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Viewing cable 06BUDAPEST658, HUNGARY'S ELECTIONS: DISPATCH FROM PECS

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06BUDAPEST658 2006-03-31 05:40 2011-08-30 01:44 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Budapest
VZCZCXRO8083
RR RUEHAG RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN RUEHLZ
RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHUP #0658/01 0900540
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 310540Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY BUDAPEST
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8869
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 BUDAPEST 000658 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS EUR/NCE MICHELLE LABONTE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KDEM PGOV PREL SOCI MARR HU
SUBJECT: HUNGARY'S ELECTIONS:  DISPATCH FROM PECS 
(C-RE6-00145) 
 
REF: SECSTATE 22644 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
1. (U) This cable continues Embassy's pre-election coverage 
from the provinces in the run-up to the April contest.  On a 
March 28-29 trip to the southwestern town of Pecs, Baranya 
County, local contacts described the city's electorate as 
inured to partisan politics and somewhat anxious about 
bread-and-butter issues such as job security and wages.  With 
the election less than two weeks away, Emboffs visited this 
medium-sized city of 164,000 to meet with a range of local 
figures, including a business leader, the local MSZP party 
chief, a high-school principal, two FIDESZ representives, and 
a clergyman. 
 
---------- 
Background 
---------- 
 
2. (U) Baranya County is located west of the Danube in 
southwest Hungary of Zala County, bordered by Somogy, Tolna 
and Bacs-Kiskun Counties, as well as by Croatia to the south. 
 The first individual constituency in Baranya's county seat 
of Pecs is one of 26 nationwide that has elected an MP from 
the party winning nationwide in every election since 1990. 
Two prominent MSZP figures were elected from Pecs in 2002: 
Parliament Speaker Katalin Szili and Pecs Mayor Laszlo 
Toller.  Szili won her seat with 50,89 percent, against her 
FIDESZ-MDF rival's 33.63 percent; with 55.34 percent, Toller 
trounced FIDESZ rival Attila Koromi, who entered Parliament 
regardless on a FIDESZ party-list seat.  (However, in April 
2004, Koromi left FIDESZ for the far-right Jobbik movement.) 
President Laszlo Solyom also hails from Pecs, having 
graduated from the Istvan Szechenyi Gymnasium, which Emboffs 
visited. 
 
3. (U) Of Hungary's 8.1 million currently-registered voters, 
145,406 live in Pecs's three individual constituencies and a 
total of 324,058 live in all of Baranya County (2006 figure). 
 Turnout in 2002's first round was 71.82 percent, slightly 
higher than the national average of 70.5 percent.  Baranya 
County will have 13 races:  six party-list constituencies and 
seven individual constituencies (three in Pecs, plus Komlo, 
Mohacs, Siklos and Szigetvar).  Of Baranya County's 13 
parliamentary seats, MSZP holds seven, FIDESZ five, and MDF 
one.  (Note:  In Hungary's election system, parliamentary 
candidates may run head-to-head against each other in 
individual constituencies; run on a party's county list, or 
on a party's national list.  Together, the 176 individual 
constituencies, the 152 county party-list constituencies and 
the 58 national party-list slots return 386 members to 
Parliament.)  Average monthly wages for Baranya County's 
blue- and white-collar workers are HUF 90,001 (USD 419) and 
HUF 177,600 (USD 826), respectively; those figures do not 
include unreported income.  The county's unemployment rate is 
4.28 percent (October 2005 figure), significantly lower than 
both the national and regional rates. 
 
-------------------- 
What Matters in Pecs 
-------------------- 
 
4. (SBU) Pecs is an MSZP town, and the trench warfare of 
Budapest's partisan politics does not define political life 
here.  For example, the parties could all attend the same 
national-day (March 15) celebrations in Pecs this year, which 
was not true in Budapest.  Relations between political 
opponents are often cordial:  former mayor and current 
long-shot FIDESZ-KDNP candidate for Pecs's first district, 
Dr. Zsolt Pava, told Poloffs he had known his SZDSZ opponent 
for 28 years, having gone to school with him.  (Note:  On the 
national level, KDNP party president Zsolt Semjen is virulent 
in his attacks on the liberal SZDSZ.)  On the substantive 
front, Pava identified local matters, rather than national or 
international issues, as what would decide the election in 
his district.  In practice, that will mean development and 
infrastructure:  Pava listed a longstanding flooding problem 
in certain neighborhoods, and the "medieval"-quality housing 
of an 800-strong Roma community on the edge of the district. 
Local journalist for state-run Hungarian Television (MTV) 
Judit Klein confirmed to Poloffs that local issues were key 
to the electorate in Pecs, citing the high readership of the 
local newspaper -- even while lamenting the little 
programming time available in her own medium for the same 
issues.  However, several contacts, including Klein, 
characterized the local electorate as largely indifferent to 
 
BUDAPEST 00000658  002 OF 004 
 
 
politics. 
 
