Orbán Borrows Page from V.I. Lenin

Despite the fact that his ratings in the opinion polls are still trumping those of the government by double-digits, former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has embarked on yet another attempt to ensure his re-election in next spring's general elections. Having no doubt marveled at the Socialist-led government's remarkable success in attracting bidders for the privatization of state-owned Budapest Airport Rt, Orbán last weekend claimed that, if re-elected, he might re-nationalize the airport and other formerly state-owned assets, instantly striking terror into the hearts of investors from Budapest to London.

A day after Orbán made his comments, his campaign chief, Antal Rogán, extended the list of supposedly "strategic" companies that the supposedly conservative opposition would not allow to fall into the hands of capitalists. These include Magyar Posta, railway operator MÁV, and the country's network of bankrupt and dysfunctional hospitals. Meanwhile, a local labor court in Budapest waded into the controversy over the airport privatization tender by declaring the process void, due to some technicality marginal enough that the Finance Ministry pretty much said it didn't care.

Either way, that those companies that actually buy those assets the opposition deems unsellable should probably only be concerned with losing whatever money they have invested. The Financial Times (subscription only) quoted Orbán as saying that his government would "say to the [new]owners, 'Kindly give it back'," meaning that he likely won't have them arrested, tortured and shipped off to Siberia.