Elections: the success of grassroots

Despite an unprecedented swing to the centre right, the first round results of the 2010 Hungarian election also demonstrated a surprising factor in the political power of civil society and grassroots movements.

While the Jobbik party, a far right group, led by Gabor Vona made international headlines by taking 16.7 percent of the votes, the green LMP (Politics Can be Different) party took 7.4 percent.  Both parties, at the opposite side of the political spectrum, are entering the Hungarian parliament for the first time.

 “In the last 20 years, there were no newly founded parties that arrived in the parliament from the outside.  Now there are two new parties,” Benedek Javor, the official spokes person for the LMP party,  explained to Vita Europe in a telephone interview.  “One unfortunately is the extremist Jobbik.” A sentiment felt by many election observers

The two parties share one thing in common. Both parties owe their success to strong ties with grassroots movements and civil society.

Green

The relationship between the LMP and Hungarian civil society dates back to long before its foundation.

Many of the party’s elite started off working for the civil society sector, including the party’s leader Andras Schiffer. Before forming the LMP, in 2009, he was a lawyer who worked with human rights organizations like Habeas Corpus.   

Gergely Toth, founder and secretary general of KOVET, a Hungarian NGO, told Vita Europe that in 2000 a civil society movement, Protect the Future, was established and that it was this movement that “gave birth to two green parties. The more successful [being] LMP, established in 2008.”

 “The strong relationships [with the Hungarian civil society sector] meant that [LMP] could announce its need for help in these groups, and independently or individually activists moved in great numbers to help to get the 100,000 signatures required [for the LMP] to participate in the elections,” Javor said.

Leaders of NGOs like Toth are happy to see the LMP enter parliament.  When asked his reaction to the election results, Toth stated, “I am happy, because LMP is truly devoted but also smart: they unite many progressive Hungarian thinkers and voters.”

Bad seeds

Similarly to Schiffer and LMP, Vona and Jobbik have strong ties with civil society.

In 2007, Vona co-founded the Hungarian Guard. Registered as an official Hungarian association, this organization boasted many volunteers and was often present in Hungarian public life.

October 23, 2009, members held a public manifestation, in Budapest, to celebrate the anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian uprising against the Soviet invasion.

While the Hungarian Guard was set up as and had many of the common traits that typify a civil movement, experts like Peter Nizak, senior manager of the Open Society Institute in Hungary, describe this type of organization in Hungary as “bad civil society.”

The Hungarian Supreme court agreed. In 2009, they abolished the organization, saying that it “infringed the rights of others and ran counter to democratic values.”

The Jobbik party was originally a Right-Wing Youth Association established in 2002. In 2003, it became the Jobbik political party, and in 2006, Vona, a founding member, was elected party leader.

The Jobbik party has been the target of both national and international criticism. Concerns have been raised over its anti-roma policies. Including, a policy, described in the party’s Manifesto, to set up a special “Gendarmerie” (police force) to halt “Gypsy crime.”

More concerns were raised over one of the party’s high profile members, Krisztina Morvai, who has made several public anti-Semitic comments.

Despite the ban, the Hungarian Guard is still said to be active. Worrying as it is, the election results – Jobbik placed third in terms of votes – confirm that Jobbik has done a very good job of using civil society to mobilize grassroots support.

To learn more about the Hungarian election read:

http://www.vita.it/news/view/102424