WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.080 So I want you to picture a ship. OK, a ship. 00:00:04.280 --> 00:00:07.120 Yeah, like an old wooden ship sailing the high 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:10.640 seas. And over the years, the crew replaces every 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:15.710 single plank, the mast, the sails. until not 00:00:15.710 --> 00:00:18.230 one original piece of wood actually remains. 00:00:18.429 --> 00:00:22.210 Ah, right. The ship of Theseus. The classic philosophical 00:00:22.210 --> 00:00:25.550 paradox. Like, is it still the same ship? Exactly. 00:00:26.109 --> 00:00:28.769 Now, I want you to take that paradox, but make 00:00:28.769 --> 00:00:31.710 it about politics. Oh, boy. Right. So imagine 00:00:31.710 --> 00:00:34.950 a political party that claims to be the only 00:00:34.950 --> 00:00:37.170 original ship. They scream about their heritage. 00:00:37.310 --> 00:00:39.170 They talk about their founders. They, you know, 00:00:39.250 --> 00:00:41.130 wave the old flags around. Right, the authentic 00:00:41.130 --> 00:00:43.369 ones. Exactly. But while they're doing that, 00:00:43.469 --> 00:00:45.929 they are slowly replacing every single ideological 00:00:45.929 --> 00:00:48.950 plank until, by the end of the voyage, they are 00:00:48.950 --> 00:00:51.250 sailing in the complete opposite direction. And 00:00:51.250 --> 00:00:54.030 instead of heading toward the sunset of, say, 00:00:54.310 --> 00:00:56.890 social democracy, they end up docking at a right 00:00:56.890 --> 00:00:59.710 -wing populist port. That is the perfect setup 00:00:59.710 --> 00:01:01.829 for today's deep dive, because we're looking 00:01:01.829 --> 00:01:04.209 at a story that feels honestly like a logic puzzle 00:01:04.209 --> 00:01:05.989 designed to break your brain. We're talking about 00:01:05.989 --> 00:01:08.819 the Social Democratic Party of Hungary. Specifically, 00:01:09.219 --> 00:01:12.099 the SCDP. Right, the SCDP. And just to lay out 00:01:12.099 --> 00:01:14.299 the mission here, we are doing a deep dive into 00:01:14.299 --> 00:01:17.340 the historical records from 1989, the election 00:01:17.340 --> 00:01:20.140 data. leadership manifests, all the way down 00:01:20.140 --> 00:01:22.920 to their dissolution papers in 2013. And just 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:25.060 to set the stakes for you listening, this isn't 00:01:25.060 --> 00:01:28.000 just some dry story about a defunct party in 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:30.400 Central Europe. I mean, this is a masterclass 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:33.060 in political identity crises. Yeah, it really 00:01:33.060 --> 00:01:36.019 is. It's about what happens when a movement becomes 00:01:36.019 --> 00:01:38.599 so utterly obsessed with its own authenticity 00:01:38.599 --> 00:01:41.159 that it basically forgets to build a future. 00:01:41.530 --> 00:01:43.870 And honestly, going through the sources, some 00:01:43.870 --> 00:01:46.049 of this reads like a tragic comedy. It really 00:01:46.049 --> 00:01:48.430 does. It has everything. You've got splinter 00:01:48.430 --> 00:01:51.790 groups, betrayals, incredibly weird alliances, 00:01:52.189 --> 00:01:54.930 and a finale that makes absolutely no sense on 00:01:54.930 --> 00:01:56.950 paper until you really dig into the details. 00:01:57.109 --> 00:01:59.030 So let's start where all good confusion starts, 00:01:59.069 --> 00:02:02.069 which is the names. Because we really need to 00:02:02.069 --> 00:02:04.129 clear up what I'm calling the alphabet soup of 00:02:04.129 --> 00:02:07.629 the 1989 Hungarian transition. The alphabet soup? 00:02:07.689 --> 00:02:09.430 Yeah, that is the best way to describe it. Because 00:02:09.430 --> 00:02:12.689 the Iron Curtain falls. democracy is back, and 00:02:12.689 --> 00:02:14.830 suddenly everyone wants to be a social democrat. 00:02:15.210 --> 00:02:17.870 Right. And you have to remember, for 40 years, 00:02:18.129 --> 00:02:21.030 Hungary was a one -party state. So the entire 00:02:21.030 --> 00:02:23.909 vocabulary of politics was socialism. Right. 00:02:23.930 --> 00:02:26.210 That was the only game in town. Exactly. So when 00:02:26.210 --> 00:02:29.069 the system finally opened up, multiple groups 00:02:29.069 --> 00:02:32.150 rushed to claim that label, but they meant wildly 00:02:32.150 --> 00:02:34.289 different things by it. OK. So looking at our 00:02:34.289 --> 00:02:36.530 cheat sheet from the sources, we have three main 00:02:36.530 --> 00:02:40.189 players. First, we have The MSZP. Right. The 00:02:40.189 --> 00:02:42.710 MSZP. That's the Hungarian Socialist Party. Now, 00:02:42.710 --> 00:02:45.689 these were the heavy hitters. They were the direct 00:02:45.689 --> 00:02:48.449 successors to the old ruling Communist Party. 