If it's wrong, it's wrong

"There was a moment last week which was crying out for a statesman to grasp. Sadly, for Hungary, the moment passed by unnoticed." This editorial first appeared in The Budapest Sun on August 9, 2001, and was used by the then EU ambassador to Hungary, Michael Lake, in his reporting back to Brussels, because, as he told me that week, it said all that needed to be said.

A brief introduction to the events for those not familiar with them: The state sold its interest in a football (soccer) club, to a business owned by a man with Jewish connections. Cue all sorts of bile and vitriol, some of it from politicians represented in parliament. The justice minister ducked the issue by effectively saying she was a woman, and therefore knew nothing about football. And, while the PM (who had consistently courted the voters of the far right parties in building his center-right coalition) eventually condemned the verbal attacks, he did not distance his government from the parties making them.

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