Silece, Order, Discipline! – that’s the combative message of the Socialist Party’s National Council. Isn’t that beautiful?! Playing the innocent, I could lament about the fact that it’s only our proposals aiming to change the culture, structure and rigid internal relationships of the party that evoke such kind of frightened passion from the leadership.
But let me diverge a bit. A couple of weeks ago, for instance, we suggested not to behave like sheep, not to endure in dead silence that Fidesz wants to draft and adopt an electoral law on a unilateral basis. We proposed to react with an active boycott to this. We forwarded to the party’s chairman, in a longer letter, the reasons behind our initiative, as well as its more detailed content. Well, this proposal was not taken onto the agenda. Not only that nobody felt necessary to call a snap faction meeting, so far it has been met with complete silence. Needless to say, that letter has not been leaked. Why do you think that is?
In reality, I would only deal with one point of the resolution of the National Council. The one in which they vigorously underline that the party’s assets are indivisible. Like at the end of a bad marriage, as the pugnacious wife sits on the washing machine, and throws her arms about swearing that the machine is hers, and she intends to keep it no matter what.
Dearest friends, who the devil is interested in that washing machine? Who cares about the party assets? Not me, not us. You know, politics does not live in party offices but in the minds, hearts and souls of people. The political hope that there is a better world and we can get closer to it. Politics is as much about calm reflection as it is about passion. None of these needs party offices. It is so shabby to suppose that we are turned on by two party localities, four computers and three copiers. We do not need the Socialist Party’s assets. That is what we need the least.
What we need we do not really find in the Party anymore. And here I should continue with a somewhat longer list, but I am afraid that this list of mine would offend too many people. Our debate is exactly about the fact that what we are looking for, what we think the voters are looking for seems to have been lost. And our confidence is slowly fading that we will ever find it again within this party.
If we need to part, then we need to do that in an elegant manner. Knowing and understanding that the parties, organisations and players of the democratic opposition will have to co-operate in the future as well. Therefore, it is useless to continue poisoning our relationships. What’s more, we need to take care of each other.
Ferenc Gyurcsány; Facebook, September 25. 2011.