Von: molnarlouis
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 15. April 2010 00:15
An: Kutasi József
Betreff: Ime a Soros fióka bemutatkozója
Hungarian Winner Vows Battle Against the Far Right
By DAN BILEFSKY
Published: April 12, 2010
BUDAPEST — Hungary’s incoming prime minister, Viktor Orban, vowed Monday to defend the country from the ascent of a far-right party and its black-clad paramilitary branch, which have railed against the large Roma community and dubbed the Hungarian capital “Jewdapest.”
Mr. Orban, 46, the leader of Fidezs, the party that defeated the incumbent Socialists in first-round parliamentary elections here Sunday, said he was deeply unhappy over the rise of the far-right party, Jobbik, which won 16.7 percent of the vote. It was the best performance by a far-right party in Hungary since the fall of Communism in 1989.
Mr. Orban, who became famous in 1989 when he called for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary, though he was then an unseasoned opposition leader, insisted that the country’s young democracy remained mature enough to withstand the rise of extremists.
“No radical party will be allowed to get rid of law and order in this country,” he told reporters. “Democracy in this country is strong enough to defend itself.”
Jobbik, led by Gabor Vona, a 32-year-old history teacher, tapped into nationalist sentiment in an old and proud country deeply wounded by its reputation as the new economic sick man of Europe. Mr. Vona is a founding member of Magyar Garda, an outlawed group whose members march through Roma villages bearing flags reminiscent of the Nazi era.
One of Jobbik’s most prominent members, Krisztina Morvai, now a member of the European Parliament, lambasted Israel’s offensive in Gaza in an open letter to the Israeli ambassador in Hungary last year. “I wish all of you lice-infested, dirty murderers will receive Hamas’s ‘kisses,”’ it said.
On Monday, some analysts and economists warned that Jobbik’s baiting of minorities and its protectionist rhetoric threatened to alienate investors and undermine Hungary’s global image.
“Jobbik’s sizable presence in the Hungarian Parliament will tarnish the country's reputation, damage the investment climate and raise political risk levels across Central and Eastern Europe,” Political Capital, a research organization in Budapest, wrote in a report.
Yet others said that Jobbik’s political potency would be largely neutralized once the party entered Parliament. Analysts noted that Fidezs, which is expected to have a two-thirds legislative majority after the second round of voting April 25, had vowed not to invite Jobbik into government and would probably have a strong enough mandate to carry out its economic and political agenda.
Kornelia Magyar of the Progressive Institute, a research institute in Budapest, argued that Mr. Orban, a church-going father of five whose wife wrote a popular Hungarian cookbook, had already dented Jobbik’s influence by embracing its social conservatism and family values while adopting its tough language on law and order. She added that if the Hungarian economy improved, the disenfranchised rural voters who turned en masse toward Jobbik would be less and less seduced by its trenchant feel-good oratory.
“If the economy improves — and it’s a big if — that will weaken Jobbik’s power,” Ms. Magyar said.
Other leading analysts said Mr. Orban, a former prime minister with a well-known authoritarian streak, would not allow himself to be undermined.
“You don’t mess with this guy,” said Peter Rona, a leading economist who knows Mr. Orban. “He is a fighter. And if he sees Jobbik as a threat, he is going to break them.”
Mr. Orban, for his part, said that good governing was the best defense against the far right.
“I am convinced that the better the performance of the government is, the weaker the far right will be in the future,” he said.
Even if Mr. Orban manages to rein in Jobbik, by far the biggest challenge facing a Fidezs government is Hungary’s hard-hit economy. Unemployment has soared to 11.2 percent, and the economy contracted by 6.3 percent in 2009.
Mr. Orban has pledged to cut taxes and to create one million jobs over the next 10 years. But he has also insisted that this year’s budget-deficit target of 3.8 percent is unrealistic. Economists say any sign of profligacy will be badly received by financial markets.
Mr. Orban said Monday that as an economic conservative, he had no intention of worsening Hungary’s deficit, which the Socialists reduced to 4 percent of gross domestic product in 2009, from 9.3 percent in 2006.
“I am a conservative,” he said, “and I don’t believe in spending more than you earn.”
