The desire for a western-style parliamentary democracy which drove the political changes in 1989 has vanished and Hungary has become an introverted country which forces order on people instead of securing their freedom, Ferenc Gyurcsány, leader of the leftist Democratic Coalition, said in a keynote speech on Tuesday. The former prime minister said Hungary's premier, Viktor Orbán, had built a "counter-Hungary".

In his "state-of-the-nation" address, Gyurcsány said Hungary looked to autocratic systems of the east rather than to Europe. It considered poverty as a crime rather than a curse, he added. Supporters of the republic are now in minority, he said, adding that the opposition should not only aim to oust the incumbent government but to win over the majority too.

"The republican community cannot aim at less than restoring conditions based on Hungary's 1989 constitution," he said. Gyurcsány, who sits as an independent because his party cannot form a parliamentary group, delivered his state of the nation address for the first time as leader of the Democratic Coalition, which split from the opposition Socialists last October.

Read more about the speech: http://esbalogh.typepad.com/hungarianspectrum/

Source: MTI

Last Updated on Wednesday, 22 February 2012 15:47