ENGLISH

Government Spokesman knocks the living daylight out of CNN

Written by Andrea H., 04-10-2016

Translated by SEA

Edited by SZRE

Let’s begin the day with a cheerful and entertaining piece of news well spotted by 444.hu, which even manages to surpass the glorious success of the invalid hate-referendum. Before Péter Szijjártó[1] valiantly reaches for his sword, let us take a look at the performance government spokesman Zoltán But have we succeeded? Kovács threw the other night[2].

Kovács, a living and breathing ornament of the regime, appeared live on CNN, a welcome diversion from government information sessions where the ex-Soros-scholarship holder is usually seen propping up the  right side of János Lázár[3].Our dear little Zoltán was interviewed in Christiane Amanpour’s programme on foreign politics along with Eleni Kounalakis, former  U.S. Ambassador to Hungary, who was also asked to comment on current events in  our country and had the nerve to launch her attack on the  Hungarian Government from California.

While Kovács was mumbling on about the huge authorisation given by the Hungarian people that cannot be ignored, following the script of Habony[4] to the letter, the ambassador said explicitly: “This was a 98% to 1 vote. Votes like that do not happen in pluralistic societies… there’s an absurdity here, even Tito back in 1945 didn’t get more than 90%of the vote.” She explained that the sweeping triumph of the Hungarian government is due to the fact that those in opposition to the regime encouraged people to stay at home or spoil their ballots, and 60% of the electorate acted accordingly.

When the host of the show made it clear that the Hungarian government effectually equates migrants with terrorists, Kovács lost his usual cool, called everyone present a liar (Ms Amanpour had no choice but to reject this), accused CNN of being biased and threw a mighty tantrum complaining that his home country was being called a Nazi state without justification. Then with a swing à la Szijjártó he announced that the Hungarian government will take no lectures from anyone as the referendum is the most democratic institution there is.

Lest anyone suffers a heart attack thinking how those idiots, those leftist–liberal-sorosian-gyurcsányian-hirelings who know nothing about the situation[5]are insulting poor Hungary again, let us make it clear that the ambassador did mention the European Union which is undoubtedly slow in its decision-making and is rightly criticised for it. These days the EU has to face the biggest migration crisis since WW2 and Hungary should do everything for the sake of cooperation instead of working against it, the ambassador thinks.

One thing is certain. At the publicly funded Hungarian single-party media Ms Amanpour would be out of a job.

However, Zoltán Kovács seemed hellbent on bringing Hungary to a new diplomatic low wielding his primitive, one-dimensional diplomatic skills (though his English is somewhat less annoying than Szijjártó’s, I grant it) as if our current state was not low enough. So let us ask the question over and over again: In what way can an invalid referendum be politically valid except in no way?

To what extent does Zoltán Kovács have to be off the bend to pretend not to get what the world can’t understand of this farce? What farce, Zolika? That you have put together the most ridiculously expensive referendum the world has ever seen which at least was completely pointless: a referendum on a topic that according to every single survey enjoys the support of an overwhelming majority of the society. Knowing all too well that most of those willing to vote will vote in the direction favourable to the government, for the sake of short-sighted, crappy political goals as well as outrageous theft wrapped in brain-washing propaganda Fidesz called a hypocritical referendum to give themselves false self-justification to further carry out their poisonous policies. As the referendum turned out to be invalid, clearly there could be no winner. This does not stop anyone though from communicating it as a huge triumph along with Comrade Kovács who is so proudly dragging our name through the mire in the big wide world.

Wouldn’t it be much nicer to organize this kind of debate in the cosy studios of our nice little publicly funded national television where the governmental parrot commando could face our own serious professional talk show hosts? Oh no, wait! Since  we’ve managed to sink the levels of publicity so low that the boss and his greedy lot give press briefings without the presence of the press, Hungarian people need to follow the likes of CNN and BBC (Hi there, Pete![6]) to be able to get real information and come face to face with our legendary fame.

Let us observe though that no matter which smart-ass’ turn it is to make a complete moron of himself and thus of the nation he is representing in whichever foreign media, each and every time we circle back to the same premise: Hungary is being attacked, lectured to, discredited, Hungary won’t have it, no-one can speak to Hungary like that. This constant policy of venting grievances is just as pathetic and counterproductive as the exaggerated hate campaign.

