Page 58 - The Voyage of Hungarian Christian Democracy - Edited by Mária Rita Kiss

that Christian democrats rely on a mass supporter base that “national consensus would be
difficult to achieve” without. He assured the founders of the roundtable that the KDNP was
266
a “secular organization” that did not need recognition by the clergy and that the “party would
firmly reject such recognition anyway” as it basically contradicts with the nature of Christian
democracy. “This party has always supported the progressive branch of the Christian approach
that is characterized by solid social sensibility. It firmly rejected clericalism, direction by the
church and conservativism. So we had fierce conflicts with the church in 1947… and we are not
striving to become any sort of church party today, either.” Admitting that although the party
267
is closer to the Catholic church than to others owing to historic reasons, he underscored that
they always strove to strengthening the party’s interconfessional nature, similarly to the policy
of German and Dutch Christian democratic parties after World War II.

Titled “The Christian Way”, the KDNP’s 1990 programme envisaged the

implementation of a “human-oriented society” and a “state built on the moral law and natural
law”, naming moral renewal as the country’s most important task. The programme left no
doubts that the therapy of society’s sickness could start with return to the path “set by Saint
Stephen” leading Hungary to “Christianity and Europe”. Therefore, the KDNP urged the
drafting of a constitution that expresses the principles of both Western Christianity and
Western Democracy and Hungarian historic and public law traditions. By this, they primarily
meant enforcing the principles of Christian state and society organization: the principle of
subsidiarity , the principle of realizing the full potential of the human personality and the
269
268
270
principle of solidarity . In the section dealing with practical issues, the party’s programme
demanded the termination of “Marxist and atheist” influence in schools, the enabling of “free
competition of ideologies” and the “free confrontation of ideas”, the incorporation of Christian
ideas into study materials and, in order to improve political culture, the promotion of
democracy and participation in public life in education.
271
In the 1990 campaign, the party’s messages were addressed directly to the faithful
population. Although research data about target groups were not yet available then, the
272
KDNP’s candidates voiced hopes that Hungarians retained their Christian values even during
the years of socialism and that Christian voters make up a sufficiently large supporter base
that enables election success for the party. The candidates were convinced that there was
tangible demand in Hungarian society for Christian morals and the political representation

266 Script. Session 27 on 4 July. op. cit. p. 500.
267 SZDSZ delegate Bálint Magyar noted that they saw the KDNP as a likeable organization from the Barankovics-school as opposed to representatives of the
Mindszenty approach. Imre Mécs noted that instead of a historical party, he would have preferred to see a KALOT-style grassroots organization comprising
base communities and Christian youth, an organization that “would have used Barankovics’s name in its mission statement only.” Cf. Script. Op. cit. Ibid. p.
511.
Cf. Ibid.
268 Reference to the principle of subsidiarity in the context of local government operations. Ibid: Chapter III.
269 The concept of personality is present throughout the document. It is discussed extensively in e.g. the chapters “Church and Party” and “We Want Christian
Democracy!” Both chapters state that the objective is to establish democracy that is based on “Christian personalism”, an approach that regards human
personality as the highest value. Cf. Ibid. Chapter IV. Section 9, p. 2.
270 “The command of charity dictates our fundamental conduct: solidarity. We express solidarity with every man, people, societal or ethnic group and religion
that experiences the violation of its right to exist, its personality, liberty or freedom of thought, freedom of expression, conscience and religion. We take action
on the side of the poor and the disadvantaged. We reject any form of discrimination between human beings.” Ibid. p. 21
271 Ibid. Cf. Chapter 17. Kiművelt emberfőket, nemzeti tudatformálást! [Calling for Educated Citizens and National Awareness], pp. 69-71.
272 A Christian person cannot be indifferent. Interview with Miklós Hasznos at a Pécs campaign rally. Dunántúli Napló 17 March 1990.

[ 58 ]