Hungarian opposition parties marking the August 20 national holiday

Hungary should apply a Scandinavian model based on personal freedoms in the development of its society, the head of conservative Jobbik said at a celebration of August 20, on Monday. Hungary’s future “must be laid on new foundations”, the opposition LMP party said in a statement. 

Jobbik: Hungary should follow Scandinavian model

Tamás Sneider said that his party’s mission was to “show a golden middle way between individualism and collectivism” and advocated the Scandinavian model in terms of social security, pensions and education.

Sneider said that

Hungary’s “Orbán regime” has “reached its zenith” and voiced hope that Hungarians could “again attain their freedoms against (ruling) Fidesz.

He added that nearly half of the opposition’s voters had supported Jobbik at the April general election, and insisted that no party other than Jobbik could “lend Hungarian society faith and strength” in a fight against the current government.

Speaking about another subject, Sneider did not exclude the possibility of cooperation “at some level” with the opposition LMP party, but noted that the two parties had conflicting views on some issues such as the integration of the Roma minority.

August 20 – LMP calls for ‘new foundations for future’

“Hungarian families and local communities must be assisted with real solutions,” the statement said and suggested that 20 percent of the country’s tax revenues should be spent on education. Authors of the statement also suggested that the Hungarian government should drop its “campaign against Europe” and work towards “strong nation states building a strong Europe, which can face the challenges of the 21st century”.

Hungary will be a successful country if families and local communities have “an opportunity to determine their future and have a say in decisions affecting their lives”, the statement said.

“Citizens must be treated as partners rather than tools; building mutual trust rather than reckless centralisation is the right way,” the statement added.

August 20 – Socialist Party points to St. Stephen’s legacy

King St. Stephen chose western Europe and the Socialist Party believes this is the path Hungary should follow, Bertalan Tóth, the party’s leader, said in a video posted on the Socialists’ Facebook page, marking the August 20 national holiday on Monday.

Tóth said August 20 was about celebrating St. Stephen’s founding of the Hungarian state over a thousand years ago and his decision to integrate Hungary into the West.

He said St. Stephen’s admonitions made it clear that a king’s strongest virtue should be humility, not arrogance or hate.

“Today in Hungary … we see a government that preaches Christian democracy and the defence of Christian values and in defence of these it sticks stigmatising stickers on the doors of rights organisations, sends police officers after homeless people, uses police to evict Hungarian families and attacks the independent Hungarian judiciary,” the party leader said.

“These policies have driven away 600,000 of our Hungarian compatriots and forced tens and hundreds of thousands of families into debt bondage.”

He said the Socialist Party favours the path to western Europe laid out by St. Stephen.

“We will fight for the rights of foreign currency loan holders,” Tóth said. “We will fight to make sure families don’t lose their homes and we will fight for the return of young Hungarians who have left the country.”

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI