None of the opposition parties weathered the election debacle well, but LMP’s affairs are in total disarray. By now, several members of the board have resigned, including co-chairman Ákos Hadházy, while Bernadett Szél is trying her best to act as if all is well.
Even outsiders could sense that trouble was brewing in LMP. It was obvious from the often inexplicable moves of the party leadership during the campaign that deep-seated differences existed within the party that might not easily be resolved. For instance, Ákos Hadházy, a relative newcomer to LMP, didn’t always see eye to eye with the rest of the leadership when it came to the sacred “independence doctrine” of András Schiffer, the man who is most responsible for the birth of the party with the ridiculous name “Politics Can Be Different.” But how serious the cleavage was between the two sides we didn’t fully comprehend until we heard that during an “ethical hearing” initiated by Róbert Benedek Sallai, the secretary of LMP, Sallai allegedly knocked over Hadházy’s chair. Hadházy hit his head against a radiator and lost consciousness for about five minutes. The police were called. Hadházy was taken to the hospital, and Bernadett Szél demanded Sallai’s resignation, which he refuses to tender.
The precipitating cause of the incident was the infamous “independence doctrine” which, according to its creator, “doesn’t mean that LMP will not cooperate with anyone but that it will not talk to those with whom it doesn’t share the same values.” Of course, this interpretation makes the so-called “independence doctrine” a thoroughly pliable term. It just happens that in Schiffer’s interpretation LMP has nothing in common with the left-of-center parties. There were times when Schiffer willingly cooperated with Fidesz, whose values or lack thereof didn’t seem to bother him a bit. He has also been on friendly terms with several Jobbik politicians. In fact, he doesn’t consider Előd Novák a racist.
What are those cherished values of LMP, for the defense of which not even a two-thirds Fidesz majority was too high a price to pay? Schiffer, in a recent long interview, talked about his opposition to globalization and his yearning for a world without technocrats. Profit seems to be a dirty word for him, and he is an enemy of the “culture of consumption.” This is not the place to discuss the problems with András Schiffer’s ideas about globalization, free trade, and anti-consumerism, but I personally find them especially ill-suited for Hungary, which seriously lags behind the West economically.
It is no surprise that it was in LMP where the internal debates ended in physical violence. First of all, contrary to Schiffer’s (and, by extension, LMP’s) “doctrine,” the art of politics cannot be based on doctrines or dogmas. A political party should have some moral principles and a guiding ideology, but if party leaders strictly adhere to a doctrine they can only fail. I have no idea why András Schiffer left politics in 2016, but there is a good possibility that disappointment in the achievements of his party had something to do with it. If so, that would indicate that the famous “doctrine” didn’t work in the real world of politics.
Róbert Benedek Sallai, in his storm of indignation, ran to the television studio of M1, the Orbán government’s propaganda channel, where he poured his heart out to the sympathetic anchor while telling the world about the dreadful affairs inside of LMP. I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if, after a while, Sallai would end up working for the government in some capacity. He wouldn’t be the first. Two important LMP politicians have already done so. Katalin Ertsey, an active LMP member of parliament who left the party in 2013, by now is working for the ministry of foreign affairs in the Hungarian embassy in Prague. Ágnes Osztolykán, a talented Roma politician, who started her political career in LMP, since 2016 has been working as an adviser on Roma affairs in Zoltán Balog’s Human Resources Ministry.
Sallai, during one of his many interviews, said that “Ákos Hadházy joined the wrong party.” On this score I can only agree with him. Hadházy initially was a Fidesz supporter and in 2006 became a Fidesz member of the city council of Szekszárd. In 2013 he left the party in disgust after realizing the widespread Fidesz corruption in his own city and elsewhere. From that time on, he became a one-man anti-corruption army. I doubt that he knew much about LMP, but as a former Fidesz politician he would have found joining MSZP or DK far too radical a change. That left LMP. He rose rapidly in the party. He became a member of parliament in 2014, and in 2016, after András Schiffer’s departure, he was elected co-chair of the party. Initially, Hadházy was most likely unaware of the unyielding “independence doctrine,” which would prevent him from cooperating with other parties, which clearly was one of his ambitions. But hardliners like Sallai stepped in, trying to thwart any plans to negotiate with others about withdrawals. In the last few days Sallai has argued that the independence doctrine remains in force, and therefore party members like Ákos Hadházy, Bernadett Szél, and Péter Ungár who tried to conduct negotiations acted illegally and should be punished.
A Magyar Narancs article sarcastically called Sallai “the son of the people” (népfi), and not without reason. For instance, he once appeared in parliament in a “szűr,” a long embroidered felt coat shepherds used to wear. In 2014, on the first day of parliament, he appeared in a “bocskai,” a popular outfit of young men in the 1920s and 1930s, which after 1990 became a favorite of people with right-wing political views. Members of MIÉP, the party of the anti-Semitic István Csurka, showed up in “bocskais” in the first plenary session of parliament in 1998. Jobbik’s candidates were all photographed in this outfit in 2010. In brief, “bocskai” is associated with the right, so when Sallai wore it in 2014 the reaction was mixed. He even talks about the incident today, complaining that because of his attire he was called a Nazi. It is hard to know where Sallai, or even Schiffer, really stands.
Róbert Benedek Sallai in parliament, wearing a “szűr”
András Schiffer categorically denies that he has been in close contact with the party in the last year and a half. This may be true, but his influence on LMP is undeniable. Through his followers, like Sallai, he is present at every meeting. Schiffer in his interview bitterly complained about the “politics of hate” that surrounds him, coming from the left. What they are doing to him is “morally and structurally no different from what Fidesz has done to George Soros in the last year.” At the same time he still defines himself against “a certain set of views that were the embodiment of a political formation.” And what were these exactly? A set of values that were represented “by Gordon Bajnai, his sponsors, his friends, and his business partners.” Here we are in 2018, after Fidesz has just captured a super majority, and Schiffer, who still has an appreciable influence on LMP, remains preoccupied with Gordon Bajnai and his sponsors, friends, and business partners. One has the distinct feeling that he still hates the left more than he ever disliked Fidesz or even Jobbik.