Rock star responds to critics

A fortnight after his performance at the Fidesz summer event in Transylvania, rock singer and songwriter András Lovasi has rejected allegations that his presence there was an expression of allegiance to the government.

Lovasi, who is known as an outspoken critic of the government, is also a regular participant at the annual Tusnádfürdő (Băile Tuşnad) Fidesz ’Summer University’. This year the organisers were severely criticised by a pro-government columnist for popularising a liberal adversary of the government side of his ilk. Meanwhile, opposition critics condemned him for assisting at what they regard as a pro-government ritual. (See BudaPost, August 1st)

In the most recent critique of Lovasi’s approach, HVG’s András Hont scorns him for taking criticism as a personal offence. He acknowledges that Lovasi is free to perform where he wants, but adds that critics are also free to express their disapproval. The liberal commentator also rejects Lovasi’s condemnation of the ‘extreme liberals’ who were infuriated by his presence at the Fidesz event. Liberals cannot, by definition, be extremists, he states.

Reacting on hvg.hu to Hont’s comment and to a previous article by Marxist philosopher Gáspár Miklós Tamás, Lovasi writes that artists are normally criticised on the basis of their performance, but his critics paid absolutely no attention to what he sang at the Fidesz festival. He then quotes one verse of a song he sang there in which he condemned the ‘dog-like’, ‘servile’ attitude of those he was singing to. He will continue to sing the same songs wherever he performs, he remarks, and will not heed the instructions of his critics about where he should or should not sing his songs.

Tags: Fidesz