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INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BUDAPEST 000113 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CE JAMIE MOORE. 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/23/2015 
TAGS: PGOV SOCI HU
SUBJECT: PECS - A WINDOW ON HUNGARIAN POLITICS? 
 
REF: A. 09 BUDAPEST 909 
     ¶B. 09 BUDAPEST 760 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Paul C. O'Friel 
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1.  (C) SUMMARY. Pecs is off to a lurching start as a 
"European Cultural Capital."  The new Fidesz administration 
has proven as inept as its Socialist predecessors in getting 
the city ready for this year-long event, with infrastructure 
upgrades months behind.  Fidesz mayor Zsolt Pava appears to 
be using the highly popular takeover of a French-managed 
water utility and protests against construction of a NATO 
radar site as a way to distract attention from the torn up 
downtown area.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Pecs, the country's fifth largest city and the site 
of its oldest university, lies nestled in the rolling hills 
of southern Hungary.  With its motto "The Borderless City," 
Pecs has a long history of openness and tolerance; in 1998 it 
received UNESCO's "Cities for Peace" prize for the welcome it 
offered to refugees fleeing the Balkan wars.  This year it 
shares with Essen and Istanbul the title of "European Capital 
of Culture."  But all is not sunny in this 
Mediterranean-style city.  The EU-funded project to transform 
the downtown area is months behind and the central square and 
main streets are a sea of mud, mired in politics and 
political in-fighting. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Once a Socialist (MSzP) party stronghold, Pecs has 
been drifting since 2006 when then MSzP mayor, Laszlo Toller, 
was badly injured in an automobile accident.  His MSzP 
successor, Peter Tasnadi, was no more than a place-holder, 
dying tragically of cancer in January 2009.  In May 2009, the 
opposition Fidesz party candidate, Zsolt Pava, staged a 
stunning upset, decisively defeating incumbent Parliament 
speaker and Socialist party titan Katalin Szili in local 
elections with 65.8 percent of the vote. 
 
¶4.  (C) Pava explains his defeat of Szili simply: she was an 
"absentee representative," who lost touch with her 
constituents.  Szili, he noted, never struck the right 
balance between her parliamentary duties in Budapest and 
spending time in her district. Szili, Pava continued, also 
failed to deliver the goods; e.g., the long-awaited Budapest 
to Pecs highway will only be finished in March 2010 after a 
nine-year wait.  (Note: After her defeat in the municipal 
elections, with her political reputation in tatters, Szili 
stepped down as Speaker in September 2009.  Pava emphatically 
made clear he is not/not running for Parliament in April's 
national elections.  End Note.) 
 
¶5.  (C) Local MSzP leader Bertalan Toth separately agreed 
with Pava's analysis, saying that the Socialists lost the 
mayoral election because they were perceived as being out of 
touch, corrupt, and scandal-ridden.  Toth said he is working 
to rebuild from the bottom up, but has little hope of an MSzP 
victory in the upcoming national elections in April.  While 
good friends with Socialist party prime ministerial candidate 
Attila Mesterhazy, whom he considers very "simpatico," Toth 
believes MSzP does not have enough time to turn its image 
around.  He predicts a "civil war" for control of the party 
between old guard and new guard once the election is over. 
 
¶6.  (C) In person, Pava belies his firebrand reputation.  The 
soft-spoken, blue-jeaned, blue-blazered Fidesz mayor hardly 
seems like someone who would organize the September 2009 
take-over of the French-managed local water utility (refs a 
and b) or stage sit-ins in December to block the building of 
a proposed NATO radar site on the nearby hill of Tubes. 
 
¶7.  (C) Asked to explain the takeover of the waterworks 
(which was highly popular with local citizens), Pava 
complained of alleged "irregularities" in the French 
consortium Suez's acquisition of other local water utilities 
around the country and spoke hazily of large corporate loan 
guarantees provided to unnamed special interests. 
Downplaying the night-time storming of the water company's 
headquarters, Pava insists that it was non-violent and that 
the security guards sent to occupy the building had been 
armed with a decree from the municipal assembly.  The 
dispute, he says, is now working its way through the courts. 
Pressed about the likely outcome, Pava conceded that Pecs 
would likely have to pay compensation to reacquire Suez's 48 
percent share of the water company, which Pava himself sold 
off for 350 million Hungarian forint (approximately $1.81 
million) in 1995 during his previous term has mayor. 
 
