The Őszöd speech (Hungarian: Őszödi beszéd) was a speech Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány delivered to the 2006 Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) congress in Balatonőszöd. Though the May congress was confidential, Gyurcsány's address was leaked and broadcast by Magyar Rádió on Sunday, 17 September 2006, igniting a nationwide political crisis.
In the speech, Gyurcsány berated MSZP in vulgar language, saying that the party had misled the electorate and failed to enact any significant measures over the tenure of its coalition government. "We lied in the morning, we lied in the evening and we lied at night" became one of the most well known parts of Gyurcsány's speech. The speech's release was followed by mass protests, which are now considered a major turning point in Hungary's post-Communist political history. The corresponding fallout led to a collapse in the popularity of MSZP and the Hungarian left more broadly.
It proved to be the beginning of the end for the two-term MSZP-led government, paving the way for Fidesz's supermajority victory in the 2010 Hungarian parliamentary election, and its subsequent 16-year reign over the country.
Excerpts from the speech with their translations
Not only the content but also the profanity of the speech has been heavily criticized. In response to the criticism concerning the profanity, Ferenc Gyurcsány stated that "these words were the words of objurgation, passion and love" (Ezek a korholás, a szenvedély és a szeretet szavai voltak). While giving the speech, he used – among others – the Hungarian word szar (i.e., shit) or related terms (szarból, beszarni, etc.) eight times and the word kurva (i.e., bitch, whorish, fucking) seven times. The following table presents some of the profane remarks – of which not everything has been translated by the foreign (i.e., non-Hungarian) press in general – with their corresponding translations. Although "fucking country" is the best idiomatic translation because of the strength of the words, kurva ország literally means "whore country", and the connotations of immorality, unprincipled pursuit of money, and therefore corruption are very strong in Hungarian.
In addition to the excerpts above, the following table contains excerpts from the speech for which Ferenc Gyurcsány has received heavy criticism.
Viktor Orbán, then-chairman of Fidesz, called Ferenc Gyurcsány "a compulsive liar" ("Hungarian: beteges hazudozó") whom his party considers as "a person who is a part of history and the past" ("Hungarian: a történelemhez és a múlthoz tartozó személy").
Video about production of Mykhailo Dobkin's campaign ad, a leak of a vulgar conversation that had the opposite effect
A teljes balatonőszödi szöveg (The whole text from the Balatonőszöd speech. In Hungarian): http://nol.hu/cikk/417593/
The speech in mp3 format: http://dl.index.hu/dl/sziget/fleto/oszod5.mp3
The speech on the blog of Ferenc Gyurcsány (Hungarian) – http://kapcsolat.hu/blog/jojjon_az_eredeti_szoveg...
Ferenc Gyurcsány: "These words were the words of objurgation, passion and love". ("Ezek a korholás, a szenvedély és a szeretet szavai voltak", Hungarian) – http://www.icenter.hu/cgi-bin/automatic/bianko.pl?szo=4800&cikk=0609285045007
Viktor Orbán: "This person [i.e. Ferenc Gyurcsány] is a sick liar." ("Ez egy beteges hazudozó.", Hungarian) – http://www.mno.hu/index.mno?cikk=375107&rvt=2
Fidesz - Hungarian Civic Union considers Ferenc Gyurcsány as "a person who is a part of history and the past". ("a történelemhez és a múlthoz tartozó személy", Hungarian) – http://index.hu/politika/belfold/ov0821/
English translation by BBC – https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5359546.stm
English report as seen on BBC – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kh5TsREt4A