Until recently October 23 has not had a very long tradition in the history of Hungarian state holidays. Up to the 1990s it had not even been considered to be a date worth commemorating. The so called Third Republic of Hungary was, however, declared on that day in 1989 and since then the people in the country have been celebrating it with more or less enthusiasm depending on their political commitment on the left or right.
Since the present government came to power last year the celebration seems to have become a tug of war between the children of the new-old mainstream elite of the communist past and those of the second-rate leaders who, having no other choice to exert any kind of political power, had to become representetatives of the so called conservative national right wing. The latter without sufficient real weight are able to win all the unimportant votings in the country but are unable to seize the mass support of the public and come to power to form a government like they did in the first elections in 1990 and in 1998.