House speaker sees ‘total political war’ in domestic affairs

Hungary’s internal affairs amount to “total war”, with no dialogue in parliament and the opposition having “no arguments but invectives”, the house speaker said in an interview published by the weekly Mandiner on Thursday.

In the interview, László Kövér said that “before each election we must fight for victory and the adversary should not be underestimated”, but added that he saw “no emergency” as ruling Fidesz is on top of the polls in each age group.

Kövér touched upon recent remarks by Péter Niedermüller, opposition mayor of Budapest’s 7th district, who described “white, Christian, heterosexuals” as “a scary formation”. Kövér said he was “white, Christian and heterosexual”. “I was given all that by God, it is not my merit but I proudly claim (those properties).”

Concerning the local elections last October, Kövér said that his party had lost municipalities in which “Fidesz had never had an absolute but a strong relative majority”. He mentioned, however, Budapest’s 10th and 21st districts as “baffling exceptions”, and said that a Fidesz victory was possible in such traditionally Socialist-leaning places then it would be possible elsewhere.

Kövér highlighted the importance of focusing on the young generation in the election campaign. They should be involved in politics and offered an alternative to some of the opposition parties.

The house speaker slammed the opposition for accusing the government of neglecting health services in Budapest, “while they are thwarting construction of a new hospital meeting requirements of the 21st century”, Kövér said. He added that “they are doing the same in culture”.