DIFFERING HUNGARIAN EVALUATIONS OF GERMAN ELECTION RESULT

Hungarian politicians evaluate differently the results of the German election. All of them see them from their special point of view, focusing rather on the possible outcome of the elections in Hungary in 2006. Viktor Orbán is Brussels said it became clear again that opinion polls were not reliable. The chairman of Fidesz said they congratulated to Angela Merkel yesterday and added they were glad that a new era could start in Germany, mainly in the field of remedying unemployment. The former PM would welcome a German government with the programme of a radical tax reduction because this measure might help Fidesz in doing the same. Magyar Nemzet asked Viktor Orbán if he found hypocritical the attitude of Schröder's party that while they refused all cooperation with former Communists, they maintain friendly relations with the Hungarian government led by high ranking Communist functionaries, the chairman of Fidesz said ’forming a coalition in Germany is a problem of the Germans’. Imre Szekeres (Hungarian Socialist Party) said yesterday he would have been pleased to have Mr Schröder again Chancellor. György Wiener Socialist MP said the German elections had Hungarian parallels, too. He claimed the relative success of SPD showed there was no hopeless position in politics in spite of unfavourable opinion poll forecasts, expressing his hopes there was a good chance for the German Social-democrats to continue their work. Imre Szekeres had studied the German election campaign in person and found the personal contacts were the most important elements in the campaign of the SPD while Péter Kiss, head of the Prime Minister's’Office praised the brevity of the election campaign. According to the Alliance of Free Democrats FDP was the winner of the election as the German liberals almost doubled their number of former voters while Ibolya Dávid, chairperson of the Hungarian Democratic Forum saw in the result the refusal of the two-party system. Economist László Csaba, professor of CEU drew the conclusion that the majority of Germans refused radical changes, they were supporting rather a slow transition.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó