There is a curious alliance of interests
Courts in Hungary tend to close ranks and resist substantive change, according to Zoltan Fleck, a 41-year-old legal scholar, who was prevented from voicing his criticisms at a national law conference last week.
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My suspicion is that it was my proposed plenary address that caused problems, not my person. Many were unhappy that I, an outsider, had the effrontery to look at the inner workings and internal affairs of the justice system. I wanted to talk about problems that had arisen as a result of the 1997 reform of the justice system. I wasn't calling for revolutionary changes. I wanted to talk about the need for minor changes to certain aspects of our existing court system.
Can the inner workings of the third branch of government be considered internal affairs in a democratic state?
In healthy societies, where self-defensive, corporatist structures have not emerged, it is inevitable that the system of justice is open to criticism. However, Hungarian courts are reluctant to hear criticism, not just of their structure, but also of their rulings. Judges are simply not used to people analysing trends in rulings in certain areas of the law. Lawyers and legal scholars have thus far failed to make it clear that criticism has a constitutional purpose. For example, in order to establish whether the principle of equality before the law is working in practice, you have to conduct comparisons of judgements.
But it's not just the courts. The Medgyessy government passed laws that made it impossible for the press even to get hold of written verdicts.
There has been a curious alliance of interests in the Hungarian legal profession for many years now. Leading court officers and the lawyers together constitute a powerful lobby. This could hardly be prevented. But it is more surprising that this lobby has a decisive influence on the way laws are written.
You appear to be suggesting that a lawyer-justice minister like Peter Barandy had a common interest with many judges in keeping information about the daily workings of the courts system from the press.
I make no such assumption about the previous minister for justice. But I have seen that there is what you might delicately call a consensus on how transparent the legal system should be. Judges who think they should be open to criticism are very much in a minority.
There was once a group of young reforming judges. Why have they become so much less prominent?
There was indeed a time when things changed faster. The judges' revolution started with a demand for increased pay. I don't wish to be cynical. Several well-known members of the Judges' Group played an important role in the development of our court system. I don't know why they've disappeared. One of the major mistakes of the reforms was that the judges saw their only 'enemy' as the executive. They all forgot that county court presidents also play a very important role in the legal hierarchy. The middle managers. And even before 1989, they had close relationships with the county Communist Party Committee, with the secretary of the City Committee and with the county chief prosecutor. And even if the people changed, the reforms of 1997 left this important post unchanged. Further, many of these county court presidents were elected onto the National Justice Council. This created the curious situation where county court presidents were responsible for policing themselves.
The majority and the Roma
Ninety per cent of the Hungarian population say the Roma have criminal tendencies in their blood, according to a survey by Tarki, and every third adult expresses feelings of antipathy towards them. Surveys invariably show that Hungarians are still afflicted by prejudice against the Roma. In recent years, moreover, we have seen even feelings of sympathy on the part of the majority disappear. But it is hard to find a reason for the growing antipathy towards the Roma.
The politicisation of government
Political science textbooks were quite clear: in Hungary, ministers came and went, but civil servants stayed. Now, however, most of the ministers have stayed, but the ministries' permanent administrators have all gone.
The Gyurcsany package
Ferenc Gyurcsany chose to unveil his drastic savings package not in parliament, but before the more understanding audience of the National Interest Conciliation Council's functionaries. Many of the measures had already been leaked - few of them came as a surprise to the well-informed. The question is how people who believed in the electoral promises will respond to this cold shower.
Not as good as the Orban
Jozsef Debreczeni's biography of Gyurcsany, which was being signed by both biographer and subject at the Book Week, is a bit like the opposite of a magic mirror. The book makes Gyurcsany and his circle look better the closer you get.
"The country is not a company"
"You can change the world in big steps too," said Kinga Goncz two years ago when she last changed her career. The 58-year-old was last week appointed Hungary's first female foreign minister. The new minister is keeping quiet about her grand plans for the new job, in which she will influence the lives of 450m people as a member of the EU's powerful council of foreign ministers.
What do some right-wingers have against Pokorni?
Janos Pelle wrote this article for the Magyar Nemzet, but the newspaper turned it down, saying the debate over the reasons for the Right's defeat had been concluded. We publish the article in abridged form, believing it to be of interest to more than just the right-wing.
