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ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 151232Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY BUDAPEST
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9230
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BUDAPEST 001009 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/NCE MICHELLE LABONTE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM SOCI PINR HU
SUBJECT: HUNGARY'S PARLIAMENT: STRUCTURAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC 
FACTS TO KNOW (C-RE6-00145) 
 
REF: A. STATE 22644 
 
     ¶B. BUDAPEST 00138 
 
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Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. (U) Some three weeks since the second round of Hungary's 
national elections, Parliament convenes its first plenary 
session of the term on May 16.  President Solyom has invited 
MSZP and SZDSZ to form the next government, while opposition 
FIDESZ and MDF remain divided.    This session will likely 
see some realignment of forces among the opposition, as the 
Christian Democrats form a separate faction (caucus) and MDF 
stakes out its own place on the right apart from FIDESZ. 
This Parliament is characterized by more incumbents, older 
MPs, a slight increase in the number of women, and the 
erosion of support for FIDESZ since 2002 in party strongholds. 
 
-------------------- 
Parliament Structure 
-------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) In the April parliamentary elections, voters delivered 
mandates to four parties:  the Hungarian Socialist Party or 
MSZP (186), the Alliance of Young Democrats and Christian 
Democratic People's Party or FIDESZ-KDNP (164), the Hungarian 
Democratic Forum or MDF (11), and the Alliance of Free 
Democrats or SZDSZ (18).  One independent and six joint 
MSZP-SZDSZ candidates also won seats.  Press reports and 
recent Embassy meetings with party officials confirm that 23 
KDNP members plan to break away from FIDESZ to form an 
independent faction. 
 
¶3. (U) The Constitution, as amended in 1989, defines Hungary 
as a unicameral, parliamentary republic.  The Parliament 
consists of 386 members.  Members of the Parliament (MPs) are 
elected for four years, and are to be convened by the 
President of the Republic within one month after the 
elections. 
 
¶4. (U) Officers of the Parliament include the Speaker of the 
Parliament, whose main tasks include convening parliamentary 
sessions and directing the work of Parliament; and five 
Deputy Speakers, charged with chairing the plenary sessions 
and substituting for the Speaker in her absence.  Recently, 
FIDESZ has sought to prevent MDF from winning a vice-speaker 
slot by calling for an overall reduction in the number of 
vice speakers.  The vice speakers and party-faction (caucus) 
leaders make up the House Committee of the Parliament, which 
guides the parliamentary agenda.  To date, three parties have 
indicated their choices for faction leader:  MSZP (Ildiko 
Lendvai), SZDSZ (Gabor Kuncze) and MDF (Karoly Herenyi). 
Twenty-five standing committees and temporary committees 
assist the work of the Parliament, though the coalition 
government has vowed to decrease this number to as few as 
fifteen.  However, the parties have not yet reached agreement 
on the number of committees.  Resolving that issue will 
likely delay the date of the legislature's second plenary 
session until the end of May. 
 
---------------- 
Party Background 
---------------- 
 
¶5. (U) MSZP was constituted from the Hungarian Socialist 
Worker's Party, Hungary's former communist party.  Scoring a 
mere 8.5 percent in the 1990 elections, MSZP received an 
overwhelming majority four years later, when it became a 
governing party for the first time.  After four years in 
opposition from 1998 to 2002, MSZP then returned to power, 
forming a coalition with the liberal SZDSZ party.  Peter 
Medgyessy, the party's PM candidate in 2002, was not a party 
member,  In September 2004, Medgyessy lost his position and 
Ferenc Gyurcsany emerged as the new PM over the objections of 
the party's "old wing."  Having now won reelection, MSZP is 
the first party in the history of democratic Hungary to win 
two consecutive general elections.  Although the race was a 
tight one, the party's victory may signal that it has largely 
shed its negative communist stigma. 
 
