Mária Schmidt on Hungary's democratic roots

The Hungarian writer Péter Nádas has criticised in an article for the weekly Élet és Irodalom the lack of democratic tradition in his country. Conservative historian Mária Schmidt contradicts this view in the online edition of the left-liberal weekly Heti Világgazdaság: "In his essay The State of Things Péter Nádas makes a claim that is regarded as a maxim among left-liberal intellectuals: 'Hungarian society has no democratic tradition'. I simply can't understand why the representatives of the left-liberal camp cling to this position. ... On the other hand I understand this stance only too well. I believe the reason for it is that when it comes to our history and our past we are still captive to Marxist ways of thinking, that our entire view of the world is dominated by Marxism. ... I have explained on several occasions that ... Hungary indeed has a democratic tradition. I am thinking here of the historical period between 1867 and 1918. ... After that at least the general conditions for parliamentarianism remained intact until the Second World War and Nazi dominance: there were elections and freedom of the press, expression and association. Admittedly this system was by no means perfect, but when and where has anything ever functioned perfectly?"

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