VZCZCXRO4495
RR RUEHAG RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN RUEHLZ
RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHUP #0629/01 0871647
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 281647Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY BUDAPEST
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8837
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 BUDAPEST 000629 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/NCE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KDEM PGOV PREL SOCI HU
SUBJECT: HUNGARY'S ELECTIONS: SNAPSHOTS FROM WESTERN 
HUNGARY  (C-RE6-00145) 
 
REF: SECSTATE 22644 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Contacts in Gyor, Sopron, Szombathely, Csorna, 
and Kormend predicted to Embassy representatives in March 
21-24 meetings that opposition party FIDESZ would continue 
to dominate western Hungary in the April general 
elections.  A majority of interlocutors believed that 
FIDESZ would again win by a margin of approximately twenty 
percent in the six counties that make up the northwest 
quadrant of Hungary (Fejer, Komarom-Esztergom, 
Gyor-Moson-Sopron, Veszprem, Vas and Zala).  Local 
politicians and voters from across the spectrum pegged 
FIDESZ's dominance to church support, party discipline, and 
widespread voter dissatisfaction with the Gyurcsany 
government.  Many local observers predicted that a large 
number of individual constituency races would fall to 
FIDESZ in the first round. 
 
-------------------------------- 
Church Says &Bless Viktor Orban8 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Observers across the spectrum in meetings March 
21 - 24 in Gyor, Sopron, Szombathely, Csorna, and Kormend 
reported that the Roman Catholic Church is overtly backing 
opposition party FIDESZ's election efforts.  Most 
significantly, Easter, the most important religious day in 
Hungary, falls in the "critical period" between the April 9 
and 23 elections.  Some alleged the Church's involvement 
contributes significantly to the already conservative 
voting tendencies in western and northwestern Hungary. 
Although FIDESZ campaign organizers Akos Kara and Robert 
Borsi in Gyor told Emboffs their party does not work 
formally with the Church, Csorna mayor Jozsef Papp (MSZP) 
disagreed.  He pointed to recent appearance in regional 
churches of flyers that read "Bless Viktor Orban."  The 
connection is even personal, said MSZP MP Lazslo Kranitz in 
Sopron, pointing to Orban,s close relationship with Bishop 
Lajos Papai of the Gyor diocese. 
 
¶3. (SBU) FIDESZ Mayor Istvan Bebes in Kormend agreed that a 
connection between FIDESZ and the Roman Catholic Church 
exists, but downplayed its significance. The Church is "a 
minor factor," said the mayor, because less than fifteen 
percent of Hungarian Catholics attend church regularly and 
"not all of them are FIDESZ supporters." 
 
------------------------------- 
Schools Have No Room for Debate 
------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Politics may not be taboo in church, but it 
certainly is in school, according to an English teacher at 
Csorna's Janos Hunyadi High School.  This educator said her 
students would like to engage in "debate and discussion of 
political issues," but the school expressly discourages the 
practice.  Teachers and administrators agreed that 
Hungary's schools are not, in general, an open conduit for 
debate.  Although Hungary does not have laws prohibiting 
political discussions, school administrators across Hungary 
are hesitant to condone political discourse.  Many remember 
the "firestorm of hysteria" whipped up by widely publicized 
media accusations that "schools exerted undue political 
influence" in the 2002 elections. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
FIDESZ Strategy Cements Individual Western Races 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Emboffs also visited Szombathely, where FIDESZ MP 
Csaba Hende,s campaign manager Viktor Lazary offered 
insights into his party,s national campaign structure. 
(Note:  In meetings with other FIDESZ campaign managers, 
Emboffs have found them generally reluctant to provide 
details about the mechanics of the party's campaign 
apparatus.)  Lazary said he "reports directly to one of 
five regional directors" for communications, and that 
specific campaign messages come directly from national 
campaign director Antal Rogan.  According to Lazary, local 
managers only have discretion over placement of signs and 
"decorating the office."  Lazary declined to explain how 
FIDESZ could afford hundreds of prominently-displayed (and 
expensive) streetlight banners in Szombathely. He described 
how volunteers had hit the streets and the phones in 
mid-March, armed with voter-preference data gleaned over 
 
