Libertarian Party

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The Libertarian Party (LIBERTARIANS) is a right-wing, libertarian party in Hungary. The movement, which mainly includes university students and young people, was founded in 2022. Its predecessor, the Abolish 75% of Taxes Party (LA75), launched in 2021 the Mass Opening for Businesses initiative, became internationally known. Its founder and president since 2022 is Balázs Gábori, who is the head of the Mass Opening for Businesses (in Hungarian: Tömeges Üzletnyitás) initiative and the subsequent political background work, as the Party Director of LA75 and founder of the Libertarian Movement, he took a decisive part. By the spring of 2022, he had organized the Libertarian Movement and then the Libertarian Party it was formed entirely on the basis of non-governmental organizations, jointly with libertarian activists. The members of the party represent many socio-philosophical trends; the founders of the spirit of classical liberalism are represented. When the party was founded, a political declaration was issued under the name "foundations" based on the Declaration of Social Values ​​published by the Libertarian Movement Association. The Libertarian Party has set itself the goal of forming the Government of the Libertarian Movement and raising the Free Hungary Program to a government program.

History

XIX. century classical liberalism in Hungary

Historically speaking, Hungarian libertarianism dates back to the 19th century. It took shape in the first half of the 20th century, in the classical liberalism of the Hungarian Reform Era, and reached its political peak in 1848-49, in the founding of the Hungarian bourgeois state, which first resulted in self-determination, then independent statehood. Many quotes from Lajos Kossuth confirm the contemporary thinking about freedom: "There is nothing that would have a more harmful effect on the political morality of a nation than the excessive expansion of government patronage that distributes office." (...) "This is such a source of the decay of the nation that it is enough to poison the morals even in an otherwise wisely led democracy..." (...) "Those nations are the happiest - he writes elsewhere - which govern the least. ... A strong government: guardianship, and whoever has a guardian, if he is not stupid, is a minor." His long-term operation of power actually took place in 1867, after the compromise, where he implemented all the civil law institutions that were opened up by the greater freedom of the market and the possibility of the parliamentary system.

Political history

The founding of the first Hungarian libertarian party, LA75, was preceded by the parliamentary action of Áron Ecsenyi, when he entered the Parliament with a visitor's ticket and pasted stickers to protest against the blatantly high redistribution rate at the European level. He founded LA75 as a party in September 2019. In the media, the predecessor organization, LA75, was made famous by their Mass Opening program. In January 2021, protests broke out across Europe against government regulations limiting the opening hours of shops due to the epidemic situation. In most countries, libertarians and right-wingers have embraced the cause, encouraging stores to open in civil disobedience despite the orders. At home, LA75 announced the program on Facebook, and for this purpose, based on the Polish example, it also made its own map showing the opening stores. Since practically anyone could upload their business to the map, and the owners of the stores could withdraw their intentions at any time, its reliability was criticized by many. The government reacted to the wave of openings with the prospect of even heavier penalties. Despite this, LA75 announced events for both January 31st and February 1st at Heroes' square (Hősök tere) to encourage the owners to open. The protests received media attention and were reported by the international press. Two members of the LA75 party, Áron Ecsenyi and his brother Szilárd Ecsenyi, were fined a total of HUF 3.5 million for organizing and holding the meeting. After the event, the other opposition parties also started calling for the opening and the government announced new measures. A promise was made to expand the vaccination capacity, to immediately pay the unpaid wage subsidies, and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced a national consultation regarding the opening.

Áron Ecsenyi was also registered in the 2021 Hungarian opposition primary organized with some of the opposition parties as the 7th Prime Minister candidate, from which Ecsenyi later withdrew. The LA75 Party was unable to nominate candidates in the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election, so it announced that it will continue with its activists the program of the Libertarian Party, which was founded on August 20, 2022, with the participation of several civil organizations and a series of demonstrations, in the form of a classic association, under the name LA75 Movement maintenance and support of social media presence.

The development of the Libertarian Party was also reported on by the Japanese state television during the demonstration held illegally by the founders. The Libertarian Party was founded with 20 people under the leadership of Balázs Gábori, on the foundations of the civil society organization of the Libertarian Movement, and the number of active members increased to nearly 100 people in the first month through strategic agreements. The party has independent media platforms and a digital library determined its design. With the establishment of a professional team of experts, the party will develop a detailed central budget plan, a self-governing city concept, a European concept, a free market environmental protection program, social policy, and a full constitutional normative text before the 2024 European Parliament elections. In the elaboration, the party involves 2 research foundations and 3 libertarian associations based on strategic partnership agreements.

Ideological background

Libertarian ideologies in the tradition of the Anglo-Saxon countries (English Civil Revolution, American War of Independence) became decisive with the civil enlightenment. According to their basic principles, the individual can only be free if the state does not restrict the operation of the market and does not want to subordinate the individual's decision to political will. At home, journalist László Seres started popularizing it after the system change. Libertarians oppose state redistribution, socialism, paternalism, fascism, and any democratically coerced decision-making.

Party program

Among the objectives of the Libertarian Party is the downsizing of the majority of state services and the elimination of the tax system that enables their financing. Accordingly, a large degree of marketization is planned in health care, education, sports and culture financing, and the pension system. A significant part of these would be taken out of state funding. In addition, many concessions and market-distorting regulations, including the minimum wage system, would be eliminated. As libertarians, they are committed supporters of freedom of speech and the freedom to bear arms. In a European comparison, the system of Switzerland (low taxes, free arms, market freedom) is the closest to them, but in their program called Free Hungary, Hong Kong and Singapore are also examples.

References

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