Monday, January 03, 2011

Last Year's Moderates Are This Years Extremists

Nick Cohen writes of the rather worrying developments in Hungary where the ruling Fidezs party appears to be authoritarian and extreme:
You can catch a smell of it in Fidesz's propaganda. Its first act was to order public buildings to display a passage from its manifesto. "In spring 2010, the Hungarian nation gathered its strength once again and brought about a successful revolution in the polling booth," the citizenry was informed. They should rejoice because Fidesz will lead Hungary to a bright new tomorrow based on "work, home, family, health and order".

Fidesz then seized control of private pensions, hacked back the powers of a supreme court that might have checked its supremacy and established a media council, which can impose large fines on broadcasters and print and online publishers for such fuzzily worded crimes as "offending human dignity". It has packed the council with party loyalists, naturally, and already Hungarian newspapers and magazines are publishing blank pages in protest against official censorship.
The case against them looks very strong and their behaviour does not seem in keeping with the behaviour of a democratic party.

However last year Cohen was attacking the Conservative party for leaving the European grouping to which Fidesz belongs on the grounds that it was rejecting "moderation" and embracing extremist parties from Eastern Europe. Wonder what's changed since then?

3 comments:

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX They should rejoice because Fidesz will lead Hungary to a bright new tomorrow based on "work, home, family, health and order". (Heard THAT before....George Busch's bum boy, Blair)

Fidesz then seized control of private pensions (Alá "Captain Queeg" Brown), hacked back the powers of a supreme court that might have checked its supremacy (Need I say more?) and established a media council, which can impose large fines on broadcasters and print and online publishers for such fuzzily worded crimes as "offending human dignity".("discrimination" laws) It has packed the council with party loyalists, naturally, (Ohhh GOSH! And political partys have NEVER done that in Britain....right?) XX

Well, I have looked and looked, and honestly, I can not see MUCH difference between that and the last 13 years of "Labour" and the "Labour policy continuation group" which Britain has as the dictatorship leaders now.

Furor Teutonicus said...

Folow up notifications.

TDK said...

That's funny.

Here's Nick over the weekend

It is customary in the liberal press to attack ... David Cameron for their toleration of the European far right. I won't follow precedent because I have no wish to join the selective moralists of liberal England, who beat their breasts and denounce Cameron for allying with unsavoury east European parties, but stay silent when leftwing British charlatans indulge an Islamist far right