The former Socialist prime minister summed up the past year, declaring that 2016 had been an “annus horribilis” for Hungary. At the same time, Fidesz sustained two blows: it failed to secure sufficient turnout in the referendum on migrant quotas to make it legally binding and it did not drum up enough support to change the constitution to reflect its policy on migration.

Gyurcsány said it was likely that Fidesz would intensify its campaign in the next few months against “what is left of” civil organisations and the independent press. He chided Fidesz for “using the migration issue to whip up fear instead of governing”.

It could have guaranteed security with an effective refugee policy and by using the tools of the secret services, he added.

Gyurcsány said he did not dispute that the country’s economic indicators were favourable in certain ways, but he said Hungary’s growth rate was falling behind in the region and the country was slipping back. In 2016, Hungary became one of the European Union’s three poorest member states, and “millions are living in tortuous poverty”, and many of those have jobs, he said.

The DK leader also criticised the state of Hungarian health care, saying never before had so many patients been left to fall back on their own resources. Also, wages are “dramatically low” and hundreds of thousands of young people are leaving the country, he said.

Gyurcsány said that the “democratic opposition” would continue its preparations for the 2018 general election in the hope of creating a “better Hungary” by unseating the government.

He said no official talks between the opposition parties had yet taken place concerning who should stand as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s challenger and he dismissed related rumours reported in the press.

Gyurcsány said it would be good to work together with the green LMP party, but it appeared LMP was disinclined.

“We won’t chase after [those] who won’t take us up,” he said.

Commenting on radical nationalist party Jobbik, Gyurcsány said it was indisputable that Jobbik had the intention of changing from its “onetime neo-fascist viewpoint” into a moderate centre-right party.

He said this may happen at some point but so far he was not convinced that Jobbik had succeeded in leaving its old self behind. In reaction, ruling Fidesz said in a statement that “it was DK chairman Ferenc Gyurcsány and the opposition parties that had attacked the Hungarian people when they sided with Brussels and supported the settlement of migrants in Hungary, and they refused to vote for the constitutional amendment”.

According to Fidesz, Gyurcsány is a “representative of foreign powers” and supports “civil groups and media which serve globalist liberal forces that seek to populate Europe with immigrants”.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Máthé Zoltán