After much hand wringing, sleepless nights, stomach-churning agony and careful deliberation, I have decided I am not going to do it. I know my decision will disappoint some and to those, I offer my sincerest apologies. I would also say to them, there is no point in trying to have me change my mind. My mind is made up. My decision is final.
I am not forming a political party and running for Prime Minister of Hungary in 2014. That’s final.
Did I come to this decision simply because I am not Hungarian and don’t speak the language? Of course not. The way they are handing out Hungarian passports these days, I think with a little maneuvering I could lay claim to some Hungarian lineage. My daughter, by way of her grandmother, has some Hungarian blood in her so since she is my daughter, I think with a good lawyer and a crash course in Hungarian, I could clear that trifling obstacle.
The name game
No, there are more significant reasons for this important decision. The first is a creative issue. With so many parties being formed, we’re running out of names. Old school thinking would have someone name a party by what it stood for. Democrat. Liberal. Conservative. The obvious flaw in that thinking is that you actually have to stand for something and who know what the future holds? You may want to be conservative this week but what happens if circumstances change next month and you want appear liberal? It is a political pickle. Some airlines created a similar mess for themselves by naming themselves after geographic regions. Eastern. Southwest. Northwest. How could so many bright people be so stupid? Airplanes are known to fly long distances. What happens when you’re Northwest and want to open routes in the south east?
Naming a political party is tricky. The name has to be memorable, not commit you to anything you might later regret and it has to be strong word. Words like “together’’ are soft and almost reminiscent of 1960’s love-ins. “Together’ could even be tarred with a communist brush. Not good.
Some names are ego driven. When Thomas Watson was fired from National Cash Register, he decided he wanted to start a company that sounded bigger than his nemesis’. So what did he call it? International Business Machines which shortened to IBM.
So we can see that finding an elastic political platform with a strong, sticky name is no small challenge.
Pop star
The bigger challenge is defeating Victor Orbán (although his popularity is slipping a bit.) You might have a slight, marginal chance if you named your party after his platform. A party called “Populist” could be popular. And it certainly gives you lots of room to maneuver. But even by trying to steal his thunder, he would be difficult to defeat. Certainly, there are lots of people in the EU, particularly in Brussels who are not terribly fond of him. However, these people don’t vote in Hungary.
He is annoying the corporate world with surprise taxes and he is annoying the EU with his crafty avoidance of austerity measures. But if you look at the numbers, you can see that as a populist leader, he is in an unenviable position. Double digit unemployment (11.2%) and just 3,821,600 people between the ages of 15 and 64 are working. Granted, some may be paying taxes but certainly not all. Salaries aren’t high in Hungary so the tax base earned to support a country of just under 10 million isn’t much. It’s hard to blame Orbán for wanting to avoid austerity measures. Is he unraveling some fundamentals of democracy in Hungary? No doubt. And it’s disturbing. Is he preventing Hungary from turning into another Greece with riots and cars burning on the streets? Possibly.
Therein lies the real reason I am not forming a party and running for Prime Minister of Hungary. Look at the job. It sucks. Perks be damned. You have to fly all the way to Moscow for a 1/2 meeting with Putin and you probably have to be on your best behaviour. You have to repeatedly travel to Brussels and be on your best behaviour. Even with the French. You have to entertain and host officials from the IMF and be on your best behaviour while you politely decline their requests, (yet at the same time, trying to keep the IMF door open.) At home you have to fend off a constant barrage from parties that pop up like mushrooms while you were off having tea and discussing gas with Putin.
No, I don’t think I want the job. The psychotic ballet of Hungarian politics is best enjoyed as a spectator rather than a participant.
Three Years on Mars 
As a late comer, let me join this a bit. I’m a youngster of Hungary, live in Szeged, i can legaly vote, and meanwhile all my classmates did vote, i decided not to. Neither did the whole of my family, but my father and i are the ones who usually give voice to our opinion and reasons. Neither i or my father agree with everything O.V. does. HOWEVER! We certainly don’t agree to the other parties as well. And i spoke with other non-voters who COULD vote but choose not to. They all siad the short explanation that i do now. Non-voters didn’t vote because all they see is thieves trying to steal money left and right.(Pun slightly intended)
I just wanted to add to this post of yours, although i know you didn’t touch on voters and their decisions.
Also, we speculate with my father, that in the next voting Fidesz won’t win. Just like MSZP didn’t win for the third time.
