Case Study: Hungary 1990-2010: a cold civil war - repeated clashes - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Gábor ERŐSS Dialogue for Hungary – PM

11th Central European Round Table Vienna, 2015

Authoritarian tendencies in Central and South- East Europe and their effects on local politics Case Study: Hungary

 1990-2010: a cold civil war

• repeated clashes between ’left’ and ’right’

 2010-2014: the rise of an authoritarian regime

• 2/3 supermajority of the Fidesz
• Social rights restricted
• Checks and balances almost suppressed
• Centralisation and propaganda
• Overwhelming majority of Fidesz in almost every city

 2014- The ’’illiberal” State

• 2/3 supermajority of the Fidesz and the Jobbik combined
• Attack on NGOs
• Hate speech as a Government discourse (against: EU,

Refugees, Roma, as well as: Norway (!), Croatia, Serbia…)

Dialogue for Hungary (PM) protest against land grabbing

Orbán: “The new state that we are building is an illiberal state, a non- liberal state.”

 Completely and unilaterally rewriting the

constitution;

 Hijacking all major institutions, from the Supreme

Court to the office of the Attorney General;

 Systematically dismantling the system of checks

and balances;

 Restricting the freedom of religious minorities;  Controlling the press, with the public broadcast

service resembling the worst propaganda machines of totalitarian regimes;

 ANTI-DEMOCRATIC: Instituting an electoral system

significantly favoring Fidesz, etc.

 STATE CAPTURE: Tailor-making the economy to fit

the interests of government-friendly oligarchs; corruption is not an anomaly anymore, it’s the system itself

 AUSTERITY, esp. in education, health and social

affairs.

 HIGH CARBON Industrialisation, transportation and

investment policies

 ATTACKING NGO’s Raiding independent civil

society groups denouncing them as foreign agents;

 HOLOCAUST RELATIVISM Erecting a memorial that

denies any Hungarian responsibility for crimes committed during the World War II and the extermination of Hungarian Jews;

 STATE RACISM Institutionalising the school

segregation of Roma

Orbán and Putin

 Orbán has clearly

endorsed Putin’s model

• f autocratic leadership

and authoritarian nationalism.

Our protest action against the Rosatom Power Plant in Paks

Local level: good practices…

 In a restricted number of

municipalities/districts where Fidesz has no majority

 Our co-chair Gergely

Karácsony won the mayor election in “Zugló” (14th District of Budapest). He is the first green mayor in a city in Hungary

 Also: 19th district, 20th

district…

Local level: The authoritarian regime from below

”Public work” as a

means for control and oppression,

• esp. in the

countryside…

Ózd…

Local level: The authoritarian regime from below. The 8th District

 Máté KOCSIS: former

member of an extreme right party, actual mayor of the 8th District (Józsefváros), Communication Director of Fidesz , wannabee mayor of Budapest

The social aid issue

 The ”undeserving poor”  ”Outsourcing” the

control: a recently decentralised social care system

 The mayor appoints

those who give or refuse various social transfers

 Cuts

The ’moral’ issue…

 Drogues: hate

speech instead of prevention, help and care  Hepatitis is spreading…

 LGBT: hate

speech…

…And the moral panic …

Hate speech against

refugees too

Surveillance and violence…

Surveillance cameras ”Civil guards”

directed by a Fidesz’ local councilor

The 20th of August

smack in the face

The transparency issue

 ’Transparency is a

”liberal” trick’

 Some concessions

when put under pressure…

The housing issue…

 Hundreds of empty

flats…

 Diminishing social

housing

 Ejections  Illegal use of EU funds

for social housing (I lodged information against at the Budapest Prosecutor’s Office)

…and our fight for local democracy, non- violence, transparency, social justice and sustainability goes on…