Socialist leader cries fascism

A pro-government columnist vehemently criticizes MSZP leader Mesterházy for labeling the Hungarian government fascist, in a left-wing Italian daily. A left-wing commentator notes that conservative dailies have also warned of undemocratic tendencies in Hungary.

“Mesterházy has thrown off his mask. He has called fascist not only the Hungarian government with its two-thirds majority in the House, but the whole country,” Zsuzsanna Körmendy comments in Magyar Nemzet on Attila Mesterházy’s interview in the Italian left-wing daily l’Unitá. In the interview, the MSZP leader called for the EU to intervene and stop the country “from drifting towards fascism.” According to Mesterházy, the introduction of mandatory voter registration (see BudaPost November 5) undermines democracy and practically introduces an “institutional dictatorship.”

Körmendy notes that until the early nineties L’Unita was the official daily of the Italian Communist Party. He likens Mesterházy to Hungarian Muscovites who supported the Soviet troops which invaded the country in order to uproot Hungarian freedom fighters and restore pro-Moscow rule in 1956. The pro-government columnist finds it abhorrent that the left-wing opposition spreads demagogic lies about the country and warns of looming fascism and anti-semitism in the hope of boosting its popularity.

Népszabadság in a front page editorial notes that some of the initiatives taken by the Orbán government have also been labeled anti-democratic by conservative newspapers in Germany and the UK, including Die Welt, the Financial Times and the Economist.

Tags: anti-Semitism, elections, Fidesz, Mesterházy, registration