00:02:48.490 --> 00:02:50.629 The establishment. Precisely. They basically 00:02:50.629 --> 00:02:53.750 rebranded, put on tailored suits, and said, hey, 00:02:53.909 --> 00:02:55.990 we're modern socialists now. And importantly, 00:02:56.169 --> 00:02:58.409 they had the infrastructure, the money, and the 00:02:58.409 --> 00:03:00.669 existing networks. OK. So that's the establishment 00:03:00.669 --> 00:03:03.530 left. Then we have the second one, the MSZDP. 00:03:03.770 --> 00:03:07.009 The Hungarian Social Democratic Party. Now, they 00:03:07.009 --> 00:03:09.129 claim to be the revival of the pre -communist 00:03:09.129 --> 00:03:11.729 party, the one that existed before the dictatorship 00:03:11.729 --> 00:03:14.430 banned everything back in 1948. So they were 00:03:14.430 --> 00:03:16.330 trying to be the historic alternative. Exactly. 00:03:16.509 --> 00:03:18.370 They wanted to pick up right where things left 00:03:18.370 --> 00:03:21.110 off before the dark times. But clearly that wasn't 00:03:21.110 --> 00:03:23.530 enough for some people, because then we get to 00:03:23.530 --> 00:03:27.629 our main character for today, the SCDP. Right, 00:03:27.750 --> 00:03:30.750 the historic Social Democratic Party. They were 00:03:30.750 --> 00:03:33.949 founded on November 21st, 1989, and they were 00:03:33.949 --> 00:03:36.330 literally a splinter of a splinter. That splinter 00:03:36.330 --> 00:03:38.789 of a splinter. Yeah. Their entire existence was 00:03:38.789 --> 00:03:40.509 based on the idea that those other two parties 00:03:40.509 --> 00:03:42.550 we just mentioned, they were both imposters. 00:03:42.870 --> 00:03:45.669 So their whole brand was basically, we are the 00:03:45.669 --> 00:03:47.870 only ones who aren't faking it. That's it. They 00:03:47.870 --> 00:03:51.000 looked at the big socialists. the MSZP and said, 00:03:51.300 --> 00:03:53.120 you guys are just the old oppressors with a new 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:55.819 logo. And then they looked at the MSZP and said, 00:03:55.979 --> 00:03:57.699 and you guys are traitors because you're actually 00:03:57.699 --> 00:04:00.199 willing to work with the old oppressors. Wow. 00:04:00.819 --> 00:04:03.639 That's just a classic purity spiral. Like, everyone 00:04:03.639 --> 00:04:07.580 is compromised except us. Precisely. The SEDP 00:04:07.580 --> 00:04:10.400 positioned itself as the only clean break. And 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:13.280 to prove it, they didn't just write angry manifestos. 00:04:13.539 --> 00:04:15.280 They actually went out and recruited what you 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:17.660 could call living monuments. Yeah, I saw this 00:04:17.660 --> 00:04:19.600 in the notes and it totally blew my mind. They 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:21.379 didn't just find politicians. They found the 00:04:21.379 --> 00:04:23.860 politicians. It was probably their biggest marketing 00:04:23.860 --> 00:04:28.790 coup. They tracked down the actual living veterans 00:04:28.790 --> 00:04:31.670 of the social democratic movement from the 1940s. 00:04:31.810 --> 00:04:33.230 These are guys who were there at the beginning? 00:04:33.470 --> 00:04:35.970 Exactly. We are talking about people like Imre 00:04:35.970 --> 00:04:38.750 Takács, who was an original founder, or Robert 00:04:38.750 --> 00:04:42.230 Gábor, Sandor Bács guy, Ernan Nagy. And for anyone 00:04:42.230 --> 00:04:44.709 who doesn't know Hungarian history inside and 00:04:44.709 --> 00:04:48.319 out, Why were these specific guys so important 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:50.439 to have on the roster? Because they were the 00:04:50.439 --> 00:04:53.040 living bridge to the past. These men had been 00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:55.040 actively involved in the coalition government 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:58.019 between 1945 and 1948, you know, right before 00:04:58.019 --> 00:05:00.819 the communists took total absolute control. Oh, 00:05:00.819 --> 00:05:02.920 wow. And some of them were even linked to the 00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:05.180 government of Imre Nagy, who was the great