Seldom do small countries capture the limelight. For weeks now Hungary has been a news item thanks to a speech of its Premier. That small country has just produced one of the deepest political lows on record that matches the “I-have-never-had-sexual-relations-with-that-woman”. Except for the crude language one is reminded of a certain someone’s “Tischgespräche”. All this is reason enough to report it, not for Hungary’s sake, but because some generalizations might correspond to the unspoken truth in your community.

In bringing about the collapse of Moscow’s Outer Empire, the Hungarians played, after the Poles, a leading role. Having been, due to the Revolution of 1956 the “happiest barrack in the eastern Lager”, the Magyars had more freedom to travel and enjoyed more wealth than anyone else in the Crimson Reich. The privileges included some private enterprise to make the system more effective than what standard Socialism provided to others. Therefore, when freedom broke out, Hungary stated to climb from a higher base and did so with more experience than their neighbors had. József Antall’s post-Communist government made a promising start in 1990. Perhaps wrongly, he did not ask that the debt that financed “gulyàs Communism” be canceled: he felt that paying back everything is the honest path to take.

Subsequent events, beginning with the second free election in ’94, taught a lesson. The more good governance is abandoned in favor of a system that sees its service to society in the distribution of unearned benefits, the more welfare will be necessary. Correspondingly, the more “beneficiaries” from hand-outs there are, the less efficient the economy that pays the bills. Concurrently, it becomes increasingly difficult to (1) get the votes to change course, and (2) to reward societal contribution and not failure tagged as a “need” entitling the bribed client to goodies.

Socialism created dependence on the Party-controlled state. The path the CPs took to industrialize shackled the forces that made their Western model successful – this is akin to still expecting chicken once eggs were declared to be politically suspect. Their ideology made Communists to replace the entrepreneur with central planning. The distrust of “spontaneity” and the scarcity caused by the concept driving modernization necessitated the distribution of goods by the Party-state. While economically necessary, the practice promised political benefits as the feeding hand is seldom bitten. Thus a way of life based on dependence on allocations from above emerged. This deficiency got amplified as dividends expressed political reliability rather than merit. In fact, the more important one was as a “leader of the toilers” the less one had to work!

Projected on the foregoing serving as a screen, it is understandable that the second free election was won by the CP’s succession party. “Servitude is,” said a famous Hungarian, “a bad preparation for liberty”. Mr. Antall asked for too much sacrifice from a population whose majority expected more rewards from Capitalism for doing what one did in Socialism for less. (“Live like in the West and work like in the East” said the wags.) This disappointment and the idea that the good life comes from “above” explain why governments in Central Europe are seldom re-elected. What makes ’94 unique is that the Socialists – who gave the country forty years of misery – won and did so with Gyula Horn, a candidate who served in ’56 as a Soviet auxiliary against the revolutionaries. He had also participated in a massacre of civilians. For the concluding lessons it is of importance that this established Hungary as a “country without consequences.”

In part Mr. Horn got elected because, politely put, the moral perception of his voters was skewed. Some political stupidity also enters the picture. Candidate Horn was proven to lie disingenuously in his rendition of why he joined a terror organization. After Horn’s term the Socialists got voted out in favor of the “Young Democrats” (Fidesz). It was the right decision for the wrong reason. Horn’s actual deliveries of goodies did not, could not, meet irrational expectations.

Under the YDs a recovery had started even though the country was not confronted fully with its predicament. The YDs had two problems that cost them the narrowly lost – and questioned – election. (Many bureaucrats got their job under “Soviet” rule.) When the structure of an economy is changed it takes time before “success” registers in an appreciably higher individual living standards. The average person lacked the economic intelligence to comprehend this and to appreciate the improvement of the fundamentals. Also, prior to the election, the global economy slipped. The YDs had no control over that but it reduced their visible achievement. (N. B. There were 242,000 unemployed then, now there are 311,000.) Ultimately, however, the YDs lost because they were outbid.

Hungary was a country where one retired at 55. Naturally the allotments of the retired had to be small as no economy can channel to its pensioners a decent income under those rules. Undaunted, the Socialists promised a massive retroactive increase of rents. The bribed, because bribable, mass then voted for the highest bidder. (Promptly the inevitable inflation cancelled out the gains and whatever other “social improvements” – such as a 50% raise of the officials’ salary – extended.) In the course of their term the Socialist welfare wagon train slowed. By then, the PM, Péter Medgyessy – elected regardless of his earlier status as Agent D209 – “got more problems”. His party let him go and Ferenc Gyurcsány, took over. Before this Gyurcsány converted his clan’s top Party nexus into a fortune whose legitimacy is not unquestioned.

This young man took his party into the April elections that he won with a reduced majority. The YD campaign emphasized the country’s economic problems and a coming crisis – an allegation regarded as fact by economists. Otherwise – and unwisely – they claimed to do better what the left was doing and talked of reform while continuing the “subventionitis” for all those who thought they deserved it. The Socialists talked smileys and claimed that a coming crisis is unfounded negativism. The country was in great shape: there would soon be more for a greater number.

The crisis struck with the intensity of a sonic boom when on September 17th a recording of the re-elected Gyurcsány’s May 26 address to his party’s fraction became public. Thereafter the arrogant PM posted the text and told an interviewer that this is not about his fib but about “the lie that is basic to politics.” The abbreviated text, with implications that transcend Hungary’s boundaries, deserves to be repeated. Unlike in the sanitized translations that circulate, the vulgarities will not be censured.