BUDAPEST 00000629  002 OF 004 
 
 
the past four years from FIDESZ information drives.  He 
said the volunteers would continue their fullcourt press 
"until election day," reporting their contact statistics to 
local managers, who then forward that information through 
regional directors back to Budapest. Lazary averred that 
FIDESZ was in "no danger of losing its twenty-percent 
margin of victory" from 2002. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
Basketball Mayor Popular With Voters But Not FIDESZ Party 
Leadership 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  In Kormend, Mayor and MP Istvan Bebes said 
"privatized medicine works here," to the chagrin of his own 
(FIDESZ) party officials.  He said his decision to 
privatize the regional hospital isolated him from the party 
leadership, especially from FIDESZ President Orban and his 
proposed deputy, and former Minister of Health, Istvan 
Mikola because it goes against the party's preference for 
continued state ownership of hospitals. Bebes said his very 
low ranking on the county and national party lists is 
evidence that he and Orban "do not have a friendly 
relationship."  Bebes does not mind his estranged 
relationship with the party, because he "will win his 
constituency in the first round anyway." The six-foot, ten 
inch mayor was earlier a star player in the Hungarian 
Basketball Association, and still enjoys residual 
popularity from his days on the court. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
Miscalculation Costs MSZP Csorna Mayor a Parliament Seat 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Csorna Mayor Jozsef Papp (MSZP) echoed Bebes in 
describing his difficulties with his party.  In Papp's 
case, it was the governing MSZP (Socialist) party.  Papp 
said that his standing within the MSZP had been hurt by his 
decision not to run for county party chairman in 2003. 
Instead, he served as Interior Minister Monika Lamperth,s 
deputy on the Association of Leftist Local Governments 
(BOK).  His decision had cost him the support of the party 
leadership and Papp had accordingly been moved far down the 
party list. Papp now faces an uphill battle against FIDESZ 
Parliament faction head Janos Ader, to whom he lost in the 
first round in 2002.  Unless Papp wins his constituency in 
the first round this time (an unlikely prospect), his poor 
rankings (number four on the county list and 159 on the 
national list) will mean his only hope is that current 
county party chairman Csaba Molnar and German-Hungarian 
School director Zsuzsana Toth win their 
individual-constituency races, thus dropping off the party 
lists and moving Papp up the pecking order. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) According to Papp, FIDESZ will duplicate its 
twenty percent margin of victory in 2006, as demographics 
have not changed in the traditionally conservative 
Gyor-Sopron-Moson County.  Nationally, the MSZP is stronger 
and more disciplined under Gyurcsany,s leadership than it 
was in 2002. However, Papp believed that neither Gyurcsany 
nor the pork he is sending Csorna by way of roads and 
renovations will be enough to return him to Parliament. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
A FIDESZ Mule Could Win Sopron, Says Kranitz 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) On March 22, Sopron's MSZP Chairman and MP Laszlo 
Kranitz told Emboffs that he expects low turnout and a 
FIDESZ victory in his city.  He would be satisfied if 
FIDESZ did not increase its 2002 15-point margin of victory 
over the MSZP. (Note:  In the last election, FIDESZ 
received 51 percent in Gyor-Sopron-Moson County; MSZP 
received 36 percent.)  Kranitz said people vote for parties 
not personalities in Sopron, and he claimed that "a deaf 
mule could run for FIDESZ and win Sopron."  Kranitz expects 
at least ten percent less turnout in 2006 than four years 
ago.  "People are tired of politics and of going to the 
ballots every six months."  (Note:  In the past four years, 
Sopron has seen two by-elections and the European 
Parliament election.) 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Kranitz, a member of Parliament,s Foreign 
Affairs Committee, predicted there will be no change in 
Hungary,s foreign policy or the strength of the 
transatlantic relationship, no matter what the election 
results.  He said President Bush,s positive remarks on 
Hungary,s National Day and recent visits by Prime Minister 
Blair and President Putin, resonated well with MSZP 
 
