Szilvásy's Unprecedented Resoluteness - Summary of the "Laborc-case"

Created: 27th November, 2007 13:05 | Last updated: 28th November, 2007 00:41	print	send

On Friday, 23 November, after a nearly five-hour long hearing, the 11 members of the Parliament's National Security Committee voted against the appointment of Sándor Laborc as director-general of Hungary's National Security Office (NBH). The five socialist members of the committee, Károly Tóth (vice-chairman), Zoltán Földesi, Ferenc Juhász (former minister of defense from 2002-2006), Imre Mécs (formerly an MP for liberal SZDSZ) and Zsolt Molnár voted in favor, while opposition MPs István Simicskó (chairman of the committee, Christian Democratic People's Party, KDNP), Ervin Demeter (Fidesz, former minister of secret services), László Kövér (Fidesz, former minister of secret services), Sándor Lezsák (Fidesz) and Péter Boross (MDF, former PM of Hungary from 1993-1994) unanimously voted against thus with the abstention of the sole delegate of liberal SZDSZ, József Gulyás, the nominee of Mr Szilvásy was eventually turned down.

Mr Gulyás, citing the position of SZDSZ, the smaller coalition party in the socialist-liberal cabinet of PM Ferenc Gyurcsány, said he would have supported a candidate enjoying a consensus among all members of the committee.

György Szilvásy, Minister of Secret Services - unprecedented resoluteness

Nevertheless, socialist MPs as well as Mr Szilvásy seem to insist on appointing Mr Laborc, a candidate Fidesz deems unacceptable for the position due to his past as an undergraduate of Moscow's Dzerzhinsky Academy. MPs of the opposition's leading party have consistently expressed their serious concerns regarding a former trainee of the Soviet Union's KGB-school, pointing out that such a professional past was unsuitable especially when Hungary, as a member of NATO, would next year provide the chairman of the organization's Special Committee, the alliance's secret services body. This person will be responsible for a wide range of confidential inter-alliance information, a position Fidesz considers Mr Laborc to be inappropriate to fulfill.

On his visit to the United States between 11 and 17 November, Mr Viktor Orbán, chairman of Fidesz - Hungarian Civic Union has also expressed his concerns regarding Hungary's foreign policy position towards Russia, stating that the incumbent socialist-liberal cabinet's perception of Hungary being a "bridge" between the East and the West was perplexing when the country has been a member of NATO since 1999 and of the EU since 2004. "This is inexplicable, we are not a bridge but rather a strong bridgehead of the West", added Mr Orbán.

The former PM of Hungary also spoke of the United States' apprehension concerning Russia's increasing political and diplomatic influence, signaled by the cabinet's plan to appoint Mr Laborc as director-general of the National Security Office. Mr Orbán said "the personal, commercial and secret service networks which represented Russia's presence in Hungary [referring to the fact that the former Soviet Union stationed troops in Hungary for over four decades after the end of the second world war] were kept intact following the democratic transition in 1990 and after their hibernation, they are being reactivated one by one. The case of Mr Laborc is a part of this process." His nomination is unacceptable both in terms of Hungary's and the transatlantic alliance's interests, added the chairman of Fidesz.

In spite of such heavy criticism from the opposition, the cabinet shows no intention to name an alternative candidate for the position. In a television interview on 26 November, Mr Szilvásy confirmed that he would nonetheless propose Mr Laborc to PM Ferenc Gyurcsány, regardless of the National Security Committee's final vote, considering the abstention of Mr Gulyás (SZDSZ) "a sign of weak approval". The minister of secret services added that during his tenure at Dzerzhinsky Academy, Mr Laborc had not met any agents of the KGB and that he had been trained as a member of a group of international students.