Hungary has a new government

It was this morning that the second Orbán government was sworn in. For those of us who are accustomed to the American custom where the chief justice of the Supreme Court swears in the new president, it was a bit odd to see the Hungarian prime minister read the text.

Viktor Orbán gave a short speech in which he turned again to religion and Latin. In April, after winning the election, Orbán drew on the Vulgate (Matthew 6:10): "Thy will be done," or in Latin: "fiat voluntas tua." However, he changed it to "vincit voluntas tua," meaning "Thy will wins." Since Orbán knows no Latin it is likely that these biblical quotations come straight from Zoltán Balog, his spiritual advisor, who is a Protestant minister. This time Balog turned to the Protestant Reformation, which he should know well. Orbán concluded his speech with "Soli Deo gloria," meaning "Glory to God alone." As I just learned there were five solas or five phrases that emerged during the early days of the Reformation: Sola scriptura (by Scripture alone), Sola fide (by faith alone), Sola gratia (by grace alone), Solus Christus (Christ alone), and Soli Deo gloria (glory to God alone). These solas summarized the reformers' basic theological beliefs as opposed to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church of the day.

I'm really curious when the Hungarian people will become tired of all this religious phraseology. Orbán seems to be enamored with the Polish model. He made references earlier to the Polish constitution's elevated style as being desirable for the new Hungarian constitution. In the preamble of the Polish constitution there is a reference to all those "who believe in God as the source of truth, justice, goodness and beauty, as well as those not sharing such faith but respecting those universal values as arising from other sources." I hope my readers still remember what Zsolt Semjén and László Kövér came up with in the preamble to the law concerning a Day of National Belonging: "We, the members of the Parliament of the Republic of Hungary who believe that God is the lord of history as well as those who are trying to understand the course of history from other sources, declare...." It seems evident that Semjén and Kövér simply reworked the above quoted passage from the Polish constitution. I'm afraid the new Hungarian constitution promised for 2012 will have the desired elevated style and plenty of references to God. But the Poles are religious people, the Hungarians are not. In addition, many find Orbán's conversion less than genuine.

While inside the building Orbán talked about wanting to be the prime minister of the whole nation and about his desire to work hand in hand with the opposition parties. At the public demonstration in front of the parliament building his tone changed considerably. Orbán and Fidesz decided to celebrate his becoming prime minister again and called the faithful together for a large gathering of supporters from all over the country. According to estimates about 200,000 people came to listen to Viktor Orbán, Zsolt Semjén, and Lajos Kósa, who is the managing director of Fidesz while Orbán remains the chairman of the party. The tone of the speeches was rather harsh and I think it would be useful to summarize them at some length tomorrow.

Comments

[Alias3T]

200,000?
10,000 tops. Few under 60.

[Eva S. Balogh]

Alias3T: "200,000? 10,000 tops. Few under 60."

I read 200,000, but the article did say that most people there were middle-aged. Where are you getting the 10,000? I'm curious.

[Alias3T]

I was there!

[Eva S. Balogh]

Alias3T: "I was there!"

Well, that's the best source (big smiley)!

[Alias3T]

It was fairly typical of the crowds Fidesz has been getting for the past year or so. Mostly older people, with young supporters accounting for no more than a tenth of the attendees.

Fairly subdued - only a few hundred were chanting "Viktor! Viktor!".

The aim I think was to recreate the "glory days" of their inter-round rally of 2002 or the 2006 alarm clock rally after the Oszod speech. It didn't work - apart from the number of moustaches, this crowd didn't look much different from an MSZP rally.

The enthusiasm has gone. This is a party that won by default because its rivals collapsed.

For buzz and attractive young people, you have to go to a Jobbik rally nowadays.

Oh, and it was Semjen who really got the crowd going. Orban's speech was lacklustre. Perhaps he had a sore throat.

[Passing Stranger]

Orban has forgotten the first rule of organising a political event: make sure the venue is too small for the expected audience. As it was, the Fidesz supporters barely filled a fifth of vast Kossuth square. They would have been better of using tiny Madach Imre Square.

I was there too, and there were no way near 200,000 people. Perhaps 20,000. My frame of reference is the Sziget festival main stage, which can draw 40,000 people on a good night. There were far, far fewer people here. To give you an idea: only the south end of the square directly in front of parliament had a crowd on it, but the people were not densely packed. The grass in front of the Kossuth statue was mostly empty.

There were only a couple of people on the road, which had been unnecessarily closed for traffic, though small groups used the agriculture ministry to shelter from the sun.

The organisers had over optimistically placed a video screen and loud speakers halfway up alkotmany utca, the massive thoroughfare that leads onto the square. They had clearly counted on the square being packed, and had placed the screens to please the crowds expected to spill over from the square. As it was, alkotmany street was completely empty.

It is clear that the young vote Jobbik, as the crowd consisted of grouchy pensioners, either leaning on flag poles for support or using their flags to shade themselves from the sun, squabbling among themselves for a spot to sit in the shade. Considering they could celebrate a 2/3 victory they were a very miserable bunch.

Though the message was one of "national unity", it was clear that Fidesz equates the nation with its own followers, and promises to deal with enemies received cheers.

Which poses the question: who paid for this? It was obviously a Fidesz bash.
I bet though, that the Hungarian tax payer has funded this gathering. It is odd that this question is not popping up in the Hungarian media at all.

[viagra online]

Like a certain medieval hot period that has been "smoothed" out of existence just because it was inconvenient. But then again, that must not be a "surprise" to you and all those "respected scientists" you talk of. Because to you it is clearly all about respect really and how you get to that position where you have it so you can throw it around like it adds up to something, everything else is just a background.