March 15 celebrations
March 17th, 2017Left-liberal commentators complain that the gatherings held by the opposition on the anniversary of the 1848 Hungarian revolution were highly uninspiring for those who would like to see a regime change in Hungary.
On Kettős Mérce, András Jámbor describes the speech made by the Prime Minister in front of ten thousand people as a patchwork of dull commonplaces, but strongly criticises Együtt leader Péter Juhász who distributed dozens of whistles among his supporters and blew them incessantly during the Prime Minister’s speech. Such a feat, repeated for the fourth time within six months, he adds, can less and less be considered a political performance. The only speaker Jámbor found remotely convincing was László Majtényi, the jurist who was the opposition candidate for president when János Áder was re-elected by the pro-government parliamentary majority on Monday. He led a march of three thousand people and encouraged them to be active in politics and fight against the incumbent government.
On 444, Péter Uj describes Majtényi’s performance as clumsy: first he bumped with his head into a loudspeaker, then made a speech which was ‘every bit as inconsistent’ as those made by other politicians. Uj finds it disheartening that the main opposition speaker on this memorable anniversary day offered no path to follow, apart from saying that things can change any time and when they will, the ‘Orbán regime’ can be sent packing. In Uj’s interpretation that sentence amounts to inviting the crowd to believe in miracles.