Comments by the translator:
On October 23, 2018, the anniversary of the 1956 October revolution in Hungary, a demonstration took place in Budapest demanding that the Hungarian government join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO). As it was described by Eva S. Balogh in an earlier post, the Hungarian government obstinately refuses to accept this supranational body despite the fact that the Regulation on establishing the EPPO came into force already a year ago and 22 EU member states decided to join it, including all Eastern European countries except Hungary and Poland.
The demonstration had been initiated by Ákos Hadházy, an independent member of the Hungarian Parliament. Hadházy was originally a Fidesz member of the city council in Szekszárd but left the party after he discovered an enormous local corruption scandal. After resigning and leaving Fidesz, he became vice-chair of LMP. Because of his disapproval of LMP’s policies he recently left the party, which – according to quite a number of observers – was overtaken by persons close to Fidesz.
Ever since he entered national politics, Hadházy and his colleagues have been doing an enormous job of unearthing the systemic corruption in the country. The demonstration was part of the campaign, also initiated by Hadházy, to collect one million signatures demanding that Hungary join EPPO.
The timeliness and popularity of the initiative are underscored by the results of a recent representative public opinion poll by Publicus Intézet. According to the poll, 79 percent of Hungarians believe that Hungary’s membership in the European Union is advantageous for the country. This is a substantial increase compared to 2015 when only 57 percent thought so; this increase occurred in spite of (or because of?) the constant and fierce anti-EU propaganda war waged against the EU by the Orbán government during the last few years. The poll also revealed that 58 percent of the population is convinced that a significant part of EU money ends up in private pockets through various channels, and only 6 percent believes in the honest handing of EU funds by the government. Furthermore, 86 percent of the population agrees that there should be stricter control of the use of EU funds. As far as Hungary’s joining the EPPO is concerned, 79 percent support it, and only 6 percent oppose it.
Ákos Hadházy’s speech delivered on October 23, 2018
Dear friends
I welcome those who have already signed the petition, as well as those who will sign it.
I once asked my parents about the memories they nurture from the days of the ’56 Revolution. My mother was a five-year-old girl at that time; she said she would never forget how overjoyed, happy and relieved the people of Hódmezővásárhely had become in those days. My father – a slightly older boy at that time – in turn remembers the endless column of Soviet tanks roaring along the Hajdúhadház section of Route 4.
The 23rd of October has always been the celebration of hope, for no one could have predicted a few days beforehand that the – seemingly resigned – people could drive away the representatives of power who were rotten to the core and who had lost all their control and self-control, within just a few days. Why did the revolution fail? It failed because the tanks representing the occupation rolled in in endless columns, and the unbeatable military dominance helped to power a newer – yet subsequently milder – dictatorship. However, the Hungarian government of today isn’t kept in power by a military superpower with seemingly endless reinforcements, but rather the unimaginable amounts of money that can be stolen without any limitations whatsoever: the EU funds. They pay the wages of their mercenaries from the EU money amounting to thousands of billions of forints. Oligarchs – persons like Lőrinc Mészáros, the gas-fitter, István Tiborcz, the son-in-law of Viktor Orbán, Antal Rogán, the propaganda minister, and Árpád Habony, the prime minister’s shadowy adviser, get hold of an unimaginable amount of money made available by Brussels. The middle management consisting of influential members of parliament also enrich themselves to an unbelievable extent. It is enough to mention a few names: György Simonka, Flórián Farkas, Lajos Kósa, István Horváth, Roland Mengyi, Gábor Varga, and János Lázár. Then there are the mayors and local government members who are also the beneficiaries of the system. But even the many thousands of lower Fidesz supporters receive a few million forints from bogus projects financed by the European Union.
The problem lies not only with the fact that the blatant display of luxury yachts, luxury aircraft, luxury mansions, and the 12-million-forint luxury watches is outrageous, but that it is possible to buy almost everything from this orbital amount of stolen money. It is possible to buy almost all the Hungarian media outlets and through these it is possible to spread lies such as the one according to which the political opposition and Brussels want to turn Hungary into a country of migrants. It is also possible to buy votes with the stolen money – the vast majority of the funds aimed at aiding Roma people were used for buying votes at a price of HUF 2,000 per capita. Thousands of mayors can be blackmailed with rural development monies that are distributed on “loyalty” basis – “it is a requirement to vote the appropriate way” for any village mayor who wants to achieve government or EU money for development. And why wouldn’t they utilize the stolen monies to buy politicians from the “opposition” who then secretly support Fidesz behind the scenes.
