Infighting within Fidesz?
July 11th, 2011Most media watch in incredulous silence the mayors of 23 districts of the capital (almost all right wing) form an alliance which ostensibly challenges the authority of the right wing mayor of Budapest. One right wing commentator, however, calls their move insane.
The initiative by right wing politicians against the right wing mayor of the City of Budapest, has provoked only one comment so far. In municipal elections last October held in the wake of the parliamentary vote, Fidesz won large majorities in 21 out of 23 districts of the capital. It also beat the left for the first time in the battle for the Budapest City Hall. The Mayor of Budapest, István Tarlós is not a Fidesz party member and has often remarked that he has been given “a free hand by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.” He has had a few minor conflicts with several district mayors, as well as with the government commissioner for Budapest, who have now joined forces in an alliance set up as a “Budapest Union of Local Councils”, without – and therefore against – the City Hall.
András Bencsik, editor-in-chief of Demokrata, is extremely critical of the initiative, in particular because the new Union’s ambition is – according to its statutes – to represent the interests of the city as a whole. “If a Union of the Villages and Towns of Hungary were to pop up with the aim of representing the interests of the Country as a whole, what would PM Viktor Orbán say?”. Bencsik suggests that the district mayors are afraid of Tarlós, because he has too strong a character and is too resolute. Do they also plan, on behalf of Fidesz – Bencsik aks, rhetorically – to stage demonstrations against the “authoritarian” mayor? “Gentlemen, have you gone mad?”