Jiří Pehe on the nightmare of one-party government in Hungary

Jiří Pehe, former chief advisor to Czech ex-president Václav Havel, writes in the leftist daily Právo that the election results in Hungary bode ill for the future of democracy in Eastern Europe: "The fledgling democracies in our region are still 'democracies without democrats'. Democracy was introduced relatively quickly here and with a good measure of success, thanks in large part to the massive transfer of know-how from institutions like the EU. Nevertheless, the development of the culture of democracy must happen over the long term. Once can say with a fair degree of certainty that Fidesz will not immediately put its absolute power into accelerating the process of reform, but that it will first settle old scores with political opponents. In foreign policy terms, [future prime minister] Viktor Orbán's nationalism means we can brace ourselves for one thing. ... No one becomes alarmed when one large party assumes power in the UK because it would never occur to them to attack the very fundaments of democracy. One-party government in our region, by contrast, unfortunately constitutes a nightmare even 20 years after the fall of communism."

» more information (external link, Czech)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Elections, » Hungary
All available articles from » Jiří Pehe

» To the complete press review of Tuesday, April 27, 2010