Fidesz is currently a right-populist party, which more or less openly tolerates the small but ever louder various bands of the local far-right. But it started out in 1988 very differently: as a radical-liberal/left-alternative youth party, founded by a bunch of bright and ambitious alumni of a college study group.

One of these young titans was Tamás Deutsch. He became well-known during the lead-up to the Velvet Revolution, when he and a friend were arrestee, beat up and sent home  by Czechoslovak police for taking part in one of the earlier protests there, carrying a placard with the slogan "We came with flowers, not tanks" [referring to the Warshaw Pact intervention in 1968].

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WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE...

After the first free elections in 1990, three right-wing parties formed government, and Deutsch was first one of the sharpest tongues of the opposition. But he later moved more into the background. It appeared that he is not too useful for anything, but party boss Viktor Orbán always tried to find a place for his friend. He had various posts, chairman of the Budapest party branch and such.

After a right-wing makeover, Fidesz won elections in 1998. New PM Orbán then declared publicly: before Deutsch can be a minister, he should finish his studies! And so it happened: Deutsch was sent back to university benches for a year, got his PhD, and then became - sports minister...

At this time, investigative reporters of a magazine uncovered how the bankrupting of an elaborate system of on-paper firms (ultimately sold to the stolen passports of a Croatian and a Turkish guest worker in Germany!) was used to disappear some nice sums of Fidesz money - something devised a fe years earlier by none other than the then boss of the tax-collecting authority. Fidesz, a good student of all things spin, 'responded' by taking the headlines with a manufactured scandal.

Deutsch's dear mother became a catchphrase after Deutsch stood before cameras, and announced with shocked demeanour that someone gave then a dossier containing observation reports on all leadingFidesz politicians and their families - he was scared to read personal data on his own dear mother!... Only, journalists soon found out that the dossier only contained data from open-source data mining, was not done for the political rivals but a bank boss, and involved not just Fidesz politicians.

During a hapless minister-ship marked by a more 'serious' short-haired look and a few minor financial scandals, Deutsch got most attention with something for the rainbow press. For Deutsch, married a few years earlier, began an intense affair with his secretary - resulting in a child.

Thus began another descent from Fidesz Olymp. He tossed the secretary and returned to his wife. But, four years later, just when he was back in the front-line at opposition protests with a new, again longer-haired look, he was caught with another lover. This time, Deutsch divorced. Then he married the lover: daughter of Lajos Für.

Lajos Für used to be a member of MDF, the onetime first main right-wing party, leader of the first governing coalition in 1990-94. He was defense minister during that time, then he became party chairman. When the more and less nationalist factions of MDF split, he left and became independent. He was then one of the many conservatives Fidesz collected to make its right-wing makeover credible.

Thus Deutsch's choice of a new wife was rather well suited for political presentation - what's more, he gave more to the chattering classes by adopting his wife's and father-in-law's name: from 2006 he is named Tamás Deutsch-Für. He also got himself a new look, with a beard reminding of 1848 revolutionaries. Thus Orbán could again get him back into the first line - presently, he serves as chief of Orbán's personal cabinet.

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EPISODE XXXIX

In 2007, fearing that rivals involved in the riots will completely overshadown them, some leaders of the microscopic far-right south party JOBBIK decided to establish the Hungarian Guard, a paramilitary with a uniform having some resemblance to that of the WWII-time Hungarian fascists (but they of course deny any connection). (See my report of their first confirmation ceremony, their description within the far-right spectrum, their march against 'Gypsy crime', their courtroom intimidation.)

Now, one way the founders sought to make the Guard appear less like a new generation of thugs in brownshirts was to include not only martial young men. Many girls, women, older men, a famous actor - and Lajos Für.

Lajos Für in the middle as the Hungarian Guard takes over the auditorium of a courtroom where the first hearing on their prohibition is held, pushing out journalists deemed unfriendly. The red-white stripes (see hats and scarfs) are an old royal coat-of-arms turned far-right symbol. Photo, like prior two, from Index.hu.

Deutsch-Für, though himself of Jewish descent, long resisted the pressure from the media to (publicly) speak clear words about his father-in-law and his new friends. But then it happened.

Two weeks ago, in an interview with Heti Válasz ( = Weekly Answer, centre-right weekly), Deutsch-Für was given questions to opine about the far-right. He gave outspoken support for the recent anti-far-right action organised by a Fidesz local councillor of Jewish descent (I reported). And declared he disagrees with his father-in law.

Deutsch did so with a rather ugly rhetorical trick, adding, 'sons aren't responsible for the acts of the father, not to mention father-in-law, or I would be justified to attack Tamás Bauer [a liberal politician] over his father who used to interrogate detainees for the communist secret service', but, still.

But now there is a reaction from the father-in-law.

Lajos Für claimed that centre-right papers rejected his public reply, so he 'had' to publish it on a far-right website. He accuses his son-in-law in no uncertain terms of having taken up his name for political expediency, but Deutsch's "ignomious" interview proves that the name now turned an inconvenience. He then went on to demand a separation of the names Deutsch and Für, and said that "the Deutsch should remain, what it was, and what it is, apparently, still today: a liberal coloured with a cockade!"

What really got the ire of the old man was that ugly rhetoricas trick: he felt "as if a knife was thrown into me", he protested to be compared to "these communist gangsters, these lowly servants of the Soviet-Russian Empire"!

Our soap opera hero responded for Index.hu by repeating that he loves his father-in-law, but continues to disagree with him.