Shall we accept this situation? Oh, no we shall not! The good news is that the unlimited flow of monies endangered by misappropriation can be halted – unlike the Russian tanks. We do not want the funds to be halted, but rather to make it impossible to steal them. All we need is a public prosecutor who actually will do his duties. The current public prosecutor is not doing his job and for that reason Hungary must join EPPO.
So many people ask: what would happen once the one million signatures are collected? This will happen: we take away the reinforcements from the villainous and uninhibited army.
However, there will be another very important and symbolic result: we show ourselves and Europe that it is not true that Hungarians are corrupt or tolerate corruption, just as we showed in 1956 that Hungarians are not communists.
Also, there are numerous individuals who ask whether it is possible to collect one million signatures. First, it is possible, but also it is an imperative. Why wouldn’t it be possible? Are there not one million citizens in Hungary who are fed up with being forced to watch our future being stolen from us? Of course there are. Or in other words: are there not one million citizens who are not afraid to give their signatures – not their blood, lives, or livelihood – for the purpose of making it possible to persecute these uninhibited thefts that are organized from the top levels? Of course, there are. Are there not one million citizens who know that in fact the few dozen government members who organize systematic theft should be afraid – instead of one million individuals? Of course, there are. Are there not a few thousand individuals who are ready to work through a few afternoons or forenoons to collect the signatures of 50-100 dissatisfied fellow citizens in their neighborhoods? For sure, there are! (So far we’ve collected 120,000 signatures, yet still a lot of work is needed!)
I have to confess, I also asked myself after the elections won by the government in a fraudulent manner, aided by the incompetence of the political opposition: for how long is it still rational to keep on fighting? However, the past days and weeks provided a wonderful experience: I met several Hungarians who downloaded the signing sheets from the internet and collected dozens of signatures prior to the start of the organised signature collection in their neighborhoods. So, many people realized that it is time for work. My friends, it is time to work instead of whining. We could lie down and pull up our blankets and lament after witnessing the result of the fraudulent elections. This is exactly what Fidesz expects from us.
The mood for a revolution may be absent. However, the justified discontent and outrage is palpable. Those of our fellow countrymen who are better informed have a monumental task to perform: they need to collect this discontent one-by-one and they need to tell the truth to those who are influenced solely by the lies of the government propaganda.
In the past 10 years we have spent an amount of EU funds that is twice as much as Austria received from the US as part of the Marshall Plan. However, the largest part of this money was stolen, and that is the reason why we did not converge even an inch towards the Western standard of living and economic performance.
The accession to the EU and the funds provided by the Union would have offered a chance to establish a fair and just society. A society where man is the objective and not a means. A society where the most important goal and standard of a politician’s work are to nurture health and knowledge – the two essential treasures determining the quality of life.
Instead of this – tragically – the Hungarian government adopts the Russian system again. The Russian or the Turkish model means the immeasurable wealth of a handful of people and the hopelessness of the vast majority.
The venal elite – whose treacherous mechanisms become increasingly bold and uninhibited – stole 28 years from us; however, for those of us who have children, it is even more painful to see that they steal our future as well. They stole our past and our present, but our future still can be saved. Nonetheless we need to work for this, and we have to do it NOW. He or she who collected 5 signatures against corruption has performed a significant act for our future; he who has more free time and is better in contacting people and achieved 500 signatures has done even more, but he who gives “only” one signature may also be thanked by the future generation.
Let me remember the beginning of the revolution at the end of my speech. The revolution started in 1956 at this very place. However, the first significant armed conflict burst out in Bródy Sándor Street, where the State Radio had its headquarters. The most important weapon of every deceitful and corrupt regime is low-down and untruthful demagoguery. The state propaganda kept spreading lies to citizens and ignoring real news in those days – not unlike today’s state media. Do you know how many times M1 (the Hungarian state TV-channel) – spreading fake news around the clock – reported about the petition drive for EPPO? Not even once!