When France was still living under a monarchical system, they were called “intendant” or “préfet”, titles granted to local representatives of the hexagonal crown. In Hungary, the chiefs designated the most important dignitaries of the Magyar kingdom, most often at the head of a county. Established in the Middle Ages, this denomination lasted until the advent of the Stalinist regime of Matyas Rakosi, at the end of the Second World War.
While the term had disappeared in 1950 following an administrative reform passed by the communist regime, a bill tabled by the Fidesz majority, the formation of the Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, plans to rename chiefs the prefects of the present 19 counties of Hungary. “This function, crushed and then suppressed by the Nazi and Communist dictatorships, accompanied almost a thousand years of Hungarian history”, Explain Mandiner. “Appointed at the head of the regions and cities of comital law by the Head of State, the főispánok ensured that the local government agreed with the national line and that the instructions of the executive were applied in their territories”, adds the conservative magazine.
“Constitutional traditions”
According to the official argument relayed by HVG, restoring the notion of chiefs within national law “links the Hungarian administration more significantly to the pre-Communist era and contributes, in this way, to the perpetuation of the millenary constitutional traditions of the Magyar state”. As specified Telex, the text “is inspired in particular by foreign examples such as thealderman where the alderman”, terminologies “appointing municipal councilors in the Anglo-Saxon world as well as in the Netherlands”.
The legislation also provides for the renaming of county (literally “region-fortress”) the territorial collectivities, name in force of the foundation of the kingdom of Hungary, in the year 1000, to 1949. The detractors of the chiefs and county denounce a retrograde and dangerous measure for local administrations. “If the government goes back in time at this rate, we will soon have a kingdom. Mayors will not be servants”, tackle on Facebook the ecological councilor of Budapest, Gergely Karacsony, quoted by the site Index.
In Fidesz circles, regional prefects “were anyway already called chiefs”, tradition orale “which will become official”, makes everyday life ironic Folk word. But beyond the term considered archaic by its critics, “this project augurs a new restriction of the prerogatives of municipalities and regions”, worries the opposition portal Immediate.