Perhaps I don’t need to introduce Ferenc Gyurcsány, the prime minister of the postcommunist-leftlib MSZP–SZDSZ coalition between 2004 and 2009. You know the one who admitted to his comrades-in-sin behind closed doors in 2006 that MSZP-SZDSZ “lied night and day and did nothing” (with the active help of the European Commission) in order to win the elections. When they did win and Gyurcsány’s secret obscene speech was leaked, huge crows protested for his resignation and new elections. Instead of that Gyurcsány had the police shoot protestors in the eye, beat many people to half-dead … while those very human pressure groups of some particular rights (Amnesty International, TASZ, Helsinki Committee, etc. ) kept a low profile. Oh, well, then Hungary was a democracy which Freedom House ranked higher than today’s Hungary when it’s the left-lib protesters who beat up each other and the police only investigates… Here is the story:
Albert Pásztor, the police chief of Miskolc in 2009, held a press conference on the 30th of January, 2009. Miskolc is an industrial city in Northern Hungary, where Gypsies constitute a high proportion of the population, and crime rates are much higher than elsewhere. Pásztor said in the press conference that a particular kind of street mugging is committed by Gypsies only and he added “cohabitation is not possible with our minority citizens. Yes, that’s it.” Gyurcsány, who was still PM at that time, rushed to hold a press conference and he theatrically announced he had ordered the police minister to fire Pásztor for his “racist hate speech”. There was a local demonstration in Miskolc for Pásztor… with the participation the local (Miskolc) MSZP organization, that is Gyurcsány’s party then.
Jobbik was rising strongly and steadily in the beginning of 2009 and one of their main slogans was “combatting ‘cigánybűnözés’ (Gypsy-crime). “No state employee is allowed to speak of ‘cigánybűnözés'”, Gyurcsány roared in February, 2009 on his press conference. His exact words were: “this is not simply outrageous. This is sickening.” He was forced to resign two months later and his economic minister Gordon Bajnai was made PM.
Fidesz won their first landslide victory a year later. Gyurcsány left MSZP soon, after a lot of bickering, and he established his own party called “Democratic Coalition“. (They are democratic because they call themselves “democrats” in each second sentence they utter and they call the right wing dictatoric, Fascist, anti-Semitic, racist and what-have-you.) The major political theme of Gyurcsány’s “left-liberal” party is anti-racism, fighting for LBGT and Roma rights, etc.
Fidesz made the penal laws stricter after 2010 and they reinforced the police, too. They also introduced “public work” for the poor and unskilled, that is basically people are made to work for their benefits, but crime is still a problem in a lot of places, including Miskolc. Yes, poor, unskilled Gypsies, a lot of them living in slums, commit a lot of crime in Miskolc.
Now, after the second landslide victory of Fidesz in the general elections and before the local elections due to be held in October, MSZP and Gyurcsány’s party nominated the very same ex-policeman for Miskolc’s mayor whom they fired so theatrically in 2009.
Amnesty International, TASZ, Helsinki Committee, etc. keep a low profile about this move…
Today, five years later, these are Gyurcsány’s words about Pásztor: “I see the whole of the man rather than those particular words of his.” Moreover the vice president of Gyurcsány’s small extremist “left-lib” party, Mátyás Eörsi was talking about “Roma-crime” (romabűnözés) last week in an interview on the left-liberal TV channel ATV. This former SZDSZ politician has always been… er, very, very vocal about racism like discrimination against the Roma… Though, to tell the truth, his real speciality is accusing people of anti-Semitism… (he’s Jewish)
The local organization of ex-MSZP PM Bajnai’s Együtt-PM, another splinter party of MSZP founded after 2010, also supported running Pásztor for Miskolc mayor. However the national leadership did not. Márton Gulyás, the NGO leader who recently blurted out that George Soros is financing anti-government political demonstrations via the so-called “Norwegian Civil Fund”, is closely related to Együtt-PM. He turned up at Gyurcsány’s political rally on Saturday (advertised as “The day of resistance” ) and he held a sign protesting Pásztor’s mayor candidacy and the phrase “Roma crime”. Gyurcsány’s fans promptly destroyed his sign and they also beat him during the speech of Ágnes Kunhalmi, who is .. surprise, surprise… the Budapest leader of MSZP, that is Gyurcsány’s ex-party. Later Gyurcsány’s democrats threw burning cigarette stubs at Gulyás.
Tonight Gyurcsány’s “Demokratikus Koalíció” made a press release demanding to know if “Gulyás’ provocation occured in his capacity as a civil political activist or if he acted as an employee of Együtt-PM, with the full knowledge of his party leadership”.
A cup of nice coffee for me, please. 🙂
PS: I expect to see this story in the Western media under titles like “Fascist demonstrators attack human rights activist in Hungary” 😀
Politics in Hungary 