FEATURE-Hungary's radical youths take to the streets
14 Mar 2007 18:04:18 GMT Source: Reuters
(This story is the first of a series Reuters will move in coming days on the post-Communist generation in eastern Europe) By Andras Gergely BUDAPEST, March 14 (Reuters) - Young people -- easily mobilised through the Internet and mobile phone -- are a vocal and radical force in Hungary's near-tribal political conflict, now increasingly being fought out on the streets. Soft-spoken, well-educated and armed with a laptop, 29-year-old Gabor Vona leads a radical right-wing group of young Hungarians usually at the forefront of anti-government protests that began late last year. Vona thinks that, almost two decades on, the transition from communism is incomplete and this is causing Hungary's problems. The Socialist-led government, re-elected last year promising tax cuts, is now raising taxes and closing hospitals to reduce the budget deficit. A valid reform for supporters, in the eyes of the opposition the broken promise makes the government illegitimate. "We want a new change of regime. The last 17 years have gone in the wrong direction, the real transition has not happened. It must happen now," said Vona, who leads a party called Jobbik, which has so far not won enough votes to enter parliament. Hungarians young and old are split between supporters of Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany and the similarly charismatic leader of the conservative opposition Fidesz, Viktor Orban, and groups to the right of Fidesz like Jobbik. "The generation of my parents and grandparents is a lost generation in political terms," Vona said, referring to the unresolved conflicts of 40 years of communism and what he sees as 17 wasted years that followed. "It is a strange twist of history that at 29 I have to be here as a party president." STREET PROTESTS The left-right tribalism has pushed young people away from parliamentary politics and towards street protests organised by young urban professionals like Vona. Vona, who has a history degree, admires the Hungarian regime which briefly regained lands lost in World War One by allying itself with Nazi Germany. He also considers the Roma minority a source of crime, though he denies being racist. "The youth presence in street politics is spectacular," said youth sociologist Kalman Gabor. "They are increasingly accepting radical models of behaviour, including violence against the police." Hungarian elections show high turnout of 65-70 percent, but only 30 percent of those reaching voting age took part in last year's vote, according to election monitors. Young people are being drawn to fringe groups like those who stormed state television headquarters in September last year after Gyurcsany was caught on tape admitting he lied to win in the elections in 2006, in riots which injured almost 800. "Unfortunately the country is extremely burdened by its past and finds it hard to look forward," said Laszlo Varga, the head of the Socialist party's youth wing. "Opposition leaders have no qualms about making use of this situation." Fidesz supporters see the Socialists as successors of the communist regime, who in turn accuse Fidesz of stirring nationalist passions and promoting instability with the street rallies. NEW GENERATION "What can you rebel against today in Hungary? Against the left-wing past and the left-wing present," said Vona. Many Hungarians still hope a new generation of political leaders will help the country move on. "The heads of parties' youth wings have at least remained on speaking terms with each other," said Andras Lederer, who leads New Generation, the youth wing of the Socialists' junior coalition partner, the Alliance of Free Democrats. Others note young Hungarians already behave much like those in western Europe, and say the political and social divisions should also eventually fade, as they have in more mature democracies. For now, however, Gyurcsany's and Orban's divisive personalities are making dialogue difficult. Fidesz spokesman Peter Szijjarto, born in 1978 and also head of Fidesz's youth organisation Fidelitas, is pessimistic. "As long as the political scene remains this way it will not make a difference that members of the new generation never lived under the socialist dictatorship," he said.
