VZCZCXRO5806
RR RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLZ
DE RUEHUP #0644/01 0881437
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 291437Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY BUDAPEST
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8856
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BUDAPEST 000644 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/NCE MICHELLE LABONTE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KDEM PGOV PHUM SOCI HU
SUBJECT: HUNGARY'S ELECTIONS: THE VIEW FROM THE NORTHEAST: 
SZABOLCS-SZATMAR-BEREG COUNTY (C-RE6-00145) 
 
REF: A. STATE 22644 
     ¶B. BUDAPEST 00553 
 
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Summary 
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¶1.  (U) MSZP is likely to gain seats from FIDESZ in 
Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg County.  During a March 23-24 
reporting trip to the area, most interlocutors predicted to 
poloffs that in addition to holding on to its two districts 
in the county seat of Nyiregyhaza, MSZP could win up to half 
the remaining eight districts in the county.  The region is 
poor, very religious in the countryside and its economy is 
based on agriculture.  The Roman Catholic Church is generally 
perceived as being influential in politics, and the county's 
high Roma population is not viewed as a factor in the 
elections.  Though much of the population votes on national 
issues, local issues such as unemployment and infrastructure 
development will influence the outcome as well. 
 
---------- 
Background 
---------- 
 
¶2.  (U) Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg County is Hungary's 
easternmost county, bordering Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine. 
Like much of eastern Hungary, Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg is 
relatively poor and has a higher rate of unemployment 
compared to the national average.  Much of the county is 
employed in the agricultural and food processing industries, 
though these have suffered significantly since the important 
Russian market all but dried up in the years following the 
1989 political transition.  The county has one of the highest 
proportions of Roma (approximately 10 percent). 
 
¶3.  (U) In the 2002 parliamentary elections the county 
registered just over 440,000 voters.  In the vote for the 
county list, support for FIDESZ topped that of MSZP by a mere 
2.4 percent, indicating that the region is evenly split in 
its support for the two main parties.  None of the smaller 
parties represented a serious force in 2002.  Despite the 
relatively even split in support, the situation is different 
geographically.  In 2002 eight of the ten individual mandates 
went to FIDESZ and only two to MSZP.  The two MSZP mandates 
were from Nyiregyhaza, the county seat and its largest and 
most prosperous city. 
 
¶4.  (U) Nyiregyhaza's 120,000 population is divided into two 
voting districts.  In 2002, the two MSZP candidates (both 
women) won the first and second districts with relative ease. 
 Laszlone Csabai, the city's popular mayor, took the District 
2 in the first round with 58 percent of the vote.  The race 
in District 1 went to the second round where Dr. Maria Vojnik 
eventually won 58 percent of the votes, demonstrating that 
Nyiregyhaza is a Socialist bastion within the FIDESZ 
countryside.  Neither of the 2002 FIDESZ candidates are 
running again and despite what would be an assured victory, 
neither is Mrs. Csabai.  She is stepping down from national 
politics and Deputy Mayor Istvan Tukacs will run for MSZP in 
District 2.  Current Defense Minister Ferenc Juhasz and 
Finance Minister Janos Veres are also running close races 
against their FIDESZ opponents in the county. 
 
-------------------------------------- 
Political Mood Reserved, More Tolerant 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) During a meeting with journalists Zoltan Zajacz and 
Laszlo Man of the regional paper Kelet Magyarorszag (East 
Hungary), both expressed the opinion that the vicious nature 
of national politics was much less pronounced in the region. 
Much of this appears due to the personalities of the 
candidates and the generally more relaxed nature of the local 
population.  According to Zajacz, popular MSZP incumbent and 
Nyiregyhaza mayor Laszlone Csabai is stepping down to focus 
on being mayor and to spend more time with her family, 
despite virtual assurance of winning re-election.  In 
addition, both journalists agreed that MSZP has a lock on 
Nyiregyhaza's two seats and so FIDESZ is not campaigning 
heavily in the city, choosing instead to focus its efforts on 
the countryside, where they will have more impact. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Zajacz also discussed other interesting races in 
the county.  In District 3, MSZP Defense Minister Ferenc 
Juhasz is running against FIDESZ candidate Dr. Laszlo Karako 
in a close fought race (Note: In 2002, Juhasz lost Karako in 
the second round by less than 1 percent). In District 6, 
Finance Minister Janos Veres is also in a close race against 
 
BUDAPEST 00000644  002 OF 003 
 
 
FIDESZ's Miklos Simon, and many locals expect that MSZP will 
prevail. (Note: In the first round of the 2002 elections, 
Veres and Simon were neck and neck. Veres lost to Simon by 20 
percent in the second round which is likely due to MDF and 
other small parties throwing their weight to Simon.) Even if 
their national prominence is not enough to win the individual 
districts, the cabinet ministers have nothing to worry about; 
Juhasz is 9th on MSZP's national list and Veres is 1st on 
MSZP's county list and 11th on its national list, 
guaranteeing them seats in parliament. Both Zajacz and Man 
also predicted that MSZP would win both seats in Nyiregyhaza 
and could conceivably gain up to four new seats in the 
countryside, although most of the races are too close to 
call. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Important issues differentiate Nyiregyhaza and the 
rest of the county said Zajacz.  Nyiregyhaza is thriving as a 
result of commercial development and the arrival of 
multinational companies such as Tesco.  Because of this, 
unemployment is at three percent compared to the 
approximately 15 percent in the countryside and most people 
attribute this to Csabai's leadership.  The main concern in 
town is reducing traffic. (Currently there is no ring road 
around the city and all trucking traffic passes through the 
town center, as poloffs found out firsthand.)  In the 
environs, the major issue is unemployment and the lack of any 
regional infrastructure.  FIDESZ is campaigning on the lack 
of infrastructure development  during the last four years, 
but they are hampered by the fact that an extension of the 
main M-3 highway to Nyiregyhaza is under development and 
should be completed by Fall.  Both journalists stated that 
since so much of the county's economy is based on agriculture 
(grain, fruit and tobacco) many voters want to rebuild the 
local economy by developing the  border region. Man said that 
discussions about a proposed European highway to Moscow and 
extending the Trans-Siberian Railroad to the region would 
make Nyiregyhaza an important transport hub again and 
revitalize the once important and lucrative agriculture trade 
with Russia. 
 
