Women’s participation in politics in Hungary

The state of affairs

ContentsInternational overviewWomen in the Hungarian ParliamentWomen in local governmentsWomen in the governmentWomen in the European ParliamentVoluntary party quotas Efforts made to introduce constitutional

and statutory quota in HungaryPolitical elbow-roomThe issue of equal opportunities for women

in the 2010 programs of the parties

Hungary in international comparison I.

Proportion of women in the 27 EU states, 2010, %

9 9 11 13 14 14 15 17 17 19 19 20 20 21 21 22 22 2327 28

3337 38 39 40 41

46

05

101520253035404550

Mál

taM

agya

rors

zág

Rom

ánia

Cipr

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orsz

ágSz

lové

nia

Szlo

váki

aEg

yesü

lt K

irál

yság

Görö

gors

zág

Fran

ciao

rszá

gLi

tván

iaLu

xem

burg

Leng

yelo

rszá

gBu

lgár

iaO

lasz

orsz

ágCs

ehor

szág

Lett

orsz

ágÉs

ztor

szág

Port

ugál

iaAu

sztr

iaNé

met

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ágSp

anyo

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zág Dá

nia

Belg

ium

Finn

orsz

ágH

olla

ndia

Svéd

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ág

Forrás: www.ipu.org

Hungary in international comparison II. Proportion of women in the EU-8 countries, 1998 – 2010,

%

0

5

10

15

20

25

1998 2002 2006 2010

Csehország

Észtország

Lengyelország

Lettország

Litvánia

Szlovákia

Szlovénia

Magyarország

Forrás: www.ipu.org

Hungary in international comparison III. Gradation of IPU (Inter-Parliamentary

Union) and Gender Gap IndexMay, 2010: Hungary is in the 100th place

out of 131February, 2013: Hungary is in the 117th

place out of 139 Hungary belongs to the one third of the

countries of the world where there are the least women representatives.

Gender Gap Index (2012): considering political involvement of women Hungary is in the 117th place (out of 135 countries).

Women in the Hungarian Parliament Proportion of women in the Hungarian Parliament, 1990

– 2010, %

Nők aránya a magyar parlamentben,1990-2010, %

7,3

11,1

8,39,1

10,6

9,0

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010

Forrás: Koncz 2006; www.valasztas.hu névlistája alapján saját számítás

Women in Local Governments

Proportion of women representatives in the Parliament and the local governments, 2002 – 2010, %

blue: MP, red: local goverments

9,110,6

9,0

15,817,3

19,1

0

5

10

15

20

25

2002 2006 2010

Parlamenti képviselő

Önkormányzati képviselő*

Forrás: Koncz (2006); www.valasztas.hu névlistái alapján saját számítás

Women in the government

Women in the government, 1990 – 2010, person

blue:women

1 2 15 3 5

0 1

37

2428

20 20

26

19

12

05

10152025303540

Anta

ll-korm

ány

(Boro

ss-

korm

ány)

Horn

-korm

ány

els

ő O

rbán-

korm

ány

Medgyessy-

korm

ány

els

ő G

yurc

sány

-korm

ány

második

G

yurc

sány-

korm

ány

Bajn

ai-k

orm

ány

második

Orb

án

-korm

ány

Nő Férfi

Forrás: www.parlament.hu névlistái alapján saját számítás

Women in the European ParliamentProportion of women in the European Parliament, 2013,

%62

5650 48 47 46 44 41 39 38 37 36 36 36 36 36 33 33 33 32 29

25 25 22 2218

00

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Finn

orsz

ágSv

édor

szág

Észt

orsz

ágH

olla

ndia

Bulg

ária

Dáni

aFr

anci

aors

zág

Ausz

tria

Szlo

váki

aLe

ttor

szág

Ném

etor

szág

Belg

ium

Mag

yaro

rszá

gPo

rtug

ália

Rom

ánia

Span

yolo

rszá

gCi

prus

Luxe

mbu

rgEg

yesü

lt K

irál

yság

Görö

gors

zág

Szlo

véni

aÍr

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ágLi

tván

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lasz

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ágLe

ngye

lors

zág

Cseh

orsz

ág Mál

ta

Forrás: www.ipu.org

Voluntary party quotas MSZP: “In elected governing bodies – at local, regional and

national levels – as well as in lists of representatives for the EU Parliament, the Hungarian Parliament and the local governments at least one fifth of the candidates should be under 35, and at least one fifth of them should be women.”

LMP: The party’s constitution states that the party will have a gender quota at EU parliamentary elections (it is a version of the so called zip principle: there should only be two candidates of the same sex on the list after one another). As far as local government elections are concerned, we can only find in the constitution that they will regulate the procedure later (they adopted the gender quota in their own governing bodies).

SZEMA: In case of each and every elected body as well as in case of candidates for national and local representatives the proportion of women (and Roma human rights activists) should be the same as their proportion within the party.

