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English version
| Ferenc Miszlivetz: Budapest - How to Become the Voice of Europe? |
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| Changes are inevitable. Substantial renewal is needed within the circles of the Hungarian political class and the formal democratic institutions they run, shifting the intellectual and leadership paradigm and the perception of the scope of responsibilities.
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Team presidency, as a new tool of shared governance, has been introduced in the European Union. As a consequence, the Republic of Hungary has to exercise new leadership skills and responsibilities from 2011 for 18 months when it shares the EU Presidency with Spain and Belgium. What are the chances of approaching this goal in 2007 when domestically good governance as well as concensus-building are further away than ever before?
Hungary is not alone in the region in its inability to come to terms with the traumas of its 20th century past – from Trianon to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Fragments of this undigested past are employed to discredit political opponents. Mutual reprisals leave no space for the consensus-building required to successfully implement needed reforms, not to mention the lacuna in leadership and trust required for the future. The „lumpenization” of the political class – the increasing irresponsibilitiy of those who govern - has become clear from the summer of 2006 in Hungary. This is particularly painful in a period where social and material divisions are growing with the polarization of rich and poor to an extent unremembered in the country. These negative synergies may explain the unprecedented explosion of emotions after the leak of the lies-speech of the prime minister last September which were followed by street fighting and police brutality last October thematized by the 50th anniversary of the Revolution of 1956.
Nine months after the atrocities, emotions are still high. New scandals emerge about police corruption and reports are published about the „non-professional” use of coercion against demonstrators. This, combined with the hitherto unquestioned continuity of the secret police, reveal that the crisis is deepening and even the media have begun to give up hiding the facts. Consensus about the country’s direction and future is ephemeral.
The country needs to reconstitute an ethical base upon which a new social contract can be constructed. Without this reconstitution, trust in democratic institutions is undermined, and civil society remains marginalized and coopted while the political elite continues to enforce the „public bad” instead of the „public good”. The price that has been paid is clear. Hungary has fallen back in almost every category: from the Freedomhouse’s democracy index, to Transparency International reports on increasing corruption, and economic forecasts revealing the decrease in GDP growth. The Western image of Hungary during the late Kádár era as „the most cheerful barrack in the soviet camp,” and „gulash communism” has finally been shattered. The unfortunate and peculiar survival of these images after 1989 is a consequence of the inability of the political class as well as the media to look in the mirror of the past. The entire period of transformation has been characterized by lying about the inevitable, necessary and radical reforms in social security, healthcare, higher education and public administration. Once the avantguard of the region, Hungary has become a laggard in almost all fields of comparison. The adoption of the aquis communautaire did not lead to the opening up of Hungary’s public sphere.
On the contrary, the postponed institutional reforms now prescribed and poorly communicated by the government lack vision and a clear strategy as well as consensus and public understanding. This can only exacerbate social resistance, frustration and apathy. Hungary’s governing party and the leading opposition party together can only garner 50% support from the population. The public mood has turned against the elite of the system-change.
Changes are inevitable. Substantial renewal is needed within the circles of the Hungarian political class and the formal democratic institutions they run, shifting the intellectual and leadership paradigm and the perception of the scope of responsibilities. Naval-gazing, short-sighted power games, and the continuation of the old Kádárist free-rider attitudes on both the national and European levels will not enable the country to sail smoothly towards the waters of sovereignty-sharing, mutual and open governance and efficient decisionmaking with others.
A new and intellectually and morally responsible generation is needed to enter the public sphere to rebalance the mechanisms of institutional behaviour and the social aspect of democratization needs to be relaunched.
At the moment, among the few positive signs, is the re-emergence of black humor. In Budapest today the joke goes: Both Viktor Orban and Ferenc Gyurcsany fall into the Danube. Who will be saved? The answer: the Hungarian people.
Hungary is not just an early candidate for economic „crash” as recently reported in The Economist; its’ crisis is protracted, deep and many-sided. After accession, the EU lost its disciplining effect on the political classes of new memberstates. Sharing the presidency might see the return of some positive impact, shifting the old political culture of scapegoating into a track of a new culture of cooperation with „outsiders”. Preparing for a team-presidency may help to speed up real reforms and enhance transparency in public affairs, but it is society itself that needs to take responsibility for halting polarizing and extremist tendencies by standing up for and insisting on good governance and shared responsibilities.
Ferenc Miszlivetz, Jean Monnet Professor, Director of ISES
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Mountains
cannot be surmounted except by winding
paths.
Goethe |
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