----------------- 
Russia The Savior 
----------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Laszlo Peko, investor and head of the County 
Chamber of Commerce and Industry also emphasized the 
potential benefits of closer ties to Russia.  He told poloffs 
on March 23 that the best way to help the depressed 
agricultural economy and high unemployment was to develop 
border crossings with Ukraine and Romania and rebuild trade 
with Russia.  He stated that since Hungary's EU accession, 
Hungarian businesses are losing out to multi-national 
corporations and so the protectionist rhetoric of FIDESZ 
appeals to many local businessman. On the other hand said 
Peko, Hungary was definitely better off as wages have 
increased and inflation is low.   Peko brought up Putin's 
recent visit to Hungary and the warming of relations and said 
that such actions increased the hope of restoring regional 
trade with Russia.  Peko said that local businessman realize 
Orban's xenophobic posturing and  history of cold relations 
with Russia would likely mean that the new relations would 
not continue if FIDESZ came to power.  As an employer, Peko 
also expressed doubt about FIDESZ's promises to lower social 
security contributions as a way to create jobs, saying that 
the budget shortfall would have to made up somehow, probably 
through other taxes. He also stated that the bloated public 
administration budget would have to be cut but that this 
would devastate many of the local villages where the only 
employment was often through some form of the local 
government.  Peko estimated that MSZP would win District 2 
and probably District 1 along with half the remaining 
individual seats. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Peko said that religious sentiment particularly 
Catholicism, is very strong in the countryside and added that 
it was "obvious" the Roman Catholic Church supports FIDESZ. 
The Roma were not a factor according to Peko, as they are 
easily manipulated, giving their votes for a "few sausages." 
He mentioned that many politicians use Roma in the common 
practice of "chain" voting.  (Note: Chain voting is a process 
in which a non-Roma "handler" goes in to vote and brings out 
the blank ballot.  He then fills it out and gives it to a 
Roma who gets a blank ballot but drops the filled out ballot 
in the box. When that Roma comes out he gives the blank 
ballot to the handler in exchange for a bribe and then the 
handler fills out the blank ballot and gives it to the next 
Roma voter and so on. As other inhabitants of eastern Hungary 
have noted (see ref b) Peko said that the number of all-Roma 
or majority-Roma villages were increasing.  He claimed that 
 
BUDAPEST 00000644  003 OF 003 
 
 
this was due to the higher Roma birthrate and the fact that 
while the high unemployment rate is driving many villagers to 
the city, the Roma cannot afford to leave. 
 
------------------------- 
Two Views on Unemployment 
------------------------- 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Poloffs also met with Attila Kantar, principal of 
a public school in one of Nyiregyhaza's communist-era 
"planned" communities.  Kantar said that while national 
issues were important to local voters, unemployment was the 
key local issue.  Kantar noted a recent trend of increased 
enrollment at the school and attributed this to villagers who 
were moving to the city to take advantage of its low 
unemployment rate.  For his students and their families, the 
deciding factor in their choice of career tracks was job 
security.  Kantar said that MSZP would win at least one seat 
in Nyiregyhaza and maybe two along with four seats outside 
the city.  Kantar said he was of the perception that 
religious involvement in politics was a growing trend.  His 
views of Roma as a political force were that of other 
interlocutors, but he did make a distinction between "city" 
Roma and "country" Roma, saying that those in the city were 
less likely to be manipulated. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Dr. Joszef Varadi, a retired Catholic priest took 
the FIDESZ line.  He told Poloffs that the unemployment 
situation in the countryside would actually help MSZP because 
the unemployed "sit around all day watching TV" and so are 
easily manipulated.  Varadi attributed the increasing power 
of MSZP in the region to the local paper being owned by a 
"left-wing German news consortium."  Varadi decried the lack 
of values among MSZP and SZDSZ and said they did not care 
about Hungary's decreasing population, which was a result of 
abortion and "loose" interpretations of marriage.  The priest 
cited Orban's protectionist ideas as a good thing, saying 
that multinational corporations are taking jobs away.  Varadi 
said that it did not matter if the Church tried to get 
involved in politics, because even if the priest told the 
congregation what to do they would be too "insensitive to the 
issues to do anything."  Varadi thought that SZDSZ's handling 
of education and the attempts to force school integration of 
Roma had damaged the educational system and done nothing for 
the Roma. (Comment:  Despite the strong opinions expressed, 
Varadi presented them calmly and matter of factly, often with 
humor.) Despite being so obviously a FIDESZ supporter, Varadi 
stopped short of making any predictions for the county, 
saying that all the races were unpredictable and too close to 
call. 
 
¶12. (U) Visit U.S. Embassy Budapest's Classified website at: 
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/budapest/index.cfm. 
REEKER