A right-wing take on Bajnai’s comeback
January 12th, 2012A leading right-wing commentator acknowledges that former PM Gordon Bajnai has published a remarkable analysis, but reminds him of his own role in plunging Hungary deep into debt.“Bajnai is wrong to suppose that an agreement with the IMF will be tantamount to political suicide for Orbán’s government” – Matild Torkos writes in Magyar Nemzet.
As BudaPost reported on Wednesday, the last left-wing prime minister, who is considered a potential challenger to the incumbent premier, published a long essay urging left-wing forces to unite in order to defeat the governing coalition. He suggested that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been trapped by his own “stubborn but mistaken economic policy”. Bajnai believes that whatever Mr Orbán chooses to do, he will be doomed. In case he rejects the demands of the EU and the IMF, the economy will crumble and his government will follow suit. If he yields to the pressure, he will lose face.
Matild Torkos believes that “hitting the wall while advancing in defence of the country’s interests, and then taking the sober decision to turn back,” is not a suicidal option. The right-wing columnist admits that Mr Bajnai’s essay “sent directly from Columbia University,” meets all the criteria of a mature political programme. She also acknowledges that she would not refute out of hand “many of Gordon Bajnai’s statements on democracy and the rule of law.”
She remarks however that as a businessman and as a politician, Bajnai was, as she puts it “near the fireplace” when innocent people were being beaten by police (See Budapost, September 28, 2011) and when public property was being plundered.
“If there is a trap,” Torkos concludes, “Bajnai knows perfectly well who built it.”