BUDAPEST 00000629  003 OF 004 
 
 
voters.  Kranitz said, in order to boost his international 
image among domestic voters, Orban made a "desperate run to 
Berlin and Vienna" to see leaders (who reportedly refused 
to come to Budapest). 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Gyor Mayor May Be Sole Victory for MSZP 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶11.  (SBU) FIDESZ campaign organizers Akos Kara and Robert 
Borsi, told emboffs that FIDESZ will win six of seven MP 
seats in Gyor-Moson-Sopron county.  Gyor,s MSZP Mayor 
Jozsef Balogh, the former Communist whose approval rating 
has increased with each election since 1990, is the only 
question mark in the FIDESZ-dominated county.  Sources 
estimate Balogh has a 15-point lead over his party and a 
five-point lead over FIDESZ rival and party spokesman 
Peter Szijjarto.  Mayor Balogh (like the MSZP) is more 
popular in the urban areas, and lags in the countryside 
where "socialists and liberals have disappeared" in the 
past ten years.  Szijjarto,s frequent attacks on Gyurcsany 
and the MSZP are "attracting voters" said Kara and Borsi 
because he is "willing to standup and tell the truth." 
(Szijjarto has been called "Gyurcsany,s pit bull" for his 
aggressively negative campaign tactics.) 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
Independent Sopron Mayor Says Civil Service Reform is Past 
Due 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Sopron Mayor Dezso Walter reflected on the 
likelihood of sweeping civil service reforms and the 
effects local mayor's will feel in the fall elections, if 
the promised reforms occur, saying the reforms are 
"important and past due."  Walter, an independent mayor 
that sympathizes with the MSZP, declared that he plans to 
downsize city hall by ten percent after the April national 
elections, regardless of who wins.  He is sure that both 
Gyurcsany and Orban are determined to reform public 
administration &that is way overdue in Hungary.8 
 
------------------------------------- 
MIEP is Alive But Not Well in Sopron 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Dean of the West Hungary University Forestry 
Department Karoly Meszaros told Emboffs that rumors of 
considerable MIEP (a far-right party) influence among 
students are ungrounded.  Meszaros said that two former 
MIEP MPs Csaba Lentner and Erzsebet Gidai are professors at 
the university, but that neither the faculty nor students 
take their views seriously.  In fact, politics in general 
"cause little excitement" among the student body.  The most 
spirited debates among students, said Meszaros are "over 
E.U. agricultural policies" and their effect on Hungary. 
Meszaros said the political "temperature of the students" 
is pro-FIDESZ, but said he doubts students will "turn out 
to vote" in substantial numbers. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
Have / Have-Not Gap Widens for Average Hungarians 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶14.  (SBU) Economic frustrations run high in western 
Hungary,s Vas County, according to a group of "average 
Hungarians" who said unfair competition by multinational 
companies and inadequate domestic social policy are 
"starving Hungarian workers."  The group identified 
themselves as "lower income" and ranged in age from 
approximately 25-55 years old.  Two couples in the group 
have children and support pensioner parents on a single 
income.  One spouse in each couple recently lost his/her 
job.  Said a young lady in her twenties, "at least under 
communism people knew they had a job, a place to live and 
enough money to meet their needs."  A middle-aged couple 
shared this frustration, and agreed with the FIDESZ slogan 
"we are worse off than four years ago."  They all blamed 
the Gyurcsany government for "allowing uncertainty" to 
pervade Hungary.  Sources in the region say "cheap labor 
jobs" that sprang up in the early 1990s have moved further 
east (where taxes are lower), leaving the region,s largely 
unskilled populace unable to compete for higher-paying 
jobs.  Average Hungarians believe the income gap in Vas is 
growing, as the middle class, in their view, shrinks. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
BUDAPEST 00000629  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶15.  (SBU)  Dissatisfaction among voters and a 
deeply-rooted conservatism seem to suggest an almost 
certain victory for FIDESZ in western Hungary.  All 
interlocutors agreed the Roman Catholic Church is more 
involved in politics in this cycle, than in any previous 
election.  Most observers agreed that party affiliations 
trumps personality in western Hungary, a factor that also 
may increase FIDESZ's chances. 
 
¶16. (U) Visit U.S. Embassy Budapest's classified website: 
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/budapest/index.cfm 
REEKER