The shame of Hungary

Gyurcsany - the shame of Hungary

While official opinion polls usually give Hungary's patriotic and conservative party Jobbik, the Movement For A Better Hungary around 2-3 percent support, the political interests behind these polls make these numbers hypothetical and underestimated. The Jobbik Party and the number of its supporters are growing by the day, as unofficial polls give the party about 10% support, partly due to the attention and media coverage the Party and its close ally, the Hungarian Guard received from the left-liberal media in the last two years.

The majority of newspapers and media in Hungary, including the state-run Television have been politically on "the left" with an impenetrable circle of old-timer Socialist, pro-communist journalists. This media has been hostile against Jobbik and the Guard from the beginning, unfairly labelling them racists, anti-Semitic and fascist, but their involvement and extensive coverage may have worked for the good as it sparked people's interest and they are able to see through the media's lies about Jobbik.

Unfortunately the Socialist and Liberal government communication and nonsense allegations through the Hungarian left media about Jobbik have spread all over the world and while many Hungarians may see through this deceit of lies, people abroad with limited knowledge about Hungary or Jobbik may well be deceived.

Worse, some populist, headline-grabbing foreign media may even go to excessive lengths about Jobbik or its members. Jobbik has received more than its fair share of negative press over the past two year in Hungary, but recent foreign media reports are well out of their boundaries that not even the Hungarian media would dare to publish without risking prompt legal action. There is a clear line between bad media and deliberate, whacking lies. The latter seems to be exactly what they are trying to label Jobbik with: fascist.

BNP chairman Mr Nick Griffin, who recently visited Budapest as a guest of Jobbik, and spoke at one of our meetings, dismissed recent scurrilous non-Hungarian newspaper reports which claimed that Jobbik was anti-Semitic, the usual far left smear, adding that during his visit he had met two members of Jobbik who were Hungarian Jews. "It would come as a great surprise to them to find out they were ‘Nazis,'" Mr Griffin said.

Jobbik's message has been clear: we are not racists, anti-Semitic or against anyone, but we want change, radical change in Hungary. A change from the current Hungarian economic disaster and to finish the transition that hasn't happened since 1989.

Unpopular PM Gyurcsany once called the Hungarian Guard "The shame of Hungary".
Quite on the contrary, significantly more people will say that the shame of Hungary is not the Guard but PM Gyurcsany.

Recent economic studies show that if PM Gyurcsany and the MSZP-SZDSZ (Socialists and Liberals) government hadn't done anything else just sit in the Parliament since they are in power (2002), Hungary's Public Debt would have actually decreased by almost 50 percent. Hungary's population, on the other hand, sadly, have indeed decreased by 160.000 since 2001. The World Bank's projected economic growth for Hungary was about 3-4 percent in 2007 compared to the actual achieved economic growth of 0.8 percent. Hungary's projected growth for next year is the lowest in the region.

The current global economic crisis is already proving to be an excuse for the Socialist government for their own economic mistakes in the past 6 years and PM Gyurcsany now trying to appeal as the glorious saviour of Hungary with a recent credit agreement with IMF.

Jobbik, the Movement For A Better Hungary protested against this agreement between Hungary and the International Monetary Fund at a demonstration last week that was attended by several hundred people.

The demonstration, held at the Bank Centre building in central Budapest, was addressed by Jobbik's European Parliament candidate Krisztina Morvai and priest Lorant Hegedus, who said that the IMF credit line agreement would "enslave the Hungarian people" and that it was not acceptable to force the Hungarian taxpayers to pay off debts incurred by the mismanagement of previous and current Socialist governments.

The Socialist government should have been dealing with the real, enormous economic problems instead of the slandering of Jobbik. The resignation of PM Gyurcsany and early elections will certainly be the only ‘Jobbik', Better For Hungary option.

Zoltan Fuzessy
Vice-President, Foreign Affairs
Jobbik - Movement For A Better Hungary