PARLIAMENTARY FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY NEWS
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EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER
elections, so everybody was happy except for them. In fact, they won the second election, and it never occurred to them to return to the previous system. Moreover, in my opinion today they represent more democratic values, than some other parties, who 23 years ago were fighting against them. Isn ‟ t it better now that we do not need to worry about them? I bet we do not have to!
- Once I headed a parliamentary delegation to Cuba. The delegation was received by the minister of economy, and after finishing the talks on economic matters, the minister turned to me with lots of tension in his voice and asked:“ Mr. President, I must ask you what happened with my former comrades, who were sitting on the same chairs, on which you are sitting now?” I answered“ Your question, Mr. Excellency was anything but embarrassing, and I am happy to report to you, that many of your former comrades are sitting here next to me, as they remained in politics, and as soon as at the second elections they returned to power, and I can assure you, Mr. Minister that they are much more satisfied now, that they can govern the country with a legitimate elections beyond them, compared with the past, when they were governing without anybody voting for them!” Then I added:“ But I must confess, that many of your former comrades decided to leave politics, and now they are extremely successful in exploiting the working class!” The minister said nothing, but on the same evening there was a reception offered by the Hungarian ambassador, where a Cuban member of the Politburo wanted to speak with me desperately. And he told me:“ Mr. Eörsi, we were reported what you told to the minister on Hungary ‟ s transition. Your experiences are utmost important to us, we would be happy to learn from your experiences.”
It was funny on the one hand, that Cuban communist leaders are keen to learn ruling democratically, and exploiting the working class. More importantly, it demonstrated that persons belonging to the old regime wish to participate in the new regime as well, while it is more than normal, that there are very serious public sentiments against this.
- The question we need to put is this: Who has the right to exclude former loyalists and are their any boundaries? Where can the line be drawn? I guess all Tunisian players, who would like to see former Ben Ali supporters ousted, raise the very same question.
My answer is simple: why don ‟ t we trust our citizens? Should we not trust that the overwhelming majority of Hungarians, Tunisians, Lithuanians and Serbs want freedom and liberty, we ‟ ve got a serious problem. In such a case, however, why did we do this? Ah, it is a wrong speculation, very obviously. You trust the Tunisians, and indeed there will be( as you have