Phi Beta Delta: Professor Emeritus Andy Ludanyi Speaks About Hungary

Dr. Andy Ludanyi, who taught Political Science for 40 years at ONU, spoke to a crowd of students, faculty, and community members last night about Hungary, the country of his birth. Ludanyi was concerned about "Hungary, the Threat," an article recently published in the New York Times Review of Books by distinguished scholar Istvan Deak. In the article, Deak argued that the new Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has been acting as the European Union president for the past 3 months, represents a threat to Europe.

Ludanyi argued that Deak had been taken in by a smear campaign orchestrated by former communists and the losers in the last parliamentary elections, headed by Ferenc Gyurscany. Ludanyi described the opposition to Orban as coming from a group that was largely educated in the West, and who understood how to work with Western writers and journalists. Working with the former communists is a combination of influential organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and several multinational corporations. The IMF was concerned with Orban's decision to reform the Hungarian economy without that body's guidance, and the multinationals were angry with the new PM because of his policy of taxing the profits of those corporations. Orban, according to Dr. Ludanyi, is also often the victim of his own personality. He believes that if his actions are correct, then he needn't worry about his reputation in the press.

Deak accused Orban of passing policies that discriminate against Jews and Rom, or Gypsys in Hungary. He told the audience that Orban had actually worked to enact policies to help those groups, but that his success at the polls, which gave him a 2/3 majority in parliament, and therefore the ability to change the Hungarian constitution, has led those who lost in the elections to try to lessen Orban's effectiveness by accusing him of being a quasi fascist.

This, Ludanyi argued, was not the case at all, and Orban was proving to be an effective leader. Ludanyi based his comments on his experience living much of the year in Hungary since his retirement.