martyr 00:05:05.180 --> 00:05:07.839 of the 1956 revolution. That is just incredible 00:05:07.839 --> 00:05:09.240 street cred. It's like they're saying, don't 00:05:09.240 --> 00:05:11.180 trust the guys in suits, trust the guys who were 00:05:11.180 --> 00:05:12.920 actually in the room before the dictatorship 00:05:12.920 --> 00:05:15.480 ruined everything. It gave them immense moral 00:05:15.480 --> 00:05:17.339 authority. Think about it. If you were a voter 00:05:17.339 --> 00:05:20.439 in Budapest in 1990 and you saw a name on the 00:05:20.439 --> 00:05:22.420 ballot that literally linked back to the last 00:05:22.420 --> 00:05:25.120 time Hungary was a functioning democracy, that 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:28.000 meant something. It's a claim to legitimacy that 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:30.079 all the establishment money just couldn't buy. 00:05:30.839 --> 00:05:33.519 Exactly. And they had a very specific turf they 00:05:33.519 --> 00:05:35.240 were targeting, too. They weren't out there trying 00:05:35.240 --> 00:05:37.740 to win over the agricultural workers or the rural 00:05:37.740 --> 00:05:40.019 farmers. No, they went straight for the smokestack. 00:05:40.139 --> 00:05:43.279 Straight for them. Their stronghold was the industrial 00:05:43.279 --> 00:05:45.920 belt of Budapest. We're talking about districts 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:49.600 like Obuda, Pester Sebit, and Anjolfold. Classic 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:53.540 working -class areas. Right. Steel mills, factories, 00:05:53.800 --> 00:05:56.199 heavy labor unions, they are pitching themselves 00:05:56.199 --> 00:06:00.019 as the true uncompromised voice of the urban 00:06:00.019 --> 00:06:02.420 worker. So you have the history, you have the 00:06:02.420 --> 00:06:04.600 actual veterans of the movement, and you have 00:06:04.600 --> 00:06:07.439 this solid industrial base. Yeah. On paper, I 00:06:07.439 --> 00:06:08.959 mean, this sounds like a winning formula. It 00:06:08.959 --> 00:06:12.220 does. But then we hit 1997. And the sources call 00:06:12.220 --> 00:06:15.199 this period the Exodus. Yes. This is where the 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:17.699 cracks in the broader social democratic movement 00:06:17.699 --> 00:06:20.439 turn into an absolute canyon. Remember, the SEDP 00:06:20.439 --> 00:06:23.019 started as this really small, pure splinter group 00:06:23.019 --> 00:06:26.740 back in 89. But in 1997, they get this massive 00:06:26.740 --> 00:06:29.360 influx of new members who are defecting from 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:32.699 the rival MSEDP. OK, so why did everyone suddenly 00:06:32.699 --> 00:06:35.060 jump ship to join our walks? It basically comes 00:06:35.060 --> 00:06:38.410 down to one man. Laszlo Kapoli. Kapoli. He was 00:06:38.410 --> 00:06:40.410 the guy running the rival party, right? He was. 00:06:40.829 --> 00:06:44.250 And Kapoli was, well, let's call him a pragmatist. 00:06:44.509 --> 00:06:46.370 He was wealthy. He was very influential. And 00:06:46.370 --> 00:06:48.910 he made the calculation that for his party to 00:06:48.910 --> 00:06:51.970 survive, they needed to form a strategic alliance 00:06:51.970 --> 00:06:55.819 with the big guys. The MSDP socialists. The post 00:06:55.819 --> 00:06:58.000 -communists. Right. And for the purists in the 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:00.439 movement, this was the ultimate betrayal. They 00:07:00.439 --> 00:07:02.860 looked at Capolli and said, you are literally 00:07:02.860 --> 00:07:05.699 handing our historic party over to the very people 00:07:05.699 --> 00:07:08.980 who banned us and threw us in jail in 1948. I 00:07:08.980 --> 00:07:10.319 mean, I can definitely see why that would be 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:12.439 a massive deal breaker. It was a total deal breaker. 00:07:12.579 --> 00:07:14.959 So they walked out. A huge chunk of the membership 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:17.879 left Capolli and joined the SCDP because they 00:07:17.879 --> 00:07:20.480 wanted a party that promised absolutely zero 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:23.230 compromise. You know, there is something really 00:07:23.230 --> 00:07:26.310 admirable about that, just standing on pure principle 00:07:26.310 --> 00:07:29.290 and refusing to water down the brand. But I have 00:07:29.290 --> 00:07:30.990 a feeling you're about to tell me that ideological 00:07:30.990 --> 00:07:34.000 purity doesn't always translate to actual votes. 