Mesterházy under fire for “hang him“ remark

A pro-government author accuses the Socialist leader of pining for revenge, while a left-winger claims that Fidesz applies double standards to hateful remarks and that the scandal is part of a character assassination attempt.

At the Socialist Party congress, while chairman Attila Mesterházy was castigating corruption , someone from the audience shouted “hang him” and the speaker agreed. He then explained that what he had heard was “prison”. A Fidesz spokesman warned the Socialists against inciting hatred. In his speech, Mesterházy, also criticized the Hungarian-Russian nuclear pact (see BudaPost January 27)

In Magyar Nemzet, Miklós Ugró notes that someone who cannot distinguish “prison” from “hanging” can hardly be expected to come up with anything coherent. Ugró ridicules Mesterházy’s suggestion that the question of a Paks nuclear plant expansion should be put to a referendum. Ugró thinks people are not knowledgeable enough to decide if Hungary needs the new plant and the Socialists themselves, while they were in government and planned an expansion in 2009 and 2010, did not have a referendum in mind.

In Népszava, György Sebes, claims that while Fidesz luminaries do not shrink from using threatening and unsavoury remarks – such as “Socialists have lying in their blood” or “so-called Hungarians in the EP” or calling Ferenc Gyurcsány “a pustule on the nation’s body” – their media now engages in character assassination against Mesterházy under a very similar pretext. The Socialist event, he notes, had very cursory coverage in the public media until they discovered the “hang them” remark in their recordings; from then on “they launched the steamroller” – a communication style he expects to continue until the elections.

Tags: campaign, Mesterházy