The massive defeat of the governing Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) in the European elections in June has resulted in a further dramatic turn to the right by this successor organisation to the former Stalinist party. The MSZP is introducing so-called “village guards” throughout the countryside. These will be armed and carry out police functions. They will be introduced later in larger towns and cities.
“Citizens militias” have existed in Hungary for the last two years. The so-called “Hungarian Guard,” a paramilitary wing of the ultra-right Jobbik party, has brought fear and alarm in districts inhabited by Roma and immigrants. Over a dozen murders, including that of a four-year-old, have been laid at their door.
The arguments advanced by non-party Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai in support of the “village guards” sound just like those of the right wing. “Order must prevail in Hungary—all development and crisis management depend upon it,” Bajnai told a class of “security people” being trained as police assistants in Miskolc.
Bajnai’s presence in Miskolc is especially significant, since it is a district with a high percentage of Roma inhabitants. Unemployment, poverty and crime are also particularly high in the district...Those being trained as “police assistants” include down-at-heel young people, who have grown up without education, work or any prospect for the future... The German-language newspaper Pester Lloyd characterised these forces, who have also been deployed in other locations, in the following manner: “Of rude appearance (thick-necked and wearing gold chains), they make a show of being defenders of order, in other places, former People’s Army officers in martial uniforms parade about; elsewhere pompous gossips—in the manner of Nazi Blockwarts
—spend their time patrolling.”
...However, it would be wrong to see the MSZP’s rightward shift merely as a tactical reaction with regard to the upcoming parliamentary elections. It is more the case that ruling circles in Hungary are preparing for violent confrontations with the working class. The Roma, who under Nazi occupation were the victims of persecution and mass murder, today serve as convenient scapegoats.
...In response to the economic crisis gripping the country, the government has stepped up its attacks on the whole working class. After implementing considerable wage cuts in the public service, since July 1 new tax rates have also applied. Value Added Tax (sales tax) has increased from 20 to 25 percent, further driving up the already skyrocketing cost of basic commodities and energy. A new property tax is hitting families who have financed the purchase of their homes with loans denominated in foreign currencies, and with the devaluation of the national currency, the forint, they now face bankruptcy.
A recently agreed income tax reform is bringing Hungary closer to a “flat tax,” which has long existed in neighbouring Slovakia and Romania. This so-called reform lightens the tax burden on those with higher incomes at the expense of those on middle and lower incomes and the unemployed, who must now pay considerably higher taxes.
Bajnai and the ruling MSZP are determined to continue on this course, and step up the attacks, since the financial crisis is creating ever deeper holes in the budget, worsening the situation of the Hungarian economy...
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/hung-j14.shtml
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