 “We have done what could be done. We have accomplished that, the papers proving what we are preparing to do, did not surface during the campaign. [It became known that, to prevent a leak, the Finance Minister ordered his experts not to prepare the data on the deficit for when it was scheduled.] Now there is not much choice left because we have f***d up. No country in Europe has made a mess like we have. Obviously we have muddled through the last years by lying. It has been quite clear that what we say is not true. I cannot name one action we could be proud of.

The moment of truth has come. The world economy’s oversupply of money and hundreds of tricks – of which I must not necessarily know – has helped us to survive. We can procrastinate, we can prepare f***n studies but I am telling you guys, you can dissect for weeks and then the professionals will come to say that they have already analyzed: Hungary is written off. [By the way, the “tricks” worked because the spinned facts were examined by a sympathetic Socialist at the EU who tried to “help.”]

It is great to lead a country. I had one ambition: to prove to the Left that it can win in this f***n country that it need not s**t its pants. Now I make history. Not for the history books, I s**t on that.

You came here, the ones that dared unconcerned about the refund of travel expenses – f***k that – to build another world! Later there will be time to see about an income. For a year-and-a-half one had to do as though we would be governing. Instead we were lying morning, noon and night. I do not want to carry on. No more compromises to be able to continue to do nothing while waiting because one has – I personally know how it is – no other profession only this one. So I tell you, inhale deep, drink a f***n lot of wine, sleep on it and decide what you will do.

Sure guys, there will be demos. Soon they will get their fill and go home. My personal message to you is to change this f***n country. We are frightened to touch a number of obvious social lies for we are f***n afraid of the political consequences. One should not be a politician only because one can live of it so f***n well. What if, for a change, we would not lose our popularity because we play in private with our d***s but because we do great social things, in which case it is no problem that we lose support: we will get it back.”

On the basis of the above, a sharp societal reaction by is to be expected. The formal and informal management of the calamity is to be regarded as a test of the Magyars’ sense of propriety and political acumen.

The immediate response was a demand of the center-right opinion leaders that Gyurcsány resign. The Left raised its eye-brow on account of the lewdness while it liked to use the adjectives “frankness,” “honesty,” and “courage”. (No one matched Jan Slota, Slovakia’s polit-clown who promoted the PM to “the galaxy’s wisest politician.) Simultaneously demonstrations were held in Parliament Square and also in provincial towns. A significant blemish occurred on the first night of the demonstrations. Football hooligans joined the action to engage in politically damaging vandalism. Many in Hungary feel ambivalently about the matter as several policemen, soldiers, border guards in civilian and even an elected Socialist were among the participants. Does this indicate shaken loyalties or is it a sign of manipulation of the fans? From an eye witness the writer knows that some who joined the hooligans arrived in taxis to the scene. The devastation caused hurt mainly the opposition.

At this juncture the real question is not why the PM, who should resign, does not go but rather, why he is able to stay. If Hungary would not be in danger to living up to its nickname, “Abszurdisztán”, then it is primarily the conned Socialists that would demand the PM’s resignation. Indicators of fundamental weakness became discernible early on. The demonstrations quickly proved that although massively provoked, even in the warm fall weather Budapest cannot match freezing Kiev’s Orange Revolution. The mass at the parliament never passed 50,000. Only the Opposition participated and not the compromised Socialists who were the primarily deceived. Soon the crowd consisted of tens of thousands and then the movement wound down. On September 27 a small news item pointed to a worm in the political woodwork. Gyurcsány held a speech in a community whose outdated “Soviet-era” industries had to be shrunk to health – therefore becoming dependent on support payments. While admittedly the decision to attend selected the sympathizers from the population – the PM got a standing ovation. If this was political illiteracy in action then the cheers might be due the fact that the austerity program will only be announced after the local elections of October 1st. To an oxen that does not know it, a steak might seem to be an acceptable idea – until it is his turn.

Yesterday the Hungarians went to the polls in the local elections. The results, although not a clear bill of health, nevertheless indicate that there are chances for Hungary’s recovery. The opposition did well and the results suggest that many votes were cast to express moral revulsion. At least in this case the “country without consequences” did not live up to its reputation and escaped self-damage from its inclination to practice permissive relativism. On the whole, if one thinks as the writer does, that fundamentally a nation is largely responsible for its prevailing order, then the Magyars are, albeit stumbling, not fully a basket case by their own volition.

Originally it was at this juncture this discourse about “applied political culture” and the struggles of the pit-bulls of politics would have had its planned end. However, new and unexpected developments override the planned plot and much of what had been reported.

Surprisingly, after the closing of the polls, on Sunday evening, László Sólyom, the President of the Republic, delivered an address to the country. Like Gyurcsány’s “secret speech” especially for he sake of the telling contrast, the outline is a fitting conclusion to this piece of writing.

The President had kept silent as the pre-election “logic of the struggle for power” had dominated events whereby “the fundamental moral dilemma” was side-lined by the campaign. To the President the PM had used “improper means to retain power” in the national elections of April. He has “redefined” the meaning of what lies are. Still, the “fundamental moral issue” cannot be pasted over by his claim that he showed “much courage” by levelling with the citizenry.

“Laws are of no use once the trust for a state of laws and democracy is shaken.” The economic condition of the country requires a firm fundament from which society can act. As President he has no constitutional power to right the situation by interfering. However, when taking office he promised to “restore the concept of decency’s” place in public life. He speaks up to remind Parliament that it can and should act in the current situation. Government is responsible to the legislature. Therefore it is parliament that can “restore the confidence” needed now. The key to recovery is in the hand of the majority (Socialists and left-Liberals) that needs to act promptly.

Now, to the Premier’s firs reaction. He claims to “sense the criticism” implied in the election’s results. He will stay on his post and carry on with his reforms. Meanwhile, his Socialist parlamentarians promise to stand behind their leader.