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Two sides of Orbán’s Christmas interview

December 28th, 2011

PM Viktor Orbán’s Christmas interview in the main pro-government daily, Magyar Nemzet sparks rather different reactions from each side of the political spectrum. Left wing Népszabadság believes that cabinet policy will lead the country to an “unforeseeable future”, while right wing Magyar Hírlap questions the value of hard-headedness in tough times.

In his Christmas interview in Hungary’s leading pro-government daily, Magyar Nemzet, PM Viktor Orbán said his administration was working hard on dismantling post-communism and the European storm surrounding certain measures taken by his government was the work of international financial centres who would have preferred the imposition of tough austerity measures on the population to the banking tax which the government chose instead..

The current government cannot be repaired” – it will either fail or lead the country to an unforeseeable future as it is based on the PM’s monomaniacal political philosophy – writes Róbert Friss in Népszabadság.

The left wing columnist accuses Mr Orbán of having demolished the „traditional political channels of communication” of the Hungarian Republic, in order communicate directly with the people instead, in the traditional style of authoritarian leaders.

Is it useful to be hard headed in unlucky times or would a more tactical approach do a better service to the nation?, asks Magyar Hírlap.

The pro-government daily picks up the case of the bill on the National Bank that was harshly criticised by European Commission chairman Mr Barroso. (See BudaPost, December 22)

Deputy editor-in-chief Gergely Huth thinks that while the government’s arguments are reasonable, the timing could have been better, as National Bank chairman András Simor will serve his mandate anyway and all the anomalies should have been handled by the government afterwards.

„Under normal circumstances an ideal statesman and government must stand by their principles, but what is going on in today’s world, is far from normal”. Gergely Huth believes that countries which try to stay as invisible as possible have managed to fare much better than Hungary has.

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