A Socialist white-collar fraud ring
It seems unlikely that Ferenc Gyurcsany and his high chamberlain Gyorgy Szilvasy, who was administrative state secretary in the Youth and Sport Ministry in the Janos Era, were unaware that the government had for years been handing large subsidies to Socialist-linked front organisations. It's somewhat strange that nobody checked up on the substantial sums that were being paid out.
Zuschlag, handcuffed. © MTI |
It's not the first time Bacs-Kiskun County has hit the headlines because of criminal activities. In the 1990s, the county was an Eldorado of oil smuggling, and in 1998-99, the Sepsi Affair exploded here. That story broke when Janos Kastyjak, a police officer in Kiskunhalas, wrote his wife a letter saying that Laszlo Sepsi, a trader who had often come to the attention of police and who supported the local Fidesz campaign, was boasting about his relationship with Viktor Orban and Sandor Pinter, the Interior Minister. The financial daily Vilaggazdasag printed the letter, upon which Peter Gergenyi, then chief police officer for the county, first suspended, then dismissed Kastyjak. In April 2000, however, the Metropolitan Labour Court overturned the dismissal. It was Janos Zuschlag who criticised the Fidesz government for the affair in Parliament.
Things have changed since then. Gergenyi, the Iron Prefect who was the target of Socialist attacks, became the government's favourite, someone to rely on if you need to disperse a demonstration. Zuschlag is now the suspect. It's curious that his party has made only token attempts to kick him out. His presence can hardly be doing wonders for the Socialists' poll ratings. Normally, the Socialist Party's internal democracy is blamed in such instances. The party presidency can ask for someone to be suspended from the party, but it cannot order it. That's probably true - even if it might offer Gyurcsany a lever to use if he wants to centralise the party further. But it's striking that the young politician appears to have supporters within the party organisation in numbers sufficient to block any attempts to get rid of him.
Zuschlag could reasonably be described as a political survival machine. Most thought his career was over when he made a joke at a Holocaust commemoration. But, even if his national career is over, he seems to be do well enough on the county level, wielding influence at the highest levels. Thanks to his notoriety, the country got to know the leader of a circle of young party animals with a flexible approach to money. Nationally, Zuschlag has become a symbol of the kind of person who lives for influence, cynical in his money-grabbing attitude towards power, a symbol of gangster politics. A worthy successor to Bela Szabadi and Attila Varhegyi.
It may all be about internal party squabbles. Ocsovai, who 'revealed' that Gyurcsany might be implicated in the affair, is Janosi's man. Janosi was Gyurcsany's predecessor as deputy state secretary in the Youth and Sport Ministry. This means that, indirectly, he's also Szili's man. Gyurcsany wanted to get rid of him when he became his boss. This doesn't mean, of course, that his testimony is false.
But if the Socialists do come to Zuschlag's aid, they may have good reason for doing so. The tendrils of this affair definitely reach further up. Senior ministry officials, local and national party officials may be implicated. Until then, we should wait patiently for a judgement. And Z. Janos, as he is referred to in the documents, certainly has a right to a presumption of innocence. But this should not stop us from condemning any wrongdoing, both his and that of his superiors.
László Tamás Papp