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:36.759 Yeah. Well, purity is incredibly expensive in 00:07:36.759 --> 00:07:38.939 politics. And this is where we have to look at 00:07:38.939 --> 00:07:41.720 what they actually believed. I mean, we know 00:07:41.720 --> 00:07:43.500 what they were against. They were against the 00:07:43.500 --> 00:07:45.800 post -communists and they were against sellouts. 00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:49.000 But what were they actually for? Yeah, I was 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:50.720 reading through their economic platform and the 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:53.060 sources, and it felt really conflicted, like 00:07:53.060 --> 00:07:55.019 they were trying to fight a war on two completely 00:07:55.019 --> 00:07:57.060 different fronts. That is a great way to put 00:07:57.060 --> 00:07:59.120 it, because on one front, they are fighting the 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:01.889 political legacy of communism. But on the other 00:08:01.889 --> 00:08:04.389 front, they're fighting the new economic reality 00:08:04.389 --> 00:08:07.750 of the 1990s, which was this rapid, aggressive 00:08:07.750 --> 00:08:10.509 capitalist. A whole shock therapy era. Exactly. 00:08:10.870 --> 00:08:13.290 Everything was being privatized overnight. State 00:08:13.290 --> 00:08:15.410 -owned factories were being sold off to foreign 00:08:15.410 --> 00:08:19.389 investors, and the SCDP hated it. They strongly 00:08:19.389 --> 00:08:22.069 opposed what they called wholesale privatization. 00:08:22.610 --> 00:08:25.389 The documents say they called it extreme neoliberalism. 00:08:25.470 --> 00:08:28.189 Yes, they wanted to protect what they termed 00:08:28.189 --> 00:08:31.310 the indigenous Hungarian economy. They argued 00:08:31.310 --> 00:08:33.529 that you can't just sell the country's core assets 00:08:33.529 --> 00:08:36.289 to the highest foreign bidder. And this stance 00:08:36.289 --> 00:08:39.110 created a really fascinating tension inside their 00:08:39.110 --> 00:08:42.129 own party. How so? Yeah. Like, why would that 00:08:42.129 --> 00:08:45.259 cause tension? Because when you start heavily 00:08:45.259 --> 00:08:47.419 emphasizing the protection of the indigenous 00:08:47.419 --> 00:08:50.379 economy and you're fighting against foreign capital 00:08:50.379 --> 00:08:53.240 and foreign influence, you start sounding a lot 00:08:53.240 --> 00:08:56.240 less like a traditional Western leftist and a 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:58.200 lot more like a nationalist. Oh, I see where 00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:01.159 this is going. Yeah. The party effectively split 00:09:01.159 --> 00:09:04.440 into two ideological camps. One camp was looking 00:09:04.440 --> 00:09:07.620 outward, at like the UK Labor Party or the German 00:09:07.620 --> 00:09:11.299 SPD. They wanted standard democratic socialism. 00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:14.460 You know, strong labor unions, solid social safety 00:09:14.460 --> 00:09:17.440 nets, a democratic critique of capitalism, very 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:19.700 standard left -wing stuff. The other camp? The 00:09:19.700 --> 00:09:22.399 other camp, which crucially included a lot of 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:25.080 the party's leadership, started leaning really 00:09:25.080 --> 00:09:27.820 heavily into the national aspects of social democracy. 00:09:28.620 --> 00:09:31.539 much less internationalist and far more protectionist. 00:09:31.799 --> 00:09:34.379 Usually social democracy and nationalism do not 00:09:34.379 --> 00:09:36.360 sit comfortably at the same table. They really 00:09:36.360 --> 00:09:39.360 don't. So the SDP tried to hold these two massive 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:41.820 contradictions together using a spiritual figurehead, 00:09:42.299 --> 00:09:44.399 a woman named Anna Kethely. Right, she comes 00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:46.960 up a lot in the files. She was this legendary 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:50.120 social Democrat who had lived in exile during 00:09:50.120 --> 00:09:53.159 the worst of the communist years. And the party 00:09:53.159 --> 00:09:55.799 used her philosophy, which she called ethical 00:09:55.799 --> 00:09:58.879 social democracy, as a sort of ideological glue. 00:09:59.299 --> 00:10:01.480 Ethical social democracy. I mean, it sounds nice, 00:10:01.480 --> 00:10:03.860 but it's a bit vague, isn't it? It is extremely 00:10:03.860 --> 00:10:06.220 vague. But that was the point. It allowed them 00:10:06.220 --> 00:10:09.159 to feel morally superior without necessarily 00:10:09.159 --> 00:10:11.460 having to make the hard choice between being 00:10:11.460 --> 00:10:13.799 a strict labor party or a nationalist party. 