A bad political accident at a critical time; rating agencies are cautious for the time being

HUNGARY - In Brief 03 Dec 2020 by Istvan Racz
Our title for today's note refers to two separate stories, which are closely linked together, though, by the fact that both are relevant in the context of the ongoing EU budget debate culminating just in these days.The first one is about a bad political accident hitting the governing Fidesz party at a highly critical time. The other day, the Belgian police caught Fidesz' long-serving faction head in the European Parliament, as participating at a gay sex party in downtown Brussels, at the time of the night curfew. The gentleman, Mr. József Szájer, was reportedly trying to escape through the window and down the water drain pipe, but he was eventually held up by the police, with some illegal drugs in his sack.What makes this story interesting is that in addition to his position in the European Parliament,Mr. Szájer is a high-ranking figure in Fidesz, one of the founding fathers of the party, and definitely the first Fidesz member who won a parliamentary mandate as an individual (rather than a party-list) candidate in Hungary back in 1990. He is also known as the main author of Hungary's current Constitution, the one which Fidesz alone approved in 2011. The Constitution is based on a conservative-Christian view of the world, and it gives a definition of the family which many people have described as a homophobe concept. The Consitution is currently under its 9th amendment, and one of the points affected by Fidesz' proposal to amend it refer to a further limitation of LGBT rights.Since the incident, Mr. Szájer has given back his membership in Fidesz, and PM Orbán has spoken on the issue, saying that what he (Mr. Szájer) did was unacceptable for the party. The incident is pa...

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