, building and in valuable historical archives. An avoidable price in conclusion of an incompetent leadership decision … again.

So what’s ahead? The quick economic actions are required. There is no doubt. There are no other quick-win opportunities that to turn to tax increases and benefit restrictions. I just hope that when they planned the program they also had growth in mind in mid-term. To set out a fire we should not sacrifice THE future, but as we cannot undo past what we can do is to sacrifice part of present FOR THE future.
I think new elections would not help either. The actions to somewhat balance the budget deficit are urgent and unavoidable and new elections could possibly endanger and definitely delay that. I think resignation of the Prime Minister would also not solve too many things as I do not see any viable alternative figure in the government who could manage to do the reforms, not a single one. What I would like to see is probably trivial throughout this entry. I would like to see peace returned to Hungary. I would like to see the governmental intentions clearly for bettering the Hungarian economy. I would like to see a highly accountable country leadership structure, where they accept and face responsibilities. And I would like every politician to please STOP LYING… for at least 5 minutes please. I know I’m such and idealist.

Tags:
Protest
Hungary
Lies
Accountability

Not long after I started this blog I wrote that it is not easy to chose topics which could be really interesting to an outsider about Hungary. These past weeks have proven me wrong. And I think I’m not very happy about it. First an intro of what is happening and then a few reactions from Hungarian blogs.

This time (two days ago) it started with a leaked speech recorded back to May at a party forum. The Prime Minister was speaking. And although there are a few way you can read some of his statements there was clear enough sentences about how much they lied to the public in the past 4 years, also that they cannot be proud of anything from their previous governmental period except that they were able to win again with lies.
The style of the speech (i.e. usage of swear words) is also disturbing to hear from a Prime Minister.

Instant political reactions are naturally very different on the two major sides.
The Prime Minister tries to point to the fact that at least finally someone “bravely” stepped forward and is promising to work to solve the economic problems via strict and honest actions.
The opposition party leader (who have just spoken live on TV in an interview about this affair) of course focuses attention much more on the responsibilities of the past 4 years. Also claims that honesty is questionable as the confessions were not addressed to the nation, but only to a close party group.

The question has been raise instantly about who might have leaked the tape. Whether it is a provocation of the opposition party before the upcoming (in two weeks) municipal elections. Or is the Socialist party brave enough to use this as a method to drive attention away from the very strong and painful taxation and other actions that were taken.

But that is not all and probably not the most important aspect. Thousands moved to the Parliament to protest against the Prime Minister (requesting resignation) and somehow yesterday things got out of hand, when a smaller group of protestors move to the building of the Hungarian State TV. They wanted their petition to be read on live TV. (The petition was demands for the resignation of the Prime Minister, the rethinking of the economic restriction program, the impeachment of the government, immediate new elections.)

But officials denied their request. Police forces were unable to handle the situation and the “siege” was successful. Outsides cars burnt, inside the building and equipment are damaged.

If some of you are surprised about the fact that why they wanted to get into especially in the building of the state TV, this is an iconic factor dating back to the revolutions of 1956. Ironically enough, even the state TV used this factor a few months ago in its marketing campaign: “if there would be a revolution which TV station would You want to take over?”. I’m sure this was not the answer they were hoping to get.

I was watching the live TV coverage of the siege and I have to say I agree with those who say that only a small minority of the mass have turned to violent actions. Many have stayed far away from trouble. I have heard opinions that this small minority of violent protestors were part of a political provocation riding the wave of the people’s anger because of the aforementioned Prime Minister speech.

what do some of the bloggers write about in this situation?

En1 writes that if the Prime Minster were a responsible leader, he would step forward and announce his resignation, because for this matter he is the only responsible.

Korbely’s opinion is that these violent mob actions should not be confused with a revolution. Instead these are illegitimate actions for any cause and are much similar to a violent soccer-fan-war than a revolution.

Toros writes that the Rector of one of the largest Universities of Hungary (ELTE, Eötvös Loránd Science University) declared today an extraordinary Rector “holiday” for protective reasons because of a “planned event of an unidentified non-university organization”.

There are opinions about the media coverage also, especially about an opposition-party-close news TV called HirTV.

Kond is worried about freedom of press. Because HirTV has been banned from the covering. Especially as CNN and BBC has also used their previous coverage about the siege, so they should be treated with respect in protection of freedom of press.

On the other side Bakura writes that the siege coverage of HirTV was in his opinion disgusting as the coverage were cheering for the mob.

Today the 5 parties of the Hungarian Parliament have singed a common statement of disproval of violent protests. Still as I write these lines according to news there are more people on the streets and police forces are on a much higher readiness state. God help us to get over this crises soon, without any further extension of violence.

Tags:
Lies
Riot
Hungary
Prime Minister
Impeachment