March 15 Speeches
March 17th, 2016Left-wing commentators lambast the Prime Minister for his anti-Brussels speech on the anniversary of the 1848 Hungarian Revolution, while their pro-government counterparts dismiss as absurd the demands put forward by the main speaker of a protest rally on the same day.
In Népszava, Róbert Friss characterises the Prime Minister’s speech in front of the National Museum as an attempt to use Hungarian history to justify his ever more anti-EU stance. He asks why he doesn’t leave the European Union if he thinks that it is being devoured by ‘packs of incorrigible human rights warriors’.
In Népszabadság, Miklós Haritai says ‘the only festive speech’ on the anniversary was delivered by István Pukli, a high school headmaster who addressing a 35 thousand strong crowd in front of the Parliament building had the courage to ‘threaten’ Mr Orbán .
Mr Pukli gave the PM and President János Áder one week (till 23 March) to apologise ‘for the past six years of mismanagement’. In the absence of an apology, he will call for a one hour nationwide general wild cat strike to be followed by longer strikes if the government doesn’t replace the ‘incompetent’ officials currently negotiating with NGOs over teachers’ complaints.
In Magyar Hírlap, political analyst Levente Bánk Boros describes the rally in front of the Parliament Building as a chaotic event where speakers sought scandal rather than an agreement on education. He finds the demand for apologies on the part of the PM and the President devoid of any sense.
In a sarcastic piece in Magyar Idők, Péter Szikszai also finds it absurd to demand apologies from leading officials for practically everything they have done over the past six years. If this is what the most revolutionary teachers of our days find fit to stage in front of several thousand people, Szikszai feels ‘glad he was at high school under the Kádár regime, rather than today’.
Tags: education, EU, opposition