I think it is wise to ignore the pre-election negotiations for a day or two. Perhaps during that time the LMP leadership can figure out a way to show themselves in a better light than they have in the past few weeks of intraparty negotiations.
Election negotiation success
The more responsible politicians of MSZP-P, DK, and Együtt (Gergely Karácsony, Ferenc Gyurcsány, and Péter Juhász) arrived at a comprehensive agreement concerning important districts in Budapest and elsewhere. It was announced today that Együtt has withdrawn in favor of MSZP-P and DK in 11 districts while Együtt’s Szabolcs Szabó is now alone facing Szilárd Németh in district #17 (Csepel-Soroksár) and Zoltán Vajda, also of Együtt, will battle Kristóf Szatmáry in district #13.
MSZP unilaterally withdrew its candidate in district #1 in favor of LMP’s Antal Csárdi, I assume in the hope of encouraging LMP to reciprocate. LMP’s countermove was to withdraw its candidate in Csepel, with his estimated 6.2% of the votes, but since the district is now Együtt’s the gesture was misdirected.
The Kubatov lists
It was just before the 2010 national election that we found out that Fidesz was copying the U.S. method of mobilizing the electorate. In most states, in order to be able to vote in the primaries, one has to be registered either as a Democrat or as a Republican. Thus, the two parties have a pretty good idea of their voting base, locality by locality. In Hungary, compiling similar lists is against the law, but that didn’t prevent Fidesz activists from systematically mapping the political profiles of whole cities under the guidance of Gábor Kubatov, Fidesz’s campaign manager during the 2010 campaign. These lists came to be known as the Kubatov lists.
I have nothing against parties maintaining lists of their supporters. In fact, I consider them essential for voter mobilization. In 2010, when the existence of these illegal lists came to light, I devoted a post to this dilemma. But it is not immaterial what kind of information these lists contain. In the past, suspicious citizens reported that Fidesz activists were taking notes on people they visited, but until now no one had actually seen such an annotated list. Hír TV got hold of one from Sopron.
It was apparently compiled prior to the 2014 national election, and it served to identify possible party propagandists. It bears a suspicious resemblance to those documents produced during the Kádár period listing people whom the ministry of interior tried to recruit as informers. Among the people on the Sopron list there is an unusually high number of priests and ministers, who are supposed to conduct Fidesz propaganda “through whispering support,” a phrase that seems to be a prime consideration. I guess it means that the propaganda shouldn’t be too obvious but indirect and subtle.
On the printed form, beside the name and social status of each individual, there are two columns: “relevance” and “method.” Here is a typical entry. Imre H. is a parish priest “who meets a lot of people” who would in conversations indirectly encourage Fidesz support, but it is unlikely that the old gentleman would be very useful when it comes to winning over young people. One of the criteria for selection was the person’s ability to meet many people and spread “whispering support.” For example, they tried to recruit a rock group to spread the gospel of Fidesz (although I don’t know how “whispering” it would have been). Some of the “potential propagandists” were difficult to enlist. For example, one of the men they approached, a teacher of religion in a local school, “hates politics,” and therefore it was noted that the activist must pretend that their encounter was just a chance meeting. “His passion is literature, and you must prove that you’re sharp.” They even approached a grave digger because “he meets a lot of people,” but cautioned that “one must be careful because he is cleverer than he seems at first glance.”
That was not the only information revealed about Fidesz activists today. Magyar Nemzet learned that party headquarters actually ranks them. They are graded on a scale of 1 to 10 as far as their trustworthiness is concerned. The top performers will be entrusted with the names and addresses of sympathizers in a computer data base. These top-notch activists will have an iPad with navigation capability, which will allow the center to know whether the activist actually got in touch with each sympathizer.
Here in the United States we are all familiar with activists who volunteer to help their parties. They make telephone calls, they make sure that you didn’t forget to vote, they offer a ride to the polling station. But what Fidesz is doing is unacceptable. The party turned the American system into a monster.
What’s going on in Hódmezővásárhely?
As predicted, Péter Márki-Zay will not have an easy time of it as the new mayor of Vásárhely. The local pro-Fidesz online news sites are full of anti-Márki-Zay stories. For instance, in a speech Márki-Zay criticized the local hospital where, according to him, a person risks his life trying to be healed. He talked about several cases in which the patients didn’t receive adequate treatment. Árpád Kallai, the director-general of the hospital, is suing Márki-Zay for defaming the good name of the hospital. I should add that the “medical director” (orvos igazgató) of the hospital is also the head of the local Fidesz group. Kallai is campaigning for János Lázár.
But that’s not all. Márki-Zay is also accused of “reviling the memory of the former deceased mayor” by launching an investigation into an Elios-type corruption case concerning garbage collection. The company was chosen without any competition, and it had no past experience in collecting garbage. Very much the same kind of story as István Tiborcz’s LED lighting scheme.
And this is undoubtedly just the beginning. I don’t know whether Márki-Zay was fully aware of what was waiting for him. There might come a day when he and his large family return to the United States, with his foray into Hungarian politics just a bitter memory.