00:10:13.960 --> 00:10:16.039 Right. You could just be ethical. Exactly. But 00:10:16.039 --> 00:10:18.360 the problem is when you build your entire political 00:10:18.360 --> 00:10:22.620 house on vague ideology and just pure anti -establishment 00:10:22.620 --> 00:10:25.840 anger, you make yourself very vulnerable to some 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:28.279 wild political shifts. Which brings us to the 00:10:28.279 --> 00:10:30.159 plot twist that literally made me do a double 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:32.200 take while I was prepping for this deep dive. 00:10:32.419 --> 00:10:34.940 We are moving into the early 2000s now. The party 00:10:34.940 --> 00:10:37.840 is small, they're loud, but they're really struggling. 00:10:38.399 --> 00:10:42.299 And then this man named Matias Suros takes over 00:10:42.299 --> 00:10:44.960 the leadership. Sujose is such a fascinating 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:47.139 figure. He wasn't just some nobody. He was a 00:10:47.139 --> 00:10:49.000 heavyweight. He was actually the provisional 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:52.019 president of Hungary back in 1989. Oh, wow. Yeah, 00:10:52.139 --> 00:10:54.320 he was the guy who literally stood on the balcony 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:56.600 of the parliament building and proclaimed the 00:10:56.600 --> 00:10:59.120 new republic to the crowds. That's a massive 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:02.559 get for a tiny party. It was. But by 2003, the 00:11:02.559 --> 00:11:04.919 political winds have shifted, and he finds himself 00:11:04.919 --> 00:11:09.559 co -leading this tiny, supposedly historic, SEDP. 00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:12.259 And under his leadership, this ship of theses 00:11:12.259 --> 00:11:15.379 we talked about completely turns around. Completely 00:11:15.379 --> 00:11:18.840 around. Under Suarez, the SEDP, the self -proclaimed 00:11:18.840 --> 00:11:21.659 party of the historic left, starts drifting into 00:11:21.659 --> 00:11:25.100 a formal alliance with Fidesz. Fidesz, as in 00:11:25.100 --> 00:11:28.169 the right -wing party. Yes. The major right -wing 00:11:28.169 --> 00:11:30.789 populist party in Hungary. I just need to pause 00:11:30.789 --> 00:11:32.370 on this because I really want to make sure you 00:11:32.370 --> 00:11:34.330 listening are getting this. You have a party 00:11:34.330 --> 00:11:37.330 that spends 15 years screaming, we are the true 00:11:37.330 --> 00:11:39.370 heirs of the left. We are the only authentic 00:11:39.370 --> 00:11:41.950 ones. And then they just decide to buddy up with 00:11:41.950 --> 00:11:43.929 the political right. It's the horseshoe theory 00:11:43.929 --> 00:11:46.149 in action. You know that idea. That the far left 00:11:46.149 --> 00:11:48.250 and the far right eventually curve around and 00:11:48.250 --> 00:11:49.929 meet each other because they both just absolutely 00:11:49.929 --> 00:11:52.769 hate the center. Right. So their logic was basically 00:11:53.149 --> 00:11:56.029 We hate the establishment socialists. Fidesz 00:11:56.029 --> 00:11:58.330 also hates the establishment socialists. So let's 00:11:58.330 --> 00:12:01.210 be friends. That was exactly the logic. According 00:12:01.210 --> 00:12:03.889 to the records, Sirtos deliberately steered the 00:12:03.889 --> 00:12:07.370 party toward populism. He made a huge gamble. 