Hungary: Now You See It

Now You See It . . . The party sheds Communism, but will voters buy the switch?

On the concrete wall of an underpass on Rakoczi Street in Budapest, someone has scrawled in black crayon DOWN WITH COMMUNISTS. Two years ago, such a sign of opposition would have been quickly removed by Hungary's Communist rulers. Now the graffiti not only survive, but the Communists are saying much the same thing themselves.

Such is the pace of political change in Hungary these days that last year's political blasphemy is this week's new truth. In keeping with the wholesale undoing of the past, the ruling party, formerly known as the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, is no longer officially Communist. At...

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