Reevaluation on István Csurka's birthday

István Csurka should be re-evaluated - said Mária Schmidt at the conference held in connection with the 90th anniversary of the birth of the late writer and politician. Csurka's timing was bad, as he was right about everything too soon.

According to the director general of the House of Terror Museum, after the regime change, Csurka became the focus of an unprecedented character assassination. Philosopher András Lánczi and cultural politician László László gave a presentation at the conference, presenting Csurka's political and literary work as well - Magyar Nemzet reported on the event.

- Silence surrounds the person of István Csurka, however, one cannot talk about system change without mentioning him - said Mária Schmidt, the House of Terror Museum and the XX. The Director General of Szazad Institute presented the life of the late writer and politician in his speech opening the Csurka 90 - Time and Fate conference. As he said, Csurka continued the legacy of Miklós Zrínyi or Sándor Petőfi, since he was a writer and a politician in one person.

- added Mária Schmidt, who said that Csurka's timing was wrong, as he was right too early in everything.

He indicated that Csurka found himself facing great headwinds in representing the cause of Hungarians after the system change. The director general believed that Csurka's person was at the center of an unprecedented character assassination, which would have broken everyone else, but not him, and this testifies to heroism.

– reminded Mária Schmidt.

He drew attention to the fact that in 1992 the American Congress also condemned Csurka on charges of anti-Semitism, but nowadays the American academic life believes that anti-Semitism depends on the context.

Mária Schmidt concluded her presentation.

He was a legendary figure

"We still can't experience a Csurka renaissance, but we hope that the conference will be the beginning of it," said historian Márton Békés, the 21st. Director of Század Institute, according to whom Csurka was a legendary Hungarian figure. He recalled his political career, emphasizing that he wrote his famous paper in 1992, then ran for the chair of MDF, which he lost to József Antall. After that, Csurka was expelled from the MDF, and then he founded the MIÉP.

He said that in 2007, Csurka wrote about the need for a new national government with a two-thirds parliamentary majority and a new constitution. In 2010, Csurka called the victory of Fidesz historic, which the left was able to prevent in 1990.

Márton Békés recalled the thoughts of István Csurka, and then explained how

shortly before his death, Csurka welcomed the first peace march, which he believed could protect the achievements up to that point.

Csurka's plays described the entire society

- Whoever deals with the truth must also deal with lies. István Csurka managed these two together - said András Lánczi in his presentation. The Széchenyi Prize-winning philosopher said that for Csurka there were three defining events in his life, one of which was the 1956 revolution. According to him, Csurka's dramas described the entire society, with conflicts, characters, debates and the truth. Lánczi believed that Csurka wanted to tell the truth as a politician in the vein of a writer,

and the main reason for his political failures was his relentless search for truth.

- In the years after the system change, the intellectuals who considered themselves to be progressive constantly tried to retouch the writers they did not like - said the cultural politician L. Simon László in his presentation. According to him, it is also legitimate in this fight if the liberals try to discriminate against the opponent in a moral and professional sense.

- added the cultural politician.

The full article can be read HERE

Photo: István Csurka gives a speech in Hősök Square on June 27, 2008, on the twentieth anniversary of the demonstration against the 1988 village destruction in Transylvania. Photo: MTI/Attila Kovács