The Magyar Nemzet [Nation], once the pinnacle of Hungarian journalism has become an extremist paper, bulldozing anyone that gets in its way, according to Janos Pelle.

The results of the elections of 9 April 2006 are known: the Socialist-Liberal coalition took the lead, and Fidesz's position heading into the second round is little better than in 2002. Of course, the MDF did squeak past the 5 per cent barrier, but, if we are to go on what Ibolya David is saying, the prospect of the two parties getting together is very remote. Officially, Ms David claims the two parties' manifestos are incompatible. Viktor Orban's economic policies contains elements so left-wing and populist that they are unacceptable to a realist, modern conservative party.

But this is only part of the truth. It would be possible to bridge the gap between the MDF's and Fidesz's manifestos. But the roots of the conflict between the two parties of the 1989 regime change are deeper and more painful, and they relate to the media. Over the past four years, the Right's daily paper, the Magyar Nemzet, and its weekly, the Magyar Demokrata, have regularly struck an extremist tone with regard to the MDF and its leader. The paper's journalists have continued their tirades of abuse on Hir TV as well.

Now, the journalists who have spent their time abusing MDF and Ibolya David herself expect her to rise above the insults "in the interests of the common values of the right wing," and strike a bargain with Fidesz. Moderate right-wing politicians are despatched to MDF's headquarters, with public intellectuals like Istvan Elek writing an open letter in the past few days. Bu the wounds inflicted by the right-wing media on Ms David run very deep, and they are unlikely to heal in two weeks.

This underscores the fact that Fidesz has not yet managed to create a high-quality, moderate right-wing media capable of competing with the organs of the Left. If the Right loses the elections, its politicians will have to set things in order on the "media front." It is astonishing that Magyar Nemzet, once the pinacle of Hungarian journalism, has fallen as far as it has. Once the paper of Hungarian independence and democracy, it has adopted an extremist tone ever since employees of the former Napi Magyarorszag took leading roles at the paper after 2000.

Remember, for instance, when the Magyar Nemzet published an article headlined "K.O." before the 2002 elections. That is, they not only pre-empted the results (wrongly, as it turned out), but they frequently threaten the Left with being "cut to pieces." How can articles like this appear in the paper that in the 1940s appeared with the following legendary words on its masthead: "The Magyar Nemzet is fighting for Hungary to remain Hungary." How can a few blinkered employees threaten the left wing with being "rejected by the nation", telling them that there is no place for them "under the orange sun?" Fidesz is now reaping the rewards for attacks like these.