Well, well. I’m not terribly fond of Orbán Viktor. And I happen to vote in Hungary. And I’m not alone :o)
Speaking of riots and cars burning on the streets, do you remember what happened on and after 23.10.2006? It was riots and cars burning on the streets, organized and performed by the Fidesz and Orbán Viktor. It was preceded with a some months long preparation period during the whole summer of 2006 in the form of some underground propaganda. All my former religion school mates and church friends (all of them are Proud Hungarian Mothers of at least three underaged Hungarian Citizens) tried to convince me on a daily basis that making revolution, burning cars of innocent people, breastfeeding your child in a crowd of right wing Nazis with knives in their pockets and shouting rhymes about killing all Hungarian Jews is a nice idea and the right thing to do. Orbán Viktor wants you to make revolution. You can’t make changes without violence, so do burn cars. God is with Orbán Viktor, so God wants you to burn cars. It’s your Christian duty.
I didn’t believe them in 2006 and I still don’t do now. And I vote in Hungary :o)
(Well, hopefully we still will have the right to vote in 2014. It’s not sure at all, considering the speed Orbán changes the laws with, totally after his own taste and without the permission of the Hungarian parliament. Hungary’s new motto is Back To Feudalism, or, better, Back To The Times When All Europe Feared Our Arrows. Just a tiny 1000 years leap backwards in morals and history. It’s nothing serious, really.)
(I hope you don’t feel offended by my comment, it wasn’t meant on personal level or against you in any way).
No, I am not offended. I sometimes make light of things that are indeed very dark. My heart aches for Hungary and Hungarians. Yes, 1,000 year leap backwards. Back then, Hungarians had a technological advantage in warfare: the stirrup. And from that, ‘the parting shot’.
Outside parliament facing the Danube, I have seen tourists trying on the sculpture of shoes: Hungary’s token memorial to the slaughter of many of its brightest, most productive populace: the Jews. I stare at those people, bewildered, not sure which is worse: feeling sickened or saddened. In the 1890’s, Budapest was the fifth strongest capital market in Europe. The rebuilding of Budapest between 1880 and 1910 was not done with slogans.
Today, it seems that rebuilding Hungary is based entirely on slogans. And that small detail of grants from the EU.
Thank you for your comment. Your exception is noted and appreciated.
Love your photographs, BTW.
Bill
I’m relieved that you aren’t offended. I often want to comment on your posts but I usually decide not to. You are an outsider fan of O.V. and I’m an insider victim of his absurd ideas. I guess we will never ever agree on Hungarian politics :o) But well, that’s the diversity that makes life so interesting :o)
The tourists you mentioned are usually teenager groups on a school trip. They just have no idea and it’s not their fault but the fault of their society. But it’s still very sad indeed.
Truth is, I don’t know what to believe. As a pessimist, I desperately seek optimism. Not one of my strong suits. The people I saw doing the shoe routine were adults. Please comment all you want on my posts. I met O.V. once. It was at a celebration for the birthday of the oldest member of parliament, Janos Horvath. Wonderful man now troubled by the party that wooed him back from the US where he was dean of a mid west university (forget which one). So I got in the line to shake hands with O.V. You know what he said to me? It was the strangest damn thing: “We’re a poor country but we live well.”
We were in the dining hall of parliament and I can say that we ate well.
I was heart broken when I learned there was no Santa Claus. I never bought into the Tooth Fairy. And I wonder if the possibility of an benevolent dictator is within the scope of reality. Obama played the killing moment of Romney well (when Romney was secretly taped saying 47% of Americans are living off the social assistance program). Obama came out and said (whether it is true or not) “I represent all Americans. Whether they vote for me or not.”
Hungary needs a leader who does not spend his or her time back stabbing and fighting internally but unites to compete, protect it’s people and leverage the collective intellect of a great people. A friend I know who runs a business in Canada and the US sums it up well: “We live in the fuck-you economy.” Divided, Hungary will just be another victim of such a global economy. But what the hell do I know? I’m just a writer. A Canadian, outsider, at that.
Oh, O.V. lives well. There is no doubt about that. And the food on parliament parties is good. No doubt either. (Not that I’ve ever tried it, haha).
I’ve never seen adult tourists behaving inappropriate at a Holocaust memorial (well, I have seen adult Hungarian Neonazis behaving inappropriate but that’s another cup of tea), but maybe I just had luck. Seeing that should certainly have been more embarrassing than the fooling around of some uneducated teenagers.
While I’m not American and know about nothing about how American people live, I’m actually happy about Obama winning the elections. This feeing is not based on any knowledge, it’s just plain sympathy. Maybe that’s the way you feel about. O.V? I don’t know, I’m just trying to understand what makes you believe in him so firmly. I know what made Hungarian people vote for him (oh, Hungarians are vain and he is a great manipulator) but I don’t understand what a Canadian, who was born and raised in freedom, tolerance and social security, sees in him. Sincerely I don’t. He is definitely not the leader you described as the best option for Hungary. Do you really see him this way?
One thing is sure: he has no right to say that we live well. Because we don’t.