00:12:07.870 --> 00:12:10.309 He bet that their national protectionist stance 00:12:10.309 --> 00:12:12.429 was actually more important to their identity 00:12:12.429 --> 00:12:15.210 than their leftist labor history. That seems 00:12:15.210 --> 00:12:17.429 like a massive gamble to take with a working 00:12:17.429 --> 00:12:20.710 class voter base. Did the voters actually buy 00:12:20.710 --> 00:12:23.889 it? They absolutely did not. It completely destroyed 00:12:23.889 --> 00:12:26.450 whatever credibility they had left. I mean, you 00:12:26.450 --> 00:12:28.850 cannot go to a steelworker in Anjelfold and say, 00:12:29.049 --> 00:12:31.330 we are the party of labor for a decade, and then 00:12:31.330 --> 00:12:33.210 suddenly turn around and endorse the right -wing 00:12:33.210 --> 00:12:35.230 opposition. Yeah, that doesn't track. It just 00:12:35.230 --> 00:12:37.389 looked entirely opportunistic. It made them look 00:12:37.389 --> 00:12:39.950 like they had zero actual principles left. I'm 00:12:39.950 --> 00:12:42.429 looking at the election numbers here in the source 00:12:42.429 --> 00:12:44.570 material. And destroyed really feels like an 00:12:44.570 --> 00:12:46.509 understatement. These numbers are microscopic. 00:12:46.669 --> 00:12:48.690 It's painful to look at. In the National Assembly 00:12:48.690 --> 00:12:51.019 elections during this period, they are consistently 00:12:51.019 --> 00:12:57.059 pulling around 0 .0%. 0 .0. Yeah, maybe 0 .02 00:12:57.059 --> 00:12:59.879 % on a really good day. They were completely 00:12:59.879 --> 00:13:01.600 extra parliamentary. They didn't have a seat 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:03.299 at the table. Honestly, they weren't even in 00:13:03.299 --> 00:13:06.720 the building. But what about the 2004 European 00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:10.200 Parliament elections? Usually, small protest 00:13:10.200 --> 00:13:12.340 parties do a little bit better in those, right? 00:13:12.659 --> 00:13:15.019 Because the stakes feel lower. You'd think so. 00:13:15.220 --> 00:13:18.429 But in 2004, they got 0 .4 % of the vote. less 00:13:18.429 --> 00:13:21.429 than half of 1%. It's a rounding error. It proved 00:13:21.429 --> 00:13:23.289 beyond a shadow of a doubt that the historic 00:13:23.289 --> 00:13:26.490 brand name had absolutely no value to the modern 00:13:26.490 --> 00:13:29.789 voter. So Sir Rose tries this crazy pivot to 00:13:29.789 --> 00:13:32.470 the right. It fails spectacularly, and he ends 00:13:32.470 --> 00:13:35.549 up getting forced out in 2005. The party is essentially 00:13:35.549 --> 00:13:38.169 in ruins at this point, but they do not give 00:13:38.169 --> 00:13:40.929 up. They try one last Hail Mary pass in 2009. 00:13:41.149 --> 00:13:43.049 This is what I like to call the zombie phase 00:13:43.049 --> 00:13:45.669 of the party. It's 2009. They're desperate to 00:13:45.669 --> 00:13:47.529 run in the European elections again. But they 00:13:47.529 --> 00:13:49.950 know they need a headline. They need a star candidate 00:13:49.950 --> 00:13:51.889 to get people talking. And who do they hire? 00:13:52.610 --> 00:13:54.509 Anna Petrusovitz. Now, wait a minute. We mentioned 00:13:54.509 --> 00:13:56.549 her earlier in the notes. We did. She was the 00:13:56.549 --> 00:14:00.190 leader of the rival party. the MSZDP back in 00:14:00.190 --> 00:14:02.789 the early 90s. The imposter party, the one they 00:14:02.789 --> 00:14:04.210 originally split from because they call them 00:14:04.210 --> 00:14:07.070 traitors. The very same. They literally hired 00:14:07.070 --> 00:14:09.909 the former leader of their historic nemesis to 00:14:09.909 --> 00:14:12.750 try and save their own sinking ship. That is 00:14:12.750 --> 00:14:14.730 just I can't even wrap my head around how desperate 00:14:14.730 --> 00:14:17.149 that is. That's like Pepsi hiring the former 00:14:17.149 --> 00:14:20.750 CEO of Coke to run their classic brand just because 00:14:20.750 --> 00:14:23.289 they completely ran out of ideas. It absolutely 00:14:23.289 --> 00:14:25.409 reeks of desperation. And once again, the voters 00:14:25.409 --> 00:14:27.549 saw right through it. It was just such a trend. 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:31.360 transparent, cynical attempt to grab some quick 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:34.240 media attention. So did it work at all? It failed 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:36.740 so hard that they couldn't even collect enough 00:14:36.740 --> 00:14:39.559 nomination slips from everyday citizens to officially 00:14:39.559 --> 00:14:41.659 register for the election. You're kidding. They 00:14:41.659 --> 00:14:43.700 didn't even make the ballot. Did not finish. 