5. (SBU) The proposal to mount a NATO radar installation on 
Mt. Tubes, on the edge of the city, had some residents 
worried about becoming a "magnet" for a future military 
attack -- but, said Pava, no lobby had coalesced around the 
issue, as had happened with Zengo.  (Note:  After much delay, 
punctuated by spirited protests by a FIDESZ-friendly 
environmental group and supportive gestures by President 
Solyom, the GOH ended plans to place a radar station on Mt. 
Zengo.  Pecs residents recall Croatia's shelling of 
settlements on its side of the nearby border during the 
Yugoslav wars.) 
 
-------------------- 
Developmental Issues 
-------------------- 
 
6. (U) The seams of coal and traces of low-grade, 
uranium-laced sand that once fed Pecs's mining industry have 
been depleted, and the mines were closed in the early 1990s. 
(Along the way, one of Pecs's suburbs was proudly named 
"Uranium Town" (Uranvaros).)  Only in 1998 did Pecs manage to 
attract a significant foreign investor in the Finnish 
cellular-telephone manufacturer Elcoteq, which now employs 
some 2,000 workers, according to Pava, who proudly displayed 
his own mobile phone with locally-produced components.  The 
Istvan Szechenyi Gymnasium and Technical School has developed 
a telecommunications program.  After HUF 5 billion (USD 22.7 
million) in upgrades, a new airport with a 1,500-meter-long 
runway opened in March, with twice-weekly flights to Vienna 
and a Milan connection expected shortly.  All our contacts 
expressed hope that the airport would attract investors and 
tourists alike.  The title of Europe's Cultural Capital for 
2010 may also prove to be a plus.  Post also supports an 
American Corner in Pecs, and several contacts described 
positive experiences with it. 
 
7. (SBU) Nonetheless, the city's development is hampered by 
the lack of a highway connection to Budapest or other 
European destinations.  MSZP's 2002 program promised the 
extension of the M6 highway past Dunaujvaros to Pecs, but 
through subsequent modifications, the project was all but 
abandoned.  SZDSZ Deputy Mayor Istvan Horvath suggested it 
was merely "a political matter" decided in Budapest, and that 
Mayor Toller was not at fault that the highway was not built. 
 Another contact suggested that the highway could offer only 
limited returns, given that it would lead to the Croatian 
region of Slavonia, which suffers more severely from 
underdevelopment.  Two recent, major public-works projects 
have faced setbacks:  fiscal responsibility for the new 
cardiac center was dumped on the university, which lacked the 
resources to cover the facility's debt; and the roof of a new 
expo center caved in, leading to recriminations and an 
ongoing investigation.  The Szechenyi high school's training 
programs include automotive electronics, yet Pecs lacks an 
auto plant (conceivably, graduates could seek work in Gyor, 
where Volkswagen has a plant).  Against this backdrop, 
graduates from Pecs's university and secondary-education 
facilities cannot all find work locally (one 
recently-advertised job for a lawyer attracted 80 
applicants), and the town's population is slipping.  (Note: 
As one contact pointed out, broader demographic trends are 
also diminishing Hungary's overall population.) 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Church a Factor, But Not A Decisive One 
--------------------------------------- 
 
8. (SBU) Local journalist Judit Klein told Emboffs that the 
Church's affinity for the right was clear.  She used to 
attend the Catholic church in her parish, she said, but was 
put off by the priest's officious admonitions on whom to vote 
for.  The Church has an especially strong position in Baranya 
County, however:  according to Pava, himself a member of the 
Church, it is "90 percent" Catholic.  Yet only about 20 
percent of locals attend mass regularly, he added, and any 
role that the local prelate and priesthood might play in the 
elections was therefore necessarily limited.  Pava did 
suggest, however, that the local Catholic Church had somewhat 
overstepped its bounds in the 2002 campaign, and was likely 
to keep a lower profile this time.  Father Balazs Garadnay of 
the local bishop's office eschewed the sort of overt 
politicking seen in at least one Gyor congregation, where 
"Bless Viktor Orban" flyers were distributed.  Garadnay 
suggested that it was rather the political class that led 
passive locals by the nose (he pulled his nose forward to 
illustrate), as was the case under the former regime, he 
said.  He described the Church's smooth relations with local 
 
BUDAPEST 00000658  003 OF 004 
 
 
government, regardless of which party is in power.  (Comment: 
 Indeed, there is little potential for conflict, since state 
support for church-administered public services comes from 
the national budget.  That said, Pecs officials appear to 
grant permits for Catholic Church events willingly.) 
 
