(red.) “The institutions of capitalism, the EU and the rest, are not there to help poorer countries and raise them to their level of development. Let’s work for them, buy their goods; that’s in their interest.” This is how Gyula Thürmer, chairman of the communist Hungarian Workers’ Party, expresses the experience Hungarians have had under the new system over the past three and a half decades. Above all, an intact healthcare system no longer exists, and the Hungarian village is culturally impoverished.

by GYULA THÜRMER, Chairman of the Hungarian Workers’ Party (Munkáspárt)

Gyula Thürmer (Photo: 1046.hu)

Most people rarely, if ever, say capitalism. Why? Big words, for politicians! We have enough problems, many say, we don’t have time to deal with this!

Of course, everyone has heard of capitalism, the capitalist system, but it all seems to exist independently of us, somewhere in the distance, light years away. It doesn’t matter! We are us and capitalism exists, we have nothing to do with each other.

But the reality is different. We have been living in it for three and a half decades now. Capitalism is not far from us, it is here, we encounter it every day, it weaves its way through our lives.

We scold healthcare. The doctor in the small village comes once a week. That’s all he has time for. Several villages belong to his practice. He should be everywhere, maybe he wants to be, but in reality, God is not really anywhere.

Capitalism comes to mind, right? Yet we should know that the capitalist regime change destroyed the healthcare system based on state care. The district doctor was a state employee, not a private entrepreneur. They privatized the district medical care because they wanted capitalism not only on a large scale, but also on a small scale. And we believed that it would get better. It didn’t get better, it got worse!

We were shocked when a ninety-year-old doctor treated us in the emergency room. Not at the end of the world, but here, in the capital city! There is no other option! Where are the advantages of capitalism here? How many people applauded when we entered the EU? We can go to work in the West, for more money, for a better life! Yes, the workforce can go freely, but not only the butcher, the electrician, the roofer, the doctor too! And they do. We didn’t think it was like that, but this is what it turned out to be, because this is also capitalism.

Let’s protect the Hungarian village! The government is advertising it, and it is right: let’s protect it! But how? Young people are fleeing small villages because there is nothing. Under socialism, almost every village had a cultural center. Actors from the capital or the district theater came. There were professional circles, joint trips.

Today, all of this has disappeared. There is no one to pay for it, no one to maintain it. Under socialism, the local production cooperative helped the local council, and the state also gave money. Today, there is no social security system, and the local government has no money, and it doesn’t really feel like it. Money, money, and only money again, that is, capitalism!

The state supports young people with many things today. That is right, a good thing! We need to help young people study, start families, after all, the future depends on them. But what about those who have grown old, have reached a good age, to describe reality delicately? What happens to the elderly if they get sick, if they can no longer take care of themselves? Are there enough nursing homes? And what is there, provides them with humane conditions, a humane life?

We know the answer. There is not enough money, there is not because there is capitalism. It is not the person who is important, but the profit, the benefit. Caring for the elderly does not bring the money, but takes it away! And the elderly suffer from the capitalism that lives with us. Yet they deserve more. They built everything that is around us. We owe them, but will we be able to repay the debt if every moment of our lives is determined by the rule of money?

We have been living under capitalism for four decades. At first, many believed that this was fine. We take with us what was good in the old system, socialism, and add everything that we see as good from capitalism.

It is time to admit what we already know, but it is difficult to admit. Capitalism is not a welfare institution. It is not there to make us, the people, better off. It is there so that the capitalist, the owner, can live well, make a profit, and get rich.

The institutions of capitalism, the EU and the rest, are not there to help poorer countries, to raise them to their level of development. Let us work for them, buy their goods, this is their interest. Moreover, even this is not enough! They expect us to live and think like them. Let us not become independent, let us not stand out from the crowd, because otherwise they will hit us on the head. After all, there is capitalism, the rule of money, and they are the ones who have the money.

At the time of the change of regime, they did not ask us whether we wanted capitalism. In the spring of 1990, we did not vote to renounce socialism and accept the rule of capital. They did not tell us that democracy, Europe, a market economy, all this was just a promise, a glass bead, that the reality would be different.

They deceived us and we deceived ourselves. Moreover, every four years since then, we have been deceiving ourselves again and again. We deceive ourselves, we explain ourselves, and then we believe that it is enough to replace the government and elect another one, and everything will change.

Many things can change, but the essence does not. Since 1990, capitalist governments have followed one another, enforcing the interests of capital, maintaining capitalism. They can promise “regime change”, but such a thing will not happen.

If we do not want to live in capitalism, if we do not want to continue to be its slaves, we must look for new ways. In 2026, the Munkáspárt offers this alternative.
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Source: This text first appeared on the left-wing Hungarian news portal 1046.hu.