Politicians against whom public prosecution has been brought have rid the party of its self-confidence and honour - complained Ildikó Lendvai at the 200th national meeting of MSZP (Party of Hungarian Socialists). Another highlight at last week's event was the appearance of the former prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsány, who may well have taken the words uttered by the party's president as a moral boost. This is because on 12th November, Gyurcsány will appear as a witness at the court in Kecskemét hearing the Zuschlag case. Stakes are very high, and this is true not just for the statement he will make, but also the trial itself.

The big question is whether the judges can be convinced that János Zuschlag, who "stole" the party's honour and is charged with embezzlement of public funds, acted alone, out of his own interest. Or, was "Cusi" - as he is called - just a cog-wheel in the socialist moneymaking machine, with Gyurcsány, the sports minister at the time, knowing everything about the murky dealings of the young socialists. The former head of government will have to answer the following questions:

» Were there any orders inspired by political motives with the tenders published by the ministry of youth and sports at the time?

» Did the management at the ministry, due to political aspects, override the opinion of experts evaluating the dossiers submitted?

» As far as the parliamentary group of MSZP was informed in 2003-2004, any requests related to youth or sports matters were conveyed to the management at the ministry by János Zuschlag; did the young politician have such duties in reality?

» What were the actual matters that brought Ferenc Gyurcsány into conflict with Attila Mesterházy at the ministry?

» What exactly happened at the dinner meeting of the youth policy working group of the party in 2004, where, according to the statement made by a witness, Gyurcsány seemed to be well informed about applications arranged by Zuschlag?

The background. Heti Válasz asked officials working for the Ministry of Children, Youth and Sports (GyISM) at the time and was informed that the then future prime minister was often involved in bitter conflicts in the two-three months following his appointment with the young socialist lobby, which regarded the ministry as its own territory. Prominent figures were the then political secretary of state Attila Mesterházy and leaders of the future Mosaic Club, István Ujhelyi, Gergely Arató and János Zuschlag. One of our sources even remembers a public meeting where Gyurcsány and Mesterházy ended up shouting at each other at the end of a heated debate about a certain case concerning funding provided by the ministry.

"I was in for a cultural shock," recalled Ferenc Gyurcsány in a book written by József Debreczeni, when talking about the beginning of his work at the ministry. In another interview given to Magyar Narancs in the autumn of 2007, he made people see him as the person emerging the victor from the fights with the young socialists. "I attempted to restore order and lay down new rules by using the full range of verbal brutality I am now well known for. I was convinced that I more or less succeeded," he said two years ago. This is the position the former prime minister will probably adopt at his hearing: there was a ministry, torn by all sorts of different interests and full of lobbyists, which he "cleaned up" to the best of his ability. According to his arguments, at the time when the scandal broke out he had no idea of how János Zuschlag was manipulating things - not even a head of department, let alone a minister, could see through the maze and find out which organisations among the thousands of applicants were set up simply to acquire money. This is what Gyurcsány might have said at the prosecutor's office at his hearing in the autumn of 2007, where he spent merely an hour and a half talking to the prosecutors. In comparison, Ákos Topolánszky, deputy state secretary responsible for the coordination of the fight against drugs, who had practically not been involved in affairs related to youth policies, spent 14 hours in two sittings answering prosecutor questions.

The arguments Gyurcsány offers in his defence seem doubtful not only because there were experts who called the attention of the state treasury to the suspicious organisations. There are other statements contradicting his recollection of past events. Tamás Ocsovai, deputy state secretary responsible for youth matters at the time, explained in court last October that there were regular discussions involving the minister and prominent young socialists, previously regarded to be his enemies. The subject of these discussions was the list of bodies to be provided with funding - on one occasion, Ocsovai was ordered to come to such a meeting on a Sunday. He also stated that Ferenc Gyurcsány, Attila Mesterházy and cabinet chief András Keszthelyi gave him lists of organisations that were to be given funding for political reasons; these lists included the Zuschlag groups, later proven to be fictitious. István Lados, a defendant bearing secondary liability, who worked as Zuschlag's personal secretary, talks about a dinner in January 2004. At the event, Gyurcsány met the members of the party's youth policy working group, leaders of the Mosaic Club. The future prime minister shouted across the room at "Cusi" in the style of his Balatonőszöd speech, calling him to account and saying there were problems with his applications for funding.

