Tavares charge dismissed as ‘paranoid’
October 10th, 2013A left-wing commentator accuses Fidesz of suspecting an opposition conspiracy behind all unpleasant surprises including the Tavares report, and suggests that such ‘paranoid propaganda’ should help opposition forces unite.
In Népszava, György Sebes reminds competing left wing leaders that they are equally targeted by pro-government propaganda and therefore should close their ranks as the election draws near. The recent case of Edit Herczog, MEP is just one example of many, he writes, when pro-government propaganda tries to discover wrongdoing by the opposition behind negative echoes that government policies generate. A statement by Ms Herczog has been used by pro-government commentators as proof that Hungarian Socialists played a decisive role in the ominous Tavares report criticising recent legislation in Hungary which was adopted by the European Parliament in July (see BudaPost, October 9). Sebes admits that Ms Herczog’s “sentences were unfortunate and made no sense”, but they were just a pretext for Fidesz to accuse the left of being unpatriotic. Other such examples include the fuss made about the “otherwise superfluous and unnecessary” act of pulling down Orbán’s plastic statue (see BudaPost,October 1). Sebes also deems unfair the attacks directed at former PM Ferenc Gyurcsány’s appeal for a joint opposition rally on October 23rd, the anniversary of the 56 revolution . His right-wing critics immediately reproduced ”what the police did” during his term in office, on October 23rd 2006, ”but omitted all the antecedents”(see BudaPost, September 28, 2011).
All this, Sebes concludes, must force left-wing organisations and parties to talk about what unites them, rather than about what separates them”.