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In Hungary,
it is a fundamental condition of
democracy that there should always
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be a presidential opposition.
So let's create an opposition that is
government-minded. I agree that there
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is no real political democracy
where a mass party is formed,
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and then the other party
never stands a chance.
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There is a chance that opposition
parties will be needed.
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I have always considered the year 1875,
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when Kálmán Tisza united
the two parties a tragic one
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because in Hungary there were
conditions for bipolar politics
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and it was then that the great mass party
and the government had no chance of a real opposition,
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which necessarily led them in an unproductive
and aimless direction.
The Horthy Era also
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had a major political flaw
in the so-called united party,
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which also produced aforementioned small partiest
that had no chance of forming government.
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So we agree on this, I believe,
that it is very important
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that the conditions for an alternating political regime,
in the political life of Parliament,
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really develop.
One of the conditions for the
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emergence of a true democracy is the rule
of a parliamentary democracy,
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the rule of law in the whole state apparatus
and this must be linked to
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a very good municipal system.
So democracy can only be imagined
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as a true democracy if the local governments
really live alongside central government,
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and therefore it will be incredibly
important that the number of
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elected people in the whole administrative
apparatus in Hungary really be replaced,
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all the civil servants,
so that people can feel once again
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that they elect people whom they can trust.
I agree that the press is
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not one of the elements of democracy
in the sense Montesquieu understood it,
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but it is a power factor.
Additionally, there is a fundamental truth
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that political democracy can function
only where parliamentary democracy
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can be built on a wealthy
middle class in a broad sense
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and that is why it is necessary to strive
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- not in the old sense of state officials -
but a very wide medium layer
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of peasantry and skilled workers
that we see in every functioning democracy.
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A well-functioning democracy can only
be built on such a base,
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because where there is desperate poverty in
its masses democracy cannot really be built.
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Today, at half the way,
we are in a serious, difficult situation.
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The country is in a serious,
difficult situation and this means
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that we have to think through this path,
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what we have done, we have to say it clearly,
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and we do need to repeat
again and again what heritage
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we have taken over. What is happening now
is that some are going to be upset
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if we mention our inheritance and
if we talk about the members of the previous state party,
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painting themselves now as social democrats,
drawing themselves to the international network
of social democrats.
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If they want to enter
the political race, I think
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they will have the sense to think for a longer time
there and they won't rush away.
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But we see representatives of these parties
in mid-term elections.
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It's like they never had anything to do with it,
like snake skins - they just take off their past.
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Central Committee secretaries become the best reformers
and then reformers become the best liberals,
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if you like, and national democrats
that you want and they know everything better
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because they're experienced, professionals
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but they've bankrupted the country!
We're not talking about it anymore.
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It's not about some cheap propaganda,
it's about analysing the state
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in which we've taken over the
country and just because the country
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was having a heart attack, it still crossed the finish line
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they were jus taking her away on a stretcher right away.
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Please (the old guards) don't act as if
you've given power over elegantly, stemming from
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some wonderful judgment of the situation.
We were very correct when we took over the government.
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In these two years, we have accomplished
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many things that are not popular.
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Did we ever say in the Hungarian Democratic Forum
that popular tasks would follow?
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Why, for the sake of the country,
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we are willing to sacrifice our
own political party. I hope
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that this will not be necessary,
but when we put it this way
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we have just said that we will not sacrifice
the country for party interests,
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if necessary, rather vice versa. Therefore,
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we have chosen the only possible path,
which means transformation.
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We've said it many times,
but it may not hurt
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to have a difficult inheritance.
We do not doubt that after
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the retortion period in Hungary after 1963,
the conditions continued to improve
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and that there were reform experiments in 1968.
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Consequently, the political and economic situation
in Hungary has improved more significantly
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than in the neighbouring countries.
But, please, to what do we owe this? To 1956.
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Let's not be so grateful
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to the past system upholders so as to think
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they figured it out on their own.
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In 1956, when János Kádár was taken to
Moscow with Ferenc Munnich,
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Mátyás Rákosi was put there for him -
who did not say a word there in Moscow
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but when the demands were made
they always showed him Rákosi.
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Malenkov, Khrushchev and the others
knew how to handle it.
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And when that happened and when
Kádár took on this role
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it certainly wasn't an easy role
but he did have a routine.
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Then please, they've always had 1956 in mind.
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That's what they said in Moscow.
It was argued that they could not
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carry out those claims.
The Hungarian government had a separate sobbing man
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in the person of Antal Apró who said in Moscow
that we could not pay any more.
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He claimed that otherwise
it would be '56 all over again.
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And it went on this way and we assured ourselves
that military spending was smaller than elsewhere
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because the army and the police,
together with the Minister of Interior Boross,
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had never exceeded
the strength of the Soviet army present
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and that it was the revolution and freedom
struggle of 1956 that taught the Russians,
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taught the Soviet Union,
the Communists that Hungary
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should be treated differently.
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I'm a historian, and I don't
deny that I'm interested in
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the judgment of posterity
and not just the opinion of contemporaries.
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I trust that we will not go
into Hungarian history shamefully
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but as the free government of the first
free-elected parliamentary assembly after a dictatorship,
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which knew what should be done
and did what could be done.
