Budapest - The head of the main right-of-centre opposition
party in Hungary, a former Soviet satellite, on Friday raised the
spectre of communism as he warned against the government getting too
friendly with Russian gas giant Gazprom.
Hungary was known as the Soviet Union's 'most cheerful barracks'
in the later years of communism, and Fidesz leader Viktor Orban used
this phrase to evoke a vision of Hungary once again falling under the
sway of Moscow.
'Those young people following us should not allow Hungary to
become Gazprom's most cheerful barracks after we freed ourselves from
the fate of being the Soviet system's most cheerful barracks,' Orban
said in a speech to mark his party's 19th anniversary.
'The Fidesz generation is sending a message: we did not show the
door ... to the Russians, to the Soviet Union, to communism only for
them to climb back in the window,' he continued. 'Oil may come from
the east, but freedom always comes from the west.'
Orban, a fierce opponent of warming up relations with Moscow that
had until recently been decidedly chilly, has been outspoken in his
opposition to any collaboration on energy issues.
However, Hungary's gas behemoth MOL has agreed to team up with
Gazprom on extending the Blue Stream pipeline from Turkey into Europe
and has also agreed to cooperate on building a 10-billion-cubic-metre
storage facility in Hungary.
The Blue Stream pipeline is seen as a rival to the EU-backed
Nabucco pipeline, which aims to cut the dependence on Russian gas by
bringing in Middle Eastern gas through Turkey.
Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany visited Moscow last week
to discuss energy issues with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and
he has faced accusations of undermining the Nabucco pipeline by
backing the Blue Stream project.
MOL and Gyurcsany have refused to rule out the possibility of
buying into both pipelines, although both have criticized the Nabucco
project for taking too long to get underway.
The Hungarian government responded immediately to Orban's speech,
accusing him of beginning a 'diplomatic rampage.'
'This harm's the country and the economy,' the government
spokesperson's office said in a statement. 'Instead of responding we
are going to attempt to minimize the damage.'
Fidesz has been trying to oust the government since last
September, when a leaked recording of Gyurcsany admitting he lied to
the nation sparked riots.
Gyurcsany has hung on through large-scale demonstrations and a
vote of confidence, and Fidesz has shifted tactics to calling for
referenda on key government policies and hammering home the communist
past of the party.
The right wing often plays up on the fact that Gyurcsany was a
communist youth leader and claims his Hungarian Socialist Party is
simply the communists in new clothing.
Moscow ruled over Hungary from just after the Second World War
until the first free elections in 1990.
The darkest days came in 1956, when Soviet tanks brutally
suppressed the Hungarian uprising, killing thousands and sparking the
flight of hundreds of thousands of refugees.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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