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POLITICAL TRANSITION AND THE PROFESSIONALISATION OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION | 173

Stanley B. Greenberg and his consultant firm from the US were charged with
developing communication strategies for the government, as well as with assisting the
prime minister with his personal communication.The methods and tools do not appear
to have been successful. One of the examples of this ‘failure’ occurred when the
Hungarian prime minister finished one of his important speeches in the same manner
as American presidents, but in a manner totally alien to Hungarian political culture:‘So
help me God’.Although the American consultants had Hungarian advisors to help them
to understand Hungarian culture and social psychology, it seems that they were either
not persuasive, or the American advisors were overconfident of their expertise. Of
course this does not mean that the failure of the Socialist Party at the EU elections, and
of Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy at the end of the summer of 2004,was a direct result
of the deficiencies of their political communication, but certainly it had a considerable
effect.

At the end of the summer 2004 the ruling parties – the Socialist and the liberal Free
Democrats – withdrew their support from the prime minister, Medgyessy. The new
prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, emerged out of nowhere in a quasi-putsch. The
opposition was surprised by the new socialist political personality and his
confrontational and informal style of communication. The new prime minister was
characterised by the specialists of a leading political consulting company, Vision
Consulting, as follows: he is the first politician on the left, who acts according to the
terms of a democratic, competitive political system; he definitely knows that he has to
respond to the expectations of the voters; he has excellent communication capabilities;
political charisma; and a good political background supporting him. All this can be
considered as a significant step on the way to professionalisation of the politics on the
left. Behind this the new Socialist prime minister has clear political aims that can
compete with, and are opposed to, the symbolic aims of the nationalist opposition: to
support the poor and to take from the rich, combined with a liberal angle. The
Gyurcsány and Orbán rhetorical styles are similar in many respects, primarily due to a
generally confident and clear manner of speaking, but also to a common populist
element. Related to this there are two possible dangers which need to be mentioned: Political Transition and the Professionalisation of Political Communication
the emergence of a leftist populism (as opposed to the nationalist populism of the
right) and that his confrontational style of communication could sharpen the division
of the nation. In any case, the Hungarian political scene has become more symmetric,
both sides having professional politicians and professionalised political
communications.

SUMMARY
The experiences concerning the development of Hungarian political communication
during the last 15 years can be summarised as follows:

The main features of this development of political communication were the results of
the specific circumstances of the Hungarian political regime change, combined with 175