There were other signs that Gyurcsány had made peace with the young socialists, since he needed everyone in his quest to win over the party. He had an unfamiliar portfolio at hand, which he simply regarded as a springboard, he had to make do with it to achieve his goal. (The fact that upon becoming prime minister, he dissolved GyISM is also proof of this.) The former prime minister used Mosaic Club as his staging area towards the party: he relied on the young socialists in the beginning and according to our sources, which is why he negotiated a compromise with them after the first two-three months. The political significance of the trial itself lies not only in these peculiarities but also in the fact that it examines the unusual way the interest of the state came to be represented. An answer must be found to the following question: how was it possible that - according to a voice recording - Péter Lusztig, former police general, advisor to Mónika Lamperth, then interior minister, offered his assistance to Zuschlag, who was caught with his hands in the cookie jar. Another aspect that must be clarified is this: why did János Zuschlag boast to his acquaintances about the written records made of his own conversations and why did he keep telling everyone that he knew his telephone was tapped?

Zuschlag made every attempt in his recent speech to convince the jury that even though there had been political interference in the funding scheme, this was a normal phenomenon. "It is obvious that those who undertake the responsibility of governing the country will form an opinion about decisions made at the individual ministries based on special political aspects. I do not see anything unlawful or immoral in this," he explained. Time will soon tell whether the court accepts such arguments.


Making a comeback?

Although Ferenc Gyurcsány has not given up his political ambitions, he seems to have prepared for a long "march" during which he will have ample time to potter over his business affairs. The former prime minister did not mention this at the jubilee MSZP meeting last Saturday. He castigated the opposition and the head of state instead and issued a wake-up call for the "democrats". This personal lecture is not a preparation of a comeback - or at least this is what a member of the prime minister's circle told Heti Válasz. He does not think Gyurcsány will actively take part in the campaign, either: he will just accept the invitations of party organisations and participate at events organised to demonstrate the unity of the socialist party, but - as our source puts it - "there will be no strong demand for him to appear in public". In his opinion, the former prime minister will not enter the political arena for one or two years, because the internal relations within the party do not allow for such a comeback. As he says, referring to the current situation on the left, "you cannot build a strategy on chaos". He dismisses any possibility of Gyurcsány setting up a new party or attempting to take over MSZP after a quite likely socialist defeat at the forthcoming elections.

This is because the former prime minister keeps an eye on the popularity ratings of politicians, and those do not suggest he should "raise a new flag". However, since writing his blog and managing the affairs of the Táncsics Foundation do not fill his days, he renewed the business activities he had pursued before becoming a politician. For example, he now exercises ownership rights of his company, Altus Zrt. again - the duties were transferred to one of his confidants when he was elected prime minister. Another change is that his wife, Klára Dobrev, became the company's chief executive officer - and launched an expansion policy right away. According to an article in HVG, the economic weekly, Altus established another company called BudaShen Kereskedőház Ltd, the major target of which is China; the latter firm will organise conferences and trade exhibitions, market electronic communication technology devices and provide business advice. The minority shareholder is Áron Sülyi, a "gyurcsányist" hinterland organiser, joint proprietor with Tibor Dessewffy in Ithaka, a non-profit company which is engaged in information society research. The name BudaShen refers to the megalopolis in South China, Shenzen. As we have been informed, a Gyurcsány-compatible scout in the person of Szabolcs Szajp is already stationed there. Szajp is an economist, former researcher at Demos, the director of which used to be Tibor Dessewffy. It is alleged that Szajp is working for the office preparing China Hi-Tech Fair, a technology fair held in the Chinese megalopolis at the end of November - this could be a useful contact point for Altus, one of whose business activities is the marketing of communication technology devices.


President before the jury

This is hardly how the president of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac, had planned his retirement: the politician, who left the presidential post in 2007, now has to appear before a court in a procedure similar to the Zuschlag case in certain aspects. True, in this case it is not fictitious organisations but fictitious jobs that are involved: according to the prosecution, between 1977 and 1995, at the time when he was mayor of Paris, Chirac had certain officials recruited to the municipality, who in reality were working for his party, the right-wing RPR and thus served the political aims of Chirac. Frédéric Salat-Baroux, former secretary general of the office of the president of the republic, wrote about "clumsiness" and a "lack of vigilance" in relation to the case on Monday in Le Figaro, but denied that an army of advisors paid from public money had been working on getting Chirac elected as president.

Reacting to the events, even a part of the French left squirmed and wriggled with embarrassment at such a legal procedure, since it brought a grey zone of French politics into the limelight. Up until the mid-90s, when strict laws were enacted, everyone financed their campaign as they could: regulations then made private donations impossible and there was little money trickling in from the state, therefore parties were creative in finding sources of financing. They not only placed their people in friendly municipalities, but also milked state companies. They preferred market players who were willing to do small favours for them. These cases later developed into major scandals. Former minister Alain Carignon was, for example, sentenced in 1995 to three years non-suspended imprisonment because he arranged the handover of the waterworks of Grenoble city to a company (the predecessor of the infamous Suez, known for its involvement in the Pécs scandal) which then lavishly supported his campaign newspaper and political activities.