The Hungarian Status Law: A New European Form of Transnational Politics?

Abstract

Late in the evening of Sunday 21 April 2002, the incoming Hungarian Prime Minister, Peter Medgyessy, took the stage in his Socialist Party headquarters to accept, informally, the mandate of the electorate. Announcing his intention to form a liberal-socialist coalition government, Medgyessy told his listeners that after a bitterly fought second round of an election that had deeply divided the electorate, he would be the Prime Minister for all 10 million Hungarians. A few moments later the defeated Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, in the course of his resignation speech, had this to say about his outgoing Conservative government: We have supported Hungarian culture to a degree not yet seen and we have begun the process of national reunification, so it is not, as you heard just now from the seat of another party, it is not that the future of Hungary lies in the 10 million Hungarians but in the 15 million Hungarian nation. Let me repeat, so that it can be heard everywhere where it should be heard: the future of Hungary lies not in the Hungary of 10 million but in the Hungarian nation of 15 million. To anyone unfamiliar with the political myths of Hungary it might seem odd that on the very night of a national election the winning candidate for