Coalition crisis?

It seems that there is, or at least appears to be, a crisis: SZDSZ is mighty sore. They took offence at Ferenc Gyurcsány's announcement of his intention to dismiss Ágnes Horváth as minister of health. Ágnes Horváth, who is not even an SZDSZ party member, was nonetheless the party's choice for the post. Poor Horváth in her thirties became the most hated politician in the country although she did nothing else but execute, for better or worse, the government program. So basically she is the sacrificial lamb of a failed policy. Personally, I feel sorry for her. I think she deserved better. However, in political terms, I can understand why the prime minister decided as he did. Ágnes Horváth became a symbol of defeat. There is a need for a new face.

What János Kóka and a newly unified SZDSZ complain about is the way Gyurcsány dismissed Horváth. The prime minister was not lying (as Péter Szijjártó, spokesman of Fidesz claimed) when he announced at the party conference that he informed both Kóka and Horváth of his intentions. He did phone them before the fact. What Kóka and SZDSZ politicians complain about is that he acted without consulting them. Yet Gyurcsány did nothing illegal. The prime minister has the right to unilateral action in cases of choosing or dismissing members of his cabinet.

Some people, including Sándor Friderikusz who had a long interview with Gyurcsány tonight, feel that the prime minister, by announcing Horváth's dismissal at the party conference in front of thousands, if not millions, humiliated the smaller governing party. Gyurcsány's answer was that he didn't intend to humiliate anyone and, in any case, "we are big boys and girls" and in politics one shouldn't be offended. Taking offence and acting in anger or hurt is not good politics.

Both Kóka and Fodor are hanging tough. At the moment SZDSZ's position is that if Ágnes Horváth is dismissed as of the end of April on the very same day SZDSZ will leave the coalition. Unless, of course, Gyurcsány resigns. Then they will think about it! The answer to this was swift. The presidium of MSZP got together tonight and said that they support the prime minister and that Kóka and company can decide what they want to do. MSZP would like to continue the coalition but not at any price.

Meanwhile Gyurcsány made his first move toward achieving a possible coalition reconciliation. He announced that in the revised health care bill he still wants to see mention of private capital. (Earlier there were rumors that private capital would be banished.) I don't know whether SZDSZ will find this enough. Another piece of news (at least according to a couple of on-line newspapers) is that perhaps the current undersecretary of health, Gyula Kincses, will be Horváth's successor. Kincses is a white-haired, male doctor who has worked as a health expert for all major parties. Perhaps he will be accepted by SZDSZ. After all, they accepted him as deputy to Horváth.

Comments

[kincs]

The question is whether Gyurcsány has lost his appetite for reforms. The Socialists never had one. It’s remarkable that he got the party to come as far as he did. On this issue, at least, Gyurcsány is a Free Democrat at heart. They are the only party that has understood the need for economic reform since 1990. Gyurcsány, nothing if not a realist, understands it, too.
The MSZP, however, is much like Britain’s Old Labour in many ways; many of the backbenchers don’t understand or don’t agree with the idea of reform. Faced with massive unpopularity at this stage in 2004, they dumped Medgyessy. Now they’re panicking again, worrying about their personal re-election prospects.
It may be that they made it clear to Gyurcsány at the weekend meeting that they’ve had enough of letting the SZDSZ’s insistence on reform drag them down the opinion polls. Certainly, the PM’s change of attitude towards the Free Democrats has been sudden. “They should get off their high horses." "The trouble is not with the reforms themselves but with the reform blah-blah, the reform lecturing, the reform arrogance.....” It is hard to imagine him talking that way about the SZDSZ one week ago, and impossible before the referendum. For the most part, it was Gyurcsány who sold the SZDSZ reform plans to his own party. It appears that they’re not buying it any more.

[Sixth Column]

The problem is that instead of reforming, the government has for the most part only talked about reforming.

As this piece over at index.hu said (http://index.hu/velemeny/eheti/santa080331/): "the prime minister's only real accomplishment is that through especially convoluted means, he has saved Viktor Orbán's carrier."

That and the lies speech will be Gyurcsány's legacy.

[Eva S. Balogh]

Opinion is exactly that: opinion. The Index is no friend of Ferenc Gyurcsány, and therefore one has to balance this piece with others in order to get a more realistic picture of his role, his accomplishments and failures.

[Lia]

I'm no big fan of either Feri or Viki, but I must say I agree with the quote posted by Sixth Column. Regardless of what Index thinks about Feri, it would be harder to dis him if he'd actually have something positive to show for the past couple years of his so-called 'leadership.'

[Hatodik Oszlop]

Index is no fan of Orbán either. In fact, I consider them the most balanced news source in the Hungarian media.

[Varangy]

*****The Index is no friend of Ferenc Gyurcsány,*****

@Eva

Unbelievable. If that isn't blatant bias on your part, what is?

No news/opinion source should be a 'friend' to any politician.

BTW you really should enable some HTML tagging in the comments such as blockquote, italics, a href and bold. Would make things a lot easier on everyone and comments would look better.

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