Alexandra Szentkirályi, Budapest’s Fidesz-KDNP mayoral candidate, opened the local government campaign with a combative and energetic speech, and in recent days the starting gun has been fired across the country: the collection of recommendations and the fight for the mayoral, European, and local government representative seats have begun. In Budapest and many other settlements, there is thus an opportunity for a great revenge, to rectify the failure of five years ago or even to defend the victory.
In 2019, a thirteen-year streak of success was interrupted by the unexpectedly good performance of the left. Although the persistent ones have been trying for years to form a middle-of-the-road alliance, the first successful deployment of the group identified today as the Dollar Left took place in the previous local government election. The turnaround had many reasons and antecedents: a part of the people got tired of the “quiet power” and wanted something new and exciting instead of preserving and increasing the previous results.
In the 2019 campaign, Fidesz-KDNP, which used to fight to the last bullet, did not follow the changing public mood at all, they almost let new applicants go ahead, while the right-wing media struggled shackled by the almost total censorship of social media and the general blocking of promotional accounts. The exposure of the mayor of Győr, Zsolt Borkai, came about as a KO, so the left had no other task than to paste Fidesz posters all over the country with the Adriatic scandal hero’s bare rear.
At the same time, the campaign events of the past week were striking: the unusual decisiveness of Alexandra Szentkirályi, the striking debut of Tamás Menczer, and the confident Prime Minister’s speech on Friday, which has not been discussed in more detail, but radiated strength, also indicated that there will be no pardon this time. In the critical world political situation, there is no place for politeness and politeness, we must take out the crooked saber and be in our best shape, because the survival of the country and Europe is at stake!
In addition, the dollar left provides an excellent campaign topic: its five-year performance.
Thus, this time it is not necessary to compete with dizzying nightingales, but to make the results public with noble simplicity. And there is hardly any of that in the other area. With the exception of a few left-leaning mayors blessed with a survival instinct, we can talk about total laziness almost everywhere, punctuated by amateur but industrial-scale theft. At the same time, the mutual dangers, world crises and economic problems at home have strained the patience of the electorate, many have a desire for revenge due to the collapse of their personal existence and the narrowing of opportunities. That is why the June election is not a foregone conclusion, and it is feared that in many places the petty criminals, penny-pinching traitors and other Demszky clones may once again take the mayoral positions.
This is why I advise the thinking, consciously decisive citizens again and again not to lose sight of our main goals and interests, and not to let the initiative slip out of our hands out of boredom, individual bitterness or simply going about our daily routine! Let’s not forget how much we had to fight for a real change in the system, to oust the comrades and council presidents who have been puffing up for half a century, to eradicate oppression and injustice, and to clean up the gray dust that permeates everything.
The national-civilian alliance led by Fidesz created a new political culture and a specific, Hungarian-like government system through the tsunami of local authority victories in 2006 and the constitutional and moral reforms following the change of government in 2010. Certainly not in the sense that Péter Magyar’s text writers or David Pressman imagine,
but in an absolutely positive way: understanding the characteristics of the fundamentally critical and rebellious Hungarian people’s soul and assessing the reality arising from the structure of the country that was swept around in Trianon, the need for central control.
Thus, instead of a liberal democracy based on a false system of checks and balances, a new system was gradually created in which the exercise of power is divided between political governance and local government. It is no coincidence that in this new order, which has been worked out little by little, in this plebeian, illiberal democracy, the bishop and the mayor jointly represent the state and the public sector. The government’s strength, which cannot be avoided even in the most remote offices, is provided by the political alliance’s massive parliamentary majority, while local interests are asserted by the local government, directly and personally answering to the voters. The correct designation of the boundary between the two forces is, of course, the subject of eternal debate – and rightfully so – for example, I do not believe that the city museum or local road development should be supervised from Budapest, while it is indeed better than the health care system based on national solidarity or public education for all children, if strong government control prevails.
It is also certain that more powers should be (returned) to the county municipalities, which have played an important role for a long time and are still full of outstanding people. At least as much as the capital municipality owns.
In any case, it follows from the above that the stakes of the local government elections have not decreased, and therefore it is important that local governments do not become the playground of the commissars of the dollar left, nor the outstretched tentacles of the central government, but really represent the local interest.
It is a natural process that since the dollar left disguises itself with all kinds of colors, ours fight even more with an open helmet. This is how the orange party logo became the authenticating stamp on the candidates’ posters, which makes it clear who is the real favorite of the national side. The Fidesz-KDNP support and the cooperation with the constituency presidents cannot involve a subservient role. A good local government politician manages his government and party relations for the sake of his town, but he never forgets that when he leaves his office, the questioning eyes of the local citizens await him, and he has to fight for their trust again and again – with actions and good decisions.
At first, it may seem a little strange that I support all this with the words of a politician who is now the most masterful representative and executor of the government’s will: Antalé Rogán. I’m not doing it unwisely. On October 18, 2006, in Kossuth Square, next to the rickety building of the TV headquarters looted by the machinations of Gyurcsány, one of the winners of the municipal elections held at the beginning of the month, Antal Rogán, spoke. Gyurcsány was given an ultimatum to leave one month after the Ószöd speech was leaked, but before the peak of the police terror on October 23. Of course, he did not live with this, he again manipulated the Socialists around him, and as usual he paid for the loyalty of the SZDSZ with our money, so the change of government had to wait another four years.
On the other hand, there was a landslide-like change in the local governments, popular anger in most settlements (Budapest was also by a hair’s breadth!) drove out of power the cliques and dynasties that had often been living there since the Rákosi era.
The then 34-year-old Rogán – despite the dramatic scenes taking place in the city center – was able to create a local alliance between the national side and the leftists interested in change, as a foreshadowing of today’s national cooperation, thus defeating the people of the past.
After such antecedents – according to Magyar Nemzet’s coverage at the time – he argued in Kossuth Square: “The main lesson of the October 1st elections and today’s fate-changing events is that we can only pull ourselves out of the mess the Gyurcsány government led the country into together.” – leftists and rightists alike. What the Gyurcsány government did was not done with the knowledge and approval of sane, fair-minded left-wing voters, but only in their name, and the majority of sane-minded left-wing voters do not even agree with this. The II. Since World War II, Hungary first entered the main street of history in 1956, the second time in 1989-90, and now we are walking on the main street of history again, the country has once again shown that it can distinguish between truth and lies […] The residents of the district, leftists and rightists, conservatives and liberals, or, as they say, Belgians, neutrals, stood up exemplary in this difficult situation.”
Then, on the first of October 2006, the new national coalition was born, which finally won an overwhelming victory over the government of hatred. This unity, the broad alliance of Hungarians who think in different ways, are sometimes critical, but still have national sentiments, continues to this day. On June 9, we must once again defend this particular Hungarian road, created with painstaking work.