00:14:43.960 --> 00:14:46.480 Did not even start. It was a total humiliating 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:49.100 collapse. That is brutal. So after that massive 00:14:49.100 --> 00:14:52.159 failure in 2009, what was actually left of the 00:14:52.159 --> 00:14:56.559 SZDP? Honestly. Just the lawyers. From 2009 all 00:14:56.559 --> 00:14:59.539 the way to 2013, the party basically ceased to 00:14:59.539 --> 00:15:01.340 function as any kind of political entity. It 00:15:01.340 --> 00:15:03.440 just became a fight club. A fight club? Yeah. 00:15:03.679 --> 00:15:06.360 It was just different internal factions suing 00:15:06.360 --> 00:15:09.019 each other, expelling each other, constantly 00:15:09.019 --> 00:15:11.360 arguing in court over who was the legitimate 00:15:11.360 --> 00:15:14.580 president of a party that had zero voters. And 00:15:14.580 --> 00:15:16.850 you have to think about the context here. All 00:15:16.850 --> 00:15:19.029 while this is happening, the actual country of 00:15:19.029 --> 00:15:22.309 Hungary is dealing with the massive fallout of 00:15:22.309 --> 00:15:25.870 the 2008 global financial crisis. You have the 00:15:25.870 --> 00:15:30.110 rapid political rise of Viktor Orban. Huge monumental 00:15:30.110 --> 00:15:31.990 historical events are happening outside their 00:15:31.990 --> 00:15:34.529 windows. And the historic social democrats are 00:15:34.529 --> 00:15:36.690 busy arguing over who gets to use the official 00:15:36.690 --> 00:15:38.690 letterhead. Exactly. They were just completely 00:15:38.690 --> 00:15:40.970 checked out from reality by that point. And then 00:15:40.970 --> 00:15:45.429 the end finally comes. February 2013. The dissolution. 00:15:45.659 --> 00:15:47.659 The courts finally stepped in or the money just 00:15:47.659 --> 00:15:49.399 ran out or maybe everyone just got too tired 00:15:49.399 --> 00:15:54.080 to keep fighting. But there is one final incredibly 00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:56.600 bitter irony to all of this. It's really the 00:15:56.600 --> 00:15:59.039 cherry on top of this confused Sunday. I have 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:00.879 the quote for the sources right here and I genuinely 00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:03.080 had to read it twice to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding 00:16:03.080 --> 00:16:06.059 it. Yeah. In their very last official public 00:16:06.059 --> 00:16:08.559 statement literally as the lights are being turned 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:11.440 off for good the party officially pledges its 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:13.879 support. for the ruling of FIDA's administration. 00:16:13.980 --> 00:16:16.799 The right -wing government. Yes. A party literally 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:19.580 called the Social Democratic Party spends its 00:16:19.580 --> 00:16:22.039 dying breath officially endorsing the conservative 00:16:22.039 --> 00:16:24.100 right. It really just brings the whole thing 00:16:24.100 --> 00:16:26.779 full circle, doesn't it? It completely validates 00:16:26.779 --> 00:16:30.419 that weird pivot that Ciro started years earlier. 00:16:30.570 --> 00:16:33.730 It proves that by the very end, the actual identity 00:16:33.730 --> 00:16:36.210 of the party had completely detached from its 00:16:36.210 --> 00:16:39.309 ideology. The label social democrat had become 00:16:39.309 --> 00:16:41.929 entirely meaningless to them. It was just a vehicle 00:16:41.929 --> 00:16:44.230 for grievance. So let's zoom out a bit. We have 00:16:44.230 --> 00:16:46.929 this tragic arc, incredible high hopes back in 00:16:46.929 --> 00:16:50.250 89. They have the genuine heroes of 1948 and 00:16:50.250 --> 00:16:53.990 1956 involved. And it all ends as this pathetic 00:16:53.990 --> 00:16:56.250 footnote endorsing the political opposition. 00:16:56.829 --> 00:16:59.009 What is the big takeaway from these sources? 00:16:59.110 --> 00:17:01.049 Is it just that, hey, Hungarian politics is really 00:17:01.049 --> 00:17:02.929 complicated? I think it's much deeper than that. 00:17:02.950 --> 00:17:05.569 I really think the story of the SCDP is a warning 00:17:05.569 --> 00:17:08.390 about the immense danger of retro politics. Retro 00:17:08.390 --> 00:17:11.609 politics. Yeah. The SCDP spent all its energy, 00:17:11.750 --> 00:17:14.069 all its political capital fighting over the past. 00:17:14.490 --> 00:17:17.089 They were completely obsessed with 1948. They 00:17:17.089 --> 00:17:19.789 were obsessed with proving who was the true, 00:17:19.890 --> 00:17:22.769 pure heir to the legacy. They were essentially 00:17:22.769 --> 00:17:25.029 looking in the rear -view mirror the entire time 00:17:25.029 --> 00:17:27.170 they were driving. Right. while the actual voters 00:17:27.170 --> 00:17:29.890 were driving forward. Exactly. Think about