A magyar pártok és az Európai Unió. Az EU mint belpolitikai kérdés 1990–2004 között
Hungarian Parties and the European Union. The EU in the Internal Politics in Hungary 1990-2004

Summary/Abstract: The essay reflects on the debate between the leading Hungarian parties on the conditions of the joining to the E.U. According to the author this debate started too late, right before the negotiations’ last turn in 2002, although the joining process had lasted since 1994. Before 2002 there had not been a deep discussion in the Hungarian society or in the political elite about the possible Hungarian role in the E. U. or the circumstances of the joining. After 2002 these question are dominantly seen through the lens of the conflicts between the Hungarian parties, other point of views hardly have no chance to be paid attention to. Now the E. U. is not an independent policy issue but an „attachment” of the general problems of the Hungarian party politics. Between 1990 and 2002 the E. U. was a distant goal, a desired but almost unknown destination of Hungary. A moderate optimism was the typical attitude among the citizens, but usually without established knowledge about the Union. The parties did not reflect on the questions and maybe doubts that arisen in the society, especially in the rural population. In the fall of 2002 former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was the first relevant politician lifted these questions and fears to the political agenda. But Mr. Orbán’s was motivated not by the ambition to start the conversation about Hungary’s European role. He tried to make his defeated party visible before the local election in October 2002 and tried to speak different about the E. U. winning the sceptic Hungarian voters’ sympathy to enlarge his party’s basis. Mr. Orbán risked his E. U. supporter image for gaining these voters’ support. The socialist-liberal coalition called him populist and E. U. sceptic and the government introduced itself as the only real supporter of the joining. So the debate has started in 2002 is not about Hungary’s strategy in the E. U. but this is an illustration of how the Hungarian political life works dominated by passionate conflicts without self-important issues. Because of that there had not been a political debate really on the future of Hungary in the E. U.

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