The Őszöd speech () was a speech Hungarian Prime Minister

Ferenc Gyurcsány Ferenc Gyurcsány (; born 4 June 1961) is a Hungarian entrepreneur and retired politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 2004 to 2009. Prior to that, he held the position of Government of Hungary, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sp ...

delivered to the 2006 Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) congress in Balatonőszöd. Though the May congress was confidential, Gyurcsány's address was leaked and broadcast by '' Magyar Rádió'' on Sunday, 17 September 2006, igniting a nationwide political crisis. Liberally using vulgar language, Gyurcsány criticized MSZP for misleading the electorate and said that its

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

had enacted no significant measures over its tenure. The mass protests the speech's release precipitated are considered a major turning point in Hungary's post-

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

political history. MSZP's inability to contain the speech's political fallout led to the popular collapse of MSZP and, more broadly considered, of the Hungarian

political left Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

, paving the way for

Fidesz Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Alliance (; ) is a national-conservative political party in Hungary led by Viktor Orbán. It has increasingly identified as illiberal. Originally formed in 1988 under the name of Alliance of Young Democrats () as ...

's supermajority victory in the 2010 Hungarian parliamentary elections.

Excerpts from the speech with their translations

Profane excerpts

Not only the content but also the

profanity Profanity, also known as swearing, cursing, or cussing, is the usage of notionally word taboo, offensive words for a variety of purposes, including to demonstrate disrespect or negativity, to relieve pain, to express a strong emotion (such a ...

of the speech has been heavily criticized. In response to the criticism concerning the profanity, Ferenc Gyurcsány stated that "these words were the words of objurgation, passion and

love Love is a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment (psychology), attachment to a person, animal, or thing. It is expressed in many forms, encompassing a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most su ...

" (""). While giving the speech, he used – among others – the Hungarian word ''szar'' (i.e.,

shit ''Shit'' is an English-language profanity. As a noun, it refers to fecal matter, and as a verb it means to defecate; in the plural ("the shits"), it means diarrhea. ''Shite'' is a common variant in British and Irish English. As a slang ...

) or its related terms (, , etc.) eight times and the word ' (i.e., bitch, whorish,

fuck ''Fuck'' () is profanity in the English language that often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested ...

ing) seven times. The following table presents some of the profane remarks – of which not everything has been translated by the foreign (i.e., non-Hungarian) press in general – with their corresponding translations. Although 'fucking country' is the best idiomatic translation because of the strength of the words, ''kurva ország'' literally means 'whore country', and the connotations of immorality, unprincipled pursuit of money and therefore corruption are very strong in Hungarian.

Other excerpts

In addition to the excerpts above, the following table contains excerpts from the speech for which

has received heavy criticism.

Reactions

Viktor Orbán Viktor Mihály Orbán (; born 31 May 1963) is a Hungarian lawyer and politician who has been the 56th prime minister of Hungary since 2010, previously holding the office from 1998 to 2002. He has also led the Fidesz political party since 200 ...

, then-chairman of

, called

"a compulsive liar" ("") whom his party considers as "a person who is a part of history and the past" ("").

References

* A teljes balatonőszödi szöveg (The whole text from the Balatonőszöd speech. In Hungarian): http://nol.hu/cikk/417593/ * The speech in mp3 format: http://dl.index.hu/dl/sziget/fleto/oszod5.mp3 * The speech on the

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

(Hungarian) – http://kapcsolat.hu/blog/jojjon_az_eredeti_szoveg... *

: "These words were the words of objurgation, passion and love". ("''Ezek a korholás, a szenvedély és a szeretet szavai voltak''", Hungarian) – http://www.icenter.hu/cgi-bin/automatic/bianko.pl?szo=4800&cikk=0609285045007 *

: "This person [i.e.

] is a sick liar." ("''Ez egy beteges hazudozó.''", Hungarian) – http://www.mno.hu/index.mno?cikk=375107&rvt=2 * Fidesz - Hungarian Civic Union considers

as "a person who is a part of history and the past". ("''a történelemhez és a múlthoz tartozó személy''", Hungarian) – http://index.hu/politika/belfold/ov0821/ * English translation by BBC – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5359546.stm * English report as seen on BBC – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kh5TsREt4A {{DEFAULTSORT:Oszod speech 2006 in Hungarian politics 2006 speeches Political scandals in Hungary Ferenc Gyurcsány

Excerpts from the speech with their translations

Profane excerpts

Other excerpts

Reactions

See also

References