Duration 1 hour Date 26 May 2006 | Type Speech Location Balatonőszöd, Hungary | |
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The Őszöd speech (Hungarian: őszödi beszéd) was delivered by Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány in Balatonőszöd in May 2006 to Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) members of the National Assembly of Hungary. This meeting was supposed to be confidential but the Prime Minister's speech was taped and Magyar Rádió (Hungarian Radio) began broadcasting it late afternoon on Sunday September 17, 2006.
Contents
- English translation of the controversial second part of the speech
- Profane excerpts
- Other excerpts
- References
The speech explicitly admitted the Socialist Party had lied to the electorate and that its coalition government had enacted no significant measures over its tenure.
It ignited mass protests around Hungary and rioting in Budapest and severely damaged public opinion of the Socialist Party, leading to the re-election of Viktor Orbán in the subsequent 2010 Hungarian parliamentary elections.
English translation of the controversial (second) part of the speech
Ferenc Gyurcsány's speech given in Balatonőszöd during May 2006 starts with an approximately one-hour-long overview of the first proposed steps of the new social-liberal government. English translation of the controversial (second) part of the speech:
(May 26, 2006. Balatonőszöd)
Profane excerpts
Not only the content but also the profanity of the speech has been heavily criticized. In response to the criticism concerning the profanity, Ferenc Gyurcsány stated that "these words were the words of objurgation, passion and love". ("Ezek a korholás, a szenvedély és a szeretet szavai voltak").
While giving the speech, he has used - among others - the Hungarian word szar (i.e., shit) or its related terms (szarból, beszarni, etc.) eight times and the word kurva (i.e., bitch, whorish, fucking) seven times. The following table presents some of the profane remarks - of which not everything has been translated by the foreign (i.e., non-Hungarian) press in general - with their corresponding translations.
Other excerpts
As a reaction to the speech Viktor Orbán, chairman of Fidesz - Hungarian Civic Union, has called Ferenc Gyurcsány "a compulsive liar" ("beteges hazudozó") whom his party considers as "a person who is a part of history and the past" ("a történelemhez és a múlthoz tartozó személy"). In addition to the excerpts above, the following table contains excerpts from the speech for which Ferenc Gyurcsány has received heavy criticism.