Re-branding Awareness (II): Scourge of Liberals Goes Liberal

Attention all classical liberals in Hungary. Remember how the one thing you could always count on was that opposition leader Viktor Orbán was the devil? Think again! For the last week, Hungary's most cunning and ambitious politician has been sounding more and more like the small state/smart state liberal that he started his career as. According to leading political analyst Zoltán Somogyi, the Fidesz head's speech on Felvonulási tér on Sunday offered a veritable shopping list of liberalish causes, especially the need to cut taxes and attack the country's oppressive bureaucracy. Liberal!

"All of this is a change in Fidesz's poltitcs as until now," Somogyi told stop.hu. Somogyi said he thinks it is possible that Orbán's words were "only for that day," but his strategists might believe the current Socialist-Liberal government's manic statism leaves an opening for a challenge from the liberal-minded center-right.

Orbán dropped some additional liberal bombs yesterday on index.hu - ground zero for enlightened liberalism in Hungary - vowing to sharply cut taxes. And this morning on public TV he stressed that, without "radical" economic reform, Hungary would never be able to join the euro-zone. Liberal!

Meanwhile, analyst Somogyi said that Orbán had "disappointed" his followers on Sunday with a speech that focused on the sacrifices that need to be made in order to modernize the economy and nation, while his opponent, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány gave a more classically brain-dead stump speech. And if this isn't enough, just get a load of Orbán's new hairdo, which he debuted at his speech on Sunday. Liberal!