it. 00:17:30.069 --> 00:17:32.690 If I'm a young person living in Budapest in 2005, 00:17:33.170 --> 00:17:36.369 I do not care about the internal factional squabbles 00:17:36.369 --> 00:17:39.269 of the 1940s. I care about getting a job. I care 00:17:39.269 --> 00:17:41.990 about housing. I care about Hungary joining the 00:17:41.990 --> 00:17:45.170 EU, the internet. The SEDP had all this history, 00:17:45.230 --> 00:17:47.920 but they didn't offer a future. They just assumed 00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:50.640 that the legacy, the brand name itself, was enough 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:53.000 to automatically entitle them to people's votes. 00:17:53.180 --> 00:17:55.680 Right. Their whole pitch was vote for us. We 00:17:55.680 --> 00:17:58.319 are the authentic ones. But authenticity doesn't 00:17:58.319 --> 00:18:01.079 pay the rent. It also really highlights the alphabet 00:18:01.079 --> 00:18:03.599 soup problem we started with. If you are a listener 00:18:03.599 --> 00:18:05.400 trying to understand politics, whether it's in 00:18:05.400 --> 00:18:07.680 Hungary or anywhere else in the world, you really 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:10.000 have to look past the name on the tin. Absolutely. 00:18:10.059 --> 00:18:12.720 Because in the post -communist world and really 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:16.690 everywhere now, political labels are fluid. Communists 00:18:16.690 --> 00:18:20.109 became capitalists. Social Democrats became populist 00:18:20.109 --> 00:18:22.769 nationalists. If you just walk into a voting 00:18:22.769 --> 00:18:25.089 booth and vote based on an acronym, you could 00:18:25.089 --> 00:18:27.190 easily end up supporting policies you fundamentally 00:18:27.190 --> 00:18:29.289 hate. You have to watch what they do, not what 00:18:29.289 --> 00:18:32.390 they call themselves. Because the SEDP called 00:18:32.390 --> 00:18:35.349 themselves historic social democrats, but they 00:18:35.349 --> 00:18:37.609 ended up acting like populist nationalists. And 00:18:37.609 --> 00:18:40.789 that 0 .0 % vote share shows that people aren't 00:18:40.789 --> 00:18:43.329 stupid. The voters noticed the contradiction 00:18:43.329 --> 00:18:46.390 and they walked away. It's a fascinating if you 00:18:46.390 --> 00:18:49.250 know slightly depressing story. But it is such 00:18:49.250 --> 00:18:52.210 a great reminder that political parties are really 00:18:52.210 --> 00:18:54.730 fragile things. They aren't monuments carved 00:18:54.730 --> 00:18:57.349 in stone. They're living organisms. And if they 00:18:57.349 --> 00:18:59.849 don't adapt to the actual environment. They die. 00:18:59.970 --> 00:19:02.289 And sometimes, as we saw with the SCDP today, 00:19:02.490 --> 00:19:04.569 they die endorsing the very people they were 00:19:04.569 --> 00:19:07.329 originally founded to oppose. A brutal epitaph 00:19:07.329 --> 00:19:09.509 for the historic Social Democratic Party. Indeed 00:19:09.509 --> 00:19:11.789 it is. Well, that brings us to the end of this 00:19:11.789 --> 00:19:14.670 deep dive into the chaotic life and death of 00:19:14.670 --> 00:19:17.849 the SCDP. It has definitely been a wild ride 00:19:17.849 --> 00:19:19.869 through the archives today. It's always a pleasure 00:19:19.869 --> 00:19:22.549 to unpack these complex histories. And to you 00:19:22.549 --> 00:19:25.130 listening, here's a thought to chew on as you 00:19:25.130 --> 00:19:27.779 go about your day. We spent a lot of time talking 00:19:27.779 --> 00:19:30.559 about how this party was totally obsessed with 00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:34.079 being the true heirs. So ask yourself, in the 00:19:34.079 --> 00:19:35.900 organizations you are part of, whether it's your 00:19:35.900 --> 00:19:38.400 company, a community group, or even a political 00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:40.980 movement you really care about, how much energy 00:19:40.980 --> 00:19:44.259 is being spent debating who we used to be versus 00:19:44.259 --> 00:19:46.920 who we actually need to become? That is the critical 00:19:46.920 --> 00:19:49.400 question. Because if you find yourself arguing 00:19:49.400 --> 00:19:52.000 more about your history than your future, you 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:54.880 might just be drifting toward your own 0 .0 % 00:19:54.880 --> 00:19:56.660 moment. It's definitely something to think about. 00:19:57.259 --> 00:19:58.579 We will see you on the next Deep Dive.