Hungary:
Kádár anniversary in Budapest
Janos Kádár, General Secretary of the former Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party between 1956-88, died 10 years ago. Thirty thousand people took part in a commemorative demonstration organised by the Hungarian Workers' Party (HWP) on July 10. President of the HWP Gyula Thürmer said that Janos Kádár is the most outstanding personality of Hungary in the 20th century. Kádár's socialism was a successful period of Hungary. People had a relatively high standard of living and social security. Public order was based on firm laws applicable to all. Hungary belonged to the Warsaw pact but it was not a Soviet colony. Today Hungarian democracy is limited. Various forms of pressure are exerted by the government on officials and cultural bodies, the forums of social partnership have been liquidated by the government, trade union activists are sacked, the national minorities have no parliamentary representation, the press is manipulated, and the problem of the gypsy population is far from being solved. Today the average GDP per inhabitant of Hungary is about 45 percent of the European Union's. The average salary is far below the EU average as is the average pension (and there are three million pensioners in a population of 10 million). Prices have risen in comparison with 1990 by 576 percent. Hungary has been a member of NATO since March 12, 1999. It took part in the war against Yugoslavia and there are still US-troops in Hungary. Public opinion about Kádár According to the latest poll carried out by Médian Kft, commissioned by HVG (Weekly Economic-Review), to find the most positive Hungarian personality of this century, the most popular choice was Janos Kádár, who was chosen by 43 percent of people. Jószsef Antall, post-Communist Prime Minister between 1990-93, came second with 20 percent, and his successor Gyula Horn, Prime Minister between 1994- 98, came third. Almost half (46 percent) said that they lived best in the period of 1971-80 (i.e. under Kádár and socialism). According to a telephone poll among 30,000 viewers by Hungarian commercial TV-channel TV2, 81 percent of people believe they lived better before 1990 and only 19 percent think that they are living better now.