Hungary: chess icon turns down presidency
Following the removal of President Tamás Sulyok, chess champion Judit Polgár – Prime Minister Péter Magyar's favoured candidate for the job – has declined the nomination. Polgár explained that she did not feel strong enough to shoulder the historic responsibility of uniting a divided nation. Commentators debate the reasons for her refusal and whether Magyar should reconsider his approach.
Rash actions don't pay off
The public is clearly upset about not having a say, comments Index:
“The Tisza government has received its first serious warning since the April elections. But this is first and foremost Péter Magyar's defeat: the voters were not as obedient as he had expected. Instead, they reminded him that he owes them his mandate to govern and demanded that he keep his promise to allow participation. ... With his ill-considered, hasty actions, the prime minister has also managed to put Judit Polgár in an embarrassing position and humiliate her. The matter is far from over, however, because voters expect to have a genuine say in who represents Hungary as head of state.”
How he did it was the problem
Gazeta Wyborcza urges the prime minister to exercise more caution:
“Although it has long been said in Hungary that Tisza is a one-man party, there had been no glaring examples of Magyar abusing his power up to now. ... Hungarians are particularly sensitive to such things, which were commonplace under the Fidesz government. This was the main reason why Viktor Orbán's party lost power. Tisza was established as a grassroots party that draws its strength from 50,000 local volunteers. Any suspicion of abuse of power is a major problem for Magyar and for his party.”
The country isn't ready for this debate
Judit Polgár didn't stand a chance, laments Népszava editor-in-chief Péter Németh:
“We don't know whether she would have made a good head of state. But we do know that it's better that we are at least having this discussion today, as Magyar also emphasised. Yet the debate has raised the question of whether we are actually ready to have this kind of discussion at all. Today, I don't believe we are. And Judit Polgár basically arrived at the same conclusion: she saw no way to alleviate the country's divisions, so she turned down the offer – understandably, and regrettably.”
Change is not a done deal
The Süddeutsche Zeitung warns:
“Magyar has shown how serious he is about ousting officials from the Orbán era, which was characterised by corruption and the erosion of democracy, from the country's top political offices. Of course such revolutionary zeal runs the risk of overshooting the mark and veering into anti-democratic territory itself. Until now, however, Magyar has kept within the rule of law, in whose name he is pushing through all the changes. We can only hope that in his ambition to bring Hungary back into the European democratic fold, he does not run out of energy or allies. Polgár's refusal and her entirely justified reference to the 'divided nation' clearly demonstrate that this is by no means a foregone conclusion.”