Neigbors and Ballots
I can practically hear the chanting from here. Half of Serbia, our neighbor to the south, is smirking as they shout "Slobo! Slobo!" in honor of their fallen martyr, in some sort of defiance against a world that doesn’t like them. The other half is more than ready to rejoin Europe in the stampede toward some sort of unified Modern Europe. In Belgrade, the first stop on the Christmas Break journey, they still haven’t gotten around to repairing the buildings NATO bombs hollowed in 1999.
With Milosevic's death last weekend, it's a fitting time to highlight the untidy nature of politics in this nook of the world. We are, after all, the corner of the globe that brought you Viktor Yushchenko. You know the name, not because he’s a great figure skater, but because he’s the pockmarked Ukrainian president who was a relatively good-looking guy before he was poisoned mid-election in 2004.
Hungary is set for a parliamentary election next month. The bigger cities, not so much Heves, are pasted with small advertisements, grinning faces pleading for a vote. They are distinguishable to folks like you and me mostly by color, although I did successfully identify the complicated Finno-Urgic words for "family" and "home" on a sign last weekend.
In one corner, the red-bannered MSzP (Magyar Szocialista Part - Hungarian Socialist Party) continues the socialist tradition. Prime Minister Mister Ferenc, I can’t get around to learn his family name, is a MSzPer, along with the other cohorts of the current-government-in-power. The tri-colored SzDSz (Szabaddemokratikak Szovetsege - Alliance of Free Democrats) gang is the junior member of that coalition.
The bright-orange FIDESz (Fiatal Demokratak Szovetsege - Young Democrats) folks stand in the other corner. They’re the leading opposition party, and apparently they need to advertise more than the other parties. We’re talking really bright orange.
From that point on, it’s just an alphabet soup and jumble of words that sound rather nice together. The green-cloaked MDF (Magyar Demokrata Forum - Hungarian Democratic Forum) sport a nice color, and I like the words Hungarian and Democratic and Forum. Those are all nice things.
The KDNP (Keresztenydemokrata Neppart – Christian Something or Other) website leads me to believe I probably wouldn't cast my vote for their candidate. The white crosses and pale-blue soaring eagles give it away.
The name looks good, but FKGP (Fuggetlen Kisgazdapart - Independent Smallholders Party) is belied by their website. It is simply a 1990-era website, if you know what I mean. And there’s just a little too much emphasis on images of wheat.
And strolling in somewhere just short of irrelevancy, MIEP (Magyar Igazsag es Elet Partja - Hungarian Truth and Life Party) is another third-rung last-gasp political party. I like truth. And I like life. I think it’s the combination of the two that doesn’t do it for me and the Hungarian electorate.
Hungary has been "Hungary" since 896 AD, but this is only the fifth time that they’ve ever gotten around to a national election. I can totally see why, as I tried to read the explanation of the electoral process:
Act XXXIV of 1989 on parliamentary election applies a mixed system of electorates: 176 seats are to be won in individual constituencies 152 seats on twenty regional (county, capital) lists, and 58 seats from a national list. The Hungarian election system calls for two votes: voters cast one vote on a candidate of the individual constituency and may choose from the regional party lists by the other vote. In individual constituencies the recommendation of at least 750 voters in required for candidacy. A political party may set up a regional list if it has candidates in one-quarter of the individual constituencies but in at least two constituency. At least seven regional lists are required for a national list. 5 percent of the total valid votes cast nationwide on the party lists is required for a party to get into the National Assembly.
Apparently you must not be just a law-school-acceptee, but a law-school-graduate to understand the electoral concepts. Either that or I’ve been away from words-of-any-importance for quite some time.
The last election was May 4, 2002. You can see they’re operating off of four-year election cycles here. The party breakdown was pretty anti-climatic, for all their clamoring of plural-party democracy.
- Fidesz-MDF (188)
- MSZP (178)
- SZDSZ (19)
- MSZP-SZDSZ (1)
All I know so far is that some people don’t like different colored politicians. Imagine that. And that many people say that they aren’t quite happy with the direction of the government.
Judging by the sidewalks, it’ll be orange in a land-slide, but I’m going to make it a point of demanding that the kids, in English or German, explain the intricacies of the political spectrum in Hungary to me.
Because it’s funny to think that the election might actually matter. My friend Eva works from the Ministry of Defense. Based on who the minister of that ministry is, she’s in or out of a job. Hmm, I hear Heves will be looking for an English teacher June 8th!
posted by jeremy @ 5:33 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Yes, I can confirm that Hungarian electoral process is quite a different thing, even many Hungarians don't understand it. Roots are coming from Germany. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the system itself, we - those wohe were in charge of forming "plural democracy" - studied many electoral systems and they liked the German exmaple the best. 4 years ago, altough Fidesz had the most votes,MSZP and SZDSZ had more votes together in coalition so they won the right to govern the country.
MSZP is the left-wing party, socialts in its name but left those old socialist element that we meant 15-16 years ago.
SZDSZ is the liberal party. I meant to say "the" because they call themselves liberal (in a wide interpretation). Hardly you hear their voice during the governing period (exept presidential election..ha-ha), but I have to admit that they have pretty good ads during the capmiagn. I wonder if they can reach the 5% - to get into the National Assembly.
Fidesz is rather a hard lesson to learn. Young democrats were they in 1989. By now, they lost many of those adorable elements for what many people liked them. They turned to conservative from liberal, rigth-wing from left-wing, populist from democratic. It's my own opinion, almost half of the country wouldn't agree with me.
FKGP- well, what shloud I say? Fidesz needed them to form a coalition to govern the country in 1998 ...and then...so many corruption and scandals. I hardly believe that they have 2%.
MDF - conservative right-wing party with Dávid Ibolya, the president and by the way the most popular politician in Hungary!Yes, a woman:) They could be a real conservative party (in a good sense) if they could leave their fights behind.
MIÉP - god, hopefully, they will never get to the National Assembly again. A real threat to democracy. Fidesz needed them in 1998. No comment.
And yes, I wonder if I had a job in June...I'm pretty much a small ant in the big machine bet there certainly will be many new faces in the hallways.
I forgot to sign my name. The previous comment belonged to Eva.
Excellent summing up of Hungarian politics - I might avoid writing my own and just make a link to yours. And by the way, I like the new message on the counter.
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