As some parts of Europe prepare for Jean-Claude Juncker’s “Club of the Few†while others fall by the wayside, it’s time to look back at how we got here. Nothing unites Europeans like football, and this year’s Euro 2008 tournament is turning out to be one of the best in a long time, maybe ever. What else could have us feeling sorry for Switzerland and cheering for Austria? Isn’t Europe a more harmonious entity without the English? Would Brussels be paralysed by protests today if Belgium had qualified? And would Ireland have voted No if they were in the tournament?
Part of the fun of football is the way in which it overturns the international order of power politics.
Author Archives: Desmond McGrath
Hungary faces rude awakening from welfare state dreams
The release of a recent poll showing that most Hungarians preferred life under communism caused a mild shock in the foreign community, but provoked little more than a characteristic shrug from Hungarians. After all, under János Kádár Hungary was one of the least repressive regimes in the Soviet bloc, the “Goulash Communism†of the 1980s allowed a certain amount of private business, inflation was unheard of, while the state was able to borrow on Western markets to fund a generous health and welfare system. As the number of Hungarians feeling nostalgic for those simpler times has risen from 53% in the last such survey in 2001 to 61% today, it’s clear that Hungarians are having trouble adjusting to modern-day reality.
Economically, the country has been living in a dreamland since Fidesz got elected in 1998 by running against economic reform. Until recently, no politician dared touch the idea again, until current PM Ferenc Gyurcsány made his now infamous speech to party MPs in which he said “we have lied morning, noon and night†about the economy. That came shortly after winning re-election in 2006 following a campaign in which the growing state and current account deficits remained the “elephant in the room†about which neither leading party said anything.