I can see that Zoltán Kovács has not succeeded. Again. The task of appearing   in the most important news programme of one of the world’s most important news channels like an ordinary, dignified spokesman who can be taken seriously was beyond him. (What confused jackass calls CNN left-wing liberal?![7]).  He managed to come across instead like a fuckwit schoolboy crying he’d got kicked in the ankle.

Yes, we can argue that the footage of  Petra László[8] tripping over refugees was tendentiously selected by the programme editors or we can gasp in outrage hearing the CNN host quote that lightweight Asselborn (sic!) about our expulsion from the EU (Who is Asselborn compared to Zoltán Kovács anyway?), but considering the Hungarian government’s six-month – or rather six-year-long  – fight against the EU we can hardly expect  CNN to swoon over the gold medals of Katinka Hosszú when talking about Hungary.

We can feel indignant that Hungary is not seen as a plural democracy, but can it really be called such? Where the Hungarian regime reeks with the suffocating friendship of Erdogan and Putin, where the questions put to referenda are what they are, where no journalist can enter the press conference celebrating the triumph of the referendum, where the head of government has been refusing all disputations for years, where members of the regime declare the very evening of the vote that the invalid referendum authorises them to change the constitution and  sod all: can we really be indignant at being labelled as such? How long can they go on playing their stupid little game claiming that each and every person is driving on the wrong side of the road, and only Antal Rogán, Zoltán Kovács or other on-duty official enunciators are helicopters[9]?

Since this chest-thumping will not end in a day or so, let’s make it clear one more time – for the umpteenth time – for the sake of posterity: it does not matter how many people took part in the vote (those 3.3 million people must be Fidesz-supporters, right?), Fidesz could not clear the bar the party had set itself – and this is what we have to talk about. That the invalid referendum does not authorise anyone to do anything. This was all Fidesz could manage with their shameful and disgusting brainwashing propaganda, their ample funds of public money and the odds clearly in their favour.

To add insult to injury we now have Zoltán Kovács defending Hungary against CNN.

He defends us till it hurts. Such lovely and successful diplomatic politicians we have: they call CNN lying liberals, and speak about the tricks of left-wing conspiracy in a world-wide news programme, on prime time television. Having just lost the world’s most expensive referendum.

Embarrassing, awkward. A true catastrophe. And it has only just begun…

[1]     Péter Szijjártó is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Hungary.

[2]     Zoltán But have we succeeded? Kovács is Spokesman for the Hungarian Government. He earned his “middle name” after his performance in a television interview where he was asked about public money given to private companies belonging to family members of György Matolcsy (governor of the Hungarian National Bank) by HNB endowed foundations. The government made an attempt at classifying these transactions, but the proposed act was deemed unconstitutional by the Hungarian Constitutional Court. When the reporter said “You (the government) wanted to conceal it!” He answered cynically “But have we succeeded?”

[3]     János Lázár is vice-president of Fidesz, also a senior government minister.

[4]     Árpád Habony, elusive Hungarian entrepreneur and political advisor, is the 6^th most influential person in Hungary being Viktor Orbán’s personal advisor on communications strategy.

[5]     Allusions to George Soros, Hungarian-born multibillionaire investor and speculator and supporter of many Hungarian civil movements and to Ferenc Gyurcsány former (Socialist) Prime Minister of Hungary.

[6]     Allusion to the interview with Péter Szijjártó on BBC about no-go zones in London.

[7]     Left-wing liberal (balliberális) is more a swear-word in Hungary than a real statement about political alliance.

[8]     Petra László worked for the Hungarian news channel N1TV. She kicked in the direction of a refugee carrying his child while filming.

[9]     Allusion to the one-liner graffiti: Each person here is an idiot, only I am a helicopter.

Iratkozz fel most!

Ha tetszett a cikk, de még olvasnál, ha esténként van időd leülni a gép elé, akkor légy az előfizetőnk a Szalonnázón. Naponta 18 órakor élesedő további 3 cikket ajánlunk, jellemzően szintén olyan magyar és nemzetközi közéletet, lényegében az életünket érintő témákról, amelyeket fontosnak tartunk, de nem férnek bele a Szalonna napi kínálatába. Szeretettel várunk!

Tovább