Former Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány has issued an unexpected warning about the dangers of turning public anger and the desire for revenge into government policy, arguing that even legitimate grievances must be handled through the rule of law.
In a Facebook post published on Sunday, Gyurcsány said that wanting retribution after suffering a serious injustice was a natural human reaction. However, he stressed that what may be understandable for an individual cannot become the guiding principle of a state.
“What may legitimately drive an individual cannot serve as the basis of state policy.”
Gyurcsány, who served as prime minister between 2004 and 2009 and founded the Democratic Coalition (DK), withdrew from active politics in 2025.
‘Revenge is human – but the state must be different’
According to the former prime minister, people who have been deeply hurt or treated unjustly naturally want some form of redress, and there is no reason to be ashamed of that feeling. The problem arises, he argued, when personal anger becomes a principle of government.
Revenge is inherently personal: the injured person decides what they consider sufficient retribution. Such an approach, Gyurcsány said, cannot provide a sound basis for governing a country. A democratic state instead needs rules that apply equally to everyone and are proportionate, transparent and subject to scrutiny.
This means that punishment should reflect the seriousness of an offence rather than the intensity of the victim’s anger.
Warning comes amid Hungary’s accountability debate
Although Gyurcsány did not name any political figures, institutions or specific cases in Sunday’s post, his comments come at a time when accountability has become a major issue in Hungarian politics.
The Tisza-led government has made investigating alleged abuses of the previous political era a prominent issue. Parliament established several investigative committees earlier this year, while legislation has also been passed concerning the creation of the National Asset Recovery and Asset Protection Office.
Against this backdrop, Gyurcsány argued that there are ultimately two possible paths for a government responding to widespread public anger.
One is to channel that anger into lawful accountability, proportionate punishment and compensation for those who suffered losses. The other is to turn revenge itself into a political strategy and continually search for new enemies.
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‘Revenge never becomes complete’
Gyurcsány argued that revenge is ultimately a dead end because it can never provide a definitive sense of closure. If those who have suffered injustice are denied lawful redress, he warned, private revenge may begin to take its place, as individuals lose faith in the state’s ability to deliver justice.
He also suggested that a political force which encourages demands for revenge while in opposition could lose credibility once it takes power if it fails to deliver what its supporters expect.
For Gyurcsány, the answer is therefore not to suppress or deny the desire for revenge, but to transform it into something compatible with democratic government: justice, accountability and restitution.
The former prime minister previously addressed similar themes, warning that a legitimate desire for justice can easily turn into a demand for retribution if it is not kept within appropriate legal and institutional boundaries.