¶6. (U) SZDSZ is a small, liberal party that grew out of an 
opposition organization created in the late 1980s.  In the 
1990 and 1994 elections, SZDSZ finished second. Between 1994 
and 1998, it was the junior governing party in a coalition 
with MSZP.  With its popularity declining substantially, 
SZDSZ's representation in Parliament dwindled to just 24 MPs 
following the 1998 electoral loss to FIDESZ.  In 2002, as in 
2006, SZDSZ narrowly surpassed the 5 percent threshold 
required to obtain seats in Parliament.  Traditionally, 
 
BUDAPEST 00001009  002 OF 002 
 
 
SZDSZ's support base is urban and centered in Budapest. 
 
¶7. (U) MDF, currently the junior opposition party, led 
Hungary's first democratically-elected administration between 
1990 and 1994.  Its conservative foundations date to the time 
of the system change, although its popularity has declined 
considerably since the mid 1990s.  As FIDESZ stepped to the 
forefront of the right wing, MDF has struggled to reach the 
five-percent mark in recent elections.  Between 1998 and 
2002, it governed in coalition with FIDESZ.  After a bitter 
campaign in 2006, in which it vied openly with its former 
ally FIDESZ for votes, the MDF sees its return to Parliament 
as a major victory, and has announced plans to reform the 
party and establish a "truly" conservative entity with a 
broad support base on the right. 
 
¶8. (U) FIDESZ, created in the late 1980s as an opposition 
party, is today essentially a populist party, although it 
styles itself a conservative one.  Initially a catalyst for 
the system change, FIDESZ gradually shifted from the liberal 
side of the spectrum to the conservative in the mid-1990s, 
embracing the causes of ethnic Hungarians and the traditional 
churches.  Between 1998 and 2002, FIDESZ was the senior 
governing party.  The party leadership has promised to "keep 
fighting" to uphold the interests of Hungarian conservatives 
though the 2006 defeat is the second for the party in as many 
elections. 
 
------------------- 
Demographic Changes 
------------------- 
 
¶9. (U) More incumbents won in the 2006 elections than in 
previous contests, with 267 MPs returning to Parliament. 
Moreover, according to Hungarian Election Commission 
statistics, the new Parliament is older than the previous 
one:  more than half of MPs are over 50 years of age, 25 
between the age of 60 and 70, and ten over 70 years old 
(including two over 80).  The largest group is of 163 MPs who 
are between 50 and 60 years old.  Only 60 MPs are under 40 
years old, with the youngest being MSZP's Laszlo Nagy, at 23 
years of age. 
 
¶10. (U) There are three more women in the new Parliament, 
bringing the total to 39, up from 36.  Twenty-four are from 
the MSZP, two are SZDSZ, twelve are from FIDESZ and one 
(party president Ibolya David) represents the MDF. 
 
¶11. (U) Sixty-seven MPs in the new parliament are mayors as 
well, many of whom will stand for re-election in the local 
elections in November. 
 
----------------- 
Geographic Shifts 
----------------- 
 
¶12. (U) In a remarkable advance over their 78 individual wins 
in 2002, the socialist MSZP party won 98 individual 
constituencies, in addition to six joint constituencies with 
the SZDSZ.  As in the 2002 contest, the MSZP-SZDSZ coalition 
won 28 out of 32 constituencies in Budapest.  Also as in 
2002, FIDESZ won four traditionally conservative districts in 
Buda.  (Note:  The 186 figure for MSZP in paragraph two 
includes individual-constituency seats, county party-list and 
national party-list seats.  The total number of a party's 
seats in Parliament is determined by wins in individual 
constituenciess and seat distributions from party lists; for 
details, please see reftel B.) 
 
¶13. (U) The MSZP performed better in rural areas than four 
years ago.  While the FIDESZ dominance in Hungary's western 
counties continued, the MSZP knocked out FIDESZ candidates in 
northeastern Hungary's Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg County.  In a 
significant shift, FIDESZ only managed to win three of that 
county's ten districts, down from eight in 2002.  In 
Hajdu-Bihar County, another FIDESZ stronghold, the MSZP won 
three of the nine constituencies, where they had won none in 
¶2002.  The coalition also dominated Bekes County in the 
southeastern corner of Hungary, where the four-to-three 
FIDESZ win in 2002 was followed by a five-to-two victory for 
MSZP in 2006. 
 
¶14. (U) Visit Embassy Budapest's classified website: 
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/budapest/index.cfm 
WALKER