--------------- 
Minority Report 
--------------- 
 
9. (SBU) The "Swabian" (ethnic-German) community in the 
county's south is especially close to the Church, confirmed 
Father Garadnay, but ethnicity is not a fault line in Baranya 
County, he said.  The father mentioned one local congregation 
where mass takes place in three languages:  Hungarian, German 
and Romani.  Klein told Poloffs that she found a strong sense 
of cohesion within the ethnic-German community, of which she 
herself is a member, and that the Germans were 
well-represented in the economy's more modern sectors, 
including service industries.  Pava also expressed admiration 
for the county's Germans for their industry and their 
adaptability; unemployment is not an issue among the Germans 
in southern Baranya, said Pava. 
 
10. (SBU) Baranya County's Roma are less well-off, and there 
are pockets of endemic, near-total unemployment in certain 
settlements.  As elsewhere, equal access to housing and 
education remain problems for local Roma.  (Note:  At the 
same time, Pecs is home to the Gandhi High School, which sets 
out to level the playing field for young Roma.)  Politically, 
however, the same Roma have shown true mettle.  The Forum of 
Hungarian Gypsy Organizations, a national Roma-based 
political party led by Orban Kolompar,has candidates on the 
ballot in six of the county's seven individual 
constituencies.  According to journalist Klein, none of the 
other parties openly courts Roma for fear of alienating 
non-Roma.  She dismissed the Roma currently serving in 
Parliament as token figures, ineffective at serving their 
community's interests and exploited as symbols by the major 
parties.  For all that, said Klein, Roma do go to the ballot 
box, and they are both "deliberate and strong." 
 
----------------------------------- 
Doyenne and Dweeb:  MSZP's Big Guns 
----------------------------------- 
 
11. (SBU) All of Pecs's three districts appear set to fall to 
MSZP, and the party is running national figures in two of 
them.  Speaker Katalin Szili, currently at the top of 
national popularity polls, was elected to the legislature in 
1994, 1998 and 2002 from Pecs's second district, where she is 
now running again.  Hers is a safe seat ("they love her," 
said local journalist Judit Klein), in spite of how rarely 
she can be found in her home district.  Stories in 
sympathetic news outlets cite the press of national business. 
 Szili's local popularity appears to less policy-based than 
personal, perhaps as a favorite-daughter figure. 
 
12. (SBU) Pecs Mayor and MP Laszlo Toller (MSZP), running for 
reelection to Parliament from the town's third district, has 
some national recognition.  He supported Gyurcsany during the 
party's September 2004 search for a new PM.  In the 2002 
mayoral race, he won handily with 68 percent of the vote, 
against 23 percent for his FIDESZ opponent.  Moreover, Toller 
was selected Mayor of the Year this month by the mayors of 
towns with the status of counties, although that honorific 
reflects small-group politics rather than true popularity. 
Recent monthly polls by local, Pecs-based news daily 
Dunantuli Naplo found his personal popularity to be 
comparable to that of four other contenders for his job. 
Speaking with Poloffs, Klein dismissed Toller as an 
unprepossessing figure who lacks the gift of gab, his 
popularity stemming mainly from his affiliation with MSZP -- 
and Pecs's status as a "traditional" MSZP stronghold. 
Whatever the case,  Toller is a well-established incumbent, 
having won his parliamentary seat in 1994, 1998 and 2002. 
(Note:  In the 1998-2002 term, Toller doubled as MSZP deputy 
caucus leader, although in this term he holds no title of 
note in the legislature.) 
 
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Comment 
------- 
 
13. (SBU) As elsewhere in Hungary's provinces, local issues 
will predominate in Baranya County in April.  Politically, 
the county is divided between the MSZP stronghold of Pecs and 
the outlying regions, where ur-communists and far-right 
candidates appear on district ballots.  With a discrete 
 
BUDAPEST 00000658  004 OF 004 
 
 
German minority and concentrations of Roma, Baranya County is 
also more diverse than most of Hungary, and -- promisingly -- 
the two major minorities both participate vigorously. 
Speaker Katalin Szili and MP Laszlo Toller appear virtually 
uncontested, despite efforts by the local FIDESZ chapter to 
reinvigorate itself.  MSZP thus appears poised to win all 
three Pecs districts, although the outlying districts will 
present more of a challenge. 
 
14. (U) Visit U.S. Embassy Budapest's classified website: 
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/budapest/index.cfm 
REEKER