Just a week ahead of the general election in Hungary the embassies abroad hold their poll. As I´m on my way off to London and I have nothing better to do I glance through the programs of the major parties (who´re most likely to make it into the parliament).

Wine is not exempt from politics, they sign of the bills which affect wine makers, people in the trade and at the very end consumer as well. Just a few weeks ago was the duty increase in the UK, making it difficult to sell wine to the prior prices and not loosing on the margins. While prices are rather done by producers (accept to see sometimes strange wine pricing) in Hungary, nevertheless VAT is high (25%) and a lot of other taxes imposed on the business come into play.

I downloaded the pdf files of the MSZP (socialist, former communist party), Right wing (Jobbik, which also translates “as for the better Hungary”) and Fidesz-KDNP (Hungarian Civilian Alliance and the Christian Democratic People Party).

Progress-security-democracy is the title of MSZP programme, it has 15 pages and if I´m honest not much substance. Praising past achievements which would have been anyone done (e.g. internet connections in homes), do not count in my book as credentials. But what is lacks the most are the answers to the question: how. How are they going to achieve those few points which they mention?

What does it say on agriculture and wine? Nothing if I´m quite frank. By pointing out that the agriculture has never seen so much money being pumped in (it can be argued), clearly a bad effort.

The right wing party, Jobbik promises “radical changes”. Far more pages, 88 with smaller fonts much more depth. It looks more like a proper work with index in the beginning; their idea is to create a strong Hungary, more on the focus of local goods, products and the people.

What does it say on agriculture and wine? Focus on the rural areas, help to keep people there, healthy agricultural products (no GMO´s), and the combination of agriculture and tourism.
There is a very small section on wine as well. The key here is to support further growth for the tourism in particular, gastronomy-, wine tourism, health tourism. While this is important, I’m not incorrect if I say wine gastronomy does not exist in Hungary, at least not at the moment. Change is on its way with the first Michelin start Restaurant in Budapest just named, the Bocuse d ´Or Academy, Hungary involved in competitions, education and much more. Another point was made in which the so called holiday coupons will be tax exempt. By introducing the law 80% domestic – 20% import, on the market, emphasizing on the Hungarian goods, the import from the EU countries must not exceed 25% which is the same percentage of initial support from the member states, without addressing this, the problems in today’s agriculture sectors can not be solved (e.g. milk, apple, grape growing-wine making). Further on there is a though on the development of the section which requires an intense labour force, like wine making.

Last but not least the programme of the Fidesz party, just under 50 pages, is having the title of Politics of the national affairs. Written with very small font size. Just by the volume, clearly again much more substance then the MSZP. I begin to wonder if I downloaded the short or incorrect version of the socialist party.
It covers quite a bit from businesses, education to agriculture and much more.
What does it say on agriculture and wine? Quite a bit, first it links employment to the agriculture, by employing people with no higher school degree in this and also in the tourism sector. I believe Hungarian education system must be changed to bring a healthy balance into the (this and other) system. Their programme points out the Hungarian products must have a higher degree of protection (e.g. Hungaricums).
A brief mentioning of the wine business in conjunction with infrastructure and tourism. The link between tourism and agriculture, hence wine tourism to increase the on average spent time at a single destination.

The queue at the embassy in London

All the programmes can be downloaded from the individual party’s website, the above is a very brief summary focusing on wine and agriculture and my personal view and interpretation.

While I made up my choice which box I´ll tick in a few hours time I found it useful to look at the programme of the individual’s parties, what they promise and how they try to fulfil it. Where do wine makers put their X? The majority who I know will almost certainly vote for one of the right wing parties or at least against the socialist. Perhaps because there is not enough emphasize put on traditional values, wine amongst them as an important value for Hungary (mentioned in the national anthem as well). What about people from the trade, again the one who I know will vote for the right side, simply because it represents Hungarian values and a stronger unity inside and outside of Hungary. Some wine makers became politician (Zsolt Tiffán from Villány), Viktor Orbáns (prime minister candidate of the Fidesz party) wife used to have a vineyard in the Tokaj region. Politicians can do a lot for the Hungarian wine business, for instance in Tokaj-Hegyalja region the straw thermal power station must not be build. And of course the protection of the very same wine, Tokaji! Just to mention one thing out of the many.

The main question however is, will there be any change? Wine makers complain about the high taxes, lack of benefits and access to them, none existing wine marketing, distribution and lack of research – education amongst others. Just few weeks ago a petition went around signed by wine makers (representing a total of 75.518 hl of wine produced), people from the trade and many others added their name to the list, of 12 points in total which should be changed. The basic idea is not bad, as a lot of these points (and much more) should be done in the Hungarian wine business yet just a drop in the water as the task is complex and it is really down to a good communication as well.

Who ever gets elected (coming Sunday) will have a tremendous task when it comes to sort out the Hungarian wine business. Re-introduce the wine marketing board, look into education and research, and revise financial issues like taxing but also production/distributions and much more. There is certainly a lot to be done if some one believes in the greatness of the Hungarian wines (as I call it in Hungarian the 4T abbreviation for history, society/ grape variety, nature, soil).
And believe me Hungarian wines are exciting, amazing, unique and simply great.

Tags: election

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