H&B 020/13
:ECEIVER
OF
HKB 020/13 нив
25 PR 1990
RECORD OF A CALL BY MR LASZLO KOVACS,
W414
HKD (11
The aud Miss Maschen
Step 4/4
MC
STATE SECRETARY
HUNGARIAN MFA ON MR TATT ON 28 MARCH 1990 AT 1500
Present:
Mr Tait
Itaqu.
ᄀ
3/4.
Mr Kovacs, State Secretary,
Hungarian MFA
Mr Brodi, Minister, Hungarian
Embassy
ру
Mr Noble, EED
For para 3 R
1.
After opening courtesies Mr Kovacs ran through the
options open to him now following the elections. He might
possibly stay in the Foreign Service as an Ambassador; he could become involved in party politics by being elected to
parliament from the HSP's national list; or he could go into
research or business. It was not surprising that the HSP
had faired badly in the elections. The party was tied to
the last 40 years of Hungarian history and was blamed for
all mistakes of that period. The opposition had exploited
this one off opportunity for all it was worth. The Social
Democratic Party and its leader Anna Petrasovits had conducted a poor electoral campaign. In an attempt to
distance themselves from the HSP and from Hungary's
socialist past, they had advocated liberal democratic and
not social democratic values, thus confusing themselves with
the Association of Free Democrats. There would be a natural
gap left in the political spectrum to be filled by a social democratic party and Kovac believed that the HSP would fill this gap on the moderate left. Mr Tait agreed that the HSP was probably heading for a wintry period, Socialism was unpopular now in Eastern Europe but the HSPS prospects would improve as Hungary settled down to multi-party democracy.
JBDAAE/1