Efforts made to introduce constitutional and statutory quota in Hungary

- 2007: bills submitted by Klára Sándor and Bálint Magyar

- One third of the proposed ministers should belong to the same sex

- Introducing the zip principle compiling the list of candidates at the elections

◦ Introducing the gender quota in case of appointing under-secretaries of state

2009: Nők a Pályán: they wanted to introduce the zip principle in list of candidates for the elections

2011: Bill of Tamás Gaudi-Nagy and Katalin Ertsey: they also wanted a special version of the zip principle to be introduced

Political elbow-room

Review of political forces within and without the Parliament

Parliamentary Parties I.Fidesz – KDNP

Two thirds (2/3) majorityConfrontational and

discriminative policiesNew constitutionWomen’s place is at homeNew election laws in order to

cement their own power

Parliamentary Parties II.- The democratic opposition

LMP MSZP (Jobbik)   After MSZP and LMP split up: Demokratikus Koalíció (Democratic Coalition) Párbeszéd Magyarországért (Dialogue for

Hungary) - LMP- MSZP- (Jobbik)

Democratic opposition outside the Parliament

Együtt 2014-PM (Together 2014) :◦Szolidaritás (Solidarity)◦Haza and Haladás (Homeland and

Progress)◦Milla

PMSupporting the introduction of a

women’s quota at the round table talks of the opposition

Organizations and movements of civiliansWomen’s professional and interest

groups (Nane, Mona, Patent, Női Érdek /Women’s Rights/, Nők Lázadása /Revolt of Women/)

Local women’s clubs

The government only pretends to cooperate with the professional and interest organizations.

The issue of equal opportunities for women in the 2010 programs of the parties

The issue of equal opportunities for women was not prioritized in the 2010 election programs.

LMP: The only party dealing with the issue, although they do not go into details in their election program but deal with it in a separate, special program

The right-wing parties only deal with women’s issues within the family

Women’s issues have been left out from the program of the MSZP, too.

Explanation: Political parties only include women’s issues into their programs if and when they are forced to do it for some reason (e.g.: pressure from women’s organizations, the decline of the economy or the intention of winning over women voters)

SummaryCompared to other EU countries, Hungary is

lagging behind concerning women’s participation in politics

Women are seriously underrepresented in local and national politics

The situation is slightly better at the level of local politics

Efforts made to introduce constitutional and statutory quota have not been successful so far

In the 2010 election programs (except for LMP) the issue of equal opportunities for women only plays a marginal role

What can we do in this situation? What do we plan?To set up a civilian women’s shadow government.

About shadow governments in general

Shadow governments or shadow cabinets are usually non-official groups of politicians of the opposition that form an alternative government which corresponds with the structure of the government in power, its ministries, etc., in order to communicate their own solutions to certain specific issues – in case they were in power. This way they can prove to the public that they are capable of functioning as a real government. Although in several European countries it is a popular means of political communication, nobody has ever tried it in Hungary.

The first shadow government in Hungary

is going to be brought about by women’s civilian organizations with whom SZEMA did cooperate very effectively last year. This is not like the usual European model. Both the members and the advisors of the shadow government are civilians, committed to democracy and they are experts on their fields. You may ask – and rightfully so – why the shadow government is not going to consist of active politicians. I will explain it later.

The activity of the women’s shadow government

The women’s shadow government will persistently take a stand on issues concerning the country (I am going to mention some examples later) and offer their solutions to the problems. Apart from this, they aspire to become a proactive factor in daily politics, making an impact on politics of the present and future governments on women’s issues. This way the women’s shadow government can prove the competence of their own female ministers. They want to set an example: they want to raise awareness of potential female (and partly male) constituents of the fact that women’s expertise is not a bit less substantial than that of men. It is especially important with the present election system: the number of MP’ s is going to be reduced by nearly 50% and since it is a single ballot system, alliances should be formed before the elections, so women’s chances deteriorate further.

The goals of the civilian women’s shadow government 1.

to increase women’s presence in democratic public life, including politics. In order to achieve that we need to point out the most serious problems of the country, mostly the ones that impact practically every woman. Let me mention a few examples: schooling is only compulsory until the age of 16 instead of 18; the presence of the police in schools; radical diminishing of government financed places at the universities; forced retirement of teachers, judges and doctors. They do not create new working places or extended social support but they, for example, build sport stadiums and make other pseudo projects. Young people leave the country by the hundreds and so on. These issues, of course, concern everyone, not just women.

The goals of the civilian women’s shadow government 2.

People’s attention should be called to the inequalities and the unacceptably low level of representation of women in the Parliament. It should be pointed out that there are no aspects of a democratic society where it would be reasonable and justified to ignore women’s point of view, that each and every political issue can be evaluated from women’s point of view as well. More than half of the population is women. We can only speak about democracy if not a single group of society is excluded from decision making. As we could see, in today’s Hungary less than 10% of the MP’s is women.

The goals of the civilian women’s shadow government 3.

Addressing and involving female constituents. In order to involve more women in democratic public life it is necessary to raise awareness of female voters. They should be able to realize they are underrepresented in public life and politics and, they should be aware of the goals to be achieved. Therefore, it is inevitable to criticize the policies of the political parties and their discriminative way of choosing their candidates. The parties either do not take into consideration that there should be a sufficient number of women candidates or they force women candidates to stay in the background. This bad practice must be criticized. Essentially, all bigger political parties are like that. That’s why we decided that it should be civilians who form a shadow government.