Below is an English translation of the editorial penned by respected Hungarian liberal columnist Ferenc Kőszeg appearing on pages 72-73 of this week’s HVG (the Hungarian equivalent of the Economist). It follows the publication yesterday of a 50-page report by the liberal Ökopolis foundation confirming Richard Field’s version of events and vindicating his role in last year’s evacuation by the Hungarian Red Cross of 267 Roma women and children from the besieged northern Hungarian village of Gyōngyōsoata
Give Field a Medal
Fidesz has succeeded in changing the direction in which time flows. Witness the report of the parliamentary committee chaired by Máté Kocsis which evaluated last year’s events in Gyöngyöspata, and which parliament discussed on Tuesday.
First let’s look at the facts.
The head of Jobbik’s Gyöngyöspata organization, Oszkár Juhász, notified the Gyöngyös City Police Department on February 11th, 2011 that the Civil Guard Association for a Better Future would patrol the village from March 1st due to the intolerable situation with regard to public safety. On March 6th under the title “United Against Gypsy Terror” Jobbik held a large assembly in which uniformed members of the Civil Guard Association also participated. The Civil Guardsmen followed Gypsy women on their way to stores and children trying to get to school, and at night shone lights through the windows of Gypsy houses.
The police were continuously present in the village but did not obstruct the Civil Guardsmen’s “patrolling.” Beginning March 1st, Tamás Eszes, head of the Defense Force Military Traditions Protection Movement, purchased and rented plots on the Kecskekő overlook with the objective of holding military exercises there the weekend before Easter. The area could only be accessed by cutting across that part of the village where the gypsies lived. In mid-March the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ) issued an opinion citing legal reasons why the police were obliged to take steps against the ”Civil Guardsmen.”
On April 19th Richard Field, the President of the American House Foundation, visited Gyöngyöspata together with a representative of the Hungarian Red Cross . At that time he resolved that the Roma women and children spend the days of the military exercise away from the village (and made this possible). On April 22nd buses rented by the Red Cross transported those who presented themselves to Csillebérc and Szolnok. The reverberations of the Roma evacuation were enormous both in the domestic and foreign media.
The committee report says the government and the departments under its direction did everything to resolve the artificially spread tension and to wind up the activities of the Civil Guard Association. The report also includes a chronological order of events.
According to this the police arrested Tamás Eszes and seven associates on the afternoon of April 22nd. On April 26th the Gyöngyöspata police department ordered a state of heightened alert. On the night of April 27th the police prevented the Hungarian National Guard Movement from entering the village with twelve vehicles. On April 30th Le Monde published an article about the Gyöngyöspata events entitled ”Orban Steps Up Against Hungarian Extremists.” On May 5th two Fidesz representatives called for the creation of an ad-hoc committee to investigate the ”unformed criminals” and the background to the Gyöngyöspata events. In the following weeks the parliament modified the criminal code, the civil code, and the law on civil guards. On May 13th Interior Minister Sándor Pintér visited Gyöngyöspata accompanied by the American Ambassador. In his press conference he cited the SA brown shirts as a historical precedent for the uniformed criminals (meaning the Civil Guardsmen).
The above events all took place after April 22nd. If we assume that time doesn’t flow backwards, or what happens later is not something preceding the event but at most a result of earlier events, we cannot rule out either that the government’s actions were the result of the international attention to the evacuation of the Roma. If these actions were appropriate, and the report says they were, then the government should give Field a medal for taking such action as to bring about so many positive steps on the part of the previously inactive state.
The report also states that Jobbik and in particular Oszkár Juhász’s claims that the help of the Better Future was asked due to an untenable criminal situation are baseless. The number of crimes in Gyöngyöspata were less than the average for the country or for the county. It’s only that earlier Fidesz and KDNP justified newer and newer strict changes to the civil code, the three strikes law, by claiming the criminal situation had worsened, whereas the statistics show that the number of reported crimes decreased significantly since the start of the millennium.
The report of the ad-hoc committee, however confused and illogical, is more alarming than ridiculous. It’s not good, for example, for the parliamentary majority to decree that the opposition parties and the civil right activists demean the country or that their very existence is treasonous. With these kinds of declarations the parliament of 1947-48 hounded the opposition out of the country, demanding the imprisonment of its members. Perhaps this is not something that should be repeated in today’s Europe. If, on the other hand, the opposition remains, there is the other lesson of the report: Fidesz is becoming more and more captive to Jobbik. The thing that Jobbik representatives and their voters agree with is the very thing (Fidesz) should be distancing itself from: the dramatization of the criminal situation, the relationship with the Roma, and ominous forebodings of foreign conspiracies. Oszkár Juhász was subsequently elected mayor. Interior Minister Pintér designated Gyöngyöspata as a sample settlement for the forced public work program.
If Fidesz cannot change direction Orban Viktor and company will continue having to compete with its suddenly grown up little brother (Jobbik). In Máté Kocsis, Viktor Orbán and company’s place, I would be more worried about that.
EDITOR: Richard Field grew up in Lancaster and is a graduate of McCaskey High School and Columbia University. He sacrificed his business interests in order to protect women and children from danger.
