In a weekend interview with the Magyar Hirlap, Hungarian Parliament Speaker Laszlo Kover, a top figure of the ruling Fidesz Party, has accused the United States of plotting to create a new Liberal party to replace the defunct SZDSZ and try to force the next Hungarian coalition government to exclude the nationalist Jobbik party.
Kover’s allegations come in the wake of Sen. John McCain (R – AZ) accusing Fidesz leader and Hungarian Premier Victor Orban of being “anti-democratic” and claiming Hungary was about to install a “neo-fascist dictator” who would be “in bed with Vladimir Putin.” Kover had complained loudly about McCain’s allegations.
Fidesz and the Christian Democrats presently hold a two-thirds majority in Hungary’s parliament, and both are strongly conservative. The main minority bloc is dominated by Socialists and Social Democrats, while the nationalist Jobbik Party is an increasingly popular third bloc.
Kover’s theory is that the US is so desperate to see Jobbik excluded from a coalition in the event of a close election, they want to create replacement for the Liberal Democrat SZDSZ party, the traditional king-maker in such elections, to try to undercut them.
It’s also not hard to see why Kover would oppose this move, should the US engage in it, as the nationalists would almost certainly back a conservative government over a socialist one, whereas the SZDSZ had most recently, in 2006, been a part of the Socialist coalition.
It’s unclear, of course, whether the US really cares enough about rigging Hungary’s political system to go to all this trouble. That a top ruling party official thinks it is not only possible but likely, however, suggests they are taking the matter seriously.
Source