¶8.  (C) The implications of any compensation deal on the 
budget of Pecs -- one of Hungary's most indebted 
municipalities -- are unclear.  Pava admitted that his 
 
BUDAPEST 00000113  002 OF 002 
 
 
current budget is "a mess" after losses in tax revenue and 
sharp cutbacks in central government allocations due to the 
recession.  "Thank God for the banks," he said.  (Note:  On 
February 22, hundreds of municipal civil servants 
demonstrated outside of Pecs city hall protesting against 
cutbacks in benefits.  End Note.) 
 
¶9.  (C) Questioned about his opposition to the Tubes radar 
site, Pava was quick to assert that he had nothing against 
NATO, adding that if he were a private citizen he would not 
have objected to the construction.  "I understand two radars 
have been built, and that a third is needed."  Pava claimed 
he was simply responding to the concerns of his constituents, 
who believed it was too close to human habitation.  "Look, if 
it was outside city boundaries, I would have no objection," 
he stated. 
 
¶10.  (C) Pava allowed that Pecs was at least three months 
behind in terms of its infrastructure upgrades, but said the 
cultural program, "which was more important," had come 
together.  He claimed citizens had been elated at last 
August's Placido Domingo concert and the New Year's Eve 
celebrations.  MSzP leader Toth glumly admitted that Pecs is 
far from ready to step into its role as a European cultural 
capital, saying, "It's a disaster; we're just not ready." 
Toth said he did not want to criticize Pava over the issue, 
because there was plenty of blame to go around among both 
parties.  "We didn't quite understand the EU contracting 
process; it makes everyone look bad."  The important thing, 
according to Toth, was to pull together and work toward a 
solution. 
 
¶11.  (C) A new force appears to be entering the fray between 
Fidesz and the Socialists: Jobbik.  Although Mayor Pava 
discounts the far-right party's presence in Pecs, saying that 
its showing in last June's EU elections was one of the 
weakest in the country, Jobbik activists regularly staff a 
both in the town square passing out leaflets. 
 
¶12.  (C) While Pava predicts that Jobbik will at most get 
nine percent of the vote, Socialist leader Toth fears that 
their tally could range higher.  Toth notes that many 
traditionally conservative doctors and lawyers are Jobbik 
supporters.  Toth also confided that his father-in-law is an 
active Jobbik supporter -- a fact that makes for very 
uncomfortable dinner conversations: "We talk about the 
weather, anything but politics." 
 
¶13.  (C) Toth confirmed the trend we had noted elsewhere that 
Jobbik is a growing presence a the University of Pecs. 
Asked why young people were attracted to Jobbik, Toth 
theorized that Jobbik offered a sense of belonging and 
identity that they could not find elsewhere.  He said the 
Socialists had plans to establish their own youth group to 
counter Jobbik's influence, but admitted ruefully that "we 
haven't been able to get things off the ground." 
 
¶14.  (C) COMMENT.  In proclaiming Pecs as a European cultural 
capital in January, Prime Minister Bajnai said the title 
offered responsibility, as well as an opportunity, as Pecs 
would act as a window on the whole country throughout the 
year.  If that is true, the view is a mixed one.  It is a 
sight of great intentions gone astray, of halting cooperation 
amidst political feuding between the two largest parties, as 
well as the disturbing intrusion of the far-right into even 
the most placid corners of Hungary.  It is also a political 
morality tale, for just like Mayor Pava, Fidesz, which is 
widely expected to win this April's national elections, 
stands to inherit a raft of problems.  Like Pava, Fidesz may 
try to distract the electorate, but in the end it will have 
to own up to the fact that ultimately its predecessor's 
difficulties will become its own, and that politics is not 
just about winning elections, but also about governing. 
KOUNALAKIS