VIKTOR ORBÁN: WE BELONG TOGETHER

After the European Parliamentary election there will be a referendum on December 5, campaign follows campaign, and the two great parties voice totally different opinions. The left wing is divided, the right wing mobilizes its forces for ’yea’ votes. There is a lot at stake.

The two parliamentary by-elections, though invalid, showed a great right wing advantage. There is a great chance that both the dual citizenship and the stop to hospital privatization will be accepted by a landslide victory. Viktor Orbán emphasizes that Hungarians believe more and more that a civic way of living means safety for them and it creates a Hungary of good opportunities. They also feel that this needs not only a spiritual support but a physical presence: they will have to go and vote for this programme. In this debate in fact the government and the nation appear on opposite sides. All the opinion polls show that most people support both dual citizenship and the prevention of privatizing hospitals. These are not political issues, these are national interests where a rigid businesslike attitude fights against common sense and solidarity. The government wants to regard Hungary as a sort of holding where each man is rather a financial problem and not an asset. ’We are one nation, we belong together, and we can count on no one else but on one another. By this referendum we can decide if we want to share our freedom with our brothers beyond the borders.’ The government and the governing parties refuse this though all the parties and civic movements of the Hungarians beyond the borders wish this solution which in fact means a passport to the European Union. Now Hungary faces many problems, perhaps the most severe one is the state budget deficit. This budget is rather a business plan than a responsible expenditure. This budget is openly against labour and entrepreneurs with its policy of taxation, with its inflation rate and with its measure to retain V.A.T. The result is that this budget is not that of Hungary but the budget of some businessmen and some companies.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó