Napi Gazdaság defends PM’s stance on capital punishment

A pro-government analyst explains PM Orbán’s controversial statement on “keeping the issue of the death sentence on the agenda” as part of a ‘plebeian’ strategy aimed at re-invigorating the Fidesz constituency at a time when passive attitudes would lead to defeat.

In Napi Gazdaság, political analyst Csaba Fodor believes the government must take back the initiative from the opposition, which has been more successful in mobilising its followers over the past six months than the government side. Unlike its predecessors in government, Fidesz still leads the polls and has significant space for manoeuvre thanks to a growing national economy. Nevertheless, he continues, it should not relax; otherwise its followers will lose self-confidence. Fodor thinks this is precisely the reason why PM Orbán has launched his “national consultation” on immigration (see BudaPost, April 28) although the Left simply denies that it is a problem, at a time when immigration is one of the main concerns of west European societies. In a similar move, the Prime Minister has raised the issue of capital punishment (see BudaPost May 4), because people feel that earlier measures to reform the Penal Code (See BudaPost, June 27, 2012) have only yielded partial results. He even believes that Mr Orbán’s initiative will go beyond mere words, but “more importantly, the government has finally seized the initiative, and is determined to use the elbow room it has.”

Tags: death penalty, Fidesz, immigration, Orbán