Published: 6.8.2015
“Totally outrageous”, “hair-raising”, “insane” and “cowardly” is how the Hungarian opposition characterized the speech delivered by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in the Romanian resort town of Baile Tusnad on Saturday at the 26th annual Bálványos Summer Open University and Student Camp.
MSZP: It is Orbán who poses a threat to Europe
The Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) reacted to the speech by pointing out that the Viktor Orbán of twenty-five years ago “would have listened very nervously to what the Viktor Orbán said and what he represents today.”
At a press conference on Saturday, MSZP deputy chairman István Ujhelyi said Hungary’s Prime Minister was proving himself to be “more and more dangerous to all of Europe”.
The MSZP spokesman rejected the politics represented by the head of government, claiming that they were at the root of the serious crisis in which Europe currently finds itself, and not illegal immigration.
“Viktor Orbán is not a visionary—Europe’s wisest politician—but rather a petty head of a Balkan political mafia,” added Ujhelyi.
The MSZP spokesman said Orbán behaves as though he wants to ensure the country’s future even as he isolates the Hungarians from the European community.
“Viktor Orbán’s Saturday speech demonstrates that the head of government only looks back into the past and has no idea which way is forward, and what Hungary’s and Europe’s goals are,” said Ujhelyi, pointing out that, with the exception of extremist right- and left-wing parties, all other political powers are headed in the opposition direction to the one represented by Orbán.
Ujhelyi contrasted the right-wing, populist Orbán of today with the liberal, progressive youth leader of twenty-five years ago.
Democratic Coalition (DK): Orbán is blind and deaf to Hungary’s real problems
“Insane” is how DK spokesman Zsolt Gréczy characterized Orbán’s speech. At a press conference on Saturday in Budapest Heroes’ Square, Gréczy said it was clear from Orbán’s “unstructured” speech that he is “blind and deaf to Hungary’s real problems”, having become obsessed with the issue of migration.
“If the Prime Minister was really interested in Hungary and not how to enrich himself and his friends at taxpayer expense, then he should have spoken about how to prevent many hundreds of thousands of Hungarian youth from leaving the country,” said the spokesman.
He condemned Orbán for having the temerity to proclaim who is and who is not Hungarian.
“What Viktor Orbán said was unacceptable to every democrat and normal person. Broad solidarity on the part of democratic (society) is necessary in order for the country to finally free itself from this terribly evil person,” said the DK spokesman.
Együtt (Together): Orbán does not represent European values
In a statement sent to the Hungarian state media service (MTI), Együtt presidium member Nóra Hajdu wrote that “in addition to a lot of empty words”, Hungary’s Prime Minister “said some truly awful things.”
Hajdu characterized Orbán’s claim that black African immigrants come here and rape European women and that the Hungarian Left does not like Hungarians as “totally outrageous” and “hair-raising”.
In response to Orbán’s boast that over 1 million Hungarians filled in and returned the government’s so-called Consultation on Immigration and Terrorism, Hajdu pointed out that “many millions of normal thinking Hungarians also live in Hungary.”
“Viktor Orbán again demonstrated that it is neither possible nor desirable to come to terms with him since he does not consider those who disagree with him to be members of the nation,” wrote Hajdu, adding that “Viktor Orbán is not a member of the European intelligentsia, does not represent European values, and belongs to the East”.
Politics Can Be Different (LMP): Orbán suffers from tunnel vision
Striking a populist tone, LMP co-chair András Schiffer called on the prime minister not to be brave in Baile Tusnad, but rather in Brussels, Berlin and Washington.
Schiffer accused Orbán of tunnel vision and of having no answers to the global challenges of today. He criticized him for continuing free trade negotiations with the United States even after revelations that the National Security Agency had been secretly monitoring the mobile telephone conversations of European leaders. He called on Orbán to explain why Fidesz’s European delegation was giving a green light to the continuation of negotiations.
Schiffer said that instead of spreading hysteria, Orbán should devote himself to finding a collective European solution. He called on those countries that profited over the decades from the exploitation of the Third World to play a role in handling the immigration crisis.
Schiffer added that the people of Hungary needn’t be afraid of immigrants depriving them of their means of subsistence, but rather should be worried about a government which “deliberately plays with the decrease in wages”.
Jobbik: Orbán brave in words but cowardly in deeds
Hungary’s radical right-wing party accused Orbán of being two-faced and mealy-mouthed, saying that if he was really concerned about “preserving Hungary for the Hungarians” and the sovereignty of nation-states, then Hungary should restore its independent border defense and empower itself to deny entry to economic migrants seeking to enter the country, among other things.
In a statement submitted to MTI, deputy Jobbik parliamentary fraction leader Daniel Z. Kárpát claimed that the Orbán government was “brave in words, but cowardly in deeds”.
As proof of this the Jobbik spokesman cited the fact that despite “militantly opposing the EU financial pact” at the end of 2011, Orbán signed it without first obtaining authorization from parliament, and in so doing gave Brussels the right to have a say in the Hungarian budget.
Kárpát accused the government of duplicity on the question of immigration, claiming that, on the one hand, the government “loudly objected” to illegal immigrants being returned to Hungary, but then “caved in” so that the Dublin agreement providing the basis for this practice essentially remained in force.
For this reason, Jobbik predicts the prime minister’s words at Baile Tusnad will not be backed up with deeds, and that in the face of “multiculturalism threatening to destroy national identity, the threat of terror, unemployment, and migration leading to an increase in crime” Orbán will act as “cowardly” as all the other “parties of the 20th century”.
July 26, 2015 by Richard Field (www.budapestbeacon.com)