Fidesz launches St. István Plan
The Batthyány Professors’ Circle of right-leaning academics has prepared a “St. István Plan,” which is to serve as the philosophical and intellectual backbone of the “second term of civic government” that Fidesz has promised for 2006. Viktor Orbán commissioned the plan, whose message is the same as Orbán’s own: the country needs order.
The plan’s authors devoted much attention to the press, which “most often abuses the freedom it won at the time of the regime change.” The plan recommends that the media be “placed under strict moral supervision,” a move the authors claim is necessary to protect fair competition and minors. The plan is preoccupied with the importance of order and the desire for order.
“Conservatism protects order and the communities and institutions which depend on it in the face of liberalism,” they write. On the economy, they write: “The rule of law and order is a precondition for the successful execution of any kind of national development programme.” The text indirectly suggests that the country needs a strong leader who is able to restore order. The conclusion: we have to find the path of responsibility, with God’s help or not at all.
