Gyurcsány’s Öszöd speech video
May 28th, 2016As Mr Gyurcsány accuses former Socialist leaders of having leaked the infamous speech which led to his fall, a right-wing columnist believes the case has left an indelibly negative stain on Gyurcsány’s image.
In a video message on the 10th anniversary of the Őszöd speech, the former Socialist Prime Minister and now leader of his own DK party accused his former colleagues within the MSZP leadership of responsibility for leaking the recording of his secret address. At the same time he said his words were meant to end an era of lies and open a new course of rational leadership, but he was ‘betrayed’. At Őszöd he told his fellow Socialist MPs that they had won the elections a month before by massively increasing the budget deficit. ‘We haven’t done anything for 18 months’, ‘we have been lying morning, noon and night’ he said, among other things. A recording of the speech surfaced four months later and excerpts were broadcast by State Radio. The day after, far right activists led a siege of State TV headquarters in Budapest, while anti-riot police stood idly by. On the following two days, then one month later on the anniversary of the 1956 revolution, police used excessive violence not just against violent protesters, but also against innocent bystanders and peaceful Fidesz demonstrators. (See BudaPost, throughout 2014)
Analysing secret service documents released after the events, Magyar Idők suspects that Mr Gyurcsány knew and approved the initiative to leak the recording. Commenting on the issue in the pro-government daily, Károly Villányi contrasts Mr Gyurcsány’s Őszöd address with PM Orbán’s speech at Heroes’ Square in June 1989 in which the young Fidesz founder demanded the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary. Both speeches will go down to history, he suggests. The difference is that Mr Gyurcsány can never delete the stain the Őszöd case has left on his image as someone who clung to power at any cost, Villányi writes on the anniversary.