Védegylet - The Sólyom For President campaign (SFP)

Protect the Future held a press conference on February 23rd 2005, where they announced that on their initiative 110 public personalities are writing to MPs, asking that László Sólyom be elected as the next president of the Republic.

Protect the Future (Védegylet) puts forward László Sólyom for President

Protect the Future held a press conference on February 23rd 2005, where they announced that on their initiative 110 public personalities are writing to MPs, asking that László Sólyom be elected as the next president of the Republic.

At the head of the Constitutional Court, László Sólyom gained lasting recognition in creating legal frameworks for a new Hungarian democracy. The signatories see in his election the guarantee that the highest public office will be occupied by a person independent from parties and temporary political circumstances. He has acquired wide recognition with his political and scientific work, both domestically and abroad. The general trust that surrounds him could be the starting point for the strengthening of constitutional frameworks, for a politics which takes responsibility for future generations, and the cleansing of public life.

The Falcon takes wing

This week László Sólyom made his resignation from Protect the Future (Védegylet) official, given the fact that next week, on the 5th of August 2005, he will officially become the president of the Republic of Hungary.

On the 5th of August László Sólyom will be appointed president for a period of 5 years, becoming the first green president of the republic, who considered himself throughout the whole campaign as the candidate for Protect the Future. According to his express wishes, any display of pompousness shall be avoided. This is not the first gesture of his since being elected. He has already made statements to the Slovakian newspapers regarding both the power station at Bős, and the Hungarians from Slovakia, but the papers went on a lot about the Zengő-case as well, and about the steps that can be expected from the spokesman for Future Generations (Jövő Nemzedékek) (the latter is the plan of a parliamentary ombudsman, which was put forward by Protect the Future in the interests of protecting future generations).

Sólyom is going to be different from Mádl, just as Mádl was a different kind of president from Göncz. According to a newspaper, we cannot know what the future holds, the new president being a „Chinese box”. One thing is for sure, Sólyom is not going to remain a Chinese box for long, as the boxes hiding each other are slowly opening up. Still, those familiar with his work, his principles, the speech he gave upon election, and his personality, won’t be hugely surprised. He knows whose president he wants to be, what kind of state and what kind of citizens he prefers, and without doubt he will do what he can within the jurisdiction regulated by the government, no matter whether some parties like it or not.

Among the SFP campaign staff, several volunteers have been working out of pure enthusiasm and devotion who previously hadn’t been working for Protect the Future. Their youthful staff have dubbed László Sólyom, the first president of the Constitutional Court, „Falcon”, not only a translation of his Hungarian name, but also a reference to the Millennium Falcon, the space craft from ’Star Wars’ used by rebels fighting for the restoration of the Republic in their war against the despotic Empire.

In a letter dated July the 16th, Sólyom opened with: „The initiative of Protect the Future has achieved its target”, and, taking into consideration his new function, he announced his intention to resign from the Protect the Future board of directors.

So the Falcon has taken wing.

(Vida Viktor)
Translated by Kinga Kuzman