„Disregard what I say” during the campaign, Orbán Viktor said before the 2006 elections, according to 2 diplomatic cables of the American Embassy. According to the documents published by Wikileaks, Orbán referred to the fact that his electoral promises – judged to be „populist” by American diplomats – would not necessarily coincide with the actual plans of his party. The Embassy considered that this was the reason why Orbán was not in a position to cast stones at Ferenc Gyurcsány following the Őszöd speech.
„This isn’t complicated – to the people we say that we would restore the greatness of the nation, and to the economic players what they can expect from the Fidesz government” – Viktor Orbán declared to the American Embassy according to a cable from April 2008, as published by Wikileaks. The „confidential” document signed by the then Ambassador April H. Foley contained a longer analysis about Fidesz, celebrating its 20th birthday in those days.
(…) According to the cable, voters felt a strong connection to Orbán, but many found it difficult to accept that his political credo had changed from liberalism to populism. According to the telegram, some considered Orbán’s statement to be „pragmatic”, while others saw it as unprincipled.
Another cable from September 2006 also quotes a similar statement by Orbán. This telegram was drafted after the publication of Ferenc Gyurcsány’s Őszöd speech but before the local government elections. According to it, Orbán said similar things in front of several EU Ambassadors. „Despite the fact that Orbán, during the weekend, announced that he had ’never lied’ to the Hungarian people, our fellow diplomats clearly remember that during the campaign, when meeting with EU Ambassadors, he urged them to ’pay no attention to what I say to get elected’.
(…) When the meeting actually took place, is not entirely clear from the document, but the context points to the campaign period preceding the 2006 elections. It was in an interview with CNN on September 23rd 2006 when he proclaimed that he had „never lied to the people”.
One of Origo’s journalists has been seeking a reaction by the Prime Minister regarding the truthfulness of the statements in the Embassy cables. The Prime Minister’s spokesman replied in a letter by saying that they had „no intention to deal with the new and newer products of the American entertainment industry”. „Cases like this only served to portrait the American diplomacy in an absurd and unserious light.”
www.origo.hu/itthon/20110905-wikileaks-orban-viktor-kijelentesei-valasztasi-igereteirol-es-a-fidesz-elemzese.html