Published: 17.5.2021
I want to live in the kind of country that Gergely Karácsony painted yesterday. Where freedom, peace and, oh how this word has disappeared in the last ten years, humanity reign at last.
Where it is not a narrow party elite that decides who is a true Hungarian, who is a true patriot, who can get a tobacconist’s store, who can apply for an EU tender, who can even get to breathe. I too want a Hungary where not a privileged elite of 1 per cent rules everything, but where government decisions finally serve the interests of the 99 per cent. It was heart-warming to listen to Gergely Karácsony talk about rebuilding the republic, restoring the rule of law and reparations. There was no trace of hatred, arrogance or anger towards people who think differently in his words. He spoke with a voice of humanity. We have not heard such speeches for a long time.
If there is anyone who can finally bring some peace to this country that has been dragged into an intellectual civil war, it is Gergely Karácsony. If there is anyone who, with his openness and his willingness to compromise (much attacked, still one of his outstanding values) can finally bury the trenches left after the Orange Storm, it is Gergely Karácsony. Because next year, we need not just a change of government, but a change of era and regime. The reunification of the country and the nation, and the dismissal of the few who are chewing the country’s body to the bone. The 99 per cent referred to by Gergely Karácsony are not right-wing or left-wing, they are simply Hungarian. We, all of us. I know for a fact that there are many in the upper echelons of Fidesz who are ashamed to add their names to this plundering, this hedonistic robbery. I know exactly how many of Fidesz’s supporters are also sickened by the plastic aristocracy of the National Cooperation System’s (NER) elite, by the luxury bought with public money, by the expensive high-life of cheap people. This 1 per cent, the predatory elite, must be removed next year and put to rest, and there is room for everyone else in the 99 per cent: because we are all needed to reunite the country. Finally, the divisions can come to an end.
I want to live in a country led by Gergely Karácsony. Because his knowledge, experience and humanity will make Hungary a better place. You may say that I am biased, because we have known each other since we were fourteen years old, we were schoolmates at the Tóth Árpád High School in Debrecen. But this is more than supporting an old friend. As a family man with six children, a Hungarian MEP, a proud social democrat and a proud Hungarian patriot, I stand behind Gergely Karácsony in his capacity as a candidate for Prime Minister, and join the 99Movement he has launched and announced. Gergő, you can count on me!
You can find the 99Movement’s website here: https://kilencvenkilenc.hu/
After the Hungarian PM’s landmark speech in Tusványos in 2014, in which he proclaimed his desire to turn Hungary into an illiberal state, as a MEP I pledged to draw the public’s attention to the crimes of this regime in an open letter every week. This is the 298th time I ring the bells of alarm, as it still seems necessary. And also, because as a radical European Democrat, it is my duty to do so.
István Ujhelyi
Member of the European Parliament
16 May 2021.